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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: The Night Mother
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WEBSITE: https://www.jeremyflambert.com/
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PERSONAL
Born in Bowie, Maryland.
EDUCATION:Attended University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and producer. Breakwater Studios, head of production and lead producer, 2018-23. Previously worked as an extras casting director and assistant, 2009, 2012-17.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2024, review of The Night Mother.
Publishers Weekly, August 19, 2024, review of The Night Mother, pp. 78+.
ONLINE
ComicBuzz, https://comicbuzz.com/ (April 4, 2025), author interview.
Freaksugar, https://www.freaksugar.com/ (October 14, 2024), Jed W. Keith, author interview.
Jeremy Lambert website, https://www.jeremyflambert.com/ (April 4, 2025).
Jeremy Lambert has written THE NIGHT MOTHER, THE HOLLYWOOD SPECIAL, DOOM PATROL with Gerard Way, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, HELLMOUTH, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, GOOSEBUMPS, as well as prose short stories THE SOMEWHERE SISTER, THE WAYWARD TALE, and THE HOUSE OF MOONS for Warhammer’s Black Library.
He worked as Head of Production and lead Producer for film production company Breakwater Studios, Ltd. for five years, culminating in two Academy Awards (2023’s The Last Repair Shop, and 2021’s The Queen of Basketball), with another receiving an Oscar nomination in 2020 (A Concerto is a Conversation). He now lends his assistance to Breakwater’s Story & Development department. Prior to this, he was an extras casting director and assistant, working on TRUE DETECTIVE, LA LA LAND, FAST & FURIOUS 7, MAGIC MIKE, TRUE BLOOD, GAME OF THRONES pickups, and many others.
Jeremy was born and raised in Bowie, Maryland and graduated from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. When he’s not writing, he’s reading, watching horror movies, painting Warhammer Fantasy miniatures, watching his beloved Washington Capitals, stuck in an awkward position thanks to his cats Gotrek & Felix, and/or thinking about nice socks.
Jeremy is represented by Tamara Kawar at DeFiore & Company (tamara@defliterary.com)
Jeremy Lambert is a writer and filmmaker from Bowie, Maryland. He’s known for his work on DOOM PATROL, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, HELLMOUTH, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, GOOSEBUMPS, and WARHAMMER, among others. His original horror book THE HOLLYWOOD SPECIAL (IDW/Scott Snyder’s Dark Spaces) with artist Claire Roe is forthcoming in June 2024, and the first volume in his original graphic novel trilogy titled THE NIGHT MOTHER (Oni Press) with artist Alexa Sharpe will be published in October 2024. As a film producer and Head of Production for Breakwater Studios, his films have been nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one.
ComicBuzz Chats With Jeremy Lambert and Alexa Sharpe
With the release of The Night Mother Vol. 1 from Oni Press this week, we are delighted to be joined by writer and filmmaker Jeremy Lambert and illustrator Alexa Sharpe. Jeremy has written many comics, including Doom Patrol, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellmouth, Dungeons & Dragons, Goosebumps, The Hollywood Special and Warhammer. As a film producer for Breakwater Studios, his productions have won an Academy Award and James Beard Award. Alexa has worked on Lumberjanes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rolled & Told, and Uncanny Magazine.
Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Alexa: I’m a book and comic illustrator from Los Angeles. I specialize in fantasy and horror. I’m hugely passionate about historical fashion too, and love including it in my art.
JFL: I’m Jeremy and I’m roughly 3 pumpkins and 22 horror movies in a trench coat. With glasses. And, luckily, hands. I write comics with them! Sometimes I make movies too.
Jeremy, can you tell us about the origins of The Night Mother?
JFL: I’d had this image of a gravedigger’s daughter who helped dig the graves that I couldn’t get out of my head, and then the emotional hook of her loneliness and her only friends being the ones she buries took root. And the Night Mother came about because of my obsession with the moon and with myth. Over time, some different ideas coalesced there. My own mom (nothing like the Night Mother, thankfully) works at Goddard Space and Flight Center for NASA so I was essentially born with a fascination for space.
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Alexa, what did you think when you first heard the pitch for The Night Mother?
Alexa: As soon as I read it, it felt like an instant fit. Jeremy crafted this world that really draws you in and holds you there. It was like an immediate inspiration for me, I was already conjuring up art and imagery in my head on that first read-through. I knew I had to jump aboard.
