BROM Interview

Award winning fantasy artist and author, Brom, whose latest novel, THE CHILD THIEF just hit stores, (read the PFB review HERE) was nice enough to take some time and chat with us.

SEB: I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for us, and to generally gush like the titular FANBOY I am! Your covers are what got me to read (and eventually play) TSR’s DARK SUN line.

BROM: I appreciate your interest and enthusiasm. Anyone that played Dark Sun can't be all bad (grin).

SEB: You are most famous for your unique and dark fantasy artwork, but you also have three novels out. Was writing something you always aspired to?

BROM: I've always loved telling stories with pictures or words, especially with both. As a child I loved making little books, y'know -- paper, words, drawings, stapler and presto you have book! It's pretty much the same now -- paper, words, paintings, computer and presto you have book.


SEB: Your latest novel, THE CHILD THIEF, came out last month from Harper Collins’ EOS imprint. What can you tell us about that.

BROM: It is a nightmarish re-imagining of the Peter Pan legend.

SEB: Now, while THE CHILD THIEF is, in a sense, a modernization of J.M. Barrie’s PETER PAN, it also deals a lot with the pre-history. What I mean is, you give your Peter a centuries spanning origin that is both grounded in the dirty reality of modern day New York and the mythic fantasy of the Celtic and Arthurian Britania. How much of that was specifically researched for the book, and how much was the opposite…that being some myth or legend that you knew before hand and helped inspire parts of THE CHILD THIEF?

BROM: I've always had a love of folktales, myths, and legend, so was aware of most of it. I knew i didn't want to simply retell Barrie's Peter Pan, but instead create my own Peter, my own world, the darker story behind the fairy tales, so I began to dig into the same myths and legends that originally inspired James Barrie himself.

SEB: Your marriage of Neverland, Avalon, and Tir Na Nog, was both inspired and rather well done. What lead you to tie those myths together with Peter’s story?

BROM: I discovered that the connections were already there. As each legend inspired the legends that come afterwards. Often a character such as the Lady of the Lake, has ancient origins and evolves through history as her tale is handed down and taken up by a new bard or storyteller or realm. You can trace her path from the ancient welsh Modron (Divine Mother) to Morgan le Fay. It was also interesting how so many of the legends mixed and overlapped with legends and folktales from other countries and lands.

SEB: Your PETER isn’t the carefree figure that most people think of when they think Peter Pan. He’s more of a literal incarnation of the psychological need to regress (or in this case retain) to childhood to escape the severe trauma in his life. Is that something you were going for, or do I watch too much LAW & ORDER?

BROM: Ha. I wish I could say I had such mastery over my own characters, but for me the characters evolve rather organically as i write them, until at some point I feel almost as though they are writing themselves. Often they end up driving the story in a direction I never intended.

SEB: You’ve said in previous interviews that there were a few lines in Barrie’s original work that got you thinking about the darker side of Neverland. Can you elaborate on that for our readers?

BROM: Here's a quote from the original Peter Pan: “The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two.”

Thins them out? Huh? What does that mean? Does Peter kill them, like culling a herd? Does he send them away somewhere? If so, where? Or does Peter just put them in such peril that the crop is in need of constant replenishing?

That one paragraph forever changed my perception of Peter Pan from that of a high-spirited rascal to something far more sinister. How many children had Peter stolen, how many had died, how many had been thinned out? Peter himself said, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” Once I pondered these unsettling elements I began to wonder what this children’s book would be like if the veil of Barrie’s lyrical prose were peeled back, if the violence and savagery were presented in grim stark reality. How would children really react to being kidnapped and thrust into such a situation? How hard would it be for them to fall under the spell of a charismatic sociopath, to shuck off the morality of civilization and become cold-blooded killers? And these thoughts were the seeds for The Child Thief.


SEB: Now, when anyone discusses your work, the word DARK comes up often, and THE CHILD THIEF is certainly that. But what caught me most was the LIGHT and compassion that you worked in. Even your worst villains have their actions and thoughts explained in way that leaves room for reader sympathy. How important was it you that the “evil” be identifiable like that?

BROM: I was trying to show that neither side was truly evil in the wicked sense of the word. But instead that evil was a matter of point of view, as each faction perceived the other as the ultimate evil. I don't feel any of the characters are evil by nature, a few have gone a bit mad, but all are in extreme hardship and stressful life and death circumstances, some have been for hundreds of years. The book is more of a tragedy in my mind, as so much bloodshed could of been avoided if only the opposing factions could communicate, could understand each other, could recognize that for the most part they all have the same goal.

SEB: Even PETER and THE CAPTAIN, Peter’s “heroic” deeds are all very self serving, while the Captain’s “nefarious” actions are more altruistic. Peter seems to throw boys’ lives away in defense of his Lady, whereas The Captain is very protective of his men. Did you intend to show that much nobility in The Captain?

BROM: In a way the Captain did indeed turn out to be the most sane of any of them. Or maybe he simply had the fortitude to keep his wits in an insane world.

SEB: Speaking of the characters, which came first in their creation, the visual or the literary? Did you write them up and then do some character designs or did you design them and then figure out who they were and how they’d behave?

BROM: The two work together. One feeds the other. I think very visually, so even the vaguest ideas come with pictures in my mind. I will do some sketching, then some writing, back and forth, trying to use the strengths of each to support the other.

SEB: What’s next for you, both artistically and writing-wise?

BROM: I have a long overdue art book to finish up. This will be a collection of my work from over the last 25 years with plenty of bio and behind the scenes material. I hope to have it finished before the end of 2010. Also have another novel in the works. Something very different from the Child Thief, but still dark and visual.

SEB: Well, congratulation on everything, THE CHILD THIEF and all that came before. I thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to answer my questions. It’s been an honor and a pleasure!

BROM: And thank you. Again, I really appreciate yours and others interest in my works.