(cover art for issue #1 of Saucer Country, published Vertigo/DC Comics)

Saucer Country, my new comic from Vertigo, is something I’ve been ‘working on’ since I was eight, reading ‘true UFO’ books that would scare me.  I’ve been fascinated by the beautiful and many-dimensional world of UFO mythology ever since.  I’ve always kept in touch with developments in it, the way the myth and the media feed each other, how the myth talks about America’s (and the world’s) unconscious concerns.

The title concerns Arcadia Alvarado, the Governor of New Mexico, who, on the eve of announcing her Presidential bid, is ‘abducted by aliens’.  Those inverted commas are important to us, because she doesn’t know exactly what happened to her, and neither do we.  This book is about unknown terrors and mythological grey areas, not nuts and bolts aliens with plans and guns and spaceships.  We call it The West Wing meets The X-Files.

I’m fortunate to be joined in this task by two excellent editors, Will Dennis and Mark Doyle, and by the extremely talented art team of Ryan Kelly and colourist Giulia Brusco.

Saucer Country began as a series of conversations with former Vertigo editor Pornsak Pichetshote (he’s since moved to DC’s movie division on the West Coast).  My initial pitches (under the titles Occupants, American Alien, Aliens in America and Resident Alien, the last of which we only decided against when another comic took it) were about the Governor of Alaska, and limited the title to a 24-issue run.  It was very flattering to be told this could be an ongoing, and that opened up many more possibilities in terms of all the different kinds of UFO mythology we could cover.  When Pornsak left, Will took over, and we’ve become the guys who, like me and Pornsak, share long phone conversations where we yell about UFOs.

One of the first things I had to do was demonstrate that I had plots that would keep the title going, so I quickly outlined how Arcadia’s search for the truth, and whether or not what had happened to her was a national security issue, could lead the small team of advisors she shares the story of her experience with into investigating all sorts of branches of UFO lore.  The first issue had to sum up what the rest of the series would be like, with strong, weird, visual sequences, characters established and enigmas set up.  The images Ryan and Giulia are about to show you are from Arcadia’s dreams, as her mind struggles to rationalise what happened to her on the night when the car she was driving (that also contained her loose cannon of an ex-husband, Michael) stopped in a secluded spot overlooking Santa Fe.  My script mentions a museum, ‘all of time and space seen from the outside, looking like a piece of modern art’ (good luck with that!) and a weird-looking curator figure, who would show Arcadia a baby (being shown seemingly hybrid fetuses being a standard part of the ‘abduction’ narrative).

Take it away, Ryan…

It’s true that first issues are difficult. You have to cover a lot of ground in a lot of time. By the time I got to the “dream sequence” in the middle of the story it was an opportunity to revisit the strangeness of the first scene. For a few pages now, there was a lot of necessary set-up, talking heads and formal introduction of characters so it was great to swing the creative pendulum in another direction.

Paul had a 4-page scene in which Arcadia falls asleep and has a vision. Actually, I didn’t really know what was going on, but I understood that Paul was playing with elements that  illustrate her past encounter and how it manifests itself in her mind – her memories – and how those take the form of visual cues in the real world. I’ve also looked into alien abductions enough to know about relapsed memories, nightmares, and accounts of our visitors implanting messages in our minds to be understood at another time. So I just tried my best to capture that and keep it creepy and unnerving with my line work.

In the first page, Arcadia enters her room and hits the shower after a long stressful day. Paul asked to have the shadows in her room take the shape of the alien humanoids in a very subtle way. That was tricky, but if you look, they are there. I’m always in the danger of making these things look corny and obvious instead foreboding and creepy. At first the room was empty, but I actually went back later and drew a creepy cat, because the creepy cat shows up later. It didn’t look right that a creepy cat show up out of nowhere.

In the shower, Arcadia is startled by forms that trigger her memories. I guess this is fairly common with abductees. They end up being towel rods hanging on the wall. Thank goodness I found the right towel rods on Google Image Search. That last panel was difficult. In the Pencils, I showed MUCH more of the room, but it didn’t look scary at all. So, I zoomed in, as if the camera is on her back, and eliminated all the details in the room, and it became much scarier. I suppose it lent itself to that feeling of claustrophobia.

