Welcome to the Harrow County Observer, Multiversity Comics’ dedicated “Harrow County” column. In the latest installment we’ll be chatting about ‘Fair Folk,’ the second arc of “Tales from Harrow County,” with writer and co-creator Cullen Bunn and artist Emily Schnall. Even co-creator Tyler Crook chimes in for a bit.
Cullen Bunn: Throughout the initial run of “Harrow County,” I toyed with the idea of bringing the Fair Folk into the series. I’ve always thought the Fair Folk just feel right at home in the rural folklore traditions that inform the world of this comic. When we started building out the stories for “Tales from Harrow County,” I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring these creatures into the world, to give them a weird connection to the haints. I love the idea of adding elements into a story that fit. . . but that also change things we thought we understood before.
And. . . speaking of. . . it’s really peculiar that you ask about “fancy cousins”. . . but that’s probably too spoilery for right now.
Emily, I imagine this was a big challenge for you, since you had to design a whole new facet of the “Harrow County” world.
Emily Schnall: Creature design is absolutely near and dear to me, so it was a total treat to work out some new residents of Harrow! When it came to the fairies I struggled at first to find their look–I was thinking of burrowing or cave-dwelling animals and tried drawing all sorts of mole-ish things, some insect-y stuff, and cave salamander dudes. None of those were really working, but when I turned my attention to deep sea creatures their look started to click. They’re from another low-light environment that will lead to some similar adaptations, so referencing deep sea fish features can create something that looks at home living underground. And as a bonus: real creepy and alien looking!
On the other hand, the additional haints I designed had zero foot in biology (most of them anyway). I really love folkloric creatures and approached these guys in that vein. Plus I felt it was very important to make sure these and Tyler’s haints look like they belong to the same family. It was a real fun art exercise! Having parameters to design creatures within is actually my favorite way to do it.
Of course, I have to ask about the cockroach-like haint with the huge mouth. It really is the most striking and creepy character in this arc.
Cullen: Ah, yes! The Speaker, as I called him in the script. Thanks to Emily’s fantastic designs, that beastie has become the most talked about creature in the series.
A little while back, I looked out the window into my backyard to see a large assassin bug crawling up the window screen. I was unfamiliar with the insect, so I snapped a picture of it and posted it on social media. I got so many responses—and a few texts from friends—telling me to stay the Hell away from the insect. “The Kissing Bug,” many called it. And folks shared numerous stories about painful bites and diseases. A few days later, I encountered another assassin bug, this one in the front yard, this one much more aggressive. Anyhow, I started thinking that a giant assassin bug might be a creepy addition to the world of haints, and the “Kissing Bug” name stuck with me.
In the script, the description of the Speaker read like so:
Continued belowOn the SCARECROW EMMY as the SPEAKER HAINT comes out from behind it. It is a spidery, hideous creature, like a GIANT ASSASSIN BUG big as a dog.. Its face is nothing but an oversized, almost human mouth and chattering teeth.
But I had no idea how amazing and awful Emily’s interpretation would be.
Emily: Ohhhh, KISSING bug! How have I not made that connection?! For what it’s worth, assassin bugs are a real big, diverse family with many cool members, so I guess my mind went elsewhere. That makes so much sense though, I love the Speaker Haint even more now.
When I first read its description in Cullen’s script I genuinely had to pause a minute to laugh and process the imagery. It’s such a perfect mix of creepy and silly in a way that just kills me. There’s a very fine line to walk in order to hit that balance, and Cullen seems to be a master of it. In issue #1 he wrote in a raccoon with human hands and eyes as a little background haint—pure chef’s kiss to that.
My main concern in designing the Speaker was carrying over that creepy-silly balance into my visuals. There’s something clownish, especially in close-ups, of this almost disembodied pair of lips, and it’s fun to combine that with more menacing features. The teeth are key to the whole look; they’re a little gem of humanity that makes the whole creature feel especially uncanny.
Yeah, you definitely found the right balance on the Speaker. It’s altogether unsettling. How long did you spend in the design phase for ‘Fair Folk’?
