Oni Press’ comic book adaptation of Barry Gifford’s Night People by Chris Condon and a variety of artists is sure to appeal to fans of film noir, detective fiction, and Gifford’s collaborations with David Lynch such as Lost Highway (which was inspired by a line from his Night People novel).
Condon is well suited for the assignment after penning breakout hits That Texas Blood and The Enfield Gang Massacre. Each of the four issues in the series consists of 30 pages of story in a deluxe, ad-free format, with a different artist on each interlocking tale including Brian Level, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Artyom Topilin, and Marco Finnegan.
We spoke to Condon about Night People and the future of That Texas Blood in our exclusive interview with the writer.
How did you get involved in adapting Barry Gifford’s Night People into a comic series?
I was asked! That’s really all it took. Hunter Gorinson, president and publisher of Oni Press, asked me if I was interested in adapting Night People by Barry Gifford. This was even before Hunter had acquired the rights, but he believed in the project and wanted to at least gauge whether it was viable or not, even at that early stage. I, of course, said yes. I was thrilled at the idea of writing an adaptation in general, let alone an adaptation of a book like Night People.
How closely did you work with Gifford on the adaptation and did you feel extra pressure because you were working with the original author?
Barry really let me do my thing. Luckily for Barry, my thing was staying true to his work. I wanted to create an incredibly faithful adaptation that retained Barry’s distinctive voice. I never felt pressure from Barry himself. He was always incredibly gracious and complimentary toward my work and the work of my collaborators on the book. That said, I definitely put pressure on myself because I didn’t want to let both Barry or Hunter down.
You work with a number of artists over the course of the series. Did you specifically choose specific artists based on the story arcs?
I didn’t choose any of the artists–that all came from Oni. I had recommended Jacob Phillips for covers, but that was about it in terms of actually selecting an artist. I did, however, have a say in whether we use one artist across all four issues or if we utilized a different artist with a distinctive style for each issue. I felt pretty strongly, and Hunter agreed, that using four different, unique styles would be the best choice for adapting this book. Luckily, it turns out our hunch was correct as all four issues are shaping up terrifically.
If you could adapt another story by Gifford as a comic, which one would you choose?
That’s a tough one. Since I’ve done Night People which inspired Lost Highway, the David Lynch film, I might have to say Wild at Heart to see what I could bring to a new adaptation of that novel.
The That Texas Blood: The Enfield Gang Massacre series just wrapped up. Memories of working on the series with Jacob Phillips?
It was a tough one, but always a labor of love. Getting the pages in for the first and final issues were a highlight because it really proved that this thing was actually going to work.
Will we see another That Texas Blood series in the future?
Yes, we’re going to be returning with another arc of TTB in 2025. None in 2024, but we should have something else out soon that we hope will sate folks until then.
Night People #1 will be available at your favorite comic shop on March 6.
