Outline:
A New Horror Adventure
It all began with saints. And just like many good stories about saints, it eventually turned into something involving horror. Several years ago, filmmaker Michael Chaves was in France preparing to shoot the supernatural horror thriller The Nun II for New Line. During his research on various saints, he found himself delving into the stories of Joan of Arc and her companion-in-arms, Gilles de Rais, a nobleman who was later revealed to be a serial killer of children. Chaves thought there could be a movie in that relationship, where a monster was essentially hanging around with a saint.
But as he explained to The Hollywood Reporter, "I couldn’t quite crack it. Then I thought, ‘What if they are not the center of the story? What if they are these side characters that we lead to?’ That was the key that really allowed it to kick in."
Combining that idea with another one of his, that of a girl who brings back her father from the dead, Chaves has written Corpse Knight, an intense horror fantasy that is his first foray into comic books.
Collaborating with an Artist
Chaves has teamed up with artist Matthew Roberts, the co-creator of American frontier horror comic Manifest Destiny, for what will be a six-issue limited series released by Robert Kirkman’s Skybound and Image Comics. The first issue will hit comic shops on April 22.
Set in Medieval France, Corpse tells the story of a young girl named Foy who tragically loses her father. As Foy struggles to fend for herself, she’s granted a miracle—her father returns from the dead to protect her.
Here’s Chaves’ take: "Her dad’s murdered. And he miraculously resurrects, we’re not sure how. But our little character has heard stories of Joan of Arc, and she believes that if she gets to Joan, she’ll be able to set things right. It’s a little bit of Wizard of Oz. They set out on their journey and things go horribly wrong."
Alex Antone, editorial director at Skybound, described it as a story "about the lengths a parent will go to protect their child," comparing it to King Spawn and The Darkness, two other supernatural comics published by Image.
Personal Connection and Inspirations
Chaves, who last year directed the almost half a billion dollar-grossing The Conjuring: Last Rites, said he tapped into his own fears as a parent when focusing on the relationship.
"A lot of my movies tell of that relationship," he says. "I’ve got two kids of my own, and so much of this book is me grappling with my own mortality. The idea that I’m not going to be here at a certain point, and my kids have to figure it out without me, and how terrifying that is."
As inspirations, he cites the works of Brian K. Vaughan, the co-creator of such works as Saga, and Mike Mignola, the writer-artist of Hellboy and other Gothic-styled horror comics. (The historical fiction writings of Ken Follett were also an influence.)
And of course, horror comic Manifest Destiny. It was Skybound that suggested Roberts would be a good artist for the endeavor. The company had worked with the illustrator on the comic Universal Monsters: Creature from The Black Lagoon Lives!, part of its line of comics based on the Universal monsters. Chaves quickly agreed.
"He’s great at dark adventure stories," he compliments. "But he’s also good at gruesome horror. I know it sounds simplistic, but that is the meat and potatoes of these comics, seeing this undead monster pull off a bunch of limbs." He adds, chuckling, "At least that’s why I’m writing this."
Artistic Vision and Creative Process
In a statement, Roberts said, "Michael’s script has allowed me to play in a way I’ve not in the past, taking big swings but always feeling grounded by the family bond at the center. That bond is where I find the light, and it makes all the gruesome stuff even more fun to play with."
For Chaves, doing a comic was a chance to cross a box on his bucket list. But one thing that surprised him was how long the process of creating a comic took. By the time the comic comes out, he will have shot three movies—The Nun II, The Conjuring: Last Rites, and a new horror feature that begins production this winter.
"In a weird way, I thought I’d be able to just turn this around really quickly," he says. "When it looked like I was going to be jumping into the Conjuring after the Nun, and I was like, ‘You know what? This will be a great thing to do in the couple of months of downtime. I’ll just write a comic and make it.’ It turns out, it is quicker to make movies than it is to make comics. If I can tell your readers anything, it’s that comics are incredibly difficult to write and that you should not take it lightly."
Check out some pages from Corpse Knight and the variant covers from the first issue below.