An Untimely Mystery in Space part 2

NOTE: A few months back, (okay, a lot of months back), I got the chance to catch up with cosmic guru Jim Starlin about his foray into the intergalactic, Mystery in Space. Through a not dis-series of flubs, that article was never published as intended either. Still, it'd be a damn shame to waste a conversation about comics, though, so here it is; represented for the first time.


Jim Starlin has been telling grand cosmic stories for over thirty years. He has told Weird stories, stories that reach into Infinity, and even killed a Robin. It was no surprise when he lent his hand to tell a Mystery in Space. The project was originally slated to be an Adam Strange story, but when the character became unavailable due to usage in 52, Starlin adjusted. He dusted off the forgotten Captain Comet, and set out to revitalize the character. He dropped the “Captain,” (because hey, that character never truly earned his standing as a captain), and started the story in the most unlikely way by killing the main character. Death was just the beginning.

With the release of the Mystery in Space collection, we took the opportunity to catch up with Jim, and get his thoughts on the series.

Brendan: What is it about the grand cosmic scale that attracts you? You have such an open tapestry, does that few degrees of normalcy you remove the audience from make it more difficult to tell a human story?

Jim Starlin: Sometimes it's better to write around an idea, rather than hit it on the head with a hammer.

Brendan: You got a chance to revisit Hardcore Station, as well as the Weird. What was it like to return to characters you created? Was there a different voice you had to adopt, given your distance from the characters?

Jim: Hardcore Station was a locale just crying out to be utilized. As you know, Mystery in Space was originally intended to be an Adam Strange vehicle. In the end, I believe, it played out better this way. Hardcore worked well as a substitute for Rann. Max and Eye were just frosting on the cake.

The Weird was another matter entirely. I'd been lobbying to bring him back and had a fairly good idea where I wanted him to go. His rather tenuous relationship with life and death gives him a half-a-bubble-off-plum quality I was looking forward to writing.

Brendan: What were your thoughts on Shane Davis, and his work on the series? How did you feel Ron Lim did as a "closer" for the series?

Jim: Shane gave the Comet series a wonderfully dark attitude and set the tone for Tyrone marvelously. When we started off, the contrast between his art and my own set a nice space between the lead feature and the back up. They were linked, but both series stood clearly apart. Though it was never planned, Ron Lim's entrance into the project couldn't have worked out better. As the story reached its climax and merged into one tale, Ron's emulating Shane's style bought the Comet series closer to the Weird's visual path. The final issue may not have worked out as well as it did without Ron at the art helm.

Brendan: This book offered the rare opportunity to dovetail backup stories into your lead. How did you approach that structurally, and do you feel like it worked out?

Jim: I'm very proud of Mystery In Space's story structure. It gave me the chance to travel the same path in two very different fashions. Comet was straight-up storytelling. The Weird was experimental freedom. I think the two styles dovetailed into each other quite well. I've an up-coming project which involves both Comet and the Weird, plus Adam Strange. I'm greatly looking forward to playing with the storytelling on it also.

Brendan: The backups also afforded you the opportunity to draw your own part of the book. Eventually when these stories intertwined, you even collaborated on some pages. Did you enjoy that opportunity to jam with other artists?

Jim: It's wasn't quite the collaboration you'd think it would have been. By the time Shane started drawing the first issue of the Comet story I was in the middle of writing and drawing the fourth or fifth installment of The Weird. Right from the start, poor Shane had me bugging him for character designs on characters that were to first appear in his storyline. It all got rather confusing at times. Plus, when Ron finally got to drawing his part of the last issue I was already deep into The Death of the New Gods. Had to pull myself out of that head space and come back to a project I'd finished with months earlier. But in the end it all worked out quite well. Guess the Force was with us.

An Untimely Mystery in Space part 1

NOTE: A few months back, (okay, a lot of months back), I got the chance to catch up with upcoming Rage of the Red Lanterns artist Shane Davis about his last foray into the intergalactic, Mystery in Space. Through a series of flubs, the article was never published as intended. It'd be a damn shame to waste a conversation about comics, though, so here it is; represented for the first time.

