Thomas Jane: Bad Planet
By Gearalt Finlay
Comic fans may know him as Thomas Jane, the Punisher. Next month comic fans will know Thomas Jane because of his new comic from Image, Bad Planet. He is bringing classic science fiction back to comics.
Gearalt Finlay: Let's start with the basics, what i[s] the story about?
Thomas Jane: It's an 'accidental' alien invasion story. I liked the idea of non-sentient animal-like alien creatures making their way to earth and adapting and surviving here. In the process, mankind gets bumped down a notch on the food chain, and the spiders threaten to become the dominant species on the planet. Two ‘containers’ full of alien creatures crash into the Earth in two places. All the creatures die, victims of our Sun and atmosphere, except these alien spiders, who seem to thrive here. They quickly set up nests and start breeding, and eating everything in sight. Nothing stops them. At the same time, a prisoner from an intergalactic penitentiary escapes, and also lands on Earth. It turns out the same thing happened on the Convicts planet, completely destroying it and everyone on it. He’s here to find out what happened, and where these things came from. The comic attempts to ask questions about not only the origins of life here on earth, but the origins of life in the Universe, and whether or not we are being controlled by a central Unifying Force, or is it all just Chaos.
Finlay: You have 4 main characters, Veronica Falcon, Dr. Crighton, Anan and The Convict , lets go over them one at a time. Veronica Falcon is the female lead in this story, why would she through her lot in with the Convict, and why would she even trust him?
Jane: She doesn't. She simply has a scientific heart, one that is
completely swayed by the scientific opportunity to 'discover' an
alien life form -- to communicate with a sentient alien being. It's a
dream come true right? Who knows how any one of us would react.
Finlay: Who is Dr. Crighton and what are his goals?
Jane: Crighton is an older guy, a meat and potato's astronomer
running a small telescope in Perth, Australia for the Department
of Planetary Defense, a vastly under-funded asteroid and comet
watching operation. He's just hoping to enjoy what's left of the
Mystery, until big piece of it lands right here on Earth.
Finlay: Anan is a hacker, what is his story and as a poor orphan in Africa how did he become a hacker?
Jane: Jeez. Accidentally fire up one space ship and you're forever labeled a 'hacker.' I wouldn't call him a hacker. I'd call him a 'wishful enthusiast.' Anan is an 11 year old boy with a slightly over-active imagination. he sneaks onto the alien craft with a $100 dollar wind-up laptop computer, somehow be able to 'make contact.' At the same time, a series of events occur to cause Anan (and everyone else) to believe that he has indeed tapped in to the Alien Ship. Thus Anan, an incredibly poor child from a small African village, becomes entangled in this global 'invasion' story.
Finlay: What is the Convict's name?
Jane: I don't have the slightest idea.
Finlay: He has some rather humorous lines, are these going to be translated for the readers, or are his lines only going to appear as an alien script?
Jane: The lines are written in an Alien script. If a reader is clever enough, he'll be able to translate them.
Finlay: He is here to kill DeathSpiderstm, why does he care about Veronica Falcon and her safety?
Jane: Why do you think he cares about Veronica's safety? It's true he doesn't seem to be a cold-hearted villainous creature, who would just let another creature die, just for the hell of it. So in that way, yeah, i guess he 'cares' for her.
Finlay: Looking at the cover I envisioned the DeathSpiderstm as being about the size of a dog, but reading the script they appear to be much larger, how big are they?
Jane: You can believe your eyes; they are about the size of a dog, fully grown. in the script i never bothered to describe them much, because all that was worked out with an artist beforehand, with sketches and character designs. They are based on creatures from a dream I had, a horrible nightmare with these twelve-legged, four-mouthed fucking spiders. I've since given up the Vicodin. Never again.
Finlay: Would the spider aliens from Star Ship Troopers be a fair comparison to the DeathSpiderstm?
Jane: They are too big and seem too smart. The DeathSpiderstm simply live to eat, and breed. These are merely arthropods, which is what makes them so scary. They're not thinking about how they are going to 'conquer' us, or what their 'master plan' is. They are looking at us like food.
Finlay: This is your first comic, how did you go from fan to professional writer?
