Amnesia Stops Assassination For Things You Shouldn't Remember

by Vince Brusio

Knowledge is power. However, there are people that don’t want you to have knowledge because it threatens them. They work in the shadows, and so long as the room remains dark, they’re fine. But then, should you come along and know how to flip on the light switch, well, that ends their convenient cover story, and now things become…complicated. Knowledge is now two-sided, which means you’re a target for…erasure. In this PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview, the creative team behind Darby Pop’s Things You Shouldn’t Remember GN (JUN171443) explain this story points to how a sharp mind can lead to a quick death if you’re labeled a “Rememberer.”

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Vince Brusio: From the first issue of Things You Shouldn’t Remember we are introduced to a variety of characters. A card shark. Men-In-Black types (The Handlers). Just to name a few. And these people are connected across the United States as select individuals that must be hunted down and killed because of seemingly innocuous recollections. Might you shed a little more light on the madness behind the murder? Do more things fall into place and complete the puzzle in following issues which are now collected in the Things You Shouldn’t Remember GN ?

Luis Roldan: One of my main goals in writing Things You Shouldn’t Remember was to develop a mystery/science-fiction thriller with an ensemble cast, in the same vein as TV shows like Lost, Sense8 and Twin Peaks, or comics like Mind MGMT.  From the very beginning, readers meet a number of different characters playing for two opposing teams, so to speak. First we have the Rememberers, who are just regular people (a poker player, a small-town teacher, an ex-photographer wrestling with substance abuse, a quirky pharmacist, etc.) confused by memories of things, people, and places which only they seem to recall. On the other side we have the Handlers, enigmatic suited killers whose sole mission seems to be hunting the Rememberers down.

During this first story arc, comprised of 5 issues, we follow “leads” from both sides and get clues about their pasts and about the mystery at the center of the story: where are these memories coming from and why are they worth killing someone over?

Vince Brusio: There are plenty of studies that cite people miraculously emerging from comas with the ability to speak other languages. So what other kind of strange unexplained phenomena may have played into the brainstorming and plotting for Things You Shouldn’t Remember? Do any of those specific incidents play out in this series?

Luis Roldan: While plotting this series, I did consider some of those sorts of strange singularities. For example, I read many stories and reports revolving around a belief in the collective unconscious and collective memory — both of which I find very interesting. I love the idea of there being a common “pool” of ideas and thoughts available to any perceptive individual to draw from. Another interesting theory connected to this phenomena is that of the ‘morphic resonance’ — coined by British biologist Rupert Sheldrake — which explains the universe as a living organism with its own inherent memory. These fascinating ideas were very much on my mind while creating TYSR’s world.

I looked into many other strange phenomena as well… such as out-of-body experiences, past life regressions, and UFO sightings.  And some of them do inform parts of the story.

Vince Brusio: Mariano & Angel: The background mood music for Things You Shouldn’t Remember might sound something akin to what inmates would sing in a chain gain. How do find something to sing about when everything around you is miserable? Right? So how do you approach your compositions for this story to convey a dark deadly undertow?

Mariano Eliceche /Angel Lidon: The atmosphere is a very important aspect of TYSR, and it was crucial for us to find the right tone and ambiance to fit the story’s mood before starting to develop the pages. Our aim was for the art to “speak” all by itself; when the reader sees a page, he/she should perceive all the emotions behind that specific moment without having to read a single word. The art alone should portray the mystery, danger, and even the humor the story requires at different intervals. The same goes for the color. We used some of our favorite movies and scenes as a starting point, focusing on their unique color palettes, and how they made us feel.

I think a key component was constant communication between the three of us – myself (writer), Mariano Eliceche (artist), and Angel Lidon (colorist).  We have been talking daily since we started working on TYSR, and for each page we first agree on the tone and the structure… the feeling we want to convey… and the best way to achieve it.

Vince Brusio: Why was this book the right fit for Darby Pop? What made Darby the best hotel to hole up in so that you could work your magic to make up memories for murder?

Luis Roldan: When we were working on developing the first issue of TYSR, we had a very clear idea of what we were looking for in terms of a publishing house; we wanted a place where we could develop our ideas with the necessary level of editorial guidance whilst still maintaining the integrity of our project. We liked Darby Pop Publishing straight away: the editorial is made up of a team of passionate professionals and this is evident in the high-quality of their books. We all thought their last two titles (at that moment) — Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises and The Living Finger — looked and were amazing. And we felt TYSR could fit right in.

Just as we were discussing the possibility of sending our project dossier to Darby Pop, they posted an ad on the social media channels looking for submissions. It was a sign. We sent TYSR straight away. And we are very happy we did. We couldn’t ask for a better team to work with.

Vince Brusio: If you could go keyboard commando on any particular social media site and geek over a particular sub-plot, or the insanity of a particular character, what would you gush about until the wee hours of the morning?

Luis Roldan: If I would go on a rant about a specific character and his situation, it would be Marc Roister, one of the first Rememberers we meet. Marc has a song stuck in his head, one of his all-time favorites, called “Unaccountable.” The thing is, no one else remembers that song and Marc can’t find the track or any written record of it, online or elsewhere.

This is actually how TYSR started. There’s this song I loved in my teens, I know the lyrics by heart. But when I tried to hear it again a few years later, I couldn’t find a single piece of information on it.  I went to my parents’ house to look for the album on which, I was sure, the song was included.  And I found the album. But, the song wasn’t on there.

Now, many years later, I still look for that song from time to time, to no avail. I started thinking about the possibility of me being the only person on this planet to remember the song, and the story for TYSR evolved from there.

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Vince Brusio writes about comics, and writes comics. He is the long-serving Editor of PREVIEWSworld.com, the creator of PUSSYCATS, and encourages everyone to keep the faith...and keep reading comics.