Last month, our Johnny Hall reviewed “MADI: Once Upon A Time In The Future,” and called the book “a fascinating, and exciting, globe-spanning road trip story, but also an interesting experiment in how comics can be made.” What he was referring to was the astounding number of artists that worked on this book together, including Simon Bisley, Duncan Fegredo, Pia Guerra, James Stokoe, and Annie Wu.
The book, which is the third piece of a trilogy started with Duncan Jones’s feature films Moon and Mute, is a sprawling sci-fi epic that goes all over the globe and asks a lot of fascinating and important questions. It also kicks all kinds of ass and has some of the most fun action sequences you’ll read this year, or any year.
We had the chance to speak with the co-writers of the book, Jones and music video director and comics writer Alex de Campi (“Bad Girls,” “Smoke”) about the title. We sincerely suggest you check it out.
Written by Duncan Jones and Alex de Campi
Illustrated by Dylan Teague, Glenn Fabry, Duncan Fegredo, LRNZ, Ed Ocaña, André Araújo, Simon Bisley, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Tonci Zonjic, Pia Guerra, James Stokoe, RM Guéra, Chris Weston, Rufus Dayglo, Annie Wu, David Lopez and Christian WardMADI is the third and final story in the “Mooniverse,” an anthology of independent stories that take place in a shared future.
Madi Preston, a veteran of Britain’s elite special operations J-Squad unit, is burnt out and up to her eyeballs in debt. She and the rest of her team have retired from the military but are now trapped having to pay to service and maintain the technology put into them during their years of service. They’re working for British conglomerate Liberty Inc as mercenaries, selling their unique ability to be remote controlled by specialists while in the field, and the debts are only growing as they get injured completing missions. We meet Madi as she decides she’s had enough. She will take an off-the-books job that should earn her enough to pay out her and her sister, but when the piece of tech she’s supposed to steal turns out to be a kid, and she suddenly blacks out… she finds herself on the run from everyone she’s ever known.
In a globe-spanning adventure from Shanghai to Soho, Madi has to stay one step ahead of the giant corporations closing in on her from all sides.
Thanks to Duncan and Alex for chatting with me, and pick up the book, wherever finer comics are sold!
What are your comics origin stories? What were the first comics that really blew your minds?
Alex de Campi: Whew, the first comics I bought were old X-Men books off the spinner rack. But I didn’t really get into comics as a storytelling form until I was living in London and a friend was moving out of Wellington Barracks and turns to me and goes, “you look like someone who reads comics, I can’t take these with me on deployment” and just hands me a huge box of 2000AD and Vertigo comics. I truly got back into comics via 2000AD and Hellblazer. They made me enjoy comics. Then I discovered Naoki Urasawa’s MONSTER —- which I had to buy in French because there was no English translation yet — and it just blew my mind. MONSTER made me want to write comics. It was just so much more sophisticated and subtle than anything going on in the US at that point, and the visual storytelling style really resonated with me. I now find it almost impossble to read US superhero comics: seven people in every panel and they’re all talking and fighting at the same time and… no. Give me the emotional honesty and quiet, surgical devastation of something like PLANETES or GOODNIGHT PUNPUN instead.
Duncan Jones: My dad loved libraries; so much so, he had one at home. Literally floor to ceiling built-in shelves covering most of the walls of a large room; hundreds and hundreds of books, possibly thousands of books. There was even a section of graphic novels. I was constantly digging around in there. Dad was pleased as punch and was always recommending things. Three books, all found in there, probably explain more about my interests than anything else! The stunning epic “The Trigan Empire,” illustrated by Don Lawrence, a sprawling scifi reimagining of the founding of Rome. It ‘s dated, but it was huge and felt like a lost history with its detail and depth. Another book was “The Secret of the Unicorn,” a Tintin book by Hergé. This was obviously not the only Tintin on the shelf, but it was the one that got me started on that long line of adventures. And finally, “Zippy the Pinhead,” a surrealist explosion of “zany” that felt like a suitable step up from my more innocent “Garfield” reading years. Admittedly not a graphic novel, rather than a collection of nutso, it illustrated how anarchic and off the beaten path the art form could be.
