Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman

Two stories --- one set in a fantastical past, one in modern-day Iran --- are told in Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman’s Persia Blues. The tales, each focused on a woman named Minoo, are vastly different yet united by a common sensibility. As Book One of this series unfolds, we see two very different takes on what it means to be a strong woman in a culture that doesn’t encourage strong women. We talked with Naraghi and Bowman about their impressive first book and what to expect as the series continues.

Let’s talk a little bit about the two plots of Persia Blues, starting with the fantasy story. In it, the heroine, Minoo, has special powers. What are her abilities, and what exactly is she fighting for (or against)?
 
Dara: Well, without veering off into superhero territory too much, I’d say that you’ve probably seen the full extent of her powers in the first book. She’s able to create and manipulate fire with her left hand, the one with the odd scar on the palm. How and why she can do this is a mystery that will be further explored in the next two volumes. And of course, fire has a certain significance in Persian culture and the Zoroastrian religion.
 
As to the second question, she’s not quite sure herself what she’s fighting for, other than her country (Persia). The whole quest and involvement in the battle between good and evil is thrust upon her very abruptly, so she’s trying to figure it all out as she goes along. She starts the book not believing in the actual existence of Ahura Mazda (The Creator, Lord of Light and Wisdom) and Ahriman (The Spirit of Destruction), as taught by the Zoroastrian priest. But once she finds herself confronted by Ahriman, she has to reevaluate her whole belief system.
 
In the parallel story, Minoo is a young woman in modern-day Iran fighting against persecution from religious forces and struggling with her desire to move to America. Is this Minoo based on anyone in particular?
 
Dara: The character of Minoo in present-day Iran is not based on any specific person, per se. At the risk of sounding somewhat pretentious, I’d say I based her personality on the collective spirit exhibited by Iranian women throughout history. One of the things I find fascinating about the Iranian culture is that, despite whatever limitations imposed on them by the religion or culture of the country, Iranian women have always seemed to find subtle ways to subvert those restrictions. I’m generalizing, of course, but even now, under the strict Islamic laws, they manage to push the boundaries of the dress code, they find ways to date men when that sort of premarital contact is forbidden, get cosmetic surgery, smoke, and more. Iranian women drive, attend universities, run for political office, and otherwise lead very active, independent lives, or as much as they can before butting up against the gender barriers endemic to an Islamic state.

You and Brent both live in Columbus, Ohio. How did you two decide to work together on Persia Blues?
 
Dara: Brent and I are both members of a small comic book writers/artists collective here in Columbus called PANEL. That’s how I first met him, about 7 years ago. He’s a graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, and just a fantastic artist. One of the things we do at PANEL is self-publish these small-press indie comics anthologies twice a year, and we all end up collaborating with each other on short stories for the books. Oddly enough, I had never worked on a story with Brent prior to Persia Blues, but I always wanted to. Brent’s also a huge history buff, and loves to do research for his projects. So when I was forming the idea for this book, it seemed like a natural choice to collaborate with him. And as if I needed even more reasons, he’s just so good at switching up his art style. He can do caricatures, photo-realistic, and everything in between. Given the two settings for the book (for which I wanted two different art styles), he was the perfect choice.
 
Brent: I first met Dara back in 2006, when I joined the local comics collective PANEL. I had the opportunity to collaborate with all these incredibly talented people and my art and design have only gotten better. I've contributed to every issue since PANEL X (the tenth volume) and I had worked with every writer in the group except Dara. I'd always wanted to work with him and I was really excited when this project became available.
 
Modern-day Iran, it seems, is very misunderstood and often misrepresented in fiction originating in the West. What did you hope to show of the country and its culture in Persia Blues?
 
Dara: There were several things I wanted people to come away with after reading this book. First and foremost, I wanted to show the human side of Iran, as opposed to the government rhetoric and political propaganda we see on the news. I wanted to show that the Iranian people are not the same as the regime currently in charge. They’re just like people anywhere else: They want to be happy, raise their kids, be with their friends and family, pursue their dreams, etc. I also wanted to showcase a little of the country’s rich culture, from cuisine to architecture to literature. And finally, I wanted to give readers a sense of its thousands of years of history and tradition. This is a country that was a vast empire at one point, with everything that that entails: military might, geographic and cultural diversity, amazing feats of architecture and engineering, and so much more.

