Interviewed by Justin D Williams
I had the great pleasure of chatting with Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley the two guys behind the comic The Beauty. The Beauty is one of my favorite comics on the Image Comics roster this year. I sat down with the guys to talk about the process of the comic, the theme and more.
Otakus and Geeks: The concept of The Beauty follows a world where people actually want to get this particular STD called Beauty. This STD allows people outward appearance to be “beautiful” in the eyes of others. How did that concept and story come about?
HAUN: Every creator has a list of stories they want to tell. The Beauty started out as one sentence on that list. “The Beauty-- an STD that makes you beautiful.” I had other projects that were further along. Hell, a couple of things were fully plotted and even partially scripted. That one sentence haunted me, though.
Hurley and I have spent years hanging out together and talking about those stories on our lists. On a four hour car ride back from a little convention in St. Louis, I ran the concept for The Beauty by him. We ended up talking about it all the way home. By the time we pulled in to Joplin, we had most of the first arc figured out. The Beauty went from one sentence on my list of stories to a book that we were going to do together come hell or high water.
Otakus and Geeks: What would you say were some of the biggest challenges in creating this comic?
HURLEY: I had made a couple mini comics, and worked on some smaller projects before this, but The Beauty is my first major comic work. While I’ve been involved in the comics industry for years, it’s almost exclusively been on the retail side of things. It was interesting trying to make the transition to a creative role, while still running a comic shop and putting in 60-70 hours a week there. I guess the biggest challenge was just finding time to do the thing and meet deadlines.
HAUN: My biggest challenge was getting Hurley to realize how absolutely badass he actually is.
Otakus and Geeks: One thing I really enjoyed about the book is how willing some people were to get this STD. However there is also some characters that say things like yes it makes you look and feel beautiful but it’s still an STD. The division between those against Beauty and those who are for it drawn throughout the book. What was it like to use something as serious as an STD to explain your narrative and theme?
HURLEY: The idea of a disease, something we automatically think of as bad thing, being desirable is what really drew me into the project. Taking a thing like an STD, something that no one in their right mind should want, and making it the hottest fad ever creates a dichotomy that I find very appealing. It gave us a very clear line to define two opposing groups in the narrative, and easily drove the conflict between them.
Otakus and Geeks: Without any spoilers do you have a favorite moment from Volume 1?
HURLEY: I was really proud of several of the “cold opens” that we created. The short 2 or 3 page scenes that opened each issue and featured a person infected with The Beauty meeting their end. My favorite of those is probably the one from issue six, the misdirection works well, and I think it really illustrates how far reaching collateral damage from a Beauty’s death could be.
HAUN: For as crazy as things get, my favorite moments in the book were always the conversations between Foster and Vaughn. Their friendship is equal parts police work and ball busting. I absolutely love it.
Otakus and Geeks: Which character would you say is your favorite or that you can relate to the most?
HURLEY: Vaughn. She’s definitely my favorite character in this arc. Who do I relate to most though…? Probably Captain Siuntres. He’s just kind of overwhelmed by everything that’s going on around him, and his immediate response is drinking whiskey in the middle of the day.
HAUN: I have to go with Vaughn here too. There were a few times where we had to force ourselves to not give her ALL of the good lines and action. She’s a hell of a lot of fun to write. I’ve got to say that a character that really surprised me was Brandon. She started out as one thing and really grew into one of the strongest characters in the book. My only regret with the character is that we decided to do this thing where she didn’t use contractions. To be honest, it was an “in joke”-- us poking fun at a friend. Nothing is harder than writing one of the leads in a story and not being able to have them speak using contractions.
As for who I relate to most...it’d have to be Delante. He gets shit done.
Otakus and Geeks: As a writer or an artist can tell us what a typical day working on the comic was like?
HAUN: My schedule is kind of ridiculous. Like...really ridiculous. I wake up around noon, stumble my way downstairs for a bit of coffee and something to eat. From there I head out to the studio-- it’s the converted carriage house behind my house, so it’s not much of a commute. I take care of emails and social media stuff from 12:15-1:00 and then get to work on drawing. I try and prep as much as possible before I pick up my kids from school at 3:00. After I pick up the boys, we hang out and play video games and/or build Lego for an hour or so. I send them off to do chores and homework and I try and get another hour or two in. Around 5:30 I head inside for dinner and family time. If I can, I sneak in a post dinner nap and then I’m back to work around 9:00pm. My “actual” work time typically goes from around 9:00pm to 4:00 or 5:00am.
We adjust that schedule a bit, and Hurley and I write together Monday and Wednesday evenings. ...well...unless we’re on a deadline and then we just write constantly until it’s done.
Otakus and Geeks: What can we expect in the next installment?
HAUN: The next arc is going to be a bit different from the first arc. We always planned to jump around a bit and tell different stories along the way. Think of it as expanding on the opening sequences from the first arc. We’re going to show different people from different walks of life and how The Beauty affects their lives. You’ll find characters from one arc weaving in and out of later arcs-- learning about the bigger picture along the way.
The second arc is more of a crime story and starts about a year and a half before the first one. It’s a real change of pace. I’m crazy excited about it.
From there we’ll be back to Foster and Vaughn for the third arc and see how The Beauty task force started. We can’t stay away from those two for very long.
Otakus and Geeks: What do you hope audiences will take away from The Beauty?
HURLEY: There are a lot of heavy social and political themes in the book, and I want people to think about things like vanity, obsession, and corruption, and how they affect our lives as they read The Beauty. Mostly though, I just hope we put together an exciting, tense thriller for readers to get lost in for a little while.
Otakus and Geeks: How can readers follow you? Do you have a social media account?
HURLEY: You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as jasonahurley.
HAUN: I’m on Twitter and Instagram as jerhaun and you can find me on Facebook under my full name, Jeremy Haun. I post a lot of pictures of my artwork, what I’m eating, shots of my various travels, and Lego--lots and lots of Lego. You can also find me over on my website/online store www.jeremyhaun.com.
HURLEY: We have an e-mail account set up at thebeautycomic@gmail.com. We’ll be doing a letter column in upcoming issues, and we’d love to see any feedback our readers have on the book.
