This Is Not News

Continued from Part 3

DT: From the story so far and hints from other interviews and message boards, it seems you’re setting up the Antares family to challenge some of the institutions and traditions that have led the URRS to its current state. Is that something you think our own society needs to do? If so, since we lack skyfurnaces and spell protocols, how do you think we can accomplish that?

CG: Indeed. The Antares family is our symbol of hope against all odds. Their courage represents the best chance their nation has to overcome the tragic legacy that imprisons them. They are the heroic face in a cycle of renewal that civilization has engaged in since it was born. In the eternal struggle of humanity vs. society, they are the hands of freedom that tear down the walls of any nation that has forgotten the basic truth of law. Law must serve humanity to build their civilizations. When humanity becomes a blinded slave to their civilization’s laws, that society must renew itself somehow, if it is to survive.

I think it’s clear that, given my answer to the previous question, I feel our nation is on the brink of a very difficult transition. The transition from an industrial to an information society is something that is going to cause major international flux. It is a time in which the resources of the world, and the structures of power that profit from their distribution, are going to be challenged. New players on the world scene have become powerful, others have become weak. The aftermath of the Cold War has left us in a calm before what I feel will be a very destructive storm. In the analogous world of my fiction, the Antares family represents the common people, whose lives will somehow have to find a way to survive as the scheming manipulators that rule the world throw it into a chaos of their own greed.

To get back to the last part of your question, how can common folk not only survive, but challenge the institutions that are leading us? Well, history has the answers listed quite clearly. The catch is, such actions represent a subset of human endeavors that are incredibly costly, selfless and bloody. To write a comic about revolution, this is simplicity itself– but inspiring large hordes of humanity to take their destiny into their hands for better or worse? This is history at its most vital, and most complex.

BK: Well, even protocols and skyfurnaces weren’t doing it — both are state controlled. It’s personal conviction, sacrifice, and courage ultimately that must be brought to bear in order for things to change. We, in our own time can only do our little part, but the sum of millions of little parts is unstoppable. First, is to keep informed: read, read, read, and then read some more. Next is to use this information in making judgments when dealing with elections, propositions, candidates etc. “Turn on to democracy or democracy will turn on you,” as Nader likes to put it. Support campaign finance reform, look to the problems of government and address them however you can. Don’t necessarily trust standard channels of information–many news providing agencies have an agenda, and that agenda does not include informing the masses truthfully or impartially. When was the last time you heard on ANY of the main channels that we bomb Iraq on a daily basis and that hundreds of children die of disease and malnutrition there every week because of ridiculous sanctions imposed by our own government? Blaming Saddam Hussein here is just plain asinine. Stay aware and don’t be afraid to make your opinion heard, even if it is unpopular.

DT: Chris, you said that we can effect positive change, but that the actions required to do so are “incredibly costly, selfless and bloody.” Upon one reading, that comment seems pretty pessimistic . . . do you really think that’s the only way to make things better?

CG: Actually, yes. As you say, the pessimistic reading is only one take on this comment. My own sentiment when I expressed this thought was more objective than emotional. When in human history has positive change not been incredibly costly, selfless and bloody? Martin Luther King’s quest to bring civil rights to the black community wasn’t a Disneyland ride. Nor was Abraham Lincoln’s fight to preserve the Union from the southern hordes of racist farmers. The Russian people pushing back the Nazis in the 1940’s was a journey of utter horror, but without the sacrifice of the Red Army, Hitler could not have been defeated before millions more were killed on all fronts. Let us also give due time to all the American soldiers that were shot to pieces on the beaches of France, or Guadalcanal, or Iwo Jima or any other bloody pyre upon which history is decided.

Nothing truly worth achieving is simple. The easier something is to achieve, the less likely it is to effect any kind of far-reaching change.

DT: You also seem to dismiss writing about revolution when you call it “simplicity itself” — what, exactly, do you think is necessary to transform ideas into action? In your wildest dreams, what do you see people learning, thinking, and doing as a result of reading The Red Star? What else do you feel that you, personally, need to do to put the ideals you express into practice?

CG: Again, I was being objective. To write about revolution is easy — any marketing drone can splash ‘REVOLUTION’ on an advertisement for a luxury car and feel gratified by their own alleged genius — an actor can put on a costume and portray Che Guevarra or George Washington and perceive what it is to be a ‘revolutionary’ in some internal fashion; but to place ones self at the forefront of human conflict, to attempt to have your life alter the course of events, this is a very advanced set of human skills.