What can you tell us about Madeline Tock?
JFL: Madeline is anxious, alone, and can hear the whispers of the dead. She’s never really had a friend, a living friend, and so she’s unsure of herself. Death’s been around her in the graveyard from a young age, so her understanding of life and living is a bit different. She doesn’t know what the future holds, and everything is turned upside down for her when the moon’s stuck in the night sky and the Night Mother descends to take the souls of the living. Maddy knows that what’s happening is wrong, knows it in her gut, and she’s going to have to learn to trust herself and her instincts in order to put her world back together. Not an easy thing for someone with low self-esteem and confidence.
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Jeremy, what made Alexa the right artist for The Night Mother?
JFL: Alexa was the first person in mind for the book. I’d seen her work and was just such a massive fan that I wrote her name down immediately. Our instincts and sensibilities really line up in such an organic way that it’s been a really incredible process. I’m so lucky we get to tell this story together. She’s the beating heart of it, and I’m so grateful. I feel like I was thinking of the story in terms of her art the entire time I was writing up the pitch. There’s a few things central to her work that initially captured my attention and bring all this together, the juxtaposition of beauty and terror that she brings to everything, her delicate linework, her attention to costume and design, and being able to scare me with a single expression… it’s magic.
Alexa, you created all of the art for The Night Mother. What part of that process did you enjoy the most?
Alexa: Inking is always my favorite step in my art-making process, I look forward to it in every piece I do. Line art is a core part of my style, so I’ve really made use of lots of swooping, flowing lines throughout every panel in The Night Mother. I wanted the world to feel alive and in motion- and a little ghostly, too!
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Jeremy, how did Oni Press get involved with The Night Mother?
JFL: Through our wonderful editor Sarah Gaydos! Sarah actually gave me my first opportunity on licensed comics with Goosebumps back when she was with IDW, and we’d always talked about original stories. Especially original horror stories. And when she was editor in chief over at Oni, I swung for the fences with the story I most wanted to tell and I sent her the pitch for The Night Mother.
How long have you been working on The Night Mother?
Alexa: Jeremy pitched The Night Mother to me around 2017-2018, so I’ve been on the team for 5, almost 6 years now.
JFL: Goodness, it has been about that long. What a time! I wrote the first ideas down for Night Mother in 2014, so about 4 years before pitching it to
Alexa. All told, it will have been a decade from the idea in a notebook/first pitch to publication, which is wild to think about.
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Alexa, artistically, was it a challenge to bring Jeremy’s script to life?
Alexa: I find it incredibly easy to work with Jeremy’s writing, he’s an excellent storyteller. He has such rich imagery and careful layout descriptions, while still giving me plenty of room to interpret and rearrange things visually. It’s a skillful balance that I always appreciate about his scripts!
Jeremy, who is the Night Mother?
JFL: Normally? A benevolent being who harvests the souls of the dead to turn them into beautiful moonlight to shine on for their loved ones and the living. But this story isn’t normal, and this Night Mother isn’t benevolent. When this Night Mother took up the mantle, she grew more and more interested in how she could use these souls to her advantage. And now she needs more… taking the souls of the living in addition to the dead…
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Alexa, could you tell us visually how the Night Mother came about?
Alexa: Going in, I knew I wanted to make the Night Mother both elegant and terrifying to look at. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from Victorian and Edwardian fashion for everyone’s costuming in the book, but I remember initially thinking of designing the Night Mother herself like a ‘Gibson girl gone very wrong’. Her silhouette is all about volume- billowy and overpowering, like she embodies the cosmos.
How would you describe The Night Mother?
JFL: A myth of moon and monster about a little girl who learns to trust her gut.
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With The Night Mother releasing on October 8th, how do you feel?
Alexa: Very excited and proud! This has been in the works for a long time, and is the first original graphic novel I’ve ever worked on. I’m really looking forward to finally getting to see our hard work as a real live book.
JFL: Same as Alexa, so incredibly excited and proud. I can’t wait for people to see Alexa’s beautiful art. Writing for a younger audience seems like my default state, and no story has been as present in my life as this one. I can’t wait for readers to go on this journey with Maddy and the Night Mother.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
JFL: Thank you so much for taking a look, and we hope you enjoy The Night Mother! Beware the Sleepers.
