Step into the mysterious world of Hobtown as we delve deep into the creative minds behind the Canadian noir phenomenon. Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes, the masterminds behind the acclaimed Hobtown Mystery Stories series, invite you on an intriguing journey filled with suspense, horror, and teenage adventures. Join us as we uncover the secrets of this enigmatic small village and explore the intricacies of storytelling, artistry, and collaboration that bring it to life.
Oni Press, the renowned comic book publisher, is set to release Hobtown Mystery Stories Vol. 1: The Case Of The Missing Men in vibrant color for the first time, breathing new life into this gripping tale. Set against the backdrop of rural Canada in the 1990s, the series follows a group of teenage detectives as they unravel the dark mysteries lurking beneath the surface of their seemingly idyllic hometown. From pagan secret societies to eerie supernatural occurrences, Hobtown is where every corner holds a new enigma waiting to be solved.
Interview with Creators Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes
In this exclusive interview, Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes share their insights into the creation of Hobtown, from its inspiration rooted in the folklore and landscapes of Nova Scotia to the challenges and joys of transitioning the series from black and white to full color. Get ready to uncover the thematic depths of small-town life, the evolution of beloved characters like Dana Nance, and the surreal and supernatural elements that make Hobtown a captivating and unforgettable world.
Continue reading the interview to learn more about the captivating world of Hobtown Mystery Stories and the creative genius behind it.
Toons Mag: What inspired you to create the setting of Hobtown, a small village in rural Canada, for the series?
Kris Bertin: Where Alex and I live (Nova Scotia) is unique and strange. Geographically, it’s breathtaking, with caves and forests and a terrifying coastline of massive cliffs. But what’s incredibly inspiring is its folklore, which arose from its unique mix of cultures: Mi’kmaq, English and Acadian, and Scotch-Irish peoples, all living on this stretch of earth surrounded by the Atlantic.
They all have ghost stories, ‘devil’ stories, and most of all, stories of tiny, little meddlesome creatures. Enough that it feels like maybe there’s something to it. It’s worth mentioning, too, that its bloody and violent colonial history is something that gets pushed down, denied, and white-washed, but it’s impossible to hide. It’s here, and we’re living with it, whether we want to acknowledge it. That’s a big part of Hobtown.
Toons Mag: As the artist of Hobtown Mystery Stories, how did you approach visually capturing the atmosphere and tone of the series, especially when transitioning to color for the first time?
Alexander Forbes: Hobtown was first published as a black-and-white series, so I focused on texture without color and played much with contrast. Initially, before we made the story in black and white, I was working on a color version with colored pencils and watercolors and all kinds of fine-art weirdness that didn’t quite work out before I went to ink.
We thought the only color would be on the covers for a long time, and we felt that was enough to explain what it was supposed to look like. We use those as a guide to help translate the black and white into color. We love the black and white and hope to reprint a special edition someday.
Kris Bertin: Alex and I both grew up in a small town, which informs much of what happens in Hobtown. A small town can be sweet, kind, and even good, but the experience of different people in a small town can be stifling. Where we’re from, if you’re creative, if you’re smart, if you’re queer or indigenous or French or anything other than a very narrow definition of ‘normal,’ it’s hard.
We bring much of that to our characters, especially those who straddle different class and cultural divides, as we see between Pauline and Dana or the Hale Brothers and Sam (the heir to a manufacturing fortune). However, secrecy is incredibly potent in small towns. Horrible things happen everywhere, but here, they get buried, mythologized, or even made into a joke by those people who want everyone to remain the same. That can be scary and is the source of much horror.
Toons Mag: The transition from black-and-white to full color must have presented exciting opportunities for artistic expression. Can you tell us about your experience adapting your style for this new edition?
Alexander Forbes: I am very excited about adding color to the series, though, aside from being a bit less concerned about filling space on the page, I haven’t consciously changed much in my approach to drawing as a result of color since Jason Fischer has done such a great job coloring my black and white work from the first editions of The Case of the Missing Men and The Cursed Hermit. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!
Toons Mag: The blend of mystery, horror, and coming-of-age themes is unique in Hobtown Mystery Stories. How did you approach balancing these elements in your storytelling?
Kris Bertin: The coming of age is a horror for us. It’s realizing that your squeaky-clean parents have their sordid past and that you will. Those forces drive you toward conflict (or romance) with your friends, and you can do nothing about it. The person you will become isn’t different from those you consider wrong, minor, or evil. The past has a hold on you; no matter what you do, it will keep holding on to you. It’s going to change you. You have no choice.
Toons Mag: Hobtown Regional High and its surroundings have a distinct aesthetic. What key visual elements did you focus on to capture the essence of the setting?
Alexander Forbes: I try as much as possible to get out of the increasingly bland city of Halifax and into the rest of Nova Scotia. Towns like Lunenburg, Digby, Parrsboro, and many others are full of ambiance, character, and history. I try to amalgamate them all into Hobtown, and as much as time allows, I do sketches from life. I also spend as much time as I can in the woods and on the lakes and shorelines of our province, soaking in the eerie beauty there and trying to capture it on the page.
