May of this year the United States Congress held its first hearing regarding UFOs in over half a century. This month Paul Cornell & Ryan Kelly launched a Zoop crowdfunding campaign for “The Completed Saucer Country.” Coincidence, the alignment of stars, or a government psyop?
To find out the truth behind all this we spoke to creator Paul Cornell. He discussed finally finishing up the series, tackling stretch goals. running a Zoop campaign and more. You can find that and more from the interview below. You can check out the campaign for the Complete Saucer Country running now on Zoop here.
It has to be a cool feeling to be able to put out a complete collection of “Saucer Country” but it has to feel even better to be able to finish it. When you were working on “Saucer State” did you know you were going to end on a cliff hanger and have an idea how you were going to wrap it up?
Paul Cornell: No, we were taken by surprise by that. I’ve always known what the ending was going to be, so it’s just been a case of going back through the strip, noting all the questions that need answers and the arcs that need completing and making sure the ending provides a satisfying experience. We’re confident that this is the whole story.
Do you feel any added pressure in giving fans an ending to this series?
PC: Hugely. But that’s the joy of it. You want people to feel engaged, and wow, it seems they are!
A complete collected edition is a huge incentive and payoff for readers who have been fans of the series for a long time. For new readers thinking of jumping into a 440 page collection of something new what can you tell them about the series?
PC: This is the story of US Presidential Candidate Arcadia Alvarado, who gets abducted by aliens and then uses her political clout to find out the truth of what happened. It’s an exploration of the immensely colourful variety of UFO mythology over decades, and a political thriller about Russian interference in American politics. But… it looks like aliens are real!
At this point its been 10 years since the series debuted. What do you feel is the biggest difference In your work as a creator from “Saucer Country #1” to now?
PC: I’ve become more to the point, I think, less verbose, which really helps with this project!
Comic readers should be pretty familiar with the idea of crowd funding at this point but Zoop is a new entity in the crowd funding space.
Why was Zoop the right place for “Saucer Country” and as someone who is very involved in the process how has it been working with Zoop?
PC: They’re wonderful. They’re doing a lot more than I expected them to, from videos about the project to seeking our readers on Twitter who were hoping for more “Saucer Country.” I couldn’t be more delighted with them. They’d landed a number of high profile projects and I just felt they were the right fit. I think my faith has been entirely justified!
The campaign has some unique stretch goals, is there one you are most excited about/hope is reached?
PC: I’m hoping we get to the point of giving away some fan fiction in which I get my Saucer Country characters to meet my Doctor Who ones!
As a British writer you have worked on a lot of British adjacent titles like “MI-13,” “Knight and Squire,” and “Doctor Who.” “Saucer Country” focuses heavily on America and the American political system. Why did you set the series in America and entrench it in its political system?
PC: I wanted to write about UFOs, and New Mexico is the home of the UFO. The mythology is an American art form, exported to the rest of the world!
Your co-creator and partner on the series is artist Ryan Kelly. With this man issues together over the years what do you think Ryan has brought to the series that is distinctly him?
PC: He’s an amazing artist, and is currently in high demand. He’s got a wonderful combination of excellent character acting and weird alien special effects, which is exactly what we need for this book!
Living in the world of conspiracies and ufo/aliens for this series is there anything you learned or found interesting while making the book?
PC: Well, I’ve been immersed in this stuff since childhood, but I think picking apart how much the US intelligence community have encouraged and fermented UFO believers is fascinating.
Why should someone back “Saucer Country” and when they do what do you hope they take away from their time with the book?
PC: They’ll get a huge softback telling one big, complete story that serves as both a satisfying thriller and a primer about the history of UFOs. It’s good fun. We hope they like fairies, grey aliens doing kung fu, Philip K. Dick and Vladimir Putin guest roles and talking rabbits!
