GOING BEYOND WONDERLAND WITH RAVEN GREGORY

[MattBrady]

by Lucas Siegel

Zenescope Executive Editor Raven Gregory took readers down the rabbit hole in Return to Wonderland. He showed Calie (ah, anagrams), the daughter of the original Wonderland explorer Alice, what madness embodied looked like, and told her of her family’s horrific legacy. This legacy, along with a couple huge cliffhangers at the end of the mini-series, left the story wide open for a, well, return. When Beyond Wonderland starts with issue #0 in June, we’ll get a peak at what happens when the madness of Wonderland comes out of the looking glass. Newsarama had a chat with Raven Gregory about the recently concluded story, and where the story goes from here.

Newsarama: Raven, let's start by reviewing Return to Wonderland a bit. Calie knows the cycle her family has honored for generations- where do you see her left at the end of the series?

Raven Gregory: Calie has lost everything. Her mother, Alice, committed suicide in a vain attempt at saving her daughter from her own fate. Her adulterous father was murdered by her brother. And her brother, Johnny, was sacrificed in Calie's place to Wonderland through the looking glass mirror by his own sister. And Calie and her boyfriend, Brandon, have left for New York, where along the way she discovers she is pregnant...and that a piece of wonderland may have indeed escape out into the real world.

NRAMA: There are some very unique characters that hearken from Wonderland. Which character did you have the most fun writing?
RG: The Queen was a lot of fun to write if only because we knew the history behind the character. Two sisters that were tragically transformed by wonderland into the mad being that is the Queen of Hearts.

NRAMA: Likewise, with some of the bizarre speaking habits, was there a character that was just infuriating to write?

RG: The Caterpillar was a bit tough at first. The character is highly intelligent and philosophical and working that into a story and making it flow took a bit of fine-tuning to pull off.

NRAMA: Will both be back in the next series? What other characters should we expect to see return?

RG: Some of the characters will definitely be making return appearances.

NRAMA: Nice dodge. Finishing the wrap-up of Return to Wonderland, I have to ask were the signs in the woods in #3 you or the artist? I specifically liked the Konami code.

RG: Most were his idea. The Konami code was mine. That was a lot of fun. There are still signs I spot to this day that I didn't notice before.

NRAMA: Various covers were a staple of the series, should we expect multiple covers for each issue again?

RG: Not as many as before but there will be at least two per issue.

NRAMA: Tell us about the covers for issue 0 of Beyond Wonderland you're revealing today.

RG: We loved how the first issue zero cover for Return to Wonderland came out so we wanted to keep with that same theme and have two covers reflecting the basic concept for this story that when placed together become one massive wraparound cover. One side is Wonderland with the Alice character standing center. The other is of Calie with the setting in New York where she now resides. Eric Basadula did an amazing job on the pencils and Nei Ruffino blew the roof off with her incredible colors.

NRAMA: What about the story for #0? How long will it be, and does it pick up right where Return left off?

RG: It'll be an original six page story, with some extra's much like the RTW #0 issue, as well as various other previews of new Zenescope titles for 2008. It will be available in the May issue of Previews for only .99.

NRAMA: And the larger story for Beyond? What can you tell us about that at this point?

RG: Months have passed since Calie Liddle returned from the realm of madness, months since Wonderland took everything from her. Now jaded and bitter, Calie is attempting to lead a more normal existence in New York City. With a new name and a different identity, Calie is just beginning to adjust to another life. But not every story has a happy ending as she soon realizes that things in her brand new life are going to get really bad, really fast. Something from the realm of insanity has found it's way out and Calie knows that she could very well be the only one who has a chance to send it back.

NRAMA: Will the shipping schedule be a straight monthly from start to finish?

RG: Monthly. All the way through.

NRAMA: In the meantime, readers can tide themselves over with the Tales from Wonderland one-shots. What characters and stories will each of these three feature?

RG: The series is a prequel of one shots that take place prior to Return to Wonderland.

The first one shot is Queen of Hearts (written by Joe Brusha and art by wonderland creative team Daniel Leister and Nei Ruffino) and focuses on the origin of the Queen of Hearts.

The second will be The Mad Hatter (written by Ralph Tedesco and art by Joe Dodd and Nei Ruffino) which reveals his origin and how he is tied to the legacy of those who sacrifice the innocents to Wonderland.

The last one shot is Alice (written by myself with art by incredible new comer Vic Drujiniu (Lynx Studio)) which reveals Alice's original journey into Wonderland and the price she paid in order to escape that horrible place.

