WHAT DREAMS MAY COME: Quentin Long interviews David Lillie

		an interview conducted by Quentin Long Questions ©2007 Quentin Long; answers & portrait ©2007 David Lillie

   I admit it: Anthro is not a trivial job. Producing new issues keeps me busy enough that I don’t have as much time as I’d like to keep an eye on Who’s Doing What in Furdom. And that’s why my first clue about David Lillie came when Fred Patten sent me a note about this new book he was reviewing, and how said book’s creator wanted to know if Anthro might be interested in an interview?
   The answer to that question, of course, was “Yes”—and you're reading the result. So now, Anthro proudly invites you to visit the dreamworld of…
   David Lillie!

Long:	Thanks for being here, David. To begin with, could you give us a little personal background?
Lillie:	Well, I grew up in Muskegon, MI with a lot of siblings. I was always drawing, ever since I could hold a pencil. My parents say sometimes they had to get up at 3am and tell me to go to bed, because I would be up drawing, and not realize the time. That’s kind of carried through to present day; I tend to be pretty absentminded about everyday stuff, like the difference between parmesian cheese and comet bleach powder. That’s where my partner, Liz Thomas, is a huge help. We met in art college, CCAD in Columbus. We both majored in animation, and had a lot of fun in the process. Liz started out helping me edit the comic; I would have big, complex art scenes, but I’d forget to make details consistent, and that’s where she comes in. She rapidly went from editor to complete partner, as we now work very closely on everything from story to artwork.
Long:	Nifty! How did you get into this ‘furry’ thing, originally?
Lillie:	Originally I lived virtually under a rock at home. Holed up in my room with books and drawing supplies, I didn’t get into any subcultures—or culture at all, for that matter. After branching out in college a bit, I started getting a little more socially adept. 8 ) Then, when I started doing this comic, people’s reaction would usually be, “Ah, furry stuff.” I didn’t know what they were referring to, and then I started learning about the furry world online, and realized that me and my artistic venture would probably be right at home there. Since then, I’ve been to some conventions, and seen a lot of neat stuff, and I feel like I’ve officially started delving into furrydom. So far, it’s been loads of fun! Liz was more versed than me into furry stuff; in highschool, she did her own comic with furry characters for the school paper, and enjoyed that style of cartooning a lot. She liked drawing a wider range of emotion with her characters, as you can get a lot of unique looks and designs—plus, the emotional range is much more fun to play with, since ears, tail, and other features can be used to enhance expressions and character mood. In college, the pursuit of ‘serious’ art, under the guidance of ‘serious’ professors, distracted Liz from her cartooning. However, she’s back in force now with DreamKeepers, and so, that’s how we’re here!
Long:	How about your artistic influences? Your faces, in particular, strike me as having similarities to those of Tracy ‘Lackadaisy’ Butler—am I imagining this, or is it real?
Lillie:	There’s a short, but very influential list of artistic inspiration, and Tracy Butler is certainly on it. I actually didn’t know about her or her work until early this year, but I’m already a huge fan. Some of my expressions and layout styles are going to benefit greatly from being exposed to her work! Actually, since I’m trying my hand at self-publishing with DreamKeepers, I have a very large (if unrealistic) interest in someday being able to sign Tracy and be the publisher of Lackadaisy… But I digress. Other influences include Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez; the creepy side of DreamKeepers, with the monsters and demonic content, gets a lot of influence from these guys. H. R. Giger is a big influence as well, and he was actually the artist I had in mind when I designed Nabonidus. Bill Watterson is also a big inspiration to me, I loved his comics as a kid, and heck, now. I know it may seem a bit disparate to be lumping horror and fun cartoony artists in the same area, but, that’s who I think of. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragonball Z! I watched a lot of *DBZ* in highschool, and I was very partial to the high-powered action scenes. Katsuhiro Otomo and his detailed work in *Akira* is also definitely on the list. So, overall, take a dash of horror and gothic monstrosity; add to that intense violent anime-style action, which escalates with the story; and then the lighthearted fun of some cartoon characters… and you get whatever the hell it is that I do.
Long:	‘Whatever the hell it is’, you do a pretty good job of it. Next question: There’s a fair amount of ‘prior art’ involving the Dreamworld and its inhabitants—Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, the Dreamtime of Austrialian Aborigine myth, etc. Did any of that stuff influence you at all, or did you come to the Dreamworld independently, or what?
Lillie:	Well, I have to admit ignorance to a lot of the prior exploration of other storytellers when it comes to the DreamWorld. Basically, I came to the DreamWorld concept from the blue. An old roommate and I were talking about if there was a way something could protect you from nightmares, and the concept just grew from there. I did put a lot of research into dreams and theories about dreams, and along that process I got a lot of influence from Australian Aborigine myths, some of which I’m making use of for locations and such. For example, the Mokoi demon asassin of Volume 2 ( and beyond) is derived from the evil spirit that could be sent to strike down enemies in Australian folklore. Overall, *DreamKeepers* is more influenced by old myths and historic research than recent fiction, generally speaking. I sought out Dream legend and culture from the oldest societies I could find; the Assyrians, Greeks, Mesopotamia, you name it. There are references and allusions spiced here and there throughout the story, mixed in with a whole lot of just made-up stuff.
