Amazing Agent Luna Vol. 2:
Interrogation with the Creators!
With Amazing Agent Luna Vol. 2 making its grand debut this July, Gomanga.com caught up with Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir and Shiei for an insightful look at the upcoming volume and what has changed since volume one!
Christina, Nunzio, welcome back! It's late June right now and Amazing Agent Luna Vol. 2 will be hitting stores in just a matter of weeks. Without giving too much away, what's the basic gist of the volume?
ND: Two words. Family week. Okay, third word: grandparents.
Okay, so Vol. 2's main focus is on family. What kind of spy-girl action can we expect to see in store for Luna this go around?
CW: Just because family is a big issue this volume doesn't mean Count Von Brucken will put his evil plans on hold. He's got a dastardly scheme to carry out and it's up to Luna to stop him. Expect Luna to investigate Von Brucken and the new science teacher Nobel High got at the end of last volume - Von Brucken's newest minion, Professor Tromperie.
It became really apparent early on that Shiei and the readers are quite fond of Oliver. How has that affected the original narrative you had set out for the series?
ND: Yeah, Shiei's clearly rooting for Oliver. It has affected us...we now consider the triangle up in the air. The original plan was for the structure of the story to mirror the ups and downs of Luna and Jonah - a sort of will they/won't they romance thing. Now Oliver will become a factor. Can't say more, as I don't want to spoil things, but let's just say Oliver will make his feelings known somewhere down the line.
In retrospect, was there anything about Vol. 1 that you thought never felt really clicked and tried to correct in the second volume?
CW: Not really. We're very proud of that book. Some of the characters weren't fully fleshed out yet, but that's the point of the series. It was fun with Volume 2 to be able to dive back in and continue showing new aspects of the characters' lives.
Readers really got a kick out of the 4-panel koma starring you both. Will those be making a return appearance in this latest volume?
ND: Not that I'm aware of, unfortunately. They were very cute and fun to do.
One thing that has been commented on is the fact that Amazing Agent Luna is rated teen, but other than some scattered innuendo, there really isn't really anything objectionable about it. Why isn't it rated all ages?
ND: To give us options. Like I said, Luna's romance has a will they/ won't they feel, and we can't really work that vibe without discussing what they will or won't do. She's a high school sophomore now, and we plan to tell this story through her entire high school life. Sex will be a factor. Now, that doesn't mean we'll have any sex scenes with anything revealing or graphic. But we didn't want to have Luna talk to Francesca about the possibility of having sex with (name of boy withheld to preserve the triangle) and find out that teens discussing sex was not something all-age appropriate. Changing the rating midway through a series is a bad idea. So to keep our realistic dialogue options open, we opted for a teen rating. Plus, we're gunshy after our time at Marvel. New X-Men had a PSR rating, the equivalent of a teen rating. But we could not say "crap" or "damn" in that book. We've done some profanity laced books for Oni, but that's not what we're looking for here. We just wanted the constraints off.
Christina, when we last spoke to you back in November, you showed some concern about being "pigeon-holed as the 'kids in school' writers." Is that still a concern over half a year later?
CW: it's not a concern so much as a thought in the back of my head. I like the teen work we've done and I'm excited to write more teen series in the future. I just want to have the opportunity to do other types of stories as well.
Rumor has it that you have a new series in the works for Seven Seas. Can you drop any hints as to what that is?
ND: Pirates! That's right, pirates. I've wanted to tell a pirate story for a long time and here's my chance. I think Christina has gotten swept up in my enthusiasm. Thought I think she's gotten more into it as we discussed the characters, so maybe it's the characters that got her caught up in it, and not my enthusiasm at all. Anyway, it's called DESTINY'S HAND, and it's a book about a crew of pirates who want to honor their dying captain by finding the greatest treasure of their era in his name. There's one trick, though. His right hand man is a teenage girl and no-one is going to follow a girl to the ends of the earth. How do the Captain's key lieutenants honor his wish and put this girl in charge and still keep the crew around? Like Luna, it's a blend of shojo and shonen elements. Lots of swashbuckling action, but the lead character Olivia Soldana, also has plenty of romance ahead.
You've said in past interviews that Luna's story could one day take her through her high school graduation. Do you have an idea how many volumes you have planned?
CW: We had originally discussed doing 9 volumes - 3 per school year. But I think we may up it to twelve (4 per school year). There are just so many fun stories to tell.
Volume 3 should be out early 2006 (if not before?) Can you give your readers a teensie weensie taste of what you have in store for that book to tide them over?
ND: Lots of things, really. Oliver gets caught up in Luna's spy life, Luna and Francesca have a bit of a falling out. Plus, there are dangling plots from Volume 2 - big ones - that we can't talk about until that volume is out. Let's just say that the school is in disarray and Von Brucken's plans, while still not quite clear, are starting to come together.
Shiei, you're primarily the artist on Luna, but do you feel your input has had any effect on the how the story is progressing?
Shiei: I suppose it affects on how the story progress (since I always bug Nunzo, Christina and Jason to put ollie scenes here and there _ and sometimes they let meX3) As for character relationships...I'm just enhancing what N and C write.
Of all the chapters in Vol. 2, what was your single favorite part to draw and why?
Shiei: My favorite part to draw...hard to pick...well, I guess I go where I get to draw the bishies of the story. ^_^ I have a soft spot for them.
What kind of omake content have you prepared for Vol. 2 of Luna?
Shiei: All I can say is cute stuffs. I'm addicted to cute things!
How has your style evolved since the first volume. What's one thing that you find it easier to draw now than you did when you first began?
Shiei: It's easier for me to draw volume 2. On volume 1, I had problems with character consistency. On the second volume, I started to know the characters by heart so it's wasn't as complicated for me as the first one. Also....paneling...I think I'm getting the hang of it...somehow. (scratches her head)
You're working on two Seven Seas titles right now. How different is it working on Aoi House compared to Amazing Agent Luna?
Shiei: Working on Aoi House is definitely different from Amazing Agent Luna. Aoi House is less technical or serious than Amazing Agent Luna. I can easily draw Aoi House because of the random (and crazy) things that Adam put into the story, while Amazing Agent Luna sometimes can take me hours planning on how to draw scenes on a page. But both are fun to draw and I enjoy (very much) working with both titles.