Emily: Thank you! The time I spend on designs certainly varies; like I mentioned with the fairies, sometimes I struggle for a while to find the right direction, and other times the designs come fairly quickly. The fairy queen took me days to nail down, and Foxwhistle was clear in my mind from the start. Of course there’s time spent on image research too—sifting through 1940s clothing catalog scans was pretty interesting.
As much as ‘Fair Folk’ explores new territory and characters, it’s also tightly woven into the past too. The opening of ‘Fair Folk’ #1 even revisits the ending of “Harrow County” #32 from Bernice’s point of view. Going into this arc, were there things you thought you really had to pin down in order for it all to work without unstitching what had been done before?
Emily: Going back into such a poignant moment from the original Harrow was intimidating. These were the first pages I worked on for the whole series, so I was totally thrown into the deep end! Aside from just wanting to capture a Harrow feel to the art in general, I was concerned with hitting the right emotional notes for this particular scene. Cullen’s script handled this beautifully though, so it wasn’t hard to create those feelings on the page.
Cullen: Revisiting the ending of “Harrow County” was a decision I did not take lightly. On one hand, I liked the idea of just moving away from that series and keeping this book a little more isolated. At the same time, though, the events of the original series, how Bernice felt when Emmy left, are so vitally important to the woman she has become. I most certainly didn’t want to retcon or undo any of the events from the first series. Hopefully, I managed that! But when the last issue of “Harrow County” wrapped up, we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with how Bernice felt, so it was nice to see that from her point of view.
So much of ‘Fair Folk’ explores the Emmy-shaped hole in Harrow County, and what Emmy and Bernice meant to each other.
Cullen: I’m a big believer that no relationship, good or bad, ever really ends. The people who touch your life in a meaningful way will always be with you. It’s no secret that Bernice fast became one of my favorite characters in “Harrow County.” She could have been a seldom-seen side character, but she wasn’t having that! She could have been simply a shadow that appeared to ask Emmy questions and get exposition delivered, but she had too much life and too much personality. She had things to accomplish on her own. That’s why I’ve loved writing her in “Tales From Harrow County.” I love getting to tell the stories of the woman she has become. But we spent so many issues building Emmy and Bernice’s friendship—I feel the absence of Emmy in a very real way. It hurts. And it hurts Bernice, too. Even though she has moved on in a lot of ways, there are so many questions, so many ifs and buts, so many maybes (and maybe, as you know, is a kind of magic word).
Continued belowEmily: The absence of a person can sometimes give you the space to see them in a different way and to better understand that past version of yourself who knew them. I think Bernice is still in the middle of processing that. She has clearly been dealt a great deal of pain by Emmy’s leaving, and I can’t see that going away anytime soon. There must be something bittersweet for her about taking on Emmy’s role as protector of Harrow and steward of the haints; on one hand she must feel closer to her and on the other her absence must be all the more palpable.
In the opening, Bernice is virtually also shown alone and in relative darkness, and the few panels Bernice and Emmy share emphasize the distance between them. Even later, during the scenes when Bernice is talking about Emmy, you avoided showing flashbacks of Emmy and Bernice together. Again, it reinforces the distance between them now, and it also means we can focus more on Georgia as this information is communicated. Since so much of this is conveyed visually, I’m curious about how these sequences developed from script to layouts and onward into colors.
Emily: The story opens on such an emotional scene, and I think that feeling of isolation is very key. Cullen wrote a lot of physical distance into his script, with Bernice watching from afar and later alone in her flashbacks as you mentioned. I wanted to take that sense of distance and isolation and run with it the best I could buy keeping Bernice in murky shadows and looking small, lonely among these tall trees.
Cullen: The art here carries so much of the emotional weight. I wanted a sense of helplessness on Bernice’s part, the feeling of loneliness that comes with it, because Bernice is far from helpless and not lonely in the “here and now.” And Emily just drove it home!
One thing I really loved in ‘Fair Folk’ is not just that it openly celebrates its queer leads, but that it explores the importance of representation. Georgia was able to understand herself a little better by seeing Bernice and Emmy together, and it helped her find the courage to be herself more fully. It’s a truly beautiful aspect of the series.
