Broken Frontier

With Com.x's Blue Spear listed in the current Previews (Code NOV110868) BF takes the opportunity to re-present an interview with the creative team that first appeared in May of this year...

Early last year Com.x published an original graphic novel [Forty-Five] 45 that did that most rare of things in the Internet world - it completely united critics and readers alike in praise of its unique approach to exploring the super-hero genre. Coming next year, creator Andi Ewington returns to the world of [Forty-Five] 45 with three one-shots that expand on some of the characters and concepts introduced in that book in 2010, beginning with a special dedicated to Japanese hero BlueSpear. Broken Frontier spoke to Andi, BlueSpear co-writer and Com.x publisher Eddie Deighton and BlueSpear artist Cosmo White about what readers can expect from their latest foray into this critically-acclaimed fictional reality.

BROKEN FRONTIER: BlueSpear is the first spin-off from last year’s highly-regarded OGN [Forty-Five]45. Just to put everything in context for the newbies, could you tell the BF readership a little about that book’s premise and how it relates to BlueSpear?

ANDI EWINGTON: Set in an alternate version of our world, [Forty-Five]45 follows journalist and soon-to-be father, James Stanley. James and his wife have decided to forego the HALE-CRITERION test, a test designed to determine not the sex of their unborn child, but if it carries the all-important S-Gene that determines if it is imbued with superpowers or not. Instead, James hopes that through forty-five chronological interviews, across a spectrum of differing heroes, that he will be better prepared if his child is born with powers. BlueSpear is mentioned in one of these interviews, albeit via a second-hand account from his brother, Akira. We discover Akira is still struggling to come to terms with the transformation of his sibling to Japanese superhero.

The BlueSpear one-shot will expand upon a key plot point that was hinted at during several of the interviews within [Forty-Five]45, as well as welcoming back favourite characters, such as ‘X’ and ‘Lotus’.

BF: Over a year on, have you got over the universal critical acclaim that [Forty-Five]45 garnered yet? And did that add to the pressure in approaching the spin-off one-shots?

EWINGTON: I haven’t really considered [Forty-Five]45 in that sort of capacity, 'though it still makes me shiver now to think of all the positive reviews and encouragement the book received. I have to be honest and say it’s hard not to catch yourself smiling from time-to-time. As for the added pressure, I’ve heard it from other well-established writers that book two is always the hardest, especially when you are following something as universally acclaimed as [Forty-Five]45. I’ll leave it to qualified professionals like your good self to tell us if Eddie and I were successful, or if it’s a case of diminishing returns!

COSMO WHITE: It certainly added to the pressure for me!

BF: [Forty-Five]45 was a project that laid the groundwork for an entire super-hero universe, with its own accompanying and detailed mythology. How difficult was it with the one-shots, then, to walk that line between building on the previous work and yet keeping the material accessible to new readers? And can the readership expect to see follow-ups to [Forty-Five]45 threads like James Stanley’s quest, or the machinations of the XoDOS organisation, for example?

EWINGTON: The way I see it, is that, with [Forty-Five]45, readers were given small tasters of possibilities; tiny pieces from a complex puzzle that worked across many seemingly unrelated interviews. With the BlueSpear one-shot we’ve included the [Forty-Five]45 interview that relates to BlueSpear as a prologue, at the beginning of this book. That way, even if you did miss out on [Forty-Five]45, you won’t feel as if you’ve joined the party late.

I certainly hope the readership will see more follow-ups after this. You get to sample a large slice of action in this mini-series, in fact, the whole plot is centered around the nefarious XoDOS; in particular, Lotus. As for James Stanley, who knows? Maybe he’ll make an appearance or two in the near future. :-P 

BF: BlueSpear is the first of these three interlocking [Forty-Five]45 spin-offs. Why did you choose this particular hero to launch the second wave of [Forty-Five]45 stories and can you give us a little bit of background on the character and his corner of that universe?

EWINGTON: While editing [Forty-Five]45, both Eddie and I found BlueSpear to have a huge amount of potential. We found that no matter where we were up to in the edit, our conversations always seemed to roll back to BlueSpear. I had an idea for a sub-plot and it was clear with the numerous development conversations with Eddie that BlueSpear was the perfect foil to kickstart this miniseries.

BlueSpear himself is a bit of an enigma. For the uninitiated, he was formally Yuji Tomikawa, a young boy who tragically drowned while out fishing, on a boat, with his brother, Akira. In the one-shot, you’ll see first-hand what happened to Yuji under the ocean, and his subsequent transformation into the Tokyo guardian, BlueSpear.

