Broken Frontier

Indie creator Jason Martin brings together his love of reality TV and comics in the super charged, super sexy Super Real! I sat down with him for a lengthy interview.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Do you watch much reality TV? How has this influenced Super Real?

JASON MARTIN: I do actually, ever since the first season of The Real World, I was hooked. I’ve actually watched every season of that, though I have missed some episodes of the last couple seasons. I really don’t need to watch that show anymore, as I’m now so far removed from that age…

I also always watch Survivor, that’s my favorite reality show. It’s hit or miss in terms of cast, or payoff, but they always add wrinkles and keep the show fresh. The last couple seasons have featured improved challenges too.

So, yes, Super Real is obviously influenced by reality TV. How could it not be really? I’ve watched enough reality shows to write this stuff in my sleep.

I’m not trying to replicate any certain reality shows, or striving to achieve parody here. The story actually, without giving away too much, has become less and less about actually giving you a comic book version of a reality show. It really uses that premise as a vehicle to tell a story.

BF: Can you give us a brief rundown of the concept and the characters in the book?

JM: The concept is reality TV meets comic book fiction.

The story starts with an upstart extreme programming network looking to do a reality show beyond anything that’s been done. They happen to have a producer with an in at some big genetics firm with a breakthrough in biogenetic technology. So naturally, the world’s first “reality” show about comic book super heroes is born!

The network selects five participants, between the ages of 18 and 30, and signs them to million dollar contracts to become genetically enhanced.

So, you’ve got an extreme programming network doing the casting, and a genetics firm trying to make a splash with it’s technology, it’s a formula ripe for combustible results.

I really had fun building this crazy cast, that’s all at once true to life (and hopefully believable, and relatable), but at the same time full of all these quirks and back-stories that make for a great read. Just like any reality show cast, or superhero book.

That’s what the series is about really, taking all the cool themes and elements that make reality TV and comic book super heroes fun and exciting, and putting them together to make something even more cool! Doing the over the top things only found in a fictional setting, but dropping them into the real world. What happens when people become genetically enhanced? How do they respond? How are they controlled? Especially when they’re so out there to begin with!

I really want to put you in the shoes of the cast and take you along for the ride. I mean, who can’t relate to wanting to go on some cool adventure, make more of themselves, or grab a million dollar paycheck?

What comic book reader doesn’t want to know what it’s like to hang with an uber sexy group in skin tight body suits?!

Along the way you’ve got the dilemmas of genetic science, and all the mad crazy things we’re going to do with that. As I mentioned before, trying to keep things based in reality, but that doesn’t mean we won’t cut loose and blow your mind while we’re at it! One of the characters, they get an enhancement that’s never been done, and I think it’s so cool, and over the top, people will just be floored!

It’s comic books pure and simple, using the infinite possibilities the medium affords, to take things in new directions and get people excited.

That’s the aim. 

And that doesn’t even touch on who we’ve cast for some of our execs controlling the show, that’s a whole ‘nother wrinkle I’m sure folks will be talking about after issue number two…

BF: Was there a "light bulb" moment when the idea came to you, or is Super Real something that was brewing for a long time?

JM:Both.

I wanted a team book, that used elements of what I loved from things like the X-Men and others, but without stuff I didn’t like about those books. Like, I really dig the whole setup of The X-Men, the idea of mutants, it’s believable in a sense, but then you throw in a character like Storm, who has this ridiculous ability to control weather ya know? That’s just not even remotely believable. So my idea was to take the believable elements and go from there.

I really wanted the book/concept to be unique, and have a reason to exist, and then the idea just hit me, “What if the group is put together for a reality show, to become super powered?”, and that was it!

This was back around 1999, when I was just starting to doodle in a sketchbook again after not drawing much since just out of high school, so I had a long way to go to get this off the ground. I don’t regret that though, as I think the story, and all of the details I’ve built into it, having had years to kick it around, are really going to help make it something special. That’s my hope, that people will pick up on all of that, as we keep going forward.

We just have to get past the first couple issues where we set everything up, and then things get really wild.

BF: As a writer/artist, what is your creative process? Do you go to full script, or do you go plot only, then go to art and finish with captions/dialogue?

JM: Well, that’s a tough one. As I alluded to a bit before, approaching this, I was coming from a period of not having drawn on a regular basis for almost a decade. I was really in a space of not knowing if I could get my drawing skills up to par, I believed I could based on the progress I’d continually made in my youth, so I blazed forward.

However, I’d never drawn for the finished production of a book, I’d created many hand made books as a child/teen, but never for actual publication. So I had this whole process of learning what tools to use, and which ones worked for me.

Basically I started out knowing I wouldn’t want to ink, never have, never wanted to, and I knew thanks to computer technology, I didn’t need to. But, I needed to learn all of the computer tools, or more importantly, acquire them.

So, as I’ve gone on, I’ve continually evolved my process, to where I am today. I really work with blue line pencil, 8x11” copy paper, a light box, and Photoshop. That’s it. There’s hardly any “finished” artwork to speak of, except what’s on the computer.

However, lately I’m finding the process is getting more and more controlled on the computer, and I’d like it to be more organic on the page.

But that all speaks to the artwork, or visuals, in terms of writing/creating the story, it’s very similar. When I created my own series as a teen, I worked by drawing page 1 and each sequential page after that, writing the story as I drew it, and I loved my results.

I never had any shortage of ideas or plots, but with this project, I really wanted to approach it more seriously. But just like with the artwork, I struggled to find a defined process for writing. I never really sit down and just script, I think mostly because I had to devote so much time to developing the art, I didn’t have time to just sit down and write.

