Taking a stab at the future: ‘First Knife’ creators talk ‘Sharp Eye’ sequel

Way back in 2020, writers Daniel M. Bensen and Simon Roy, artist Artyom Trakhanov, and colorist Jason Wordie rocked comics with First Knife. Described as “equal parts Conan the Barbarian, Nausicaä, and Zardoz,” First Knife was this inventive hodge-podge of sci-fi and fantasy about power struggles and the very fate of mankind. It was visually and narratively arresting, and you knew the creators had struck true gold.

Now, some five years later, the quartet have reunited for Sharp Eye. (Roy serves as a kind of “guide” or “director” while the others retain their respective roles.) The 48-page “daylight noir sci-fi” is set in the “sweaty, post-climate-apocalypse North America” that debuted in First Knife. This time around, though, we’re some two generations out after Mari defeated Hesukristos, and we follow a new set of characters (including the shaman The Plonjado; The Komèsan, a merchant princess; and trader Shan and his supplier, Chal). We’ll let the team weave their poetic magic as to what’s promised in the story proper:

In the far, hot-house future, a holy man heeds the call of an ancient, sunken treasure. This long-buried secret could reshape the Covenant between earth and sky, and the powers of the world want it for themselves. A zealous priest will kill to keep this weapon hidden, while a merchant princess would wield its might against heaven, itself. Above them all, the enigmatic Devas watch, their cosmic judgment poised to fall. Between these forces stands a trader in relics, humble and untrustworthy, searching for courage.

But before you get your hands on more of this singular universe, the team is currently crowdfunding Sharp Eye via Kickstarter. And as you’d expect, there’s heaps of goodies up for grabs, including original artwork, a digital sketchbook, t-shirts, and fanzines. The Kickstarter has already blown past the original goal ($10,000), and the campaign runs through Friday, October 3. If you’d like pledge your Sharp Eye support, head here. (The campaign page also breaks down more of the characters, including some interesting tribes, and the continued lore within Sharp Eye.)

Ahead of the campaign’s final days, Bensen, Trakhanov, Wordie, and Roy were kind enough to answer a few questions via email. That includes why they returned to the First Knife “universe”; their ongoing collaborative process; how Sharp Eye and First Knife compare-contrast; and even the long-term future of this larger story. Throughout the interview, enjoy some exclusive art from issue #1.

AIPT: What’s it like for everyone to return to the First Knife “universe”? Why is this larger story so important or resonant for y’all as creators?

Daniel M. Bensen: We haven’t left the First Knife universe. We’ve been spending our weekends and off hours here for six years, and we keep coming back because it’s fun to play with your friends. When I’m working on the script, though, I keep myself interested by meditating on the problem of trust. How do you get it and how do you take care of it? A story about pirates and spies is a great place to talk about that.”

Artyom Trakhanov: Honestly, for the last few years, it continued to be the only book I actually wanted to make. I was dying to continue working with our team, and wanted to get the audience that we’ve managed to assemble for First Knife together one more time. So slowly but surely, Sharp Eye has become a bit of an obsession of mine, always happening in the background of my other works — smaller comics, illustrations, video games…

Jason Wordie: I think we first started working on First Knife way back in 2015, and then started on Sharp Eye right after. We’ve pretty much been working sporadically ever since. Every few months or so I’d hear from Artyom or Dan about new ideas or see new sketches. However, the bulk of the actual color work didn’t really start until this year. So it’s definitely been really nice for me to be back coloring in this world.

Simon Roy: Its been one of my favorite strange old projects, going through different forms over the years. So seeing where it started — as a set of sci-fi illustrations I played with in art school — compared to the rich world Dan, Artyom, and Jason are building it into, is absolutely wonderful!

AIPT: Why return to this story world right now? Is there something extra relevant about the timing given the state of things?

