By Ariel Baska — I’ve already written quite a lot about exactly how much I love The Plot, as have my colleagues here at Comics Bookcase - Gabe Gonzalez, d. emerson eddy, and Zack Quaintance. If you haven’t been reading, this is a horror comic structured around family secrets, a creepy manor, and a haunted bog. Every frame immerses the senses, through clever use of sound effects, rhyming imagery, and echoing dialogue. 

The penultimate issue, The Plot #7, is out tomorrow, and I reached out to Tim Daniel, co-creator and co-writer of this fantastically dark series. Since every issue subverts readers’ expectations, I wasn’t quite sure what would happen in the course of this interview, but happily I can report my house is still 100% bog-monster-free. 

Check out our conversation below and then check out The Plot #7, hitting comic book stores Nov. 25!

Tim Daniel Interview

ARIEL BASKA: Thank you so much for taking the time to discuss your work, which rewards those who revisit and re-read. I feel that one of the greatest strengths of this series is the character development as it unravels so clearly in parallel with the mysteries from the start. Which changed most in development, the plotting of The Plot or the characters?

TIM DANIEL: Neither! Oddly enough, if memory serves — Mike [Moreci] and I had a really good grasp on who these characters were, their attitudes, motivations, and so forth. We also had a pretty strong notion of where it would all lead. The end has been the end since the beginning. Getting there took a few unexpected turns. For instance, Reese became a bit of a wild card, and to Mike's credit, he suggested she commit and act in Issue 4 which was truly inspired and I think deeply enriched her character. 

Editor-In-Chief Adrian Wassel put forth the idea that the plot of The Plot should be structured like a stone dropped into the center of the bog and the waves created (by the family curse) would ripple both forward and backward in time. Chase Blaine would both bear witness to these events of the past through his visions and the ancestral visitations, but he would also extend them into the present through his decisions.

I've tried to keep that beautiful note in my head the entire time, seeking to execute it as deftly as I possibly could within the framework of every issue.

ARIEL: What was your guiding principle while wrapping the different timelines of family horror together?

TIM DANIEL: As the previous answer suggests there was that "ripple effect" note from Adrian that really gave me something to grasp onto. At the same time, I really wanted to make every character count. When a Blaine family member appears it's never for shock value or simply to give artist Joshua Hixson a compelling horror visual. Let's be honest, it's nearly impossible to scare readers in the comics medium, and if it's not impossible then it is certainly extremely challenging. 

So it seems the best reading experience is about creating a sustained, almost unrelenting, undulating level of tension. You have to key the reader up to a certain level of unease and keep them there all the time. And you have to recognize that there's going to be a gap in that tension every single month because of the schedule...with that in mind, every single character must count—every Blaine depicted throughout history or stalking the ancestral manor as a ghost had to have a direct impact on this particular moment in time, real tangible fingerprints upon Chase and his orphaned niece and nephew.

One of the central themes of The Plot explores how our ancestors help shape our present and future—what we inherit from them (whether we like it or not) and how we chose to embrace or reject their influence. All the Blaines had to have their own arcs and readers had to be invested in all of them to a degree, and not just in Chase, Mackenzie and Zach. That meant creating parallels, call-backs, and echoes so that they are bound together as much as any real family.

ARIEL: Everything about this series, from the writing, to the framing, to the way the shapes emerge from the background, feels deeply cinematic to me. I know your co-writer Michael Moreci is working on a screenplay now, but are you a film buff? If so, were there specific reference points or horror films you watched, and how did those films inform your work here (or not)?

TIM DANIEL: I love stories and I don't have a particular fondness or bias towards any genre. It seems dangerously limiting to oversaturate yourself in any one thing. 

When I'm writing horror — I almost never look to it as a touchstone. I have influences and favorites of course (who doesn't?), but I have very deliberately tried to safeguard against delving into horror specifically during the period of writing for The Plot. I'm afraid that what I put into my brain will come out on the page subconsciously or even worse, consciously. 

What I love doing is looking outside the genre at impactful examples of storytelling. Some are more personal. The novel American Pop by Snowden Wright is about a family cursed for generations by the success of their soda empire. It's a beautiful, beautiful work. I looked to that when thinking about the Blaines.

Then there are a few examples which are a bit more widely known. The opening beach campfire scene from Jaws directly informed the opening scene in Issue #4 where a teenaged Chase follows Reese through the woods. The scene starts with teens gathered about a campfire. Reese runs off toward the bog, but not before signaling to Chase that she'd like him to follow. Chase never makes it as he is drawn off course. Reese pays the price when she's lured into the water to meet the Bog Wight. The scene's setting and structure as well as the idea of their innocence and promise of young love succumbing to blunt, unforgiving horror—it fit so perfectly. 

Likewise, I leaned towards Return Of The Jedi, when Vader tosses the Emperor down the ventilation shaft, to help shape a pivotal scene in Issue #7. My hope was readers would remain on edge for as long as possible regarding a certain character's intent,  creating a level of ambiguity as to what's going on in their head, their decision-making. I was striving to make the reader genuinely uncertain as to what happens when that character gets a weapon serendipitously laid at their feet.  Are they going to use it? For good or ill? Who is their allegiance toward—family or the thing that's been leading the family to ruination?

ARIEL: What scares you most in others’ work?

TIM DANIEL: Ambiguity is so frightening but totally thrilling. The unseen—what happens in the margins, between the pages or just off the edge of the screen. The unknowable—when things do not come with a full set of answers and a pat ending. It's scary as hell but thoroughly invigorating at the same time. 

Our best horror, the stories we fondly recall and return to over and over, deal in the currency of the uncertain.

ARIEL: What scares you most about your own book?

TIM DANIEL: The only thing that truly scares me about The Plot is that it has to end. It's been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my career and for that I must first give thanks to Michael Moreci, Joshua Hixson, Kurt Michael Russell, Jim Campbell, and Adrian Wassel.

The Plot #7

The Plot #7
Writers: Tim Daniel and Michael Moreci
Artist: Joshua Hixson
Colorist: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99
An ancient evil has stalked the Blaines for generations, darkening the doorstep of their ancestral home. For surviving patriarch Chase Blaine, there's only one option left: hold his remaining family close and burn it all to the ground. But an old flame stands in his way.
Release Date: November 25, 2020
Buy It Digitally: The Plot Vol. 1, or The Plot #7

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Ariel Baska has had many past lives, but right now she has a podcast, Ride the Omnibus, parked at the intersection of pop culture and social justice.