BUILDING GØDLAND 001

You never knew you wanted it

We’re going back a bit with this one… but not too far back.

This series was another game changer for me. I’d done work at Image Comics before, but GØDLAND really kicked off a longstanding relationship that has lasted to this day. When Image founder and partner, Erik Larsen (of Savage Dragon fame) took over as Publisher, he graciously invited me to come aboard and create a new book there. He even went a step further, and offered to introduce me to artist, Tom Scioli, who was also sniffing around Image for work at that time. So let’s raise a glass to Erik Larsen and his creative instincts. Somehow he knew that Tom and I would hit it off… and that, together, we might make something great.

Recently I stumbled across the original e-mail I sent to Tom Scioli, written in early 2005 after an initial but lengthy phone call where we got to know each other a little bit, shared our mutual interests and influences, and started to zero in on the type of comicbook we wanted to do.

Welcome to the cosmic corners of my mind…

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Hey Tom –

Great to talk to you on the phone the other night. You have no idea how thrilled I am that we seem to be on the same page concerning this project, our conceptual approaches, etc. I know something great is going to come out of this… something we’ll have a lot of fun doing and something we’ll both be proud of. And, since it’s Image Comics, something that you and I will own 50-50 (hey, we gotta get something if we’re going to work for no money up-front, right…?).

Like I said on the phone, what I want to do is a seamless melding of two things: 1) the superhero, “commercial” concept that Erik believes will sell in today’s marketplace, and 2) the cosmic epic, sensory overload comicbook that you’re so good at and that I love so much. Obviously, Kirby proved that these two things can go together like death and taxes, but for some reason, no one’s done it in a long time. Well, we’re gonna’ give it a shot. I’m pretty confident that Erik will give the book a healthy promotional push, so we’ve got a better-than-average chance to really make a go at this.

What follows are some random thoughts, notes, etc. This is pretty much everything I’ve come up with ever since Erik suggested that you and I work together.

First of all, the title of the series… my best idea for a title with the expansive scope that we were talking about is GØDLAND. I didn’t want to come up with some sort of “superhero-y” name that limits us (ties us?) to the title character unnecessarily. I wanted a more conceptual name, like how you’d name a film or a prose novel (or, for that matter, the same way Kirby named his cornerstone Fourth World series NEW GODS as opposed to ORION). And, I don’t know if it came through the e-mail process (you never know if all the formatting and typed characters come through), but the backslash through the letter “O” in the title is intentional. I think it adds something extra to the graphic design of the title, and it gives a different spin to the biblical nature of a title like this (not to mention, slightly defusing any overt religious overtones) while at the same time, retaining a cool, heavily mythological vibe to our series. Besides, it’ll give Internet journalists conniptions trying to get that “backslash O” into their website text (which I personally love to do).

The main character is an astronaut, COMMANDER ADAM ARCHER. He was the first -- and only -- astronaut to set foot on Mars. The rest of his crew was killed during the arduous journey to make that first historic step. While on Mars, Adam accidentally triggers a “cosmic tripwire”. This not only alerts the rest of the universe that humanity has evolved to a point where it can join the wider cosmic community, it gives Commander Adam (my informal nickname for the guy) superpowers. These powers are starlight based, thus leading to the next area here…

… THE VISUAL OF OUR MAIN CHARACTER. Much like Larsen’s Savage Dragon, I didn’t want to go with the old cape, spandex and mask ideal. I wanted something more primal, something more mythological and simple in concept. Picture our hero in a simple outfit… sports coat, button down shit, and slacks. Basically whatever he happens to be wearing. When he activates his power, he retains the look of the clothes he was wearing, but it will appear that he -- and his clothes -- will be made of pure starlight. In this way, we get that “primary color” look that a main character should have, and he’ll always stand out against whatever colorful and complex characters/creatures/threats/environments we place him in or against.

