It’s autumn, so monsters are in the air.
But whataremonsters, exactly?
If anyone knows a good answer to that wide-ranging question, it’s writer Marjorie Liu.
Writer Marjorie Liu reunited with artist Sana Takeda for ‘The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night’.Marjorie Liu; Sana Takeda/Abrams Comic Arts
This year, the series published its 41st issue and seventh collected volume.
“I’m deeply grateful to everyone who is involved in this lovely project.”
“We’re trying to integrate and come to terms with these wounds that are inside of us.
Sana Takeda’s designs for ‘The Night Eaters’.Sana Takeda/Abrams Comic Arts
And these wounds can feel like little monsters,” Liu says.
“The trauma can feel monstrous because it haunts us.
Check out an edited version of our conversation with Liu below.
Sana Takeda’s design of Ipo in ‘The Night Eaters’.Sana Takeda/Abrams Comic Arts
MARJORIE LIU:Oh boy.
I would say back around 2019, we broached the subject.
In case it’s not clear, we like the work, and we’re not afraid of work.
Sana Takeda’s character designs for Milly and Billy in ‘The Night Eaters’.Sana Takeda/Abrams Comic Arts
We’re creatively restless.
And I was like, “Okay.”
It was at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Milly and Billy from ‘The Night Eaters’ by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.Sana Takeda/Abrams Comic Arts
I was at home, it was lockdown.
And it was really hilarious to me because the ghost would haveno chance.
That ghost would be done if the women in my family charged in.
The cover for volume 7 of ‘Monstress’ by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.Image Comics
It just would be no contest.
And so, that really made me laugh and I needed to laugh.
So I just sat down and started writing.
I didn’t really have a plan.
Usually, there are middle-of-the-book doldrums where I end up tapping out.
My computer is a graveyard of unfinished novel scripts.
But this time, that didn’t happen.
The inspiration stayed strong, and the characters came to me.
I had the world, and it was there.
You still game?”
Speaking of horror movies, I just saw this new oneBarbarian.
Everyone says it’s really good.
It is really good!
Was that the appeal of a multi-generational horror story that flips around in time?
As I started working, that’s what it began to narrow down to for me.
It was too big.
So I had to narrow it down.
But the other thing about writing about families is that families are natural sites of horror.
In that sense, it’s very easy to tell a horror story within the confines of the family.
She didn’t want them to go through what she had gone through, and then they reach adulthood.
That might have been a mistake.
I regret this choice."
The problem is it’s a little late.
I’m such a hugeMonstressfan.
How do I put this?
Life is nothing but one long exorcism, basically.
We’re always trying to heal, if we can.
If we’re even aware of it.
We’re trying to integrate and come to terms with these wounds that are inside of us.
And these wounds can feel like little monsters.
The trauma can feel monstrous because it haunts us.
Sometimes we’re successful, sometimes we’re not.
Because it’s very difficult to see these things.
There’s no reason to be angry at myself.
This is just what it is."
How does one reintegrate?
How does one heal?
How does one become your full self?
Colonialism and racism is a deep part ofMonstress.
I’m touching on things that I observed and experienced when I was growing up.
I’m still the writer that needs fantasy to tell.
In the same way that some readers need fantasy to read and experience something like a difficult story.
They need that estrangement.
I, as a writer, still need that estrangement.
I mean,The Night Eatersfeels close.
I’m getting there, I’m getting there.
That relationship is so pivotal and important.
And I find myself coming back to it, particularly inThe Night Eaters.
Well, it’s interesting because I usually let Sana do her own thing.
I will give personalities.
And then I’m like, “Yo, here’s the personality, here’s the vibe.”
And then she translates that.
And so, Keon is very relaxed and chill.
He’s so much fun to write.
He’s just relaxed and chill, but he’s got layers.
The man has some hidden depth, but he doesn’t stress life.
And I was like, “Yo, just make him look like a handsome chill dude.”
Ipo was just the opposite.
She’s giving you the thousand-yard stare.
Like, no f—s to give.
And I was like, “Keep her look very simple.”
It should look like she wears polyester.
She doesn’t care about her clothes.
You were sayingThe Night Eatersreally came to you in this surge of creative inspiration.
At what point did you figure out that it was a trilogy?
At the very end.
The second book is written.
And you know what?
You know how it is.
You write one thing, it just blows out of you.
And you’re like, “It’s magic.”
And the next one was not magic, but I got there.
You’re like, “You know what?
My life was fine.”
That was the question I had going into the second book, the question that I had to answer.
And the third book has its own question.
I pose questions and I have ideas, I have themes.
And then I start to think about, “Well, how do I answer them?
How do I address these ideas?
I did that inThe Night Eaters.
I do that inMonstress.
I do that in basically all my work.
Do you have an end point in mind forMonstress?
Oh yeah, I’ve already written it.
I’ve already written the final scene.
I just don’t know how long it’s going to take to get there.
I definitely felt in this most recent arc that we are approaching some climax…
Yeah.
It’s headed in that direction.
I always love talking about structure.
Both the pain and the pleasure of writing a comic is that you don’t have unlimited space.
But I keep having to bring it back in.
But the story is about Maika.Monstressis Maika’s story.The Night Eatersis Ipo’s story.
And so I have to consciously keep bringing it back to them.
Sana won a bunch of awards that year too, so it was a great year forMonstress.
But every time I remember that, I just think it’s so weird.
What was that like for you?
I was at breakfast and people started texting me.
I was like, “Well, that can’t be.”
First of all, it was wonderful.
It was such an honor to win the Eisner.
But it was strange to be the first.
It’s a delicate thing to say because on one hand, I’m not ungrateful.
I’m incredibly grateful for the honor.
But also I’m like, “Wow, really?
After 30 years?”
And sometimes that takes you to really interesting places, sometimes it doesn’t.
I’ve been at this now for almost 20 years.
I was 24 years old when I sold my first book, and I’m 44.
And I started at the bottom.
As a midlist writer, I was writing paranormal romance and I adored being a romance writer.
And then I somehow found my way into comics.
And then, I’ve just been trucking along for almost 20 years.
And some people do that for twice that long, and never get as lucky as I’ve gotten.
And so, I’m very, very grateful.
I’m actually very excited for people to see Sana’s art in this book.
And it’s like the coolest thing.
She’s a genius.
Then she starts working onNight Eaters, another radically different style.
She’s not content to just keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.
She will read a script and she’ll say, “You know what?
This script needs this.
I am not going to redoMonstress.
I’m going to do something completely new, because it’s a completely different story.”
