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Huge airborne ships carrying weapons of mass destruction. Sorceresses wielding phenomenal magical power. Soldiers fighting an impossible battle against a desperate enemy and a supernatural force. And a heavy dose of historical allegory to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union and the current state of the Russian people.
Not what you might expect as the main ingredients of a successful comic, but it's a formula that's working for The Red Star, already mentioned on our forums as good comics reading for almost any audience. In the three issues out to date (with the fourth hitting stores soon), readers have marveled at the integration of three-dimensional computer models with two-dimensional hand-drawn art, gotten their first glimpse at the world of the United Republics of the Red Star, and been introduced to two members of the Antares family, among other characters. Maya is a sorceress who serves aboard one of the URRS' skyfurnaces, massive and terrible ships that look a little bit like giant floating sandcrawlers and can reduce a desert to molten slag in minutes. Her husband Marcus is a soldier in the URRS' army, fighting fiercely for his country even as he curses his leaders' incompetence, doomed to fall in battle. Everything in The Red Star is big – the story, the action, the ships, the artwork – but its ambitious story and visual style are blended with small, character-building moments. But you don't need me to repeat how good the book is -- check out the forums for that.
Although the first issues can be hard to find, a trade paperback collecting those issues will be released in the near future, and the creators make an extra effort to make sure new readers can pick up on what's going on – a lexicon section at the end of each issues brings you to speed on the dramatis personae and on the specialized vocabulary of this fictional world. (Spells, for example, are called 'protocols', and that one definition does wonders to establish the cold, technical nature of the URRS.) There's also a good deal of information at the official site, where creator/writer/pencil artist Christian Gossett, writer Brad Kayl, and other members of Team Red Star can frequently be found on the message boards. I had a chance to interview Kayl and Gossett via e-mail in early November -- the transcript of that conversation follows, edited slightly to make the questions and answers flow better:
DT: For those who might not be familiar with comics, could you describe the creative process of The Red Star and how it differs from most conventional comics today?
BK: I can't really speak for other comic books today, so I'm not entirely sure how the process differs except to say we are doing something that I feel is above average in its application. The 3D modeling in our book varies considerably from other books out there. We have been told repeatedly how our finished look is seamless in comparison with other attempts at modeling. I would like to say, however, that unlike a huge portion of books out there we don't use cheap selling points like T&A to sell books. We have a strong story line, period. T&A is what is dragging this industry further into a mire of mediocrity -- its continued use will surely mark the death knell of what could be a beautiful and respected art form.
CG: Actually, even for most people that are die-hard comics fans our process is a complete mystery. I am approached more and more about people wanting to purchase the original 'pages' from The Red Star, when there aren't any. Each page of The Red Star is a composite of many different visual elements. The elements are created separately, and then composited together in Photoshop for final publication. The only 'pages' are the digital files that we send to the printer. There are very few comics that do it this way. However, now that we've proven that the marriage of computers and comics does offer many viable publishing alternatives, there will be many more as time goes on. We've been offered a very prestigious deal by one of the big two comics publishers to do a series with one of their most popular books. It's in the planning stages right now. This deal showed us that the industry realizes what we have and want to evolve in our direction. We're also planning a 'How-To' book that we hope will further this process along.
DT: What is it about the story line that you think is so strong, that lets you sell the book on its merits and not have to resort to gimmicks?
BK: It's not that we don't HAVE to resort to gimmicks -- it's that we REFUSE to resort to gimmicks. Believe me, our numbers would be a bit higher if we did. We just show something in this industry that is wildly lacking (and in other industries too) and that's called integrity. We want to sell a book based on a meaningful story line, with meaningful art, that speaks to whomever reads it. Without integrity, and a strong story line we become no better than any number of mind numbing product out there proudly calling itself art. Why is our story line strong? Because it has depth, it has meaning. This is a story with three-dimensional characters that have certain stages of resolution to conflict that strikes a chord with those that read it. This story speaks of emotions that readers can relate to: suffering and conflict and costly loss. In the words of Robert Penn Warren: No conflict, no story.