We would like to say a big thank you to Jeremy and Alexa for chatting with us. We would like to wish them the best of luck with The Night Mother Vol. 1.
Interview: Jeremy Lambert & Alexa Sharpe Bring the Ethereal & the Supernatural to THE NIGHT MOTHER
Jed W. Keith Oct 14, 2024 Comic Books
Halloween is almost upon us, and fans of fright and fantasy are always looking for new worlds to explore, both for spooky season and all the other months of the year. Fortunate for us, writer Jeremy Lambert and artist Alexa Sharpe are ready to take us to realms unfamiliar and wondrous in their new graphic novel The Night Mother Book 1, on sale now from Oni Press. The first of book of a trilogy, this first installment introduces us to the mysterious and inscrutable Night Mother, tasked with sending the souls of the dead to their eternal rest and reward. A desire for power, however, pushes the Night Mother to turn her attention to the souls of the living, leaving 12-year-old Madeline Tock to defend her town from the living and the dead from suffering.
I spoke with Jeremy Lambert and Alexa Sharpe about the conceit of The Night Mother Book 1, the Edwardian and Victorian influences on the plot, characterization, and art, the themes of loneliness woven into the story, and the folkloric mood of the book.
The Night Mother Book 1 is one of those comics I tore through, cover to cover, and found myself reflecting on days after, thumbing through the pages here and there. If you’re looking for a new fantasy world that also feels somewhat familiar, The Night Mother is well worth your time.
THE NIGHT MOTHER Book 1 cover
FreakSugar: For folks reading this, what is the idea behind The Night Mother?
Jeremy F. Lambert: The Night Mother is a woman who lives on the moon. Her gown is a map of the cosmos, her hair is a tangled constellation, and her eyes are like the lights of faraway stars. She descends to Earth at every full moon to gather the souls of the dead in her old and creaky lantern and then turn them into moonlight, to forever shine on for their loved ones and the living. But now she’s halted the full moon in the night sky. There’s no more sun, no break of day. And she’s not just taking the souls of the dead, but of the LIVING as well. And our story follows the only one who can stop her: a little girl that lives in the graveyard, named Madeline Tock. Because Madeline can hear the whispers of the dead, and they’re telling her that the Night Mother wants one soul in particular for her nefarious plans: and that’s Madeline’s.
THE NIGHT MOTHER Book 1 page 1
FS: What can you tell us about our principal characters, Madeline and the Night Mother?
JFL: Madeline is a lonely kid who lives next to the graveyard. Her only friends are buried in the ground, and she can always hear what they’re saying. Even still, that doesn’t exactly help with the loneliness. Just makes it worse, really. She does her part though, burying the dead in the graveyard with her dad and helping them find some peace before their whispers go away. The Night Mother hears those whispers too… which comes with the job of ferrying souls to the moon, though, so that’s par for the course. What’s not par for the course is that this Night Mother, for the first time in a long line of Night Mothers, has warped her responsibilities and has stopped the moon in the night sky. We don’t know why she’s gathering all these souls of the dead and living, but it can’t be good…
THE NIGHT MOTHER Book 1 page 2
FS: I love the whimsical, beautiful, and sometimes unsettling feel of the story. What was the discussion like about what the book’s look should be?
JFL: The short answer is that Alexa is an incredible artist and storyteller! Slightly longer one is that Alexa and I, along with our editor Sarah Gaydos, talked a lot about the atmosphere, color palette, and designs of the story for a long time before going to layouts, which was a helpful approach, because it gave us some time to steep all those ideas into something nocturnal and elemental that gradually gets singed at the edges with more otherworldly and fantastic color and design. But it roots so much of the story in this Edwardian design with earth and moon tones that bring the familiar, and then whenever we’re dealing with the Night Mother we get the more unfamiliar elements. And Alexa just took all those ideas far beyond anything I could write up! With Becca Carey bringing so much weight to the words with wonderful approaches to the Night Mother and the whispers!
Alexa Sharpe: Jeremy’s script was so vivid from the get-go, he has a writing style that’s really easy to get immersed in. The overarching whimsical eeriness was there from the beginning, building off that, creating the initial character art and pitch pages, felt like second nature to me. From there, Jeremy and Sarah, our editor, really honed my interpretations.
