Eisner-nominated writer and artist Ibrahim Moustafa (Jaeger, High Crimes) explores themes of redemption, sacrifice and found family in Cyn, the follow-up to his 2021 graphic novel, The Count. Moustafa expands the character arc of Meris a.k.a. Cyn, the governmental cybernetic enforcer and harbinger of death and destruction.
Suffering from injury and amnesia, Meris awakens on a remote farm under the care of Ness, an engineer and adoptive father of two orphan girls. Ness attempts to control Ness’ violent urges while nursing her back to health and teaching her to embrace her inner humanity. But violence follows Meris everywhere and threatens to undermine the mental stability she has worked hard to achieve with Ness and his adopted daughters on their remote corner of the galactic frontier.
Moustafa’s Cyn, the second book of a three book deal he signed with Humanoids, is atmospheric, moody and thought-provoking. Moustafa talks to The Beat about world-building, artistic influences that went into making this spinoff to The Count and who he envisions playing the role of Cyn and Ness on the big screen.
The Beat: Thank you for talking to The Beat about Cyn! Can you talk about the inspiration behind this new book and why you decided to go in the direction of a sci-fi western?
Ibrahim Moustafa: My pleasure, thanks for having me. Cyn is a loose sequel to my 2021 book Count, which was my sci-fi reimagining of The Count of Monte Cristo. I set that in a sci-fi world because there was a lot of world-building I wanted to do that would make the book more visually interesting and way more fun to draw. Cyn/Meris was a supporting character in that, and I had always planned to continue her story in this manner. So, in setting her on a path where she’s looking for anonymity, it made sense for her to head to a dusty, less populated corner of that world.
The Beat: What I found interesting was the spiritual language peppered throughout this story of redemption and sacrifice, especially in the relationship between Meris and Ness. Was this deliberate or did the dialog evolve in the course of the story?
Moustafa: A little of both, I’d say. Her arc was always planned to be one of redemption given her sordid past. She was under the control of an evil autocrat before, so I wanted her to experience the exact opposite with Ness. He’s inspired by someone in my life who really helped to shape me, and who showed me the right path during some very pivotal years in my youth, but who let me walk that path on my own. So, while I was following the plan I’d laid out for the characters, a lot of it comes together in the making of it.
The Beat: Let’s talk about the world-building of Cyn. What artistic and literary influences did you draw on to create this foreboding and predatory frontier world?
Moustafa: The nice thing was that the world was already built in Count, and with Cyn I got to explore a different corner of it. The germ of the idea for this world was based on floating islands. I think they look really cool, and I wanted to make the prison in Count reside on an inescapable floating landmass, but I needed to make it make it make sense. So, I conceived a world where reverse polarities in the minerals in the earth cause the islands to hover, like two magnets repelling each other. That led me to design a society that based their industrial revolution around that conceit, harnessing those polarities, rather than on the combustion engine.
That meant that vehicles would look different, and so I based them around animals. Their ships look like whales, their “steeds,” or hover-bikes, look like horses, etc. With Cyn, I stepped away from the developed metropolis in Count and asked myself what the western-town version of that world would look like.
The Beat: What were some of the challenges in bringing this story to life?
Moustafa: Honestly, just drawing crowd scenes [laughing]. When I get to tell a story in this way, writing and drawing it, it’s just a joy to make, and I’m working unencumbered. So, giving myself hard things to draw is about as tough as it gets.
The Beat: If I were to see this on the big screen, I feel like there is a Jeffrey Wright hidden somewhere in Ness’ development and Carrie-Ann Moss in Meris. Your thoughts on this casting possibility?
Moustafa: Jeffrey Wright would be a PERFECT Ness. I love Carrie-Anne Moss, so I definitely would not sneeze at her playing Meris/Cyn. I didn’t have anyone in mind for her when I designed her back when I made Count, but as I got into her action scenes in Cyn, I thought Sophia Boutella would be great in the role because of her physicality. Funnily enough, Rebel Moon came out after I made this book, and there’s a similar premise in that movie, and I thought “well that’s out the window now” [laughing].
The Beat: I want to read more about Meris’ journey in reclaiming her humanity. Will Cyn become a continuing series?
Moustafa: There are no plans for further exploits of hers as of now; I’d like for her to get to live that peaceful life she’s been after. But if the right idea comes along, I’d love to revisit her. In the meantime, there’s more of her in the pages of the aforementioned Count, where we can see some of the violent past she was forced to live.
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