TIME BANDITS:Neal Shaffer & Joe Infurnari on Oni's BORROWED TIME

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Borrowed Time, created and written by Neal Shaffer (One Plus One, Last Exit Before Toll) centers on a mystery that begins with a trip to the Bermuda Triangle and takes journalist Taylor Devlin to undiscovered places both real and unreal. Joining Shaffer as artist for the series is Joe Infunari, a relative newcomer to comics and entrant in the 2006 Oni Press Talent Search.

This Oni-published series of OGNs is coming this May, and we caught up with Shaffer and Infurnari to find out the mystery behind the mystery of the book.

Newsarama: Can you tell us in your own words what people can expect with Borrowed Time?

Joe Infurnari: Borrowed Time is mostly a character driven story with some science fiction elements. The inexplicable dislocation of the protagonist from his world and personal relationships forces him into an exploration of the new reality in which he finds himself. The emotion is very real and the mood is unsettling as we, the readers, are also plunged into a mysterious alternate reality. It is a powerful emotional drama with much of it's plot driven by encounters with unique, fully realized characters. The story also has strong resonances with the myth of the hero's journey. Taylor passes through a watery initiation or rebirth into a new life and reality. He spends the rest of the book in a sort of quest for answers and a return to his old life. The true nature of the alternate dimension Taylor finds himself is unclear enough that we are left wondering if he has really survived to be transported to another reality or has died and has now joined a strange limbo or afterlife. If this is an afterlife that Neal has envisioned, it's a very pragmatic and reality based life after death which may be separated from the living by a very thin membrane of only 10 seconds.

Neal Shaffer: People can expect a story about ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. They can expect strong characters, a good dose of mystery, and an overall package that I think will really satisfy.

NRAMA: Just who is Taylor Devlin?

NS: Taylor is our protagonist. He's a pretty regular fellow, a decent guy with a nice apartment and a woman he absolutely adores. An everyman of sorts, somebody I think people can relate to well. He works as a journalist, which is an important part of the story, as well.

JI: Taylor is a journalist successful enough to afford a comfortable life with his live-in girlfriend, Ellen. They have a happy life together and love each other very deeply. Neal described the character as good looking but not a pretty boy, of average height and build. What is most interesting is that he is very average in a way that if he did disappear he doesn't really possess any terribly outstanding features that would really set him apart. He is perhaps a bit of an everyman for the 20's-30's something males.



NRAMA: I may be speaking too personal, but the discipline of a journalist is one tied to the need to be curious. How does this fall into Borrowed Time?

NS: I think that might play into it. The primary motivation for making him a journalist is that future stories will find him "reporting" from this new world, telling the story of its inhabitants even as he works to find his way back. So, sure, there's an innate curiosity there that does play a role.

NRAMA: The book centers around a trip to the Bermuda Triangle. Have you always been fascinated with the Triangle?

NS: Not always with the triangle per se, but with things like it. I like how the mysteries persist, and how there's always just enough to them that it gets you wondering. Even if the skeptics are right all the time, I don't want to necessarily hear it. Life's more interesting if you have those chances to say "what if?" That's what I'm doing with this book.

NRAMA: Why does Taylor go there, and what does he find?

NS: He gets an assignment to write about the Bermuda Triangle. At first he thinks it'll be a piece of cake, but then a mysterious accident at sea propels him into an alternate reality. Rather than resign himself to the long odds against him, he decides to try to find a way back.

NRAMA: Without saying too much, can you tell us about this alternate reality Taylor finds himself in?

NS: It's essentially an alternate timeline. Everything that exists in that world is just ten seconds away from the "normal" world. The idea is that when we lose things they slip through seams in the timeline, so this other world is also where your missing socks or your runaway pet actually are, and that's why you can never seem to find them. I'm positing the notion that people can fall through these seams, as well, and that the Triangle just happens to be one very large, active example of this process.

NRAMA: When Taylor comes back from his trip to the Bermuda Triangle, the world is a bit … different. Can you explain to us what he notices?

NS: At first he's confused, a bit scared, because everything just seems a bit off, unfamiliar. The world he's in is just like ours, but not. It's very much a Twilight Zone kind of place.

NRAMA: So how did you two come together to work on this book?

JI: I prepared a five page story as part of Oni's Talent Search for San Diego Comic-Con 2005 and met with future Borrowed Time editor, Randal Jarrell. He really liked the work samples I provided including Caveman Robot. #1 which I had just finished and we had left things that he would be getting in touch with me after the convention.

NS: Joe was part of the Oni talent search last year, but I didn't know that when I first saw his work. I saw it through a friend at the San Diego Comicon, and when I found out that Joe had already submitted to Oni I tracked him down. We had a few drinks and hit it off. After that, I went to Oni and practically begged to get him on this project. Luckily, it worked.