I really struggled with the second page of this scene. I liked the layout but I didn’t succeed with her body language. I did a loose layout and then a penciled version. My editor had me go back and try again with a wardrobe change and just check the body language. My objective with the 3rd panel was to make it the strongest of the page. I needed to make her look anxious, tense and confused all at once. I tried to make the shadows in the room look like they were stifling her or stabbing at her. When things get weird, I let the shadows get weird.

I remember asking Paul a lot more questions for the 3rd page of this scene. I liked to think I had a good handle on the book so far, but there were some things happening on this page that I thought might be reappearing again some other time, so I asked for some clarification on what Arcadia was seeing here. This is another very rare case where I had to redo a page. The layout was okay, but our editor, Will, felt the page should be more fluid-looking like a dream. So I re-visited the page and drew the panel borders like they were liquid or tears in skin. I’m glad we changed it, it looks much better now. My favorite part is panel three in which I put Arcadia’s anguished face in the grooves of the object from panel 2.

And then…Creepy cat! Page 4 of this scene gave me an opportunity to try some irregular panel borders that I just couldn’t make work in the regular “talking” pages. At this point, I felt this issue was missing some excitement and drama, at least in the art. So, I tried to use as many diagonal lines as I could and put as much expression in Arcadia’s face as I possible. Heck, the cat-swatting panel is the only action scene in the whole issue, so I had to spend some time getting it right! In my thumbnail drawing for this page, I had Arcadia turned away from “us” in the final panel. But when it came down to it, it just deflated all the momentum from the page so I made her facing us, so we can see the horror in her face.

And now here’s Giulia, talking about the colouring process…

Saucer Country would be a dream gig for any colourist.  Not only does it mean the chance to work with talents such as Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly, but it also offers a plot rich in both atmospheres and drama.  The multilayered narrative I’ve discovered in the first three issues (that’s how much I’ve read so far…) fired my imagination straight away.

There is a first level of reality in which plot and subplots develop, characters move, action takes place. To depict this reality, I am using a full colour palette with earthly tones and deep blue skies that I hope convey the beauty and warmth of the New Mexico landscape and its very diversified society.  I use a limited palette for the flashbacks.  And then there are the characters’ personal experiences, scenes that are real to some of them, hallucinations to others. The colors will render those aspects by becoming more primary or vivid, at times tending to surrealism.  One of the most interesting sequences I’ve encountered so far is the nightmare sequence. Because we dream in black and white, I only used different percentages of K tones to colour it, but then I added a vivid green to give emphasis to the subject of the nightmare, hoping it works in a disquieting way.  The first page shows Arcadia in her bedroom, sleeping and… having a dream? Re-living a false memory? Hallucinating? Or is it perhaps all real?…

Since Ryan and I have just started, much has yet to be strategized.  Much will be changed along the way, as our understanding of the story deepens.  So far I am enjoying it, the plot, the art, and the fact that I can count on Paul, Ryan and Will (Dennis) for precious advice and suggestions. I predict that my journey through Saucer Country will be one of true discovery and fun!

I’m really lucky to be working with those two, and I hope the images we’ve shown you, with Ryan’s initial thumbnails, then his pencils, then his inks, then the colours, give you an insight into our process.  Saucer Country #1 is out on 14th March, both in comic shops and digitally.  We hope you enjoy it.  Cheers.

FPI would like to thank Giulia, Paul and Ryan for taking the time to share some insights into the new comic with us. You can pick up issue one of Saucer Country from today and I should also point you to the cool-looking new webcomic Ryan has started recently with Kat Vapid, Cocotte, only a few pages in so the perfect time to jump on board.

That’s the work of I.N.J. Culbard, artist of SelfMadeHero’s Sherlock Holmes (4 volumes), Mountains Of Madness, Dorian Gray. And yet still magnificently described as a newcomer in the DC/Vertigo press release talking about the new 8-part series The  New Deadwardians, written by Dan Abnett:

“Set in post-Victorian England, nearly everyone in the upper class has voluntarily become a vampire to escape the lower classes who are all zombies. Thrust into this mayhem is Chief Inspector George Suttle, a lonely detective who’s got the slowest beat in London: investigating murders in a world where everyone is already dead! But when the body of a young aristocrat washes up on the banks of the Thames, Suttle’s quest for the truth will take him from the darkest sewers to the gleaming halls of power, and reveal the rotten heart at the center of this strange world.”

