Black Star’s Kristin Kreuk and Peter Mooney Open Up About the Real-Life Influences on New Gothic Horror Series [EXCLUSIVE]
The wait is over. Smallville star Kristin Kreuk’s comic book debut, Black Star, is finally out in the world. Co-written by Kreuk along with Peter Mooney, and Eric Putzer, the first issue of the gothic horror series published by Titan Comics made its debut at the end of July, taking readers into a world described as The Revenant meets Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I as a man in the early 19th century fur trade discovers he has magical abilities and that he’s not alone. But even with its magical elements, this isn’t simply a straightforward horror tale. It’s a story rooted in Canadian lore as inspired by Mooney’s hometown of Winnipeg.
Speaking with ComicBook at San Diego Comic Con, Kreuk and Mooney opened up about the creation of Black Star, talking about how the inspiration came together while working on the series Burden of Truth together in Winnipeg and the city itself soon became an inspiration. The pair discussed how Winnipeg is a little rough around the edges at first, but once you see beyond that, there’s so much more.
“If you can look beyond those things … Beautiful. Incredible. Really unique. Really, really weird city. And when we were shooting together, I could just see that these guys saw it for that right away,” Mooney said. “And not everyone, not everyone sees that there and saw right into kind of the heart of the heart of that and the beauty of it. And, you know, this, this kind of weird sense of wonder that exists in a place that’s a little rough around the edges. So, it’s part of what inspired this story. And then the comic book.”
Kreuk added, “so there was there’s also a bunch of mythologies in Winnipeg around certain buildings, particularly the Manitoba Legislative Building, which was constructed by Masons. So, there’s a lot of Masonic symbology, and it’s quite fascinating. And there’s a pool of the Black Star, which is our black star comes from that. And we started to think about, well, what could have made the city what it is, other than the factors that actually did what else could have been happening. And we came up with this magical story, and at first it was totally graspable, you know, it was a contemporary story. There was magic. It was an urban fantasy, and it still is. But then it got bigger and more complex, and it ended up being a 200-year story that goes back in time to the 1800s to right at around the time of the Red River settlement. And that’s why a comic book was our best, our best option, because it just suited the kind of sprawling nature of it and the imagery and the time jumps and all of that.”
The first issue of Black Star, which is on sale now, introduces readers to Dashiell Carlyle who finds himself between warring factions in Canada’s fur trade in the early 19th century. After a particularly brutal encounter, Dashiell discovers that he has magical abilities but while that not only upends his life as he knows it, the magic order he is thrust into that claims to want to use their abilities to build a better world may be creating a utopia with a truly horrific cost. It’s a story that is just getting started — you can read our review of the first issue for yourself here — but it’s one that seems poised to pick up steam. The next issue of the series is set to hit shelves August 26th.
