Passion — that’s what defined the experience of crafting Benjamin for its two celebrated creators, Ben H. Winters and Leomacs.
It’s a commitment and emotional resonance that defines and shapes this rather unique story, which debuts June 18 from Oni Press. The bulk of Benjamin follows the surreal resurrection of one Benjamin J. Carp, a fictional sci-fi writer who wakes up in 2025…despite having died in 1982. Carp, once a prolific but troubled author, finds himself grappling with existential questions about his identity and the very nature of reality itself.
Over the course of the three-issue series, Benjamin J. Carp navigates a futuristic Los Angeles, searching for answers while forming an unlikely friendship that could be his only hope of salvation.
With its decidedly meta tinge, Winters and Leomacs have filled this book with a deep humanity amid the insanity of metaphysics. But we’ll let the duo tell you all about the truly strange magic of Benjamin.
Courtesy of Oni Press.
The Philip K. Dick Influence
As Winters describes it, Benjamin is deeply influenced by the works of Philip K. Dick and other sci-fi greats.
“Dick is obviously a fascinating character, but his paranoia, his addictions, and in particular his treatment of women make him a hard man to really admire,” Winters said.
Winters added, “I’m most interested in his obsessive interest in the nature of human consciousness — what does it mean to have consciousness, what is the relationship between memory and self-knowledge and ‘objective’ reality? So the basic kernel of this idea was, what if a writer like that, who was so interested in what it is to be alive, died and then was alive again, and didn’t know why or how?”
Blending Mystery, Violence, and Friendship
Of course, balancing the story’s various elements — a mystery, a burgeoning friendship, and even violent death — was no easy feat.
“I don’t know if balancing tones is something one really sets out to do — you just sorta tell the tale, and the characters and their attitudes and the nature of it kinda blend into the tone,” Winters said. “Although Leomacs’ extraordinary and loving and radiantly warm illustrations do a lot of the tonal work here.”
For Winters, one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing Benjamin was the evolving relationship between Carp and Marcus, the man who helps him navigate this strange new world.
“I’m awfully proud of it,” he said. “Writing mystery is hard; writing ‘unlikely friendship’ is harder.”
The Joy of Writing Comics
This is Winters’ first full-length comic book project, despite his extensive background in prose and television. He found the transition to comics deeply satisfying.
“God, I love it. I absolutely love it,” Winters said. “There is this thing in TV screenwriting where you imagine a visual setup, you labor to put it on the page, and then if you’re lucky — if you’re very lucky — a studio commits to making the thing, and months or years go by, and millions of bucks are spent, and then there is some approximation of your imaginative vision on a screen. With comics, you write it and some lovely genius — in this case, Leomacs —delivers a version that is as good, or most likely better, than you imagined, and boom, there it is.”
Leomacs on Bringing Benjamin to Life
Leomacs, for his part, was drawn to the project because of its rich emotional core. The press release describes Benjamin as both hilarious and tragic, and the artist embraced the challenge of balancing those extremes.
“I very much enjoy making the characters ‘act,’ and when you get a script that allows you to show such a range of emotions in the characters, drawing the story in all its wild situations becomes a really enjoyable process,” Leomacs said.
He added, “My approach was to create characters that could carry this range, who have it in their eyes and mannerisms. I think comic book characters allow you to stretch human emotions in ways that can be of great impact, both when they are funny and when they are tragically grappling with life.”
The story takes Carp across Los Angeles, from Studio City to Venice Beach. Despite never having visited the city in person, Leomacs captured its essence through a unique lens.
“Ironically, I think never having visited L.A. helped,” he said. “You get a sense of what L.A. is like from the countless films and TV series set there, but in films and TV there’s always a filter. So you anchor the setting through the locations that are widely known to everyone, even to those like me who have never been there, and then I let my imagination fly, unencumbered by what L.A. actually is like to add the wilder things about the story.”
Loneliness and the Search for Connection
One of the major themes of Benjamin is loneliness, something that Winters sees as an increasingly relevant issue.
“Sadly, I don’t think there’s much question that people are lonelier than they used to be,” he said. “Lingering pandemic weirdness, political and cultural polarization, social media obsessiveness — it’s made us an atomized, suspicious, battened-down society. It’s sad. It sucks. Now, my man Benjamin is lonely for a particular reason — because he spent his life with his characters, not making friends, neglecting those he loved or who tried to love him, and so on. So in a way, this complicated weird-ass story is quite simple: Can this one guy make one friend? And will it save him?”
Benjamin J. Carp on Benjamin
Ultimately, if Benjamin J. Carp himself were to read Benjamin, Winters believes he would be delighted by his own resurrection.
“He is, among other things, a towering narcissist, so he would be tickled pink to just have a story about him being told,” Winters said. “I am not sure he’d love the ending, but we’ll have to see when we get there.”
A Mind-Bending Indie Comic to Watch
With its mix of mind-bending sci-fi, heartfelt character work, and a sharp examination of modern isolation, Benjamin promises to be one of the more intriguing indie comics of the year.
Winters and Leomacs have crafted a tale that is as thought-provoking as it is visually stunning — and as the mystery of Benjamin J. Carp unfolds, readers are sure to find themselves questioning their own reality right along with him. We can only hope.
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