MattBrady

“The year is 2054, and life has been reduced to a data feed.”

Thus begins the description of Robert Venditti’s The Surrogates, illustrated by Brett Weldele.

In the world of The Surrogates, people rarely, if ever leave their homes in person, rather, thanks to advances in virtual reality and cybernetics, the bulk of the population experiences life through their “surrogates” – technological constructs that never grow old or fat, never get sick, and never truly “feel.”

Problem is, someone is going around “killing” surrogates.

The project, as solid a science fiction story seen in years, is a first in many respects - it marks the debut of Venditti, it’s the first “in-house” publication from Top Shelf where Venditti works, and also, it’s the publisher’s first effort at a monthly comic, as it’s a five issue miniseries.

For Venditti, who joined Top Shelf in early 2002 during the “12 hour miracle” when he helped pack thousands of orders that in turn, saved the company, the story of The Surrogates didn’t come from a steady diet of science fiction, but rather an observation of technology and how it shapes behavior.

“The main inspiration for the story came from observing what was going on around me,” Venditti told Newsarama. “Seeing how our lives are becoming more virtual - whether through chat rooms, telecommuting, online shopping, etc. -- was certainly an impetus, but so was the increasing emphasis our culture places on physical appearance. I decided a futuristic setting would be the best way for me to explore some possible outcomes of these trends, so I went with a sci-fi story.”

The seed for Vendetti’s observations was planted when he read Indra Sinha’s The Cybergypsies : A True Tale of Lust, War, & Betrayal on the Electronic Frontier, a true story of internet addiction (among other things) which he read while in graduate school at the University of Central Florida. “I was amazed by how much the characters sacrificed just to maintain their online personas,” Venditti said. “Around the same time, a friend introduced me to comics, and when I decided to try my hand at writing them, The Cybergypsies came back to me. I began wondering what it would be like if, instead of relying on the Internet, people could create virtual selves and then send them out into the real world. It occurred to me that the concept might make a good serialized story. It was always intended to be a comic, but as my first attempt I wrote it mainly as an exercise as opposed to something I thought would get published.”

Venditti’s ideas coalesced into The Surrogates, and shortly after Venditti began working at Top Shelf, he asked publisher Chris Staros to read his script. “This was in July 2002, when we were driving to Wizard World Chicago,” Venditti said. “I asked him to take a look at it as an editor, and, if he thought it was worthy, help me market it to more mainstream publishers. I realized that The Surrogates wasn’t the standard Top Shelf fare, and wanted him to understand up front that I wasn’t counting on him to publish me. I was just looking for advice.”

Staros, who knew of Venditti’s comic writing aspirations when he joined the team, had promised to help him out in any way that he could. “Robert’s comics influences were more mainstream oriented, though, so while I knew he was an amazing employee, I wasn’t sure where he’d fit in creatively,” Staros said. “Oddly enough, he kind of got his break the proverbial ‘Marvel way,’ by starting out in the mailroom and showing his writing samples around. Though the irony is that he -- and I, for that matter -- have still not figured out how to escape the Top Shelf mailroom. With only three people running the company, we're all still stuck in the mailroom.

“Robert gave the script to me in chapters, as they were finished, and I read them during our long drives to conventions. He asked me for my opinion and for help getting it into the hands of editors I thought might be interested in the story. We would have these long sprawling conversations about the concepts, characters, and plot lines in The Surrogates, and tiny adjustments ended up being made to make the story even tighter. I knew after the script for the first issue that he was on to something, and by the end of the third issue, I had already privately decided to put the Top Shelf logo on it.”

The decision to print a science fiction “murder” mystery with a slight super hero trapping may strike some as an odd choice for Top Shelf, Staros admitted, but something about The Surrogates felt right. “Brett Warnock and I are pretty instinctual with these sorts of things, and once I had a chance to run the script by Brett, we both immediately knew this was the right thing to do,” Staros said. “Brett and I have never been ‘art house’ snobs. We dig all forms of comics, knowing that great comics are great comics no matter the genre. In this case, the story was fantastic, so it was just a matter of finding the right artist and diving in.

“From the beginning, Brett and I we're interested in doing a mainstream book. But it had to be the right book, something unique and character-driven that would fit into the Top Shelf line. When The Surrogates came along -- much like the way Creature Tech hit us -- we knew we had what we were looking for. Furthermore, we're a very tight family at Top Shelf, with intense loyalty to the cartoonists we publish and the people who help us out along the way. And since Rob was the best employee we could have ever hoped for -- not only the best pack'n'ship man in the business, but also the best proofer, marketer, convention organizer, and editorial assistant we could have hoped to find, it would have been impossible to let something this good leave the nest.

“As for why this had to be here, I often tell aspiring cartoonists that one of the – stereotypical - problems with the mainstream world is that the stories often have clever plots, but not enough fleshed-out characters and subtext. And the problem with the indy world is that the stories often have subtext and characters, but not enough of a ‘page-turning’ plot. The Surrogates trumped all of that by firing on all cylinders. That's what made me realize that it had to be here, as it was the perfect marriage of plot, character, and subtext that we had been looking for.”

