Review Fix Exclusive: David Prepose Talks ‘Going to the Chapel’ And More

Review Fix chats with “Going to the Chapel” writer David Prepose, who discusses the comic and how his previous work played a role in its development.

Review Fix: How was this comic born?

David Prepose: GOING TO THE CHAPEL is the story of Emily Anderson, a wealthy bride with a serious case of cold feet — but before she can say anything, her wedding is hijacked by a group of bank robbers known as the Bad Elvis Gang. But thanks to Emily’s dysfunctional family, this simple smash-and-grab spirals into a full-blown standoff with the police, leading Emily to team up with these hapless criminals and become the ringleader of her own hostage situation to decide her own happily ever after. So, you know, purely autobiographical. (Laughs)

But in all seriousness, GOING TO THE CHAPEL stems from a number of different things. The first was my disastrous attempt at being the best man at a wedding — the bachelor party I planned was cursed from top to bottom, which made me wonder what the worst-case scenario at a wedding might look like. At first I thought about the father of the bride hiring leg-breakers to “persuade” my friend to call off the wedding — but then I realized that a bride with cold feet would be even worse. There’s so much dramatic potential to a story like this, and I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind — I think for better and for worse, my own romantic past has shaped who I am today, and that’s the kind of exploration that’ll drive GOING TO THE CHAPEL.

Review Fix: What did you learn from the previous of Spencer and Locke and how did it affect this one?

Prepose: I learned so much from the success of SPENCER & LOCKE, and I feel like that definitely informed how we put GOING TO THE CHAPEL together. Every time I write something, I feel like I’ve checked something off my writer bucket list — and invariably, I also always wind up adding on about a half-dozen other things I want to do in response. (Laughs) 

At the end of the day, SPENCER & LOCKE really reminded me that readers care about characters first and foremost, and that if you can create characters that feel engaging and funny and heartbreaking and weird, you’ll often create that investment in your readership. That said, it also made me realize I was relying a lot on narrative captions to help get the job done, so with GOING TO THE CHAPEL, I really streamlined my writing down, in order to keep the story moving as fast as possible, and to trim any unnecessary fat to keep all these balls in the air.

Review Fix: What makes this arc a special one for you?

Prepose: There’s an element of risk, writing a romantic comedy in a Direct Market that doesn’t really do romantic comedies — to be honest, I think romcoms get a bad rap in pop culture in general, which of course made me want to pursue it more. (Laughs) I think there are guys who feel like romcoms threaten their masculinity, and women who feel like romcoms make them seem foolish or shallow, and I think that couldn’t be further from the truth — some of my favorite stories, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, About Time and 500 Days of Summer all share that same romantic foundation. Romance is just as flexible a genre as sci-fi, superheroes, and crime, and that’s something that I think we really get to explore in GOING TO THE CHAPEL.

But I think the themes of this story that really resonate with me, the way we can sometimes self-sabotage the best things in our lives due to fear of change and fear of growth — we can often twist ourselves in knots doing everything but just being open and honest with the people we love. Emily and her dynamic with bank robber Tom and her well-meaning fiance Jesse is a great love triangle to explore these themes, and when you throw her crazy family in the mix, well, it’s hard not to fall in love with a book like GOING TO THE CHAPEL.

Review Fix: How easy will it be for new readers of your work to jump in?

Prepose: Super easy. The thing I like most about GOING TO THE CHAPEL is behind the stylish bank robber action, this is ultimately a deeply human story that everyone can relate to. It’s in part because everyone has an idea of what a wedding looks like in their heads, so there’s sort of this cultural imagery that we’re able to riff on easily — everything from the bouquet toss to people releasing doves after the wedding, not to mention all the various roles in a wedding, from the maid of honor to the best man to the father of the bride. 

But more importantly, I think everyone can relate to dysfunctional family — so we’re able to build up Emily’s weird-as-hell family and flesh them out into characters with this outrageous, larger-than-life personalities. We’ve got the lecherous mother of the bride, the stuffy and particular father of the bride, the pyromaniac flower girl, the d-bag of a best man. We all know these characters to some degree from our own lives, so it’ll be a snap to dive into our story. 

