Talking Vault Comics’ ‘Lone’ With Angie Hewitt And EXCLUSIVE Art Preview

A phone can disappear. Keys can go missing. Lakes aren’t supposed to go anywhere, yet in Angie Hewitt‘s upcoming series, Lone, that’s exactly what’s happened to Lake Middlenola, except only Alma seems to remember it existed. With letters by AndWorld Design, check out this exclusive preview from the first issue along with some questions Hewitt answered about the series:

Rachel Bellwoar: Lakes dry up sometimes, but they don’t usually disappear overnight. How did you decide a lake disappearing would make the most impact in Lone #1?

Angie Hewitt: The environment changes around us, things outside of our control often generate anxiety and fear. In Lone, the lake disappearing symbolizes the beginning of Alma’s anxiety as things around her start to slowly disappear – both in the physical world and from people’s memories. Something so large and recognizable now completely gone give’s Alma an immediate clue that something very scary is happening.

Bellwoar: A couple different arguments could be made for when Lake Middlenola disappears in the first issue. Did you always want to make the timing ambiguous?

Hewitt: Not initially but as the story played out, the timeline of Alma’s world became affected by everything disappearing. With the colors and the empty-seeming neighborhood I wanted to express the feeling of time feeling stuck, unmoving, as if it’s been paused.

Bellwoar: I love how the first issue experiments with time overall, like when Alma leaves her bedroom for dinner but, instead of following her, the next panel is her back in her bedroom again. On the one hand it’s a time jump, yet if you only went by Alma’s narration you would think the panels were sequential. Was it fun to insert those moments of disconcertion?

Hewitt: Yes, I like leaving the viewer in rooms where we don’t follow the character to express time changing. The feeling of waiting and wondering is something I aimed for often when making panels.

Bellwoar: Alma might be the only one who remembers Lake Middlenola, but she doesn’t remember the nightmare she had the night before. What made you want to give readers access to Alma’s dreams, and how did you approach them, visually?

Hewitt: Dreams are often forgotten shortly after waking up, only fuzzy memories left behind. I wanted to give readers access to Alma’s dreams to give an interesting perspective about what her fears are made up of. In the dream, Alma is seen crumbling to pieces as she pushes against the current, trying her hardest to make her way through it. I wanted this to be a sort of clue to what Alma needs to do to get through what’s to come.

Bellwoar: The color scheme for this series is very warm and creamy. It even brings to mind water — not in the usual sense, of water being blue, but in the sense of water stains. How did you decide on a more neutral palette?

Hewitt: I decided on this color palette because it conveys a sort of comfortable yet uneasy feeling. Similar to the way a sunset or sunrise would create a comfortable atmosphere but after a while you expect it to change and when it doesn’t things can start to feel off.

Bellwoar: Alma’s best friend, Kel, has a very different reaction to learning Lake Middlenola’s disappeared. Was there a moment that helped solidify their friendship for you (and is there a backstory behind Kel’s crossbody fanny pack)?

Hewitt: No backstory for the crossbody bag, haha. Kel is someone who wants to be cool first and foremost – even if that means downplaying their worries. I wanted Kel to express their anxieties a bit differently than Alma to show that everyone handles it in their own way.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Angie!

Lone #1 goes on sale September 13th from Vault Comics.