When Satellite Falling fell like Sputnik into our hands the other day, we passed it around the office like the hot ore potato that it is. Books can still break out of the mold while nodding to the familiar and continue to impress. Space bounty hunters, space stations, holographic imaging disguises and more fill up this first issue of Satellite Falling from IDW.
Writer Steve Horton (Amala’s Blade) and artist Stephen Thompson (Future’s End, Batman Beyond) join us on the Cosmic Treadmill this week to tell us about his sci-fi tale of Lilly and her life in the past, present and future.
Pick up the first issue today!
FOG!: Thanks for joining us, guys! First of all, gorgeous book! How long has this been in development? Do you guys work together often?
Steve Horton: It’s been in development about a year! Facebook Memories notified me the other day about the first pitch pages that I showed everyone last summer. We actually put the pitch pages together fairly quickly, but the pitch process was very lengthy. Since the book ended up getting green-lighted, we’ve been working on it ever since. This is our first book together, but hopefully not our last.
Stephen Thompson: This is our first time working together. We produced the first five pages or so as a pitch at some point last year, so it’s been quite a while.
I thought this was going into a familiar territory at the beginning and then wham you guys switched it up and set the rollercoaster ride on HIGH for the rest of the issue. Great stuff. Steve, What is Lilly’s story at the beginning of issue #1?
SH: It’s been years since Lilly lost Eva in a horrific accident on Earth, but it still seems like yesterday.
Being around other people just reminded her too much of Eva, so Lilly escaped Earth illegally and came to a backwater space station called Satellite.
Her police background helps her track down bad people for money, and her cover as a taxi driver pays the bills and acts as a front for her bounty hunter business. She’s starting to find happiness in her work, even if she still sees Eva wherever she goes.
In a way, with her holographic image inducer she can be many things to many different people, including herself! Since Lilly’s a bounty hunter, will we see her toeing the lines between being the hero and the anti-hero?
Lilly has a strong personal code of ethics. She won’t fire on someone unarmed or someone who has surrendered. She has a heightened sense of right and wrong that informs every job she takes, every friendship she has and everyone she has an intimate relationship with.
Will we get to uncover the mysteries of Lilly and Eve’s past? How is it that she is the only human around?
SH: Earth is a fallen, xenophobic, racist place. There aren’t many like Lilly. Only humans are allowed on Earth, and nobody is allowed to leave. They keep to themselves, so finding a human so far out of Earth’s atmosphere is extraordinarily rare.
Naturally, many aliens don’t think much of Lilly based on their preconceived notions of what human beings are like in the future.
Stephen, your possibilities for creatures (and shapeshifters) know no bounds on the Satellite. Are you having fun unleashing these species for the world to see?
ST: It’s probably turned out to be my favorite element of the book to draw, and sci-fi is quickly becoming by favorite genre to draw overall. I think it’s the fact that I never have to reference something in real life, I can just start putting down lines and see what comes out on the page without ever being ‘wrong’. It’s very freeing.
Is this a continuing or limited series?
SH: We’re doing five issues for sure, and then more will depend on sales and critical reception.
Does Lilly’s relationship with the Zaim and Satellite Police Force get weirder, better, or more complex?
SH: All of the above!
Lastly, why do you think readers should pick up this book for the big issue #1 debut?
SH: I like diverse characters, conflict, unusual situations and action sequences. You’ll never see talking heads with one of my books. And I only work with the best artists. Stephen is one of the best I’ve ever worked with.
ST: I think it has a set of characters, a look and a setting that you won’t get from any other book out there.
Congrats on the new series, I am excited to see where it goes. Great first issue!
SH: Thanks!
Satellite Falling #1 is available in stores and via digital today from IDW Publishing
