8. The Making of a Comic: 'Chameleons' by Rick Quinn and Martyn Lorbiecki
Enter the emotional environment of Uncanny Valley
Howdy Brave Being,
This week on The Making of a Comic, I’m joined by indie comics creators Rick Quinn and Martyn Lorbiecki. After working together on their post-apocalyptic short comic THE GHOST BUTTERFLY, they embarked on a four-year collaboration building the world of Uncanny Valley. In the vein of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and BLACK MIRROR, their futuristic world explores a time when reality blends with artificiality, music and memory are inextricably tied, and religion and robots collide.
They’ve kindly agreed to talk about “CHAMELEONS”, one of their Uncanny Valley stories, just a few short months after it was successfully funded on Kickstarter in their sci-fi anthology UNCANNY VALLEY—ARCHIVE 001.
Heres the pitch for “CHAMELEONS”: Humanity has almost been hunted to extinction by the geo-orbital defense system (G.O.D.S.). One family treks across a barren, snow-covered landscape—masked with cloaking devices—searching for a long-rumored sanctuary for those who have survived.
Brittany Matter: Tell us a little bit about the family this story centers around and who they’ll face in “CHAMELEONS”.
Martyn Lorbiecki: I think Rick is best suited to explain this one… (I fear that I might spoil it)
Rick Quinn: The family in CHAMELEONS are hiding from the G.O.D.S. (Geo-Orbital Defense Satellites). Subtle, right? I don’t know if you can tell, but I went to Catholic school. A husband and wife adopt two orphans they find out in the apocalyptic wastelands. They haven’t given up hope that there is one last chance for humanity. You’ll have to read it to see if they are right.
BM: The pitch mentioned that the family is masked with cloaking devices. Tell us about their design and how y’all came up with its signature look.
ML: Around the time of doing the concept art for the cloaking gear/devices, I was inspired by the character designs that were shown in the trailers for Death Stranding with the hooded outfits. After doing various, cool-looking designs for it, I kept going back to the idea of the Optic-Camo hooded capes that are linked to cloaking devices.
With regard to the visual style for the invisibility effect, I just like the concept of these cloaked figures whose silhouettes don’t have a recognisable outline. You only see the face, limbs and gear/tech that is not covered by the cloaking device.
BM: Was there a question that y’all wanted to answer or explore in this story, and if so what was it?
RQ: What makes us human? Can love be destroyed? Haha, you know, fun stuff like that.
ML: I just wanted to draw some post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff with rogue weapon satellites. I let Rick deal with all of the “script” stuff.
BM: There’s quite a shocking turn in this story. Was it always going to happen or did the idea evolve out of your collaboration?
RQ: The original pitch that Martyn had did not include the family that became the central characters in the final story. Their backstories, and how everything ends up playing out, all grew organically out of the simple mental image I had of someone cloaked in invisibility in the middle of a snowstorm. I’m not very good at “plot”, so no one was more surprised than me when I suddenly wrote a twist into the script.
Uncanny Valley
BM: How does “CHAMELEONS” fit into the larger world of Uncanny Valley?
RQ: UNCANNY VALLEY isn’t a connected universe, at least not in the conventional sense. Originally, there was no overarching concept linking any of the stories—they were just individual pieces that all explored the same emotional/thematic environment. Martyn then came up with the idea of the stories being the result of “narrative simulations” being done by an experimental research team (he was very influenced by the video games CONTROL and PORTAL). That framing device has allowed us to really push the boundaries of where we can go, what kind of stories are possible under the UNCANNY VALLEY name.
ML: Yeah, I’m guilty of coming up with crazy world-building concepts.
BM: After the success of UNCANNY VALLEY—ARCHIVE 001 on Kickstarter, what can readers expect from you both next?
ML: At the moment, we’re working on preparations for ARCHIVE 002. The ultimate goal is to get another kickstarter launched in early 2022. I will be working on the artwork for one of the stories but we’re planning on getting some other artists to contribute to the next volume as well. I’m also gradually moving away from UNCANNY VALLEY to focus on other projects, including one called MERIWETHER (created by Rick Quinn) which has been in development since early 2020.
RQ: In the world of comics, I’m writing new UV pitches (and reaching out to some potential new collaborators, both artists and writers), working on MERIWETHER, and a secret project which is still very much in the initial stages of creation. All I’ll say at this point is it's the first project in a long time where I started writing it purely for myself, just for the pleasure of the writing without any expectation or plan for where it would go or how I would develop it beyond the scripting of it.
ML: As a side note, I still need to get round to working on the “Rick & Marty” brand for Rick and I...
BM: If folks missed the Kickstarter, how can they get the anthology or the stories inside of it?
ML: I don’t know what the plan is for those who missed the first Kickstarter. Maybe sell some leftover copies either online or at cons? Maybe do reprints in the next Kickstarter? Who knows ^_^
RQ: We haven’t actually discussed it! But I’d say it’s safe to assume that, at the very least, the first volume will be available as a reward add-on for ARCHIVE 002.
Collaboration Station
BM: How did y'all start collaborating with one another?
RQ: I found Martyn through Tumblr when he “liked” a post of mine about my first self-published book SALTWATER (art by Dana Obera). I was curious: who was this mysterious, half-British stranger? I scrolled through his account and was impressed by the volume of his output, the creativity of his designs, and his overall idiosyncratic style. I knew right away he was a kindred spirit. I also knew that his art style would be the perfect match for a story concept I had been working on for years but had been unable to find the proper collaborator for. I reached out to him and several months later we had our first book, THE GHOST BUTTERFLY.
ML: Ummm Yeah, what he said...