NRAMA: Thanks for answering some questions for us today Raven. Anything else coming up to tease?

RG: The Gift will be making a brief return as a massive maxi trade later this year.

[Arvandor]

I enjoyed the original series a lot, just like I did Raven's previous work.

And I like the art too. It's great. Beautiful, dynamic, and expressive.

[Innercaine]

Incidentally, the art looks great. My earlier comment wasn't intended to be derrogatory towards the Alice title in anyway. I enjoyed the first issue, love the art, but it wasn't to my overall taste.

My apologies to publisher for using their book to make an editorial comment.

[BUMP]

Sounds great, Raven, my man.

Mmmmm, nuclear weapon sized breasts....

Don't let George Dubyah hear about these, or Zenescope may end up working as a military defense contractor...

[Ravengregory]

A sneak peek at the cover to issue one by Dave Finch.

Thanks forthe kind words guys. Hope you give the new series a shot.

[MoltenFury]

Can't wait, sounds good to me!

[jlm1955]

Return was Zenoscope's best book and the ending was very well done. I'm looking forward to Beyond.

[Cartoon Jay]

Wow. This looks incredibly unintelligent, immature and misogynistic. The art is technically well executed, but in service of an abysmal concept. Who buys this?

[SeamusMcClernan]

Originally Posted by Cartoon Jay

Wow. This looks incredibly unintelligent, immature and misogynistic. The art is technically well executed, but in service of an abysmal concept. Who buys this?

Same question I have of Jim Balent's body of work.

This is the "stuff" that gives the Haters ammunition to look down their noses at us all.

[Marc_Spector]

Wow, I love how people here judge a book by it's cover (or interior art) w/o reading the story.

To answer your question Cartoon Jay, I buy these series and find them to be very well done, intelligent, and a nice break from my normal superhero books. Perhaps you should give one a shot next time you go to your LCS.

[Justifier]

I got to say that I'm getting so tired of hearing people complain about the "Fan-Boy" art. I hear it about the JLA and now Churchill with the Titans. Most all the Zenescope comics have pin-up art. The covers are mostly all done my Al Rio, Mr. Pin up artist himself. I can understand to a point the JLA and Titans, kids do also read them but this is Zenescope an Indy. There are a lot of people that like this kind of art. There are a lot of art books every month selling it. These are comics. There are not real. The women and men do not have to look real. Comics are an escape from reality. I don't want to see my Wonder Women built just like the everyday women. My life is filled with those. Linsner, Rio, Benes, Balents and Churchill are still in the biz for a reason. Keep on bring the Fantasy Art.

[Skillet]

Originally Posted by Cartoon Jay

Wow. This looks incredibly unintelligent, immature and misogynistic. The art is technically well executed, but in service of an abysmal concept. Who buys this?

Try actually reading an issue before saying it is unintelligent, immature and misogynistic. First off this comic has two strong female leads, one good and one evil, and to say that it is portraying hatred toward women is ignorant on your part. Secondly, Grimm Fairy Tales, their original series which helped spawn Wonderland, deal with a lot of moral issues and also portrayed these two women as very strong. Is this your ideal comic? No, because it might actually make you think, the stories are so much deeper than what is on the page. Finally, sex sells, so what if they make the women curvy, at least they are being portrayed as women and not stick figures like the models of today. It is okay if this book does not appeal to you, but you should not judge something by its appearance, when there is so much below the surface.

[Cartoon Jay]

To Skillet and Marc: It seems unlikely to me that they would select cover and publicity art that did not accurately represent the content of book. I will not be giving this book a shot... they already lost me. Also, it's exactly the same as what you get from super-hero books... that's precisely why I dislike it.

To Justifier: Fantasy and exploitation are not the same thing. This strikes me as exploitation.

That said, if you enjoy it, more power to ya... the market wants what it wants.

Have a good weekend, guys!

[Marc_Spector]

It just seems what you are saying is because of the art, the story cannot be good. The truth is the stories are good, the art could be toned down a bit sure, but it has no effect on whether the story is good or bad.

[AbacusComics]

Love the pictures, but don't want to read the article lest it corrupt my own take on Wonderland (not the Lullaby version) I'm concocting.

Though I gotta say, Alice looks like a sexy french maid...

[Ravengregory]

Thanks guys. You can't win em all and not everybody is into this kind of story, but it always good when something can get folks talking.

[SledgeHammer]

In all honesty I probably would have written this book off as just another silly little genre exploiter had I not been given an issue to read and found out that the Grimm Fairy Tales books are actually quite a well written, and clever, little series, putting a fun, darker, modernist twist on these classic tales. I mean sure, it's an aquired taste, but then so is pretty much everything when it comes right down to it.

