Hey Matt Kindt! Your mom called. She said: “would you like to work on a comic book together?” And then you said “Okay.” And now you are, and it’s titled Gilt Frame.
Coming from the prolific Kindt and his mother, Margie Kraft Kindt, the three-issue whodunit series will be published through Flux House, the younger Kindt’s boutique imprint through Dark Horse Comics.
“Although it is a privilege and thrill to collaborate with someone of Matthew’s caliber and of his generation, the real joy and value is personal,” said Margie Kraft Kindt via a press release provided to Comic Book Club. “What a bonus at this time of life, the gift and pleasure of so many hours and days in the company of a grown-up son, sitting across from each other at our partner table, settling into our chairs as we brainstorm plot twists.Each of us takes on the roles of our characters. I develop the energetic persona of the star of Gilt Frame, the take-charge Meredith Pearson — Aunt Merry to her beloved nephew and best buddy, Sammy — while Matt shoots out dialogue for him. We toss around how they would play off each other — so completely immersed in the exhilarating work we are both passionate about, that every once in a while, we stop and ask each other, ‘Are you getting this down?’”
The book focuses on a character named Sam and his rich aunt, Aunt Merry. Together they stumble across a murder in Paris so bizarre they’re compelled to solve it.
“Sam, the young nephew in Gilt Frame, is really the star of the show here,” said Kindt. “The voice of reason who generously gives old Aunt Merry just enough screen time” not to embarrass herself. He’s always looking out for her as they solve a real puzzle of a murder. It’s not a locked room murder mystery. It’s more of an unlocked…UNHINGED murder mystery.””
As Kindt explains, this is somewhat based on reality: when he was a kid his mother constructed pretend crime scenes for him to solve. “Follow the fake bloody footprints to figure out what happened,” Kindt explained. “Pay attention to the broken clock. Why is that door open? That childhood memory actually explains a lot. Very formative. So of course it only makes sense for us to build another crime scene together. Brings me back to my roots and to what writing has always been for me – play. We’re having fun.”
Gilt Frame #1 runs 64 pages, and will be out in comic shops on August 7. Advance copies will be on sale at the Dark Horse booth at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, but you can check out three covers below right now:
