Broken Frontier

Seventy-two years ago today, Orson Welles terrified the country into believing that the world was literally being invaded by aliens from Mars. Seventy-two years later, writer Eric Hobbs and artist Noel Tuazon bring life to that historic night once more in their new graphic novel, The Broadcast. Broken Frontier’s Jason Wilkins recently talked with writer Hobbs about his book and the meaning it holds.

BROKEN FRONTIER: The Broadcast is set during a very unsettling event in American popular culture, namely Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds radio play. What about Welles’ broadcast made it such a fitting backdrop for your story?

ERIC HOBBS: I’ve always been a fan of disaster movies, and if you think about the best disaster movies of all time, they’re rarely about the disaster. Instead, they’re usually about the people involved and how they react. If you look at a movie like Night of the Living Dead, the original, sure there are zombies, but the heart of that story is about the people locked away in that house and how they’re going to deal with the zombies outside. Are they going to work together or will they eventually turn on each other? How long will it be before the people you’re locked away with become even scarier than the zombies trying to get in?

That’s a cool concept to play with, and I thought the Orson Welles’ broadcast gave me a couple opportunities. One, I got to tell a disaster movie set in the Great Depression—something I don’t think we’ve ever seen before. And two, I got to tell a story about an alien invasion—without the aliens. Not only was that unique, but it was a challenge. Readers know from the first page that aliens aren’t going to show up. There weren’t any zombies to lean on when the story needed something to move it forward. It was a disaster story that had to be about something other than the disaster. I think that’s what makes it so special.

BF: What did your research entail?

HOBBS: I didn’t do a whole lot of research, truthfully. Since the whole book takes place on one night and in one location, I didn’t really need to do that much research. I did read a lot of books from that era, though; just to familiarize myself with life in the 1930s. I read a lot of personal accounts from people who were listening that night. That was probably where most my time researching was spent.

BF: Welles’ was a brilliant storyteller and continues to influence multitudes of writers, artists, actors, and directors. How did his approach to storytelling inform your creation of The Broadcast?

HOBBS: That’s tough. That’s really tough. I was going to quote some of the original play in The Broadcast, but learned getting the rights wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. I think Orson would be tickled with the way we worked around that problem.

Hmmm. I don’t think Orson’s work was ever defined by one style or genre. He was given an opportunity to do a film version of War of the Worlds shortly after the play, but he didn’t have any interest in it. He wanted to move on to something else. He decided to make a little movie about a newspaper mogul. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Citizen Kane?

He was always innovating. Always pushing himself forward. He put everything he had into a project until he had nothing left to give. I guess that’s the direction I’d like to go with my career. I doubt you’ll ever see me write something in this vein again. This is the best disaster story I’ve got in me, and now it’s time to move on and give everything I’ve got to something new.

BF: The setting of The Broadcast acts as another character in the story. Why did you choose to locate the story in a rural setting?

HOBBS: Like I said, I wanted to tell a disaster-style story in a setting we’ve never really seen before. More than that, the nature of the story kind of requires that these guys are isolated. If you set it in a big city, eventually the characters will run into someone who’s heard Orson’s play is a hoax. If you set it in the middle of nowhere, that’s a different story.

BF: I was hard-pressed to choose a single protagonist in The Broadcast. Each character, no matter their motivations, seems to undergo a journey as the plot progresses. What were some of the challenges of balancing each character’s specific needs and overall development?

HOBBS: Thanks. I appreciate that. It was pretty hard, but it’s something I was conscience of as I wrote each draft. When I went through the first time, I was sure to write from the perspective of Gavin’s character. When I went through the second time, it was Kim. I did that draft after draft until, eventually, I’d spent some time focusing on each of the characters. I suppose that was making it a lot harder than it needed to be, but I like to remind myself that everyone is the hero of their own story—you have to remember to write them that way.

BF: The artwork in the book provides a unique, unsettling contrast to the concept and tone of your story. It absolutely oozes atmosphere. How do you know Noel Tuazon and what led you to partner with him on The Broadcast?

HOBBS: See? You get it! There have been a couple reviews where people didn’t dig Noel’s work like that. I understand his art isn’t for everyone, but one guy complained that it reminded him of an old, worn-out, black-and-white movie. That’s exactly what we were going for! It’s a perfect fit for the story.

I’d known Noel’s work from a book he did at Random House called Elk’s Run. Basically, a friend recommended him and I saw some art on his website that immediately made me think he had the right stuff for The Broadcast.

BF: The Broadcast works remarkably well as a self-contained graphic novel. Why choose a “one-shot” format over an episodic approach?

HOBBS: For one, that’s the format I feel most comfortable with. I love comics, but my work is always paced more like a novel or a movie. When was the last time you saw a novel split up into equal-sized, 22-page chapters? Serializing a story like that can be very limiting, but if you write a one-shot graphic novel you get a chance to tell the story the way it was meant to be told.

I also think that’s the direction our industry is heading. Everyone’s so caught up in the print versus digital debate. I’m far more interested in the floppies versus graphic novels fight. I think the Superman: Earth One book at DC is going to do some huge numbers and will probably go a long way in convincing publishers that that is a viable model.

BF: The mass hysteria unleashed by the War of the Worlds broadcast is well-documented, but why do you personally think the public was so easily duped?

HOBBS: Well, you’ve got to remember, that’s how people were getting their news back then—the radio. Orson brilliantly told the story through a series of fake news bulletins so if you didn’t hear the introduction, they sounded just like the news bulletins you would hear on any other night.

I guess there were other variables that helped, but I’m starting to think that we’re a pretty excitable people. I remember thinking that something like this could never happen today, but I think there are a few people on TV these days that are masquerading as newsmen and scaring the hell out of people.

BF: Finally, what one thing would you like people to know about Welles’ broadcast that they may not already know?

HOBBS: I think people would be amazed at how well the original still holds up. It’s worth looking up online and listening to—especially tonight. Turn the lights low, shut the blinds and give it a chance. It’s probably better than just about anything you were going to watch tonight anyway.

The Broadcast is available from NBM Publishing and retails at $13.99.