Mystery in Space took the relatively low-profile character of Captain Comet out of the pages of the wildly successful 52 series and put him in a solo adventure full of intrigue, corruption, self examination, telekinetic future mutants, and talking dogs. The Jim Starlin collaboration also gave fans their first monthly opportunity to check out the work of artist Shane Davis. Refining a jagged style perfect for moody action stories, Davis proved up to the task of handling monthly chores, and was only taken off the book in order to work on the high profile Lightning Saga crossover in the pages of Justice League of America. With the release of the Mystery in Space trade paperback, as well as the solicitation for Shane’s upcoming Superman/ Batman story arc with writer Michael Green, we took the opportunity to get some final thoughts from Davis on the science fiction escapade.

Brendan: Your story was ultimately about building a better Comet; how did you set out to achieve that? Besides a younger, more action ready body, how is the character different that the previous iterations?

Shane Davis: Captain Comet's back story was that the character left Earth because he was so advanced he didn't fit in. Going into this project, I felt he should have an almost alien feel. He also has the ability to teleport. Tackling that, I wanted to give him an organic teleportation effect. For example, I love Nightcrawler and that "bamf" effect. So I went with lightening, which is also related to the characters telekinetic comet field. The discs on his outfit were added there for this reason. As well as, the addition of the strip down his spine to visually link it to his nervous system.
Brendan: This book was clearly more of a sci-fi book than a superhero one. When last we spoke, you talked a little about how you tried to emphasize that aesthetically, but specifically, what sort of visual tricks and cues make one genre different from other?
Shane: I went in saying it had to look sci-fi and not just like superheroes in space. Looking at a lot of sci-fi movies and games, I noticed scale played a big part in creating that feel. I tried to incorporate that scale into the project, and still find myself using that process in my current project. For example, with the space station I had the idea to have a star/sun in its center. This was to show that this civilization was advanced enough to harvest a sun and use it as a weapon. Major praise goes to Bob Schreck and Brandon Montclare for allowing me to do this!

Brendan: This series marked your first opportunity on a regular assignment. Not only that, but it was a launch of a new title. What sort of challenges did that pose, and what do you feel you got out of it?
Shane: I was thrilled at first to have an almost clean slate. I ended up putting a lot of heart into it; possibly too much at times. The biggest challenge it posed was to need to see things in a different perspective. Not only were the characters being updated, the whole environment needed to feel sci-fi, yet still believable to the audience. The majority of this updated transition sat mainly on Comet's design. What audiences may accept or would want to see today. Imagination was key!

Brendan: Working with Jim Starlin, did you notice anything different in working with someone who is both a writer and artist? Did it make his script any more or less specific?

Shane: Jim is a great storyteller, in my opinion. There was nothing visually confusing about any of his scripts.
This made storytelling more fluid. You can really tell that he had the visual in mind while he was writing it.

Brendan: With Mystery in Space, you were sequestered to your own corner of the universe. Your upcoming work will be on Superman/ Batman, two of comics' most recognizable icons. What freedoms are you afforded in the relative obscurity that the spotlight doesn't allow?
Shane: I have had to do variations on their costumes for story moments, so I've had a few chances to play with
their costumes. Superman and Batman are icons, and altering the basic design is just wrong. You really
can't design them better, so I went in knowing that. I don't expect people to love me for the variations, but
hopefully they’ll say that I did them well with what I had to do. In their normal gear, your liberties lay in interpreting the basics. The attitudes and contrast in their capes. The fact one wears a mask while the other takes off glasses is priceless. It's all contrast when you get these two together. It is for me, at least, especially when dealing with postures and shadows. I definitely have been leaning towards the creepy Batman. However, even though drawing these two icons is fun on its own, Comet offered a liberty of interpretation that is not all too well accepted when messing around with Batman or Superman.