Best Foot Forward

By Charles Webb

Welcome back to the Vertigo Spotlight. Today we'll be looking at one interesting new release, talking about my weird Fables fatigue, and best of all, chatting with the incredibly hard-working Christos Gage who'll lead us through the mysteries of his upcoming Area Ten.

Filthy Rich

Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos' Filthy Rich in particular has gotten a lot of play online with positive reviews from most of the major outlets (and even shout-outs on sites like Ain't it Cool News and The Onion). A 60's-set noir story placing a down-on-his lack football player squarely in the crosshairs of a manipulative teen heiress, it's Azzarello's first big project for Vertigo since 100 Bullets wrapped recently.

Anyone else reading anything good?

Fables Fatigue

Confession time: for maybe the last two or three months, I haven't been able to bring myself to read Fables (much less its sister book, Jack of Fables). I told myself initially that I just wasn't into the whole big crossover between the two books introducing the Literals--the new big bads the residents of Fabletown have to face after bringing down the empire. Wasn't going to do it. Couldn't get into it.

But if I was going to be really and truly honest with myself, I'd have to say I've been reading but not really caring about Fables for a little while now. It's not as if the quality of the book has suffered in any real way in recent months: the thing just doesn't have any kind of spark for me. After the conclusion of the "War and Pieces" arc, I felt Willingham had reached his natural conclusion with the book. Everything since has felt like protracted postscript : like the endless denouements in Jackson's take on Return of the King. Death by endless ending.

Willingham himself has said that he originally saw the storyline placing the Fables in direct conflict with the Emperor as the natural conclusion to the story, but you know, sales is sales. I don't begrudge Willingham this, and again, I think the writing is still strong. But for the time being, I feel like I've been there and done that.

Exploring Area Ten with Christos Gage

Gage is that rare beast: the writer from another medium who storms comics and actually does really good work. I wasn't aware of his work until I checked out his Stormwatch: PHD at Wildstorm. Since then he's had projects at Marvel, and Avatar generally made an impression on the industry.

It really feels like Christos Gage has been working hard lately. Seriously, check out all the projects he rattles off at the conclusion of the interview--and 2010 will see his thriller Area Ten at Vertigo.

He was kind enough to talk to Vertigo Spotlight recently about his upcoming OGN, discussed the weird split that needs to happen for heroes to be successful heroes, and answered the question of "why Vertigo?"

Webb: Could you tell our readers a little more about Area Ten and its protagonist Detective Adam Kamen?

Gage: Area Ten is an original graphic novel for Vertigo's crime line, which is just now releasing its first two books. I've seen advance copies, and they're great looking…I really hope people enjoy them, both traditional comics fans and bookstore audiences. In Area Ten, Homicide Detective Adam Kamen is investigating a series of murders in which the victims are decapitated--killings that involve trepanation, or the process of drilling a hole into someone's skull. Trepanation is generally done medically-to relieve pressure on the brain following a head injury, but there are also people who do it recreationally because they believe it stimulates creativity, awareness and psychic abilities. In the midst of the investigation, Detective Kamen suffers a brain injury in an attack. As he recovers, he begins to realize that the injury has given him a strange new form of extrasensory perception that may be related to the case he's working…or he could just be going over the edge.

Webb: Some of the more left-field content on trepanation seems to touch on the technique as a means of psychic enhancement. Could you illuminate how the procedure will be affecting Detective Kamen?

Gage: You're right: there are people who believe trepanation is a means to unlocking the doors of perception. Opinions vary on what exactly that means--from enhanced brain function, to opening the "third eye" and seeing the spiritual realm, to basically being high all the time. Many of these people perform trepanation on each other, or themselves, voluntarily. Not Detective Kamen. The injury he sustains pierces his skull and a part of his brain called Brodmann's Area Ten. Afterward, he starts to have odd visions. Has he, in fact, been endowed with the gifts proponents of trepanation talk about? Is he showing the effects of a traumatic wound? Or is he going insane?

Webb: Your protagonist here is, I presume, a capable police officer, but he becomes the police officer capable of catching the killer once his brain/body interactions are altered. To what degree do you side with the idea that we're defined by chemistry?

Gage: I don't know about defined, but we're certainly affected. You see it in people who are bipolar or have any number of other conditions, to say nothing of how we can be altered by drugs. But we also have free will. We make choices. Where do the two diverge, and where do they intersect? Does one trump the other? What you're bringing up is an interesting question, touching on both science and ethics, and is very much a part of Area Ten.

Webb: Could you tell us a little about the visual process for the book with artist Chris Samnee? Any insight into how it's being handled stylistically, particularly given that the narrative is split between the "real" world and the extrasensory world?

Gage: Chris is a great talent who has worked on other Vertigo books like Exterminators, as well as Queen and Country for Oni Press. His moody black and white art is perfect for Area Ten. Chris worked very hard at depicting the extrasensory perceptions seen in the story, sending me various different options for what he called "Kamen-vision" before we settled on a final look. I think he did a terrific job. The ease and skill with which he switched from realistic everyday scenes to hallucinogenic visions amazed me!