Here’s what Culbard has to say:

“The cat is out of the bag. Vertigo have announced a new mini-series. The New Deadwardians by Dan Abnett and me! I have had to keep that one a secret for absolutely AGES!!! But its out now (well, first issue is out in March 2012) but I can finally say I’m doing a series for Vertigo!”

It’s been a while since DC & Vertigo came headhunting in the UK. They couldn’t have chosen anyone better. One to look out for in March.

It appears DC have had a look at the accounts and realised that the dip in profits in 2010 may have had something to do with a complete lack of the very profitable high price point Absolute Sandman Volume for the first year since 2006.

Absolute Sandman Volumes 1-4 appeared, one a year, from 2006-2009. And that was that. In those four volumes we had the complete Sandman; issues 1-75 plus a few odd bits and bobs. Which did rather present the editorial and marketing types at DC with a bit of a problem…. what to put in the next Absolute Volume?

Luckily, there have always been some Sandman projects too big to be included in amongst the regular series run, and that’s what’s going to be making up the bulk of Absolute Sandman Volume 5. From the DC Vertigo blog, here’s the running order:

“THE SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS – The Eisner Award-winning collection of SANDMAN stories written by Neil Gaiman and featuring breathtaking art by P. Craig Russell, Milo Manara, Frank Quitely, Miguelanxo Prado, Bill Sienkiewicz, Glenn Fabry, Barron Storey and a Dave McKean cover.

THE SANDMAN: THE DREAM HUNTERS – Both the prose novella written by Gaiman with art by superstar Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, and the 2009 comic adaptation by P. Craig Russell.

SANDMAN MIDNIGHT THEATRE – The hard-to-find crossover featuring Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner, and with art by Teddy Kristiansen.”

(Bill Sienkiewicz art from Sandman Endless Nights – Delirium.)

Okay, okay. I tease. I’m perhaps not as big a fan of Sandman as many I know, but the volumes are all there on my shelf somewhere and I enjoyed it when it came out first time round. And I know several people, the FPI blogs own Joe Gordon amongst them who’ll be needing the extra reinforcement for his shelves to get a 5th Absolute volume on there.

Any ideas if there’s enough material out there to make a Volume 6 possible? Because right now I bet that’s what some eager marketing person at DC is thinking.

Yep, just like Death, I can wait a loooong time for that volume.

The first three volumes of the new editions of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman go on the racks today, nice new trade paperbacks (using the much restored artowrk and colouring from the Absolute Sandman editions) of Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll’s House and the short story collection Dream Country. Glancing inside Doll’s House I’m reminded of a much younger me picking up the Sandman monthly issues in the Glasgow FP. I was already collecting it every month alongside Hellblazer, but it was with the advent of the Doll’s House story arc (collected in the second volume) that I really, really started to get into it. Until then I was intereststed in this new writer and thought the comic had potential, but with Doll’s House I started to think hold on, this isn’t just interesting, this is good, this is very good; there’s a real story arc developing here.

(the Cornithian, a nightmare now walking the Waking World, and his fellow serial killers decide to take turns in the Sandman: the Doll’s House, published DC/Vertigo)

By the time he reached the Season of Mists arc I was hooked in for the whole run, wherever it would go. I’m still hooked into it, years after it finished, still enjoy re-reading it. But Doll’s House was the moment I first realised I was reading something amazing. I mean, a serial killer’s convention, just how wonderfully, delightfully perverse, funny and scary all at the same time was that idea? If you still haven’t read the Sandman and the gorgeous Absolute editions are out of your price range then have a look at these new paperback editions.

First up is Warren Ellis’ Hellblazer story “Shoot”, which was spiked after the Columbine shootings and never published. Over at Warren Ellis’ blog he takes up the story:

“Years ago, I wrote a brief run on the DC Vertigo horror comic JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER. Brief, because I wrote a horror story therein called SHOOT. SHOOT was about schoolyard slayings in the United States. It was completed before Columbine happened, but scheduled to appear not long after. The regime at DC Comics at the time decided that it could not be released in its completed form. I refused to go along with the changes they wanted to make. They decided not to publish the book at all. I quit.
I remember that, at the time, someone telling me that the stance was that Paul Levitz would not release the book so long as he was running DC. It never occurred to me that a new regime would feel differently.“

Well, it seems the new regime do feel differently, and Shoot is just one of the stories in the new series of one-shots and specials. From the Vertigo blog:

“Welcome to VERTIGO RESURRECTED – a series of one-shots and specials geared to do just that–embrace history and stories that connect with the present day activities of our favorite protagonists, antagonists and creators. “Shoot,” Warren Ellis’s much-talked about, but never published, HELLBLAZER story involving schoolyard killings leads this mega-sized VERTIGO RESURRECTION special. Also included are rarely seen tales exploring the disturbing depths of horror, war, romance and science fiction by Brian Azzarello, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis and artists Jim Lee, Phil Jimenez, Bernie Wrightson, and others. Cover by Tim Bradstreet.”