EDDIE DEIGHTON: Both Andi and myself had an affinity with this character and it was fortunate that the reaction we’ve had back from people that have read [Forty-Five]45 was the same. I’m not sure what it is that other people have responded favourably to but personally, I love the way he is adored by millions of people, yet unable to reciprocate that love and connection back to his own family. Did fate have a hand in the events that unfolded that fateful day back on the boat? Would he have perished if the spear had not saved him? What is apparent is that, whether it was his choice or not, he has an obligation to protect his people, his nation, no matter the cost. I love that level of complexity, commitment and responsibility you can bring to bear upon a superhero.

BF: Like [Forty-Five]45, BlueSpear seems to also be a tale about relationships first and foremost, again dressed in the trappings of super-hero conventions. This time it’s the relationship between siblings rather than the father-child bond. Was that a conscious thematic link or just coincidence?

DEIGHTON: Absolutely that was the intention. First and foremost, the originality of [Forty-Five]45 was apparent in the way it dealt with the specifics of relationships and not just the ominous, underlying plot-themes presented in the majority of superhero books, so we wanted to continue that through all of the first three one-shots. They will each deal with relationships in different ways, yet will be driven by an overarching plotline which is more indicative of an action/adventure title.

EWINGTON: When writing the original BlueSpear/Akira interview, I wanted to show the hole a superhero leaves in lives, in this instance his brother, Akira. With James Stanley it was different; I wanted to show that there is potentially a hefty price to pay for allowing a loved one to become a hero. With this BlueSpear story, we expand upon the brothers’ relationship and the way it can affect the outcome of a specific chain of events.

BF: Andi, you’re joined this time on the writing chores by Com.x publisher Eddie Deighton. Can you elaborate on how the pair of you approached that collaborative process?

EWINGTON: To begin with, I had the essence of what I wanted to achieve with the complete mini-arc then, Eddie and I fleshed out a loose plot between us until we both agreed on the direction the one-shot would take and what we could and couldn’t include. Once that was locked down, I took the first ten or so pages and drafted that out before passing to Eddie for his input. Eddie then elaborated upon what was there and continued the process with the subsequent pages, which he then turned back over to me.

We would repeat this process until we had a finished draft of the entire book. It was a very organic and easy process - we found that we naturally complemented one another’s writing style.

WHITE: If I can join in on this one, I can say that Eddie and Andi's process was such a collaborative one that they even extended it to me as far down the line as the thumbnailing stage; and I think the storytelling has been really strengthened by that 3-way process of discussion.

DEIGHTON: It was important for me, as both publisher and writer, that we kept the communication tight throughout the project. Cos’ input was equally as valuable as Andi’s because his feedback really helped tighten up certain scenes and simplify the dialogue in some sections. I was happy that we could tweak and adjust the book right up until completion of the final pages.

BF: One of the unique features of [Forty-Five]45 was that it was as much an illustrated novella as a graphic novel. Were there any particular challenges initially, then, in shifting that universe’s cast of characters into a sequential storytelling narrative?

EWINGTON: I don’t think so. I found the change from a novella-style of writing to sequential very intuitive. The only difference was that I had to be very controlled on the amount of dialogue allowed for. If I had a particularly busy page I would have to be wary of not flooding it with critical conversation, potentially ruining the visuals. Like anything, once you’ve done it a few times, you start to understand the process better.

BF: As mentioned, this is the first of three one-shots. How do the next two books X and Skyline tie into both the events of BlueSpear and the overarching story arc?

EWINGTON: X will feature heavily within the BlueSpear one-shot and, once the story ends, we are going to make an immediate segue way into the second book with his story and the events that have unfolded, how it affected him and how he deals with it. I don’t want to say too much about SkyLine, as doing so will give too much away, but trust me when I say that there is a firm link between the overarching plot and SkyLine. For those familiar with [Forty-Five]45 you should now be frantically poring over the SkyLine interview for clues!

BF: Cosmo, could you fill us in on your comics work to date and how you came to be involved with BlueSpear and Com.x?

WHITE: I'm a relative newcomer, having spent the best part of the last few years doing small press stuff, so it's been very exciting working on a larger scale project like this. Prior to BlueSpear, I'd had a piece published in Ilya's Best New Manga series, and produced a couple of issues of The Transformers for Titan (first UK appearance of Unicron!). I'd met Eddie & Andi before, so when we bumped into each other again at the last Bristol con, we got chatting, and here we are now!

BF: Your BlueSpear visuals have a very haunting quality, Cosmo. Who would you say are the major influences on your art and storytelling style?

