Every background drawn in The Nameless City was referenced from real life, although I did occasionally alter the designs of things in service to the story. Hicks: I did a lot of research into Chinese architecture. How did you go about creating a unique look for the space? Were you looking to any specific periods and styles of architecture, or blending across regions and periods of time? Paste: The layout and architecture of the Nameless City both loom large throughout the graphic novel. This idea that the City had been named something different by conqueror after conqueror, so as an act of passive resistance, the City’s natives, people who didn’t identify with any outside nation, just refuse to call it by any name.

I was reading about the history of Beijing, and how it had been named and renamed over its long history, and I thought, well, maybe this is something I can use as a theme in the story. Originally I wanted the City to have an original name, perhaps one that was obliterated by time. When did the notion of having a setting without a name (or with so many names that it became effectively nameless) resonate with you?įaith Erin Hicks: Like many things that happen during the creative process of making a story, the idea of the City being nameless came about by coincidence. Paste: The Nameless City’s prologue is dedicated to establishing just how the namelessness of the Nameless City came to be. And given that Hicks’ work has encompassed a host of genres, we also discussed which ones she’d like to tackle in future projects. We talked with Hicks about the process of creating this new fiction, as well as explored her artistic evolution, the change in her process that resulted in this graphic novel and more. These relationships allow Hicks to explore how vastly different people embrace the world they call home, but it also presents explorations of political occupation and generations-long resentments, both of which have plenty of resonance in today’s landscape.

This graphic novel is the first book in a planned trilogy, focusing on the growing friendship between the characters Kai, a young man of the society currently occupying the city, and Rat, a young woman whose family holds a long and intricate relationship with a land perpetually assuming new identities. Within its pages, Hicks explores the titular Nameless City, a contentious space with a long and mysterious history. Faith Erin Hicks’s new graphic novel, The Nameless City, abounds with political intrigue, thrilling fight scenes and tense rooftop chases.

The nameless city graphic novel