The apocalypse is something that we’ve likely been telling stories about almost as long as we’ve been able to tell stories. There’s something about the end of the world, or at the very least humanity, that fascinates us to no end. Still, with all the apocalypses we’ve created, a lot of the usual tropes are just too played out, making it hard to create an original way to end the world. To combat that, James Tynion and Eryk Donovan have teamed up to end the world in as many creative ways as they can.
First teaming up to end the world in “Memetic”, Tynion and Donovan now bring a new apocalypse to Boom! Studios with “Cognetic”. Instead of ending the world with a meme, “Cognetic” finds an ancient super-organism reemerging in modern day New York City and once again beginning to exercise the vast power it once had over early humans. Read on as we chat with Tynion and Donovan about “Cognetic”, creating a new kind of apocalypse, teaming up for a trilogy of apocalypses, and much more.
“Cognetic” is your new book from Boom!, a followup to the previous collaboration between you two “Memetic”. What’s it all about?
Eryk Donovan: On the surface “Cognetic” is about two powerful psychic entities battling it out all over New York City and just wreaking scary havoc on the minds and bodies of the people who live there. Beneath however, “Cognetic” is a story about what it means to have practically unlimited power and the struggle between conflicting ideologies over how to use it.
James Tynion IV: I think Eryk put it really succinctly. On one hand, it reflects the fear that I’ve always had that individuality is a bit of a lie. Each human being is a hivemind consisting of trillions of organisms, and if you look at humanity as a whole, couldn’t we just be one massive singular being with lots of parts? Do our individual wills matter, or do we just serve some higher purpose we don’t really know or understand. On the other hand, it’s about the responsibility you wield when you DO have that kind of power, and what right you have to use it.
“Cognetic” centers on this ancient superorganism that wants to create a hivemind with as much of the Earth’s population as possible, taking away all of their free will. What can you tell us about this threat? What is it about the lack of free will that made this the right threat in this particular apocalypse?
ED: The desire for personal agency and free will is something that is very identifiable and familiar. The ability to control your environment, and make meaningful choices within your life is empowering, and to have that completely stripped from you is a terrifying concept. “Cognetic” also looks at this on a cosmic scale. Here we are, Humanity, the powerful masters of our planet Earth, and for all intents and purposes we are the center of our own universe. If you really look at our place inside the universe however, we are infinitely small, and that realization can bring up the primal terror of insignificance. Try as we might, there is always something in this world, in this life that we cannot control. “Cognetic” is about that terror and the struggle to cope with it.
JT: What we really wanted to capture was that unsettling feeling of smallness, that possibility that what you do really won’t matter, and extrapolate that for all of mankind. I mean, what’s more frightening than the idea that everything that comes from individuality is ultimately meaningless? Every piece of art, every momentous piece of our history, it could be erased in a moment where we are made part of one larger whole. It’s the fear of sameness, uniformity writ large… It’s similar to the core of what we explored in “Memetic”, and similar to what we ultimately want to explore in the final entry in our Apocalypse Trilogy. What’s more terrifying than everyone losing themselves for a higher purpose that has no real meaning?
I know that “Cognetic” is at least the third collaboration between the two of you. “The House in the Wall”, “Memetic”, and now “Cognetic”. What have the two of you found in this creative partnership that makes you keep coming back to it?
Continued belowED: James and I first struck up our collaboration and friendship with a short story in the Eisner and Harvey nominated “In the Dark” Anthology. We both come from some similar places in regard to our storytelling influences, and it felt really natural. I for one love James’ scripts. They are detailed enough that they cover all the key story points, and really sell me the emotional impact, but are still loose enough that I have a lot of freedom to tackle the visuals in the best way I see fit. James always has an exciting and creepy twist on his stories as well that just make it fun to draw. All the stories we work on together are also different than what you might have seen before, bringing some new perspectives, and hopefully readers, into the comics medium.
