Cecil Castellucci tells us about what informs the strangeness of Young Animal’s Shade the Changing Girl.

Den of Geek: So whats next for Shade, the Changing Girl?

Castellucci:I cant really talk about that yet.

We just did issue #12 which left our girl Shade in a precarious position.

She now has ownership of her body.

Shes learned a lot about the nature of feelings and humanity.

Now shes going to explore what life can be.

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You started writing Shade about two years ago?

It was actually around April, 2016.

So we lived in a different country then (laughs).

Has anything in todays politics changed your take eon the characters?

The book is about body ownership… Thats a tricky thing.

When youre writing a book thats about madness, you cant not be influenced by the world around you.

No matter if it was before 2017 or after 2017, theres always madness in the world.

For Shade, we want to confirm were paying attention and talking about whats happening in the real world.

But at the same time, were doing our own thing.

Has anything changed in the book because of the election?

Yeah, it has.

I mean I cant say how it has, you cant be an artist and not be influenced.

So how did you land the gig on Shade?

Shelly Bond, who did the Minx imprint, she gave me a call.

She was running Vertigo.

Gerard Way came up with that.

Is Gerard Way still involved with the book?

Gerard came up with the log line, but then he gave me the keys to the castle.

Gerard and I go out for coffee and I tell him my crazy ideas.

He reads all the scripts and weighs in on the pencils.

Hes pretty much hands off.

I like to think of Young Animal as an armada, and hes sort of the lead ship.

Did the Ditko run and Milligan run on Shade inform your work?

Absolutely, I had to confirm I was paying tribute to Ditko and Milligans run.

I made sure to include many nods and echoes to those runs.

I think theres something so incredibly strange about an alien whose super power is madness.

Because madness is such a part of our lives.

We all are experiencing big emotions and dark fears.

Having a character that amplifies those feelings is interesting.

But its also scary.

I think thats why every twenty years or so, we revisit Shade.

What DC character would you love to give the Young Animal treatment to?

How about a more mainstream character?

Actually Mera would be awesome.

I love her as a character.

It was a riff onI Love Lucy.

So, I loved the idea of this alien character becoming obsessed with an Earth that didnt exist.

All the Life With Honey backups feed into the emotional core of the main story.

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