Wayne Rée: To me, it means emotional honesty. It means that, no matter how fantastical your story might be on the surface, it should connect with people on a deeper level.

Benjamin Chee: That what the eye sees and reads is true to the story’s heart.

Wayne Rée: I start by writing out at least the first chapter in a notebook. It forces me to just sit down and focus on the story. Once I’ve got the momentum going, I try to write a thousand words a day in a Google Doc, every week day—emphasis on “try.” I don’t necessarily hit the thousand-word mark all the time, but the intention is there, and I’ve learned to be kinder to myself, while trying to be disciplined. There will always be multiple drafts, though the number of drafts depends on what project I’m working on.

Benjamin Chee: Yeah, there are rounds of revisions where we bounce off each other and receive feedback as we draft and redraft the storyboards. Once that’s nailed down, it’s then a steady but time-consuming process to get all the comics pages inked, lettered, and finished.

Wayne Rée: I’ve got my laptop set up on a stand, a simple mouse and a very, very noisy Keychron bluetooth keyboard. Sometimes, I’ll have an additional monitor too. I used to work in a hotdesking space, but as my wife and I start to do up our flat, we’re trying to see what kind of work-from-home set-up we can create—and that our cat will at least somewhat respect.

Benjamin Chee: Functional messiness! I draw on a tablet but I like to keep my sketchbooks handy so I can quickly scrawl any notes or thoughts. There’s also a coffee mug there somewhere that I hope dearly not to knock over.

Wayne Rée: A multinational corporation run by demons buys out our local creatures and spirits. A prose/comics hybrid that explores themes of identity, culture and capitalism. Also? A fashionable pontianak.

Benjamin Chee: Plus, the prose side tells you present-day office horror stories while the comics feature fantasy tales set in ancient times: two timelines, two genres, two mediums—one story!

Wayne Rée: Even though Ben and I were telling one story across two genres and two mediums, seeing his initial concept art and character designs helped to shape who these characters were and what this world was like. Before that, I felt like I was just writing a couple of interconnected short stories. After that, I really felt like we were working on a book.

Benjamin Chee: I remember working on the fourth chapter early on—since we didn’t have them out chronologically—then I pitched to Wayne this idea of inserting a couple of pages of comics that cut back and forth to the prose. I think that was when we felt the book gelled together and informed us how we built it up.

Wayne Rée: “Don’t force yourself to try and make it funny. You’re eventually going to write it in a tone that resonates more truly with yourself anyway—and, believe it or not, it’ll resonate with quite a lot of other people too. Besides, we can explore the humorous side of things in the animated series”. And before my past self could ask me what I meant by “the animated series,” I’d jump back into my DeLorean and yell out, “Space-time continuum! Can’t say any more! Bye!” (Yes, this joke was partially inspired by Ayo Edebiri, but how could it not be? She had the perfect answer to this question.)

Benjamin Chee: I guess I’m sitting next to Wayne in that DeLorean, and as I pause to wonder if the two pairs of our alternate selves count as two or four persons in this social gathering, he’d already be done and we’re back in the future.