The Wake is a hotly anticipated 10-issue mini-series from writer Scott Snyder (Batman, American Vampire) and artist Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus) that explores the horrors lurking beneath the surface of our planet’s final frontier: the ocean. In the words of its publisher, Vertigo:

When Marine Biologist Lee Archer is approached by the Department of Homeland Security for help with a new threat, she declines, but quickly realizes they won't take no for an answer. Soon she is plunging to the depths of the Arctic Circle to a secret, underwater oil rig where they've discovered something miraculous and terrifying…

IGN had a chance to sit down with the creators of The Wake to talk about flawed but heroic characters, the process of building a story from the ground up, and the majesty of the deep, blue sea.: [Laughs] Puns!: It was an idea I was playing with a long time ago, basically almost two years ago. I was thinking about doing something that was horror and sci-fi based that would deal with some of the things that I’ve always been fascinated about, those sorts of deep ocean mysteries. I think it was right when Sean and I started working on American Vampire when I brought it up to him that it might be something we might be able to do together in the future and we decided that we were going to do it and it really became a matter of when we would have time.Over the last couple of years, I sort of refined the story a bit and it got bigger in some ways and more contained in others. Right about the time when he was beginning Punk Rock Jesus, it became clear that once he was done that maybe we could do this together, so we tried to set aside the time. So it’s been a long time in the making but, you know, there was no way I wanted to do it with anyone else.: And Scott fought for me to be on the book so I appreciate him backing me up on that.: For me, I’ve always been fascinated by this idea of the last places on earth where there’s still mystery or there’s still the possibility of things hidden. A lot of the time, I go to the past because it’s kind of unknowable so, for me, the idea in American Vampire is “What if this monster existed in the past and influenced different moments in American history?”But the actual, physical location of the ocean is this incredibly unappreciated mysterious landscape. Such a huge percentage of it is completely unmapped and unknown and they say two thirds of the creatures in the sea are still undiscovered. Once I started looking into it, it became clear that I’d love to do something like, there’s a creature that we have not found yet that unlocks all of these mysteries that have to do with the folklore of the sea, the legends of the sea, the different things that people have found in the sea inspiring and terrifying over the years and link it to human evolution. And start talking about whether or not there’s something even more terrifying down there.So that’s how it came about and then it was about developing a loose narrative for it and figuring out who the main characters would be and that’s when I brought Sean in, saying, you know, these are the bones of the thing, do you want to develop it with me?[At this point, tragedy struck, and Sean’s call dropped. We soldiered on until his triumphant return]: Well, I love writing her, first of all. She’s a marine biologist and she specializes in aquatic mammals. She’s also really, really fascinated by vocalizations and so, she’s kind of about the language of the sea and the call of the sea in that way. She’s a really respected expert in her field and yet she’s done some things or had some things happen to her that have kind of put her in a bad place professionally and personally. And so she’s the kind of character that I love. She’s a bit of an underdog where she believes in what she does, she does the right thing and it kind of has gotten her into a bad place by being a good person.A lot of the story is not only about her coming face to face with this thing that has haunted her for a long time when it comes to the call of the ocean but also about her redemption and her sense of triumph and realizing that the things that people have said about her and the things that have happened to her aren’t valid. It’s definitely a really character driven story when it comes to her and she’s a tremendous amount of fun to write. She’s both really heroic for me in some ways and also completely flawed in ways I find endearing.[By now, Sean Murphy has risen from the depths of poor signal and returned to us.]

IGN: What sort of narrative and aesthetic influences are you bringing to The Wake?

: Before I cut out again… for a sort of underwater sci-fi story, I would look towards maybe Abyss or Alien or things like that for the art. I looked at a lot of NASA technology for some of the tech and how submarines are actually built, not trying to go for easy sci-fi but actually trying to bring as much realism as I possibly could because that’s usually what Scott does for the scripts himself so I wanted to keep pace with him.: And for me, you know, seeing a lot of the same in the DNA; the Abyss, Jaws. We were just saying Alien. One of the fun things about doing something at the bottom of the ocean is that it’s such a fascinating environment but it’s also maybe the deadliest environment on earth and almost impossible to go into. It’s kind of really scary and wondrous at the same time so, for me, it’s a really ripe landscape for a story.: I agree, there’s definitely two parts to the story in that there is one part that is incredibly claustrophobic and horror-driven, almost like a haunted house at the bottom of the ocean. Then there’s another part that’s expansive, science fiction adventure. You’ll see it from the first pages when you open it. I’ll think you’ll get a glimpse of the more expansive kind of world that will be a fun part of the story but then we’re gonna try to lodge you into the scary stuff pretty soon after.: One thing I liked was that we’ve worked together before and we got into a good rhythm but this time around, I would appreciate that we would talk on the phone, that Scott would tell me story ideas. I dabble with writing so I could be kind of an asset. When he sits down to write the script, it's usually pretty broken down. Oftentimes he’ll just hand me dialogue because he knows I don’t need too many descriptions because I’ll come up with them on my own. I appreciate that he’s kind of tailored the approach to how we work together. It makes it so much better for me.: And when I work with somebody like Sean, I know he’s going to tell the story, visually, about a thousand times better than I could. So, I give suggestions where I think I can be helpful but, for the most part, I try and just talk about what the page is about. Like, this page is about the tension between these characters or a discovery or a sense of wonder and I give the full dialogue and panel it, but that’s where I can be most helpful. Giving the sense of what the scene entails emotionally and letting him work his magic.: Exactly. And it is rare when you get that kind of collaboration. And it’s so rare that you have the actual artist who’s slated for the book available, have the artist and the writer know each other, have a creative sense individually. Normally, I’m just a hired gun but in this case, I’m sort of helping create this so it’s very different. I’m hoping that when people sit down to read it, they’ll feel that.: Yeah, definitely. Sean’s like my co-writer as well. If I could co-draw it, I would, but [they both laugh] you know.

Melissa Grey is a absolutely terrified of the ocean and not simply because fish make love in it. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey