JEREMY HAUN ON NARCOLEPTIC SUNDAY

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Narcoleptic Sunday marks the debut of a long-standing cartoonist Jeremy Haun as a writer. Best known for his illustrations in such books as The Leading Man, Battle Hymn and most recently in the pages of Marvel's New Excalibur, Jeremy Haun has made a name for himself in the minds of fans and publishers, but this new graphic novel marks a new chapter for Haun as he writes a comic for another artist.

Partnering with artist Brian Koschak, Jeremy Haun's Narcoleptic Sunday is an account of a man named Jack Larch, whose recent discovery of the love of his dreams turns sour when she's found dead. And he's a suspect. And he has narcolepsy. Jack must combat the speculation and his sleep, to find the truth.

Newsarama: First off Jeremy an you tell us about Jack and his relationship with this dream girl, Jill?

Jeremy Haun: Jack is kind of lost when we first meet him in the story. He's at that place a lot of us have been at in our mid twenties, looking for something to make him whole and just not sure what the hell that is.

Along with that Jack has the whole sleep problem and when, on a lark, he meets this perfect girl he thinks all of his problems, the sleep thing, the feeling lost, are all behind him. Everything is perfect for one moment in time, and then she dies. Narcoleptic Sunday is the story of Jack over the course of a week, Sunday to Sunday, trying to come to terms with things and at the same time find out why Jill was murdered. Some things he wants to learn others he doesn't.

NRAMA: Tell us more about Jack & Jill's whirlwind romance and how they managed to connect.

JH: Jack and Jill meet in a coffee shop. It's one of those odd, serendipitous situations where the stars line up and things are perfect for one moment in time. Jack doesn't even drink coffee, bops in for a bottled water and meets the girl of his dreams. It's an instance where two people meet and just click. That kind of thing that happens in your twenties, when you're instantly in love. They spend this amazing day together that turns into an amazing night together and at the end of it, Jack lay there with this perfect girl and thinks "I can be okay now. I don't need to fall asleep all the time." Of course he does. That's how things go, right.

NRAMA: As if a murder mystery wasn't enough, Jack is plagued by his sleep problem, narcolepsy – he falls asleep a lot. Can you tell us how this unique twist came to you, and how as a writer you sought to use it accurately and dramatically for the story?

JH: When I wrote Narcoleptic Sunday I was having a lot of trouble sleeping. I was constantly having bouts of insomnia at night when I should have been sleeping and then I'd spend the day in a haze constantly falling asleep doing the strangest things. A buddy of mine kept joking that I was narcoleptic and I started thinking about how tough it'd be to constantly fall asleep if you were in a truly bad situation. I read up a little on narcolepsy, just enough to know what I needed to tell the story and then kind of went from there. Honestly, in the story, Jack doesn't really think he has narcolepsy. He tries to explain it away and kind of moves on. In the end it's a fun vehicle for the story, a way for a character to go from sitting in a diner one minute and waking up tied to a chair in a really bad situation the next.

NRAMA:What are the hurdles Jack is faced with in trying to get to the bottom of Jill's death?

JH: Aside from the whole constantly falling asleep thing, Jack is thrown in the middle of the mystery of the murder of the girl of his dreams. Around every corner he's faced with something new, from overly curious police detectives to a doe eyed stripper named Gwen. From masked attackers to a transvestite club owner called Oleander White. Jack doesn't set out to play detective, he has things thrown in his lap and between naps tries to pick up the pieces.

NRAMA: How did Jill die?

JH: We don't really see what happens, but Jack wakes up being slammed against a police car covered in blood. We can only assume that whatever happened to Jill in that room wasn't pretty.

NRAMA: Jeremy, this is your first time stepping out from being the "artist" to being the "writer". Can you tell us what led to this for you?

JH: I don't really consider myself a writer. I have a lot of friends who are amazing writers and I can't even begin to compare myself to that.

I like to tell stories, I guess in the end I do whatever fits for the project. For some reason I never really saw myself drawing Narcoleptic Sunday. When I played the story through in my head it wasn't ever in my style. There were times when I thought I'd have to do it in order for the book to get done. A 200 + page OGN is a big commitment, so it was going to take an artist who was willing to really devote himself to the project to get it done.

NRAMA: For your first comics writing work, you've jumped in all the way – a full 200+ page graphic novel. What made this the story for you to attempt first as you flex your writing muscles?

JH: I never really set out to write a 200+ page graphic novel. I wrote Narcoleptic Sunday nearly four years ago. I'd been mulling the story around in my head for quite a while and around Christmas '02 I was snowed in at my in-laws without power for a few days. I didn't really have anything to work on, I'd left all of my drawing stuff at home, so I dug up a three Mead notebooks and a pen and started writing. I knew I wanted to tell a story about a guy that fell asleep at inopportune times, and I knew that I wanted to the story to take place over 8 days, Sunday to Sunday, but beyond that, it was anybody's guess. Over the course of three days as the snow melted, by window light during the day and candlelight at night, I wrote the first draft of Narcoleptic Sunday: eight chapters and over 180 pages. Seems kind of crazy now that I look back on it.

NRAMA: How did you hook up with artist Brian Koschak to do Narcoleptic Sunday?

JH: Brian is a local guy, he lives in Springfield, Missouri. He did this mini comic called Eavesdropper Café and the comic guy at the local shop there in Springfield gave me a copy of it while I was in town for a signing something like five years ago. I remember looking at Eavesdropper at the time thinking that it was really odd and amazing, but like most things it ended up in a pile then a file somewhere. I'd written Narcoleptic Sunday without really thinking much about how it was going to get done. I never really intended to draw it myself, but always thought in the end I was probably going to have to if I wanted to get it done. A little over a year ago I pulled the script out of my file, dusted it off, read a little bit of it and still kind of liked it, but my art career was picking up and there was really no way I could disappear for a year to do this project. I have this file of samples that people give me at cons and stuff. I'm kind of a pack rat like most artists. So I pulled out this file and about half way though I ran across Brian's Eavesdropper Café and immediately sent out an e-mail to him hoping that the address on this five year old book was still active. By some miracle he got the e-mail, we talked on the phone for a couple of hours about our work and the story, and he started work immediately. A year and nearly 200 pages later, Brian has turned out some amazing work. I couldn't be happier with his work on the project.

Narcoleptic Sunday is published by Oni Press, and is scheduled to be in stories July 18th, 2007. For more information, visit www.onipress.com.

[Skinshark]

Good on you, Jeremy. Glad to hear it's finally coming out.

I checked out your Wordballoon interview too. Sounds like a great summer for you!

=s=

[wonderfly]

Jeremy's not just an artist?!? Cool, I'll have to check this out. And the artist lives here in my hometown Springfield! Between him and Jeremy, the Midwest is showing off it's comic book talent!

[Matt Camp]

Congratulations Jeremy.