By Robin Jones
Welcome back to the Inter-Comics Indie Spotlight, this column aims to make you, the readers, aware of cool indie/crowd funded comic book creators and projects!
Stepping up to the plate this time around, we have a Graphic Novella, Split from John Rodriguez or JAR and Mira Mortal. What Mira and JAR do is evoke a dark, tense, psychological story which sends a shiver along your spine and leaves a dark mark against your soul. A horrifying story of tragedy and coping, Split is currently up on Kickstarter and needs your backing! We were lucky enough to speak to JAR and Mira about Split.
Me: Where did the idea and the inspiration for Split come from?
JAR: I can speak of what inspired me for the art. When Mira and I where first talking about what kind of story we wanted to work on, my first reaction was “dark.” I had just finished an 8 page comic for a Catholic publication at the time and wanted something very different to work on. I tried to make the art a bit claustrophobic, like the weight of the world is getting to the mother.
Mira: The story itself is a couple of years old, so I’m removed a bit from the exact moment of inspiration, but I can still talk about the general thinking behind it. I worked under an assumption that we are a product of our own situations, but how our lives progress beyond that depends on our ability to deny, accept, change, or transcend these situations–and failing all of these, there’s the point where everything becomes too much. SPLIT supposes that not all the horrible things that people do in reaction to their situations are motivated by being bad or evil. It’s kind of become this popular thing to recognize that nobody sees themselves as the villain in their own story, and SPLIT is an extension of that. I wish I could speak more specifically about the book, but it isn’t out yet!
Me: Does the book carry a message? There’s a clear Mental Health awareness vibe running through it, was that something you wanted to raise awareness of?
JAR: I didn’t have a message, but I felt a big responsibility to make sure that I delivered the story to the reader as best I could. I want the reader to feel sympathy for the characters and then conflicted toward the end. If it brings more awareness to mental health issues, even better.
Mira: Messages are a funny thing. Readers might find a message that wasn’t intended, or miss the one that was supposed to be there, so I don’t write to preach or to convey messages, necessarily, but to serve a story. Hopefully. That being said, I do think mental illness is a serious issue. It carries a social stigma that is difficult to overcome, and the mental health community could always use more resources to give aid and raise awareness.
Me: Can you describe Split in a single sentence?
Mira: ”How much can a heart break before the mind decides to follow?” We used this line in our trailer, but although it’s a question, I think it sums up what this story answers for the characters.
JAR: Normal people breaking under the consequences of good intentions.
Me: Which artists have most influenced the art, style and tone of the book?
JAR: I’ve always liked the heavy blacks and high-contrast approach of Mike Mignola, and the sketchy look that Sam Keith uses. I used a combination of these approaches with SPLIT. I’m also a huge fan of work by Ben Templesmith and Menton3.
Mira: For writing it, I suppose my long history with the work of Stephen King and David Lynch made me feel okay going to a pretty dark place.
Me: Which comics do you read yourself?
JAR: Currently I’m reading Abe Sapien, Superior Spider-Man, a few X-men titles, and Jupiter’s Legacy. I’ve also always been a Green Lantern fan.
Mira: I’m all over the map, but I’m rather loyal to Top Cow: Think Tank, Artifacts, Aphrodite IX, Wanted, a bit of Witchblade. Older favorites like Sin City, a lot of Alan Moore’s work, Transmetropolitan. Loved Locke & Key. Wormwood. Chew, The Walking Dead (though I’m far from caught up), The Wake, Kevin Mellon’s work. And there’s really good dark material like Abattoir, Bedlam, Killing Pickman, and Wolves of Summer. On the flip side, I read the Adventure Time comic pretty regularly. I’m fairly obsessed with that property because it strikes exactly the right balance of weird, creative, and hilarious. I’m going to stop, because I could go on for awhile.
Me: You have a kickstarter running for Split, what do you feel is the best element of Crowd Funding a project like this?
JAR: I think that, especially a book like this, would be a hard sell for a publisher. Crowd-sourcing gives creators like us a chance to make books we love, and not feel like we have to tone something down, or change the ending to appeal to a larger audience. Drawing for me is a labor of love and, whether it’s printed or just available digitally, it makes me happy to have the opportunity to tell stories to an audience who wants to read them. No matter how small the audience is.
Mira: This one would probably be a hard publishing sell based on the format alone. I love the idea that we can produce something specifically for those that are interested in it, and that it doesn’t necessarily require a publisher to get a book printed. It does, in fact, take a village to make a comic. 
Me: What projects do you have lined up for the future, could we expect the story laid down in Split to be expanded upon, or maybe some more background revealed in the future?
Mira: I see SPLIT as done, but we have talked about putting some extras in the book like backstory notes and some early sketches if the book gets funded.
JAR: I also see SPLIT as a completed book. We have quite a bit of stories that are currently in their infancy stage. I’m currently working on a mini-series with Action Lab comics which will hopefully be completed by the end of 2014. Then Mira and I plan to be full steam on a new project.
You can check out the Split kickstarter page right HERE and check JAR and Mira out on Twitter by clicking on their names. If you want to check out more of their work, then head to Mira’s website HERE and JAR’s website HERE. The kickstarter for Split runs until May 3rd, so plenty of time to make some pledges!
See you all next time.
For more comic views and reviews follow Robin on Twitter at @Hulksmash1985
Posted on April 16th, 2014
Category: INDIE SPOTLIGHT, PREVIEWS & UPCOMING RELEASES, REVIEWS
Tags: Indie Comics, Indie Spotlight, John Rodriguez, Kickstarter comics, Mira Mortal, Robin Jones, Split comic