I first met Steve Stewart at Orson Scott Cards Literary Boot Camp in August of 2009. He struck me as a creative giant. (He is literally like seven feet tall and over 300 pounds.) Over the past few years we have kept up via emails and Facebook cheering on each other's successes, and picking each other up after failures.
Steve recently announced an exciting Kickstarter project called Generation One, a comic book series. He is the lead writer. And so, without any more exaggerated fanfare or silly metaphorical comparisons, I give you an interview with the talented Steve Stewart.
Give the readers a short overview
of the project and the necessary websites.
Generation One is a 3-issue limited
comic book series that follows the adventures of Picus, the first child born on
Mars. In 2051 AD, when a war between the United States and China plunges two
peaceful Martian colonies into a miniature cold war, it's up to the first
generation of children born on Mars to restore peace to their planet and set a
positive example for Earth.
Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of
"The Case for Mars" and President of The Mars Society said this about
the project: "Someday Mars will have its own Laura Ingalls Wilder to tell
the tale of growing up on the new frontier. But with 'Generation One: Children
of Mars,' we can experience some of that story now. It's going to be
great."
You can find us on Facebook (facebook.com/MarsGenOne),
Twitter (twitter.com/MarsGenOne),
and Kickstarter (kck.st/13Ke9Rh).
Describe in one sentence what you
hope to accomplish with the project.
Our goal is to create a piece of
smart, accessible entertainment that encourages young people to think big about
humanity's future in space.
Who is your target audience?
Anyone who loves a good story! Age 10
or 100, it doesn't matter. If you're interested in space or science or just
have a curious nature, chances are Gen One is for you.
Why Mars? Do you have some sort of
obsession with the Red Planet?
Why did humanity come to dominate the
globe? Our nature demands we survive, explore, spread out, and further our
knowledge as a species. Mars is the next logical step, the first stair in a
long climb to the stars. One day, something will happen to Earth, whether in
ten years (unlikely) or ten million (very likely). We must, must, must not have
all our "eggs in one basket." If we want to survive, we have to think
big. We have to strap on our pioneer hats and get to work.
I noticed several members of your
team have the same last name. If you are related, what is the relation?
Our artist, Tim Stewart, is my
brother. He's been drawing pictures based on my stories since we were kids, and
I guess we just never stopped. Lynna Stewart, one of our designers, is my
incredible, multi-talented, rock-awesome wife who always supports me in my mad
creative endeavors. Writers and artists dream of marrying a girl like her.
If you are related, how does it
affect the project? Does that help you understand the relationships that might
exist with your characters?
I think being related brings its own
advantages and challenges to the table. Frankly, it's a little easier to yell
at each other and get heated when things are tough. But on the other hand,
there's a bond underneath it all that is stronger than any professional
relationship. I think the family dynamic creates a frank, passionate work
environment, and our common experiences make it a lot easier to communicate
what it is we want from one another. (I dare you to play me in Taboo or
Charades when I have one of my brothers on my side.)
Which of the characters is your
favorite and why?
That's a tough one, but I might have
to go with July. She's an Earth girl who didn't want to come to Mars, was
dragged along against her will, and finds herself in the middle of a huge mess
with both of humanity's planets depending on her choices. Picus is our main
character, but in many ways, July is the catalyst. And being from Earth, she's
someone we can relate to. We understand her loneliness, her longing for fresh
air and grass and oceans. Through her, we see Mars with fresh eyes--and we
learn to appreciate what we have right now, here on Earth.
You mentioned that the story
allows Generation One to avoid the same mistakes that we have made on Earth.
What types of mistakes?
War. Racism. Allowing differing world
views to undermine our common decency as human beings. Wastefulness. Entitled
laziness. Cowardice. The list goes on and on, but Gen One is chiefly concerned
with war, how it might be avoided, how we might rise above it.
What makes you think that human
nature will change on Mars?
