Broken Frontier

In June, Michael O’Hare and Robert P. Napton join forces on Image Comics’ Flak Riot, a four-issue mini series revolving around Zoe Nixxon, the female protagonist of the book and a lonely file clerk who has grown tired of her old life in need of a fresh start.

The world of Flak Riot looks a little more advanced than our own and is set in a slightly futuristic version of San Francisco. While the setting of the book is somewhat ahead of its time, the first seeds of Flak Riot were already planted by O’Hare about six years ago. Looking for inspiration, the writer/artist went back to his childhood and teenage hears: “I turned to the things I loved growing up like the old spaghetti westerns, an anime series called Giant Robo, Directors like Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the list could go on and on,” O’Hare told BF.

As the series’ creator, O’Hare hopes he has come with a concept comic fans will consider a rollercoaster ride with eye-popping visuals and strong characters. One of these characters, of course, is the aforementioned Zoe Nixxon.

“In the first issue Zoe a reckless, daring, and adventurous person on the inside on the outside she feels trapped in her Job and bored with where she is in life. Somewhere along the way Zoe has buried her dreams and her aspirations for adventure she kind of domesticated herself. As the story progresses you start to see her come out of her shell,” added O’Hare. “Zoe starts to realize that taking a risk in life would be better than rotting of loneliness and boredom.”

Obviously, the story of Flak Riot does not rest on the shoulders of young miss Nixxon alone. Robert Napton, who co-writes the series with O’Hare, reveals which characters will play a supporting (or not so supporting) role. “Jack Omega is another central character,” he says. “He resides in the O.D. and is something of a cowboy in his life’s pursuits. He’s always looking for the next job, the next score, the next drink. [Jack]d carries a one-of-a-kind sword that is a trademark and a much respected and feared weapon. He’s got his own code-of-ethics, but there are things about him that are unpredictable and mysterious and that makes him a really fun character to write.”

Next to Nixxon and Omega, there are a few other characters rounding out the supporting cast, including a somewhat mysterious one. “When Zoe goes to the Flak Bounty Hunter school she encounters Max, Chang, and an android named Floe,” Napton continued. “These characters not only open her eyes to the world of the O.D., their often quirky behaviour is the source of some great laughs.  Another great character is A.I. – he is a big part of Zoe’s life, but I don’t want to say too much about him yet.” 

As you can see, the co-writer is very excited to be working with O’Hare on the new Image mini series. According to Napton, one of the reasons for that is his creative partner’s ability to flesh out great new characters: “Michael really came up with a rich cast of characters and coming on board to write this with him, I feel like I was the first audience member, and I really got a chance to react to what for him had been something he had been doing for years, but it was really fun and effortless coming in and bringing a fresh perspective to them and what they were about. I instantly fell in love with the characters and that doesn’t happen for me too often, so I hope everyone else has the same reaction!”

For O’Hare, it all comes down to enjoying every minute of creating stories. Even though he has most experience as an artist, he does not find it all that hard to combine both the writing and the art chores on Flak Riot.

“Actually for me I think it’s a smoother transition than working from a plot someone else created.” O’Hare acknowledged. “When you work from someone else’s script or plot you have to figure out where they might be coming from or what mood they are trying to convey. With my own stuff it usually is in my head already.”

One of the parts O’Hare had most fun with was creating O.D., the other dimension exists next to our own and a key element to the story of Flak Riot. “The O.D. stands for ‘Other Dimension’ of course,” O’Hare laughs. “The O.D. is a world next door to our own, [it’s] just on the other side in another dimension. Most of the O.D. is uncharted and full of gunslingers, robots, creatures and spirits. Throughout time random holes sometimes microscopic and sometimes much larger have opened between the two worlds. Occasionally over the centuries people would cross over.”

“The Bermuda Triangle for instance would be a rift into the O.D. or Bigfoot a creature that wandered over from the O.D. etc. Eventually, scientists caught on and developed Riots to control these rifts. It became a new frontier and people looking to start over made the jump into the O.D.”

“Criminals also started to take advantage of this newfound world -- committing crimes on earth and escaping into the O.D. As a result, the earth-based governments were soon overwhelmed by the rising levels of crime and started outsourcing work to Bounty Hunters.”

With their concept in place, O’Hare and Napton thought the time was now to pitch the project to Image. Since the due had worked on two other projects that did not see the light of day for various reasons, they’re hoping Flak Riot will make those failed attempts a distant memory.

“One of the projects was Deity: Requiem, a sequel to a creator series I had done at Image,” Napton discloses. “Thanks to [Executive Director] Eric Stephenson, I had the chance to resurrect Deity: Requiem in 2004 and Michael came back on board and pencilled some new pages to finish the project.”

“Eric had seen Flak Riot prior to this and was very enthusiastic about the project and on the heels of finishing up Deity, Michael and I talked to him about landing Flak at Image and he gave us the go ahead.  Image Central is still the best situation in the industry for creator-owned series, so we couldn’t be happier about it,” Napton says.

Apparently, Image is happy to be publishing the book, as Napton unveils that there already is more Flak Riot in the works to be released after the conclusion of the first mini series: “The first [four issues] barely scratch the surface and possibilities of this world, so we’re hoping to launch a second series soon after, and maybe even an ongoing series, so we really hope everyone checks out the book and gives it a read.”

Asked what ground the first four issues would cover more specifically, Napton answered: “It gives the reader a strong sense of Zoe’s world in and out of The O.D. It’s really a fun introduction because we set up the O.D. very quickly. By the end of the first series, you really care about the characters because we really took some time to set them up, so when they are in trouble, you are rooting for them to get out of it.”

“Issue #1 introduces you to Zoe, her life, her dreams and yearnings. We catch her at a pivotal moment when she decides to do something about her life and the results of her decision have major consequences for her. She goes to Flak Bounty Hunter School and from there things aren’t ever the same for her. I don’t want to ruin it, but it’s totally unexpected the way things unfold [the rest of the way].”

“The tone of the issue and the series is very unique. It’s dramatic, comedic, touching, and ultimately, FUN. We truly had a great time making this comic. That’s not always the case, sometimes projects don’t work out the way you hope, but I think I can speak for Michael and color artist Mike Garcia when I say this has been a labor of love from start to finish, so we really hope everyone enjoys it.”

Flak Riot #1 goes on sale June 1 with a  cover price of $2.95.

- Frederik Hautain