Writer: John Lees
Sponsored.  Dating can really tear your heart out, but in Orla!, that possibility is more than a little likely.  We sat down with creator John Lees (The Nasty) to talk about the series and what inspired it.

Q:  Give us a quick elevator pitch for Orla!. 
John Lees:  Orla! is a romcom/creature feature mash-up about a lonely woman struggling to navigate the Seattle singles scene while sometimes turning into a man-eating monster.

Q:  What made you decide to tell this story?
John:  Orla! first started life due to my enjoyment of romcoms and love stories, and my desire to do my own version of a romcom.  I'm best known as a horror writer, and so inevitably I ended up coming up with something with a horror twist.  But I really enjoy doing genre blends, and weaving elements of comedy and horror together, as has been seen before with The Nasty and certain chapters of Sink.

It's a story also inspired by being single in your 30s, and about the anxieties related to that.  In relationships– whether they be romantic or even just friendships – there's a constant pressure to create a sanitized version of ourselves, all the more so in the social media age with Instagram profiles showing curated glimpses of our lives.  And so there can be this tension between having to perform and be "on," versus who you can trust enough to let in and open up to, be more your weird, flawed self.

Orla Bard is a magnified version of this.  She too struggles to keep her true self hidden in order to fit in, only in her case, that true self is a murderous monster.

Q:  While this is a work of fiction (or so we hope…), you and the team have crafted a realistic cast of characters that all feel unique.  How do you relate to this cast?
John:  I see a lot of myself in Orla, in that struggle to fit in, that feeling of pressure to put up a front and be Normal out of fear that people wouldn't like the real you.  I think that's a feeling that a lot of people get, to varying degrees.  I also relate to how she is, at heart, an optimist.  She continues to hope for the best in human nature despite being continually disappointed.

I also relate to Gwyn, the manager at Orla's local bookshop who she takes a shine to.  Gwyn has his own difficulties with mental health, including issues I don't have first-hand experience with, but he's also aspirational, how I feel I can be when I'm at my best, or at least would like to be more often: someone totally at ease with themselves, embracing their own goofiness, living totally unconcerned with the judgement of others.  I even relate to Orla’s best friend, Harriet, as I too am obsessed with Halloween.

Q:  The cast also read as very real from the perspective of different bodies and minds being represented on the page.  Can you talk a little about that?
John:  With Orla, we have a female lead who, from original conception, I wanted to be of a bigger, curvier build.  We don't often get to see women of this body shape in this type of role, be it as a romantic lead or as a horror lead.  With Gwyn and Orla, I also wanted to have a romance story with people in their late 30s, as love stories and romcoms are so often the domain of high school/college age characters.

Q:  What would you say is the message at the heart of Orla!?
John:  A relationship isn’t about being a perfect version of yourself and never setting a foot wrong.  It's about finding someone who can see you at your lowest, can see the things you can't change, and who loves you anyway.

Artist: Sally Cantirino
Q:  What emotions are you hoping to evoke in them?
John:  Weirdly, for a comic where several people are brutally murdered, the first word to come to mind is "Effervescent."  Especially with Sally's art, the tone is so upbeat and quirky and has an almost wholesome feel, though it will enter darker, more suspenseful terrain as it goes on.  I want readers to laugh and feel warm feelings towards our two leads, I want them to have a good time.  But I also want to lower their defenses so that the more dramatic turns land like a gut-punch, and they are emotionally moved.  I want them to cringe and feel anxious at the suspenseful moments, their emotions resonating with Orla's own building pressure-cooker of stress.

Q:  Who do you think will really enjoy this book?
John:  Sickos, monster f*ckers, butt enjoyers.  Also: hopeless romantics, horror fans, people who have dating horror stories.  People who do not consume any manosphere content.

Q:  Finally, what do you think your Orla Moment would be?  What's your dating experience that would turn you into an avenging monster?
John:  I can't claim my worst date would turn me into an avenging monster, as I was thoroughly the party guilty of ruining the evening.  Back in my mid 20s, I'd seen this girl a few times and things were going well, as she'd invited me back to her place after dinner for a "movie night."

I was prepared for a romantic evening.  I was significantly less prepared for whatever I ate at dinner hitting me with what I believed to be a bout of violent food poisoning.  My attempts to ignore it and then downplay it eventually devolved into me lying shivering in the fetal position on this girl’s bathroom floor.

My date ended up having to drive me to A&E (our version of ER for any Americans reading), very ill and half-delirious.  She was actually very nice and sympathetic about it all, but I was of course miserable over the whole ordeal. My clear memory of the rock bottom moment was being taken in for an examination, and being struck by the thought, "I shaved my chest for this," as it turned out the only person who'd be seeing my shorn abs that evening was an elderly nurse giving me a round of injections.

Thanks, John!  Readers, if you're ready for love to tear you apart, check out Orla! #1, on sale now at your local comic shop!

Orla! Creative Team:
Writer: John Lees
Artist: Sally Cantirino
Color Artist: Dearbhla Kelly
Lettering: Lucas Gattoni
A Cover: Sally Cantirino
B Cover: Lisa Sterle

Click on Gallery for preview pages.