Webb: This shares an interesting thread with your current book Absolution over at Avatar--that is to say, it's about law enforcement crossing a line to do its job. For John Dusk, it's a conscious decision to kill in the name of protecting the innocent. Even over in the strong>Avengers: The Initiative, there's a crossing over or split with the Shadow Initiative and, to a certain extent, how so much of what occurs on-base is need-to-know and compartmentalized. For Det. Kamen, it's not an active, conscious decision, but he has to become some kind of other outside of himself to do his job. Do you feel there's a real-world analogue for this in law enforcement and soldiering? Is there some kind of separation or "crossing over" that has to occur to deal with crime?

Gage: It can certainly happen, but I hope it's not necessary. Despite what I'm exploring in Absolution, I think it's very dangerous for anyone in a position of authority, like a police officer, to decide the rules don't apply to them or that he or she is above the law. I think, to a degree, you have to compartmentalize and inure yourself to some of the horrors you see in that sort of work, but when it stops affecting you at all, that's when you have a serious problem. But as you mention, the situation with Det. Kamen is a very different one from that of John Dusk in Absolution, who makes a conscious choice. The question in Area Ten is whether the protagonist has obtained a new form of extrasensory perception that is expanding his consciousness, or if he's just going mad. He isn't sure himself, and I want the reader to not be sure either. I very much wanted the reader to feel somewhat uncomfortable with the protagonist at the same time that they identify with him. I think that suits the story and makes for a very Vertigo-esque reading experience.

Webb: You've got work being published at Marvel, Dynamite, IDW and Avatar, and you've done work over at Wildstorm in what feels like a relatively short period of time. Why Vertigo for Area Ten?

Gage: Part of it comes from the fact that Jonathan Vankin, my editor at Vertigo, is the one who expressed the most interest in the idea. He mentioned that they were starting up the crime line and asked if I had anything that might work for it. My wife Ruth (with whom I collaborate on screenwriting) and I had been developing Area Ten as a story on its own, still not sure if we were going to do it as a screenplay, a graphic novel, or what exactly. I pitched it to Jon, he really dug it, and Ruth and I felt like Vertigo was definitely a perfect place for it. The icing on the cake was that Jon had been looking for something involving brain injuries, so it seemed like kismet. Jon's a very smart, well-read guy whose tastes run to the same odd and esoteric types of things Ruth and I find interesting, so it was a perfect match.

Webb: With this column, I'm trying to get a sense of what Vertigo means for incoming talent, why they choose to publish there versus anywhere else. Similar to how Marvel positions themselves as the line with superheroes right outside your door, whereas Avatar appears to be about bleeding-edge mature sci-fi and horror. In your mind, does Vertigo evoke something particular?

Gage: Honestly, there wasn't much thought of doing this anywhere else but Vertigo. To me, Vertigo is about intelligent, edgy storytelling--often in genres like horror, crime, and so forth, but not always. The common thread with all Vertigo books is that they take chances creatively; they push the boundaries and challenge both the reader and creator. Vertigo is for people who are after new and different reading experiences but who want a certain quality of work. The format of the book was another consideration: Area Ten always felt like a complete story, not a miniseries, and there aren't a lot of places where you can do an original graphic novel like this with the kind of production values Vertigo brings.

Webb: How do you straddle the line between work-for-hire content for the major publishers and your own creator-owned content?

Gage: I think it's both important and creatively fulfilling to do both, at least for me. I love working on company-owned characters and concepts like the Avengers and G.I. Joe. But it's also satisfying to come up with something totally new and bring that to life as well. It keeps you fresh creatively. And of course, writing screenplays and television projects with Ruth works a whole different set of muscles. I think getting into a rut is a bad idea, both economically and from a creative standpoint.

Webb: When will the book be available for our readers?

Gage: It's due for release in April. And it's all done, so it should definitely be out then!

Webb: What other projects do you currently have brewing? Any hints or teases?

Gage: Ruth and I are working together on an original graphic novel for Oni, The Lion of Rora, a historical epic based on the true story of her ancestors. It's like Braveheart: the events are factual, but historical records are fragmentary, so we've dramatized parts of it. It's an amazing story, and hopefully it'll be ready sometime in 2010. I have a creator-owned miniseries coming from Top Cow called Sunset, which is sort of a modern-day Wild Bunch; a preview of that appeared in The Darkness #78. At Marvel, I'm writing Avengers: The Initiative monthly, as well as co-writing Mighty Avengers with Dan Slott; I also have a House of M: Masters of Evil miniseries currently running, and other projects in the pitching/development stage. For WildStorm, I'm writing Wildcats through issue #18, the miniseries Dante's Inferno based on the highly anticipated video game from EA, and another project that's not ready to be announced just yet. And at IDW, Mike Costa and I are beginning work on a sequel to our G.I. Joe: Cobra miniseries. Somewhere in there, Ruth and I manage to find time to work on film and TV projects, one of which, Paradox, stars Kevin Sorbo and is currently in post production.

Webb: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.

Gage: My pleasure. Thank you!

And that's it for this installment. Join us next time as we talk about the new Vertigo Crime imprint (and suggest a few other imprints that might get some play), look at some recent titles, and generally try our best to impress.

Until next time!

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