42. The Making of a Comic: ID-10T error #1-2 by Matt McGrath and Otávio Colino
Connecting with collaborators to make a sci-fi horror comedy
Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back, fine friends, to The Making of a Comic. This week, I’m joined by writer Matt McGrath and artist Otávio Colino, creators of the sci-fi horror comedy series ID-10T error #1-2. This series, which is currently funding its first ever print run on Kickstarter, caught my eye because it’s about an A.I. that gains consciousness, and I love stories about robots who become something more than their mechanical parts. It’s also about more than that, but I’ll let McGrath and Colino take the reins.
Let’s hop to it!
Matt McGrath's Writing Process
Brittany Matter: Tell us about the ID-10T error series.
Matt McGrath: Gladly! ID-10T error is a Black Mirror-esque revenge comedy about Bradley, a lonely, disgruntled man, who creates the world's most advanced artificially intelligent robot. Why? So he can torture and kill it.
But, when his AI gains consciousness for the first time, Bradley discovers there's a problem he didn't account for— that his creation will do anything to survive. Last year, we funded the first issue of ID-10T error on Kickstarter—but that was just a digital version of the comic. So for this Kickstarter, we’re raising funds to print Issue 1 for the first time, and to fund the production and printing of Issue 2.
A reviewer from a few years back described it as a “torture porn version of Short Circuit,” haha. It’s so bizarrely awesome, and it’s now how I like to pitch the book to people.
Issue 2 picks up moments after the events of the first issue. Bradley has failed. The AI has escaped. But the AI contains a secret within its coding that if it gets into the wrong hands, could destroy Bradley's life. Bradley must track it down—not just to enact his revenge, but also to ensure his own survival.
BM: What was your writing process like?
MM: Usually pretty slow. The first issue I wrote in one hour chunks during my lunch break over a few weeks. For Issue 2, it was a bit of a weird process. The first issue was originally meant to be a standalone issue, but once we finished the book and sent it out to backers, I kept asking myself “what happens next?” I had random ideas for gags that could happen in a second issue, a few scenes or character moments, and so on. Eventually all these bits snowballed into a whole story, and from there I just needed to write it all down.
BM: What kinds of things inspired this sci-fi horror comedy?
MM: A mix of things you’d probably expect, and a bunch of things you probably wouldn’t! The most obvious being Black Mirror and Twilight Zone. David Cronenberg’s version The Fly was also a huge influence, on the first book at least. Like The Fly, our story is mainly set in one location, we only have three core cast members, and it stars an obsessive reclusive scientist undone by his own invention.
What might surprise you is that The Simpsons was a big influence on my writing for this story. Bradley (who is our deranged programmer) is very influenced by Homer Simpson. Bradley is a big dumb idiot. His response to any given situation is always off the charts extreme, and his anger and frustrations always gets him into more trouble. I think like Homer, we find it hilarious when things blow up in his face or when he gets hurt. But ultimately we love Homer because he’s a good person at heart. Bradley is just an asshole and will always remain the villain of this story.
BM: Despite the AI's appearance, which is fairly mechanical, would they pass The Turing Test?
MM: Well, I had to look up what the Turing Test is on Wikipedia, so now I feel real dumb! But yes, for sure! In fact, for the first half of the book, the AI is convinced that they are a person trapped in a robot body!
Despite being a complete moron, Bradley has created the most advanced AI in the world. A technological miracle. It makes his desire to just kill this creature immediately all the more disturbing.
ID-10T error's Collaborators
BM: How did you connect with Colino and what did your process of working together look like?
MM: I connected with Otávio on reddit. He posted his portfolio on a comic collaboration group, and when I saw his work I knew he would be perfect for this story. His characters were so expressive, both in their facial expressions and body language, and I thought he would excel with physical comedy and illustrate these over-the-top characters in funny expressive ways.
There aren't a ton of "jokes" per se in the first book. I wanted the comedy to come from the absurdity of the situation. Otávio's style, staging and character "acting" really do the heavy lifting on that front.
It’s a very collaborative process. Writing the script is stage 1 of coming up with the story. We talk pretty much every day on messenger, and a lot of figuring out how to stage the action on the page, make story beats work, or problem-solving happens there. In the first book, there were 4 extra pages we needed to create, and I was so busy with personal life and day job stuff, I didn’t have time to script it. So we literally created those pages together through a FB messenger, Marvel style method!
BM: Tell us a little bit about your collaboration with colorist Kay Baird and letterer Frank Cvetkovic.