Jane: I thought hmm, what is something that I never would have been
able to do five years ago. What is something that i've always wanted to
do. I wouldn't call myself a professional just yet. That would mean i was
Finlay: How did you familiarize yourself with the formatting of a comic
script so that a professional comic book artist would be able to draw
Jane: Steve Niles has showed me all the ropes. He sent me comic scripts
he'd done, and told me to follow that format. I've thrown in a few tricks
[I've] picked up from reading so many movie scripts. I guess different
writers have different formatting techniques, as I have since seen other
comic scripts in completely different formats. there doesn't seem to be a 'standardized' format for a comic script yet, like there is in screenplays for movies or television.
Finlay: Do you actually thin[k] in panel terms, or do you draw out sketch for yourself while writing the series?
Jane: I think in terms of the page. I got that from reading Will Eisner. I try to think of the page as one complete unit of story, and then breakdown that unit into panels. I try to keep the panel count light, like 6 or 7 seven panels the most, and that's for scenes with a lot of dialogue. that said, I do want to fit in a lot of story into a page, so we're not taking two pages to watch a guy walk into a building and shoot himself. It should take two panels - he walks in - he shoots himself. I see a lot of story get drawn out in comics these days, and I think it's lazy. I finish a book thinking 'I paid 2.99 for this? nothing happened.' Miller was right; the pamphlet is a very limiting medium to tell a story in. You're limited to 22 pages to try and cram a whole block of story into, trying to figure out the where the breaks are and where to leave off with issue three and where to pick up with issue four. But in a lot of ways, the limitations of the medium become liberating; they force me to think of clearer, more concise, more condensed ways of getting information across, and the results can be very creative.
Finlay: As far as pacing goes, is it risking in comics to have the first issue be mostly set up with the bulk of the action happening in the second issue?
Jane: Im trying to think about Bad Planet as a whole, as a graphic novel and not as six or twelve individual story segments. I'm not going to try to cram a whole lot of action into the first issue because I think it's going to help me sell more books - not at the cost of the story itself. That said, I think there's enough going on in the first issue that it'll keep people tuned in. The first issue is all the rockets rumbling. Issue two is where the story really blasts off.
Finlay: Is there any concern that readers might not come back for the
second issue, with the slower paced first issue?
Jane: Yes, sure. I'm concerned whether anyone will really care about
this story at all! Until now it's just been our little baby that we've been
nurturing and growing quietly, in small rooms by ourselves. It's always
a little scary to set it loose upon the world. But with this kind of book,
i've got to believe we either have you at page one, or we never really
had you at all.
Finlay: The 3D effect in the 3rd issue in an interesting idea, are the
readers going to pay more for the issue with the 3D glasses?
Jane: I don't think so. If so, it's going to be minimal. I mean, come on, they're little paper glasses, right?
Finlay: There aren't a lot of 3D comics these days, was one of your goals with this series to bring back 3D comics?
Jane: Honestly, it was to blow people's minds the way my mind was blown when I first read Pacific Comics Alien Worlds in 3D. it was in the old style black and white, or Red and Blue as the case may be, and I was just knocked out by the effect. Ray Zone has since perfected a full color process that we'll be using here, and once more the effect just blew me away! I don't know, I'm a huge fan of 3D. I'm a member of the Southern California Stereo Club. We meet once a month in the basement of a Church on Wilshire and geek out. The Club started in 1956. Again, it's something that either knocks you out or it doesn't. Niles says it gives him a headache.
Finlay: How does the 3D enhance the readers experience in the 3rd issue?
Jane: We have 4 or 5 '3D sections' in the book, where you can put on the glasses and view the action stereoscopically. These sections are designed to enhance the actions sequences in the book, and accentuate the highlights - the larger than life moments.
Finlay: Why only use 3D on the 3rd issue instead of the entire series?
Jane: I wanted to do the entire issue in 3D, but frankly, it's expensive! And to do the entire series in 3D would make the series known as 'that 3D book' and overshadow the essence of the story, In my opinion.
Finlay: I know you have said that you are only producing a comic and aren't thinking of turning Bad Planet in to a movie or any thing but a comic at this point. I am going to press you on that a little.
