A DISCONNECTED LIFE: HUMANOIDS FLYWIRES

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

After a healthy run in American comics, Chuck Austen is spreading his wings to Europe (and the entire Milky Way galaxy).

The Action Comics, JLA, X-Men and WorldWatch writer’s previously announced Humanoids project, Flywires, is readying for its European debut.

“Flywires is currently scheduled for release in France in early November,” Humanoids’ Paul Benjamin told Newsarama. “I don’t know if the rights have been sold for other languages yet, but all of our books are published in several languages so I am sure that as soon as the book is out in France we’ll see Flywires all around the world.”

As for how this particular ball got rolling, it was pretty simple – Austen was asked if he anted to play outside the regular box.

“I was at a signing in Burbank, at a store called House of Secrets. Paul Benjamin came by and introduced himself, said he enjoyed X-Men and US War Machine and wanted to know if I'd be interested in doing some work for them,” Austen recalled.

Other than being an Austen fan himself, what was it that compelled Benjamin to make that offer to the scribe to welcome him to the world of Humanoids? And what could the writer provide to Humanoids in terms of diversity, apart from name recognition? “Chuck is incredibly versatile,” Benjamin said. “He’s worked on indy books as well as on high profile super hero books. He’s been a writer and an artist and has also worked in animation. Humanoids is always looking for stories that go beyond the super hero genre into other genres that are more popular in mainstream fiction, such as sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc. I saw Chuck as a guy who could really write outside of the super hero box to give us stories that could be successful in America and for Humanoids’ worldwide audience as well.”

“As soon as Chuck pitched me Flywires, I knew that he had the core of an incredible story that had never been told,” Benjamin continued. “It has a strong central character who is dealing with what is essentially a handicap; he’s been disconnected from the system. It is highly symbolic of our times, as we become more and more of a technocentric society. There’s also the great metaphor for governments throughout history, a starship on which the powers-that-be use up today’s resources without a care for what will happen to future generations. People are going to be blown away by this story when they see what Chuck can do without any constraints on his characters or his world. There is no illusion of change in this story like you get with an ongoing super hero title. Chuck has complete control over his story and he’s come up with characters that are going through some major changes in a world that is going to be rocked by their personal actions. Chuck has had a great time writing this story and it shows. Add Matt Cossin’s fantastically kinetic art to the series and I know that we are going to have a book that people will read again and again.”

In a nutshell, Flywires is a science fiction story based aboard an “aeon ship,” Austen explained. “It's somewhat cyberpunk, but with more humor than you might find in a Gibson novel. The idea is that everyone aboard this aeon ship is connected by a cerebral link called a ‘Flywire.’ This story centers around an ex-cop who burned out his Flywire and is considered disabled, and is forcibly retired.

Character-wise, the disabled cop is named Fontine. Rounding out the cast is Sanji, a pre-teen who lives next door, and a woman named Jen who the two get involved with, purely by accident. “She doesn't like either of them, but they're forced together by circumstances beyond anyone's control,” Austen said.

Followers of the project may notice a slight difference - Flywires was previously known as The Last Call. “That was the working title, but I liked Flywires better, and so we went with that. I also wanted to avoid confusion with The Call, the series I did at Marvel,” Austen said.

Other than William Gibson, Austen’s Flywires and his interest in science fiction have their roots in sci-fi authors of old, as well as the more recent ones. “My influences are the great SF authors, [Hugo and John W. Campbell Awards winner Arthur C.] Clarke, [Isaac] Asimov, [Joe] Haldeman, [Robert A.] Heinlein, [Alfred] Bester, [Ray] Bradbury, Philip [K.] Dick, and a lot of newer guys like [Erle Stanley] Gardner, David Brin. This owes a lot to [Clarke’s] Rendezvous with Rama, obviously.”

How would Flywires appeal to X-Men, Avengers (click here for an earlier interview with Austen where he talked about both of these titles), US War Machine, The Call, Exiles, Action Comics (for his take on DC’s icons, click here), Captain America readers, basically those who’ve read his stuff? “It's filled with strong characters, humor, and drama and action. It's fast paced, fun, and look at Matt's artwork! It's gorgeous!”

While it all started at the signing at Burbank for Austen, for artist Mike Cossin, however, it was a simple case of showcasing his art to Humanoids folks at a convention. “From my end, it started in San Diego Comic Con, where I showed my portfolio to Humanoids,” Cossin said. “Since then I've done a cover for one of The Incal reprints - it was for The Incal issue # 9. It was done three years ago, so.... it isn't the best example of my work.... but it is my work, and a short story with R. A. Jones for Metal Hurlant in issue #8. During the whole time, Paul was been looking for a book project for me at Humanoids. I guess Paul showed Chuck my work and, thankfully, he liked it.

“Chuck made it clear what kind of world this was going to be, but left it up to me to give it the overall look, by leaving out detailed descriptions in the script. For the characters, environment and such, there is a lot of freedom, with some guidance and input from Chuck and Paul's great visual references of some ‘real world" architecture.”

Cossin described his art style as having “heavy European and Japanese influences. The first artist I have to mention is Jean "Moebius" Giraud, one of the masters of our time. He has been the biggest inspiration of my young adult life. Some of the artists from my growing list of favorites are - Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuya Terada, Hiroaki Samura, Sylvain Despretz, Akihiro Murano, Tokiya Sakuba, Yasuomi Umetsu, Yoshio Sugiura, Akira Yasuda, Gustov Klimt and John Singer Sargent.”

“The impact of these artists, and what I have taken from their example (besides the visual beauty), is the storytelling element in art, and the impact it has upon the viewer. Creating that feeling that "they" are part of the action, part of the scene, witnessing what is transpiring along with the characters. This is my desire as an artist, as a storyteller. I'm still getting there.”

He’s previously worked with Allan Gross and Mark Wheatley, over at Insight Studios, “illustrating Slammer, which is a sort of spin-off from Allan and Mike Oeming's, Doc Cyborg.

“At the San Diego show, I met with Dreamwave and started to get some coloring work by giving them a hand on an issue of Transformers G1, coloring backgrounds.

“The coloring work at Dreamwave, led to some more coloring work at Devil's Due Publishing, where I ended up doing some coloring and a cover for G.I. Joe. Which then led to a penciling job on the new Devil's Due, one-shot; Warstone: Abaddon Invades, written by Josh Blaylock. My bro, Mike, did an awesome job on the CG colors for the book.”

Other than money, fame and “a large swimming pool,” Austen hopes that his work on Flywires leaves a mark in the industry as well as creating possibilities for him to explore more work with Humanoids. “My main hope was to tell a good, fun science fiction story and have it become a successful series of graphic novels that would allow me to do more work in that format. It's a different avenue than super heroes, and lot of fun. I've been a tremendous sci-fi fan for years and years.

“We're talking about a couple now. I've been a little slow in getting stuff to them because of all the work I've had at Marvel. Now that I've backed off there, I've been moving ahead to more for Humanoids.”

[FIG]

Art looks very cool.

[Warewolf]

I'm not a big fan of Austen's work, but this sounds pretty intriguing. I may just have to check it out and support Humanoids' efforts in the process.