BM: What's your process when starting a new project, and how has it evolved?
RQ: It used to be a pretty standard process: writer writes script, artist reads script then draws book. At this point in our creative partnership, nearly five (!) years in, it has evolved into an organic, collaborative process that starts mostly through conversation. We meet on a weekly basis via video chat to discuss whatever it is we’re working at a given time. CHAMELEONS was the first time when we discovered we could work this way: it started with a short synopsis from Martyn, which I then took and transformed pretty radically, and then it got back to Martyn and he was then able to further tweak things. I would have never thought on my own to write a story about A.I.-controlled satellites gone haywire; Martyn’s initial pitch didn’t include the family or the “spine” of the plot. This kind of process results in a final story that could only have been written by the two of us together. So now he’s stuck with me. Pray for him.
ML: 私を助けてください...
BM: What would you recommend as best practices to other artist and writer collaborators?
ML: “Be excellent to each other and party on dudes” to quote Bill and Ted...Jokes aside, I feel like communication is probably one of the most important elements in collaborations. That’s one of the biggest takeaways for me from my time working with Rick on these comics. A lot of the chats between Rick and I have been either via email or chatting on Twitter but when the (REDACTED) happened last year, we started to do video/audio chats every week or so. It helped a lot when it came to brainstorming project ideas, setting goals and establishing what we wanted to achieve.
RQ: Be honest. With each other, obviously, but also in the work itself: create something that is emotionally and thematically honest and representative of who you really are and the finished story will be a successful piece of artistic expression, no matter what. Easier said than done.
BM: What's your favorite comic that you've worked on together?
ML: Hmmm, hard to say. I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of the comics I’ve worked on. Each of them had their strengths and flaws. I have learned a lot from each comic and I hope it improves my skills for the comics yet to come.
RQ: I’m enjoying our latest one, which is still very early in its development. It involves a talking pig. What’s not to love? We’re trying to make Miyazaki and Orwell proud.
Getting to know Rick and Martyn
BM: Where are you when inspiration strikes?
RQ: Either at a bookstore or scrolling through Wikipedia late at night.
ML: In many places but mostly at home in my room. I get a lot of inspiration from films, games, comics/Manga, music, etc. In recent years I've been getting into listening to audiobooks while drawing or walking which has broadened my scope and sparked a lot of new ideas.
What has influenced your work together?
RQ: Martyn and I share a love of music (and vinyl records, unfortunately for our bank accounts), as well as a love of curating playlists for specific projects. It has provided us with a nice emotional shorthand: instead of a long, complicated description of how I want something to feel or a mood I want to evoke, I can just cite a song or album.
ML: I agree with Rick; sharing our tastes in music did influence our collaboration work. We get inspired when talking about the comics, books, films and other things we’ve seen that have impressed us. Also, I just spent over $100 on the vinyl soundtracks for Silent Hill 3 & 4. My credit card bill isn’t gonna look pretty this month...
BM: Since some of your stories dive into how humans interact with technology and artificial intelligence, I’m curious what each of you think of the Technological Singularity theory? The one that says technological growth will evolve beyond control and forever alter our reality.
ML: I always found the Technological Singularity an interesting theory when I learned about it back in 2013/2014 at university for my dissertation. It’s hard to say what I think about it; it’s definitely a grey area. The concept, along with Post-humanism, has inspired and featured in a lot of my personal work over the past few years. I could go on forever with the various Sci-Fi stories that explore these concepts but just to narrow down a few that have these themes would be NieR: Automata, BLAME!, HER and A Psalm for the Wild-Built. I want to be optimistic. Perhaps it might change society for the better! But, I understand the fears/concerns that others have expressed. I guess we’ll have to wait and see when it happens. Hopefully the Uncanny Valley Narrative Research Institute won’t be the cause of it.
RQ: I’m suspicious, to say the least, about technology in general but especially the ascent of artificial intelligence (however fun and interesting I find it to be as a concert for stories). I often think that we over rely on technology as a way to avoid our basic, fundamental humanity. After all, we don’t even understand how our *own* brains work! It reminds me of the search for aliens. What about the “alien” species *already here on planet Earth* that we know nothing about? Humans are easily distracted by spectacle. Will our A.I. counterparts be similarly predisposed? (Martyn, write that one down.) That being said, I grew up on Star Trek: I’d be fascinated meeting and talking to Commander Data. If we’re approaching the subject with genuine awe and curiosity, I’m all for it. But we shouldn’t forget that just simply being human is an extraordinary reality in its own right.
BM: What are y'all working on lately?
ML: I’m currently working on concept art for the next UNCANNY VALLEY story called “Quality Control”. I’m also collaborating with Samuel George London (writer of Milford Green Saga and the host of Comics For The Apocalypse podcast) on a new limited Sci-Fi comic series. I look forward to working on these projects as they'll be created digitally using Clip Studio Paint. MERIWETHER is currently on the back burner until I know how things are going to pan out with these other projects.
RQ: Beyond the comic projects I mentioned above, I’m continuing to branch out and work more on prose short stories and poetry. As much as I love writing for comics and collaborative visual storytelling in general, it’s been fun and challenging to see what I can do on my own, with just words and nothing else.
BM: I’m absolutely ecstatic to see what’s next from you both, individually and collectively. I’ve been obsessed with your futuristic take on humans, how they interact with technology, and the melancholic tones consistently represented in each story that I’ve read so far!
Come join my obsession and follow Rick @richquizzle and Martyn @m3rtyn to stay tuned for more UNCANNY VALLEY stories. Don’t forget to check out their first story together, THE GHOST BUTTERFLY, one of my favorite comics that I read in 2020, at the button below!