In my wildest dreams…well, I’m a writer, so my dreams get pretty wild. I’d feel more comfortable talking about my hopes and goals regarding the project. I’d like a continuation of what’s happening right now. Most days I get messages from people around the world or even in my own neighborhood talking about how The Red Star is touching them, affecting them, making them curious about what happened in Russia in the 20th Century, and how it affected their lives wherever they happened to live. Hungarians, Poles, Mexicans, Germans, and of course, Russians and Americans– our lives took place in an extraordinary period in human civilization. The Red Star is, at its best, a primer to remind us of that. It is also a valentine to the industrial age– a time quickly giving way to the era of computerization. The great thing is that these themes are working. People are getting it. My hope and goal is that more and more people out there continue to ‘get it’. What they do with it once they get it, that’s in the lap of providence. All I can do is stay true to the enthusiasm and vision that inspired me and try my best to make it all worthwhile to the phenomenal group of friends that decided to join me in this humble cause.

DT: You both spend a fair amount of time on the redstar.com message boards – what do you get from that interaction with readers?

CG: Fun! Concerning the message boards, publishing The Red Star is like beginning a conversation with as many strangers as possible, and the boards are the means by which that communication occurs. Obviously, we’re more invested in our work emotionally and artistically than a lot of teams out there in the mainstream. We’re not spread out over the entire nation, we see each other socially, we work very close, and we are telling a story that, according to your typical marketing drone, shouldn’t be as commercially or critically successful as it has proved to be. Therefore, communicating on our boards directly with the people who appreciate this work is very special for us. It’s just a reflection of who we are, really. We respect the fact that some artists don’t feel comfortable speaking directly to the public, and at the same time, why should this isolation be some kind of precedent? I suppose we’re so familiar with our computers that we’re not intimidated by this new form of human speech. It’s primitive, somewhat, it’s a bit more like ants bumping antennae than speech, but never in history has humanity done it this way, so how can we not participate, even in our own humble way?

BK: I personally get a lot out of it. Too many times when I have been a fan of this or that, actual contact with a creator was impossible, and too many times do they become aloof and insular. Now that the tables have been turned (about 1/10 of a degree) I feel that the buck should stop here. When I get questions directed to me, I like to answer them. Personal contact with people who enjoy our book is one of the things that makes Team Red Star stand out from the rest (with exceptions of course). Read the remainder of this entry »

Continued from Part 2

DT: You’re telling a story about very noble people who are saddled with leaders who are obviously not worthy of them. What is it about the people of the URRS (and by allegory, the former USSR) that you think accounts for this?

CG: As Maya says in issue 3, “All the leaders of the world…they are all liars. Petty lords with petty schemes…” I believe this. I believe that not only in Russia, which is an extreme example, but most statesmen of the world are self-serving liars that represent the worst possible strata of human experience from which to draw leadership. Not only in our current time but throughout history. However, to speak of the immediacy of history, there is a great example for us to look to. As it stands right now, the Electoral College will most likely put George W. Bush in the White House. This is yet another example of a leader who is not worthy of his people. There is a lot of nobility in our country, and yet there is enough utter stupidity to put a buffoonish figurehead in the seat of power. The Red Star, in this case, does also gain its inspiration from the internationalist mindset of the early Russian Revolutionaries. No story about the Soviet Era could be complete without giving due time to agitation. How the theme of populist agitation is handled by the author in question has much to say about the stance of said author. As far as I am concerned, and I know Bradley feels the same way, our voices stand for radical political upheaval. This political stance is one of the most subtle inspirations for choosing the material we’ve chosen. Within this facet of our work lies the core of the story: What is to be learned from the Cold War? Why did this institution of paranoia exist? Why is our nation’s hegemony over the world failing to offer the majority of its citizenry the utopian lifestyle we were promised if ever we were able to ‘overcome the threat of communism’? We feel very strongly about these questions, and these beliefs expose what might be called our thesis; the greatest irony of the 20th Century is that in outlasting the Soviet Union, the U.S. is not liberated from any struggle against it, but is only revealing its own tyrannical nature. Further, that with every corporate merger, with every sweeping deregulation made possible by the fall of its greatest economic rival, our country continues along a path of reckless economic centralization heretofore comparable in the modern era only with Lenin’s Russia.