So, what else might we be seeing make a comeback? Is it too much to hope that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Flex Mentallo 4 issues might be finally collected? Or maybe it’s time to see the end of Rick Veitch’s Swamp Thing run – the one where Swampy goes back in time to become the cross at Golgotha. Probably not. But we can always hope. And finally seeing Shoot is a great start.

Vertigo Resurrected #1 ships in October.

Another great mashup from Chris Sim and artist Rusty Shackles (Via Comics Alliance)

Robot 6 points us to the pretty cool short film by Josh McCaw and Ali Borghi, based on events in Jeff Lemire’s The Nobody (which just came out a few days ago in paperback from DC’s Vertigo imprint). Just like Jeff’s bandage-wrapped stranger in a small town it has satisfying echoes of the early film adaptations of Wells’ Invisible Man – sticking to black and white for filming was a good call, I think and it’s a lovely, clear HD image. And if you haven’t picked it up you should have a look at Jeff’s The Nobody. And his other Vertigo title Sweet Tooth. And you most certainly should be reading his earlier Top Shelf published work Essex County, also now available in a handy single volume omnibus. And, well, let’s just say you should be reading Jeff Lemire if you aren’t already – and we’ll be seeing even more of him as DC announced just recently he will be working with Pier Gallo on a new ongoing Superboy series later this year.

The Nobody from VidFilms on Vimeo.

By Andy Diggle and Jock

DC Vertigo

With The Losers movie opening very soon Vertigo have re-released the first two volumes of Andy Diggle and Jock’s series in one volume, collecting the first 12 issues and proving, once more that The Losers was a Hollywood blockbuster even before the movie was made.

The Losers were an elite black ops special forces team working their way around the world, doing all the dirty little black ops jobs that their C.I.A. handler deemed necessary. But they ended up seeing a little too much; damaging, dangerous stuff that convinced them that the orders they were getting just didn’t make any sense and they decided to quit the game. Of course, that never goes down that well and the Agency removed them from the game, their chopper going down in flames and The Losers are written off as just another bunch of expendable assets.

But The Losers don’t die that well and, having made it out of the crash, they went to ground and starting planning on ways to get their lives back, way that involve taking the fight right back to the Agency that burned them, taking down dirty C.I.A. ops and all the time trying to get a fix on “Max”, their shadowy controller, the one who they assume ordered their deaths.

That’s pretty much the entire plot of The Losers, it’s one big, bold revenge thriller of a book. But it’s a big, bold revenge thriller executed with style and panache by the writer/artist team of Andy Diggle and Jock. The Losers is a really accomplished book, with an enormous amount of bang to your buck.

(Lt. Col. Franklin Cray; the leader of The Losers and a man determined to smoke out “Max”. But that may not be quite as easy as he’s hoping. From The Losers by Diggle and Jock. DC Vertigo)

It’s is everything it’s meant to be and no more; thrilling, action packed, spectacular and explosive. Not one to dive into if you’re expecting something more thoughtful and cerebral, but that was never it’s intent. It’s an unashamedly out and out thriller, with Diggle packing his pages with every possible action/spy cliché he can think of; corrupt, shadowy C.I.A. handlers, manic car chases, a speedboat chase with a spectacular ramp jump, computer hackery, an assault on a locked down building, impossibly cool marksmen taking out the targets every time, double crosses, lots of gunplay and lots and lots of explosions.

You name it and The Losers probably has it. But a cliché’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially not when delivered with the style and energy that Diggle and Jock manage in these pages. And not when Diggle’s cast of characters, stereotypes though they might be, are obviously just as much fun for him to write as they are for us to read.

(Never assume anything. Cougar has a unique way to requisition/steal valuable US military helicopters. From The Losers by Diggle and Jock. DC Vertigo)

And Jock’s art is just fantastic for it’s subject matter; dynamic, action packed, atmospheric and packing some fantastic page layouts, with gorgeous tonal colours from Lee Loughridge.

