SLO author behind ‘13 Reasons Why’ gets dark in new graphic novel

A creepy legend comes to life in the latest book from the best-selling author of “Thirteen Reasons Why.”

Jay Asher, whose book about a suicidal teen inspired the hit Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” revisits the story of the Pied Piper of Hameln in his first-ever graphic novel. Co-written with Jessica Freeburg and illustrated by Jeff Stokely, “Piper” is a dark tale of romance and revenge set in medieval Germany — just like the original story.

“We want to take a story you’ve heard, but make it bigger,” explained Asher, who lives in San Luis Obispo.

Desperate to rid their town of rats, the people of Hameln hire the Pied Piper, a mysterious man who can charm any animal — or human — with a few notes from his flute.

Only one person is immune to his siren songs: smart, sensitive Magdalena, left deaf by a cruel childhood prank. She fills her lonely days by inventing stories about the villagers who shun her, dreaming that one day she’ll find her own fairy-tale love.

Maggie senses something special in the Piper. But she also discovers a dark side that could spell destruction for her entire community.

Like Asher’s other books, including “What Light” and “The Future of Us,” “Piper” is aimed at teens and is being published by Penguin Random House imprint Razorbill. Appropriately, “Piper” hits store shelves on Tuesday — Halloween.

Asher said he and his collaborators picked the “really creepy” Pied Piper narrative in part because “the legend has so many unanswered questions that we could expand on.”

“We didn’t want to change it (completely). It’s a legend that’s survived hundreds of years because there’s something in it that works,” Asher said. “How do we make that legend as emotional as possible and fill in the gaps?”

Asher and Freeburg, a Minnesota-based author and assistant regional adviser for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, originally envisioned “Piper” as a movie.

When the project became a graphic novel, Asher went looking for a local illustrator. Reid Cain, owner of Dr. Cain’s Comics and Games in San Luis Obispo, suggested Stokely, an Atascadero High School graduate known for his Eisner Award-nominated work on comics series such as “Six-Gun Gorilla” and “The Spire.”

“We sat down a few times over coffee” and hashed out the main visual components of “Piper,” recalled Stokely, who was living in Morro Bay at the time. (He’s now based in Seattle.)

“When people think ‘medieval,’ they think ladies and knights in armor and horses and stuff,” Stokely said, but that’s not how most people lived. He relied on a big folder of historical reference materials provided by Asher to get the look of Hameln and its residents right.

One key reference point for the pair was Tim Burton’s supernatural horror movie “Sleepy Hollow” and its eerie air of gothic romance.

“That was absolutely the tone we were going for,” said Asher, citing M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” as another influence.

“We both wanted to get the right feel, the right eeriness, the right unsettling nature,” Stokely said, “but at the same time (have it) be a love story.”

Stokely hopes readers will connect with Maggie and “her need for something better in life, something extraordinary.”

“Really her defining trait is (that) she doesn’t feel like she’s living the life she wants yet,” Stokely said. “Her mortal flaw is she thinks having a boyfriend, finding love, will help that. ... That’s a beautiful thing that the story tells the reader: You gotta do you. You gotta love yourself before you love other people.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 11:34 AM with the headline "SLO author behind ‘13 Reasons Why’ gets dark in new graphic novel."