First Comics News: How did you and Egg Embry get together to create “In Our Dreams Awake?”
John McGuire: Egg and I normally email each other about ideas we have. Whether it is for novels, short stories, role-playing games, or comic books. Many times, those ideas don’t go anywhere. But something about this idea just seemed to capture both of our imaginations. I knew we had something when we were still talking about it after a few days.
1st: What is “In Our Dreams Awake” all about?
John: In Our Dreams Awake is the story of Jason Byron. He is a painter who lives in a society ruled by mages… a world where magic has defeated technology. When he lays his head down at night, he awakes in a different world. In this future drowned London, Jason navigates a world falling into ruin, where various factions vie for control of a sinking city. In Our Dreams Awake is the story of a man who doesn’t know which world is the dream and which world is reality.
1st: Who is Jason Byron?
John: Jason Byron is a man living two lives. In the fantasy world, he is a painter who has married the love of his life, Laura. He lives a simple life, content to be on the edge of society. But there is something more inside him that longs for some excitement. In that world, it is a small act of defiance in the form of an outlawed piece of tech: a telescope. In the cyberpunk world, he is a gangster who is doing his best to survive amongst the fish aliens, all the while conspiring to find a way off-world with his love, Fem a’ lin.
1st: Does Jason’s living in two worlds take a toll on him?
John: As the series progresses, his actions in each world definitely begin to take a toll on him. With issues 1 & 2, the comic is split between the two worlds. The first 12 pages are in one world, and the second 12 pages are in the other. However, beginning with Issue 3, that dynamic changes as his life becomes increasingly chaotic. We cut between the two lives much more freely to help illustrate his world spinning out of his control.
1st: Are there clues in each issue as to which world is the dream and which one is reality?
John: When we were developing the story, this was the biggest question we had to answer, and through the outlining portion, it probably changed multiple times based on what story beats we wanted to emphasize. All that is a vague way of saying that I kind of believe at various points in the story, each world is the dream, and each is the reality. The more important idea is that regardless of which is which, Jason HAS to decide on the world, the reality, he wants to live in.
1st: What exactly does Dreampunk Comic mean?
John: The idea of any of the ‘Punk genres is some kind of raging against the machine. In many ways, that’s what Dreampunk attempts to do through the escape to another world through the Dreamscape. I believe that everyone can understand the idea that their day-to-day lives may not always be the most exciting thing. We all can feel unfulfilled, underappreciated, and not understood. It is also extremely easy to look at other people’s lives and think they have it all figured out. In Our Dreams Awake basically is our way of saying “be careful what you wish for”.
1st: How do you co-write a comic? Do you work on the same part together or separately?
John: Egg is really good at looking at an idea and breaking it down in a way you would have never thought about in the first place. He was the one who said, “What if we have two different artists work on the book and each of us writes one of the worlds?” Now it feels completely obvious, but at the time, he was solving a potential problem: what if we had an artist stop turning in pages? If we split things into two pieces, there should be fewer chances of something like that happening. The writing itself was done separately, but with constant conversations about story beats. Then we would swap scripts and do an editing pass to make sure we were still on the same page as far as the story was going. And there was probably a little bit of trying to one-up each other with our scripts. Surprise/impress the other person so that they have to up their game on the next issue.
1st: Can you tell us what the “Gilded Age” is about?
John: The Gilded Age is the story about a Carnival Troupe in a Steampunk world. The first four issues were self-contained tales about different members, which allowed me to tell different kinds of stories: a heist, a western, a horror, and a fantastical one. When I first started coming up with the idea, I knew that it was likely to be months (or years) between issues. By keeping each one as a done-in-one story, a reader could start anywhere and not have to worry that they missed an issue somewhere along the line.
1st: “The Crossing” you co-wrote, so why should a reader pick this up?
John: The Crossing is a comic I co-wrote with Robert Jeffrey II about a man who “kidnaps” his daughter using technology that allows him to “Cross” to other parallel worlds. It’s up to an FBI agent and a green-behind-the-ears scientist to chase after them while making sure they don’t fall victim to the strangeness of these Other Earths. If you are someone who loves to see parallel realities. If you are a fan of thrillers. Or if you are just a fan of amazing artwork… Sean Hill (Spirits of Vengeance, Bishop: War College) is the artist on the first issue and crushes it.
1st: When and why did you start writing?
John: When I was a kid, I tried to write my own superhero stories. I couldn’t draw, but I could come up with crazy tales from my friends after school adventures. I dabbled here and there throughout high school and college, but that was really all it was. There were a ton of ideas that never went anywhere, and the phrase “The End” just didn’t exist. A mutual acquaintance reached out and said he was starting a writing group at a local comic store. One of those things where we’d meet once a week and swap stories, maybe get feedback on whatever it was we were working on, etc. From there, the floodgates opened for both comics and novels. As to why I started writing… I love creating worlds. I love figuring out stories and characters. I love dialogue. And I love reading.
1st: Who has been your biggest supporter in your writing career?
John: My wife. She is the one who is my first beta reader. She is the one who has to listen to my various story ideas that might be a little more than concepts. Plus, she was the one who told me to just write it when it came to the concept of my first novel, The Dark That Follows. I literally had the barest of an idea for it, and her response was “Well, you should write it”. Five simple words that meant the world to me.
1st: How vivid are your dreams?
John: Most nights, they are very vivid. I am in whatever dreamweird situation my crazy brain decides to place me in. It feels as real as the desk and chair I’m currently sitting at. No,w whether I really remember those dreams past the initial moments of waking up is extremely hit or miss. The sad thing,s, given the strangeness of most of the dreams, they don’t make as much sense under the morning light anyway, so it is likely for the best.
1st: What is next for your career in writing?
John: In addition to coming out with the 3rd and 4th issues of In Our Dreams Awake, I have another comic book series I’m looking to release the first issue of in the Spring called You Must Be This Tall To Ride about a group of kids who have to find their lost brother (in another world – apparently I like writing about other worlds). I also have a series of novels I’m working on, but since novels take a lot longer, I’m not sure exactly when book one will be coming out just yet.
1st: What do you have to say to the readers who pick up “In Our Dreams Awake?”
John: If you pick up In Our Dreams Awake, I think you are going to experience something that I don’t think has been done in the way we are doing it. You’re going to get to follow along two parallel storylines, which are rapidly approaching a collision. And I believe that you are going to really enjoy the twists and turns in the penultimate issue. Plus, the fourth issue is 90% done at this point, so my hope is that there won’t be too long a wait before you’ll get to have the complete story in your hands (looking at summer 2026).
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