Posted in: Comics | Tagged: avatar press, canaan white, kieron gillen, uber, Ubermensch, world war ii

Kieron Gillen Does Not Write About Zombie Nazis – The NYCC Uber Panel

Published Sun, 13 Oct 2013 07:30:32 -0500

Elizabeth Heyman writes for Bleeding Cool:

After arriving fashionably late to his own panel, author Kieron Gillen showed nothing but excitement when explaining the inspiration and direction of his recent hit comic Uber.

The new title published by Avatar Press explores the question what if the Nazis did accomplish creating an Ubermensch serum and began turning soldiers into mass killing machines. Since its premier, Uber has received mostly rave reviews from critics and already has seen the formation of a solid fanbase, even with only six issues published.

At the panel Gillen revealed his obsession with portraying World War II in a way that would accurately and respectively depicts the widespread violence and political aggression of the time while telling a story that is distinctly its own. Artist Canaan White remarked that the book it truly "a story about human nature and what happens when it's given power."

Both Gillen and White alike talked about their experiences researching WWII before embarking on the project. White claimed he referenced materials as minute as the types of spoons used during the 1940s. Gillen's research was equally as thorough but as he explained it intentionally left out some of the real scientific conclusions Nazi Germany used to justify their racial cleansing so that the book would not be mistaken for being pro-Nazi literature.

Gillen informed the audience that the upcoming Issue 7 would further explain the fictional science he created to replace the original Nazi ethnic studies.

In addition to explaining the origin, the creators discussed future plans for the 60 issue series. Gillen confesses that he would like to have issues that explore characters like Maria and Stephanie. The author even joked that he'd like to see a cover without a Nazi on it or an allied character that didn't die immediately upon introduction.

However, a majority of the panel stayed focused on discussions of how World War II is used in the media today and how it takes away from the actual history. Gillen explained that his passion for representing history in this way with Uber is in response to different mediums using Nazis as popular tropes. "You have video games with Nazi zombies," he says. "Nazis are the same as zombies as far the culture's concerned. That's what that means."

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