Writer’s Commentary: Talking MIND THE GAP #10 with Jim McCann

One year ago, someone pushed Elle Peterssen in the 50th street subway station in New York City and she ended up in a coma. Since then we’ve learned that the story behind what happened to Elle and why is a far more complex affair than we could have previously imagined. With each new reveal we’ve been met with even more questions and the big reveal in Mind The Gap #10, the identity of the mysterious “Hoodie”, was no different. We sat down with writer Jim McCann to talk things through.

iFanboy: We’re going to talk today about Mind the Gap #10, the latest issue in your supernatural mystery series from Image Comics. Naturally there are going to be some pretty major spoilers in this discussion because otherwise talking about the… thing that happened with… the guy would be pretty boring. So I imagine that most people reading this are well versed in the series. But just in case someone who hasn’t read the book has stumbled onto this page, can you give people a brief bit about what the story of Mind the Gap is?

Jim McCann: Mind The Gap is an ongoing series published by Image. It’s conspiracy thriller with a bit of a supernatural twist, where every is a suspect and no one is innocent. Elle Peterssen, our main character, is at the center of this vast web of lies and deceit, where her friends and family are racing to cover up their tracks or get to the bottom of what is really going on. Elle is the only one who has all the answers. One problem–as a result of an apparent attack in the first issue, she’s been left in a coma. In this space between life and death known as The Garden–where the other spirits who are not yet ready to move on- she can see and hear everything that’s going on around her, and eventually discovers a way to communicate with the physical world, thus the supernatural twist. Oh, except there’s one more wrinkle: Elle’s trapped in her own mind locked out of her own memories. As the series is moving forward, we’re finding there is now a ticking clock for Elle and those who want to help her to put together as much of the puzzle as possible if there is any chance of saving her.

iF: Before we dive into Mind the Gap #10, I want to talk a bit about the structure of the series itself. After the shocking (and rather kind of bloodlessly brutal) death in Mind the Gap #9 we’ve got another big reveal issue. The last time we had a big reveal (that Elle’s mother as somehow involved in the mystery) was Mind the Gap #5. Is the intention at this point to have a major reveal every five issues?

JM: No, we’ve had some nuggets revealed, but the story has to unfold organically. Honestly, getting to this issue was all about world building, establishing character, relationships, backstabbing some of those, setting some of the rules of this world, showing the stakes (like in the Katie arc), giving you clues all over the place and planting seeds that will grow and moments that will come back into play as the series goes on.

This isn’t really a “And now our heroes fight Dr. Doom, thwart him, in X number of issues then next arc… MADRIPOOR!” If you notice, all the events have taken place over just about 80 hours, focused on a central, unfolding mystery, so, yes, sometimes people will feel the need to go back and re-read things to get the full scope and realize there was just a reveal seeded a few issues back, but that’s the fun. Personally, if you’re paying $3 for a comic, I’d rather re-read something than dispose of it and forget about what happened 6 issues ago because there were no stakes.

Going forward, I can say that there will be reveals in every issue, including something people won’t see coming in issue 12. And, yeah, playing to your point, issue 15 is so major people will think we just ended the series on the last page. (but we didn’t!)

iF: Let’s jump into Mind the Gap #10! Previously we learned that Elle’s mom Min was involved in the mystery surrounding Elle’s coma, that she is some kind of middle-manager in this shadowy organization doing shadowy things at the expense of her daughter’s health but Aesthetic Surgical Images were already performed. Then we learned that Elle’s father was also involved. In this issue we learned that Elle’s brother is not only involved as well, that he’s not only the mysterious “Hoodie” but that he’s also running his own shadowy organization running in opposition to his mother and her people. My question is: how uncomfortable is Thanksgiving dinner at the Peterssen house?

JM: I’d say there’s a race for the carving knife! And not a lot of talking, just glares and studying each other with the occasion “Carlotta (the maid), more stuffing, please.” We know that the Peterssens each have their secrets, but we still haven’t revealed who found out what and when, if anyone knows anyone else’s (Does Edward Sr know what his son is doing? He doesn’t seem to be happy to be involved with Min’s organization, Jairus, after all…)? And then, the big question to ask–how much of this does Elle know? What, if any, will she remember? Did any of her actions set these things in motion? Eddie probably has the most key line so far in this entire series so far: “There’s far more to my sister than any one person could ever know.”

iF: Speaking of the Peterssen family’s many secrets–we got a glimpse of Eddie Jr’s crazy wall full of pictures and strings and thumbtacks tracking everyone’s connections to one another. Did you just send Rodin Esquejo a photograph of the walls of your office? I assume that’s what they look like.