Review Fix: What will bring dedicated readers back?

Prepose: While GOING TO THE CHAPEL isn’t as dark as my previous work, there’s actually a ton of overlap with SPENCER & LOCKE in terms of execution and themes. We’re bringing the same mixture of off-the-wall action and laugh-out-loud humor that we’ve brought from SPENCER & LOCKE to GOING TO THE CHAPEL — we’re just exploring these themes from the other side of the law, thanks to Emily’s unlikely team-up with the Bad Elvis Gang. 

At the end of the day, I write every series with a few goals in mind — can I make you laugh, or can I make you cry? And I think when you’re at this crossroads between love, loyalty, fear, and potentially life-threatening danger, there’s a lot of opportunities to do both. So if you like that mashup of humor, action, and heartfelt moments in my previous books, we’re exploring that just as much in GOING TO THE CHAPEL. If you thought an imaginary talking panther was a fun character, wait till you meet a grandma with a shotgun! (Laughs)

Review Fix: How do you want this arc to be remembered?

Prepose: I’d like for this series to show publishers that there really is a market and a demand for stories beyond the standard superhero-science fiction-fantasy wheelhouse that comics so often fall into. I think the only way that comics are going to survive in the long term is if we keep diversifying our stories, both in terms of content, characters, and creators — I want my stories to win over new readers and help build a wider consensus amongst our industry, and I think exploring genres like romance is a way to escape some of the power fantasies that often limit comics’ storytelling possibilities. If we can get new comics readers into the industry by going off the beaten path like we are in GOING TO THE CHAPEL, I’ll consider this a job well done.

Review Fix: How is it different from your previous work?

Prepose: The tone is probably the biggest change from my previous work — I love SPENCER & LOCKE, but it’s a very dark book that takes a lot out of my physically and emotionally, so I wanted to see if I could explore similar themes but being able to sell these concepts through being stylish, funny, and offbeat. I think GOING TO THE CHAPEL also stands out from my previous work thanks to the sprawling cast we’ve put together — I wanted to have more diversity and representation amongst my characters, but I also just wanted to see how a story gets structured with 15 roles rather than just a small, intimate cast. We get to pack in a lot of characterization very quickly in this book, but I think every single member of Emily’s extended family pays off.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Prepose: I’m working on a ton of stuff right now. I’m hard at work on GRAND THEFT ASTRO, my upcoming sci-fi heist series with artist Jordi Perez — I’m in the second-to-last script now, so we should be crossing the finish line on that soon. I’m also researching working on research for SPENCER & LOCKE III, which we just announced at New York Comic Con — if you thought Vol. 2 was ambitious, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Beyond that, I’m just working on more pitches for the next few years — I’ve got an epic fantasy series that we’re in the process of finding a home for, as well as some sci-fi series that I’m excited to start fleshing out. And in the vein of SPENCER & LOCKE and GOING TO THE CHAPEL, I’ve got another crime series that I can’t wait to start putting together. Crime is really my baby — I think it’s a naturally very tense and very human genre.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Prepose: If you’ve ever been to a wedding that feels more like a hostage situation, you’re going to love GOING TO THE CHAPEL. This is a book that’s tailor-made for fans of Crowded, Assassin Nation, The Fix, and Sex Criminals — it’s like if Tarantino had a baby with Arrested Development, then chose to bring that baby to a wedding. (Laughs) 

But in addition to delivering a flawed but badass action heroine in this series (not to mention a charming gang of Elvis-themed bank robbers), I think we get to explore some really universal themes with this book, about love, about commitment, about the leap of faith it takes to change your life — and how we sometimes have to face our pasts and conquer some pretty paralyzing fears in order to become the people we’re meant to be. If you’re looking for an action comedy that’ll hit you where you live and make you laugh all the way there, don’t miss out on the ultimate shotgun wedding in GOING TO THE CHAPEL.