Cullen: Representation—the ability for others to see themselves in the stories I write—has been pretty important to me throughout my career. I don’t always get it right. Sometimes I stumble. But I’m always trying. It does my heart an overwhelming amount of good to think that this comes across in this book.
Emily: Yes! I feel very fortunate to work on a series that celebrates this. Nothing feels awkward or forced in Cullen’s writing; these aspects just flow naturally from these characters and their story. They simply happen to be the people they are, which to me is the mark of representation done well.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s written in such a way that removing it would result in the unnatural version of the story. And it builds off a beautiful moment from ‘Death’s Choir,’ when Georgia learns that her dead father only wanted her to be happy and embraces who she is.
Cullen: That is one of my favorite moments in ‘Death’s Choir,’ but I was so unsure about it when I wrote it. I almost didn’t include it, and I went back and forth on it, writing and rewriting. I just needed to get it right.
Georgia, had a bigger role in ‘Fair Folk,’ in part because Bernice lets her into this aspect of her life. And I enjoyed seeing how quickly Georgia was able to find ways to be useful—she wasn’t just a spectator, she pushed Bernice when she needed to be pushed, and we can see why she’s a nurse because focused on preventing harm and healing.
Emily: I see Georgia as someone who embodies ‘feel the fear and do it anyway.’ There’s a lot that’s thrown at her in the story, both interpersonally and in magical warfare; she is frightened and shocked by these things yet she still rises to the occasion and does what she thinks is right. I love that she shows up for the adventure in her little hiking outfit—she has no clue what she’s getting into, but she’s game. It feels like a bit of a turning point for Georgia when she uses the handkerchief from that outfit to dress Bernice’s wound; I have a real soft spot for that moment.
Continued belowCullen: In a lot of ways, Georgia fills a similar role to Bernice in the original series. She is the character who doesn’t know anything about the supernatural. She learns along with the reader. But Georgia, as you see in this series, is on her own path. She deals with things differently than Bernice did. She has a different destiny in the world of Harrow.
Priscilla is back and I was so happy to see her again. I have to say, Cullen, you gave her all the best lines. I imagine it must be fun for you to write them, then see it paired with the perfect expression in Emily’s art.
Cullen: One of the many joys of working with Emily is seeing how her character expressions bring the dialogue to life. And, yeah, I love writing Priscilla so much. I also like her dumb goblin brothers, but they don’t really show up in this story. Maybe next time!
Emily: I was so happy I got a chance to draw that little goblin! Animals and creatures are my forte, so working with Priscilla felt totally in my wheelhouse. She’s easy to make expressive with those big ears and eyes.
Tyler Crook’s art for “Harrow County” has a truly unique look, and so when other artists come onto the series they have to fit alongside that style. Emily, when you joined the “Tales from Harrow County” team, what aspects of your work did you focus on to make it feel like the “Harrow County” world? Can you talk us through your process a bit?
Emily: Ink and watercolor were my go-to medium up until I graduated art school and made the switch to digital. In fact, I spent my weekends as a high schooler making watercolor horror comics, so this is wonderfully full circle! Because of that experience I fortunately felt somewhat prepared to take on this challenge—though that’s not to say I didn’t have many years worth of rustiness to shake off and some new things to figure out. Tyler left pretty big artistic boots to fill, and I hope I’ve been able to do some justice to the world he’s established while giving things my own feel. My own art style, especially in this medium, shares some similarities with Tyler’s already, so I didn’t feel the need to push very hard for further resemblance. That being said, I always had Tyler’s Harrow art on hand while I worked on Fair Folk, and I’m sure that did nudge my style this way and that. The influence is most evident in the ways I handled the balance of ink on the page and how I thought about texture when watercoloring.
Tyler Crook: I’m just going to chime in to say how fun it’s been for me to see Emily’s pages coming in! Seeing how other people interpret my designs through their own style is always very interesting and makes me see my own work in a different light. Seeing what is added and what is held onto really brings focus to what is essential in a character.
So I’ve been loving what Emily has been doing on this book. I was really worried that asking her to work in watercolor was a bit too much because it’s a LOT of work. But I am so glad that Emily was into it.
