If you grew up in the ’90s, you may have a harder time discerning fiction from reality. (Or, perhaps more accurately, even caring to make the distinction.) Sure, there weren’t really massive land sharks with attitude, or motorcycle-riding space vermin, but these shows seemed to capture something essential about growing up in that era. (Read: everything was changing, stuff was hella weird, and you had to always be prepared for anything.) And it’s this very idea that seems to be at the heart of a brand-new BOOM! Studios series, Uncanny Valley.
The brainchild of writer Tony Fleecs (Local Man) and artist Dave Wachter (Punisher), Uncanny Valley follows Oliver, a mostly normal boy who must contend with a “mysterious family history that seems to start and end with his mother” as well as some “unexplainable powers” that have to coincided with the sudden appearance of actual cartoons in the real world. Toss in a “murder of peculiar crows,” and young Oliver embarks on a strange and wondrous journey to “search for his place in the world.” Think Mighty Max meets Ready Player One meets Harry Potter – all with a bevy of truly awesome ’90s-style cartoons.
Uncanny Valley #1 arrives on shelves April 10. In the meantime, we got a chance recently to field both Fleecs and Wachter some questions via email. The pair talked about the story’s development, Wachter “stepping up” artistically, the story’s big themes (and possible connections to other Fleecs titles), and their inspirations and influences, among other topics and tidbits.
Variant cover by Tony Fleecs. Courtesy of BOOM! Studios.
AIPT: Tony, you’ve reportedly had this story percolating for years. Where did it come from, and how has the idea developed over this time/
Tony Fleecs: Initially, I think it came from a couple of places – both early 2000s comics. I was thinking about the secret history in Planetary – where all the pulp and horror and superhero stories were like, things that had all happened and were all covered up. And then I had drawn backup stories for Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn’s Firebreather, which is about a boy whose mom is a human lady and his dad is a giant dragon.
And in both cases, I thought, “Yeah, but what if it was cartoons.” Which is something, I apparently think about every idea. (Serial killer story? “Yeah, but what if it was a cartoon?”)
AIPT: Dave, you’ve said in some other press/PR that this book is a stretch for you. Can you dive into that a little bit more?
Dave Wachter: I’m definitely more known for my gritty, street level, heavily inked style of comics art, not for stuff that looks like old cartoons. So I had to change gears from what I had been drawing, and the direction my style had been headed. But it’s actually very refreshing, trying something new, flexing different creative muscles. And I’ve always believed that a good cartoonist should have more than one style ready to go at any time.
AIPT: Tony, between this book, the great Stray Dogs, and the forthcoming Feral, it seems like you’ve got an interest in ’90s cartoons and/or complicating people’s childhoods. Do you see a larger connection between these titles and maybe what you’re working out or exploring creatively?
TF: For sure. I’ve always drawn cartoony and anyone who draws that way has had the word “cartoony” thrown at them as a pejorative. And I’m stubborn and I hold grudges…I feel like it’s kind of my responsibility to make these stories like Stray Dogs and like Uncanny Valley that do cartoony in a different way so that people maybe give stuff that looks animated or funny a second look.
Courtesy of BOOM! Studios.
(Typing that, I realize that these people who I’m trying to convince are not the future of comic readers – the top of the sales charts every year is like, Dog Man…One Piece… Reina…Kazu. In any case, I’m easily wounded and this is just how I draw/the sort of stuff that I like.)
AIPT: Dave, I love that the visuals here touch on cartoons and such that we’re already familiar with while still feeling new and novel. How do you ride that line, as it were, in perpetuating the look of these worlds?
DW: The challenge was to bring cartoon characters into a real world setting and make that convincing. It’s a comic, it’s all drawn, but I had to try a few techniques to make it convincing. When creating these characters, Tony writes in the script something like: “This character is like this old cartoon that we know and love.” So it’s just a matter of figuring out the elements of that character, to boil it down into its components, and then rebuild it with a new character in mind.
AIPT: Were there any specific influences/references visually or in the narrative? I’m picking up some real Labyrinth vibes for sure.
TF: The visual references are all what you’d think when you read the book – we’re doing a lot of analog characters here so I’ll say to Dave, “this character should be like our version of this character” and he’s great at synthesizing that into a new thing.
The only real big stylistic thing I threw at Dave was, the cartoon world, when we get there, should look like an Eyvind Earle painting. He’s an American artist who famously did backgrounds on Sleeping Beauty.
Courtesy of BOOM! Studios.
DW: Yeah, it’s our versions of different characters from different periods of cartoon and animation through the years. Like cartoons, I grew up on Jim Henson, so it’s going to be part of my visual language, almost no matter what I do. And then the real world, I’ve been staring at a lot of European comics lately for their art and how they do color, I think that’s seeped into my skin. I’m really looking forward to designing more of the cartoon world, too.
AIPT: The debut got me thinking about issues of media literacy and connecting too deeply with multimedia. Do those ideas factor into the story?
TF: Mostly this is a story about finding your place in the world and family. But, yeah, we get into a little bit of that eventually. Issue #6.
DW: I’ve thought a lot about nostalgia recently, and the various sides of that coin and how it expresses itself. It can be comforting, but it can get dark if that’s the only place you live, the only way in which you define yourself. We are more than our “likes.”
AIPT: Similarly, I’d love to know a bit more about the choice of the especially strong title. What’s the ultimate message given how interested we’ve been collectively in recent years with the larger uncanny valley concept?
TF: It’s about a boy who feels like he doesn’t belong. He feels different and he finds out the reason he feels that way is because, while he looks real… if you look really closely, you’ll see that he’s animated.
Also, I just wanted it to go next to Uncanny X-Men on store shelves.
Courtesy of BOOM! Studios.
AIPT: The books also seemingly interested in ideas of culture and lineage. What’s the fascination, and does that feel more relevant now given how big our world is or how technology/media can complicate the notion of family?
TF: That part of the story came from me just feeling no real connection to my culture or history… My family is very close, but all the aunts and uncles are all different religions, we didn’t live in the same place, we don’t all follow the same sports teams, I moved around a lot… I’d see people who had a deep connection to their culture and the world around them and get really envious and curious… What’s that like?
That’s definitely a big part of what I’m exploring here. Hopefully it comes off as sincere and not like, “Your rich history and the things you’ve been through are the same as Bugs Bunny to me.”
AIPT: Anything you can tease about issue #1? Or things to watch out beyond that?
TF: Issue #1 is a big fat, extra pages introductory issue. Eight extra pages at no extra cost. We wanted a lot of space to really ease people into this story. After that, every issue introduces brand new cartoon characters and there are big cliffhangers and big stakes… And when we get to issue #6, things get really really nutty.
AIPT: If you could choose one cartoon to bring to life, what would it be and why?
TF: I thought up 10 pervy answers before I got to… Rover Dangerfield. That dog’s alright.
DW: Probably Schoolhouse Rock!, because we desperately need civics lessons, and those songs are super catchy. Or Dungeon and Dragons because I want to know if those kids ever got home.
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