The Feeling Of Impending Doom — Discussing ‘Pink Midnight Presents: Barber Psychic’ With Writer Paul Allor

Writer Paul Allor has just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Zoop for the latest in the Pink Midnight Presents series. The new installment, Barber Psychic, is about a small-town barber who sees your future when he cuts your hair. In a Comicon.com exclusive, Allor (who uses they/them pronouns) discusses the multiple projects on their plate, why they chose crowdfunding for the project and the overwhelming burden of knowing the future.

Tom Smithyman: You have just launched a crowdfunding campaign, you have a new series coming out in TMNT Vs. Street Fighter, an X-Men annual as well as writing classes. Are you not a big fan of sleep?

Paul Allor: I do not sleep much, no, ha. But I did actually finish writing both TMNT Vs. Street Fighter and the X-Men annual some months back. I just have a few things hitting at once, which is always exciting.

Smithyman: What is the benefit of crowdfunding your Pink Midnight Presents anthology series as opposed to taking it to a creator-owned publisher?

Allor: I get this question a lot, and it always makes me laugh, because it assumes that creator-owned publishers would, you know…want to publish a series of black-and-white one-shot weird fiction stories. There is definitely a market for these types of stories, but I don’t think the direct market is it. By contrast, Zoop has been incredibly supportive and excited about the project from day one.

Even if we could get a publisher to roll with this book, I think I’d still prefer the direct route. Pink Midnight Presents is Juan Romera, Claire Napier and I just doing what we want, without thinking about market. There’ s a lovely freedom in that. 

Smithyman: The newest issue is Barber Psychic, which follows someone who sees your future when he cuts your hair. What’s the genesis of the story and how did it progress as you were telling it?

Allor: The genesis of this story was 12 years ago, at New York Comic Con. My friend Joey Groah and I were walking around Manhattan, and saw a sign outside a building, advertising two of the businesses inside. It said:

“Barber

Psychic”

We looked at each other and were clearly both thinking the same thing.

But for more than a decade it existed as just a title and basic concept, in search of a story. When I decided to launch Pink Midnight Presents, I realized this was the perfect format for it, and began to develop it in earnest. 

Smithyman: Pink Midnight Presents is dedicated to telling queer stories. Traditionally the medium lacked these voices, but there seem to be more choices today. Do you think that’s accurate or a misperception? Can there be enough queer stories?

Allor: I actually don’t think of Pink Midnight Presents as being dedicated to telling queer stories. But being queer and non-binary is a big part of my identity, and it bleeds through in most everything I write, so I can see how it would appear that way.

There are definitely more choices now, but I have to admit that I’d like to see a lot more comics where the characters are incidentally queer. So that’s what I try to do in all my work, including the Pink Midnight Presents stories. And to the last part of your question, no, I don’t think there can be enough great stories in general.

Having said that: Barber Psychic, in particular centers on an opposite-sex couple. I suppose the straights still deserve a bit of representation here and there, as well. 

Smithyman: Juan Romera is back illustrating this new issue. What is the creative process between the two of you like?

Allor: It’s fantastic. I’ve been working with Juan for 13 years now, so I’m clearly a fan. For this project, I’ve been writing the books Marvel style, but page by page and with dialogue baked into the initial script. And Juan has done such an extraordinary job mining the emotional depths of these weird stories. Plus his black-and-white work is so stunningly gorgeous. 

Smithyman: Some people would call knowing the future – even if it’s someone else’s future – the ultimate power. But it seems that your protagonist Clarence treats it as more of a burden. Why take that approach?

Allor: Because it would definitely be a burden! It would be horrible! And Clarence realizes that. Barber Psychic is a story about a man overwhelmed by this strange and terrible ability. There are so many things you could do with the gift of foresight, and instead Clarence chooses to do nothing. Barber Psychic is about the impact of that decision on his life.

It’s also a story about the feeling of impending doom that we all feel these days. It doesn’t take psychic abilities to realize that humanity is headed in a bad direction. We all know it, we all live with it day by day. And it causes a lot of us to feel shut down and shut off, just like Clarence. The only difference is that he knows for certain the things that we only assume – or at least he thinks he does.

Smithyman: Since we’re dealing with people getting their hair cut, what is the worst pruning experience you’ve had. (Bonus points if the stylist claimed to know your future!)

Allor: Never had a terrible haircut, but my old hairdresser was a very sweet old woman. Once, while she had a straight razor blade to the back of my neck, I asked her if she ever thought about how easily she could kill someone. And based on her reaction…let’s just say she clearly had. It turned in to a very weird and memorable conversation!

Smithyman: It sounds like a production of Sweeney Todd! Good luck with the campaign!