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“It’s exciting and a little scary.
It’s my first time having a ‘Hollywood deal.'”
Credit: Nathan Boone
Hicks told EW about the deal.
“I always envisionedThe Nameless Cityas a comic.
It’s a nice bonus.”
First Second
We’re eager to follow her creative lead onThe Nameless City."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What are you most excited about in terms of people readingThe Stone Heart?
FAITH ERIN HICKS:It’s always such a cool experience having people read and hopefully enjoy your work.
First Second
I’m really looking forward to, hopefully, the characters resonating with people.
I really like these characters.
Previous to this series I’ve mostly done stand alone graphic novels.
There really isn’t any romance in the main story but I’m always curious about that stuff.
“What two characters would you pair up?”
[Laughs]
What pairings have fans asked you about?
But I died laughing at that.
It was super cool that she liked these characters enough to ship them.
How do you approach that kind of storytelling?
It’s important for characters to have specific human reasons for doing what they do.
So I try and make their arc be satisfying.
So the villain inThe Stone Heart, Erzi, has very specific, very human motivations.
He seems himself as a savior figure, someone who could potentially save the city.
And also he’s been raised with this idea of what his future is.
And all of a sudden that future is threatened and he lashes out as a result.
That’s a very human result.
I really try and instill this in all my characters.
Is that how you pictured him to begin with?
Or did that change?
It did actually change a bit.
So he was even more of a forward-thinking person.
If enough people commit themselves to it.
Especially with this empire that Kai is a part of.
Did you have to do any historical research?
I did a ton of research, which is really fun.
Even thoughThe Nameless Cityis fantasy, the setting is very much based on 13th century China.
So I read a bunch of biographies about Kublai Khan, who is the founder of that dynasty.
That was really fascinating to me.
I wanted to hopefully bring all that historical research into this fantasy world that I’d created.
It’s still fantasy but hopefully make it something that is diverse and relatable to many readers.
Did you ever play with have a supernatural element in the trilogy?
Each nation in your world has a justifiable reason not to co-operate with each other.
What are some of your inspirations in terms of the storytelling and art of this series?
I have a bunch.
There are definitely three main ones.
These are basically my favorite stories that other people have created.
I’m a huge nerdy fan ofBoneby Jeff Smith.
It’s just a wonderful fantasy adventure about these little creatures and this little world that they live in.
That was one of the first comics that I read as an adult and it was just very influential.
Another influence is a manga series,Fullmetal Alchemistby Hiromu Arakawa.
What are you reading right now?
Because I’m going on a book tour next week and meeting up withG.
Willow WilsonI’ve been reading up on myMs.
Marveltrades and they’re amazing.
I’m actually not a big superhero reader, but I really love that comic.
A series that I’m following right now that I really like isPrincess Jellyfishby Akiko Higashimura.
She’s awesome and it’s very sweet and girl in this wonderful way.
[Laughs] It’s like my teen adolescence all over again.
I’ve been enjoying the heck out of those.
The Stone Hearthits bookshelves April 4.Preorder it here.
