Behind The Scenes: Curt Pires And Luca Casalanguida’s Horror ‘Lost Fantasy’ #1 From Image Comics

“I knew I wanted to give the book a cold open that immediately pulled you in and set up the stakes. It didn’t take me long to come up with this imagery of this girl covered in blood running through the woods—it’s something that’s just instantly evocative and captured my attention and interest. And I consider myself the first reader besides being the writer so that is usually a good sign. The hunter she runs into is a red herring of sorts that you’re meant to sort of be afraid of for the little girl and wonder if he’s going to harm her. And then we quickly pull the rug out and establish what’s coming for her is actually much worse.”

Casalanguida added:

“When I read the the first page of the script, I said, ‘Fuck!’ Then I kept saying it on the following pages! The beginning of the story immediately grabbed me. The little girl running off into the woods is a powerful image. You wonder what she is running from, why she is running, and if she will be saved. You immediately take her to heart. I really enjoy drawing forests—I like to play with shadows and contrasts. This story was really fun to draw. It’s got everything you want in a comic: action, fights, intrigue, real characters, monsters, magic, and horror.”

Here’s the full synopsis:

“In Lost Fantasy, there’s a magical world that lies beneath ours, and first contact was made over a hundred years ago between the two worlds due to a natural disaster, resulting in a schism that allowed monsters to break through. Since then, secret monster slayers, known as The Great Hunters, have been working with global leaders to police the border and to keep our world safe from the creatures that lurk in the shadows. But last night, something broke through, resulting in a mysterious mass killing in Montana, and causing things to shift in a way that will ripple through both worlds. Now it’s up to rookie monster hunter Henry Blackheart to stop it…”

And here’s Pires on Henry’s introduction:

“We start in a room which is basically ground zero of a bender—and then we see him walk out of this seedy motel room and into this magical slum of sorts. It immediately sets the tone for the kind of magic in our book—and the magic world we’re showing is not your familiar type of fantasy.”

With Casalanguida adding:

“We’re confronted with a real world where characters talk and do things as we do every day, and suddenly you discover a world hidden in plain sight where all sorts of elements or characters could be anything. You don’t know what to expect. Henry, we find out, is a complete mess. Maybe you don’t want to know what he’s done to make himself like this. But when he answers the phone, he has to go. His appearance was very clear in Curt’s mind. I tried to make him very simple and practical in his clothes (he has to move and fight nimbly), but at the same time you can’t forget him after seeing him. We didn’t do a lot of studying for him, he came out of the box. That’s the way it usually works for me. The characters have to take shape from the pages, from what they do and say, how they move, their attitude. Only then do they feel real.”

In addition to the JPRG-inspired Lost Fantasy tale, the giant-sized comics will also feature a serialized backup story, Indigo Children: Exodus, that continues Pires’ hit sci-fi series Indigo Children.

The series will also feature an homage variant cover series (Cover B of each issue) illustrated by artist Alex Diotto, paying tribute to iconic video games, manga, and stories that have influenced the series, including Final Fantasy, Berserk, Devil May Cry, with more to be revealed soon.

Lost Fantasy #1 will be out on Wednesday, April 30th with the following covers:

• Cover A by Luca Casalanguida
• Cover B (Final Fantasy VII homage) by Alex Diotto
• Cover C (1:15 cardstock incentive) by Luca Casalanguida
• Cover D (1:25 cardstock incentive) by Darick Robertson
• Cover E (1:50 cardstock incentive) by Jae Lee
• Cover F (1:75 virgin cardstock incentive) by Jae Lee