JT: In comics, when you find a partner you can work with as well as I can with Eryk you want to lock them down and keep them forever and ever. At this point, Eryk and I have a shorthand and I know I can trust him to lean into the exact emotions and images I want to express with our stories. And furthermore, Eryk is legitimately one of the best human beings I’ve ever known, and the more I get to work with him, the more excuses I have to chat with him. He is awesome. If you have an opportunity to become buds with Eryk I highly recommend it. A+, Thumbs up. With “Cognetic”, this is a world and an apocalypse we built together, and I’m so excited for the world to see what we could do.
The apocalypse is something that has probably fascinated humans as long as we’ve been able to think about the end of our world. As such, a lot of the normal apocalyptic tropes can feel a bit played out. How do the two of you approach making an apocalypse for a new generation that doesn’t feel overdone?
ED: I think one of the biggest ways to do this is to make a story personal. There are over 7 billion people on this planet, and that’s 7 billion different stories. No two people will go through the same event and experience it the same way. Focusing on the personal tales of the characters involved has a way of drawing in the reader that a big expansive over the top set piece does not. If you look at any of the post-apocalyptic tales that have really resonated and stayed long term, the personal angle is really important. Also the approach with “Cognetic” strays from the more typical fare of flesh eating zombies or nuclear wastelands, and instead is an apocalypse that begins with the mind, something invisible that infects and controls without an obvious source to stop it. Unlike “Memetic” however, here we explore the powers behind this apocalypse, and the stories of love and loss that come with being one of the most powerful beings on the planet.
JT: Post apocalyptic fictions are definitely played out, but there’s still a weird bit of hope in there… Like, in so many of those stories, the apocalypse has already happened and people are trying to figure out how to survive and get some kind of normalcy. With both “Memetic” and “Cognetic”, we’re not concerned with the Post-Apocalypse. We’re telling stories that straight up end the world and don’t lend themselves to have sequels. They are endings of humanity that are complete and final and hopefully devastating in how personally and powerfully they express themselves.
“Cognetic”, much like “Memetic”, is going to be told in 3 48-page issues. What about this format do you think lends itself to telling these big, apocalyptic stories? What are the drawbacks, if any?
ED: I think one of the great benefits of a larger format is that it gives us some time to explore certain scenes or build characters in a single chapter in a way that a shorter book may not. It also gives me more freedom to spread out with double page spreads or larger splash scenes for visual effect that might need to be condensed a more in a smaller book. It takes longer to make and is a little bit more expensive at retail, but I think it’s more than worth the value, and having those extra 10 pages really makes it an experience for our readers. I’m really proud of the work James and I have done on “Cognetic”, and I can’t wait for everyone to see it in October!
Continued belowJT: Decompression is ABSOLUTELY a big help. For horror, you want to be able to build moments and tension, and those extra pages help a lot. The only thing that gets tough is scheduling in writing an almost double-length script in the middle of all my other titles. But that is hardly a real issue. The nice thing about this format is that it allows us to build each issue into a powerful punch of comic book fiction, something that has weight. I’m so glad people liked it when we tried it out last year, and now here we are again, and we’ve got another terrifying story to rip your minds apart! Can’t wait for you all to see what we’ve put together.
With “Memetic”, there was no doubt about the finality in the apocalypse. Can we expect the same finality with “Cognetic” or is there hope for our protagonists?
JT: You’re just going to have to wait and see. I will say it’s a different sort of ending come the last page of “Cognetic” #3. We wouldn’t want to go apocalyptic the same way two years in a row, now, would we? But this IS absolutely an apocalypse and it WILL be brutal. Just in a very very different way than how we handled “Memetic”.
ED: Yeah it’s definitely not going to end the same way, that’s no fun! Still we aren’t here to pull punches, so expect some pretty heavy stuff as we keep you on the edge of your seat up until the last page! As for how humanity deals with this apocalypse, check out the book and see!!!