I basically just take notes in Word, and have this huge bible of different elements to the story; plot, script, characters, etc., and plug those in as I thumbnail an issue.

For issue one though, I had a very specific outline for what I wanted for the story, moving forward that’s all still developing.

I recently acquired some scriptwriting software, so with issue 3 I’m going to try and script that out on there.

BF: What have been some of the challenges you have faced in publishing, promoting and distributing Super Real? How have you overcome these challenges?

JM: Well, the challenges are endless. Like I detailed above from a creative standpoint, I’ve faced just as many on the business side. I did however approach this, really knowing that the business side is just as important. In today’s market you absolutely can not find success without it. You can always jump off from self publishing to other opportunities, if you’re lucky, but to have a chance at success on your own, takes a lot of effort.

Everyone tells you that self publishing is really hard, they warn you how tough it is, and even if you expect that, and know it going in, you’ll never really know just how hard it is until you do it. I suppose if you care to the endless depths about what you’re doing like I do, that makes it all that much harder, because you really want to make the right moves. Perhaps if you’re not completely invested in it, it’d be easier.

I could fuel an ongoing column with all of the challenges of publishing, there’s just so much. There have been times, even as the book is coming out, that I’ve almost thrown my hands up and said “I can’t do it, there’s no way to overcome this obstacle!” Sometimes you just have to take a time out and find the resolve to move forward again.

The most important thing I can advise, the overall key to everything, the main thing, is having work completed well in advance. Nothing will go as smoothly as you think, EVER. And I mean nothing. If you’re wearing all the hats, you’re bound to drop some plates.

BF: Is Super Real your first published comics work? What advice would you give to other small press creators, or people considering moving into small press/ self publishing?

JM: Yes, it is my first published work.

My advice to others considering publishing, or starting out? Use the web, print on demand. Do local shows, don’t travel. If you do travel, San Diego is the best place to go. It’s incredibly affordable for space considering the size of the show, and the networking you can do. (Not to mention it’s heaven on Earth for a comic fan…)

The key is you want to get yourself and your work out there in front of people as much as possible, without losing a bunch of money. Printing books, and traveling to shows gets expensive, and it’s really hard to recoup that money in sales.

Also, be brutally honest with yourself. If you don’t think you’re 100% ready, you’re not. But if you love it, and it’s all you want, keep working at it. These are all the lessons I’ve learned anyways.

BF: I have enjoyed the inclusion of photos in many of the panels, is it difficult to incorporate your art with these images? Did you take the photos yourself?

JM: That’s something I dreamed of doing when digital technology and digital cameras were emerging. It just blew my mind that I could imagine a scene, and then go take pictures to use as backgrounds integrated with line art in software.

Like animation, where you’ve got different cells for your layers, with characters done on one layer, and background paintings on another. I’m a huge fan of animation. I always loved cartoons or commercials that juxtaposed animated characters with live action.

Or like Dave Sim, when he started using Gerhard for backgrounds. I mean, I loved Dave Sim’s art, but damn if Gerhard couldn’t draw the shit out of those backgrounds! What’s he doing these days? Is he available?

But to answer your question, I don’t find it that difficult to incorporate images, but it does take time. Most of the pictures are ones I’ve taken myself… especially in issue two. I’d love more time so I could go out and scope locations and get really cool stuff.

BF: Is Super Real intended as a critical comment on the state of mass media entertainment in the western world?

JM: Hmmmm. Not really. By the end of the story you’ll see the aim is a little bigger than that perhaps.

I really am trying to play with allot of different issues and themes, while having them mostly under the surface. Just a ton, really. I don’t know, maybe when you really analyze any story, you can find different elements like that? I’m more of a gut level person in terms of what strikes me about entertainment; I don’t really sit around and analyze things too much, or discuss them. I just know what I like, and don’t, so I don’t need all this subtext to sit and think about, when there’s a million other stories to take in.

So, I really want Super Real to work on that level too. I just think in developing it, if there’s all these other levels to it, then there’ll be that many more things for people to latch on to and relate to. That’s what you want really. Stories people can make their own and get caught up in. So, we live in a mass media society, and Super Real is a reflection of that I guess.

BF: Are you working on other creator-owned or company properties besides Super Real?

JM: No. In creating this, I’ve come up with scores of ideas, or even different spin offs or directions for Super Real and the cast.

Without saying too much, Super Real can continue on it’s own, but the actual overarching story I’m telling with it, continues on as something different. Kinda like a comic book caterpillar.

BF: What inspires you as a creator? Are there any other creators you look up to?

JM: Most definitely! I’m inspired by movies, animation, comics, music, everyday people.

Specific creators that inspire me? There are many, some key ones would be:
Quentin Tarantino, Peter Chung, George Lucas, Michael Golden, Masamune Shirow, Leiji Matsumoto, Moebius, Jason Pearson, Adam Warren, Grant Morrison, Brian Wood, J Scott Campbell, to name a few.

BF: Where can people find out more information about Super Real? How can they get a copy of the book?

JM: Everything you need to know about Super Real can be found at my website, www.superrealgraphics.com There are previews, cast bios, reviews, links to features, a forum, you name it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to develop a comprehensive site that can help people find out about the book.

You can also get the book right from the site, otherwise it’s available worldwide, anywhere there’s a Diamond Comics Distribution account, or comic shop.

Thanks for having me, and a big thanks to those who’ve taken the time to check out the book!