39. The Making of a Comic: 'Capsules #1' by Leland Bjerg and Casey Poznikoff
A deep-space voyage into caregiver burnout, PTSD, and nailing down what's unsaid
Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back to The Making of a Comic! It’s been some weeks since I’ve been able to chat with fellow comic book creators and explore their process making them, but I was inspired to get back on the newsletter train with Leland Bjerg and Casey Poznikoff’s darkly humorous sci-fi CAPSULES #1, that’s also autobiographical for Bjerg. It’s now funding on Kickstarter and they’ve kindly agreed to tell us all about it. Let’s hop to it!
Brittany Matter: Tell us a little bit about CAPSULES #1.
Leland Bjerg: Capsules is a sci-fi story about PTSD and caregiver burnout. It follows a couple trapped in a failing spaceship and trying to keep each other alive. It's inspired by the real-life experience of my wife being diagnosed with PTSD after years of working in an emergency room.
BM: What about the science-fiction genre helped you tell this story?
LB: It enhanced the themes. The isolation of being in an escape pod. The literal ungroundedness of zero-G. The feeling of death being outside your door. And I'd be lying if it wasn't also that space is cool.
BM: While set in a futuristic sci-fi setting, CAPSULES is a deeply personal story. How did you strike a balance between the setting and sharing the more intimate moments of you and your wife's hurdles with her diagnosis?
LB: The setting felt like a shelter or a buffer between our actual experience and the story. That's nice with something this personal. There's a lot of truth in Capsules, but what's true and what isn't is somewhat opaque to the reader. I needed that to tell a story like this. I wanted that for my wife and for me. Maybe there's some cowardice mixed in there as well. Like if I get it wrong well it wasn't exactly us, you know?
BM: While CAPSULES features heavier subject matter, it also has humor of the darker variety. What were some of your inspirations when incorporating dark humor?
LB: It's a familial value handed down by my parents and grandparents. Finding the joke when things are hard or horrible. It helps. Recognizing that some parts of life, even the worst parts, are absurd is cathartic. Probably also Kurt Vonnegut. That man had a way of softening existential horror with silliness.
BM: What inspired you to document your experiences and why use comics as a medium?
LB: I think a big part of the desire to tell stories about suffering is to transform them into something useful. If a story inspired by what my wife and I experienced helps someone else find some kind of insight into their own problems, that's some real lemons-to-lemonade or lead-to-gold.
I used comics because they're an amazing medium. They're efficient, cheap, and I love them.
Working with Artist Casey Poznikoff
BM: How did you and Casey connect?
LB: Casey is a friend of my brother's. We've known each other for years and are both from the Slocan Valley, which is a tiny rural area in British Columbia. I first worked with them on Mothers and Daughters, a short comic that ruminates on family and how terriers are evil.
BM: Tell us a little bit about your collaboration. How did y'all work together on this comic?
LB: Casey's a pleasure to work with. Very easy back-and-forth. We spent a lot of time on the roughs, which I think is the most important stage of making a comic. That's where you learn if what you imagined works or doesn't work, and the execution can be most effectively tuned without wasting effort. Thankfully, in Casey's hands, most of the script worked.
BM: Once art started coming in, what surprised you?
LB: How adept Casey is at drawing sci-fi gizmos. Most of their work is organic and natural (which I specifically wanted for Capsules!), but it was very cool when the spacesuits, ships, and robot designs came in and those looked amazing as well.
BM: Do you have a favorite panel or page you can share and why does this one stand out in your mind?
LB: I'm very partial to this one. It makes me emotional to see this beat-up guy trying to put on a brave face for someone he loves. It feels like an absolution. I think both the guiding light and pitfall for caregivers is the awareness that however hard things feel for you right now, the person that needs you has it worse.
The Artist: Casey Poznikoff
BM: What about CAPSULES inspired you to jump on board?
CP: I’ve always loved the combination of sci-fi/fantasy and lived experiences, especially those relating to mental health. It feels special to illustrate things that are so real and maybe that you can deeply relate to, while also giving a sense of wonder from the imaginative environment/events. I connected with Leland’s script, and overall really enjoy his writing and humour, too!
BM: I read that you work primarily digitally. What do you like about working digitally?
CP: Definitely the speed and ease. It’s so nice to sit down and have a canvas and all your tools right there, references are easy to pull up, and no cleaning or scanning necessary. At this point I may have clocked more hours on a tablet than on paper/canvas, so it feels very natural to me.
