We are all trapped in the patterns woven over centuries, and I think developments in the world in recent years have both brought the cruel reality of those patterns into the light and revealed the incredible strength of a generation that is fighting to defy and reshape them. I wouldn't have had the confidence or experience to take such a leap ten years ago. There are avenues of storytelling in One Line that use the unique features of comics in a new way - a way that builds on the approach of One Soul, and then takes a leap sideways and, I'd like to think forwards. One Soul was praised for telling a story that could only be told in comics. Now it's grown into something that tackles an entire other set of ideas - and is, I think, more ambitious with the use of the medium than I would have been then. Or at least if I had, it would have been something very different. Is One Line something you think you could've done in 2011, with you you were then versus now?įawkes: No, I really don't think I could have done it back then. Nrama: From what Oni Press has shown me, this is more than just One Soul part 2. There is both more death and more life in One Line, as there has been in my own experience. I remember that there was a certain contingent who thought One Soul was a particularly sad book, because of all the death in it. I certainly haven't become any less lost in thought, questions, and fascinations. Have I become softer in my thoughts or darker in my outlook? It depends on the given day. I suppose you can say there's about ten year's worth of those thoughts in One Line. I constantly think about the world my children are growing into, and the path I'm helping them layout for themselves. I've also grown older, as we all have, and see the changes in the world and the changes in myself. I had a son and I went through a divorce. How have you changed since One Soul, in terms of the family that surrounds you, and how is that impacting One Line?įawkes: I mean, in terms of family - my own family has both grown and split since One Soul. Nrama: You've expanded the storytelling conceit from following 18 people on their individual lives to 18 families and their lives. I had a few discussions with James Lucas Jones at Oni Press - always one of the strongest supporters of the two earlier volumes - and we talked each other into committing to it. As the tenth anniversary of One Soul approached, I began to feel that the time was right to set myself to the business of getting it on paper for people to read. It never left my notes over the years, and I went over it again and again. One more thing I wanted to say in that format - a book about families and their patterns of inheritance - prejudice and expectation, and the struggle of each generation to define itself. But there was always one more piece I wanted to create. Ray Fawkes: After One Soul and its exploration of individual lives, I followed it with a book called The People Inside, about love and togetherness (and separation).