Being a teenager can be Hell, but writer Jordan Alsaqa and artist Ray Nadine take the concept to a new level in their Comixology series titled Raise Hell!.
Raise Hell! opens with pals Victor, Reeves, and Miri finding themselves saddled with a sassy demonic familiar that complicates their teen age lives in a hilarious and frightening way.
With issue #2 of Raise Hell! arriving from Comixology Originals on June 11, we thought it would be a good time to speak to the creative team to learn more about the series and ponder the big metaphysical questions about public school, demons, and ska in this exclusive interview.
Raise Hell! is based on your friendship bonding over your teen years, so how does summoning demons fit in?
Jordan Alsaqa: Obviously, people have metaphorical demons at every age, but especially when you’re a teenager, you don’t yet have the emotional maturity to deal with your problems. We’ve got a cast of characters that are all dealing with their own hang-ups and insecurities, so our literal demon Alistair serves as a physical manifestation of those problems. He serves as the catalyst for most of the adventures the teens end up in throughout the series, from the silly to the more serious. And, it must be stressed, demons and the supernatural are just a lot of fun to work on, especially in a teenage setting, so it worked as a natural fit for our interests when Ray and I decided we wanted to collaborate on something.
How would you describe Victor, Reeves, and Miri?
Alsaqa: I’d describe our main trio as a well-meaning group of misfits just trying to survive their teen years. Victor is a ball of nervous energy who’s always ready for adventure and tends to leap before he looks. Miri, meanwhile, is the voice of reason among the group, even if she has plenty of teenage obsessions that she can go a bit nuts over, including her favorite manga and fanfiction. And Reeves has a chip in her shoulder due to a falling out with her previous friend group; she cares a lot about the others, but she has a hard time showing it in a healthy way, which leads to conflict.
Alistair is your demon of choice. How is he demonic and yet sympathetic/lovable?
Alsaqa: Despite his full name being Alistair the Malicious, Alistair is more mischievous than anything. He’s a servant of Belphegor, the King of Sloth, so while he comes into our trio’s lives with a mission to corrupt their souls, he’s mostly happy to just lounge about and enjoy the human realm. So while he has a malevolent purpose, he’s more likely to prank the teens than anything else. He’s a little stinker, really, and the way his plans tend to backfire on himself helps him to hopefully be a bit of sympathetic troublemaker.
Ray Nadine: He’s a stinker yes, but also he’s kind of a shitpost meme of a demon! So to me, that’s a big part of what makes him sympathetic. He’s a lil pipsqueak so even though he does cause trouble, he can’t cause that much trouble. I think that even influences the teens’ impression of him; he’s legitimately a demon, but they underestimate what he’s truly capable of. He’s probably capable of some truly malicious things, but beneath it all he does have a heart and does actually care about his soul bonded trio!
Ray: How did you go about designing the look of the three pals?
Nadine: Jordan gave me his thoughts on how he wanted Victor and Miri to look, and I got free reign on Reeves’s design! Reeves in particular is just a look in my high school closet (band tshirts and identity alike). All three of their styles are definitely influenced by their music tastes, Victor always sporting a ska t-shirt and checkered pattern, Miri with her bootleg anime shirts, and Reeves’s Hot Topic band shirts (though she’ll emphasize that she gets most of them at band concerts, actually).
Jordan: When writing the trio, how much is your dialogue steeped in the lingo/slang of the early 2000s?
Alsaqa: It’s a tricky question to answer! I’d like to think the language is fairly accurate; a big part of why we set the book in 2006 is because it’s when Ray and I were in high school ourselves. So, we’re creating from personal experience. I’m in my 30s now, so trying to write modern teenagers becomes a shakier proposition every day. If there’s one big thing that’s inaccurate, it’s the general tolerance and sensitivity our characters have; a more accurate version of 2006 would probably have a lot more mean-spirited, “edgy” humor, but I think we can all agree that whole mindset is better left in the past.
Nadine: I’m with Jordan on leaving the “edgy” humor behind, especially the various -phobic language of the mid aughts. I’ve had people criticize my own writing for not being “period accurate” in how open minded I’ve written characters in a time period where there was less tolerance for queer people, but like, I lived through the homophobia of the 90s and 00s, I’m not about to let my characters be called slurs for the sake of “realism” or “accuracy.” I’m very thankful that Jordan is of the same mindset! Raise Hell! is a feel-good story ultimately, it would do it a disservice to put in poorly-aged lingo/slang from the 2000s to simply keep it accurate to the time period.
Favorite ska band/album?
Alsaqa: It feels extremely basic to say Reel Big Fish, but that was the band that got me into ska when I was in eighth grade. Beyond that, though, I’m a fan of Five Iron Frenzy, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Streetlight Manifesto, and Suburban Legends. In general, kind of like the humor thing above, some of those albums/songs haven’t aged great! But there’s still some great bangers out there, and we have a whole ska playlist for the book that has some of our favorites!
Nadine: It’s The Aquabats for me! And like Jordan, also a big fan of Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto. I have a soft spot for Less Than Jake too cause one of the members liked our Tweets about Raise Hell! because Victor wears a “More Than Mark” parody t-shirt in the first issue.
Upcoming projects?
Alsaqa: As far as announced projects, the second book in my fantasy YA series, Cooking with Monsters: Harm-to-Table, comes out from IDW in October. Before that, I wrote Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: A Bunkers & Badasses Coloring Adventure, which’ll be out in August.
Nadine: My next book is I Felt Myself Slipping, about two teenage gymnasts navigating anxiety, grief, and friendship while learning to communicate with each other as a deaf person and a hearing person. It’ll be out from Oni in September! I’ve also been self-publishing an illustrated story through the solo TTRPG, 1000 Year Old Vampire, depicting the unlife of a vampire slowly losing his sanity as he watches everyone he loves grow old and die over the centuries. I publish a chapter at a time as I write them at raynadine.com/1000yov ! It’s been an incredibly self-indulgent project.
Raise Hell! #1 is currently available to read on Comixology Originals. Look for issue #2 on June 11.
Check out the cover and some additional preview pages below.
