Mythical Russia Breeds Heroic Dreams – Brandon Dayton On Green Monk: Blood Of The Martyrs

Brandon Dayton first developed the world of Green Monk through a self-published mini-comic that became a YALSA award winner in 2011, and now the doors of that world have been thrown open for readers through a complete graphic novel, published by Image Comics, and arriving in shops on September 26th, 2018.
In Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs, we follow Alexey’s story from infancy through his early years at a monastery learning about the history of violence in his region of mythical Russia. As he grows and learns from his elders, he’s troubled by strange dreams that seem portentious, and intimate that conflict is on the way.
Dayton creates beautiful, emotive settings and compelling characters in this new graphic novel, all while raising interesting questions about power and conflict. He joins us here today on Comicon.com to talk about Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs.

Hannah Means-Shannon: What do you feel is distinctive about Russian folklore and the Russian medieval setting that makes it unique in comparison to other cultures for the purposes of storytelling? What appeals to you about it?
Brandon Dayton: Initially, it was just that the setting was different. The world is basically copy/pasted from Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev and it just felt very new and different to me. The more I studied the setting, the more fascinated I became with it. It was during this period of history when Russia was under the “Tatar Yolk” (basically paying tribute to the Mongol empire) and still broken up into a bunch of independent principalities. Christianity was still relatively new, paganism was still around. It was this fluid time of uncertainty before the unification of Russia. A very wild-west time and an appropriate setting for a wandering warrior type of story.
HMS: You previously self-published a volume set in this world, and I was wondering how you came to that decision and what your strategies were for finding an audience for your book. Could you talk a little about that?
BD: Ha, ha! I’m still trying to figure that out! The Green Monk mini comic was a baptism of fire into the comics world. I attended every convention I could, and I started trying to connect with as many comic creators as I could over social media. The conventions were probably the most effective thing I did at that point, but it wasn’t until I started investing more time into social media, particularly Youtube, that I really started to see an audience forming around my work. It’s small group, but they’re awesomely supportive and encouraging. They get excited about the same stuff I do, which is a really precious thing to find. I feel a big responsibility to live up to their expectations.

HMS: In terms of working as an artist, what kind of tools and techniques do you usually use for each stage of your process? Are these things have that changed over time, or working on this new book?
BD: I work with a mix of traditional and digital media, which I think is pretty common these days. I do thumbnails on paper, then I scan those in and create my layouts digitally, then I print out the layouts and pencil and ink on paper, then back to the computer for color. It’s a game of artistic ping pong, but I feel like it allows me to take advantage of the various strengths of the media I work with. The process hasn’t changed too much over the years, although the tools have become more diverse and sophisticated. The first Green Monk was all done in microns. Now I use an assortment of inking devices to finish a page.

HMS: You have to represent a wide range of people and places visually in Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs from architecture of varying types, to cute babies, animals, demons, action sequences. Did you find any of this particularly challenging, or have you mainly drawn things you just want to draw?
BD: There was a time when I would have dreaded having to draw “boring” stuff, but I found everything in this book to be challenging and rewarding to draw. That’s the cool thing about making comics, they teach you to draw by necessity. I learn to draw the stuff that I need to draw for the story. It keeps things exciting and diverse, and I love the contrast. Drawing the peaceful stuff was peaceful, and drawing the exciting stuff was exciting (and drawing architecture was always a pain in the ass, but I still loved it.) If I can look at each page as a new experience, rather than just something to get to the end of, I find I really enjoy the experience, regardless of the challenge.

HMS:There are a number of meaningful themes in the book, and I did notice a reference to sectarianism—the idea that Catholic knights were actually oppressing the Russian Orthodox monasteries and populations. While I’m sure that’s part of the historical element of the story, and also works to establish that these monks live in a violent world, do you think it’s important to tell stories that show violence as complicated rather than simply a good vs. evil paradigm?
BD: There is a time and place for a good vs. evil story, but in this case, I wanted to try and achieve something more complex. I was really looking at Miyazaki in this case. I love his ability to tell a story with conflict, without there being an explicit bad guy. I think Princess Mononoke is particularly elegant in this way.

HMS: Are there medieval-set comics that have appealed to you or influenced you in your reading or creation of comics? For instance, Prince Valiant comics, or Peyo’s Smurfs?
BD: Not much when it comes to comics. One of my favorite Strontium Dog storylines is when they go back to Viking times, and of course there is Bone, but I don’t know how much those comics influenced this particular story. Maybe Groo?

HMS: There are dream sequences particular to Alexey, that later morph into kind of visionary states that play a big role in the book. I notice that you don’t particularly shift the feel of realism in your art style between these scenes, making them seem very real and tangible to the monk. Was that a particular choice to make the visions fantastic, but still relatable to readers?
BD: That’s mostly to sustain a sense of ambiguity about what is “real” and what isn’t. That’s a big thing that comes out of trying to understand Tarkovsky’s work. He would argue that reality is more dreamlike or visionary than we appreciate and should be represented that way. In the end, it’s all a made-up story, and what is a dream, and what is not isn’t as important as what happens and what it means. Plus, I’m really horrible at keeping characters on-model, so if I tried to do something stylistic, people probably wouldn’t even notice.

HMS: I think that Alexey’s desire to be a hero is very relatable, especially when he’s a young person, and feels anger at the stories of past violence. Is that desire dangerous to himself or others? What kinds of things in life do you think can balance the heroic impulse?
BD: I’m really interested in exploring violence in general with Green Monk. I don’t think I’m unusual in the sense that I have a fascination with violence that is hard to reconcile with other values. I’m really interested in that push and pull, and all the ways we’ve tried to understand and channel that impulse, whether for good or ill. Really, it’s just a superhero story at the end of the day, in that sense. It’s about having power and trying to be responsible with it. I’m interested to see how Alexey navigates that journey and not totally sure how it’ll pan out.
Many thanks to Brandon Dayton for taking part in this interview, and congrats to him on a gorgeous new book!
Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs will arrive in comic shops on September 26, 2018.