TOKYOPOP'S PSYCHIC COMMANDOS: HENDERSON TALKS PSY-COMM

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

In the future, war is not just televised — it is scheduled, and rated, and the soldiers are stars.

This is the world of Psy-Comm — a world in which powerful psychic “gifteds” act as the frontline soldiers and entertaining athletes for corporate city-states (“Corp-States”) bent on global domination. Giant armies of infantry and armor go to war regularly to settle any and all disputes, keeping populations controlled and excited and comfortable with their masters. But in the front lines are the psychic elite. Whereas the regular armies use advanced bombs and guns that ravage the countryside, the psychic soldiers use the gifts of their own brains, honed from early age to deadly perfection. The best and brightest psychic soldiers are heroes and celebrities, revered at home and studied closely in the camps of the enemy. But they are never to forget that as psychic soldiers they are servants and freaks whose fortunes could turn quickly if the public failed to find them amusing. They have everything but freedom.

Tokyopop is no longer the place for pure manga lovers.

In other words, Tokyopop is not just a place dominated by Japanese creators and their products.

The leading North American publisher of manga has, until now, adapts and publishes hit manga series translated from the works of Japanese creators with titles like Love Hina, Chobits, Rave Master, Initial D, GTO, Battle Royale and Cowboy Bebop.

In July, editor Mark Paniccia told Newsarama about I Luv Halloween by creator/artist Benjamin Roman and writer Keith Giffen. Also, the Courtney Love-inspired Princess Ai, co-created by D.J. Milky with art by Misaho Kujiradou, topped the Adult Fiction Overall Trade Paper Graphic Novels list for the week ending July 25.

The publisher has also recently joined forces with Blizzard Entertainment to develop Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, a three-book manga series to be penned by New York Times best-selling fantasy author Richard Knaak with Jae Hwan Kim, artist of the King of Hell series providing the art.

At last weekend’s Wizard World Chicago, Tokyopop announced that Tony Salvaggio and Sword of Dracula’s Jason Henderson with Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga #2 contest winner Shane Granger are teaming up for Psy-Comm.

“Psy-Comm is about a 19-year-old psychic war hero who falls in love with a young psychic from an enemy country,” Henderson told Newsarama. “When he decides he’d rather kidnap her and run to a faraway area called the Wild Lands, where they’d both be free of their duties as soldiers, every powerful psychic and assassin in all countries comes after them. We were definitely thinking of famous on-the-run stories like Logan’s Run, but we wanted to put the relationship front and center and explore the possibilities of a different future, in this case a future run by corporations. In Logan’s Run, the problem was overpopulation. In Psy-Comm, it’s that life is motivated mainly by what the corporations tell you to want.

Imagine a world where there’s no more the United States of America. Or the Great Britain. Or China, or Russia or any other countries for that matter. Imagine that instead of the President or the Prime Minister, the world as it is is run by a CEO or a Managing Director. And war is good business, reality tv-style business.

Welcome to Henderson and Salvaggio’s Psy-Comm.

“The comic takes place in a future in which countries have been replaced with megacorporations who’ve attached a profit motive to every possible aspect of life. One of the most profitable is war — wars are now sponsored, rated, and people root for the most popular warriors. The absolute elite are humans who have developed various psychic powers; they’re called Psy-Comm, or Psychic Commandos. Mark [Leit], the main character, is one of the most powerful in the world, but he’s losing his enthusiasm for using his power — the ability to see the near future — to win battles. And one day he’s on a recon mission with his best friend and mentor, David [Gerrold], and he sees Snow, a trainee for the enemy who’s just about to go into her first battle. She reminds him of someone he’s lost — and the die is cast.

“But the details can be crazy — the wars these soldiers fight are replete not just with guns and death, but also with chirpy reporters with floating camerabots in the middle of the action, and soldiers who can do insane things with their minds — pyrokinetics, telekinetics, disease-makers, illusion-casters, mind-erasers. They’re so dangerous that it’s almost necessary to make them stars. They’re the mint frosting on the cellular peptide cake of future war. Every Psy-comm wears a ratings “ticker” on his or her forearm that measures how they’re doing this week. Mark, our hero, is near the top.

“What I like about this project is that it moves — even though it’s a long book, we were trying very hard to keep even the dialogue scenes constantly in motion. It needs to flow. I was pleased because the script came out with a lot of energy. I mean, just try writing 150 pages with a cliffhanger every 15 or so — but that’s vital, because as I learned in long-form, you gotta give people a reason to keep turning pages.

“The story is created by Tony Salvaggio and me, art by Shane M. Granger, a guy who just did amazing work in the Rising Stars of Manga and has a very Akira-like style.”

According to Henderson, he owed it to two important persons in bringing Psy-Comm to life. “I owe it to Ed Dukeshire, the letterer of Sword of Dracula and the editor in chief of Digital Webbing’s line, who turned me on to the idea. Ed knew that Mark Paniccia at Tokyopop was looking for American creators, so I started thinking about pitches — but pitching a manga is different. They’re longer, black and white, less dense than American comics, in panel terms.

“I pitched several things. But the biggest pitch came when Tony came to me with an idea about psychic armies.

“Tony Salvaggio is someone I’ve been working with for years — he was lead animator on SpongeBob Squarepants: The Flying Dutchman for PS/2 and has worked on countless computer games — we first worked together several years ago, when I was a writer and he was an animator for Maxis. We got hired together to do a giant album series for Humanoids called Clockwerx. We wrote the script together, and Tony’s original designs are in some animations on his site at http://tonysalvaggio.com/steammechs.htm . What they will look like in the final will be different, of course.

