Image courtesy of Dark Planet Comics / Provided by Superfan Promotions with permission.
Stephan Franck’s Palomino is gearing up for one last adventure, courtesy of Dark Planet Comics. Volume 6 of the stylish comic series is currently raising funds via Kickstarter, and this edition is being billed as one final story centered on the “lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs.” There are equal parts noir and Western in these pages as Franck depicts a motley crew of musicians, actors, stuntmen, police officers, hustlers and broken souls, according to press notes.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Franck to learn more about the thrilling finale. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Is it bittersweet to bring Palomino to an end?
It was very cathartic, not only because it feels a little like reaching the top of a mountain — the full Palomino series is 661 pages, after all — but also because it builds and builds and builds. The action and suspense get as big as they possibly can, and by the end, we reach the white-burning core of every character. Liz, Eddie, Mac, just to name a few, leave it all on the field. They come out of this fully transformed — or they don’t come out at all.
Did you envision six volumes to this story when you first created the project? How much was pre-planned?
My original vision for the series was four volumes, all taking place in 1981. Then, as I started writing volume 4, I realized that the story needed more space to fulfill its potential — especially to fully tell Liz’s story. Next thing you know, I’m adding a 14-year time jump, two more volumes and a gigantic twist that even I never saw coming. But that’s where the story wanted to go, so I was glad to follow it there.
Did you conduct a lot of research about 1980s-1990s Los Angeles? Are there real-life inspirations for any parts of this story?
Some of my favorite parts of Palomino were the lived-in qualities. I used to play guitar in L.A.’s country music clubs — even though the Palomino had already closed by the time I arrived in town —so that’s a world I know really well and one I thought would be an incredible setting for a neo-noir mystery. Then there is the parent/child dynamic, which I wanted to tell from both sides. Having lost one parent at an early age, I understand growing up with the sense that the parent you lost — and therefore a part of yourself — is a mystery as well as the anxiety that you’re running out of spares. Meanwhile, I’ve raised three awesome kids who turned into awesome adults and who were very strong personalities from the start, so Eddie’s journey also mirrors mine. Everything else in the story, from the crimes we’re trying to solve to the texture of everyday life, comes from living in the Valley and being part of the culture.
What do you love about the noir genre?
I think there are many versions of noir, and I love all of them. In fact, I’m pretty sure that anything I do has some elements of noir in it. My previous long series Silver was a big pulp-noir 1930s adventure, and I was able to lean into the black box epicness of it — a Fritz Lang does Indiana Jones kind of thing. Palomino is a neo-noir LA crime story, but by moving away from the fedoras, the trench coats, Downtown City Hall and the Sunset Script, to bring it to a Deep Valley setting and to the lost world of L.A.’s country music clubs, I was able to bring the genre to a place that it hadn’t previously explored. But in all cases, noir to me is about one thing: hard case, stubborn, hopeless romantics, who may hide their hypersensitivity to injustice under a thin armor of cynicism and can’t help but to clash against a nihilistic world.
What was it like to work on the final page of the final volume? Did a tear come to your eye?
There’s definitely something special about adding the word THE END on the last page of a long project — and especially when the project has managed to take on more and more meaning along the way. It’s like watching your kids leave for college. I guess that’s why all my “last pages” have someone driving, flying or walking away.
What’s next for you?
In between long series that take years of my life, I like to interject short stories. I do love that format as a way to open a small window into a big world and just walk a single mile with the character. It’s like riding next to someone on the bus for just a few stops. Some conversations you may remember for the rest of your life, yet your lives just intersected for a brief moment. That’s what I did with titles like Rosalynd or Romance in the Age of the Space God. So my next thing is a short story, and I couldn’t help but to already dive into it!
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Palomino Volume 6 is raising funds via Kickstarter. Click here for more information.
