Mike Garley is a writer and editor who lectures, professionally, on writing for comics as well as the use of comics in transmedia campaigns. He runs the comic anthology Dead Roots based on a zombie plague.
It is no surprise that Mike is the lead author for the comics in the transmedia franchise Collider.
Alongside Mike Garley’s comics for Collider there is also a series of videos featuring Iain Robertson. The second episode of Collider video series gets a wider release on Monday but Geek Native readers can check it out below.
Right after the video is our short Q&A interview with Mike. He was kind enough to be subjected to annoying questions about whether science is evil – and he talks about robotic wives from the future.
Q. Can you give us the back of the book summary to Collider? What is the comic about?
It’s a sci-fi mystery about being stuck in a post-apocalyptic future with a group of complete strangers.
Q. Collider features people drawn from different, but apparently not too far apart, points in time. Was that a unique challenge in terms of character portrayal for you? How did you cope?
The different backgrounds the characters came from offered us the chance to take their individual stories in different directions, allowing us to delve into other genres within the Collider framework. So it was actually pretty fun.
Q. Do you feel that Collider is pro, anti or neutral to the “super science” and the type of work we’re seeing carried out in places like the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland?
It’s fairly subjective. As with nearly everything it comes down to who’s in control. The fictional characters that we’ve created aren’t as responsible as the guys at the real world CERN… Hopefully.
Q. Who do you imagine the audience for Collider’s comic book is? Did you draw for internet fans, traditional comic book readers, no one in particular or some other group?
With this project being Transmedia we wanted to ensure that it was accessible to everyone, which includes the non-comic reading public, but apart from that we just wanted to make a cool sci-fi story.
Q. Are there any themes or underlying messages that you think the Collider comic book brings to the fore?
Yes. Time travel is crazy!
Q. If you had a time machine – what would you do with it?
I would abuse it. I’d totally abuse it. Then I’d have to hire Jean-Claude Van Damme to go back in time to stop me and my all-powerful robot wife (Sorry current wife). That could be pretty fun.
Q. Collider is part of a transmedia campaign. In other words there will be other parts of media like online videos and perhaps even a film being put together – did you have to work closely with these creators while working on the comic?
I had lots to read to ensure that we didn’t deviate from the framework. It’s an ambitious project so everything that happens in the apocalyptic future is pretty much tied down to ensure continuity. The comics are more about establishing the characters and showing their back stories, so I had a lot of freedom with their pasts.
Q. You’ve teamed up with James Moran from Doctor Who and Spooks. I think readers will be awfully disappointed if you can’t tell us a little but more about that project and the team you are building. What’s the new monthly comic going to be about?
Currently me and James are quietly assembling one hell of a creative team for our new monthly comic. The comic itself will feature stand-alone and ongoing stories from some of the most creative people from the worlds of Books, TV, Film, Comics and me! We’re looking to launch the first issue at the end of November!
Q. Which comics and creators active today would you recommend to Geek Native’s audience? What stands out above the crowd?
There are so many awesome creators out there! Paul Duffield, Kate Brown, and Nich Angell are all creating some pretty cool stuff. Guts, Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? and AfterLife Inc, are all pretty awesome too. Apart from that you should probably start saving all your money (and possibly take out a loan/second -mortgage) in anticipation for me and James Moran’s new comic when that comes out.
Collider catch-up
If you want to read more on Collider then I recommend this interview with Nuno Bernardo, who created the project. The page has a trailer for online series too.
The first webisode for Collider is here and is about 4 minutes long.
