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BUSIEK TALKS ABOUT ARROWSMITH
by Alex Segura Jr. (Newsarama)
Fletcher Arrowsmith isn't your typical teenager.
For starters, his planet Earth is a tad different from ours.
Sure, it looks the same, until you hit the werewolves, trolls
and witches. See, in Fletcher's world, all those fantastical
creatures are part of the regular landscape, and have been
for quite some time. Fast forward to World War I, and things
are going to be a little different from the global slugfest
we all read about in History class.
Fletcher signs up to be an airman, one of the most popular
heroes in the early days of the war. But these airmen don't
pilot planes. They fly. In a war where magic is as strong
a weapon as bullets or bombs, wizards are the most valuable
soldiers.
The story of Fletcher Arrowsmith is told in Arrowsmith
a miniseries coming from writer Kurt Busiek, penciller Carlos
Pacheco and inker Jesus Merino from Wildstorm's Cliffhanger
imprint in July. Newsarama managed to get a few minutes with
Busiek to talk about the challenges that come with writing
an alternate history and re-joining forces with his old Avengers
Forever partner.
The book isn't limited to one genre, Busiek says. "It's
an adventure series, a fantasy series, a war series,"
Busiek said. "Arrowsmith is the story
of a young man who runs away from home to join the military
and see the world. But on this world, magic and the creatures
of folklore - from trolls to werewolves to witches and wizards
and more - have been a part of society and human culture since
the year 800 A.D. Now, it's World War I, but it's a war that's
being fought with magic as much as with conventional weapons,
where in many ways, history didn't play out the same way Ð
and in many ways it did Ð and where magical technology
is as important as munitions, where you have to be able to
defend against being attacked by a genie as well as being
attacked by a bombing raid.
"In this war, the golden boys, the most-visible and
most-celebrated warriors are the airmen - wizards who use
spells to fly without any airplanes, who battle in the skies
over Europe ... and who are dying like flies amid the artillery
and the high-speed dogfighting. Our lead, Fletcher Arrowsmith,
signs up to become one of these airmen, making a romantic,
idealistic choice that'll take him into the heart of the fighting
Ð and eventually, all around the world.
"So you could call it a fantasy coming-of-age alternate-history
war adventure series, I guess..."
Though Busiek is scripting the book, Pacheco is by no means
only lending his pencilling chops to the project, Busiek says.
"Carlos isn't just penciling Ð he's very much the
co-creator of the series," Busiek said. "He and
I did Avengers Forever together, and had
a great time doing it. So we wanted to do something else together.
Back when Gorilla Comics was starting up, we talked about
creating a project to do there, and Arrowsmith
was what came out of that - I suggested the basic concept,
as something that could have wide-open adventure possibilities,
and lots of fascinating settings and unusual visuals that
Carlos could really go to town on. He liked the idea a lot,
so we started e-mailing ideas back and forth, and out of that,
the series emerged.
"However, Marvel enticed Carlos back to the fold with
an offer he couldn't refuse, so Arrowsmith
got back-burnered - which, considering how difficult Gorilla
turned out to be, was probably for the best. And then, a year
or so later, Cliffhanger came knocking at Carlos's door, and
he called me up and said, 'Let's do Arrowsmith
now, what do you think?'
"And here we are."
The book centers on young Fletcher Arrowsmith, whose optimism
will be sorely challenged when he makes the leap from civilian
to airman, Busiek says. "He's a 15-year-old from the
great state of Connecticut, on the shores of Lake Erie in
the United States of Columbia Ð I did say that history
had played out a little differently," Busiek said. "Young
and idealistic, horrified by the tales of what's going on
in Europe, and romantically starry-eyed at the concept of
the dashing, heroic airmen. He wants to learn to fly, to be
a hero and help bring peace to Europe Ð but things are
rather different, and more complex, than he thought. His dreams
will slam up against reality, and he'll come to realize that
the war Ð and the world Ð don't work in quite the
way that he, or anyone else, truly understands.
"What that'll do to his dreams, to his character, to
his attitude to the world and the war ... well, that's why
we tell the stories..."
The idea to set the story during the early days of World
War I appealed to Busiek because of the visual potential such
a setting would have, he says. "In looking for an idea
that'd be striking and visual, I was messing around with ideas
about a world where folklore and fairy tales were real, and
looking at how it'd change the world," Busiek said, "More
and more, I got interested in this world's version of World
War I, both because I'd suggested to a writer friend years
ago that a magical take on WWI aviators might make for a good
novel, but he'd gone a different way with the idea and I'd
never forgotten it, and partly because World War I was part
of a time when the world underwent great changes Ð in
technology, in society, in power Ð and it seemed like
it'd be interesting to do a coming-of-age story that was a
coming-of-age both for the hero and for the entire world.