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FS: As much as this story has fantastical elements, it seems like its focus is a good deal on loneliness and how to combat that. Is that a fair reading? If so, how did you decide to convey that, both in story and in imagery?
JFL: It’s absolutely fair! It’s a central foundation of Madeline’s character didn’t necessarily intend it at first, but I realized pretty quickly that’s why Maddy and her dad are out on an island, removed from the rest of the town. Why Maddy doesn’t have any friends but the dead. That loneliness and somewhat forced isolation are a foundation for Maddy to want more than this, and to highlight that she doesn’t have too many people to talk to about life. Second guessing her gut instinct sometimes. She’s unsure of things, like so many kids are, like I was, and who trusted what other people (whether that’s teachers, authority figures, parents, etc.) thought of us and told us we should be perhaps a little too much. So having Maddy at this remove, and then introducing a character called Nura the Lamplighter really brings so much of that into focus, story-wise.
AS: It’s absolutely an undercurrent that runs through Maddy’s story. On the visual side of things, Jeremy wrote in a lot of scenes in which a character is set against vast, sweeping scenery- usually the darkness of the night sky or the ocean. I really tried to push that sense of loneliness, especially when Maddy is on the page- where often the moon is her only company.
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FS: The story has the feel of something pulled straight out of folklore or mythology. Were you influenced by tales of old when putting this tale together?
JFL: Absolutely! I lived in a little library of fairy tales around my desk for quite some time and it was wonderful. Mostly Grimm tales, but I scoured the shelves of libraries and used bookstores for a long time and bought far too many books on myths and deities as well. The research is always so fun for me, but one of the most interesting deep dives was on the moon itself, various topography maps and names given to craters or points of interest. There were a couple books in particular that were helpful, one on the more topographical side of things, (21st Century Atlas of the Moon by Charles A. Wood and Maurice J.S. Collins) and another on the Moon as it relates to storytelling and mythos worldwide (The Moon: Myth and Image by Jules Cashford).
AS: On the art side of things, I definitely wanted to match the folkloric mood Jeremy has baked into the script. One of my north stars for developing the character designs and environments in The Night Mother is Victorian and Edwardian children’s book illustrations. It’s such a classical time period, familiar but whimsical, and very often associated with fairy tales.
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FS: You have plans for further stories. Can you tease what those might look like?
JFL: It’s such an interesting project, because I wrote Book 1 in 2018/2019, Book 2 in 2023, and Book 3 is going to start up shortly. So it’s felt like I’ve been a bit of a different writer for each book, just with the very same heartbeat and emotional North Star throughout. And this really lends itself well to these 3 books in particular, just given Maddy’s arc and journey, and the focus of each book. I don’t think it will be much of a surprise that the moon (where the Night Mother and a character you’ll meet called Nura the Lamplighter come from) will factor heavily in Books 2 and 3, and the adventure gets as grand and mysterious as you can imagine!
FS: If you had one last pitch for The Night Mother, what would it be?
JFL: Cottagecore Coraline! Ha, I heard that from a friend at Oni (Kaia!) and thought it was apt.
The Night Mother Book 1 is on sale now from Oni Press.
From the official Book 1 description:
Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic fiction since 1997, is proud to announce THE NIGHT MOTHER– a mysterious new graphic novel from Jeremy Lambert (Doom Patrol, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Goosebumps) and Alexa Sharpe (Lumberjanes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Uncanny Magazine). THE NIGHT MOTHER is the first in a series of three volumes that will wrap readers in star-filled worlds of coffins and whispers, fate and foes – watch for book one ascending onto shelves October 8th!
The moon is stuck like a broken clock in the midnight sky, the sun a distant memory. No one in this quiet seaside town can remember how long this unnatural darkness has lasted. No one, that is, except for the curious girl who lives in the graveyard, caring for the dead: twelve-year-old Madeline Tock. In gratitude, the departed whisper their worries to her, sounding just like her overprotective but loving father: beware this endless night and she who causes it.
Because there’s someone else who can hear the whispers, too . . . someone whose gown is a map of the cosmos, hair a tangled constellation, eyes like the lights of faraway stars. The Night Mother. Her elemental duty is to gather the souls of the dead in her lantern, then send them to their eternal rest as beautiful moonlight. But when her hunger for power drives her to take souls from the living, Madeline bravely stands up to defend her town and those she loves. Can Madeline help bring back the sun, or will she be lured by the starry promises of this mysterious woman?
