Broken Frontier

Veteran writer A.J. Lieberman introduces crime comics to the insurance business in Term Life, his latest graphic novel from Image Comics. The Cowboy Ninja Viking writer melds crime fiction and multilayered storytelling into a tale of family, redemption, and a term life insurance policy.

After a job goes horribly wrong, lifetime criminal Nick Barrow is being hunted by pretty much the entire Russian mob. Marked for death, Nick takes out a million dollar life insurance policy with his teenage daughter as the recipient. The only snag is that Nick must stay alive for 21 days so his new policy will kick in. This wouldn't be a problem for most people, but most people aren't Nick Barrow.

Broken Frontier's Tony Josepf  sat down with both writer A.J. Lieberman and artist Nick Thornborrow for the full scoop on Term Life.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Term Life has a unique concept: basically, the criminal anti-hero has to survive 21 days without being killed by his pursuers so his life insurance kicks in. What inspired the idea behind the comic?

A.J. LIEBERMAN: Nothing specific. I knew I wanted to write an OGN. And I knew I wanted to try my hand at writing a crime fiction story. After I hit upon the life insurance angle, and the ticking clock of having to stay alive for 21 days while waiting for the policy to go into effect, I knew I had something very compelling.

BF: What do you think makes the crime genre a staple in every form of media? What fuels our fascination with the dark and seedy parts of society?

LIEBERMAN: Great question; I think, like some other genres, crime fiction has a kind of universality. Good guys versus bad guys plays anywhere, even if the good guys are not all that good. Like The Godfather. The Sapranos. In some way we’re always rooting for the “bad guy.” Dexter. Weeds. Breaking Bad. These are all shows with “heroes” doing reprehensible things. Same with cop shows. Think The Shield. When NYPD Blue first started, Andy Sipowicz was a bigot and misogynist, and yet we loved him. Modern westerns (Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma) are similar. Crime fiction is in that same arena where it’s okay to root for a guy who’s not always a saint. Crime fiction lets us pull the veneer away on “civilized” society.

On the other hand, you have the other mainstay of comics: science fiction. Here I think the “conceit” of the story, no matter how fantastic, is usually a tool to comment on society. The same way Walking Dead is not really about zombies.

BF: What led you to want to tackle the genre?

LIEBERMAN: Well, it allows for great, complex characters and requires intricate plotting. And I enjoy writing both those things. Plus I like to write a lot of dialogue, which is another staple of the genre.

BF: The crime genre has developed much over the years, but it still has its roots in classic film noir. Was Term Life's gritty feel influenced by any noir works in particular?

LIEBERMAN: Not specifically. I read a lot. Watched a few films to see shots and “camera angles,” but once I start writing I usually don’t look at anything else within the genre.

BF: Nick Barrow is a lifelong criminal trying to do a good deed before his life of crime catches up with him. Do you look at Nick as an anti-hero? If so, how is writing an anti-hero different than writing for a classic epic hero?

LIEBERMAN: Is Nick an anti-hero? Yeah, I guess. But at this point, and with countless examples (see the list of shows above) you could probably argue that the “anti-hero” has become such a mainstay that he’s basically just a hero. I’m looking at you Hannibal Lecter. These are cynical times. Does anyone write anything with a straight-up hero anymore? What makes the anti-hero type so appealing is that they can get away doing questionable things and still not loose the audience’s approval. Of course there’s a line they can’t cross but it allows a writer do really push the envelope.

BF:The crux of Term Life is the relationship between Nick and his daughter, Cate. Can you further expound on this father-daughter relationship (or lack thereof)?

LIEBERMAN:After coming up with the concept but before I started writing, I knew the relationship between Nick and Cate would make or break the book. It was and is the single most important component to the book and story. If you don’t buy into it, it doesn’t matter how cool the story or art is. Nick wants to be a father but to do it without getting involved emotionally. From afar. He’s prepared to sit in a motel room, wait out the 21 days and then let whatever happens happen without ever approaching Cate. So when he’s forced into getting her he’s totally unprepared to have to deal with her. And of course she’s 13 so she’s a nightmare to deal with. Not to mention all her anger she has for this guy she’s only heard horror stories about. They really have to go after each other. And then I have about 100 pages to turn that all around and get to a place where Nick is able to win her over and Cate is able to forgive Nick for the past. In the end, Term Life is about parent/child relationships: Viktor and Misha. Keenan and Matty Miller, in a way. And Nick and Cate.

BF: Nearly every page in Term Life has a title panel that refers to the characters involved in that scene, the setting, or what's going on. What inspired the use of titles?

LIEBERMAN: Once I determined that the story would be told in this flash-forward style, there was the potential of getting confused when you come back to the same scene but from a new point of view. My solution was to give each scene a title panel that would help remind the reader that we’re back at 14^th Street. This is the main reason Term Life would never have worked as a mini-series. You need to have this type of story all at once.

BF: The art by Nick Thornborrow fits the project perfectly, and the coloring only amplifies the atmosphere. How did you two first begin your collaboration?

NICK THORNBORROW: Thanks. After talking very generally about what the story was, I had a pretty good idea of the kind of feel we wanted to evoke with the art. A.J. and I had pretty much the same philosophies on our approach. That the art couldn't be overtly stylized or too slick looking. I think we both felt that if we went with a really polished look, it would start to fight with the words that were on the page. So after we talked it over, I put together (I think it was) five test pages, and that got the ball rolling.

BF: Nick , how did you approach the genre differently from any other?

THORNBORROW: I'm much more interested in storytelling with my art than anything else. Having my own established style has never really been a big identity crisis for me as an artist. Style for me has always been a consideration made in service of story. I don't have many published comics under my belt, but in the few that I've done, I've never approached any story with the same look. They've all been pretty different. For Term Life, I wanted to keep the story moving along by using a simple drawing style that was light on the details. My hope is that the simplicity of the art keeps the story moving along. Still, A.J. conveys a realistic world with his script so I used a textured and rough painting style to give the line work a tangible quality.

BF: Term-Life is a stand alone graphic novel. Did you approach storytelling differently than you would with an ongoing title like Cowboy Ninja Viking?

LIEBERMAN: I guess the biggest difference is that when you’re writing an ongoing series, you’re plotting each issue to build up to a cliffhanger every 22 or 24 pages. Of course you never know if a series will catch on or when it will get cancelled, but you also have a larger canvas to tell the story. It’s like the difference between a two-hour movie and a TV series that last 22 hours per season. You can get a lot more nuanced in a TV series than a movie. An OGN kinda splits the difference and allows me the room to tell the story I want to tell but without having to manufacture a series of cliffhangers every month. Term Life is self-contained, so there’s a satisfaction when you get to the end and everything has been tied up. There’s no waiting a month to see how X or Y gets resolved. Or with CNV, a month and half.

BF: I heard you have a children's book in the works, but what other upcoming projects are you working on?

LIEBERMAN: The children’s book is the thing right in front of me. It’s for Scholastic and I’m doing that with Darren Rawlings, the artist and friend who introduced me to Nick Thornborrow. I have two kids and the stuff I write isn’t exactly age appropriate. And I’m pretty sure my older daughter is beginning to question the fact that the Cowboy, Viking, and Ninja are arguing about eating their vegetables.  

Term Life is available from Image Comics and retails at $16.99.