Interviews 

Time-Traveling Spy-Fi: Michael Moreci Talks “Transference” [Interview]

By | May 26th, 2015
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

Your new book “Transference” with Ron Salas is coming from Black Mask in June,  part of the big new slate of Black Mask books for this year. What else can you tell us about it?

Michael Moreci: It’s a book, first of all, that I’ve been working on forever. I started writing it when my wife was pregnant with our first son. And he’s three now. So, that’s some time.

As for the book itself, it’s a cool sci-fi thriller involving time traveling espionage agents–I like to call it Spy-Fi. It has a unique take on time travel in that it’s pretty reality based, in accordance to Einstein’s theory of relativity (that time occurs like space, all around us all the time, we just experience it linearly). The time travel involves not send your body back in time, but your consciousness–so you’re strictly limited to your lifespan, and there’s even rules about that.

What these agents do is conduct operations in time, mainly fact gathering and minor adjustments. But when they discover someone else has time travel technology–it had been exclusive to them–and is messing with time in a major way, they have to act–and by act, I mean stop a terrorist attack on domestic soil and undo all the strange changes happening in the life of Colton, the team’s leader. Also–there’s more–the technology these bad guys have, called transference, is a step above what is known so far. Rather than send their consciousness back to their own body, they can send it to someone else’s. So, in the past, anyone can be a terrorist.

I think when Black Mask announced their lineup for this year, with books from a lot of quality creators, a lot of people were asking, “where the hell do I send my pitch?”. Just how did you hook up with Black Mask and what made “Transference” the right book to take there, rather than your other frequent publishers Image or Boom?

MM: The publisher, Matt Pizzolo, and I have known each other for awhile. He’s a great guy. And one of the faces of the publisher, Matt Rosenberg (who also writes the terrific Black Mask book “We Can Never Go Home”) is a friend of mine. That’s how the contact was made. When I saw the cool stuff Black Mask was doing, the great books and focus on transmedia growth, I really wanted to get involved. I sent Pizzolo the pitch, and he liked it. Things when from there.

The act of time travel is key to the story of “Transference”. Time travel is one of those things that pops up in comics a decent bit, with books like “Comeback”, “Chrononauts”, “Ei8ht”, half the X-Men storylines, and more. How are you hoping to tackle the idea in maybe a little different way than it’s been done before?

MM: Well, like I mentioned before, it’s really reality based. That’s one big thing, the idea of freeing your consciousness to experience time the same as it experiences space. But I also don’t think we’ve seen this kind of time travel story, where it’s tied to espionage and spying. As we all know, information is power in our world (ask the NSA, Snowden, etc.), and the idea that you can go back in time and capture information is pretty salient and powerful. I love spy stories, a lot, and this is a way to really take the tried and true tropes of that genre and turn them on their head. Inception did this as well, in its own way. I don’t think, when people get their hands on it, that it’ll read like a time travel book–more like a kick ass spy book with time travel added to the mix. And the use of time travel, again, is going to be pretty different and open the door to some cool things in the story.

Things really kick off in “Transference” when protagonist Colton Moss and his time traveling counter-terrorism team find out that they’re not the only ones with time travel technology after someone goes back in time and changes events in Colton’s life and in the world at large. How is this shifting nature of time and past events going to impact Colton and his team and make their mission more difficult?

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MM: Well, trust is always a major component of the spy genre. Who’s on your side, who’s a mole, who’s a traitor? We ramp that up by a million because the existence of transference technology makes Colton and his team’s missions all the more challenging because, literally, anyone can be a terrorist. And if they do pinpoint the terrorist in the past, there’s no telling who that person really is, as it’s just a body the real bad guy inhabiting.

As for Colton, specifically, there’s definitely a personal bent to his story that really takes things deep into his life. Someone is going back in time and erasing his past–ruining his marriage, taking away his sobriety. The questions of course, are why this is happening, and who is doing it?

You’ve already mentioned that this version of time-travel involves transferring consciousness rather than the person’s actual body. What other sort of rules are Colton and his team going to have to abide by as well?

MM: Initially, I had a comprehensive set of rules for users of this tech to follow. But, as with most time travel stories, the plot is enough of a mess (in a good way!), so I cut them out in order to streamline things. But, I already know how to use those rules and twists should we, hopefully, continue beyond this first volume.

You mentioned a couple times that “Transference”, even for all the time time-travel and everything, is, ultimately, fairly reality-based. I think that’s something you’re good at, telling stories with big, very comic-book ideas, but grounding them with real world issues and genuine characters. Your Boom book “Burning Fields” is a great example of this. How much research do you put into giving these books that grounded base?

MM: Thanks for noticing that! I do A LOT of research. I’m actually in the middle of reading a book on the economic history of Brazil for a series I hope to launch in late 2016. That’s the level of obsessive I get about keeping stories as grounded as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy and going gonzo–but even with “Roche Limit”, which is set on a fictional dwarf planet on the rim of the galaxy, I do my best to ensure it feels real. That’s the important thing for me, how a book reads and feels, that texture. I learned a lot of this from Brian Wood, whose work I’ve admired for years and years. His books always feel real, no matter what shape they take, whether it be a U.S. mired in a modern civil war or the post-apocalyptic search for a missing ship. “Burning Fields” was something, as you say, that had a lot of research put into it, and that was a big leap for me in this regard. I want to do researched books–all of my books, now and moving forward (as far as I know)–have this component. Research in “Burning Fields” was especially crucial because the situation in Iraq is so delicate, for a number of reasons, and I was hellbent on doing my best to portray a cultural that I’ve never experienced firsthand. I’ve never been to Iraq and didn’t know much about the Muslim faith. But I learned. I read books on the war, on private militaries, even the Qua’ran. And that level of detail, I think, pays great rewards in the reading experience.

That said, “Transference” has this component as well, in that if time travel were to ever happen, this is probably the likeliest way it could. There’s a science to space and time, however theoretical it is, involving our consciousness and how it experiences time, and I boned up on how this works and what it means. Granted, I take some liberties in order to serve the story, but the foundation of sound hypothesis is there–and, in the end, I think I came away with a hook that’s never been done before.

You also mention the transmedia push that Black Mask is doing, which is also a big thing you’re working on with Heavy Metal for Hoax Hunters. I know the potential money in it has to be a factor, but what makes these transmedia projects something you want to push for? And what other sorts of media would you want to see “Transference” make the jump to?

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MM: The thing is, the comics industry has a strange relationship with this stuff. There’s this sense that, if you pursue transmedia opportunities, you somehow love and respect comics less. Which is crazy. The reality is that if you’re not writing for Marvel and DC–which I wish like hell I was–and you want to make a career on original content, you have to maximize that content with tv/film developments, merchandise, video games, prose, whatever. The money that goes around comics isn’t abundant enough to support someone working on only creator-owned IP in the comics sphere. There’s a few people who manage to pull that off, which is great, but for the most part, you need to make the most of what you have. Plus, it’s exciting. I love the idea that someone enjoys and respects my work enough that they want to make it into a movie or TV show. That’s awesome. There’s really nothing lost here, and never have these opportunities diminished my dedication to making the best comics I can.

As for “Transference”, I’d love to see a TV show. I think it’s perfect for the format, in the vein of, say, 24 meets Homeland. And if we can squeeze in a first person shooter video game in there as well, I’d be a happy camper. I’m still waiting for my RPG “Mass Effect”-style adaptation of “Roche Limit”…


Leo Johnson

Leo is a biology/secondary education major and one day may just be teaching your children. In the meantime, he’s podcasting, reading comics, working retail, and rarely sleeping. He can be found tweeting about all these things as @LFLJ..

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