Dean Koontz’s character Odd Thomas makes the leap from paragraphs to panels in the new graphic novel In Odd We Trust, published on June 24 by Del Rey. Co-written by Koontz and Queenie Chan, and illustrated by Chan, In Odd We Trust is a prequel to Koontz’s bestselling novels Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours. All the novels feature Odd Thomas, a short-order cook with the ability to see the dead. In the graphic novel, he helps the police find the person who murdered a young boy. “He has a very proactive approach to help the ghosts he sees find justice,” said Chan. Koontz’s horror and suspense novels have sold over 325 million copies in 38 different languages. Chan, an Australian artist, is the creator of the three-volume series The Dreaming, published by Tokyopop. PWCW talked with Chan about the pressures of writing a manga adaptation of a bestselling prose series, how she collaborated with Koontz and what she’ll be working on next.
PW Comics Week: How does In Odd We Trust fit in with the other Odd Thomas novels?
Queenie Chan: It takes place before the first book. Odd was younger then, and some of the other characters are there as well.
PWCW: Did you invent any characters?
QC: Yes, I added two new characters, not counting the villain. I added a new character called Sherrie—she is a nanny, and she has a young charge called Angelica. The murdered little boy moves on in the end, so he won’t be a recurring character.
PWCW: The Dreaming was your story, but Odd Thomas is Dean Koontz’s creation. What was different about working with someone else?
QC: Oddly enough, it was not that hard because I felt like I was writing fan fiction [fictional works written by fans that are based on copyrighted characters]. I never wrote much fan fiction when I was young, but I always liked to take stories and imagine alternatives. I’m glad that Dean was happy with my vision—that was the only thing I was concerned about. Because it was official fan fiction, I cared what Dean thought, and I got his permission for everything, including the art and storytelling. I finished the first chapter and showed it to him, and when he liked it I was a lot more confident.
PWCW: Odd Thomas seems pretty well adjusted. Wouldn’t someone who sees ghosts be more neurotic?
QC: That’s why you have to read the novels. Dean has this strong vision of what the character is. His power isn’t really a blessing, it’s more of a curse, and he tries to make the best of it. Odd is not at all a neurotic character. He is very straightforward and knows his place in the universe and tries to make the best of it. When I was drawing the art, his simplicity and his humility is what I liked. He’s just a likable guy.
Odd Thomas’s universe is not a very gray moral universe, it’s a black and white one. Being used to reading manga, I was used to a more gray universe, where the good people aren’t necessarily the good people and the bad guys aren’t always the bad guys. In this story, it is important to have that universe where you know right from wrong.
PWCW: It wasn’t hard to figure out who the murderer was. Was that deliberate?
QC: Yes. It’s not Agatha Christie. It’s not meant to be a mystery at all. That fits in with the black and white universe of Odd Thomas. It’s part of his character to get himself into all kinds of sticky situations. In the first [prose] book, the killers are not who you expect them to be, but it’s not such a big deal. The payoff is not so much discovering who the killers are but going on this journey with Odd, the things he discovers, the people he talks to. It’s very much character driven.
PWCW: How did you and Dean collaborate?
QC: I wrote the script and then Dean rewrote 70% to 80% of the dialogue—he changed it to say pretty much the same thing but in a different way—and he pretty much rewrote the ending.
PWCW: Were you writing this book with manga readers in mind, or Dean Koontz readers?
QC: Both, to be honest. It’s really hard because Dean is not like Stephen King, where there is some crossover between Stephen King fans and comic book fans. I’m hoping the book will be a bridge between people who read comics and might be interested in Dean and people who are interested in Dean but had never picked up a comic book before. When we first started batting story ideas about, I pushed very strongly to write in a way that gives an introduction to Odd Thomas as a character as quickly and fully as I can, especially in the first chapter. Regardless of whether you know Odd Thomas or not, I felt it was very important to give him a proper introduction in manga form. Hopefully, that can draw readers in and make them want to know more about Odd Thomas.
PWCW: Is this book more PG-rated than Koontz’s prose work?
QC: It’s not any younger than Dean’s novels. While there is carnage and murder in the book, it is not a disturbing book in the way that other books can be. It’s a companion to the trilogy, but it is important for me to make it safe for younger kids, and that means eliminating things that would be bad in the mind of Americans. For example, Dean suggested a theme in one of the earlier drafts where you have a child tied to a chair and stabbed, and I said oh, no, you can’t do that, that’s definitely an R rating. It’s probably less offensive to have an adult tied to a chair and stabbed. In his books, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal, but when you see the graphic effect it is multiplied a hundred times.
It’s very important to be able to fudge graphic details. It’s something the Japanese never do—it’s all-out, blood spurting everywhere. That’s all right, but from a global point of view, not everyone wants that in their horror. I think there is a real place for hiding details that can get too graphic, not just for the audience’s sake but for aesthetic reasons as well. Sometimes leaving things to the imagination is much better than showing every last drop of blood. It fits my sensibilities to keep it not so graphic, to let the audience do the work.
PWCW: Do you plan to do more Odd Thomas manga?
QC: I’m not sure. I won’t say no to other stories in the Odd Thomas universe. I would like to pitch a new series called Soul Shaper—it’s a kind of Naruto-ish story, aimed at the same audience. I also would like to find a collaborator to increase my output a bit, bring something new to the table and learn new things, maybe change my art for the better.