You have created models of the Convict and the DeathSpiderstm, what do the models accomplish?
Jane: Originally, the Convict was to be much more humanoid looking. I was never happy with that idea and asked Lewis to come up with some preliminary sketches, some character designs for a more 'alien' looking alien. Lewis came up with some fantastic simian looking Mandrill-like drawings, and someone asked what that character would look like without all the hair. Lewis came back with the Convict as we know him today, and everyone was just blown away. So Dave Stevens suggested the idea of having a model made, a small bust of the character that all our different artists could hold and look at, so that everyone was working from the same mold, and the character would maintain some kind of uniformity as it passed through these different artists hands. I thought it was a great idea. a few weeks later, I had the opportunity to meet Christopher Swift, an incredible sculptor from Stan Winston's studio when I was over there, talking about a project. He was a huge fan of Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales and all that, so we got on like a house on fire. He loved the Convict, and agreed right away to work something up. The results were out of this world - he took a great conceptual drawing and breathed real life into it. Everyone was just floored. I think that's really important on a project - getting everyone excited, and feeling like they are creating something unique. It raises the bar. One thing about extremely talented people, they can get easily frustrated because most of what they see is somewhere in the realm of mediocrity. It's very refreshing and stimulating to work with people who you know are giving 100 percent. It makes you want to give your very best. The DeathSpidertm was just me having fun. Bernie Wrightson's son John is actually a very talented sculptor, and for the fun of it we worked up an 18" scale model of an alien DeathSpidertm. I took it with us to San Diego this year and everyone got a real kick out of it. What can I say, I'm a complete geek. I've got the thing on my desk and I spin it around and look at it. I drool a little.
Finlay: You have produced video trailers for the comic with live actors, are these real SAG actors on a real set or is this just a couple of friends in the back yard putting together a fan film?
Jane: It was actually a storage room in the garage of a friends apartment building. Ahmer (of Fearlopolis) was someone I had met in San Diego this year. He hooked me up with Eric Adkins, who had some free time to shoot it. We banged out a shoot in two hours. The hard part was getting the spider rendered in there, which took Eric two weeks of sweat. I think he did a great job; I'm in love with the result. My buddy Bill Lefler threw in some music. My sister did the titles. It's pure fan boy. The other teaser, which came out first, was me messing around on imovie with old NASA footage and creepy music.
Finlay: What I am getting at is with the models and videos, isn't this then set up for you production company to make a movie based on your comic?
Jane: No way. My production company is way too small to pull off a
credible Bad Planet film. Someone would have to come in with an awful
lot of money, and I just don't see it happening outside of a big studio,
and I can't really see that happening either. Believe me, if I thought this
was a film, I'd be writing the film. I would love to do something with the
DeathSpiderstm, someday. it would be too cool to see those baby's
Finlay: In addition to paying for models to be built and videos to be
made, you are also publishing through Image Comics which includes
you paying for the entire cost of production as well as paying the artists
yourself. Are you making any money on this project? (I don't want dollar
figures here, I want to understand if the expenses makes sense)
Jane: Making money? In comics? Are you joking, man? If I wanted to make some cash, I'd be doing internet porn, or selling black market babies.
Finlay: What are the initial orders like?
Jane: Surprisingly great. This being a science-fiction book, my expectations were exceedingly low. But people will surprise you! A whole different demographic is coming out of the woodwork to buy this book, not just your typical comic book buyer, but sci-fi geeks who I think have been starved for this kind of material.
Finlay: Issue 1 comes out next month and issue 3 is in Previews now. What are orders like so far (I don't want actual sales numbers, I want an understanding of how it is doing in the marker)
Jane: It actually looks like we'll more than break even on the comic run, which is really [f___ing] exciting. It means that I'll be able to turn the money around and put it back into our next project, continue to hire top-notch talent, and keep the train rolling. The comics are paying for themselves.
Finlay: Since issue 1 and 2 has been solicited, and orders have been placed, if readers see interviews with you and your team and want the comic in greater numbers then the retailers have initially ordered, are there copies available for reorder, or is this a print to order comic?
Jane: We'll have copies available for reorder right away.