BK: I think it’s the same machinery that allows us as Americans to continually place leaders in office who do nothing in the way of furthering the will of the people while continuing a forceful propaganda stating the opposite. It is all the parts of complacency, fear, and selfishness saddled with a runaway system that was never intended for rule by, for, or of, the people that allows those in power to stay in power. It is no accident that nine out of ten elections in this country go to the candidate who spends the most money on the campaign (this is for all levels of office). Where does that money come from? Special interests, i.e.. corporations. What do they want in return? Enough legislative freedom to mete out the most biased of profit making schemes. The Russian people in the face of a democracy are no different, indeed many US heads are responsible for, and have benefited from, the unprecedented capital flight that has taken place in the former USSR.

DT: What do you think there is, other than propaganda, in the American system that leads so many to believe that it is a government by, for and of the people, and in your own mind, what would a truly democratic or representative government look like?

BK: Complacency. It’s not that people believe that our American system ISN’T for the people, it’s that the American people by and large don’t think about it. They would rather have their minds lulled by Jerry Springer and Survivor than to engage in any sensible argumentation about our legislature, say. And if they are thinking about it, they are not doing so with any sort of depth or understanding. People are happy with their choices of consumer goods and equate this with freedom, equate this with a government FOR the people. They have been lulled to sleep.

Our present state of affairs is dire: Multinational corporations are getting away with grave injustices at an unprecedented rate and neither the government nor the people do anything to stop them. Indeed it is our own people that are complicit in the multinationals’ behaviors. If everyone (the People capital P) stopped purchasing Nike brand tennis shoes, then Nike wouldn’t be able to get away with paying struggling and often times under aged Indonesian workers 11 cents a hour with no benefits. It’s disgusting! Yet the People would rather ‘be like Mike’ than be concerned with another’s welfare, even if that someone (thousands and thousands of someones really) is thousands of miles away in a foreign country. I may be rather cynical about this, but I see more idiots wearing Nikes than I see intelligent people speaking out against such atrocities as I have mentioned.

Okay, onward. What would a truly democratic representative government look like? To tell the truth I don’t really know. I don’t know how to bake a cake, but I do know that putting bleach in it is probably no so great. We have to change the system we have in increments. First-corporate finance reform (the real kind) is invaluable. We must take representatives of the People out of the pockets of the robber barons that currently run this country. Next, we must pass laws that will restrict the multinationals in their current laissez fair status. If a corporation pays overseas workers less than one tenth of one percent of the total cost of manufacturing an item (ahem..Disney) then the government should be able to step in and say, “Well Mike, you just can’t do business anymore until you stop this behavior.” We need representatives that have teeth and aren’t powerless to use them against those that would move against the will of the People.

Continued in Part 4

Continued from Part 1

DT: What impact does the use of the CGI have on your storytelling style — what does it let you do that you don’t think you’d be able to do otherwise?

BK: The CG allows for a bolder and richer environment that our characters can interact in. While drawing these same aspects could be outstanding too, the fact that someone different altogether renders them it gives us chance to make the vehicles and backgrounds more elaborate and therefore more satisfying to the eye. To hand draw them would be prohibitive at best.

CG: CGI (computer generated imagery) is a highly versatile tool. To give an example of its possibilities, think about the many ways in which you may have seen it used already. From way back in the ballroom-waltz scene from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, all the way up to Pixar’s Toy Story series, back to the photo-real universe of George Lucas, etc. etc. You can do flat, graphic styles, photo-real styles, strange surreal styles, there is no end. For Team Red Star, it was a matter of finding a way to use CG (computer graphics) to emphasize the vast scope and mythic scale of the story. The 3D Artist, Allen Coulter, was a rare find. We met while working on a Playstation game for Activision (Pitfall 3D) and really enjoyed each other’s work. We decided to embark on this crazy experiment and test results were so stunning that they drove us enthusiastically forward into the process. Using CG has definitely given me license to open up the pages in a way that I’ve always wanted to. During my Star Wars work, I was constantly at odds with my writers over panel count on a page. I wanted to redefine ‘epic scale’ as far as comics were concerned. I wanted to have a greater sense of drama and emotional impact throughout the story.

For me, this meant taking shots that would traditionally be quite small and blowing them up to gigantic proportion. In issue one for example, pages 10-11 begin with a bandit-shot of Maya’s eyes spread across both pages. (See the production layout sketch and the final spread.) In any other comic, such a shot is a throwaway, sacrificed by the urge to do yet another clinched-teeth, fists-balled, leaping at the camera fight scene. Where most comics choose plot-based action, we choose character-based drama. Also, we arrive at this extreme close-up from having been out in the desert with miles and miles of distance between us and the horizon, with massive ships looming overhead. So not only are the sizes of the panels extreme, but the range of ‘motion’ between panels (or ‘cuts’ as we like to say) is also extreme.