So – about that ‘page-turning’ plot? What’s the world of The Surrogates about? Venditti boiled it down:

“The story takes place in the year 2054. The world is very similar to our own in that people still work, date, and otherwise go about their lives. The difference is that they do all of these things through surrogates, a new technology that lets people experience life without ever leaving their home. So the ‘people’ on the street aren’t flesh and blood, but there are real people operating them.

“Surrogates are a combination of cybernetics and virtual reality,” Venditti continued. “The exterior of the surrogate unit is comprised of synthetic skin and hair, and the physical appearance of the unit -- height, weight, eye color, etc. -- is determined by the buyer at the time of ordering. The exterior is mounted on a metal skeleton, with the final result being a machine that looks and feels human. This machine is then linked to the operator through a virtual reality interface, allowing information to travel back and forth between operator and unit.”

As one could image, the emergence of surrogate technology on the world was on a seismic level. “They’ve redefined the notion of identity, giving people the freedom to look however they choose,” Venditti said. “They’ve also had an influence on such things as race and gender relations, law enforcement, public health . . . there’s no part of society that surrogates haven’t changed in some way. Surrogates satisfy a wide variety of needs, which is what makes the technology so appealing. You might own one because it makes your job easier, or because it makes dating easier, or because you just don’t like the way you look.

“As for why people embraced it, it’s the same as we see today - the technology was there, so people made use of it. As is often the case, however, everyone was so busy wondering if they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should, and before they knew it the world was a very different place.”

That said, not everyone has embraced the technology. “Every society has its disenfranchised members, though, and in the world of The Surrogates they are known as Dreads. Dreads are people who, for philosophical or religious reasons, lead non-surrogate lives.”

Of course, in a world as designed by Venditti, there are a million stories, and The Surrogates gets rolling when a mysterious figure disables two surrogates in an alley who were looking to test out their new synthetic bodies by traveling down the well-trod path all new technology goes down.

“Damaging a surrogate, whether intentionally or by accident, is a property crime,” Venditti said. “Incidents are dealt with in much the same way that car accidents are handled today, meaning that the person who’s at fault must compensate other parties for damages. For more serious offenses, punishment may also include fines and prison terms. After the attack, Lieutenant Harvey Greer and Sergeant Pete Ford are charged with finding the culprit. They quickly learn that there’s much more to their case than meets the eye, however, and they find themselves pitted against forces whose only objective is to purge surrogates from the face of the earth.

“The Surrogates is just as much mystery as it is science fiction. I’ve always been a big fan of cop dramas, and the plot I think reflects that. Hopefully I’ve provided enough twists to keep the readers guessing.”

One of the twists that comes early on is that both Greer and Ford themselves use surrogates at work, but for very different reasons.

As mentioned earlier, joining Venditti on the miniseries is artist Brett Weldele, who was hand-picked by Staros for the job. “I’d met Brett several years earlier during a portfolio review at the Savannah College of Art & Design, and I realized immediately that he had what it took to have a career as an artist,” Staros said. “When I read the script for The Surrogates, Brett's style came to mind, and I knew it would be a perfect match for the dark, cyberpunk atmosphere of the story. Luckily, he had the space to fit us into his busy schedule because the book simply wouldn’t be the same without him.”

Also on the graphics and design side of things, Venditti has included text pages in each issue of The Surrogates, starting with some very convincing sounding scientific papers on the possibilities of surrogate technology. “I went with the text pieces because I wanted the world of The Surrogates to feel as real as possible,” Venditti said. “They also let me provide some deep background without intruding on the plot. Too often I’ll read a story where the characters are using their dialogue to fill the reader in on a lot of expository information, and that can be very distracting.”

In addition, each issue contains ads…pretty slick ones at that. “I’d always thought that creating ads for Virtual Self, Inc. -- the company that manufactures surrogates -- would be a fun way to lend an extra bit of believability to the story,” Venditti said. “I mentioned the idea to the designers for the book, Dave Bissel and Jim Titus, and together we came up with the ads that appear on the back cover of each issue. I wrote the copy, but Dave and Jim went above and beyond with the visuals, using professional photographs, designing the corporate logo, the works. Their contributions have been nothing short of amazing.”

Despite the new format that The Surrogates represents for Top Shelf, Staros said that there were no real challenges on the production side of the coin. “We’ve produced saddle-stitched books in the past, so we already had our bearings in that regard. The book is a bit of a departure for us content-wise, though, so we had to take that into account when it came to marketing and promotion. We also waited to solicit the first issue until the majority of the series was in the can, that way we could be sure that all of the issues would ship on schedule. Getting off schedule can sound the death knell for a serialized book, so we knew that had to be avoided at all costs.”