Toons Mag: What challenges did you face in transitioning the series from its original black-and-white format to full color for the re-release with Oni Press?
Kris Bertin: Initially, our conception of the series was in color, so we had big ideas about what things should look and feel like. We need things to be dull and drab–until they’re not. Until things change and become unsettling and frightening, something that isn’t supposed to be there is. With Jason Fisher-Kouhi, we found a colorist who could precisely translate those movements with the right palette and present options we hadn’t considered.
After a few too-pretty and too-colorful versions of the story, Jason got things exactly right, and now it looks like we always imagined it would. It also opens up new avenues for storytelling, so I no longer have to write about what shade of grey something might be but what the thing is.
Toons Mag: The character designs in Hobtown Mystery Stories are unique and memorable. Can you discuss your process for developing the visual identities of the characters?
Alexander Forbes: As with Hobtown’s scenery and townscapes, I drew the characters from life. Most people in Hobtown are inspired by real-life characters Kris, and I know from our shared childhood and employment history. For over a decade, we both worked in a dive bar here in Halifax called Bearly’s. It’s a community where we meet the funniest, the weirdest, the absolute best, and the very worst people. (It’s also where we each met our wives). Being so familiar with these people, it wasn’t hard to capture their essence.
The most “made-up” characters are the main ones: the members of The Detective Club, except the Hale boys, who are based on the younger brothers of an old friend from high school. I genuinely love these characters, and I hope it shows.
Toons Mag: The character of Dana Nance leads the Teen Detective Club. What aspects of her character were most compelling to write about, and how did she evolve throughout the series?
Kris Bertin: Someone will say that this story is not realistic, and it isn’t, of course, but realism is a force bearing down on the story that allows us to transform pulp tropes into something a little more fleshy. This pulp-to-flesh process lets us turn a little-miss-perfect Nancy Drew character into someone borderline OCD who has traded people skills for detective skills and puts such enormous pressure on herself and everyone else that she isn’t a good friend. Not yet. That’s her arc, as someone who learns how to be a better friend while navigating her expectations for herself.
Later on in the series, her father (who is, himself, a big player in the story’s mystery) looms large as a foe she has to battle, outsmart, and negotiate with. What’s at risk in those later books is her soul. Will she become like him or find another way forward?
Toons Mag: From psychic assaults to possible “wee man” sightings, Hobtown is filled with bizarre occurrences. How do you approach illustrating these surreal and supernatural elements?
Alexander Forbes: Context is essential when venturing into the surreal. A sense of reality must be established. I hope all the fastidiously rendered pastoral scenes and detailed interiors pay off when Pauline “premembers” something, or Sam has a nightmare, and we see it in stark black and white. This effect works even better with Jason’s addition of color.
Toons Mag: Hobtown has been compared to iconic series like Twin Peaks and Nancy Drew. How do you feel about these comparisons, and did they influence your creative process?
Kris Bertin: We love David Lynch and those pulps (like Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Hardy Boys) on which we’ve based many of our characters. Of course, there are a million other influences, like horror films, fine art, and a particular kind of illustrated folklore book that we have a whole library of. Those comparisons are apt because we are interested in making a kind of ‘Syndicate book’ that is elevated, has fun characters, and has surreal, gothic horror elements.
We’re fundamentally different from Twin Peaks and the other things it gets compared to, which didn’t even exist when we started this, like Stranger Things or (shudder) Riverdale. Hobtown is funny and often downright kind, but it is also interested in subverting tropes and looking at what trauma and baggage a real Johnny Quest might be dragging around from continent to continent. Someone once said that Hobtown was like if Wes Anderson directed Blue Velvet, which was a big compliment.
Toons Mag: Collaboration between writer and artist is crucial in comic creation. How do you and Kris Bertin collaborate to ensure the visuals complement the narrative?
Alexander Forbes: Kris and I have been doing this together since we were six. When my annoyed friend from kindergarten off-loaded me onto Kris in grade one, we first made up and drew little characters together. We share a creative brain at this point, so conveying ideas to each other is pretty effortless. Also, while he might deny it, Kris is a good cartoonist, so if there’s anything he can’t explain, he can draw it. [Kris: Please note, this is not true.]
Toons Mag: In your opinion, what makes the mystery genre such a powerful vehicle for exploring deeper themes of acceptance, friendship, and trauma?
Kris Bertin: As the characters in a small town uncover secrets, they aren’t just finding out about some abstract thing on the internet; they’re finding out about their neighbors, parents, and history. They’re finding out about themselves, their family lineage, and their cultural involvement in unspeakable horror, like genocide. In my mind, the mystery itself is secondary to those kinds of revelations and transformations.
If you’re learning about who you are and who you might be, you’re confronting more than a murder or a ghost; you’re confronting enormous cosmic forces, like causality and even autonomy. I really and genuinely believe friendship and love itself may be the only way to get through those kinds of things.
