Now in comic shops and hitting major bookstores tomorrow, November 17, Vertigo's new original graphic novel Luna Park aims to transcend time periods while telling a Russian immigrants tale of his time caught inside of a disillusioned dream of American success. Written by the New York Times bestselling novelist Kevin Baker with art by Danijel Zezelj, Luna Park is a unique look at one of America's most enchanting locations, with a vicious backdrop of Russian lineage. Don't forget to check out our review of Luna Park.

I got the chance to speak with Kevin Baker, who indulged my questions ranging from Coney Island to the Yankees.

CraveOnline: Firstly, thank you for taking the time out of your day to talk to us.

Kevin Baker: Oh, no problem. It's my pleasure.

CraveOnline: So, you're a New York Times best selling novelist that's published numerous books. What brought Luna Park to the comics medium as opposed to doing another novel?

Kevin Baker: Well you know, I was approached by Vertigo originally about doing a comic and we batted around a couple of ideas, and it just seemed to work really well in terms of being something that could work in a more visual medium. You know, it has various elements of noir and fantasy and time travel that I think really lend themselves to the comic book form and to the more visual style.

CraveOnline: Okay, so was this a book that always had a home at Vertigo? Did it originate with them?

Kevin Baker: Well, no, they suggested something to do with Coney Island and I come up with the story. I'd written a previous book about Coney Island called Dreamland, but there are so many stories out there, so much to delve into that I wanted to go ahead and pull out some more. When they suggested that I came up with this idea.

CraveOnline: I was actually going to bring that up, that Dreamland is set in Coney Island as well.

Kevin Baker: Right, in part, yeah.

CraveOnline: What is it about Coney Island that intrigues you so much?

Kevin Baker: Well, it's one of these kind of mystical places that's sort of on the margin of a great city. And there are these other elements of sand and water and a certain desolation in the winter that kind of create a mystique about it. It's almost at the bottom of New York, if you look at it in one way, and it's kind of where everybody sort of tumbles down to, and have for 150 years. And always underneath this sort of surface level, pure, happy, amusement park thing, there's kind of a darker noir feeling to it. Underneath the rides there have always been things like cheap saloons, some brothels, and kind of a whole hidden world that I think works very well for this sort of underworld story that I'm telling in Luna Park.