What has been your most favorite thing to draw in this comic?
CP: There’s so much in Capsules that’s being said aside from what the characters are literally saying, and it was a ton of fun taking the time to nail those aspects. Capturing the right body language, facial expression, or lighting for a heated or tender moment feels so good!
BM: In addition to being a freelance illustrator, you're also a tattoo artist and graphic designer. How do these skills contribute to your work in sequential art?
CP: Moving between various methods and materials keeps me from feeling a bit stagnant, it’s nice to switch over to tattooing which still builds skills like composition/balance/shading/hand-eye coordination and is done in a more tactile way than working on a tablet. And design work has a lot in common with sequential art—they both involve distilling an idea, story, or vibe into visual elements that communicate those things without words. That way, instead of the illustrations just mirroring the lettering, they both work together to pull the story forward.
Working with Writer and Letterer Leland Bjerg
BM: While reading Leland's script, what were some visuals that first came to mind that you wanted to incorporate?
CP: Major visuals that stood out to me were mostly in the body language. There’s so much messy emotion being expressed by Jericho and Anna, and they’re both kinda stuck in a very sterile environment. I love that juxtaposition.
BM: Tell us about your process in working with Leland's script. Were there references included and if so what were they?
CP: When I read the script it played in my mind like a movie, and it was just a matter of just getting those images down, and then Leland would go through and tweak them. It was really fun, Leland is awesome to collaborate with—he’s really good at directing and tweaking the illustrations but still allowing plenty of room for me to do my thing. There were a few references in the script, mostly for objects—the juice bag Anna sips on, the LED garden lights, and upright sleeping bags.
BM: Do you have a favorite panel or page you can share and why does this one stand out in your mind?
CP: On page 5 Jericho is unscrewing a vent cover, and the description in the script for each panel is entirely technical, like “Jericho works on the next screw of the vent cover,” and that combined with what he's saying you can tell he’s sort of in a state of being concentrated on the task while also lost in thought. There’s a repetition in the panels that comes to a drastic stop cuz Jericho is totally struck by what he sees inside. It's just such a tense moment, I really like that page!
Get the Scoop on Leland and Casey
BM: What were some of your inspirations for CAPSULES #1?
LB: Honestly, part of it was the "Space Madness" episode of Ren & Stimpy that I have never forgotten since I was a kid. Maybe not a tasteful admission for a serious story about mental health, but that was my introduction to the concept of how hard isolation can be on people.
CP: I think Saga will forever be an inspiration!
BM: If there was a CAPSULES soundtrack, what would be included in it?
LB: Lotta David Bowie, maybe some Kid Cudi and The Cure.
CP: I could be off but Blue Skies by Willie Nelson, in a lightly sardonic sort of way, like Jericho scrubbing the latrine with his hair disheveled.
BM: What kinds of things inspire your work?
LB: I am a science geek. Once upon a time I studied Evolutionary Biology. It's a lens I use often to make sense of seemingly nonsensical human behavior. I think most modern humans are burdened by prehistoric behaviors. Our minds were tuned a million years ago and yet the rate of change keeps accelerating. My characters seem to spend a lot of time grappling with the tension between the modern world and our primeval circuitry.
CP: Seeing other people’s amazing art! I follow a lot of illustrators and comic artists on Instagram, and have a big collection of mostly graphics novels, and a few comics.
BM: What books and music are y'all enjoying right now?
LB: I am on a nonfiction science kick. I just finished Richard Dawkins' Selfish Gene, and Stephen Pinker's The Blank Slate.
CP: Saga and Hellboy, and “The First Law,” a fantasy series by Joe Abercrombie has me laughing out loud a lot. Roky Erikson and The Undertones are the last few month's repeat listens.
BM: What are y'all working on lately?
LB: The Capsules Kickstarter is now my everything. I will be working on it forever and I have always been working on it.
Serious answer: I have a collection of short comics featuring dogs brewing. Also I'm always freelancing as a writer and editor (get at me!)
CP: Tattoo flash & custom designs, and a bit of graphic design work for a new restaurant...and I'm so excited to get started on a second issue of Capsules!
BM: That’s so awesome to hear! I was hoping to hear there would be more issues…Capsules forever! I love it.
Dear readers, don’t forget that CAPSULES #1 is on Kickstarter right now! They’re working on some stellar stretch goals so be sure to check it out, and do not miss Heather Vaughan’s incredible variant cover!