"Plus, we get all that cool period stuff, as the world
of 1915 is merged with a world of magic..."
Though Fletcher will be running into a variety of characters
in the miniseries, Busiek prefers to keep the details under
his hat. "Well, Fletcher's very much the lead, but we'll
be meeting any number of others along the way," Busiek
said. "From hometown friends and family to allies and
enemies, teachers, commanders, comrades and more, including
a Lotharingian rock troll and a young woman who'll be quite
important to Fletcher's future, but I'd rather people get
to know them by reading the stories."
The origins of the concept date back to Busiek's early days
on Astro City, he says. "The seeds of
the concept go back at least to the introduction I wrote to
the first Astro City trade," Busiek
said. "Where I compared superhero stories to fairy tales,
and spend a little time talking about what fairy tales would
be like if they had continuity, if they all took place in
the same shared universe. That got me thinking about how a
world like that would work, and that, combined with that other
idea about the magical equivalent of WWI aviators, was what
gave rise to the series.
"As for why now is the right time to do it, well, Carlos
had the time to do it, and that makes it the right time as
far as I'm concerned. Still, it's funny in a way Ð when
we started working on this, we were concerned about it being
perceived as war series, since war comics haven't exactly
been boffo sellers of late, and the guys at Wildstorm wanted
us to push the fantasy and the adventure and the magic over
the war setting. But then, in the wake of September 11th and
the war in Iraq, it's become a part of the national radar
again. It's not the same kind of war, by any means, but it
may be that a story about young men and women caught up in
a dangerous and destructive war, where ideals and reality
meet head on, will have more resonance that originally thought..."
Arrowsmith, as mentioned earlier, isn't
just a coming of age story set during a war, there is a definite
fantastical element, Busiek says. "Magic is very important
to the world of Arrowsmith," Busiek
said. "As noted, it's been a part of human society since
AD 800, and the time of Charlemagne - in this world, Charlemagne
brought about the Peace of Ghent , but in the world of Arrowsmith,
it's known as the Peace of Charlemagne, and wasn't simply
a treaty between human nations, but with the otherworldly
Seelie Court as well, and it paved the way for considerable
interaction between humanity and the other races of the world.
Since that time, magic has been a part of the world, but not
necessarily a part of everyone's lives Ð kings could afford
court wizards, for instance, and the commonfolk might have
access to local witches skilled in herbal lore. But magic
was still a thing of years of study and skill, mastered only
by a few.
"Recently, though, the Industrial Revolution has affected
magic as well, as ways have been discovered to store magic,
to build one-shot spells that don't need training to use.
That will change the world in ways nobody's expecting, and
is a matter that's at the heart of Fletcher Arrowsmith's world."
Busiek is hopeful that the book will continue beyond the
initial miniseries. "The plan is to do it as a series
of mini-series - to have each arc come out monthly, but have
breaks built in to give us the lead time Carlos needs to do
it right," Busiek said. "But yes, we have definite
plans beyond this first arc, and I've already worked out the
next couple of arc concepts, and have more planned beyond
that."
While teaming with Pacheco is nothing new to Busiek, it's
certainly still enjoyable, he says. "Working with Carlos
is a dream," Busiek said. "Not only is he imaginative
and a fantastic draftsman and storyteller, a true pro who
tells stories with drama and spectacle and believable emotion,
but he and I have very similar sensibilities Ð we like
the same kind of stuff, got hooked on the same eras of the
same books as fans. Working with him on Avengers Forever
was a real treat, and it's been great continuing the association
here."
And just what can readers expect from the book? "The
trenches of Gallia, the perils of sorcerous war, an air show
in the United States, the wonders of a magical New York, adventure
on the high seas, romance, comradeship and loss, atrocity,
agony, the passing of gods, cute ambulance drivers, sea serpents,
reunions and more..." Busiek said.
As for what makes the book different from other stuff on
the racks, Busiek is unsure where to start, but the list is
long. "Well, I've never written a fantasy coming-of-age
alternate-history war adventure series," Busiek said.
"So that's different right there. But the setting, with
this whole world to explore, sets it apart, as does our story,
I hope. It's been a delight to write Ð a lot of work in
figuring out the world, which was done with the help of Hugo-award-winner
Lawrence Watt-Evans, who's been a great help with the alternate
history stuff, but when it's come to the stories, they've
come alive very easily, very smoothly.
"And if what I've said so far hasn't convinced people
to give it a try ... they can sample it for free, both in
one of those Horizons preview thingamabobs DC does, where
they'll be showing off six pages of #1, and also at the Wildstorm
homepage, where we've put a free 8-page Arrowsmith
story for anyone who wants to sample the series online. The
URL is http://www.wildstorm.com/arrowsmith/arrowsmith.html
-- or so they tell me.
"Hopefully, that'll be enough to let anyone who's interested
find out if they'll like the series."
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