The forthcoming Petrol Head adds a little gas to the realm of sci-fi comics. Case in point: Rob Williams referenced Akira, 2000 AD, and Flight of the Conchords in discussing the sleek new Image Comics series. There’s plenty to drive up your interest in this dystopia sci-fi race series by Williams and artist Pye Parr as the four-issue run fires on all cylinders, mixing climate crisis commentary with the tale of a bruising robot named Petrol Head with, you guessed it, an engine for a head.
I recently had the chance to hit the open road and see how this bad boy performs (i.e., I read the first issue). From the character design to how a unique dystopian tale actually gets made in an age where the entire “genre” can feel rather tired, Petrol Head is a novel addition to the canon. Equally bonkers and insightful, it manages to balance those very real issues with a tale that’s like doing donuts in your old high school’s parking lot. It’s a dang Cadillac on steroids, baby.
Issue #1 of Petrol Head is due out November 8. In the meantime, Williams and Parr showed me under the hood as we discussed the story’s development, the amazing artwork and designs, and how to craft effective race scenes, among other storytelling nuts and bolts.
Be sure to scroll down for an exclusive look at Parr’s incredible character designs.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Petrol Head mixes climate crisis-ravaged dystopia, big freaking robots, and hot rod racing, but I’m curious where did the concept start with Petrol Head?
Rob Williams: Pye had been doing these incredible posters for futuristic racers with robot drivers. The colours and the tone of these things just popped – they were fun and bright and weirdly joyful. I asked him if he’d considered doing a book built around these kind of visuals. Then it was a case of nailing down who our lead characters were, building a world, building a dramatic framework for those characters to exist in. When we decided on a climate crisis background to the story, our main guy being this obsolete bruiser of a racing robot with a head that literally belched out petrol fumes – that seems a striking visual and character setup. And it was fun. That was the main thing this book needed to be.
AIPT: With so many dystopian stories out there, how do you approach crafting a new one?
RW: Giving it a funny, high-paced, exciting, joyful tone. Pye’s colours do a lot of the heavy lifting in that. This is a bright, eye-popping book. There’s a lot of humour in the script. The characters pop. And it’s a story about hotrod-racing robots. Y’know, fun. We wanted this book to have heart, and it does. These are characters you’ll really care about. The racing robots being obsoletes immediately makes them the underdogs. They’re the ones who have to overcome the hi-tech bullies to try and save the day.
AIPT: Pye Parr is a freaking visionary, how long have you been tinkering with the project together?
RW: I posted an early design of Petrol Head the character on social media the other day and was a bit shocked to see that it was done in 2021. A lot of work has gone into this book for us to get to this stage. That’s the Image model, I guess. You have to take them a project that’s pretty much fully formed before they agree to publish it, and when we’re creating a brand new world like this everything needs designing — the city, the cars, the characters. And then we wanted to get around three-plus issues in the can before we solicit.
So, I dunno, maybe three years’ of development before we’ll see payment for issue one. You have to make something like this a labour of love and some real commitment from everyone involved. And I think that shows in the end product.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Who were you excited about writing/drawing the most at the start, and with a few issues under your belt, who are you loving the most now?
RW: I’m genuinely not just saying this, but the ensemble really just popped and were easy and fun to write from the off, which isn’t always the case.
Lupa is this very smart, brave, 12-year-old girl who is trying to get her father’s invention to a place where it might be able to solve the climate crisis, Petrol Head is like if Ernest Borgnine was a hotrod-driving robot. He’s like this old heavyweight boxer who won’t step in the ring anymore. A blatant Han Solo archetype. Won’t do the right thing but you know there’s a good heart in there somewhere.
Dave is a robotic talking bird who Petrol Head created because he was lonely. And The O is the creepy, rather strange City Administrator robot who is trying to hunt them down. Something’s gone wrong in his programming somewhere but no one’s noticed.
Actually, in issue two we introduce a character called Satnav Sid, who’s a tiny holographic advisor who speaks in futuristic Cockney rhyming slang. That’s just odd, and funny. And makes very little sense. Ideas like that are what makes a book standout, I think. No AI is ever coming up with Satnav Sid.
Pye Parr: To start with it was the cars. I’ve wanted to do a comic with racing in it for years, but races have no drama if you have nothing invested in the outcome, so that shifted, and (particularly from issue 2) I find myself looking forward to drawing Dave the Robo-bird, and Lupa. They get the best lines, have the most heart and have the best faces!
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Parr, I was curious: what went into the design of Petrol Head? It’s so unique and tells us so much about his personality!
PP: Rob’s very short brief for his look was “he needs to literally have an engine for a head, and he needs to be a bruiser” I had more trouble with the bruiser part than the engine thing, so he got the steroid treatment a few times to beef him up a bit before we were happy. Beyond that he’s made of leftover parts, so I liked the idea of making him asymmetrical, slightly worn down, and having some incongruous or weirdly specialized parts – a third weedy human-sized hand, little grabbers on his chest, dirty overalls and one big arm that doubles as a jack, as well as various car parts here and there – so he’s like a giant sentient swiss army knife for repairing vehicles. Very self-sufficient but lonely at the same time. I think smoking cigars was Rob’s idea too, but it’s a great one. Helps humanize him a bit, as well as making him as ridiculous as he can be intimidating.
AIPT: What goes into making a race scene feel intense and, well, speedy?
PP: I reckon the most important thing is getting the weight right, or like the potential energy. The way the cars roll, or lift and drop for acceleration and braking. It’s the same thing as getting tension in people for big crunching impacts, or capturing the difference between someone about to move, not just sat still. I’m not a big fan of using blurry photoshop style effects, so I tried to lose some of the edges of the linework as I would do when painting, but by drawing them streaked and jagged rather than softened out to keep it all very graphic. Also a low angle never hurts, and glowing light trails look cool!
AIPT: The City Administrator design is also fascinating. Where do you start with something that is so complex and lived-in looking?
PP: Although there’s lots of details in the final versions, I do try to start with a few simple shapes to give characters a good silhouette. One of the fun things about robots is they can be built for purpose – in this case he’s a supercomputer who watches over the city, so I was quite literal and gave him a big melon head with lots of eyes, which has the added benefit of making him look insectoid and creepy. All the data cables flowing straight into his brain to make up his “body” but Rob suggested a cloak because “you can hide anything under a cloak!” which gives us a few fun options if he leaves the office and starts taking a more active role in finding Petrol Head and Lupa. I also took his look out into other things in the world (the drones being the most obvious) so it feels like they might have come off the same drawing board or out the factory.
AIPT: If Petrol Head was a song, what would it be and why?
RW: Probably a mix of Bruce Springsteen’s “Racing in the Street,” Flight of the Conchords’ “The Humans are Dead,” The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” and Tommy Steele’s “Flash Bang Wallop!”(That’s Satnav Sid’s choice).
PP: “The Private Psychedelic Reel” by the Chemical Brothers — it’s loud, bright and fun — also, engine noises!
Retailers have until October 16 to put in their orders. For order details, see below.
Cover A by Parr – Lunar Code 0923IM323
Cover B by Parr “Green” – Lunar Code 0923IM324
Cover C by Parr “Purple” – Lunar Code 0923IM325
Cover D by Laurence Campbell – Lunar Code 0923IM326
FOC: 10/16
STREET DATE: Nov 8
PAGE COUNT: 48
COVER PRICE: $4.99
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