Why the big push for a property not that many have heard of yet? Perhaps because “yet” is the operative word in the sentence. Its creators are Mark Long, president of Zombie Studios, and Nick Sagan, science fiction novelist and son of Carl Sagan. The comic’s writer, M. Zachary Sherman, is a former marine with an eye for action and detail. Renowned visual futurist Syd Mead did some of the original designs for it.

The story is about an interplanetary civil war in which Mars, the last free colonized nation, is threatened. The female main character is a former war hero who has gone into seclusion. She finds herself forced to fight against her former allies to save the people living on Mars from genocide on a global scale.

Drawing from influences as far afield as Greek classics, contemporary events, and modern science fiction, Shrapnel’s first issue makes for a highly compelling page turner and sets the stage for what promises to be interesting reading. It also reflects the diverse backgrounds and interests of its creators.

At age six, Sagan's recorded greeting "Hello from the children of planet Earth," was placed aboard NASA’s Voyager I and Voyager II spacecraft, which have since left the solar system, making them the most distant human-made objects in the universe. Since then, he was written novels, computer games, screenplays, teleplays and for animation. He served as a story editor on Star Trek: Voyager, for which he also wrote.

Long is the co-founder and Co-CEO, with Joanna Alexander, of Zombie Studios, where he has served as Executive Producer for more than 20 videogame titles for clients including Atari, Microsoft, Disney, Real Networks, Ubisoft, Novalogic, Take2, America's Army, Groove Games, Panasonic, and Activision. Prior to founding Zombie, he had a career in research and development career with the Sarnoff Research Center, the University of Texas Institute for Advanced Technology, and General Dynamics' Combined Arms Systems Engineering Laboratory.

Scoop talked with Sagan and Long about the project, why they’re working in comic books, and what readers might expect from Shrapnel.

Scoop: How had the two of you worked together previously?
Nick Sagan (NS): Mark and I have been friends since 1995, when we collaborated on Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands, a dark adventure game along the lines of Myst, but set in the mythology of the classic interactive fiction title, Zork. Mark was the game designer, I was hired as a writer, and in working together we found that we clicked. One of us would come up with something that would spark a cool idea from the other, and that idea would spark another idea, and so on. We’d just keep riffing with each other, which made it a great creative experience and also a lot of fun.

Scoop: Do you have a set way of collaborating with each other or is each project different? Who does what?
Mark Long (ML): I think we're both used to collaborating with teams. I'm a game designer, so I work everyday with large teams. Games are very much a collaborative process.
NS: Each project is sure to be different, but we typically start out with a series of brainstorming sessions. With Shrapnel, we’ve been doing these largely by telephone and email, as we’re currently on opposite coasts, but we’ve made a point to meet in person every now and again as that tends to help the process along. Of the two of us, I have more writing experience, and my skill set certainly comes in handy, but he’s a wonderfully capable writer in his own right, and his creative instincts are top notch. There’s another graphic novel he’s working on called The Silence of Our Friends. I’ve recently had a chance to take a look at it, and I was again struck by how poignant and provocative Mark’s writing is, with deep, soulful moments that don’t go away quietly after the pages have all been turned.

Scoop: How did the initial idea for Shrapnel come about? Was it conceived as a videogame?
ML: I think we began speculating about mechsuits becoming so survivable, so impervious to attack that warfare might revert to the tactics of antiquity. Armies arraying on a battlefield to confront each other physically. And that lead to Nick's first treatment, which he called Liberty. 
NS: Shrapnel’s earliest incarnation was as a project called Liberty, which told the story of a revolution on a colonized Mars. From the get go, we envisioned it as the kind of piece which could work across multiple formats, not the least of which would be a wildly fun videogame. It’s been re-imagined a bit since then, as the graphic novel format allows us much greater latitude in our storytelling.

Scoop: How long did it take to get the basics down to a point you were both happy with it?
ML: We had an outline after about one month.
NS: We were each quite keen on the subject matter. The specifics always take longer though, and I think it’s fair to say we both enjoy “kicking the tires” to see what is and isn’t working, and how we can make it better.

Scoop: If you had the opportunity to talk to a lot of readers who hadn’t yet heard of Shrapnel, how would you quickly describe it?
NS: I enjoy describing it as a gorgeous, adrenaline-filled mech epic which tells the story of an unlikely heroine showing courage against overwhelming odds.
ML: I describe it as Joan of Arc in space. A reluctant heroine of modest origins called to action, eventually leading a vast army against her people's oppressors.

Scoop: In other interviews, you’ve mentioned a classical Greek influence on the work. Could you describe how that came about and how it plays out in the actual story?
NS: While the future society we’ve been creating isn’t dominated by classical Greek culture (it’s actually a mélange of different cultures, with Indian culture perhaps most noticeable), our storytelling is influenced by Greek tragedy, and aspects of the conflict have been inspired by events in the Peloponnesian War. That came about from a shared interest in ancient warfare, Greek mythology and epic narratives, coupled with a desire to weave these elements into our science fiction. 
ML: Thucydides, the history of the Peloponnesian war, is referenced several times in our trilogy. Helots, Pericles funeral oration, the Melian dialogue are all in there: the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. 