Long:	Something I’m curious about: Just how aware of the waking world are your DreamKeepers and their culture?
Lillie:	In the ancient culture of the DreamWorld, there was a basic awareness of their role, and how they related to another reality. But that time is long past when the story starts. Because of certain influential factors in their history, that knowledge is hidden. At this point, they know nothing about us, and have only theories about their purpose and the possible existence of other realities. This, of course, puts them at a bit of a disadvantage when their enemies are involved…
Long:	Do those enemies retain the knowledge of the waking world that the DreamKeepers have lost?
Lillie:	They most certainly do! The nightmares don’t ever really die, because if their bodies in the DreamWorld are destroyed, they revert to an evil spirit which can travel at will from realm to realm—including ours. They can’t do any physical harm, but they’re still there—and here. They can retain their memories, and in time, return to the DreamWorld in a newly manifested form. Which is exactly what Void has just done in the first book.
Long:	Do DreamKeepers get to ‘respawn’ as nightmares do?
Lillie:	No. They’re like us in that regard; when we’re gone, we’re gone. If a DreamKeeper dies, they will never be back. Maybe they move on into the next stage of existence, or maybe they just cease existing… but they, and we, can’t come back. Which really makes it sucky when I have to kill off a character…
Long:	I hear that! Now, it’s hardly unheard-of for an artist to regard a particular character as their own personal avatar. Do any of the DreamKeepers serve that role for you?
Lillie:	Hmmm… not really. There’s a DreamKeeper caricature of me and my friends placed as background characters in a large crowd scene of Volume 1, but when it comes to characters that represent me… I suppose I have a little bit of Whip in me, I think. I really like to eat, and Whip almost acts as an impulsive outlet of sorts, satisfying his physical hungers with impunity. That’s about as far as it goes, though. Whip doesn’t act much like me, because he doesn’t put much store in politeness.
Long:	How about Liz—are any of the DreamKeepers particularly close to her heart, in your view?
Lillie:	Well… There’s one character that originally started out as a sort of joke—what Liz would look like as a DreamKeeper. But it was a good design, and we ended up using that character as a villain! Of course, this character is completely crazy—very impulsive, emotional extremes, self conflicted, and very over-the-top. Which, honestly, are inspired by some of Liz’s personality quirks—and then magnified a hundred times. Correction: A thousand times. Fortunately, we have a policy of story and fun over any desire for personal flattery in the book. And really, Liz seems to secretly enjoy being portrayed as a crazy, vicious, flying villain; we like to joke about it quite a bit. Just check out Wisp in the next book, you’ll see what I mean.
Long:	Like I always say, there’s nothing wrong with basing a nasty on yourself or a friend… Moving right along: From what you’ve posted on your website, Void looks to be a pretty serious badass. Will his/its threat be a continuing issue all throughout the series, or do you intend the DreamKeepers to triumph over (this incarnation of) Void at some point?
Lillie:	Void is going to be around until the bitter end. One feature of the DreamWorld is that it maintains an inherent balance between the forces of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Normally, only a finite number and strength of demons can spawn at any given time, or else the entire reality would be overrun by hundreds of millions of bloodthirsty nightmares—which is something they’d really enjoy, I’m sure. Void is so powerful that under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to manifest again in the DreamWorld, as the balance would disallow this. Unfortunately, ‘normal circumstances’ have been disrupted… So Void is back now, and a lot of company is on the way, fast. Void will be one of the primary evils antagonizing the DreamWorld for the duration of the series. He’s especially difficult to be rid of, being the incarnation of nothingness… After all, how can you kill nothing? Will he get expelled from the DreamWorld again, or will he achieve his twisted goals? That’s the big question—and it will be decided at the climax of the series.
Long:	Meaning that Void’s defeat marks the end of the whole series, or just the end of this chapter of the series?
Lillie:	The end of the entire series, whatever chapter that winds up being. The story I have in my head is going to be just amazing—huge, fun, frightening; great character development; crushing action; dripping horror—but there is certainly a concrete end.
Long:	You know, it occurs to me that we haven’t touched on the DreamKeepers webcomic on your website. The art there looks a bit different from the graphic novel—what’s up with that?
Lillie:	Well, I wanted readers to have something fun to watch while waiting between books, so we do a weekly webcomic called *Prelude* on the site for free. And we kind of need a break from the complex graphic novel artwork, which is why the webcomic is a little more simple, but still fun. *Prelude* explores the childhood stories and adventures of the characters from the graphic novels—it’s more lighthearted than the book series, just a chance for us to relax and have some fun with the characters. And of course, a lot of the story content is going to tie in between the two. So whether you’re a long-time fan or you’ve only just discovered DreamKeepers, I’d like to invite people to come over and read some Prelude!
Long:	Okay, one last question: A magickal genie offers you the chance to live in the DreamWorld, as a DreamKeeper. What do you say, and why?
Lillie:	Hmm… “Thanks, but no thanks.” With all the horrific things I’ve been imagining up there, I don’t think I’d want to suddenly find myself smack-dab in the middle of what I plan on unleashing. Plus, even if the genie guarantees a peaceful existence, who would I tell my stories to up there? I think here is where I’m supposed to be. [smiles]