“But Tony had the idea for Psy-Comm to begin with — it would be about Psychic Wars, like in the Blue Oyster Cult song. I’ve never met anyone with a deeper knowledge of anime and manga than Tony. He hosts a lot of anime at the Alamo Drafthouse, he write columns. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese pop lit. So he brought the story to me and we began to flesh it out — the story of two young psychics on the run came together.

“The raw outline of Psy-Comm is a universal plot, one you can instantly get into: take my hand — we’re gonna run. What’s different is the world and the way the characters live their lives.”

Henderson and artist Greg Scott’s Sword of Dracula series has a manga feel to Dracula in the midst of all the Gothic and classic designs, and he’s even expressed an interest in doing a 150-page manga spin-off of SOD called Ronnie. However, when it comes to Psy-Comm and Tokyopop, it’s a totally new experience for him and Salvaggio. “Tokyopop was an eye-opener for me and Tony, because these are a totally different format. Psy-Comm Book 1 is 150 pages long, nine chapters.

“And it’s a lot different from working on, say, Sylvia Faust, which is just starting from Image, or Sword of Dracula. With those I’d gotten pretty comfortable with one way of working: I’d do a screenplay-style script, the artist would draw a comic from it, then I’d “pre-letter” and the letterer would finish the letters. That way, I could re-write to fit the art, which I like because it makes it a more collaborative piece of work. Manga doesn’t work that way — this was panel-form-panel scripting, like Tony and I did for Humanoids.”

According to Henderson, a lot of the sensibility of the story comes from Gray: Digital Target, Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. “Gray was particularly important because it was about warriors fighting for reasons that become less important, so that eventually the war is the reason unto itself.

“We’d like to make it at least three paperbacks, but the first story is pretty self-contained. We have a long plan, though. What I love about manga is there’s a tradition of taking more time on things we often have to fudge in 22-page comics — reactions, all that timing stuff. It lends itself to novelization, in a sense. I’d say Psy-Comm is still pretty story-packed compared to a lot of manga, though.”

Psy-Comm is set to hit mid-2005.

[Updated 6/17/05: RISING STARS OF MANGA IX: SHANE GRANGER (WITH JASON HENDERSON & TONY SALVAGGIO)]

[Vyper]

Wow, that sounds pretty interesting.

[Libby]

Oooh, now they should get Devin Grayson to write some yaoi!!! She could write a historical Japanese drama, about the son of a family of traveling entertainers. His parents are killed in front of his eyes, but a rich daimyo takes him in and trains him in the ninja arts. Gradually, a forbidden love developes between the two...



Oh, and I guess this Psy-Com thing sounds kinda cool, too.

[Carlton_FExM]

This looks sweeeeeet!!!

I probably won't buy it, but it looks great. No offence to the book, it's just that I'm tired of everyone under the sun trying to draw in an 'anime' style. If it was drawn some other way I'd definitely check it out. Even Japanese manga is getting tiresome. NEWSFLASH: There are other art styles out there! But this is a TokyoPop book, so I'd expect a Japanese style. This was more of a general comment on the state of the industry than a criticism of this particular book.

The Branch.

[Crazy Penguin]

Originally posted by Carlton_FExM
This looks sweeeeeet!!!

I probably won't buy it, but it looks great. No offence to the book, it's just that I'm tired of everyone under the sun trying to draw in an 'anime' style. If it was drawn some other way I'd definitely check it out. Even Japanese manga is getting tiresome. NEWSFLASH: There are other art styles out there! But this is a TokyoPop book, so I'd expect a Japanese style. This was more of a general comment on the state of the industry than a criticism of this particular book.

The Branch.

At least this one doesn't have pointy noses. +10 points.

[Shawn Fumo]

Originally posted by Crazy Penguin
At least this one doesn't have pointy noses. +10 points.

Well, the style of art is more like a lot of the more recent anime coming out. Stuff like Blue Seed, Raxephon, etc..

As much as people complain about "manga style" there's still a lot of variations over time and with various artists...

Shawn

[zeraze]

Originally posted by Carlton_FExM
This looks sweeeeeet!!!

I probably won't buy it, but it looks great. No offence to the book, it's just that I'm tired of everyone under the sun trying to draw in an 'anime' style. If it was drawn some other way I'd definitely check it out. Even Japanese manga is getting tiresome. NEWSFLASH: There are other art styles out there! But this is a TokyoPop book, so I'd expect a Japanese style. This was more of a general comment on the state of the industry than a criticism of this particular book.

The Branch.

Yeah, but all those artists who draw in "non-anime" style too often find themselves on yet another formulaic, soulless Marvel or DC spinoff with Bat, Super, Spider or X in the title. With rare exceptions like Conan or Army of Darkness, comics devoid of superheroes, especially the familiar icons, are usually and quickly dismissed by direct market consumers and retailers as well as the publishers. (Before someone flames me, I like superhero comics just fine, but would like to read other comics in other genres.)

Hence, You can't blame the creators of Psy-Comm for choosing Tokyopop as the publisher. Like other manga publishers, the company has successfully cultivated an audience open to reading comics from a range of genres like science fiction. This greatly increase the odd of the comic being a hit rather than having to struggle to stay above water from the start.

Getting back to the main topic, I'm definately adding Psy-Comm to my pull list because it sounds like an imaginative and chilling story.

zeraze