MM: Kay I found through a twitter search for "comic colorist" and came across her work pretty much instantly. Again, as soon I saw her portfolio I fell in love with her art and wanted her to work on the book. From the preview pages on the Kickstarter, you'll see her colors are so unique and striking and help establish this creepy sinister atmosphere in those first few pages. The art and colors have received a ton of praise.
For Kay’s colours on Issue 1, I sent her a poster of this 50´s sci-fi, horror film called “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein” (fun fact: this poster is also the inspiration for the cover) as an idea of the colour scheme I had in mind. And I think that poster was the creative spark that led to the beautiful palette of reds and blues we see throughout the majority of the book. For issue 2, I just told her “'90s buddy action-comedy” for the colour scheme and let her run with that idea.
I also came across Frank's work on Twitter! I had seen their lettering recommended several times, and I'm super fortunate to be working with them on this book. Their stuff is so innovative, careful and well-thought-out. I really think they’re one of the best letterers working in comics right now, so I feel really fortunate that Frank’s on our team.
I guess my greatest contribution to Otávio’s, Kay’s and Frank’s work on this series is how much I didn’t contribute. I let them have free rein and told them to take as many creative liberties as they wanted to, which was clearly the right choice.
BM: How did you work with designer Darren Vogt?
MM: Darren I’d been following on Twitter for a while. When I put out a call for book designers he raised his hand. It was great working with him on the cover design. In fact, his design in the inside front cover credit page sparked an idea for a pivotal plot point in Issue 3. It actually had me rethinking a lot of the story for the next issue—in the best possible way! So that’s a little tease. It’s always so cool where story inspiration comes from!
BM: Tell us about your collaboration with editor Christa Harader.
MM: Yes! AKA Cabbage Comics! They were a pleasure to work with and someone I had hoped to collaborate with for a while. They put in a lot of work to help me clean up my dialogue and remind me of the fact that less is more. Editors are also great as they listen to writers' insecurities about the story and either reassuring us or helping to problem-solve. There was a lot of that with Issue 2 where there were several plot points I was afraid didn’t make sense and Cabbage really helped smooth out those story bumps. Honestly, for Issue 3, I would love to have them on board much earlier in the process—having an editor on your book is invaluable and is as essential to the creation of a comic as the artists or letterer.
BM: Do you have a favorite panel or page you can share and why does this one stand out in your mind? What did each of your collaborators bring to it?
MM: Yes! Page 8 in issue 1 is my favourite page so far in both books! It’s a showcase for everyone at their best! The dutch angle Otávio uses in the first panel and the wide angle lens effect he does looks so cool and disorienting. I also love the bottom half of the page where the robot is yelling for help, but then realizes no one is coming, so he’s got to save himself.
Otávio Colino's Creation Station
BM: Tell us about your artistic process with this story.
Otávio Colino: To draw I use a free software called Krita, I do the sketches while reading the script and I make adaptations that I think are necessary. I send them to Matt and he gives suggestions on how to improve them, then I do pencils and finally ink. I use photos for references a lot, so it all starts with looking for the perfect reference for each panel. Sometimes I can't find the reference I want and I end up modeling what I need in a 3D software and then using it as a reference for the drawing. This process sometimes makes the figures look very stiff so I need to soften the shapes, change the proportions and add cartoonish elements to take the realism out of the final art.
BM: What kinds of things inspired you while making ID-10T error #1-2?
OC: I feel that Matt's scripts are very cinematic so usually I try to find inspiration in movies, animation and TV shows. I think my style has a lot of Japanese influence and a little bit of ‘90s American comics. My biggest influences are Nobuhiro Watsuki, Akira Toriyama, Gregg Capullo and Steve Dillon. I try not to copy any of these artists, I prefer something that mixes all of them and I add some Brazilian artists too, in the end, it's a mess of styles that I think are cool. From Manga I take inspiration for the funny parts, from western comics I use the anatomy and shapes. The way I position the “camera” is 100% influenced by Brazilian comics.
BM: Tell us about the AI and his friend Burpo's character design. What kinds of things were important to capture in their final designs?
OC: Matt sent me references of what he had in mind for Burpo, a mix of the Furby doll and Gizmo, from gremlins. The first time Burpo appears he needed to look scary so I added the crazy eyes, the bizarre smile and the claws. The design was basically created for that first impression to be broken on the first few pages after Burpo appeared.
The AI was a little difficult to get to the final version. When I think of a humanoid robot the first thing that comes to my mind is Robocop, but Robocop looks a lot like a human and the first sketches looked more like an android than a robot. Matt was looking for something that would look like it was made by someone with parts discarded from a dump or something, so we thought it should look like a low-budget version of one of those Boston dynamics robots, and it finally worked. To give this “homemade” aesthetic I put several exposed wires and asymmetrical parts. At first, I thought that the lack of eyebrows and lips would make it difficult to show expressions but in the end, it is a very interesting challenge to make a character show emotions with limitations like this.