Toons Mag: Hobtown is depicted as a character with quirks and secrets. How do you visually convey the personality of the town through your illustrations?
Alexander Forbes: Things are frequently misspelled (on purpose), and taxidermy reigns supreme as a decoration, as does folk art and carvings. Clear class distinctions between different places also inform how they’re rendered. Keeka Pizza, the kids’ favorite hangout, is greasy, smelly, and smoky. Suzie’s Diner, where all the ‘nice’ families go, is tidy, cute, and squeaky clean. Looking at the ‘placemat’ at the beginning of the new edition, you can see a lot of personality on display.
Toons Mag: As co-creator, how does it feel to see Hobtown Mystery Stories gain recognition, including nominations for the Angoulême Sélection Fauve Polar SNCF?
Kris Bertin: Alex and I are best friends, and we created this book for each other. It almost celebrates what we find scary, funny, cool, or wicked. When it became clear that we were serious about this and got it published, finding other people who felt the same as us was wonderful. On Goodreads, it’s either 5s or zeroes, and I think that’s a good thing. If it’s for you, you’re our kind of person.
It’s like finding new friends. Some things that happened to the book, like the Angoulême or Doug Wright nominations, were completely unexpected and unbelievable. We’re sitting here in our dank studio talking about what kind of fart a character should have, and the next thing you know, there’s a glowing review in The New York Times. I think it goes to show that doing things for yourself first is what matters most.
Toons Mag: What were some of the artistic challenges you encountered while bringing the story of Hobtown Mystery Stories to life?
Alexander Forbes: An ongoing challenge has been balancing an illustrative style with more comic sensibilities, establishing realism while being expressive with cartoons. This can be challenging because the detailed scenery takes a lot of time. Throughout the first volume of the series, you may notice the necessary transition from a higher volume of illustrative drawings to a more economical form of cartooning. In The Cursed Hermit, I tried to be more thoughtful about what I spent time on, and when a scene called for it, I tried to find more value in simplicity.
Toons Mag: Can you discuss the collaborative process between you and Alexander Forbes in crafting the series, from the initial concept to the final product?
Kris Bertin: We’ve been thinking about the story since 2008 or 2009, imagining what kinds of cool stuff we’d like to make happen. We tell ourselves the story just like a couple of boys playing with action figures, swapping out their weapons and hair color, making this one evil, that one good, whatever.
All writing is like that; it’s play. But it becomes something else when you bring your adult brain and examine the problems and issues that preoccupy you. In terms of what we do, after all that talking, I write a script based on all the things we said and surprise Alex with great ideas (that are often his, ones which he forgot he even came up with).
We have a great big meeting where we read and edit and revise, and then another one where we do layouts and make decisions about what’s a 5 or 6 or 9-panel page, etc. Then I continually bother him for months while he draws. When he draws something inspiring, I take that and build on it for the next book.
Toons Mag: As an artist and co-creator, what do you find most rewarding about working on Hobtown Mystery Stories?
Alexander Forbes: I’m fortunate to work with my best friend. We have a blast making these books together. I’m like a kid when I read Kris’ scripts on Christmas morning.
Toons Mag: Lastly, what can fans expect from the upcoming volumes of Hobtown Mystery Stories, especially the all-new installments teased by Oni Press?
Kris Bertin: Following The Case of The Missing Men and The Cursed Hermit, two books have already been published by Conundrum Press, but now, being presented in color, we’ve got THREE more books coming out.
The one Alex is drawing right now is called THE SECRET OF THE SAUCER, and it is about a flying saucer attacking Hobtown. I’m sure someone is saying that this doesn’t fit the aesthetic or is stupid, but our job is to prove that person wrong. That’s almost the premise of the book. The story is told in reverse chronological order, beginning at the end and working to the start, leaving the reader questioning why things aren’t how they want them to be. It’s a big crisis point in the series, told from Dana’s point of view, where she confronts herself, her beliefs, and her many shortcomings.
After that, there’s A JOURNEY INTO THE ABYSS, which takes our characters into the bizarre Jules Verne-esque world underneath Hobtown (with a pretty frightening child-custody courtroom drama going above ground), and then the final book, THE RETURN OF THE MINI-MAN, which, I’m afraid is Top Secret. I’m not allowed to say anything about it, but I can say that I am really, really excited to share these stories with you.
Toons Mag: Looking ahead, what artistic challenges and exciting opportunities do you anticipate in illustrating the upcoming volumes of the series, particularly the new installments announced by Oni Press?
Alexander Forbes: Book 4 is the most exciting in terms of visuals. It’s our “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” where the kids venture underneath Hobtown in search of whatever makes Hobtown so dang weird, and things get VERY WEIRD down there. I think it will call for more active collaboration with Jason rather than him coloring my drawings after they’re finished.
As excited as I get about our characters’ wild settings and strange visions, I find the most fun I have in acting through cartooning. Sometimes simple interactions, the tender, mean, funny dialogues between our beloved kids, are my most engaging moments as an artist.