Brent, was it difficult to capture the city of Shiraz? Your artwork feels like you’re drawing a city you know well, but I assume you’ve never visited. How did you get the look and feel of the city?
 
Brent: Dara provided me with a lot of photo reference for Shiraz as well as architectural references for houses and interior design. I also used the Internet and picked up a few tourist guidebooks for Iran from the library. A lot of the information I found showed Tehran, not Shiraz, so I'm very proud I was able to capture the city so accurately.
 
You also had to work out two very different styles for the two stories. Can you talk a little about the process you used to capture the mood or feel for the two stories?
 
Brent: The plan from the beginning was to use two different styles for the different settings. Dara suggested my rendered style for the fantasy scenes. The important thing for me was to keep the look of the two styles as similar as possible so as not to distract the reader. Terry (our publisher) wanted to see the pencils as we progressed, and that actually helped a lot to unify the styles. I did much tighter pencils than I usually do for my comics pages, and I think that that helped to keep the two styles united. If you look at the original pencils (which I scanned and kept) the only thing that eventually differentiates the art styles is the technique. I also added some inked line work to the rendered style to add some consistency. 
 
I was really influenced by the old Warren Magazines where artists like Gene Colan, Angelo Torres and Alex Toth would use halftones in their work to set the mood, and the black and white line art by guys like Bernie Wrightson, Al Williamson, and the under-appreciated John Severin really influenced my line work. I was also heavily influenced by the '70's and '80s Savage Sword of Conan, particularly Gary Kwapisz and John Buscema. In fact it was Buscema's "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" that really taught me how to draw.
 
Dara, please tell us a little bit about how you created Minoo --- or, I guess I should say the two Minoos. While they’re very similar, obviously, do you see different personality traits between the two?
 
Dara: I wanted a strong-willed, smart, feisty character as my protagonist. But I also wanted her to be very real, very human, which means she’s complex, flawed, and sometimes even contradictory in her actions and beliefs. There are even times where she doesn’t come off as very likeable, I’d venture. So the Minoos in the two settings share many of the same character traits, but certain ones are more pronounced in one setting versus the other. In the historical fantasy setting, Minoo is more free-spirited and impulsive. In the modern Iran setting, we see more of her angry, rebellious side.
 
When was the last time you visited Iran? What was the experience like? Do you enjoy visiting, or do you have experiences that mirror Minoo’s in some ways (specifically, her run-ins with the morality police, for example)?
 
Dara: The last time I was back in Iran was about 7 years ago. I absolutely loved going back, though it’s not an easy trip to make, both physically and emotionally. I still have some family there, and staying at the house I grew up in as a child just brought back so many memories. Despite all the changes --- massive high-rises, population explosion, insane traffic, technology boom --- so many other things were exactly as I remembered them. Even the little mom-and-pop convenience store down the street was still there. I loved indulging in sightseeing, the cuisine, traditional bazaars, street food, all the stuff of my childhood.
 
But due to the mere fact that I’m a man (plus a tourist), my experiences were quite different than Minoo’s would be on a day-to-day basis. That’s not to say that I didn’t observe and internalize the experiences of the people around me, especially women like my mom or aunt. But yeah, it really is a different set of standards, and thus, experience, based on your gender. My run-in with the Morality Police was being chided for taking a picture of one of their state vehicles. I played the dumb tourist role and said I was actually taking a picture of a sculpture behind where their car was parked. I don’t think they would have done anything anyway; my guess is they were on a power trip and just giving me a hard time.
 
What can you tell us about future volumes to come in the series, and when can we expect them?
 
Dara: Volumes 2 and 3 will follow in roughly one-year intervals, so look for volume 2 in the summer of 2014. Let’s see, what to say about them without giving too much away...well, for starters, volume 2 is subtitled “Ahriman’s War” and volume 3 is “Going Home.” I hope that by the end of the second book, observant readers will start to form a good theory of how the two settings relate to each other. And of course, everything will come together by the third book, so I hope our readers will stick with us for the ride.