On the occasion of Lucca Comics & Games 2024, we had the opportunity to meet Scott Snyder, one of the most famous contemporary American comic book writers, for an exclusive chat about his latest works. With a career filled with hits like American Vampire, Batman: Court of Owls, and Wytches, Snyder has always stood out for his ability to combine supernatural and scientific elements, bringing the reader into deeply immersive universes. This October, Star Comics celebrated “ScOctober” by publishing four of its recent works: We Have Demons, Clear, Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love and Murder, and Night of the Ghoul. We spoke with Snyder about the genesis of these stories and their meaning.
In “We Have Demons” you explore the eternal conflict between angels and demons. How did you come up with the idea of representing this battle from the point of view of a scientist like Lam Lyle?
I really like taking the supernatural and giving it a scientific foundation. With American Vampire, for example, I created a vampire biology with genealogies between the various species, and with Court of Owls I introduced a special metal that, if it enters the bloodstream, can reanimate a person. For We Have Demons, with Greg [Capullo] we wanted to create an epic story of good and evil, but also with a scientific element. So I thought: what if we created a mythology based on cosmic science?
In “Clear,” people can see the world through personalized technological filters. What does this vision of reality represent, in your opinion?
The story began as a reflection on a trend that I find worrying, namely the disintegration of objective truth. In the United States and beyond, we see more and more people surrounding themselves with “facts” that confirm their view of the world, even if they are not true. With Clear, I wanted to represent this conscious choice to avoid the truth to escape into a version of reality that makes us feel good, but doesn’t challenge us.
“Barnstormers” is set in a specific historical period, the “barnstorming” era in 1918. What attracted you to that era?
I love that era because it has a lot of similarities to today. It was a time of stark inequality, where the rich class was getting richer quickly while labor and the working class suffered more and more. Young people were looking for ways to rebel, and one of the most incredible things was seeing these pilots returning from the war buying old planes and traveling around the country doing stunts. It seemed to me to be a period that strongly echoes the current desire of young people to challenge the system and find new ways of expression.
“Night of the Ghoul” combines the modern horror tale with that of a lost film. What are your main influences in the horror genre?
Francesco [Francavilla] and I love classic monster movies, from Dracula to Frankenstein, and have enjoyed revisiting them during the pandemic. We thought: if we were to create a new monster today, what would it be? Thus was born the idea of the ghoul as a carrier of plagues, a creature that hides among us and silently spreads diseases. We wanted to create a monster that was current, linked to our times, like a pandemic.
In each of these works you collaborated with very talented artists such as Greg Capullo and Francesco Francavilla. What was it like working with them and how did they influence the stories?
It was a true collaboration. Each artist contributed to building the narrative with me. With Night of the Ghoul, for example, Francesco and I discussed the idea from the beginning. For Clear, Francis Manapul and I explored the theme of reality and technology. I have never handed over a script and said “here’s what to do,” but we have always created the stories together, from concept to final lettering. It was inspiring and pushed us to try new things creatively.