It’s a banner year for Antony Johnston. With new Image books on shelves like the critically acclaimed “Umbral” and “Wasteland” about to release its final issue, Johnston is a busy guy.
But in addition to those books, Johnston has a second Image book out in the wild as well in the form of “The Fuse,” a procedural set on an international spacestation that stars Klem, the more hard-boiled cop that has been up in space for some time now, and Ralph, the new recruit. And as luck would have it, the first thing that happens when Ralph arrives on the Fuse is a murder mystery that stretches from the lowest points of the Fuse to the highest, introducing us not only to the banter and habits of our stars but also into the wide, incredible landscape of the Fuse.
While we’re inundated with cop procedurals on television these days, very few comics have attempted to accomplish the same format and narrative devices. We see variants on it, but never anything quite like your CSIs or NCISs. Given what comics can offer in terms of storytelling that no other media can, it’s actually a bit of a surprise that more people don’t try it. Yet with “The Fuse,” Johnston and artist Justin Greenwood have figured out the formula and improved on it, solidifying its place in comics with compelling characters that both exist within and burst out of standard narrative tropes and a setting that has infinite opportunities to explore.
The first collected volume of “The Fuse” goes on sale this week ($9.99 for six issues, which is basically you stealing three issues, I hope you realize), collecting the first case that very much sets up the ball for everything that is to come in the future of the series. Read on as we chat with Antony Johnston about the first arc, cops in space and more.
So now that “the Fuse” has finished its first arc, how’re you feeling about the book and the reaction so far?
Antony Johnston Pretty good! Overall reaction has been great, and people are really digging Klem, not to mention her relationship with Ralph. That’s important, because their central partnership is the central driver of the book, beyond the cases themselves. So it’s great that aspect is being well received.
More than anything, I’m just glad people like the concept and are enjoying the book for what it is. I had no idea if anyone else would want to read a sort of hard-sf cop procedural. Luckily, it turns out they do.
I know that the lead characters of their book is something you’re particularly proud of as well, at least in terms of eschewing stereotypical dynamics in these kind of stories. How has working with Klem and Ralph been for you so far?
AJ: Surprisingly easy, actually. Maybe I’m just wired differently, but to me they don’t even feel especially unusual or iconoclastic, even though I know they are — because, as you say, they don’t hew to traditional clichés.
It’s amazing how little I have to veer from the norm before people do a double-take. The mere fact that Ralph is a black German seems to blow people’s minds, like it’s an outrageous bit of sci-fi. But there are over half a million Afro-Germans living right here and now. It’s really not that strange.
With a procedural part of the trick to me seems to be to show just enough characterization in between the mystery plot, but did you find it at all difficult to match that balance given the mystery-heavy circumstances? Since it’s not like, say, “Umbral” where character growth is par for course along the journey.
AJ: That’s definitely a tough balancing act. Of course I want to reveal things about the characters, and delve into their histories, opinions, and tastes.
But I can’t stand stories where characters just stand around and talk about themselves for no sensible reason. So the trick is reveal those aspects of character during the course of natural conversations, and decisions they make.
Good examples would be things like Ralph opting to carry a real gun, or Klem following him into the cables despite telling him not to go in the first place. Decisions like that are revealing, and while readers might not consciously think about them, it all goes toward informing the audience’s sense of the characters.
Continued belowIn terms of working on the first arc of the series, what did you find were the most surprising aspects?
AJ: Probably how well Justin took to the cop genre. After working with him on “Wasteland”, of course I knew he’d be great, because he’s a pro and an awesome storyteller. But I didn’t quite expect the level of enthusiasm he’s brought to the genre and format. We’re having a blast just making the book.
I also have a newfound respect for people who write murder mystery procedurals all year round for TV shows. I mean, I already knew it was deceptively complex work; I’ve written a lot of mysteries over the years, and people often don’t realise how much work goes into them.
But the process of writing a straight cop procedural, with all the clues and twists and red herrings that come along with the form, made me appreciate it all the more. Harder than it looks, man.
Obviously you’ve done the gritty crime dramas before, but what did you find were the biggest challenges of a procedural?
AJ: Respecting the tropes of the genre without falling into cliché. That’s a challenge with any mainstream genre, but the procedural has become such a dominant form in pop culture that practically *everyone* knows those tropes inside out by now. We have to keep in mind that our audience will see through the obvious.
This actually brings up a question I had, relating to your previous answer as well, in how one even approaches this kind of genre storytelling. In shows obviously it’s a case per week, but you run into the danger where you know who the criminal is just based on recurring tricks of the trade. Is this the case for this book and something you worry about for this book, or do you have an idea of how to work around it?
AJ: That’s a problem for murder mysteries in all media. But just as tropes of the genre have developed over time to help tell the story, so similar methods to misdirect the audience and obfuscate the truth have also developed.
I’m not about to go revealing those tricks! But if you consume enough procedural mysteries, in all formats, you’ll start to notice them. And naturally we’re using them in “The Fuse” — we’d be nuts not to use every tool at our disposal.