It won't. The fact that I'm writing
about a potential war on Mars just 20 years into our time there is proof of
that. But I'm also convinced that human beings are capable of changing what
parts of their nature they prize and act on. That's a matter of changing/reapplying
culture and tradition, and there's no "fresh start" quite like moving
to a new planet.
I watched a documentary once about a
troupe of baboons whose big, dominant, violent males had been killed off by
disease, leaving the women and younger males in charge. The result was a
complete shift in the culture of that troupe. When big males came in from other
troupes and tried to bully and dominate, the newly remade troupe pulled
together and, frankly, beat the crap out of them. They refused to stand for the
old way. They "leveled up" and formed a more peaceful baboon society.
If they can do it, can't we?
If we can't solve our problems on
Earth, what makes you think we would be able to solve them on Mars?
We started on Earth with absolutely
zero idea what we were doing. Literally none. The Mars colonists would have a
lot more to go on as they formed their new society. Science, Earth history,
mathematics, ethics, art, culture, the works. Knowledge really is power, and
the transfer of knowledge from one person to the next is why we have gotten to
the place we're at now, contemplating sending human beings to a new planet!
(How exciting is that?!) I think that mechanism—the mechanism of learning and
teaching—is cause for hope.
What type of technology are you
using to produce the artwork?
Tim uses a Yiynova MSP19U Tablet
Monitor and Manga Studio EX 4. He also models certain complex objects
(vehicles, buildings, etc.) in 3D rendering software, and uses those
computer-generated models as reference while drawing the comic; he frequently
takes reference photos for character anatomy as well. Once all that preliminary
work is done, he does digital pencils, inks, coloring, and a few effects in
Adobe Photoshop. Each page can take him 10-25 hours.
Once Tim is done with the art, he
passes it along to Lynna who does the word balloons, lettering, and layout in
Adobe InDesign. Josh is frequently involved in the design process as well. It's
a crazy intensive process.
You reached your first goal on
Kickstarter in about a day. What is your next stretch goal?
It actually took us almost three days
(the story grows in the telling, as it should!), but that's still incredibly
fast. The euphoria and stress of seeing the numbers climb like that is a little
difficult to describe. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life,
bar none.
Our next stretch goal is at 30k, and
holy crap, I am beyond excited to write this Halloween Bonus issue.
You mentioned a Halloween issue,
what do you have in mind for Halloween with Generation One?
Life on Mars won't be all fun and
games. The colonists will be living on a largely unexplored, alien planet that
"wants" them dead. Looking out the windows and realizing you're
alone, millions of miles from Earth, that you can't breathe the air, that no
one could come to help you if you needed it—that's inherently scary, and we
wanted to touch on that a little bit.
There's also this old lady who lives
alone in the oldest capsule on the outskirts of the base. She almost never
comes out, and the rumors about her have reached ghost story proportions with
the colonists' kids. The Halloween Issue is her story, an exploration of fear
and sacrifice on The Red Planet.
I'm not hyperbolizing one bit when I
say this is the story I'm most excited to write.
If this succeeds in this
beginning phase (and I'm sure it will), whats next? Are you looking to continue
it as a regular web comic?
We'll see what happens. Tim and I have
always wanted to work in comics, so whether we move on to write for established
comic book publishers or try to court distributors for Gen One, it's an
exciting time for us. Fingers crossed on all fronts!
Which members of your team would
be willing to risk life and limb to go live on Mars? Why?
Not me, that's for sure. I'm too much
of an Earth boy, but that doesn't mean there aren't hundreds of thousands
(maybe millions!) of people suited to be colonists. I'm just not stable enough
to be that kind of pioneer. I can see Rusty doing it, though. ;)
Anything else to add?
I think that pretty well covers it.
We'd love it if everyone would swing by the Kickstarter (kck.st/13Ke9Rh) and
watch the project video. We put a lot of time and effort into it, and it does a
better job of explaining Gen One than I ever could in an interview. If you find
yourself inspired by what we're doing, please pledge and share with your
friends. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Brock, and thank you
everyone for your time and interest. Now let's go make a comic. :)
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