Interview with Daniel Lundie of Futurius

It's been over a week since the press release hit and Futurius Comics announced the launch of indie creator Daniel Lundie's ROBIN NODE series and the innovation of the COMIC POSTER (the press release can still be found here). Now Damien Wood of TNI has caught up with Daniel to discuss this latest initiative in comic format, his series and where he's going with both...

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Damien (TNI): To start (and to make sure I have this straight)... Comic posters. We are talking about wall decorations that double as reading material, yes?

Daniel (Fut): Indeedy-oh.

Damien (TNI): And where exactly did that idea come from?

Daniel (Fut): I think it's a pretty standard idea that's been knocked about for a while, but no one's actually tried it. Posters are used as a merchandise tool but, at least in comics, not as an actual format for storytelling itself. Just seemed to me to be an obvious (and cheaper) way of making comics. Plus, you can stick it on your wall and keep it in view, whereas comic BOOKS you just end up putting away in boxes and forgetting until you're reminded they're there...



Damien (TNI): How much story can be told at once with the format? I'd assume we're looking at smaller doses of entertainment.

Daniel (Fut): In theory, yeah. But the beauty of comic art is that the story is either as short or as long as the creator makes it. A lot of comics these days take five minutes to read 22 pages, whereas the 8 page flashback sequences in Alan Moore's SUPREME, for example, took a lot longer to get through and had more going on. The posters, depending on panel sizing of course, can fit up to around 30 panels on them. Imagine a 30-page comic with a single splash panel per page, and it works out well. I recently reformatted an earlier poster story that I did as practice into a comic BOOK, and it took up 17 pages, without a cover. It all depends what you put into it.



Damien (TNI): Of course it begs the question... As hard as it already is to survive as an indie property, is it wise to move to a less recognizable (albeit a bloody clever) format? Or has this been more of a calculated risk?

Daniel (Fut): We need more risks in comics right now. They're getting walked over by the rest of the entertainment world, while they're simultaneously being mined for ideas and characters. The way I figured it, it's the devil you know (keep doing the exact same thing that's been done before and isn't selling well any more) against the devil you don't (experimentation in format). It's a risk, it will very likely fail, and it may even get me laughed at, but screw it. If I don't do it, it may very well be a format that never gets used.

A nice side effect as well is that we may be able to reach out to poster collectors and give them an open door to get into comics too, which can't hurt.

Who knows? In the crowded world of indie comics, maybe a comic POSTER will help me stand out more and provide more interest...?

Damien (TNI): Indeed it might (and we can certainly hope). Moving onto the comic itself... For those that missed the press release, tell us what ROBIN NODE is all about.

Daniel (Fut): I think of it as a cyber-punk political action adventure comedy. It's both fresh and familiar at once. ROBIN NODE retells the story of Robin Hood, the popular folk hero of olde England, in a futuristic setting, placing it sometime in the next 60 years or so. It's about a slacker who takes on the corrupt government that's screwing over the general public. It's really about how one person can make a difference. People become inspired by this person and they join him. Suddenly, everything begins to change on all levels.

Anarchy for the masses.



Damien (TNI): Anarchy for the masses is always good. Why the play on Robin Hood?

Daniel (Fut): It started out as just a funny idea. I love alternate versions of characters, so I thought "Robin Hood in the future? Heh. Why not?". But it's become something else now. It's shocking how much the details of this ancient folk tale actually relate to our modern times in the 21st century. It all translates so well to the here and now, with what's going on in the news, what's going on with the government, power struggles, and the general feeling of the average individual feeling powerless. People in "power" are making decisions that affect us all, yet they're not giving a damn about how we feel about that. Everything's going psycho. Now imagine if a single person lost within that system stood up to be counted and to take back the power the "powerful" have metaphorically stolen? Like a single tiny node in a great machine, going haywire and doing its own thing... That's Robin Node. That's what the story is about, as well as the fall out from that, and what happens when it all kicks off. Who is really right?

Damien (TNI): So this project's become a more personal one for you then?

Daniel (Fut): Yeah, definitely. I'm not a political person at all, seriously! But it definitely touches feelings of powerlessness and responsibility. I don't see government officials as demonic sheriff's of Nottingham... They're just people like us all. But the story is about my feelings about today, I suppose. It's getting stuff out in a very characterized way. Robin is the spirit of justice and freedom, the sheriff is the spirit of oppression and order. But aren't they both needed? Aren't they both supposed to work together? There's a lot of trying to look at things that seem black and white in a more realistic grey tone, and see what's real. Comics are a great medium for doing that in...

Also, I just like high adventure and interesting concepts. So it's a personal view dressed up in fantasy or sci-fi ideas with realistic comedy thrown in. Pretty much just doing my best to make it something I myself would be a big fan of.



Damien (TNI): How many "issues" (or posters, as the case would be here) is ROBIN NODE planned to run? Will this be the innovation of comic posters' first ongoing series, or..?

Daniel (Fut): Yup indeedly-do. It's planned as an ongoing thing. I'd like to take it to about five years' worth of 'episodes' and play the story through to the end. Each episode was planned as being separate to the others but with a running continuity that's tight enough to hook you, with the story working it's way to about ten years after it begins, with Robin older and having given up a big portion of his life fighting this cause and having lost friends and family. The story itself has a definitive end, but the posters will go on for as long as they have something interesting to say each episode. That said, if the first episode doesn't sell enough copies, there won't be a second episode.

Damien (TNI): Let's assume it will sell. With a long-haul to look forward to, are collected editions in the plan as well? How might that work with the experimentation in format?

Daniel (Fut): They'd be collected as a gift set of some kind. A sort of 'box-set' with five or six episodes collected together with maybe a small sketch book and a CD perhaps, showcasing a couple of up-coming musicians who have done Robin Node-inspired music. Something like that. It'd be a bit of a way off, and it would definitely need to be wanted by the audience before I go ahead with it, but that's the basic vision I have for it...

Damien (TNI): And to hopefully ensure that it does have a chance to sell, where can people go to find out more and order these?

Daniel (Fut): www.futurius.com and the ROBIN NODE mini-site at www.robinnode.futurius.com

The main source for NODE information and updates!

Damien (TNI): Right on. Any plans for what might be next after (or parallel to) ROBIN NODE? Other innovations that might be upcoming?

Daniel (Fut): Always, my friend. Always.

Immediately on the horizon, I'm doing more Futurius stuff, some prose work for Tales magazine (I've written a rather lurid prose revision of the story of Hansel and Gretal for them, from the witches' point of view...), some stuff for www.workingtitlecomics.com... And there's a few other things I'm trying to wrap my head around. I like to keep busy.

Also, if there's any film studios out there interested in talking about a political action adventure movie set in the future and starring a well-known folk character... I'm available for discussions...

Damien (TNI): Sounds like you're a busy bee for the next while. Best of luck to you, Daniel.

Daniel (Fut): Thanks, D! 'preciate you taking the time to talk to me!

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When not enlightening the masses and saving the world in service of TNI, the entity known as NmX attempts to carry out a semi-normal life as a writer and a student of journalism under his not so secret identity, Damien Wood.

Look for his online projects "I Will Speak. You Will Listen." and "Mental Puppetry" sometime in the near future.