I was a sneaky, industrious kid with an overactive imagination and pliable morals when it came to white lies. My father, an avid reader in his younger days, had maintained an extensive library with a particularly welcoming reading couch. The books were not for kids and I was forbidden from the library but of course, I snuck in. At first, it was only to steal glances at the salacious covers to a large collection of James Hadley Chase novels. But eventually, the covers grew less interesting and a slim book by the name of “Touch the Devil” caught my attention. I was too young to be reading it, but a few pages in I was hooked. This would later become a ritual— sneaking in when Dad wasn’t around to read Jack Higgins, then Ludlum then Forsyth. By the time I was reading Graham Greene and Le Carre, I wasn’t sneaking in anymore. And my dad, for the most part, seemed at peace with the idea that I wasn’t reading comics and had taken to “proper” books.

A pair of classics from Dad’s library

So spies held my attention from a very young age. And it wasn’t the James Bond, guns and glamour type. Most of it was gritty, ugly, damaged and real. And I think it captured my attention precisely because amidst the gritty and the real, good spy fiction was looking at people. Human beings pretending to be what they’re not. Being brazen and bold, when truly they were shaking with fear within. Making choices to their own detriment because they were somehow convinced they were working toward some greater ideal. Playing unseen roles in machinations that decided the fates of nations and wars, only to bring it all crashing down for something silly like love. There continues to be this very human, very intense drama to international men and women of mystery for me, to this day.

I’d argue then, that espionage and magic have long had connections before I decided to draw them together in this book. From Merlin to rumours of the occult around Matahari to John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s advisor, astronomer, mathematician and magician to Alistair Crowley’s proteges being roped into one of the many weapons projects that cropped up around the invention of the Atom Bomb. And these have also been the preoccupations of a few Vertigo books of years past.

From Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy #1 (art by Mike Perkins and Mike Spicer)

Magic has stood close to the seat of power for time immemorial, always existing in the shadows. Never quite in the open, yet guiding the destiny of nations with an unseen hand. As I did research on writing Black Tower, a fellow creator said to me, “Of course that was the case. Magic has always been an occult knowledge.” And that line made the whole thing sing in my head. Both espionage and magic did similar things. They promised to us the knowledge that underneath worlds both exterior and interior, there was the promise of something far more romantic.

And so, Black Tower is an invitation to this knowledge from Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer, Andworld Design and me. We invite you to look into this world of espionage and magic—their indelible role in our history, played out through the lives of magnetic, fallible, broken and utterly interesting people. I hope you’ll come along and watch this group of unlikely actors, lie, cheat, steal, cross and double cross their enemies and their friends. Weaving magic in the night, all in an attempt to save the day.

- Ram V
 

Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy #1 by Ram V, Mike Perkins and Mike Spicer is available this week in print and as a digital comic book.