“The Night Mother is a supernatural snow globe world of the unknown where a frightened Madeline Tock must learn to trust herself in a place of warped expectations. A place where the dead can whisper and the woman from the moon gathers their souls in her lantern,” said Lambert. “We all have our own crucible when we are younger… a pressure cooker of fears, loves, and discoveries… when we learn about who we are along with the many shadows that follow us. This is Maddy’s.”
The Night Mother is perfect for fans of dark fantasy and cozy horror–this eerily beautiful graphic novel is for older middle-grade readers and resonates with both young adult and adult audiences. Tweens and teens who enjoy Laika films such as Kubo and the Two Strings, Coraline, and books like Through the Woods, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The Starless Sea, and The Plentiful Darkness are sure to find haunting solace in this graphic novel.
Written by Jeremy Lambert (Doom Patrol, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Goosebumps) and richly illustrated by Alexa Sharpe (Lumberjanes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Uncanny Magazine), The Night Mother is a lush gothic tale perfect for readers of all ages who relish in the wonder of the night sky– don’t miss its debut October 8th!
Lambert, Jeremy THE NIGHT MOTHER VOL. 1 Oni Press (Children's None) $14.99 10, 8 ISBN: 9781637154946
In a moonlit world, a girl contends with her own shadowy origins.
The sun is nowhere to be seen, and the moon bathes a small riverside town in ominous gloom. Gravedigger and astronomer Barnabas Tock observes this phenomenon with increasing concern. His adopted daughter, Madeline, is plagued by whispers from the graveyard dead's whispers and by near-constant nightmares. Alternating between third-person narration and 12-year-old Madeline's perspective, the book deftly lays the groundwork for an intriguing legend: A Night Mother governs the lunar world and turns the souls of the departed into moonlight when the moon is full. In every generation, a new Night Mother is born, ascending at the age of 13. The current Night Mother is a tyrannical phantom, plunging the world into darkness so she can consume the souls of the living as well as the dead. She harbors a dark plan for her offspring--brave, hard-bitten Madeline. To save her father, her town, and the souls bound in moonlight, Madeline and new friend Nura must find a way to stop her mother. Galactic greens, blues, and purples evoke inky darkness, while the immense Night Mother feels inescapable--a horrifically elegant Victorian ghost who resembles a gothic twist on Maxfield Parrish-esque tableaux. Barnabas is tan-skinned with gray hair, Madeline is light-skinned with dark hair, and Nura is brown-skinned with blue-green hair.
Myth-making with a majestic monster at its heart, laced with style and suspense.(Graphic fantasy. 9-15)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Lambert, Jeremy: THE NIGHT MOTHER VOL. 1." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A808342871/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=65e49b49. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.
The Night Mother (The Night Mother #1)
Jeremy Lambert, illus. by Alexa Sharpe. Oni, $14.99 paper (88p) ISBN 978-1-63715-494-6
Lambert (Dark Spaces, for adults) fuses ancient myth with modern anxieties to conjure an unsettling world in this dark and atmospheric graphic novel fairy tale. Twelve-year-old Madeline Tock, who can hear the whispers of the dead, lives next to a graveyard with her father in a world of perpetual night. Her life changes dramatically when she learns about the Night Mother, an otherworldly being who gathers the souls of the dead during each full moon. When the Night Mother's growing hunger for power drives her to start harvesting the spirits of the living, Madeline endeavors to confront her. Evocative compositions by Sharpe highlight the story's grotesque supernatural elements to complement Madeline's resilience in the face of darkness, which forms the emotional core of this eerie narrative. The illustrator's use of light and shadow enhances the thematic tension between hope, fear, love, and loss. The author similarly adds depth and pathos to the adventure's thrilling elements by exploring family dynamics and personal demons through Madeline's struggle to overcome her past and protect her loved ones. It's a haunting yet poignant story with a cliffhanger ending that will leave readers hungry for more. Characters are rendered with varying skin tones. Ages 9--up. (Oct.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"The Night Mother (The Night Mother #1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 32, 19 Aug. 2024, pp. 78+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A807359486/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fd357e58. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.