Posted in: Comics | Tagged: avatar press, Comics, disenchanted, si spurrier

"A Little Bit Trainspotting, A Little Bit Ocean's Eleven" – Si Spurrier On Disenchanted And Free Comics

Elizabeth Heyman talked to Si Spurrier at NYCC about Disenchanted, a comic published by Bleeding Cool's owner, Avatar Press.

It had been a huge weekend for Disenchanted writer Simon Spurrier by the time I sat down to talk with him at this year's New York Comic Con. Not only was the comic's online premiere date only a few weeks away, but on the same day as our interview Avatar Publishing had just announced a new title that he would be writing which is set to be available only in print starting in the summer of 2014.

This new book titled Neurotrash sounds to have just as imaginative of a plot as the much anticipated Disenchanted while still moving in a completely new direction from Spurrier's current work. "It's a little bit Trainspotting, it's a little bit Ocean's Eleven, and it's a little bit something unlike anything," the writer tries to explain. "It's junkies with jetpacks!"

Understanding that his description could be considered vague or even misleading perhaps, Spurrier did admit to the true synopsis of the story, giving preview of what was to come in July.

"It's about a future in which being young and being youthful is considered disgusting. It's about a city the size of Europe after Europe is conglomerated into one baroque, gothic, chattering future city. America has been wiped out by certain events but there are plenty of Americans in the story, the exiles, the ones who made it, the ones who survived."

Art becomes very important in this book as the author uses different styles to distinguish the different cultural groups, though each group maintains the same conflict with the youth.

"They live inside these vast, constantly moving at high speed kind of house mansions which are very art deco. It's all about the styles. Europe is very baroque influenced and there are all these sorts of visual indicators. The story is about a gang of adolescent kids in this world where to be a child is frowned upon and hated. They've figured out a way to break into these moving vehicles and steak the stuff inside them."

When asked of what was the meaning behind the "neuro-" prefix to his title, the author revealed it to be a hint towards the biggest catalyst for conflict in the story.

"One of the specifics of the story is that almost all of the population takes a very low dosage of a pill everyday which keeps them kind of sedated but very happy. The whole population is unambitious. It's like a willing sacrifice of adventurousness due to cosmic winds which I won't explain now. It's all about willing enslavement and the kids are the only ones who aren't taking this drug and instead they're taking all these neuro-stimulators which make everything very exciting and everything becomes about pursuing the rush. So ultimately it's about the contention between a rite of passage becoming an adult, and taking responsibility for stuff without sacrificing the desire to have fun."

It almost comes as a surprise that Spurrier is able to release another book so quickly after publishing Disenchanted, a story that was literally years in the making.

"Disenchanted has been in production for about four years actually. It's the first thing I ever developed when I first started working with William [Christensen] at Avatar. Other things came along and kind of got in the way and we launched those beforehand so this has been on the backburner just gathering material. We got 400 pages of this stuff all ready to go."

Those 400 pages of Disenchanted will be released just twelve at a time as a weekly free comic that can be found at www.disenchantedcomic.com starting October 28^th. After six months the stories will be collected into a single printed trade which will be available for purchase in stores. This process is meant to happen for only the next two years as of now but Spurrier sees the title becoming an ongoing book for the publishing house.

"Disenchanted is about a city where magic went to die, all the folkloric little people from British especially but also European mythology. The idea is all these little guys, no one believes in them anymore. So why the hell should they believe in themselves?" Spurrier begins describing the fantasy novel. Continuing with his movie explanations he adds, "It's like The Borrowers meets The Wire."

"It's an ensemble piece about contentions, it's about gang led crime, race based hated, it's about drugs and law enforcement, all mixed in with this kind of insane folkloric mythology. It's kind of a really interesting mix."

Indeed, unusual mixes of different elements has become Spurrier's signature at this point as he finds himself unsatisfied when encased in the restrains of a specific genre.

"I hate being pigeon held by genres and things that people recognize. I mean what's the point in just telling stories in a mold that people are already filling? It's unsurprising, it's boring, and it's restraining. So without really meaning to a lot of the things that I write if you describe them in terms of genre, which I think is a waste of time, you have to list a bunch of genres and just say it's all those things and then something different."

If you truly can't wait the six months to get your grasp around a physical copy of the book, Diamond Distributors has agreed to supply a preview issue as part of a Halloween Free Comic Book Day promotion. Spurrier laughs as he advises, "any good store should have it on that day, just ask!"

Avatar Publishing is the parent company of the Bleeding Cool website and magazine.

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