Commander Adam will also never have a superhero name like Superman or Spider-Man or Zenith or any other clever moniker we could come up with. These kinds of names are either perceived as too old-fashioned or too slick to be effective as a superhero name. Better to just use the formal, military-sounding astronaut title, “Commander Adam Archer” (if you’ll notice, he’s got the classic Marvel-style name, first and last beginning with the same letter).

The details of Commander Adam’s origins provide us with our basic milieu for the series in general. By triggering the “cosmic tripwire” on Mars, not only is the universe signaled to Earth’s evolutionary stage, it also makes Earth a target for the more evil elements of the cosmos who are inherently threatened by that evolution. Coupled with more Earthbound threats (ostensibly “super-villains” for the purposes of our series), I think we could go anywhere with these stories. The wilder, the better.

We’ll present a lot of the familiar signposts that superhero fans will be able to recognize, but we’ll put our own spin on it (and, as I said, these things will merely be set-ups and jumping off points for the stories we want to tell). Commander Adam will have a hi-tech headquarters, a skyscraper built for him by NASA and the U.S. government located in Manhattan (our very own “Baxter Building”, basically… a cool chance for you to design an Earthbound building with a distinct design). The twist is… while Adam uses the building as a base of operations, its true function is a prison-in-waiting. Because although he is a hero in many respects, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t frighten people (let’s face it, a real-life superhero would scare the shit out of people, no matter how “heroic” he was. In fact, in these cynical times, the MORE heroic someone is, the more suspicion they seem to engender). So, the building that seems so cool and so fantastic actually has the ability to be “locked down” by remote control from the outside, effectively trapping Adam inside (and, supposedly, keeping humanity safe from his powers, should they ever either go out of control or if he should ever pose a threat to the rest of us. Typical “paranoia of the fantastic” in full effect.).

The only supporting characters that I’ve thought of are Adam’s three sisters (whom I haven’t named yet). The oldest sister was also an astronaut, grounded after the Mars mission took so many lives (resulting in an undercurrent of resentment she’ll feel toward her big brother). She’s now the liaison to the government and NASA reps. The middle sister is an administration whiz who handles all the organization, numbers, scheduling, etc. The youngest is the spitfire of the group, a former reactionary, possible anarchist and urban terrorist (in that Brad Pitt, FIGHT CLUB-kind of way… a modern-day beatnik, I guess you could say) who has insinuated herself back into Adam’s life in hopes that she can possibly manipulate him into something other than a cookie cutter hero. These three sisters will allow for a “family” vibe to the supporting cast, but I honestly don’t see them playing a huge role, other than occasionally being used as springboards for larger stories.

So, that’s basically what I’ve got right now. Like I said on the phone, these are just basic set-up details, our foundation to take off in an infinite number of directions. I think it’s a simple core concept that anyone can grab onto, while also allowing us to be complex in the stories we tell, the ideas and concepts we pit Commander Adam against.

Hope you like it, and I’m really looking forward to the collaboration, the exchange of ideas, the inherent challenge of a book like this. And, besides all that, to see your work in full color is going to be absolutely amazing.

Joe

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As you can see, we locked in to what we wanted to do fairly quickly. Tom soon responded with an enthusiastic flurry of character sketches and concepts -- all of which were immediately incorporated into the series -- and we were off to the races. The result was a mind-bending, cosmic epic of 37 single issues, later reprinted in six trade paperbacks and three oversized hardcovers.

It’s a formidable body of work that I’m still extremely proud of.

ON SALE THIS WEEK: The sixth pulse-pounding issue of BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN should show up in your local comicbook store on Wednesday. Written by me and drawn by Paul Fry. And within the pages of this comicbook — WHAT THE HELL IS “BLOOD CON”?! That’s the question everyone will be asking when this explosive extravaganza -- this paean to modern marketing -- is announced. But properly marketing a new superhero team is nothing compared to actually being on it. Don’t miss the madness!

Until next time…

Joe Casey

USA