I can, however, understand that some people just don't like anyone messing with the original stories that they grew up on. Although, truth is, so many of those stories have been so disney-fied over the years that, if anything, this series is probably more true to the 'spirit' of many of the original tales than is the popularly known fluffier versions that we all know and grew up on. But anyway, regardless of all that, for me this series has been a hell of a lot of fun to read, and as such I look forward to seeing what they do with this follow up Wonderland series.

[Blackthunder]

I've loved this series since Grimm Fairy Tales #1 for the same reason I love Tim Burton. They take something that we all know that has been tamed by society and darken it back up to what is more realistic to the original works. I'll admit that I didn't enjoy Return to Wonderland #1 the first time I read it (i wasn't expecting that kind of earthy and mature story) but after reading again i suddenly found myself unable to stop. Raven has done nothing short of amaze me in all of his works (Check out Grimm Fairytales #25 - Little Mermaid) since I first read him.

Raven .... you definately know my wife and I will be buying one of each of your comics a piece.

[Mott]

Love the art. I have never heard of this series before, but I WILL be checking it out this week at my LCS.

[lazerfeet]

Coming in on the current argument, I have to say that I don't really like this style of art. I like the artists, but I still agree that this is exploitation art. I've never read the story (and I'm sure it's pretty good), but why are the main characters in these kinds of books always hot chicks with huge racks in slutty outfits?

I'll give this comic some credit, though. It looks a lot better than Jim Balent's stuff.

[SouthernHero]

I'm into anything Wonderland-related, so this seems great. Lullaby was / is an awesome take on it, also.

[SledgeHammer]

Originally Posted by lazerfeet

Coming in on the current argument, I have to say that I don't really like this style of art. I like the artists, but I still agree that this is exploitation art. I've never read the story (and I'm sure it's pretty good), but why are the main characters in these kinds of books always hot chicks with huge racks in slutty outfits?

To be fair you can make the same exact complaint against the vast majority of superhero comics too though. All the women are perfectly formed curvaceous fantasies, and all the men are square jawed, perfectly toned and musclebound uber-men.

Right or wrong, it's the way things are, and what seems to sell...

[Ravengregory]

Originally Posted by SledgeHammer

To be fair you can make the same exact complaint against the vast majority of superhero comics too though. All the women are perfectly formed curvaceous fantasies, and all the men are square jawed, perfectly toned and musclebound uber-men.

Right or wrong, it's the way things are, and what seems to sell...

And let's not forget movies. For ever Juno there's a Transformers. And seeing the girl in Juno go under the hood of the car in transformers just wouldn't have had the same effect.

[boomboom]

Originally Posted by SeamusMcClernan

Same question I have of Jim Balent's body of work.

This is the "stuff" that gives the Haters ammunition to look down their noses at us all.

The Ignorant that is...

Balent's stuff is widely recognised in it's own niche and nothing that can top that.

Tarot's audience is largely a female crowd even!

And if you can not see past the visual benefits of this medium then you should be doing something else entirely

[MR2007]

I hate to sound like a total prude here but comments like this:

Originally Posted by Cartoon Jay

Wow. This looks incredibly unintelligent, immature and misogynistic. The art is technically well executed, but in service of an abysmal concept. Who buys this?

This is exactly why I sometimes detest the internet. This comment was posted within the first few posts and doesn't have any substance in it other than to be a snotty, condescending, and rude... why be like that? Unless of course the point is to just be able to sit back and watch the following posts fire back at you... all the while sneering at their "immature" comic choices... is it that hard to ask for a little tact and politeness in these things?

Seriously though... it's not like this company is brand new and the comic is a totally out-of-left-field newbie... the Wonderland series has been out for a while, the company has been producing comics as well... I find it hard to believe that somebody could look at the post headline and not know what to expect when they looked at the news article. My point is... if you already know that a particular title isn't to your liking, why in the world would you read it? Why even bother to read the article and then post to all of us why you don't like it?

There are many times I come to newsarama and see articles posted for titles I don't read or don't really follow... and I just don't click on those links... why? Because they don't interest me... I mean, I can't speak for everyone else, but I kinda have better things to do with my time than to go out of my way to find things that will upset me. Oh well.... it's early and I'm just venting I guess...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum... already in progress...


*ahem* ... yeah... so I liked the series and find the Grimm's Fairy Tales to be a clever take on the material too... so I look forward to seeing this in the shop's soon! Good job guys!