I certainly noticed your attention to detail when revisiting familiar locations from past stories. That sort of thing was really important in evoking the eeriness of the effigy walking through them.
I also appreciated the way ‘Fair Folk’ had space to make the reader feel something. Something that could be communicated in one frame is split over several—like in the opening sequence, when Bernice cries. That could have been a single frame, but the extra panel gives us this moment of Bernice turning her eyes away from Emmy as the tears come. And then there’s the moment in issue #1, when Bernice wants to go after Priscilla, but she’s forced to wait for rain.
That moment earned an entire page, making us feel the weight of time. Considering each issue only has twenty-three pages to tell its story, these moments are not cheaply bought, and it shows a lot of trust to let the art tell the story.
Continued belowCullen: I outline and outline and outline, so when it comes time to script, it all comes together much more easily. During the outline stages, I spend a lot of time thinking on which scenes should be given more time, which scenes should be compressed. With the scene you just mentioned, I wanted to spend a little time showing off how things had changed for Bernice, how they were continuing to change, but I didn’t want to use a lot of exposition to hit the reader over the head with that idea. I wanted the shift in the time of day, the shift in the weather, to showcase that.
Emily: I really cannot sing Cullen’s praises enough when it comes to pacing and giving space to moments like these. I know he’s putting a lot of trust in me as the artist to make this page real estate worthwhile and to make these narrative beats work. It’s a total pleasure to work with scripts like this as an artist where moments like this and little changes in facial expressions are given time to breathe, and I can only hope I’ve done them justice!
Cullen: We’ll see if Emily still sings those praises when she sees the next script I sent her! Ha! I’m sorry, Emily. I really, really am.
Emily, Tyler, your covers for ‘Fair Folk’ #4 feel like a set, almost like they’re two different points of view on the same scene. Was this a deliberate choice the pair of you made or was this a coincidence?
Emily: It was a total coincidence, but I’m glad they make a cool pair! I thought I’d give myself permission to draw a big snarly monster face for this one, which is probably what my heart desires for most covers.
Tyler: I wish I could say we planned that but it was an accident. When I painted that over, I was kind of just thinking about how cool Bernice looked with that big ol’ sword. But I sure love how those two covers work together!
I know there’s more “Tales from Harrow County” coming, but it’s too early to talk about that. But there is something else brewing for the future that I have to ask about. . . Harrow County: The Game of Gothic Conflict, which you teased on Twitter.
Cullen: We’re working with Off the Page Games, the company that did the incredible “Mind MGMT” board game, to bring a totally new gaming experience to the world. I’ve played the game a few times, and I think it is great, and it features so many themes and ideas from the comics, up to and including elements from ‘Fair Folk.’ The different factions or groups all play differently, and every “match-up” makes for a completely different kind of game. Tyler is doing art for the game, and I’ve done my best to make sure there is folksy backwoods charm by writing card text and such. It really will be a great companion piece to the comics as well as a terrific game.
Tyler: It’s my first time working on a project like this and it’s been really fun and challenging. Having worked in video games for over a decade, it’s been really cool to make art for a board game and see the ways that they are similar and different. I’m really excited for folks to get their hands on this game.
We’ll have more details as we get closer to the Kickstarter launching in April 2022. To keep up to date, you can sign up to Off the Page Games’ newsletter.
The “Tales from Harrow County – Volume 2: Fair Folk” trade paperback collection will come out March 2, 2022.
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Emily Schnall
Letters by Tyler CrookFull color, 120 pages
$19.99
Trade paperback, 7″ x 10″
ISBN: 9781506722610Harrow County is back! The award-winning, Eisner-nominated southern-gothic horror series returns with a brand-new story.
Fresh off the loss of her goblin friend to a strange portal, Bernice must weigh her responsibilities as protector of Harrow County with her desire to get her companion back safe and sound. But the past weighs heavily and the fair folk use Bernice’s memories against her.
And something more disastrous than she could have feared may be around the corner to threaten both the worlds of Man and of haints.
Collects Tales from Harrow County: Fair Folk #1–#4.