Shawn Martinbrough deputises for Jock on two issues in the second volume and, as good as they are, they can’t be anything but a bit of a letdown – this was and is Jock’s book to draw. They’re his characters, his style, anything else is second best I’m afraid.

The Losers; full of everything you really want in an out and out action spy thriller. It may not be the smartest thing you’ll ever read, but it’s certainly a great, thrill a page read, the pages turn fast and the action never lets up.

Will the film be any good? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing’s for certain, there’s no way the film will be as good as the source, because the graphic novels are about as filmic as you’re going to get, just with perfect characterisation, great sets and an effects budget that’s as good as Diggle and Jock’s imagination.

(There’s a free pdf download of issue 1 at the DC Vertigo site here)

(Steve Bissette and his last Swamp Thing cover for DC, Feb 1987: note the “suggested for mature readers” label)

Steve Bissette’s most enjoyable and informative series of posts about the comic ratings troubles of the 80s concludes over at his blog with “How Angry Freelancers Made It Possible for A New Mainstream Comics Era (Including Vertigo) to Exist, Part 12 (Conclusion)”

This time round he wraps everything up nicely, including details on the changes at DC at the time and the moves that would lead to the formation of Vertigo, and, Bissette conjectures, none of this would have been possible without  the events of the “labelling wars” of the 80s:

“…..But you don’t lose a breadwinner like Alan Moore in a corporate entertainment empire and not have hard questions asked by someone in a position of power, and be left to ponder the consequences. Behind closed doors, policies subtly shifted. Even work-for-hire policies can be sweetened, more gracious relations established, nurtured and sustained, more favorable royalty plans and unofficial ‘we won’t mess with your characters / creations’ agreements tendered and honored.

The next wave of British writers coming or already in the door — Neil Gaiman, Jamie Delano, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, etc. — and all who followed benefitted enormously, professionally and personally, from the stand Alan took at the beginning of 1987… as did DC Comics Inc. (Would DC have sought out all those writers — much less been able to accommodate them? — had Alan not left, leaving such a huge vacuum behind after his departure? Something to ponder…)

From the ashes of the torched Moore/DC Comics relationship, Vertigo Comics was born in 1993.“

The whole thing’s been hugely entertaining and informative, just like the rest of Bissette’s blog. Well worth bookmarking.

by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra

DC/Vertigo

Scalped is the fantastic creator owned series written by Jason Aaron with the majority of the artwork drawn by R.M. Guéra.  The book is based mainly around the exploits of an undercover FBI agent operating within a Native American reservation.

This issue is the final issue of the five-part “The Gnawing” arc and it’s exactly the way you expect one of the best books on the market to finish its best story to date.  It starts as it means to go on – answering questions and leaving a bloody trail in its wake.  The beating on the very first page is nothing compared to what we see later on in the issue and as usual Aaron uses the violence to drive his story forwards rather than to just fill his page count.

A true sign of Aaron’s writing skill is how readers have learnt to love Dash Bad Horse, Scalped’s main protagonist no matter what his actions. His actions in this issue, though more brutal than usual, will merely re-affirm most people’s feelings about him. Aaron’s ability to blur the lines between heroes and villains in Scalped, coupled with an awareness of exactly how and when to use a good twist means that this culmination of 34 issues sees every plot twist and brilliant piece of careful characterisation come together perfectly.

(Brutal, unforgiving Dash Bad Horse, leaving a trail of blood behind in his secret mission. From Scalped, written by Jason Aaron, art by R.M. Guéra, publkished DC/Vertigo)

R.M. Guéra’s art gets better and better, ideally suited to the story and the dark colours from Giulia Brusco only help to cement the tone of this great book.  Guéra truly brings the brutality of both Red Crow and Dash to life, and his ability to draw Dash at his scariest and yet being able to make him look calmer than we have seen him in a long time is truly an impressive thing to do.

All in all this is another brilliant issue of Scalped cementing it’s place at the top of my buy pile.  There are six collections available and all are essential catching up.  We are apparently at the mid-point with this series and this is certainly a book you do not want to miss as it reaches the build up to what we know will be a ridiculously good and bloody finale.

Michael Gee

The latest issue of Scalped; #34 is available from March 25th. There are already 5 collected volumes of the series for your reading pleasure, with Volume 6, containing this issue due in May 2010 – all volumes are available here.