If you’ve ever been to a Dragon Con before, you have definitely heard the Crüxshadows’ music as it pumps from their booth outside the Marriott Marquis Ballroom near the elevators. Rogue and the Crüxshadows have become an enduring staple of the convention. They first played here around 1996 and found themselves being asked back year after year. According to Rogue, playing Dragon Con has become part of the band’s identity and they see the convention as their home base. At the time they first attended, the general public had access to the convention and were able to walk through the hotels without a badge. “The exposure that Dragon Con gave us back then was really important to the band… The fact that we came year after year after year has allowed us to see what works and what doesn’t work and to make changes and improve things,” said Rogue.
Rogue also said that he felt that the Crüxshadows were instrumental in the inclusion of the goth and dark wave subcultures into Dragon Con. “Dragon Con is my favorite place to live,” said Rogue. “I love being able to make something that has an impact on people’s lives… I love access to human beings. I love being able to reach people.
But Rogue, never one to limit himself creatively, is not just an accomplished musician and visual artist. He and his collaborator, Ringo-Award-nominated comic creator and playwright Brenton Lengel, have been working for many years on a novel called Afterall. It started out as a musical, but the concept grabbed Rogue right from the start when Lengel shared it with him. They started trading ideas on the story, which has grown into their partnership. Lengel met Rogue for the first time as a fan of the band when he went to see them play in Nashville. He saw Rogue again at a show in Cincinnati, where he told him how much the Crüxshadows music has meant to him and how it had gotten him through some tough times. Lengel mentioned that he was on his way to NY to learn how to become a playwright. “Rogue just reached across, put his hand on my shoulder and was like, ‘Cool. Write a play. Put us in it.”
The collaboration between Lengel and Rogue has pushed both of them into expanding creatively. Lengel said that his work is better than what it would be otherwise if he wasn’t collaborating with Rogue. According to Lengel, he and Rogue are very much yin to each other’s yang. Rogue describes himself as being a perfectionist in a lot of ways and says that it hurts him if something falls short, but Lengel pushes him to being able to take the next step, describing him as being very good at getting things done and moving things forward. In contrast, Rogue pushes Lengel for better, to not settle for easy and not allow his training to take over. “Every single step needs to be intentional,” said Rogue.
“Rogue pulls me closer towards my idea of being a true artist that I’ve had since the very beginning,” said Lengel.
The story of Afterall started as a tribute to a friend of Lengel’s who passed away suddenly and asks the reader to imagine an afterlife where “all the collected hopes, thoughts, and dreams of all who have ever lived and all who have yet to live are smashed together into one world.” It is a place where not just your idea of the afterlife is true; everyone else’s is, too. Over the years, the story has evolved far past the original seed of it into places where neither of them expected it to go. Rogue described it as a kind of Wizard of Oz story that follows Dorothy out of the black and white world and into the technicolor one.
Because the story has evolved so much from the original concept, Rogue and Lengel do a reading from the novel at Dragon Con and answer questions about it. It gives them a chance to update people on the project, where it is, and where it is going. This year the reading and Q&A session is on Friday at 7PM in Regency V at the Hyatt. They recently completed and published an illustrated section of the novel titled Afterall: Into the Void, which will be available for sale at Lengel’s booth in AmericasMart 2 (Booth 308, fourth floor).
Lengel also has a new volume of his comic series Snow White Zombie Apocalypse that has been fully funded on Kickstarter. Previous volumes have been drawn by Ringo-Award-nominated artist Hyeondo Park and Eisner-Award-winner Luana Vecchio. The upcoming volume will be drawn by Adam Bryce Thomas, who is best known for his work on IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog and Samurai Jack. Thomas has previously created variant covers for the series, but this is the first time he has been the main artist on the series. If you’re looking for either Rogue or Lengel, you can also find them at the Crüxshadows table in the Marriott on the Marquis level. Just follow the sound of the beat. Or look for one of the Crüxshadows fairies.
