Sci-fi is an genre with endless boundaries, taking the technology and scientific understanding of today and expanding it out into the near, or far-flung, future, producing worlds of wonder and of despair. It’s a genre with a million different facets and Ben Jelter is no stranger to exploring many of them in his work “Heliosphere.” Part time-travel adventure, part dystopia, part experiment in seeing how many “Dick Tracy”-by-way-of-Mad-Max designs can be stuffed into one comic, there’s a lot going on in the best of ways.
Join us as we chat with Ben about the comic and the kickstarter for the second book in the series.
To get us started, give us the quick pitch for “Heliosphere.”
Ben Jelter: The main character, Maya, starts off as an optimistic kid that really wants to see the future. When she gets there she is horrified by what she finds. In this future, technology is used in many creative new ways. One of the worst ways is perpetuating inequality. I like to explore the idea that the future is always far weirder than we imagine it to be. That’s why there are so many gene-modded people, cyborgs, and androids with their own culture.
I also wanted to explore a question that I think a lot of people are asking themselves these days which is: Does technology really improve our quality of life? In that respect it’s a cautionary tale. I’m a big fan of science and I believe that historically it has done wonders, but I wanted to try to dispel the myth that it can solve our problems on its own.
The comic feels steeped in the cyber-punk dystopias of the 70s and 80s with hints of “Transmetropolitan” and “Akira”. Were the stories of that era an influence on the tone of the comic?
BJ: I really love Ninja Turtles and the Aeon Flux animated series. I wasn’t exposed to a lot of things prior to the 90s, but I did read “Akira” not too long before I started “Heliosphere.” It was probably pretty deeply embedded in my mind when I was working on it. I love the grittiness that things had in that era but also the creativity. My biggest problem with a lot of modern stuff is that everything feels too clean and similar and it removes some of the humanity.
The narrative has different influences than the visuals do. I love reading sci-fi novels in addition to comics. Phillip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors for his ability to make you think about things differently and even question your own perspective on things. I’ve read a ton of 60s sci-fi pulp books where they just have a ton of short stories. I love reading stories that kind of make your head explode conceptually.
You work entirely in black and white and your comic is serialized chapter by chapter on your website. Was that a practical decision or did you find that the black and white art helped establish the bleak and unsettling tone of this future?
BJ: Manga was a huge inspiration in many respects. I think that manga artists focus a lot more on telling a large, complete story. One way they do this more efficiently is by working in black and white. It’s surprising how little time it saves me to do black and white instead of color, but I think the main benefit is that it’s cost effective to do a book with a ton of pages in black and white. Like you said, I think it fits with the story quite well too.
What’s the most challenging part of the creation process? Is it the idea generation, the scripting or is it a function of the art or the lettering?
BJ: The most challenging part is writing the script. I can have all of the ideas and even the overall plot structure worked out, but writing the script can still be a challenge. In a sci-fi world I find myself having to explain how things work quite often in the dialog. In most other stories you can utilize more of the dialog for character development. In sci-fi the real challenge is developing everything to be both clearly understood and emotionally compelling. I’ve been working hard to strike just the right balance.
Continued belowDrawing is by far the most time-consuming part and lettering is the least fun part. I love to draw, but if I could have someone else do a step for me it would be the drawing. I feel like I could do five comics in the same amount of time if I didn’t have to do the drawings!
Turning to the topics at play, bio-engineering is a field not many think about in relation to sci-fi. It’s not quite as sexy as robotics or time travel as a focus for example, but it is one that is at the heart of “Heliosphere.” What about this field, and its presence in sci-fi dystopias, attracted you to it?
BJ: I think that this is an area where my aesthetic and intellectual interests really intersect. There’s so many recent developments in gene sequencing and editing that are really exciting ideas to explore in science fiction. I think that it’s a missed opportunity that a lot of modern sci-fi is based more on previous sci-fi than it is on modern science. Sometimes it feels like the present is out-pacing science fiction. On the other hand, I really like drawing mutants and body horror morphing-type things in my personal work. These interests converge and you end up with what’s in the book.
I love the designs you give to the characters and villains. They all have unique and sometimes grotesque looks to them that really help to enhance the world, Sawtooth and Meatsack come to mind right away. What’s your process for generating these character designs?
BJ: My character designs are partly inspired by things like 90s video game bosses. They always had these really cool machine mutants. When I am designing things, I often try to find simple 3D shapes that look interesting and then see how I can make that shape into some sort of blend of flesh and machine. That’s how Sawtooth was designed. Meatsack is partly inspired by the Technodrome from Ninja Turtles — if it were made entirely out of human flesh and had a friendly disposition.
You’re currently running a kickstarter to print the second volume of “Heliosphere,” marking your fourth one. Have you found that it gets easier with each new project or are there always new challenges and problems that crop up?
BJ: I think that in a lot of ways it gets easier with each subsequent Kickstarter. My comics mainly appeal to a certain niche of people that like things that are weird. The cool thing is that the people that are fans of my work are really dedicated fans. It’s a good feeling to know that my work really resonates so much with some people. I’m usually not that worried anymore if I can make my goal, but I also don’t set the goal super high.
What do you love most about funding a print run of your comic through Kickstarter? And, on the flipside, what isn’t so great about that freedom?
BJ: For my first comic I spent $2,000 printing out all of the books, and after a year of selling them I had finally paid off the print run. It was a sort of demoralizing experience. Compared to that, doing a Kickstarter is amazing! It’s almost perfectly designed for my needs as a self-publisher. I guess the one downside is having to record a video. I’m not that comfortable in front of a camera.
This may seem like an odd question but what do you think is the appeal of print collections of webcomics for creators and fans?
BJ: I just think that reading a comic off of a screen is not very pleasurable compared to reading a book. If someone has read Heliosphere online, the added benefits of the print version are a higher resolution and a bunch of extra things that I add in the back of the book. The last volume actually had three extra short stories that were not available online!
To close us out, are there any comics you’d recommend for fans of your work? Or any you’ve been enjoying recently?
BJ: If someone is a fan of my work I would also recommend two comics by James Harvey: “Masterplasty” and “Mouth Baby.” I just finished reading a manga series called “Monster” which is pretty different from my work, but it has really beautiful storytelling and drawings. There’s a great series called “Planetes” for people that like hard sci-fi. It’s such an immersive world. I know lots of people have probably already heard of it, but I also recommend “The Three Body Problem.” It’s not a comic but it’s entertaining sci-fi.
The Kickstarter for “Heliosphere: Plasma Burn” ends October 4th.
