I know lately it seems like everything happening on Kickstarter has something to do with Veronica Mars or Camp Stokoe, but there’s a lot more going on out there. In fact, one of the most inventive and daring projects from a comic creator in recent memory is nearing its close right now, and it needs your help.
Called “Symbiosis,” it’s the passion project of creator Steven Sanders, an artist you may recognize from his work on books like Wolverine & the X-Men, S.W.O.R.D. and Our Love is Real. He’s an incredibly gifted artist, with a fierce gift for storytelling and design, and “Symbiosis” finds himself pushing his art and his ideas to a new and exciting level. I’ll let Sanders’ own Kickstarter page describe it:
“Symbiosis is a Creative Commons licensed, world-building art book by comic and concept artist Steven Sanders. It explores a world where there are no mechanical sources of power. Instead, humanity has learned to utilize biological engines that harness a “bio-ether” present on the planet. They can control and feel what these bio-engines feel via a “Resonance Tooth.” Consider it 1940s era bio-punk.
The Creative Commons licensing turns this book into a world-building toolkit that you can use to make your own RPGs, comics, cosplay, novels, or anything you can imagine that is inspired by the world in this book.
It’s the first book of its kind.”
That last point is perhaps the most exciting part, and it’s a project I am both personally excited about and personally supporting. I highly suggest you do the same, and if you don’t believe me, check out my talk below with Sanders about where this project came from, world building, the potential of the growth in this world, and much more. Thanks to Steven for chatting with me, and make sure to check out his Kickstarter as it nears the end of its run.
Steven Sanders: Symbiosis is a thing which has several faces, so to speak, which makes it somewhat difficult to give a quick answer, like in the way that you could say that CASANOVA is a comic book. Symbiosis is a number of things all at once, and it’s something that has never been made before. It’s an art book that uses loosely sequential storytelling to tell the travels of a woman living in a world where all technology is driven by biological engines that use a “bio-ether.” I’m calling the aesthetic “1940s bio-punk.” It’s also part world-bible for that story, in that there’s a large chunk of the book that is just a series of entries detailing out the world and how it works. Those two things put together, and released under a Creative Commons license, make it into a world-building toolkit. You can take the art and ideas from the book and use them in whatever way you are inspired to. People already have plans to use tabletop RPG engines like Fate Core to make Symbiosis into a tabletop RPG, Alex de Campi has already written prose about the world, and I’ve seen people talk about wanting to cosplay characters from the book/world.
Or to put it as succinctly as possible; Symbiosis is a visual and conceptual toolkit for the public to either enjoy on its own merits, or take and use as a seed for their own creative expression. I’m really excited to see what everyone makes using this book.
To me, having read a lot about the project and other places you’ve talked about it, it seems like it is undoubtedly a passion project for you. Even the aesthetic for the video on the Kickstarter seemed to tie into this world you’re trying to create. Where did the idea come from, and why is now the time you want to unleash it on the world?
The idea for the project itself came from a number of places. I had wanted to try and put out an 11×17 art book for some time now; I think the original plan was to just have a normal art book. But I had some rare free time and spent it making the first art I had made just for the pure fun of it in quite some time, and ended up with the “Biowalker” piece that showed up in Spectrum 19. That image was just something that I more or less let develop organically. Looking at that painting, led me to thinking about the possibility of trying to find a way to take some time off from comics and advertising work to focus on something just for fun, that being fully developing the world that was inferred by that painting.
As far as timing goes, it was more a matter of “how soon can I make this happen” vs “when do I want this to happen.” Late February was when I finally had everything together and ready.
In today’s world, it seems like something like Symbiosis is perfect fit considering how people don’t digest stories in the same way as they always have. People prefer to make themselves part of the world. Let’s say Symbiosis is funded. How do you envision this project growing in years to come? It seems to me that it has the organic potential to move in many different directions, and to see huge growth with the right audience.
SS: Oh man. I see it growing in a hundred different directions. People are pretty passionate about it already. I don’t really envision anything in particular, as I like to just be surprised by what people turn out, and also it helps me to “let go” of the work, which is necessary in any given piece of artwork, but is especially true when you’re explicitly releasing it to the public and encouraging them to do whatever they want with it.
But, as far as my own contributions, there will likely be supplementary books, and moving “out of universe” but still using the same general ideas, I have a number of other worlds I’d like to see explored and fleshed out. If I could support myself by doing nothing but creating worlds for people to explore and have fun with, that would be kind of the greatest thing ever.
Whatever does happen, I’m bound to be delighted by it. The sci-fi/fantasy fan base out there has already shown themselves to possess vast reservoirs of creativity, and I cannot wait to see Symbiosis through their eyes.
SS: Currently I’ve done a brief survey down the rabbit hole, mapping out the different tunnels in the warren. (Is that extending the metaphor too far? Ah well.) I have a list of the various socio-political groups, and plans for addressing the nuts and bolts of how each culture functions. Engineering, theoretical sciences, religion, food production, manufacturing, arts, education, law, economics (I’m really interested in putting a society together that uses the Social Credit system.) on and on and on. The limit will basically be how many pages I can put in the book. One of the stretch goals, assuming we get there soon, is a large increase in page count. I’d love to have more than 100 pages to play with here.