That’s not to say that there aren’t differences between The Surrogates and the rest of Top Shelf’s line. “The Surrogates is only the second book, along with Lost Girls, where we had to make a big upfront cash investment,” Staros said. “So, there's definitely a financial gamble, and we won't know until this summer if mainstream comics shops and fans will jump on a book of this nature from Top Shelf. But we're confident that it'll all pay off, especially once people get a chance to see it. It's also an opportunity to tap into the mainstream comics audience and bring some of those readers into the Top Shelf fold.”

So – after The Surrogates, are more serialized stories coming from Top Shelf?

“We're always looking for great stories, and always review everything that's submitted to us,” Staros said. “If the story has a unique art style, strong characters, and is full of heart and subtext, we're going to be interested in it. So, while we'll always focus on literary graphic novels, as that's what Brett Warnock and I love the most, we're going to keep an eye out for the next big mainstream project that needs to bear the Top Shelf name.”

The Surrogates #1 (of 5) ships in July, and carries a cover price of $2.95

rroch

Looks interesting, nice stylish art job !

Michael C Lorah

If Staros & Warnock believe in this series, then I'll give it a chance. Top Shelf has put out some of the most engaging comics in recent memory.

Mr Flywheel

Can someone explain the “12 hour miracle” to me?

Oh yeah, title looks great, I'll be checking this out!

StefanDam

IIRC One of the book distributers filed for bankrupcy causing a huge cashflow problem for many comic companies who hadn't been paid yet for books sold. Top Shelf had a one day sale to save their company from bankruptcy itself. If I have the wrong company, then I apologize.



This book looks really amazing. I was set to pass it up until I read this article and (more importantly) read the preview. Sounds to me like the "murderer" is actually a hero of sorts. I'm in for the long haul.

Scott Wherle

Count me in.

Solamon

I love Mr. Weldele art! It has a kind of Templesmith-esc (one of my favorite artist) quality, yet still remains very unique in it's own regard. I particularly enjoyed his palette selection and how it casts a kind of gloomy and detached feel to the world in which the Surrogates take place.

The story sounds very interesting too, but I can't help but wonder if 50 years in the future is too short a period of time for such an incredible leap in both android and virtual reality technology. Not to mention the economics of how so many people can own them so quickly. I figure these surrogates have got to be at least as expensive as a high end car. Never-the-less, this point is a very small and completely contestable gripe indeed. Furthermore, I do really like Mr. Venditti extrapolation on how virtual reality / android technology could combine with the modern day person's chatroom-like mentality to create a rather impersonal world.

All and all, I'm very excited about this book and can't wait to get my hands on it. I didn't expect to see a book of this particular flavor coming out of Top Shelf.

BTW, the "Virtual Self" ad is damn cool and professional looking!

Egg

As soon as I first heard that Top Shelf was doing a mainstream comic I knew I had to see it! For a company like Top Shelf, a company that has a "place" in the market already carved out with quality projects like Owly and Box Office Poison, for them to switch it up like this... well, this is so far out of left field that it really excites me! I cannot wait!

Egg Embry
Editor - www.ArcanaStudio.com & ANT from Image Comics

OcCaM

I like this premise.

Since, I've always wanted to see more of his art since the most Craptacular comic ever, B-Sides (probably Richie J. and me are the only two who love that comic) I'll have to get this.

Maybe, it'll be the incentive I need to finally get around to Couscous Express and other Brian Wood stuff I hear is so great!

Pawel

Man...uhmmm.....technicalities aside....if you can come up with some awsome sci fi story....you are hired by me!!!!

Well...when I do get a company....

Pawel

Oh and YEAH

TOP SHELF IS THE BEST COMIC BOOK PUBLISHING COMPANY IN THE WORLD!!!


I mean....OWLY!!!!!! CRAIG THOMPSON!!!

I am officially a Top Shelf whore....it would be a dream for me for a proposal to be accepted by Top Shelf at some point....I think I could die and go to whereever the heck....

That and getting signed by Century Media......although Napalm Records or some lowly half beat record company would be just as good...

So...Top Shelf and Century Media....hmm....man....that would be sweet....

Hopefully i can make something out of this cardboard box I live in....

Pawel

#1 TOP SHELF 'HO

Stormbreaker

Yeah, I worked with both Robert and Chris in where else but the mailroom a few months back and Rob told me a bit about the series in a similar way that he does in the interview, and even then I was hooked. It still looks amazing and I can't wait for it to come out!

MadLoveShogun

Y'know i must say that this premise smacks of the old Assimov, Dick, Bradbury Sci-Fi by being something that is not only created influenced by the technology around the author at the time they wrote it, But, by also being a premise that is simple, streamlined, and cool, but simultaneously complex, also

I will definetly be picking this up. As soon as the tpb is out, that is.

Pawel

Is there any way that I can get free Top Shelf swag since I am their number one 'ho?

Oh and I will be picking this up as well....hopefully you will be able to hit some cons so you can sign my copy here in NYC....and perhaps I could get a sketch?

Anyway....i want some free Top Shelf swag....