(Thought it might be nice to end the week with a sweet review from our backyard. Scribe ‘Baird Naked’ from the Pacific Northwest’s indy music and film bible The Nerve finally posted this DVD interview to coincide with a contest to win one of 4 SIGNED COPIES! Just one more reason to roll yourself a fatty and move up to Potsville 😉 Oh, and the shot to the right was masterfully cobbled by hardcore fanboy JoshSpazJosh – bow to his talents.)
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to not only educate but to also entertain the masses, people come together and create things. Occasionally, they get it right. A thing that kicks you in the gut while all you can really say is “Wow “and “Whoa.” Those were my feelings after viewing one episode of the Broken Saints online graphic novel.
By Baird Naked
Redefining modern art is difficult, describing the Broken Saints experience even more so. It has a thought provoking and prophetic story. It has anime inspired graphics. It has a unique presentation with its computer interface. It has a hypnotic sound track. Elements, such as word balloons and static images make it feel like a comic book but its pacing, music and cinematic effects make it feel like a movie. It’s the best of both worlds. The dope shit, yes, even crantastic.
Written by Brooke Burgess, the story revolves around four very diverse characters; a young Fijian woman of unknown parentage, a software engineer from the Pacific Northwest, an old Shinto priest, and an Iraqi mercenary. (Yes, over a year before 9/11… Kreskin, anyone?). They are brought together through dreams, visions and events both fair and foul, to combat a threat involving biotech, telecommunications, a military instillation and a man tainted by hate and bent on revenge. Think Donald Trump after Ivanna got everything. The graphics are sublime. Andrew West fleshes out the written words with kinetic character design and “not your usual” colouring techniques, using a Wacom Tablet and Corel’s Painter 6 and Adobe systems Photoshop and Illustrator. Ian Kirby integrates Burgess’s words and West’s illustrations. He layers them using Macromedia’s Flash Authoring tools. He makes the story move. Characters change, dialogue and written narration appear and disappear, subtle movie effects occur. It flows with perfection like a Paris Hilton orgasm. Then Tobias Tinker adds the music. Electronica, thrash guitars, cultural and more pulse and throb from your speakers matching the moods and settings of the story. It enhances rather than diminishes the graphic novel feeling. It just works.
How did this come about? Well, back in June of 2000, Burgess, tired of being a cubicle cowboy, went traveling. While in a plane over the South Pacific, he had an epiphany. Why not create a graphic novel with still pictures and text, add music and put it online? He met up with West, who agreed to illustrate the endeavour. Kirby came next. He knew the advantages of Flash’s layering and cinematic effects. This would take the production to a new level. For the music, Burgess’s cousin Tinker was perfect. He had 20 years experience, had many usable tracks already recorded and was able to collaborate from another continent. With this team, Broken Saints became a reality and what a reality it is.
I sat down with the Team at their Power Source Media Production Office with their Webmaster helping to keep us from being disturbed, or at least, any more disturbed than we already are. They are a polite attentive and an eclectic group. My first thought is to throw them off guard.
Nerve: Does anyone here have a criminal record?
Burgess: Uh, Andrew has experienced police brutality.
Webmaster: Are you actually required to ask that question?
Nerve: No. (Hah! The report’s in the mail CSIS). Do you have any favourite chapter?
Burgess: Chapter #7 is the mushroom trip, Chapter #20 is the series of mushroom trips. #7 is… how would you describe it – the brain in Quantum State.
West: For me, it’s #16. It has such a different art style… oh, and #20 because it has such a mixture of art styles. Everything is kind of melded differently in that chapter.
Nerve: I was reading in some of your media on your website that Adbusters did some of your background posters. How did your connection with them come about?
Burgess: Well, they didn’t actually do the posters for us. We actually just used them for a chapter online. Like we used a lot of things that just felt right because we were doing it for free and we didn’t ask for any money and there was no advertising on the site so we figured it wouldn’t really end up in litigation. Now, with that said, making a real product that you can hang onto and buy and be promoted by a distributor, we had to ask everybody for license material and went to Adbusters and said, “See this scene here with some of your posters in the back. They get ripped down. We like them and we’re anti-capitalist, and we really dig your vibe and what do you want for them?” They just asked for a two-year subscription.
Nerve: What age group were you looking for when you made this?
Burgess: 15 to 55. Really we were blessed with creating something that had a 50 / 50 split demographic between male and female and that had no single blip on the demographic radar. It’s not locked in to say only 13 to 18-year-olds because they like anime. It’s not only college kids that like it because it’s trippy or only progressive adults that like it or liberals that like it or old people that like it. No, it’s a wide mix. Everyone who had access to broadband who wanted to see a good story told, who enjoyed articles that were mentioned on National Public Radio or the CBC. People seemed to just sink their teeth in. It was a really nice split.
Nerve: If you could pick anyone to win the upcoming election in the States, who would it be?
Burgess: Anyone to figurehead the puppet regime?
Nerve: Sure. Anyone.
Kirby: No comment.
Tinker: The Dalai Lama.
West: MC Hammer.
Everyone: Good one.
Burgess: Will Shatner, ’cause he’s really Canadian.