BM: How did you go about creating the cover for issue #2?
OC: Matt came up with the idea of the AI running from Bradley. First, I made a simple spherical version of Toronto in 3D and also a 3D of Bradley’s head, I use these two renders as references and then I started looking at google maps for the most interesting buildings in Toronto. My first idea was to misplace the famous landmarks, put them in different positions and different scales, I wanted imply how confusing and scaring the city can be for the AI. the covers from issue 1 and 2 are related in terms of position and theme. The colours are all from Kay’s amazing talent. Every time that I get the pages colorized is like seeing my own art for the first time, always a good surprise.
BM: Which characters in the ID-10T error series are your favorites to draw?
OC: Bradley, the worst character is also my favorite one to draw. He is the one that I can really have fun while drawing. His expressions are so exaggerated and weird while the AI has literally only one expression, they are totally opposite in everything. The AI has a really cool design but sometimes is a pain the ass drawing so much details.
BM: Do you have a favorite panel or page you can share and why does this one stand out in your mind?
OC: In issue 1 there’s a page where Bradley is walking into his office and I could play a little showing a few details of his personality, things that weren’t in the script like what kinda of band he likes or the animes he likes to watch. From issue 2 I really liked the page where we first see the AI walking on Toronto streets, but I believe I haven’t drawn the best page of issue 2 yet.
Get the Scoop on Matt and Otávio
BM: What do you both like about creating comics?
MM: Probably the collaboration! Sitting at my desk writing the script is fine and all, but nothing beats getting pages back from the artist, colourist and letterer. I really enjoy problem solving issues with the team to make the page work better.
OC: Making comics is a personal accomplishment for me, for a long time I thought it would be impossible to make something as cool as ID-10T error, and here I am doing the second issue. Also, I believe that comics are the cheapest way to tell a great visual story. Anything I imagine I can put on paper and the cost will be the same, no over-budget visual effects or technical limitations, in comics you can do anything with an excellent cost-benefit.
BM: What books and music are y'all enjoying right now?
MM: I’m a weirdo that never listens to music, so I got nothing for you there. In terms of books, I have a stack to get through, but right now I’m reading two collections of Golden Age Canadian superhero comics—it’s really cool! One is called Johnny Canuck and the other is Mr. Monster.
OC: This week I started reading Blankets by Craig Thompson and Blood Meridian from Cormac McCarthy is going to be my next reading. I don't read comics as much as I should, I believe last month I drew more pages than I read them, but I plan to read more graphic novels in the future. I’m still listening to old punk rock bands and Johnny Cash, recently I’ve started listening Brazilian indigenous music while on the bus for reading. I share a studio with my wife, I do comics while she works with book restoration and we usually prefer to listen to true podcasts while working.
BM: What are some of the Kickstarter rewards that y'all are most excited about?
MM: Well, I’m REALLY excited to print the book. This is my first time self-publishing a print run of a series I wrote, so that’s crazy exciting to me.
We’re also offering the chance to be drawn into the comic as a character! Otávio did a great job drawing people into the book. It was fun to coordinate with the backers and to see Otávio get their likeness right, and I’m excited to do it again.
We also have original pages from Issue 1! They’re really affordable and look amazing, so I’m kinda surprised we haven’t sold more of those!
BM: What are y'all working on lately?
MM: Other than ID-10T error, I’m working on another book that is a pastiche of genres. It’s a book that is influenced by the silent films of Georges Méliès and is my interpretation of a sequel to his most famous film, A Trip to the Moon. I’m working on it with Merissa Mayhew, an artist based in Winnipeg. She’s just started thumb-nailing pages for the book, and even her rough sketches look beautiful. I think this story has the potential to be really special, so I can’t wait to share more about it!
OC: Besides ID-10T error I’ve been working on a webcomic called Alliance Of Outcasts written by Matthew Pigg, I’m in the pre-production of issue 4.
This year I started a personal project called SNUFF, it’s a small graphic novel set in Brazil about a young cinema student struggling to pay his bills and gets involved with a weird group of artist who makes gore horror movies that looks too real. I’ve done the script, the art, colors and the letters for this one, it’s been a challenge and I’m loving the experience so far.
BM: Fantastic! I can’t wait to see and hear more about these works-in-progress.
Dear readers, don’t forget to follow Matt and Otávio’s work and check out their ID-10T error #1-2 Kickstarter before it ends! I’ve had a sneak peek and it’s bonkers good!