INTERVIEW: ‘Edgeworld’ is back for one more season
Image courtesy of Comixology / Provided by Superfan Promotions with permission.
The acclaimed Comixology Originals series Edgeworld returns this week with its 11th issue, which kicks off its third and final season. The comic comes from the minds of Chuck Austen and Patrick Olliffe, and they are letting fans know that the end is near. This time around, Halley, Killian and Cheela are on quite the memorable journey. They stumble upon a converted meat factory where animals aren’t the food products, but humans, and they need to escape before they’re next on the plate.
Austen has had a storied career in comics and animation, and he brings those talents to the new season of Edgeworld, specifically issue #12, in which he serves as writer, artist and letterer. Fans will know his work on X-Men and Superman, plus his animation work on Dawn of the Croods, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and Rocky and Bullwinkle, according to press notes.
Recently Austen exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox to share news on all things Edgeworld. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What motivated the creation of a third and final season of Edgeworld?
It was always intended to conclude at 15. Honestly, Pat Olliffe and I figured we’d be lucky to get such an intense and unique series beyond five issues in the current market. We’re so happy to have reached 15! We’ve loved this series since the beginning, but it’s never quite paid the bills. So it’s always been more a labor of love. Given the change in my day-job business and my retirement, we left it open-ended enough to continue if the opportunity presented itself. But age, finances and time have capped it for now at 15. We feel it’s a satisfying way to conclude.
Do you recommend starting at the beginning before diving into season three?
It will certainly help, and it’s easy enough to do given that Amazon keeps them all up and available for sale. And the Dark Horse trades are already out there in comic shops and bookstores. If you want to understand 11-15 fully, you will need to read the series from issue 1. There’s a lot that pays off. But other than threads throughout, and the payoffs in 15, it’s mostly a space/detective/weird action/adventure series that can be mostly understood separately. But all 15 were designed from the beginning to be read in order.
How would you describe Killian and Cheela as characters for those who haven’t started the series?
Cheela is the teenage daughter of Killian’s best friend, who Killian had to kill as part of his job. They had been “beloved uncle and favorite niece” before the incident, and now they’re forced into a “father-daughter” relationship neither of them wants because along with the usual issues of fathers and daughters and how they relate, based largely on my and Pat’s raising daughters ourselves, there’s also that dark tension underlying everything. In spite of themselves, their relationship develops into one of sheriff and deputy, solving weird murders and bizarre crimes on an alien world that’s a gateway to all other alien worlds.
Have you found the whole digital comics space rewarding, or are you a purist who wants a physical copy?
I am not a purist, especially as space in my place is limited — LOL — though I do like paper comics. But I’m well known for preferring the digital comics approach. It’s similar to how we pitch storyboards now in animation, and it’s a better way to tell a story, honestly, which as the writer is everything to me. Character moments, laughs, surprises — they’re all better and stronger when you read frame-by-frame in Guided View.
What’s it like to work with Patrick Olliffe?
Fantastic. I’ve never had a better working partner, and he had input on all these scripts, characters and stories, and was a tru co-creator. After drawing four of these last issues, I have even more respect and appreciation for him. LOL. How he does his work, with all that detail, and all those unique background characters while never missing a deadline, is beyond me. The guy’s brilliant.
Will it be difficult to say goodbye to Edgeworld?
Oh, yeah. And tormented. Very. I love this series, the characters, the concepts, and I’ve loved creating every panel of it, both with Pat, Lee Loughridge, and Jodi Wynne, and without. Amazon/Comixology has also been a dream to work for and incredibly supportive. It’s the best job I’ve ever had — pure joy, more joy than anyone will ever see, actually. Back when I began developing it with Pat, stories just exploded out of me. I wrote scripts for 17 issues before we even began issue 1. Pat read them all ,and we discussed them, our world and its history in detail. I’d still love to get those other stories out there, but… maybe. Some day. Or maybe my son and Pat’s daughter will get them out there. LOL.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Edgeworld, season three, is now available from Comixology Originals. Click here for more information.