WHITE: Thank you! I try not to be too deliberately affected by anyone's art whilst working, but if anyone were to sneak into my head and make me better at drawing I'd hope it would be Alan Davis or Josh Middleton. Herge and Ted Benoit are definite influences in terms of visual clarity; and Paul Grist (especially in Kane) is an absolute master of page layout and intelligent storytelling. Junji Ito for pacing (and excellent sound effects); and Richard Sala for sinisterness, if that's a word. And that short story by Katsuhiro Otomo that Magnetic Rose was based on; can't be beaten for atmosphere, art and pacing.

BF: Cosmo’s use of colour brings a fittingly dreamlike, magical feel to certain sequences of BlueSpear. Was that something that initially drew you, Andi and Eddie, to his work and what do you feel he’s brought to the world of [Forty-Five]45 in general?

EWINGTON: I think to begin with I personally wanted someone that could pick up the mantle after the phenomenal Calum Alexander Watt and the page he created for the first book (see right). I had seen Cosmo’s portfolio at Bristol when he had been talking to Eddie and I knew he could evoke the desired style. But it wasn’t until I started to see the pages he was turning in that I realised that he was redefining my perceptions of what could be done with this character. And that really excited me. I feel he’s bringing a real manga influence to the one-shot but with heavy undertones of the west.

DEIGHTON: I think he’s perfect for this book – there’s an elegance and refinement to his work and the way that he colours that complements the Asian tone we wanted to achieve. What surprised and pleased me was how graphic and brutal he could also be when depicting some of the action scenes – I hadn’t seen that in his work before. He’s brought the best of both worlds to the project.

I’ve wanted to work with Cosmo ever since he showed me his work back in 2009 at the Bristol Comic Expo. I had been thinking about possible projects we could work on together and it just so happened that, when we exhibited at Bristol last year, Andi and myself were secretly committed to finding an artist for the one-shot at the convention. I was hoping Cosmo would turn up so that we could discuss the project and see if he was interested. Fortunately, he did, and he was!

BF: Longer-term are there any plans brewing for other characters from [Forty-Five]45? I’m still holding out for that Aftershock Girl project you know…

EWINGTON: There are a few ideas being batted about. I’m faced with so many possibilities that it’s difficult to know where to begin. It would be great to have someone like Rob Williams, Andy Diggle or Ian Edginton expand on a character or story arc of their choice; we could approach the stories in the way we approached the original book, but let the writers have a turn instead of the artists. Aftershock Girl is certainly one of those that could easily be developed further - maybe as a prequel in some way - yeah, that would be cool...

DEIGHTON: That’s the beauty of the world that Andi has created – the book can evolve into all kinds of directions and scenarios. We all have favourite characters, so plenty of options to consider. There’re even a couple I’d like to expand upon myself, so I guess I’ll have to ‘make nice’ with Mr Ewington and see which ones he’ll let me play with! Watch this space.

BF: Finally, what other projects have you all got coming up individually as creators? And are there any more developments, schedule-wise, on the other announced projects from Com.x this year?

EWINGTON: Well, I still have SkyLine to write with Eddie so that’s going to keep me busy for a while. Then, I have Post Mort’Em to develop (again with Eddie). It’s a non-[Forty-Five]45 comedy, so expect something special there! After that, I don’t know; I have a plethora of ideas I have yet to write. Maybe I’ll go back to Limpit Muskin and Co., and see if I can finally turn that fantasy, comedy novel into comic form.

DEIGHTON: Well, now the X one-shot script is in the bag, we can finish off the two other projects Andi just mentioned. Then, for me, I’d like to finish a couple of pet projects that have been bubbling under for a few years. I’m also co-producing a couple of film-related projects (not currently Com.x-related) and spending some time finishing off production on a toy I’ve designed for my other company, RAJEToys.

Aside from that, on a general Com.x level, we are still looking good to release Duppy’78 (by Casey Seijas, Amancay Nahuelpan and Daniel Warner) shortly after BlueSpear, followed by Monster Myths (by John Lupo Avanti, Chester Westward and Bobkat FTL), Nicodemus Flynn (by Alex De-Gruchy, Robin Simon Ng, Robert Denton III and Amador Cisneros Jr.), Babble (by Lee Robson and Bryon Chomgaill), Bushido Wasabi (by Stefano Cardoselli and Alex Rodrik) and Average Joe (by Rob Patey III and Stephen Andrade), amongst other books in the works. Moving forwards, the next year or two are looking extremely positive for Com.x and it’s great to have some awesome comics to publish on a regular schedule.

WHITE: As usual, I have no idea what the future holds; but I'm working on a script of my own for a children's book/graphic novel, so fingers crossed for that!

The BlueSpear one-shot from Com.x is listed in the current Previews (Code NOV110868). For more on the world of [Forty-Five] 45 check out Andi Ewington’s 45 Blogspot.