Another aspect of our process that is just as ‘CG’ as ‘3D’ is Photoshop. Our colorist, the infamous Snakebite came on to the project to color the figures and most non-3D aspects of each page, not to mention the nuts and bolts compositing work that takes Allen’s 3D plates and my 2D drawings and integrates them into what have become the final composites. There are not many colorists in the industry that could pull off such a trick. To be able to color figures with the subtlety necessary to integrate them into a 3D environment is by no means automatic and demands a highly experienced sensibility.

For both Allen and Snakebite, comics are a kind of hot mistress that they just can’t bring themselves to get rid of. They’re both married to animation, Allen directs 3D, and Snake is being groomed by some great veterans of the traditional 2D animation world to be an art director for that field. We’ll see how long I can hang on to these madmen. At this point in my career, I am a big fan of the big panel and two-page spread. Such panels have a bad rap in comics but this is, in my mind, ignorance. Many people have this old idea in their head that comics is about a lot of panels on a page and I think such a prejudice is hilarious. Using 3D would be a waste if the panels weren’t big enough to showcase the wonderful work that my 3D artist, Allen Coulter, and my colorist Snakebite are doing.

DT: Speaking of big panels and two panel spreads — I have read or heard several people comment that as a result of those spreads, each issue reads very quickly. How do you use a big spread to maximize storytelling value? Is this an issue that concerns you? And do you think the traditional comic magazine is the right format for a character-driven drama as opposed to a plot-driven action story?

CG: I’m always surprised when someone says to me at a convention “Hey, this book reads too quick– I want more!” It was really bothering me until Snakebite said, “It ain’t never a problem when your audience is screaming for more of what you’re puttin’ out.” He was absolutely right– it’s not that we’re giving less to the readers, in fact every issue of The Red Star has more pages in its story than almost every comic out there. We average 24-26 pages of story an issue as compared to the typical 22 pages.

Now, if my team is putting out 26 page stories that are so captivating that they read like 12 page stories, and if the rest of the industry is stretching out 22 pages that seem to go on forever, which team is achieving drama? Which team is really getting into the heads of the readers and not letting them put the book down?

As for the last part of the question, I definitely think that the 32-page format is limited. When I read Shirow’s ‘Appleseed’ and a single conversation scene can be 12 pages long, or a fight scene go on for 40, I get very jealous. Jealous of the lengthy format, in which true exploration of dramatic theme can occur, and very jealous of Shirow’s culture and market. In Japan, comics are not demonized– comics readers are not made to feel ashamed of supporting this form of entertainment. This being said, the standard American pamphlet of 32 pages per story is only as good as the creators working within such limitations. Length is not necessary for greatness, nor does it guarantee it. Haiku, for example, is incredibly evocative; and has never needed any more syllables than the form calls for.

DT: Since the allegorical nature of the story has been heavily promoted, how do you balance fidelity to history (since people might be reading the book expecting to learn some ‘truth’ about the USSR) with the needs of the story you want to tell (since you do want to do more than a mere retelling)?

BK: I don’t think that these are mutually exclusive endeavors. One can maintain a fidelity to history and still tell a story within that fabric without upsetting the balance of truth and art. Our characters are fictitious just as Chekhov’s characters are fictitious and just as Joyce’s characters are fictitious, yet those authors characters still paint a picture of what pre revolution Russia was like and what Dublin was like respectively. In fact Joyce’s stories were banned from publication for 7 years due to its authenticity and brutal honesty of an early 20th century Ireland. Our story does no less in the way of illuminating a Russia besieged with terrible leaders–even within a framework of fantasy sci-fi.

