Broken Frontier

Writer Nathan Edmondson and artist Brett Weldele drop by BF to discuss their new light-as-virus horror series from Image, The Light. Edmondson is relatively new to writing comics, but made a lasting impact with Olympus last year, with artist Christian Ward. The tale involving two immortal brothers and Greek gods in a modern action setting made many take notice of the writer, which looks set to happen again with The Light. The story is heightened greatly by the moody artwork of Brett Weldele from both of Top Shelf’s The Surrogates books.

The Light shows a frantic race to stay alive with the unusual, but all encompassing, horror element of light sources. One look and a violent death awaits. It is in this mad panic that Coyle, armed with his welder’s goggles and very little knowledge about the mysterious event, grabs and blindfolds his daughter to escape the terror.

BROKEN FRONTIER: When we spoke last year, you were quite new to this whole comics thing. Have you managed to discover any new series, or creators who have really impressed you?

NATHAN EDMONDSON: Absolutely.  Most recently I've become a fan of Nathan Fox's work (and not just because of his great first name.)  Other artists I've come to admire include Brett Weldele (of course!), Rebekah Isaacs, Kenneth Rocafort, Jim Williams, Nat Jones and Matthew Southworth--to name just a few. 

I've also enjoyed the series Wasteland, Joe Kelly's work, and Jersey Gods by Glen Brunswick.

BF: How was the Crossroads Writers Conference? I’d imagine something like that, seeing writers and readers from all walks of life would be quite inspiring and encouraging.

NE: That conference really was a great experience.  I offered a couple of modest lectures but a highlight for me was paneling alongside Jack McDevitt, famed and acclaimed sci-fi author.  Overall, however, the faculty, among them Pulitzer prize winners and best selling novelists, and the attendees combined to make the event thought-provoking and inspiring.

BF: And what exactly do writers talk about when they get together?

NE: It's a dark secret I'm not at liberty to disclose.

BF: You describe your latest novel, Transatlantic as a “rolling thing of beauty.” What does the book focus on, and why is that an apt description?

NE: I think I said the process was something like that.  At least that was my intent.  A book at this stage can be described like Prot described Earth in the movie K-PAX: "Early stage of evolution.  Future uncertain."  In regards to the theme and content of the book, it is a novel about a journey of survival, and in regards to both the landscape and the struggle, it was indeed a beautiful mental journey.  I hope the experience comes across the same way to the reader.

BF: I’m a big fan of Brett Weldele’s thanks to The Surrogates, and this book seems tailor made for his artistic sensibilities. He’s really creating great pages in The Light. How gratifying is that for you when you see your words come together like that?

NE: Extremely gratifying.  Brett is really such a sharp talent.  He truly gives this book as much feeling as narration.  I'm simply thrilled each time he sends me a new batch of pages and as always seeing what was in my mind come alive in an artist's work is a very uplifting and exciting experience.

BF: I recently watched the film Blindness which explores the terror of hordes of people losing their sight.  I suppose, as a writer, there’s a lot to explore in stories that show the best and worst of humanity when facing a disastrous event like that. Is that something that compelled you to create The Light?

NE: I haven't in fact seen Blindness, but yes, that dynamic is one that I know many writers have chosen to explore.  I think we all feel as if some terrible, life altering event hangs just over the horizon, and exploring these scenarios in fiction helps us to understand ourselves and how we might react in such a situation.  What I propose in The Light is that we have already made our choices to be heroes or cowards before these events arrive: the way we have lived our life has pre-determined our response.  In other words, we might be doomed before the Light arrives.  

BF: The main character Coyle is not an instantly likeable guy, which is a brave choice. Why did you go down that route?

NE: The forces at work in Coyle's environment are so strong and fearsome that Coyle's personal development must be accentuated.  His internal problems must be more distinct and more terrible in a way than his external problems, so that we care more about the events inside of him than those outside.  If this book were a painting, you can imagine that Coyle must be painted with more striking colors than his environment so that your eye is drawn to him foremost.  Also, however, I think that to make a character truly "bad" these days he must be completely awful.  To be evil in our age a character must be truly repulsive; we as readers have come to tolerate so much "bad" behavior that we hardly recognize it anymore unless it grabs us and shakes us.  

BF: Your afterword in the first issue states that the rise of technology and interconnectivity is the backdrop of the book. Does that mean you’re not a huge fan of the way society uses technology today, or the way technology uses society perhaps?

NE: For me it's not so much a matter of concern as it is an observation. Whether it's meteors or greenhouse gasses, we never truly know what will affect our world in the future, and usually when we recognize that some devastation is imminent, it's too late to do anything about it.  In regard to modern technology, I offer that we have grown to rely completely on a system that unifies us so rapidly and completely by its very nature, and The Light is an example--albeit quite fantastic--of how that system might collapse down upon us.

You might consider it like building a skyscraper on a fault line.  You create a complex infrastructure.  Many people rely on the building for work and livelihood.  Companies rely on the building for business.  Pigeons for homes.  But because it lies on a fault line the building exists at a high state of entropy, and so does everything that relies upon it.  Whatever happens to the building happens also to those that depend upon it.

BF: Will we see a return to Olympus at some point?

NE: We have plans for it, but Christian has a few other big things happening on it at the same time.  So it's coming, but we beg your patience! 

BF: So, you’re moving house soon I believe. Are you dreading packing up all the books you’ve acquired over the years?

NE: I have a modest library, and yes, that will be moving with me.  Moving it will give me the opportunity to organize them a bit.  

The Light's artist Brett Weldele has a perfectly moody style that fits in with Edmondson's scripts splendidly. The artist has been working in comics for some time, but his breakout book was undoubtedly The Surrogates, which was created with writer Robert Venditti. The Surrogates became an (albeit changed) film starring Bruce Willis, and is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray, where you can see Weldele speak in one of the film's special features. He also followed Venditti on the prequel book, entitled Flesh and Bone and has also created posters for film festivals, and various recent covers for BOOM! Studios.

BF: Not many comics artists can say they’ve been a question on Jeopardy. What was that whole process like?

BRETT WELDELE: Someone from the show decided on the question. It had nothing to do with us. The only reason I got a heads up was because they didn't know how to pronounce my last name, so they emailed me. It is surreal to have Alex Trebek say your name.

BF: With your passion for audio technology and creating music, did you ever consider going down the musical road as a career?

BW: Sure, but I don't know what kind of "career" I could have ended up with. Music is a harder path than comics to succeed in. Most of the people I know that make a living at it aren't making a living as performing musicians. They're creating and licensing commercial tracks. They're doing sound design for big clients. I'm not sure I'd be all that great at that. I enjoy music as my experimental outlet.

BF: What scares you?

BW: Really mundane life stuff. Massive lengths of unemployment that get worse and worse. Page rates that get smaller and smaller. It's always been stressful trying to figure out how to make this work as a career. That, and spiders.

BF: Did you tackle the pages for The Light differently form your other work?

BW: It’s not too different from some of my other horror work, like Halloween, Se7en and The Straw Men. I was concerned at first about how much of this book would be at night and without many supporting light sources. It all worked out great though.

BF: Was there a lot of experimentation to get the look of the light “attacks” just right?

BW: A little. We planned out ahead of time how the infection worked. The hard part, just like trying to get enough contrast in no light night scenes, was creating enough contrast in pure light attack scenes. I developed a few tricks along the way.

The Light #1 (of 5) is out now from Image Comics.