A book like this had its fair share of twists and turns along the way. Did you find it difficult at all to keep the answer to the murderer in check? I imagine that you probably started at the end and worked your way backwards.
AJ: Because of the serial format, I didn’t really have a choice about that. Remember, with a format like this, the first chapter has already been drawn (maybe even published) before I’ve scripted the conclusion. So I have to know the solution ahead of time, because otherwise it’s impossible to plant the correct clues and red herrings in the early chapters.
Something I’m proud of in “The Fuse” — and I don’t just mean ‘The Russia Shift,’ because I’ll be doing this in every story arc — is that all the clues are there. They may be subtle, we may misdirect you away from them or make them ambiguous, but we don’t cheat. It’s totally possible to “play along” and try to figure out the identity of the killer for yourself.
The biggest challenge, to my mind, would be the process of setting up the red herrings along the way. Were there any particular tricks or tips that you looked into in having enough misdirection without it a) becoming obvious or b) unwieldy?
AJ: Not that I recall. You have to look at the medium you’re working in, and figure out what’s possible and what isn’t.
For example, in comics we can have unseen people talking, at length, without giving away their identity to the reader. You simply can’t do that on TV. On the other hand, we can’t use motion or sound to induce emotions in the audience, which is a powerful tool in TV and film that can be used to save huge amounts of exposition.
Continued belowThat’s one reason why we hit on the “flashback color-coding” idea, where during the conclusion, clue flashbacks are tinted red. It’s our equivalent of the “CSI cross-process bloom” flashback effect, and it gives us a visual shorthand language to tap into.
So before the series began I had my preconceptions about what the “Russia Shift” was and how it would play into international relations of the series, which you debunked in our first chat. There was some rather prominent political aspects, though, especially with the mayor playing a prominent role in the series. In reading the series and seeing how it portrayed tense societal relations of a different manner, I find myself curious: what kind of world-building went into the series in order to make the Fuse itself more real?
AJ: Just years and years of note-taking. I had the idea for Midway city itself more than ten years ago, and since then I’ve been continually making notes, updating them, coming up with new ideas about the society, and so on.
The process has been going on long enough that I now “know” the city well enough to make consulting those notes unnecessary, unless I need specific details on stuff like the exact year the first Mayor was elected, or what cross street Leonid lives on.
My main aim with “The Fuse” has always been to make it feel completely real — as if you’re reading about a place that seems not just plausible, but almost inevitable. If there was a giant solar energy platform in space, *of course* people would want to escape earth and live on it. And if they did, then *of course* they’d eventually try to form a sovereign state. And if that happened, *of course* there would be internal tension about what model to follow, not to mention resistance from Earth. Etc, etc, etc.
And what about working a book that could be identified as ‘science fiction’ at a glance, but is actually much more realistic than what the genre title implies? I ask about balance a lot, I know, but what did you find the give and take of working on “the Fuse” to be in that regard?
AJ: Well, as I say, our main aim is always to make The Fuse itself feel like a real place.
That said, I admit we could have maybe put a little more “sci” in the “fi” for our first arc. The next story is much more sci-fi, and I just know people will say, “Oh, you should have started with this arc instead!”
But that would have put the wrong emphasis on things. ‘The Russia Shift’ wasn’t an accident — we set out to first establish the characters and format, in order to let people ease into this new world. “The Fuse” is a murder mystery procedural set in the future; not a space opera with some cops in it. There’s a difference, and so far our readers seem to appreciate that.
I think right now we’re seeing a massive resurggence in sci-fi/fantasy, and whereas a few years ago liking “politics in space” in a TV show wasn’t as cool, now we have a dirge of things on TV and in comics, even if they don’t all last. With the first arc done and looking towards the future of “The Fuse” now that the groundwork is set, what are you hoping to add to or play with within the genre as the series continues to grow in order to help carve the book’s niche?
AJ: It’s weird how suddenly, sci-fi comics are a massive thing again. I don’t know why that is, but I’m certainly not complaining.
In terms of future stories, the plan right now is to use each case to show a different aspect of life on The Fuse, and the things that go on there — but without turning it into “whacky sci-fi murder method of the week”.
For example, ‘Gridlock’ will feature the Fuse-specific sport of gridlocking, show off the solar energy tech, and let us glimpse a unique side of Midway’s criminal underworld. But at the root of the murder are universal motives and emotions that anyone can relate to, right here and now. That’s a balancing act we’ll be doing a lot as the book progresses.
Continued belowAnd what can you tease us for what is to come in the second arc? You touched on it a bit that it’d be more sci-fi, but do you have any hints for the case?
AJ: I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll direct you to the solicit:
They call it Gridlocking—maglev-bike races across the Fuse’s vast solar arrays. Fast, dangerous, and very illegal. When a gridlocker turns up dead, Klem and Ralph begin their own race… to catch a killer!
“The Fuse” #7 goes on sale November 5th, and “The Fuse” v1 is on sale this week for $9.99, collecting the first six issues.
