ENDLESS NIGHT BEFALLS A SLEEPY SEASIDE TOWN
An Interview with Jeremy Lambert for The Night Mother
The moon is stuck like a broken clock in the midnight sky , the sun a distant memory . No one in this quiet seaside town can remember how long this unnatural darkness has lasted . No one , that is , except for the curious girl who lives in the graveyard , caring for the dead : twelve-year-old Madeline Tock . In gratitude , the departed whisper their worries to her , sounding just like her overprotective but loving father : beware this endless night and she who causes it .
Because there ’ s someone else who can hear the whispers , too … someone whose gown is a map of the cosmos , hair a tangled constellation , eyes like the lights of faraway stars . The Night Mother . Her elemental duty is to gather the souls of the dead in her lantern , then send them to their eternal rest as beautiful moonlight . But when her hunger for power drives her to take souls from the living , Madeline bravely stands up to defend her town and those she loves . Can Madeline help bring back the sun , or will she be lured by the starry promises of this mysterious woman ?
Written by Jeremy Lambert ( Doom Patrol , Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Goosebumps ) and richly illustrated by Alexa Sharpe ( Lumberjanes , Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Uncanny Magazine ), The Night Mother is a lush gothic tale perfect for readers of all ages who relish in the wonder of the night sky . Read on to hear Jeremy Lambert discuss their experiences in creating THE NIGHT MOTHER VOLUME 1 from Oni Press .
DIAMOND : For those who aren ’ t familiar , can you tell us what readers can expect from this book ? Lambert : This is the ( 80 page ) first book in an original graphic novel trilogy called The Night Mother , which tells the story of Madeline Tock , a 12-year-old girl who lives next to a graveyard with her father , and a mysterious woman who lives on the moon known only as the Night Mother . Her gown is a map of the cosmos , hair a tangled constellation , with eyes like the lights of faraway stars . She collects the souls of the dead at every full moon … which is now stuck in the night sky and the Night Mother is collecting more than just the souls of the dead , but the living as well .
How did this project come about ? Lambert : The two separate seeds of the story were the idea of a gravedigger ’ s daughter who could hear the whispers of the people she was helping her father to bury , and the idea of a woman who lived on the moon who came down to collect the souls of the dead at every full moon . Those ideas started swirling around each other for me in about 2012 or 2013 . And I started writing in a notebook for years until I felt like I had figured it out enough to put everything together in a pitch and sent it to the editor who I worked with on Goosebumps : Monsters at Midnight ( my first solo writing gig )! The wonderful Sarah Gaydos . We developed it from there and reached out to Alexa , who just so happened to be ( and is now more than ever ) one of my favorite artists . I ’ m extremely lucky that I get to tell this story with them . Sharpe : Jeremy and Sarah reached out to me around 2018-2019 , in need of an artist for The Night Mother . When I read the initial pitch , I knew immediately this story was right up my alley . At that point , Jeremy already had a rather fleshed-out draft for the script . He has incredibly visually rich writing , so it was very easy to get immersed in Maddy ’ s world and conjure up art for and around her . This project also came at an opportune time for me ; I was a relatively recent art school graduate , gradually making my way into comics . The Night Mother simply felt like it just fit , for me . I had this immediate sense of excitement for it , to help visualize it and be a part of making it a real book- a sentiment that I still hold today !
What kind of obstacles did you face while putting this title together ? Lambert : Well , we got the greenlight for the script in 2019 , and just started digging into art in March of 2020 . So much uncertainty invaded our lives in so many ways , obviously in far more important ways than just for the book . But working on a trilogy of books at that time required a lot of hope , though , and
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