"Ithaqa" Comic Book Update #165 Interrogation Time + Film Noir

Film noir was without a doubt, the first storytelling genre that completely consumed my creative output. In fact I didn't even know I wanted to be a film maker, (as opposed to solely a writer), until I watched the neo-noir film "Memento" as a freshman in highschool. According to my parents, when I was little, I wanted to be either a detective or a scientist when I grew up. Go figure that noir and sci-fi are the two genres that most consume my life these days haha.

Memento film blew my god damned 14 year old mind. The use of black and white in a contemporary film, the fact that the whole thing was edited in reverse (but also forward at the same time). That filmed changed the trajectory of my life/art, and I wasn't even aware that it was an example of noir at the time.

All of a sudden, all I wanted to do was make things that played with color and time. I wanted to create mysteries and have gritty heros knuckle down and get to business. Even when I tried to dabble in comedy, I could not escape the pulp! Just look at the first film I made in film school.

I'm not showing you it to tell you it's great. I'm just saying that wouldn't you know it, the ending is at the beginning, and the present is shot in color. SO ORIGINAL MICHAEL.

I wanted to watch noir films, play noir games, write noir things, and nearly every film I put out throughout my college career (they did get better I promise) was rooted deeply in the genre and B&W I had come to love.

Gradually my obsession quieted down to a mere "intense love for" the genre, and the work I did began to take on a more sci-fi-y tone. (Not that you can't mix the two, Bladerunner remains one of my favorite films, and the sequel is maybe even better!) All the time I spent in the science education space started to affect my thought process. You can only read so much about quantum physics, the multiverse, and cellular biology before it changes the way you look at the world. Not for the worse, but a different perspective to be sure!

Anyway I say all this, because I really like this scene haha. It reeks of Noir. We've got cops, cigarettes, and rough interrogation, all set in the middle of a mystery. It seems that even when I'm not consciously setting out to create a piece of pulpy Noir, it finds a way to seep back into my work.

The pages ahead are even better in my opinion, and we get some great panels of Mookie and Ruth as badass noir protagonists. I'm not mad, and when I talked to Theresa, she said they were some of her favorite scenes to draw this issue. So maybe we got similar tastes, who knows?

I've set up an email grab at https://www.ithaqacomic.com/contact-us/

If you sign up there, I'll send you 8 pages of the comic, fully lettered!

Additionally, If you're new to this comic I strongly recommend you check out our instagram, as I'm currently uploading pages from issue 1-2 there every day (this is issue 3).

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ithaqacomic/

Theresa Chiechi's (The Artist @la-fumettista) website is here: http://www.theresachiechi.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/pg/IthaqaComic/about/?ref=page_internal
Twitter: @IthaqaComic