The newest book from Tiny Onion, Odin #1, hit last month, selling out at the distributor with the accompanying second printing.
The book is audacious, featuring an undercover journalist who follows a group of Neo Nazis as they head to Norway, believing they can summon Odin to achieve their racist goals. What ensues is a blood-soaked, death metal-evoking neon nightmare (see the preview pages below).
The book’s co-writers, James Tynion IV and Marguerite Bennett, made time recently to talk about the series, from its creation to where it’s headed in the end. Check out our conversation below!
Interview: James Tynion IV and Marguerite Bennett talk ODIN #1
Q: How has the reaction been to Odin #1?
TYNION: People are connecting with a brutal story where comeuppance is coming to some not-so-great people. We had a strong showing at FOC. The numbers came in just under where Exquisite Corpses launched last May, which we were not expecting.
BENNETT: I’m not on social media, but my brother-in-law texted me that he picked up a copy. So that was great.
Q: How did you two come together for this book?
TYNION: We were both students of Scott Snyder when he was teaching creative writing at Sarah Lawrence, one year apart. Scott introduced us, and he brought both of us in to co-write for Batman annuals during the New 52 Era. I think this speaks to our mutual sensibilities, particularly around horror. We are big horror nerds, and that’s part of why we connected.
The story that became Odin started with a text conversation after we saw Midsommar, very simply about how it was playing with horror in the light and in the Nordic north. And there was a news story around then about neo nazis gravitating toward a twisted version of Norse mythology, being told to dial up their very racist worldview.
BENNETT: From there we had the idea of dipshit fuck-ups who go into the frozen north, wanting to meet Odin — and then are brutally annihilated. It was a hybrid mind idea, like we were both trying to type the same thing to each other at the same time.
Q: The book opens with the line, “They laugh and say they’re Nazis.” How did that first page (see below) come together?
BENNETT: We learned from Scott [Snyder] that the first page needs to be a thesis statement, like the opening line of a novel. This is attention getting, but also shows you that this is who these people think they are — and how they will be disabused of their illusions. The subheader of Odin is “A modern myth.” The mythology we’re referencing is not Norse mythology. It’s the mythology of white supremacy, which is made the fuck up. The book is about the disillusionment of learning they believed a made-up, ridiculous fantasy.
Also, I love industrial music. I’ve seen Rammstein many times. I love the filthy underground, and I’m fascinated by art that has defined those subgenres. I wanted to bring in that antler font, with art that is immediately arresting — and then provide contrast.
TYNION: We start with Odin, and it’s Odin as a lot of people coming into this comic understand Norse mythology, grounding it in the classic image of how these stories are replicated and told. We’re then moving into something much stranger as the story and series goes on.
Q: What went into choosing Letizia Cadonici and Jordie Bellaire as artist and colorist, respectively, for this book?
TYNION: Steve Foxe, our editor, had suggested we think of Letizia very early in the process. She also worked with Jordie on a 3-issue story arc of Department of Truth, telling the story of the Hat Man, which was set in the present day but centered on diseffected youth. We brought her over after that arc, and she made this story her own.
We have a larger agreement with Jordie at Tiny Onion. She does all of Exquisite Corpes, Nice House, and W0rldtr33. The thing I know about Jordie is she prefers the most fucked up books. Her favorite is W0rldtr33, which is definitely one of my most fucked up stories. We just laid out the concept, and she was in. And she’s the best colorist in the industry.
Q: What was behind the decision to make your main character a journalist?
BENNETT: I needed at least one person who I wasn’t rooting to have flayed. Also — I want to phrase this delicately — there are two sides of not the same coin, but close together coins. As the subjects are proselytizing their heinous ideological system, our main character, as a writer, has a vanity that she has something so worthy of hearing that the public just absolutely must know.
She’s doing the Hunter S. Thompson thing, where she’s an adrenaline junky swimming with sharks, and she thinks she’s the person to get this story, that she’s good enough to convince them she’s one of their own. She has that seed of pride and vanity that she is special and exceptions will be made for her. The best heroes and villains have that cross pollination of their value system, and of their strongest strengths and weakest character flaws.
TYNION: One of my big influences broadly is Kurt Vonnegut, and one of my favorite novels in high school was Mother Night. In the prologue, Vonnegut lays out the theme of the entire book. It’s a story about a man working for the American government, undercover as a propagandist for the nazis. He losses his contact in the American government, so the only people who like and remember him are other American undercover nazis. The theme Vonnegut lays out is be careful who you pretend to be, because you are who you pretend to be. That’s something I wanted to be part of the discussion as we created Odin.
Q: Finally this was announced as nine issues…is that going to be the end of it?
TYNION: It’s nine issues with an over-sized first issue and potentially an over-sized finale. That length felt perfect, and we’re also dealing with Norse mythology, where there are nine realms of existence on the world tree. But yes, this story does have an ending.
Odin #1 was released in May via Tiny Onion and Image Comics. It is co-written by Tynion and Bennett, with artwork by Letizia Cadonici, colors by Jordia Bellaire, and letterer by Tom Napolitano.
