Tim Seeley Discusses Latest Comic, 'Sundowners'
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Tim Seeley Discusses Latest Comic, 'Sundowners'
Tyler Sewell
Last month, Tim Seeley, the man currently behind Image's Revival and DC's Grayson, delivered his new horror-superhero comic: Sundowners. This Dark Horse comic chronicles a support group who have been diagnosed with disorders such as dementia, paranoia, and kleptomania, however the one thing they have in common is a false impression that they are heroes. As the evidence builds towards the reality that something evil is truly at play on the Chicago streets, the team is forced to question whether or not they're truly sane.
After great reviews for its debut issue, I got to sit down (metaphorically speaking) with Tim Seeley and try to get some background information for what's poised to be another successful comic under his belt.
Adventures in Poor Taste: Last month kicked things off with an impressive first issue that left everyone as confused as they were intrigued. Where did you come up with the idea and inspiration for a comic like this?
Tim Seeley: Sundowners came from a few different inspirations as most things do. I really wanted to do a horror-superhero comic as those are two of my favorite genres. But I was also trying to think of a way to do a horror that actually scared my jaded ass. So, I dug deep and found I'm pretty afraid of the notion that I could be mentally ill, and not really be aware of it. I combined that with the emerging "real life superhero" movement, and voila, SUNDOWNERS!
AiPT: So it was an internal inspiration for the fear element. The characters, specifically the "superheroes," are appealing because they're so unique for this kind of comic. I noticed that each character could be defined by one or two mental illness that they may or may not possess. Did you think of each character and assign them a psychosis or did you create the character around a specific mental illness?
Tim: I made up the characters first, and then diagnosed them. Of course, I'm not actually a psychiatrist, but I kind of felt like it worked to have a guy like Dr. Shrejic diagnosing them in the book, having a clear sensationalist bias. He's interested in the story first, just like me!
AiPT: Well so far we've only seen five of Dr. Shrejic's patients with Mr. Outsider making his appearance in this week's issue. Is there a chance that there are other undiagnosed heroes wandering Chicago?
Tim: Absolutely! That was part of the idea that really attracted Jim and I to this was that we'd have the potential for a variety of heroes…and villains!
AiPT: That's good to hear! I know that some readers are nervous when comics, like this one, have such a cryptic storyline because they have the opportunity to jump the shark when publishing catches up with the writing. I know there have only been two issues thus far, but is there an end in sight or a specific direction thought out?
Tim: The first arc has a definite "end" at six issues, but we're already working on issue 9, which is the third part of the NEXT arc. But the book is intended to be vast and open-ended with a lot of possibilities and a lot of characters. But, at least for now, we'll be focusing on the main characters introduced in issue 1.
Sundowners #2 hit the shelves Wednesday, September 24th. Grab your copy today!
In this article:comic books, Dark Horse, tim seeley
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