‘I don’t want this to be historical fiction,’ DeConnick tells EW of the second arc.
‘I want weird!’
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The first arc ofPretty Deadlywas such a groundbreaking and different story.
Credit: Image Comics
It really took the whole world by storm and created this beautiful, passionate fanbase.
Do you feel a little bit of pressure coming back for the second round?
Im trying to makePretty Deadlymore accessible by being more clear in the writing.
Thats the dance and I love my editors, dont get me wrong.
Were gonna do what we want!
And youre either with us or youre not!
So let me be a little more explicit in this.
And that affectedBitch Planetvery much.
And going back into the second arc ofPretty Deadly, clarity is a thing thats on my mind.
Its this immersive thing.
And so I worry about jeopardizing that in this effort to sort of not be deliberately obtuse.
Luckily, Emma is far braver than I am, just as Val [De Landro] is.
I tend to choose collaborators who are more courageous than I am.
I think its good for me.
Did you find that changed your style or work ethic at all?
It makes me feel inspired, looking forward to the projects and wanting to work harder.
It would be pacing.
Because I think we wrapped up too quickly.
I just planned poorly and instead of adding pages, which I shouldve done.
I just said, Well, were gonna wrap this up real fast!
But I dont know if Im better.
But I think you kind of have to be.
If youre not interested in your work, youre not doing it right.
I think Im very strong at dialogue, I think Im very strong in characterization.
I think sometimes I use dialogue and character work to cover weaknesses in my plotting.
And I was like, Im going to stop doing an internal monologue.
But you dont want to be a one-trick pony, you know?
So, I guess I am conscious of my weaknesses, and I think pacing is probably my biggest.
I dont know if I think the clarity thing is actually a weakness.
It was a stylistic choice.
One of the things about comics is people can linger on images and words as long as they want.
you might turn it over, you might have a go at come at it from all different angles.
And there was a full page splash of the character just kind of laying out this monologue.
And I kind of love itpreciouslybecause you dont do that.
Because he was dialoguing in a way you would dialogue for stage, not on the page.
It was so fresh and exciting and I loved it so much.
RIOS:Weve been talking about the third arc and the fourth.
Which I swear is quite a crazy investigation.
But how we get from point alpha to omega?
Matt always describes it like a road trip.
Its kind of like that.
Were there any specific inspirations that you used?
That affects our characters psychologically and physically.
Alice is rather out of control and she turned from being elegant to untidy.
Foxy was luckier and looks rather fancy.
Ginny is angry and I feel like she is my new old grumpy dude here… and so on.
So while in the first arc everything felt violent there, this time is warmer.
We dont want it to feel like a history.
Historical fiction feels sometimes weird …
I dont want this to be historical fiction, I want weird!
My creator owned books sell better than my mainstream books.
And that makes no sense.
I assume that happened a lot during this creative process as well?
RIOS:Our process is all back and forth.
Its really organic, and also challenging.
And most of the story ends up built or modified in email exchanges.
If I were working alone, or with another person, the result would feel really different.
In a book like this one, fortunately, its rather difficult to separate the parts.
DECONNICK:When Emma and I work together, its a very weird process.
And its hilarious because the script book for this book would be utterly and completely impossible.
And we work this book scene by scene.
So for instance, in issue six, that tree with the beehive in it.
And so then Emma turned those pages in andthatsmaybe a tree.
So now those make their way into the script, and thats purely the process of collaboration.
Do you feel like youve figured her out now, or is her voice still a challenge?
DECONNICK:Ginny fromPretty Deadlyand Cam fromBitch Planet both of them are super protagonists, but they dont talk.
And that hasnt changed.
I know her better than I did before, but its still hard to get her to talk.
But now, because she doesnt interact with Sissy, Alice is her foil.
Alice is the one who gets under her skin and gets her to talk to me.
Obviously, both of you should be proud of your work on this book.
Whats been the most significant moment for you in working on this series?
RIOS:There have been a lot of incredible moments, because this book was totally life-changer to me.
In that moment I realized that maybe I was right, and that I had my dream come true.
It is difficult to believe even now.
DECONNICK:Oh, gosh.
Like, Sissy has different color eyes.
She has one blue eye and one brown eye.
In the beginning, we didnt know why we chose that.
There wasnt a particular reason for it.
It just seemed like that was right for that character.
Oh, she has one brown eye and one blue eye.
So its very clear.
Johnny Coyote says hello.
Pretty Deadly#6 is in comic stores now.