CG: Good question. There was a time when I thought that I would not emphasize the allegorical aspect for just that reason. I did have a choice, and my writing partner Bradley Kayl and I gave it a lot of thought. Should we not mention the source material, in this case Russian History, but simply let the work go forward as yet another action tale in the comics world? Should we let people figure it out for themselves? Will they? However, as the writing process continued, I realized that this story owed so much to its source, and that I simply couldn’t bring myself to silence the voices that had inspired it: The photographs of the baby-faced soldiers that gave their lives to defeating Hitler on the eastern front, the letters of the artists pleading to Stalin to let them live, or at least allow their work to be seen by the public, the testament of Alexander Solzhenitsyn as he spoke of the millions of his people that were sacrificed on the pyre of Bolshevik modernization; the list is so vast that it is for all intents and purposes infinite. I was too eager to bring these lives to light in any way possible. This choice has turned out to be incredibly satisfying for us and, thankfully so far, our readers. I suppose a lot of writers would consider this a shackle, but for us it’s been pure joy. Just as our visuals integrate 2D and 3D elements into a working image, our words have integrated fact and fiction into a narrative that continues to surprise us with its expansive nature. One example, yet to be published by us, takes us to a very crucial moment in the history of 20th Century Russia, the arrest and murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. At first mention, this sounds like something that would make very dry comics material. Something that Fantagraphics would put out by Joe Sacco, someone whose work I very much enjoy but would definitely be considered esoteric by the larger comics audience–well, at least by those who knew the word ‘esoteric’ (laughter). Yet, through our style of allegory, the murder of the Tsar, and many other such historic events will be adapted to the pages of The Red Star in a very exciting, very dramatic fashion.

The trick is making the story captivating for both those who know the history and those who don’t. There’s the rub, since we’re not pointing out which aspects of the story are metaphor and which are historic. That’s up to the reader, and represents our attempt to engage the audience. What is portrayed on the pages as metaphor is an expression of a historic event. An example is Maya’s transformation in Issue #1. On the surface, it’s a very attractive woman transforming herself into a pillar of destructive energy, but in metaphor, all soldiers that kill for their nation are in fact pulling off such a trick. Her dialogue, “Then, thankfully, the mind is silenced…I am the heat of my nation’s anger…the burning will of the state.” We all are very comfortable in the West with our notion that ‘those poor Russians had to suffer under the despotic communists’ but what we don’t realize is how such self-righteous pity blinds us to our own patriotic shackles. Maya’s loyalty at the cost of her individuality is something that all humans are prone to. After the fall of the Soviet Union, it is now our jingoistic ignorance that should be pitied. We hope that through exploration of these themes that we stir in the readers a need to question the story in such a way that the historic lesson is made clear. It’s ambitious, but it’s where our head trip as artists happens to be right now. So far, thankfully, we have found an expanding readership that appreciates the enigmatic nature of the stories. Hopefully this continues…if not, who knows, maybe in a year we’ll be jaded by human ignorance and get jobs doing swimsuit issues for Top Cow (laughter).

Continued in Part 3

Huge airborne ships carrying weapons of mass destruction. Sorceresses wielding phenomenal magical power. Soldiers fighting an impossible battle against a desperate enemy and a supernatural force. And a heavy dose of historical allegory to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union and the current state of the Russian people.

Not what you might expect as the main ingredients of a successful comic, but it’s a formula that’s working for The Red Star, already mentioned on our forums as good comics reading for almost any audience. In the three issues out to date (with the fourth hitting stores soon), readers have marveled at the integration of three-dimensional computer models with two-dimensional hand-drawn art, gotten their first glimpse at the world of the United Republics of the Red Star, and been introduced to two members of the Antares family, among other characters. Maya is a sorceress who serves aboard one of the URRS’ skyfurnaces, massive and terrible ships that look a little bit like giant floating sandcrawlers and can reduce a desert to molten slag in minutes. Her husband Marcus is a soldier in the URRS’ army, fighting fiercely for his country even as he curses his leaders’ incompetence, doomed to fall in battle. Everything in The Red Star is big – the story, the action, the ships, the artwork – but its ambitious story and visual style are blended with small, character-building moments. But you don’t need me to repeat how good the book is — check out the forums for that.

Although the first issues can be hard to find, a trade paperback collecting those issues will be released in the near future, and the creators make an extra effort to make sure new readers can pick up on what’s going on – a lexicon section at the end of each issues brings you to speed on the dramatis personae and on the specialized vocabulary of this fictional world. (Spells, for example, are called ‘protocols’, and that one definition does wonders to establish the cold, technical nature of the URRS.) There’s also a good deal of information at the official site, where creator/writer/pencil artist Christian Gossett, writer Brad Kayl, and other members of Team Red Star can frequently be found on the message boards. I had a chance to interview Kayl and Gossett via e-mail in early November — the transcript of that conversation follows, edited slightly to make the questions and answers flow better: Read the remainder of this entry »