JI: We were introduced, spent some time talking about the project over a few drinks and agreed to proceed with things after the convention. I got the script shortly after returning home, loved it, and made my desire to do this book clear to both Neal and Randy and the rest is history!

NRAMA: Neal; what was it about Joe's work that made you track him down?

NS: He fits in with my vision of the story in every way. He's really nailed, visually, the contrasts between the two worlds, our "normal" world and the one Taylor ends up in. And his art, overall, is just incredible.



NRAMA: Okay Joe, let's turn it over to you. What was it exactly that drew you to the script?

JI: I was really psyched to have the challenge of visualizing the two realities. It was fun thinking of ways that they should be alike, ways that they should differ and all the different moods and textures that can be evoked. I also keyed into the fact that this was on one level a very intimate story of human relationships and interactions that also has this strange sci-fi circumstance to set the whole story in motion. And it's this inclusion of the inexplicable that also invites all the wonderful parallels to hero mythology and the potential nature of life after death.

NRAMA: Who's been your favorite character of the series?

JI: Being the artist, my experience of the characters has largely been through drawing them and not as much about reading about them. So for me, the character that was the most fun to draw was probably the elderly gentleman, Wilson, that Taylor seeks out for answers about his new world. Wilson's kind of a blend of a kindly eccentric with shades of a mystic shaman or guide that prefers to use scientific terms to explain Taylor's new world. He's so well developed that it really helps flesh out the reality of this new dimension, too.

NRAMA: On Neal's blog it was announced that you're working with designer Tony Larson for Borrowed Time. What is he contributing exactly to the book?

NS: Two things. One, Tony has designed a t-shirt graphic which I have Taylor actually wearing in the pages of the book. We're going to print that same shirt up, in limited edition quantities, and make them available for sale to the public. It's partly a kind of grassroots marketing campaign and partly a way for us to involve the reader and give him or her a way to participate in the book and take something away from it. Tony also designed a promo poster for the book, which we'll likewise be making available in limited quantities.

On top of that, he and his collaborator Mark Penxa created the front page graphic for the Borrowed Time website.

NRAMA: Do you have any future volumes planned, and if so, when?

NS: Several more volumes are planned, with Volume Two hopefully coming out towards the end of this year. If everything worked according to plan we'd be putting out about two per year until the series reaches
its conclusion.



NRAMA: In broad strokes, the series seems to ask big questions about the nature of life & identity, and how small things can have big effects. Can you explain to us how the idea came to you, and what you're aiming for?

NS: I think those are good broad strokes with which to paint this story, and in a way I think all of my work fits that description pretty well. I don't really remember how the idea came to me - I think it's just something that grew over time. As far as what I'm aiming to do, it's to simply tell a good, solid, character-driven story.

Borrowed Time by Neal Shaffer & Joe Infurnari is published by Oni Press, and volume 1 is scheduled for a May 24th release. For more information on the book, visit www.borrowedtimecomic.com.

[CitC]

Several more volumes are planned, with Volume Two hopefully coming out towards the end of this year. If everything worked according to plan we'd be putting out about two per year until the series reaches

From the little I know of it, this sounds like an idea borrowed from Manga. I read very little manga, but it is an idea I admire. Many of us waited a bunch of months for the second half of Kill Bill, I think if we let ourselves get used to it many of us will wait a few months for the next installment of a GN series.

[EmeraldGuy32]

wow, that looks really good. I'll pre-order it for sure.

[NightRiver]

Originally posted by CitC
From the little I know of it, this sounds like an idea borrowed from Manga. I read very little manga, but it is an idea I admire. Many of us waited a bunch of months for the second half of Kill Bill, I think if we let ourselves get used to it many of us will wait a few months for the next installment of a GN series.

Not really, manga in japan is relased weekly, with graphic novels every other month or so. Same with over here, a manga volume is released every other month.

But this sounds very interesting. Im always interested in the unexplained, so ill def pick this up. And the GN format is a good format. I think the big 2 should release some new Stories in GN format instead of monthly.

[Bakema NL]

It looked interesting when it was solicited in Previews. But I couldn't find any interior art at the time so I skipped it.........consider it on the list now, this looks good.

[c_andrew_s]

This sounds really interesting... I will definitely get it.

I am huge Oni fan

[Stark Raving]

This sounds great. I just pre-ordered a copy from Amazon, and can't wait to read it.
I wish more titles were published in this format.

Good luck with this project guys!

[Neuromancer]

I guess being a 70s kid, raised on In Search of...with Leonard Nimoy, I am still fascinated by the Bermuda Triangle, even though it really doesn't get the goosebumps raised as much as it used to. Having said that, I enjoyed Neal's Last Exit so much that this is a no-brainer for me. Oni really is a superb publisher, and the periodical graphic novel format is working rather well with Scott Chantler's Northwest Passage...so good luck with Borrowed Time, Neal, Joe, Randall, Joe N.!