As far as the appeal of world-building/creation goes, I think that in no small part it lets me be the engineer/boy genius inventor I always wanted to be when I was growing up. While I enjoy the act of storytelling in comics, that always takes a back seat to how much more I enjoy drawing new things. I probably have to admit that part of the appeal is that world building is not as repetitious. I don’t have to draw the same character or vehicle or building over and over and over again; the novelty factor is much higher than what I’m used to.
Continued belowI should note, though, that at the end of the day, I’m just glad that I can get paid to draw, period. These are just some personal preferences that are there if I slip out of “professional” mode.
Obviously the WWII era tech influenced you quite a bit, but what other elements have helped inform the design and development side of your mind on Symbiosis? Are there any particular influences that you find standing out more than the rest?
SS: Hm. Military clothing and equipment from that era is big, too, but that probably falls in with the WWII tech. I’m letting alchemical symbology be used in a number of ritual settings. These robes all use color choices based on the four colors central to the alchemical process of change (nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, and rubedo). On a less esoteric level, my standard influences of Shirow and Moebius are always in play. (Along with a zillion other artists who have aspects to their work that I find appealing and try to integrate into my work.)
Katherine Aeneas acts as the guide for those looking to experience Symbiosis. Does she play the role as a true lead of a story, or is she more a tool used to deliver people to where you want them to be in the experience?
SS: Both? The storytelling is going to be almost completely visual, with word usage to a minimum, but I am interested in showing how the travel throughout the world affects her personally as well as serving as a guiding light to follow. I don’t want the book to look like a travel photo album with her in every picture waving. I want to show how these environments affect people. She’s going to be fully engaged in this traveling, and I’m interested in seeing how she’ll respond to different challenges and situations that are thrown her way.
One thing I thought was fascinating was how this stemmed from a piece you created when you simply were drawing for yourself, not for work. It sounds like that is something you don’t often get to explore. As an artist and a creator, how important for you is it to maintain a connection with that side of yourself, and does Symbiosis let you unleash that side?
I’d say one of the things that really stood out for me about this Kickstarter versus others is just the sheer level of care that’s being put in to presenting the hardcover print version of Symbiosis. It sounds like a phenomenal production. Why did you decide to go the extra mile (plus a few) to make sure the final product wasn’t just a book, but an experience? Does the way you’re presenting it almost exist as part of the world?
SS: One could look at it like the hardcover is something of an artifact from that world.. I mostly made the design choices about the book because these were things that I have seen and loved in old books I’ve collected, and they are things I see less and less often in modern books. Most of them are cheaply printed and bound, and will fall apart before long. Perfect Binding, where the pages are just glued in, is kind of the saddest thing in the world to me, as the pages will eventually start falling out, especially the more you read it. So, with cheaply bound books, the more you enjoy them, the faster they fall apart. That seems a tragedy.
But the book is definitely going to be an experience, and I’ll be taking advantage of the size and the top binding to do some things that you can’t really do with books bound on the side.
One of the most fun things about Kickstarters is seeing the creative rewards that are created to entice potential donators. One of the things that I really enjoy about Symbiosis is how many of the rewards are both completely awesome from a swag standpoint, but also naturally build the world you’re developing. How was the process of developing these? I always imagine it to be arduous in its own right.
Continued belowSS: It definitely took some work. I had to come up with what I wanted to make, see how those things fit into the world, and then source out materials, find reference to base certain things on, contact speciality supply houses (like a dental supply house for the resonance tooth prop-artifact) and basically run myself ragged trying to figure out how to make these objects, and make them in a way that I can easily make a large number of them without it taking forever. It was a challenge.
Given that it’s “1940’s bio-punk” in this very science fiction world, is there a divergent moment in the history of Symbiosis’ world that drove the world of Symbiosis down this path instead of the track we’re on here in our world?
SS: That is something that I’m leaving vague and open to the reader. The “1940s” bit is more of an aesthetic referent than a historical one. Symbiosis may not even be on Earth.
Many potential contributors are strictly people who know you as a comic artist, through your work on books like Wolverine and the X-Men, S.W.O.R.D., Our Love is Real, and others. For those specifically interested in that niche, how do you see the part of Symbiosis that is comic-oriented developing down the road?
SS: Outside of the parts of the book that are sequential, that’s going to be largely up to the public. I may make a Symbiosis comic at some point in the future, if I find a writer interested, and of course anyone else is welcome to pick the torch up and run with it. It all comes down to who sees a story that they like in this world, and who wants to make it happen bad enough?
Here’s your soapbox. For readers of Multiversity, why should they contribute to the Symbiosis Kickstarter? Feel free to go nuts with this.
SS: There’s a number of reasons: The main one is that this is something that has never been made before, ever, and people are excited about getting the chance to get their hands on this material. When Symbiosis is funded, more books like this by other artists are likely to follow and a rich ecosystem of worlds can be built for people to explore and play in. The other one is that if you appreciate books, the hardcover is right up your alley. The build quality and the limited run are going to make this a serious collectors item.
Or, long story short, you can own and/or be a part of a bit of history by contributing, and get an amazing world to explore and build upon in the bargain.