Continued belowThis book creates the third piece of a story that began in Moon and continued in Mute; Duncan, why did you feel like a comic was the best way to tell this piece of the story? How would “Madi” have been different if it were a film, from a structural standpoint?
DJ: I don’t believe it would have been structurally different, but it would have certainly lacked unique elements the book’s approach made possible. Alex taught me so much about panel layout, the page turns, the impact of flow and the power of a well placed double-page spread. It’s such an incredibly poetic art form, with its own rhyme and meter. The pantheon of artists each bringing their style and sensibilities to different locations around the world is frankly hard to match, even on film. It made the story feel huge, gave it even more adrenaline. I’m so proud of it, and so grateful that Alex would willing to teach me even a little of what she is a master of.
This story reminded me of a blown out, widescreen version of a 2000 AD story. Obviously, this is about 100x as long as a strip in the weekly Prog, but was 2000 AD a reference point with this book?
ADC: *whispers* technically 53x as long because a prog strip is 5 pages and we’re 264 pages. But: yes, definitely. Not only do we work with a lot of the all-star artists of 2000 AD (Simon Bisley, Chris Weston, Dylan Teague, Rufus Dayglo, etc), we were working to a larger page size than US comics so the panelling and scripting was much more a 2000 AD style than, say, an Image Comics style. I’ve written for 2000 AD a fair amount (the trade of “Full Tilt Boogie” is out next month, friends!) so it’s a natural style for me to slip into.
Duncan, on a related note, how’s the “Rogue Trooper” film coming along?
DJ: I honestly don’t know. It’s not cheap. I’ll keep hammering away at it, but if it’s meant to be it’s in the great financier in the sky’s hands.
The art team behind this comic is a murderer’s row of talent. What was the process like connecting pages to artists? Was it a matter of, “So and so can only do 3 pages; let’s make sure to give them some really exciting stuff,” or were certain segments tailored specifically to a particular artist?
ADC: The story came first, and we scripted it and divided it into sections based on location. Then it was like making a mixtape — fitting artists not only to the section that suited them best, but also relative to the artists on either side of them so nobody was next to someone too similar. We had a few curveballs, a couple younger artists flaked out on us late in the game, but we replaced them with Glenn Fabry and RM Guéra so, no loss. Some sections, we knew exactly who we wanted from the jump — James Stokoe on the casino scene was a no-brainer, Bisley in that gory fight scene, and Dylan Teague to open — and others took a little longer. Duncan and I both had our own lists of people we wanted to work with, of which there was a lot of overlap: folks who were great artists, nice people, and generally good with deadlines. I think I introduced him to a few artists, like Annie Wu and David Lopez and LRNZ, too.
Which artist’s pages blew you away on first sight? Were you able to get any original pages to hang on the office wall?
ADC: Jeez, this is like asking “which is your favourite child.” They’re all great. Seeing Glenn Fabry’s pages with all his little annotations around the edges was both impressive and incredibly charming. David Lopez nailing both big action and heavy emotional work in the same scene, and often on the same page. Pia Guerra’s expression work. James Stokoe. Just… James Stokoe. And I love Duncan Fegredo and Tonci Zonjic, so I’m predisposed to loving their pages. Honestly there wasn’t a bad page in the whole book, everyone really brought their A game.
Continued belowDJ: I got a few. I won’t say who, as I don’t want to play favorites. I don’t have a Bisley yet though… I want it. I just need to keep pestering him. Hah!
Duncan, one of my favorite things about your films has been the restraint in your sci-fi. Sure, there are some big concepts, but there’s never much distance from the heart and emotions of your characters. Does the comic medium make it easier or harder to imbue feeling into your characters?
DJ: I think it requires a slightly different tool-set. You’re not looking for those lingering close ups to catch a tiny reaction that says so much. You can’t use time in the same way, but you can use panels, framing, page turns; you can still get the same feelings across. It’s an art form with its own poetry. I really love it. I hope I get to do something like this book again.
Finally, for those that are on the fence about this book, describe a favorite scene to really whet their appetite.
ADC: I can’t do that without risk of spoilers, but folks can download the first 17 pages of the book right here to check it out themselves!
DJ: Best answer!