JM: No lie, as soon as the idea for the series came to my mind, that was the VERY first thing I did–I grabbed notecards, printer paper, Post-its, anything I could write on, and wrote everyone’s names down and then major moments and set pieces. I spent a few hours arranging them on the floor (fighting my cats from trying to put their “input” by walking over it) until I had the relationship chart that Eddie’s building on that wall.  It was the spine, and probably the weirdest and most chaotic way of doing a series outline, but it works for me.  My spouse is a massive fan of Excel and tried to do a spreadsheet, but I think the complex web of this conspiracy broke Excel.

I took pictures of the notes, but a few things have sort of shifted around (someone was supposed to be dead by now, but they are safe…for the moment), so a lot of it’s memorized.  The panel description for that spread was crazy, though. I think it was 2 pages of text, but Rodin got it all.  And there’s even more to add to that as more info is uncovered, starting next issue!

iF: Have you considered adding a representation of the wall–say, as a two page spread–as backmatter for the series to help people keep track of the intricate relationships?

JM: Funny you ask–we have a “clean” version without the characters in the foreground from that spread, that’s just the wall that we ARE going to put online for people to download and it will be in the trade. If anyone knows how to Internet (that’s a verb now), I’d love to make it something for people to add to personally after they download it. I can barely use spell-check, so don’t look at me, I’m the idea guy!

iF: Let’s give you a chance to shine the spotlight on your art team. Do you have a favorite page from Mind the Gap #10?

JM: Aside from the awesome two-page wall? I love Elle’s “Dark Phoenix” moment when she reverse crucifies Crenshaw on the wall–it’s her, really coming into her own, taking charge and not being a victim. Eddie’s “coming out” page is spot-on. I’ve had his speech written for a while (as well as Jo’s reply), and the flippant “What? This is me, I owe you nothing” attitude fits the character and Rodin nailed the body language perfectly. A great surprise was the last page–I thought it was an interior view, but the coloring team made us as the reader still “out in the cold” from Eddie’s final meaning by setting it just outside of the window pane. That was cool to see.

iF: My favorite moment of the issue was probably Frankie Burton’s entrance. It made me literally laugh out loud because one of the central mysteries of this book has been, “Who is the ‘Hoodie’?” and in the midst of the big reveal that Eddie Jr. is the “Hoodie”, in walks Frankie… also wearing a hoodie. Was that an indicator that there are many people involved in this mystery, that there are, in effect, many “Hoodies”?

JM: Yep. It was a nod to the fact that we have people texting each other all the time. Now when you go back and read, you can tell which are Eddie/Min conversations, which are Eddie/Miles, and a few that are Eddie/??. Those are Frankie. Technically, there are three “Hoodies”–Eddie (the main one, does the dirty work for Min, but is also using/working with the other two against her), Miles (who can be seen a bit more around town and is handling the psychiatric reconstruction files–our computer guru), and Frankie (who’s newish, maybe *wink*, to this, getting in with Dr Geller and supplying them with Elle’s medical records). We needed that human moment, too. Frankie’s the newest to the overall group dynamic, having just started to form a genuine bond with Jo. Oops.

iF: In Mind the Gap #10 we really start to fully understand just how wide-ranging the story has become. When the book started out, the central question appeared to be, “who attacked Elle and why?” Okay, that’s two questions. But then we added the whole mystery of Elle’s consciousness in The Garden and her ability to enter the bodies of other people in comas. One of the things that we’ve learned over the course of the story–and it’s really driven home here–is that “Who attacked Elle and why?” is a simple question that has a really complex answer. With all the different balls in the air, what is the central question or mystery in this story? Other than, “when is Edward Sr. going to shave that mustache?”

JM: Is it that simple? Eddie said he didn’t attack her, remember. So that’s pushed us now into uncharted waters. Most of the “Who”s (aside from “The Fifth”) have been put on the board. Now we dive into the “Why”s, the “What”s, the “How”s, and the “When”s. The timeline of events will start to unfold, which will reveal a lot of the other questions, but it’s the motivations that take center stage. “Why Elle Peterssen and why now?”

PS–Okay, the ‘stache did it. But that’s off the record, Kilpatrick! I’m waiting 10 more issues to reveal that!!!

 

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