Interview with Emmanuel Quaireau on Captive (English)

All the way back in 2014 we brought you an interview with Emmanuel Quaireau on the first translated French gamebook was published in Bulgaria - "Transomnie". You can find that interview here. However, today for Halloween we're glad to interview Emmanuel on his Halloween (the movie) inspired horror-thriller comic gamebook - Captive.

As a bonus, we've interviewed the artist behind Captive's wonderful artwork - MC. If you wish to read that interview go to 13.. whoops - here.

 

Hello again, Emmanuel. Tell us about how you got to make Captive. 

Birth of Captive was with a little help from the goddess of luck...

At this time, I already wrote gamebooks but they weren't published yet, only known on the Web by the Yaztromo Prix competition (akin to the Windhammer competition for gamebooks, but in French). I saw a publisher with a new idea: comic gamebooks. By curiosity, I read one of them and found parts which are similar to my own gamebooks.
Maybe the author & publisher - Shuky - has read my books on the Web? I asked him the question, but no, he didn't yet. But after that, he took a look about my gamebooks and offered me to write a comic gamebook... 

Although Makaka éditions (this French publisher) was quite specialized in comics for young people, I was free to imagine all i wanted. I think it's the realistic style of MC, the artist with whom I worked together on Captive, that gave me idea of a frightening contemporary story. I was sure it was wonderfully adapted for that.

Captive is pretty dark and tense. A thriller with horror elements. What were your inspirations for the tone and situations? Any specific movies, TV shows, songs or books? Real-world events?

My first idea was to do like a "Alone in the Dark" in comicbook version. When I was a teenager, it was a video game I really enjoyed. It begins slowly, the fantastic elements arriving step by step...
And I was fan of John Carpenter's movies, especially Halloween, Assault, Prince of Darkness, The Thing... I wished to instill this feeling of oppression behind closed doors and dark atmosphere.

I was also very influenced by Stephin King's novels. In The Shining, Pets' Semetary or Misery for example, I really admired how it all starts from daily situation (couple's life, small daily problems...) to drive readers more suddenly in a horrific abyss.

Call of Cthulhu is one of my favorites RPGs and I'm fascinated by Lovecraft's universe.

So I mixed all these ingredients and Captive was taking shape.

What are the challenges with creating a comic gamebook? Advice on good practices?

It's very different of a classic gamebook because we don't have place to develop situations, as freely as in a novel. So it's important to go to the point. From the start, I knew I couldn't pass over 164 pages. It's essential to have a good artist who can flesh out the idea into the pages. The creation of Captive took eighteen months for Captive, although MC was very fast and effective!. "Organization" is the key word (pun intended).
With a comic gamebook, you need to think carefully about places player will access, number of floors, of pictures, positions of items... Impossible to improvise gradually.

But the hardest thing is the page real estate. Each paragraph can be little, medium or in full page. And thinking about the "camera", how to show sequence of actions. This is the "graphic novel" aspect and I wasn't familiar with it. Luckily for me and Captive, MC is a great specialist of "comics", "mangas" or "Bande Dessinée" like we say in French. He was fully involved in the creative process and gave a lot of great ideas.

Now that I have more experience with comic gamebooks, I'm sure quality depends of good communication between author and artist.

With MC, I remember we spent a lot of time on Skype. Since he was very involved, he could have an opinion about my ideas, the story, how to show some sequences... Even for the game part he looked critically at the rules!

It isn't usual situation. Usually for the part of the artist, exchange of mails are enough. I send the full scenario, the artist gradually sends me pictures for validation - to avoid mistakes - and so on until the end.

Personally I find it very motivating to work hand in hand for a collaboration on a long project like Captive. Writer is a lonely occupation. I think I prefer to write novel gamebooks, but collaboration with an artist for on a comic gamebook is gratifying as well.

Mechanics. Are there any you wanted to add, but did not? Like maybe the number of bullets?

Usually, I like rules-heavy gamebooks. For me, the game is as important as the story in this kind of literature and it's the reason why I love series like Lonewolf, Way of the Tiger or Blood Sword. I enjoy playing "heavy" boardgames and RPGs like Warhammer...
And yet, I chose simple rules for Captive.

I thought for this kind of horrific story, it was important to have an oppressive atmosphere, and I was afraid that having too many game rules will distract the reader from the story and vibe.

Yes, in the beginning I considered to count downs bullets! Finally, O dropped the idea. Did the same for dice as well - I like dice rolls, but I chose to omit them in Captive.

It was my first comic gamebook and with hindsight, I know rules are can be improved. Some people could think for example only three items is a little strange! Or using of the three characteristics is not very flexible...

Can you give some details about references/easter eggs/surprises that you put in the book? I only identified the comic magazine in paragraph #22 - "Naked Girl and dinosaurs"

This paragraph is the only one true "easter egg". The magazine has been painted by Znarf, another comics designer friend with MC, to put a touch of lightness in this ocean of darkness. Like a private joke, especially because we don't expect Sylvère, the pious and bigot butler, would have this kind of reading.

However, some sequences are special references.

In the old video game "Alone in the dark", I was very impressed by the beginning - in the attic - when this flying creature passes suddenly through the window if we're waiting for too long, and kills you. If you don't remember, go to paragraph 107...

The scene in paragraph 179 with the TV is a reference to The Ring. But it's a trap for readers who watched the movie...

The scene in 171 is based on the madness scene in Evil Dead 2.

And the protagonist is a "gendarme", a country policeman. Twenty years ago in France, young men still had to pass one year in the army. For my own service, I chose to be a gendarme, so I know some details about this profession quite well.

You have written a total of 7 comic gamebooks. How do you compare "Captive" to the other 7?

Captive was my first comic gamebook and my biggest. It's the only one with very adult and horrific atmosphere  and many people ask for other comic gamebooks in the same way. The problem is that for such a project we need an artist with a realistic style and they are not that many.

So I wrote the other titles in based on the artist I was paired with, but it was exciting to try other universes, other concepts: for children with "Hocus & Pocus", fantasy with "Tears of a Goddess" and "The Dark Mage", action and humor in "The Great Tournament", Science-Fiction with 2070 ...

If I'm particularly satisfied by the result with Captive, story and pictures, I think it's with "The Dark Mage" that I am the most successful in creating a comic gamebook with a great gameplay and structure similar to classic good gamebooks. In this Warhammer-like universe, we play a demonist who have to hide from mage hunters, who can use different kinds of magic, who can explore a map in many ways and find / use a lot of items.

Thank you, Emannuel! We are looking forward to meeting you soon!

If you want to check out more articles in English from the Bulgarian gamebook society go to the article index.