Broken Frontier

This Wednesday, fans of Speakeasy’s Beowulf are treated to a little extra candy when they pick up Beowulf #7. That issue sports the first part of Fallout, a special six-chapter back-up feature by Vito Delsante and Dean Haspiel. Writer Delsante explains how the short story ties into the main Beowulf series. “Fallout is very closely associated with Beowulf in that the events that occur in Fallout are a direct result of what happens in Beowulf...the phenomenon of super powered people randomly springing up all over... well, Taylor is a "victim" of that same event.”

The ‘Taylor’ Delsante is referring to is the protagonist of Fallout. On the first page of the story, the question is raised 'how a smart guy like him gets caught up in a world like this.' How does he?  “Well, how does anyone end up in prison?” Delsante wonders. “Everyone is innocent, right?  In Taylor's case, as he says on the first page, he certainly isn’t innocent, but he's not guilty either.  Let's just say that Taylor ended up in prison because he was trying to do the right thing.  Yes, he's a criminal, and there are no apologies made for that.  He is an unapologetic criminal, no bones about it.  But he really should never have gotten caught.  It happens.  After 8-10 years, he's released—good behavior and all that.  Again, he should have never ended up where he was... but that's the system.”

Although Fallout is part of the Beowulf comic, it ties in to other Speakeasy books as well like Grimoire and Spellgame. “Yes, this is a part of the Hawke Studios Universe,” Delsante adds. “Fallout ties in to Grimoire and Spellgame just as much as it does to Beowulf (and there's even a slight nod to Spellgame in Chapter 6).  So it's very much a "team" book: it's a part of that small universe of stories.  And as such, if it were its own book rather than a back-up, it might not have that immediate connection to the other stories.  If Fallout were its own story, the subplot might be lost on readers.

“Who am I kidding?  Dean and I would rock that pants off of a FALLOUT mini series... take what you can, right?”

While any creator in his right mind would jump at the chance to work with an artist of Haspiel’s stature, who last year rocked everybody out of their socks on Vertigo’s The Quitter, Delsante sees things differently… in a good way. “I don't see Dean as someone with stature,” he says. “Sure, the guy just got off of one of the biggest books of 2005 and yes, his star is definitely rising.  But Dean is one of my best friends, and for me, it's more satisfying to work with someone I have such a good personal relationship with.  It makes it easier to take and give criticisms... it's a lot of fun when one of us comes up with a cool visual...that kind of thing.  Late night phone calls or mid week lunches... you can't put a value on that sort of thing. 

“It certainly makes me look better as a writer, a young writer at that, when I work with someone with Dean's experience.  It looks even better when Dean brings his "A" game to the project.  Dean has poured A LOT into these pages, coming up with a new technique in doing the book in the process.  It's just very cool to be the guy that wrote the story that Dean experimented on.”

- Frederik Hautain