Glimpse the Future with Surrogates' Robert Venditti

By Tim O'Shea

As a native of Atlanta and a sports fan, I always try to root for the home team. So back in 2005 when Marietta, Georgia-based Top Shelf Productions announced it was going to publish The Surrogates, its first "mainstream" monthly, it piqued my interest. In 2006, the five-part miniseries (described by Top Shelf as a sci-fi tale "about progress and whether there exists a tipping point at which technological advancement will stop enhancing and start hindering our lives") was collected into a trade paperback. Toward the end of last year, I caught up with the miniseries' writer, Robert Venditti, to discuss the project. Venditti provides a more unique perspective than most Top Shelf creators, as he is also a full-time employee for the publisher.

Tim O'Shea (TOS): Given that The Surrogates is a mixture of science fiction mixed with social commentary, as the writer, there were clearly some subtextual layers to the story that you constructed. That being said, as the reviews came in, were there any messages or themes that readers took away from the work that you had never considered?

Robert Venditti (RV): Not yet. There are a few subtextual elements of the story that (as far as I know) have yet to be discussed, so maybe they’re a little too subtextual.

TOS: The development of this tale was more than four years in the making--and at the root of the tale is the impact of technology on a society. I'm curious, has the growth in popularity of such things as Myspace and Youtube inspired a whole other kind of story for you?

RV: Not so much Myspace and Youtube as things like the online world Second Life, which is about as close to virtual living as the general public can get right now. For a hefty dose of truth-is-stranger-than-fiction, however, see this link to an article, Meet the Remote-Control Self, that appeared on Wired.com in July (thanks to Matthew Peckham from SF Site for the link).

It seems surrogates may not be that far off after all . . .

TOS: On a related note, do you plan on revisiting the Atlanta of 2054 (or "Central Georgia Metropolis" as it's called in The Surrogates)? Given that I'm an Atlanta native, I was curious--how important was Atlanta in particular (albeit a sci-fi futuristic version) to your tale or could you have just as easily set in a futuristic Chicago?

RV: There are plenty of stories left to tell in CGM, and I hope that some day I can get around to telling them. As for why I chose a futuristic version of Atlanta instead of some other city, there are several reasons. First--and probably most importantly--I live in the Atlanta area, and I wanted to keep things on the home front. I find it’s easier to relate to a setting if it’s one I know from firsthand experience. There’s also this underlying idea that SteepleJack, the book’s antagonist, comes and goes with the rain (for reasons that become evident later in the story), so I wanted a setting that had its fair share of thunderstorms. In the end, though, setting the story in Atlanta just felt like the equitable thing to do. Why should New York and LA get all the sci-fi?

TOS: After the tale's lead character, Lieutenant Harvey Greer, who was your favorite character to write?

RV: I enjoyed writing Margaret’s character very much--maybe even more than Harvey--because I think that her story is the most personal in the book. Her problems and insecurities are ones that all of us can relate to, and they add an important dimension to the narrative. If not for Harvey and Margaret’s relationship, The Surrogates would be just another action story.

TOS: Given that this was Top Shelf's first foray into "mainstream" and/or "monthly" comics as well as the fact that you work for Top Shelf, I was curious what lessons learned did Top Shelf take away from the new venture? Will there be further attempts at monthly publications--or was this a unique, one-time situation for Top Shelf?

RV: Serialized comics is a tough format, and it can be a bit limiting because, as a general rule, the book trade isn’t looking to carry floppies on their shelves. Now that the trade paperback is available, we’ve had greater success moving books through places like Borders and Amazon in addition to the direct market.

It’s hard to say if Top Shelf will be putting out any serialized comics in the future. Only time will tell, but if a great story came their way, I’d be surprised if they let something like format keep them from publishing it. As for more mainstream ventures, they already have several Alan Moore projects in the works, as well as Junction True, a sci-fi story by Ray Fawkes and Vince Locke, so I’d say they’re keeping that door open.

TOS: Who came up with the idea of using Bissel & Titus to develop a fictional PR pitch/ad campaign in the midst/as part of the actual story?

RV: The brochure supplement that appears at the close of Chapter 4 is something that I planned on including when I was still in the scripting stage, so to that extent a PR presence for Virtual Self, Inc. was always going to be a part of the story. But it wasn’t until Top Shelf brought Jim Titus and Dave Bissel in as the designers for the book that the idea really took off and grew into a full-fledged ad campaign. Working with them on the back covers (where the ads originally appeared) was a great deal of fun, and the result is something that I feel really sets The Surrogates apart from other books.

TOS: What were the strongest storytelling and visual assets that you think series artist Brett Weldele brought to the story? For me, the work carried a Blade Runner meets film noir vibe thanks to Weldele.

RV: Brett’s distinctive style definitely lends a cyberpunk feel to the book, which is exactly what the story calls for. It also reinforces some of the subtextual elements of the story, in that the sketchiness of his lines blurs the concept of physical identity in much the same way that operating a surrogate would. Beyond that, Brett’s character design for SteepleJack is an absolute homerun, and his coloring choices bring a level of mood to the page that simply wouldn’t be present if a more standard coloring style had been used.

TOS: Top Shelf Co-Publisher Chris Staros is known as half its driving force (along with Co-Publisher Brett Warnock) of the successful business, but I was wondering if you could touch upon what it was like to have Staros edit the series?

RV: Chris is an excellent editor, and his specialty is finding gaps in a story’s plot or character development. Because Chris and I work together, much of the editing of The Surrogates took place on the long drives to conventions, where Chris would ask me questions about the story as a way of making me think everything through. So by the time the script was finished, there weren’t many changes that needed to be made.

TOS: What's on the horizon for you creatively in 2007?

RV: I’ve written a story for Marvel that should be in print some time this year, but I can’t say anything about it beyond that. As far as creator-owned projects, I’ve just finished scripting a new sci-fi story, and I have several other ideas that I’ll be working on over the course of the year.

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