AT: One could say that Sharp Eye (and in its time, First Knife) happened to tackle the same subjects of artificial intelligence and digital transhumanism that are currently being co-opted and exploited by Silicon Valley in their demented “AI” antics, but I won’t necessarily say that we’re doing a commentary on it. But of course, Sharp Eye’s intersection of esoteric technology, religious fanaticism, and their power grab over humanity might feel pretty poignant in this day and age.

Digital “mind spaces” were a very prevalent motif in Simon’s work for many years, too, so we’re kinda pulling on a thread from a familiar sweater here.

AIPT: How has the creative and collaborative process developed over time? Is working together easier or more complicated as this larger story grows and grows?

DMB: My wife runs an IT company, and she listens to my Zoom talks with envy. Simon, Artyom, and Jason are great to work with. Ideas bounce between us and, with a shocking lack of angst, grow. That’s true artistically and administratively. Self-publishing a comic is just as complicated and tricky as writing one. For the most part, though, we’ve managed not to step on each other’s toes. Part of that might be our staggered vacation schedule.

AT: This is my first time co-writing a large comic book, so to me, our creative process is very new and fascinating (even though you would require a lot of quotation marks around my “writing” to properly describe it). I wouldn’t call it “the Marvel way,” but some scenes in our book begin as specific page layouts, facial expressions and even gestures, and then Dan has to grow some dialogue “meat” on the bones that I’m passing to him. But I think it works really well when you have a good grasp of each sequence’s meaning and story purpose.

JW: I’ve worked with Artyom a bunch over the years, and not just on First Knife-related projects. At this point I have a very good idea of the type of coloring that works with his art style. Generally speaking, I’ll do a first pass on the colors and then send them his way for any input. Artyom is a very talented colorist in his own right, so he will usually have some good suggestions about how I can improve the colors.

AT: But lately it’s been terribly convenient and far too easy for me! I only get to spend five minutes or so giving my suggestions to each page, because at this point it’s literally Pacific Rim out here with how well me and Jason are in sync!

AIPT: Sharp Eye has been described as “a new story in a familiar world.” Can you touch on what that means and why you went with that approach specifically?

DMB: Sharp Eye is the sequel to First Knife, set in the same world, but with a new cast of main characters. We wanted to tell potential readers that they don’t need to read First Knife first, but also readers of First Knife will enjoy Sharp Eye, too.

AT: I like to think about First Knife not in terms of it being our “lore” or “backstory” for Sharp Eye, but simply as the history of this world. Very few characters in the book are fully aware of the history — as it often is with our real-world history, too — so there’s always a distance between our characters’ experience and our readers’ interpretation of it.

AIPT: It’s also been described as a “daylight noir sci-fi.” I see we’re getting lots of sun and beach-y vibes, but what’s that genre classifier actually mean for the story?

DMB: “Daylight Noir” – I think that was Artyom’s idea, a parallel to his “hopeful post-apocalyptic” label for First Knife. Contrasts! The “noir” part comes from the spy-vs.-spy aspect of the story. No spoilers, but everyone betrays everyone else. The “daylight” part begins in the very first scene, and you’ll see how it spreads.

AT: HAHA, yeah, this cheeky faux-genre moniker was my idea. I think it comes from my obsession with genre cinema — and certain directors that manage to warp and rewire genre conventions into their own new sub-genres (the king of melting genres together to me personally is South Korean director Na Hong-jin). Also, the imagery of a grimy, miserable spy thriller taking place in scorching heat and bleaching light of a merciless far-future sun was something that I really wanted to see rendered in Jason’s colors.

JW: To me, “daylight noir” is just another name for “neo noir,” but when I heard Artyom use the term I fell in love with it right away. I think it suits our book very well. Basically, we tried to mimic the sharp stylized lighting you’d see in a classic noir movie, but in our bright and warm setting. When I was first coming up with the color palette for First Knife, I knew right away that I wanted it to be bright and lush, avoiding the grungy and dark palette that you often see in post apocalyptic stories. I think that the daylight theme in Sharp Eye is an extension of that idea. Artyom and I wanted to push the lighting to be as harsh as possible, so you can really feel the heat. Things are only going to get more intense as the story ramps up.

