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AUSTIN, TX – JUNE 23: Composer\/director John Carpenter performs onstage during ‘John Carpenter: Live Retrospective’ at ACL Live on June 23, 2016 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rick Kern\/WireImage,)<\/p>\n
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For director John Carpenter<\/a>, storytelling is paramount. Even in an era where story frequently takes a backseat to effects, properly developing and driving narrative remains crucial.<\/p>\n The son of a music teacher, Carpenter has long composed much of the music in his films, crafting iconic scores like that of Halloween<\/a>, one which utilizes an instantly memorable, relentlessly catchy piano melody.<\/p>\n ‘Cathedral,’ the debut full-length graphic novel from director John Carpenter, is now available via Storm King Comics<\/p>\n Cover art courtesy of Storm King Comics<\/p>\n Taking things further, Carpenter has worked over the last decade with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies (the son of legendary Kinks guitarist Dave Davies) on Lost Themes, a series of four albums which finds the trio building lush, cinematic soundscapes. <\/p>\n His latest project Cathedral<\/a> ties all of it together. Born out of a John Carpenter dream, the trio quickly set to work fleshing out an outline musically via the creation of the group\u2019s first metal album<\/a>. <\/p>\n Eventually, Cathedral would become Carpenter\u2019s first full length graphic novel, one created alongside wife Sandy King, founder of Storm King Comics<\/a>, a horror story set in an evil, abandoned church in downtown Los Angeles. But, this time around, the music actually came first, with the 14 instrumental tracks each marking a chapter in the King\/Sean Sobczak co-written graphic novel, a collaborative effort that finds Carpenter creating an immersive new world across multiple mediums.<\/p>\n I spoke with John Carpenter about the marriage of music, imagery and words that drives the Cathedral narrative and the way in which Carpenter-directed films like They Live remain sadly relevant decades later. A transcript of our video call, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows below. <\/p>\n ‘Cathedral,’ the latest project from director John Carpenter is now available as a graphic novel and album<\/p>\n Album art courtesy of Storm King Comics<\/p>\n Jim Ryan: So, obviously you\u2019ve dabbled in comics but Cathedral is your first full-length graphic novel. Did executing this idea as a graphic novel as opposed to a film allow you to maintain a bit more creative control?<\/p>\n John Carpenter: Yes. Oh, big time. Huge. Of course, it is my wife who is the editor and publisher of the comic. But she\u2019s a lot more forgiving than the studios.<\/p>\n Ryan: I was surprised to learn that the music came first. How did the music kind of wind up driving the creative process, the art as well as Sandy and Sean\u2019s writing process?<\/p>\n Carpenter: Well, I had a dream in 2014. And it was a long narrative dream. I usually don\u2019t have dreams like that. Usually, my dreams are frustration dreams. I\u2019m directing a movie and no one will listen. Or I\u2019m directing a movie, I want to get it finished and everybody else is telling jokes and laughing. But this dream was a story. From top to bottom. And I woke up from it and thought, \u201cMy god, where did that come from?\u201d Well, I\u2019ve come to find out it comes from Greek mythology and all sorts of other places all meshed together. <\/p>\n So, I told my bandmates, Cody Carpenter, my son, and Daniel Davies, my godson. We have a band together. And we decided to do an album based on the chapters of the dream. So, that\u2019s what we did. That\u2019s how it happened. <\/p>\n I had an outline from the dream. And then, from there, Sandy King Carpenter, my wife, and Sean Sobczak, the managing editor of the comic, wrote the graphic novel based on the dream. So, it all comes from a dream.<\/p>\n HOLLYWOOD, CA – OCTOBER 25: (L – R) Filmmaker John Carpenter, film score composer Cody Carpenter and musician Daniel Davies attend a signing event for the “Halloween” Soundtrack at Amoeba Music on October 25, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n Ryan: I get frustrated these days because I feel like in virtually every artform, story takes a backseat. I don\u2019t exactly see kids breaking down song lyrics in 2026. Storytelling seems to take a backseat to effects in films. But it\u2019s front and center on multiple levels with Cathedral. How important is the idea of storytelling to you?<\/p>\n Carpenter: If it\u2019s a narrative project, like a graphic novel or a movie or a book, the story is everything. That\u2019s it. It\u2019s king. Not so much on an album. Not so much musically. Music is a different, kind of soaring, artform that reaches beyond the words. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so incredible.<\/p>\n Ryan: Whether it\u2019s a songwriter, a screenwriter, a poet, author or anybody else, who are some favorite storytellers of yours?<\/p>\n Carpenter: You know, I grew up watching movies. So, a lot of Hitchcock. Howard Hawks. John Ford, I suppose. My favorite authors. I was a Ray Bradbury fan. Too many to count.<\/p>\n Ryan: You mentioned the dream. A particularly cinematic dream as you\u2019ve described it. Dreams come from such a whimsical place, a place where anything is kind of possible. How does that idea inform the Cathedral story?<\/p>\n Carpenter: Well, you know, it comes from the unconscious is where it comes from. And whatever is scurrying and brewing around in there. For this one night, for this one particular period of time, it comes from\u2026 you know, I don\u2019t know. I have a natural genetic makeup for storytelling and telling stories. And it must have been brewing around inside there in the unconscious.<\/p>\n ‘Cathedral,’ the debut full-length graphic novel from director John Carpenter, is now available via Storm King Comics<\/p>\n Artwork courtesy of Storm King Comics<\/p>\n