AIPT: Since it’s a new story, how much should people know about First Knife coming into Sharp Eye? Will readers get more out of this new book if they’re all read up?

DMB: You might be reading Sharp Eye and thinking, “I don’t understand this. Maybe there’s info in the previous comic I didn’t get.” No, you just don’t know what’s going on yet. If you do go back and read First Knife, you’ll feel the same way. What’s a Deva? Why is the cyborg a demon? Answering those questions is part of the fun.

AIPT: The book also takes place “two generations after Mari defeated Hesukristos.” What’s that do for the world, and do we get to see/interact with Mari here?

DMB: Two generations after she made her covenant with First Knife and the Deva Cloud, Mari has become the ruler of a powerful empire. Her armies threaten the cities of the East Coast, but her ambitions are higher. Much higher.

AT: Yet again, this is not something that necessarily even concerns half of our main characters. Their world is a world where Hesukristos could simply be a scary graffiti on a wall, while somewhere out there, whole cities are being put to fire with his thunderous name.

AIPT: Are these various tribes new to the story? Either way, what can you tell us about them — where did y’all draw influence for these groups?

DMB: The tribes of Nuvil-la — the Petwa, the Bequia, and the Anglos — make an appearance in the backmatter of First Knife, but now they’re the focus of the story. We created them by imagining how various North American peoples might develop in our future history. A little speculative anthropology.

AT: And Dan is the man for speculative anthropology! Every time I need something spelled in one of the languages of our tribes, he just immediately comes back to me with it. And on my end of things, I’m quite proud of bringing a tiny bit of Hakim Bey’s “Pirate Utopias” influence to the City of Nuvi-La, a truly fascinating place inhabited by all of our new tribes, co-existing together.

AIPT: What can you tell us about the events/happenings of issue #1? How does this set up the rest of this chapter?

DMB: Issue #1 sets up our six main characters, and tells you about some, but not all, of their motives and goals. We got some betrayal, some counter-betrayal, and a lead-up to the greater war, which will define the rest of the story of Sharp Eye.

AIPT: What can you then tease about the rest of this chapter – how many issues will comprise Sharp Eye, are there some stand-out moments you can discuss, etc.?

DMB: What is the rest of the story of Sharp Eye? Komesan talks about a war with Heaven, so you got that. And I mentioned Mari’s terrible Profligato Empire. That’s another thing. Then there’s the Pneuma. What the hell does it do? We have a giant Google Doc with various versions of the story in it. Some of them have four issues, some have five. We also have some key images: “Deva rifle revealed.” “The rocket ship towers over the ghost town.” “Tink tink. Sean picks up the eyeball.” How’s that for teasing?

AT: Lately, I’ve become very fond of oversized single issue comics (out of recent comic books, Ultramega immediately comes to mind), but my platonic ideal for this print format are Howard Chaykin and José Luis García-López’s Twilight and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” by Chaykin once again and Mike Mignola). This is why Sharp Eye #1 is almost 50 pages long. And we might even be able to fit our story into three very large issues! Crowdfunding can sometimes dictate terms for a series’ release and format, so we’ll have to be a bit smart on our feet.

AIPT: How long could you keep telling stories in this “universe”? Do you see a long-term future building everything out over several years?

DMB: We will definitely finish this story. Issue #2 we’re planning for next year. Whether we write another sequel depends on how well Sharp Eye does. We’ve all enjoyed making it. Tell us if you enjoyed reading.

AT: Well, I’d actually enjoy making a video game or a TTRPG in the world, too! But comics come first.

SR: I think there’s a lot of room in this iron-age future Earth to tell all sorts of tales, in the future. I’m excited to see where it all goes next!

AIPT: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about First Knife, Sharp Eye, comics, life, etc.?

AT: Rocks are not real. There are pipes inside them that use ancient Vedic technology to drain your energy, and that is why you are always so tired after doing 30-day long Kickstarter promotion marathons!