Scoop: In addition to the influences with which you infused the story, it also seems like you’re combining a few different genres, ranging from science fiction to action adventure to political thriller. Is that the case, and what all did you guys pour into this?
NS: I think that’s a fair assessment. It’s a science fiction war epic first and foremost, but one that makes use of a variety of subgenres. I’m not sure that we consciously set out to pour these into our story so much as we just listened to our characters and followed them where they wanted to go.
ML: That's true. I think your seeing the 3 way nature of our collaboration with Zack when you say this. Zack brought in a lot of the political intrigue and action. It was what really struck me when I read Zack's Seal Team 7. He's got this great action running in parallel to political intrigue in his book.

Scoop: Once the process got going, were you still thinking of it mainly as a video game back story or did you see possibilities beyond that?
NS: No, even from its earliest conception, we realized that it had viability in a variety of media. There’s always a challenge finding the right format for an interesting idea, but I think we’ve got an ideal one for Shrapnel, with a variety of possibilities to potentially follow.
ML: We always saw Shrapnel in other media, but we wanted it to be a great comic first. And comics are such rich media. I'm used to having to watch out for overly ambitious set pieces - things that will be too hard or expensive to produce in a game. Zack constantly had to free my imagination: “You just draw a picture of it, Mark!”

Scoop: At what point did the concept of doing Shrapnel as a comic book come to light? How did you end up at Radical with it?
NS: That’s really all Mark’s doing. I’ll let him speak to it.
ML: I asked Nick three years ago if he'd collaborate with me in creating the trilogy. I met Zack at Comic-Con shortly after and the three of us produced the story and script over about a year. Zack introduced us to Kai at Imaginary Friends at Comic-Con 2007. We were all blown away by their studio's work. We had to have Kai on Shrapnel. Fortunately, Kai was into Shrapnel right off the bat. Then as IFS was finishing the first series, they introduced us to Radical. Barry Levine had seen the Shrapnel and loved it. I met Barry, and it was one of those rare connections; he got it completely. I could tell right away he was going to see that this project of passion, something Nick and I had been working on for more than 12 years, was going to be in great hands with Radical.

Scoop: With three main story arcs or mini-series, this is the largest first commitment to a property that Radical has given. Did they “get” the concept right away or was it a tough sell?
NS: Again, Mark might have more insight here than I do, but from my perspective, Radical has been wonderfully enthusiastic, and everything we could have hoped for in a partner. They sparked to it right away, and have gone above and beyond in helping us tell the story we want to tell.

Scoop: How important to the story is the mood created by the art? What is the main feeling you want it to convey?
NS: It’s difficult to overstate how important the art is when telling this sort of story, and we’ve been fortunate to have a style that takes the reader off guard by going against type. Typically, for a science fiction epic, you see a strong focus on the technology, so it pops, but there’s a risk that the actual story gets lost in the process. While we’re certainly interested in the tech, Shrapnel’s style is more painterly, recalling the works of art that would commemorate battles of antiquity. This feeling of moving forward and yet backward in history speaks to the inescapability of our past, and I find it carries a surprising emotional impact.
ML: I think the art amplifies the story immensely. It's painterly. Emotional. Counter to your expectations. It conveys the epic nature of the story by referencing battlefield masterworks, like Antoine-Jean Gros’ Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau.

Scoop: What does M. Zachary Sherman bring to the project?
NS: Zack is a very talented writer, smart, endlessly creative, with valuable experience writing for comics that Mark and I lack. Zack also brings a military background to the project, a personal history in the service he and Mark both undertook, and Shrapnel is all the stronger for the authenticity of that firsthand armed forces experience which together they’ve been able to weave into the story.
ML: Zack is an accomplished comic and screenplay writer with a great sense for action dialogue. Plus he’s an ex-Marine. So he has an ear for military accuracy that we wanted.

Scoop: Coming from areas other than comics, what do you find attractive about the medium?
NS: Well, first I should say I’m a fan of comics and have been for as far back as I can remember. Looking around my bookshelves, I’m seeing Transmetropolitan, Watchmen, Preacher, Sandman, Lucifer and Hellblazer. When I was younger, I used to collect X-Men comics and somewhat quirkier titles like Suicide Squad and Elementals. From a creative standpoint, I’m enjoying what the format allows us to do, affording us the freedom of a novel and the visual spectacle of a film or TV show. When I worked on Star Trek, we’d have production meetings for episodes where cool but expensive scenes would get whittled down or taken out for budgetary reasons. Here, all that matters is can it be drawn, do we like it, and does it serve our story?
ML: For me, comics are a refreshing change from the complexities of game development. If you can imagine it, you can do it. There’s also this sense of community that is completely unique and, I think, misunderstood by the general media that wants to portray comic and Comic-Con in particular as some kind of wacky nerd fest. What I find so fresh and surprising is the intimacy of the medium. Writers, artists and fans can actually meet and have a dialogue at the cons about that shared interest in books. And many of the best and original work comes from the smallest publishers. It’s another reason I love Radical. There’s a sense of not just community but family there. Like we’re all in it together and we’re going to help each other out. So awesome and so rare.

Scoop: What was Syd Mead’s involvement?
NS: Syd Mead designed the early mechs, creating really interesting, gritty, funky, asymmetrical hardware. He showed us ways of depicting our mechs that we hadn’t considered, but that’s to be expected, of course, from a legendary visual futurist like Syd.
ML: Nick knew Syd and asked him to contribute to the original mech suit designs. And they were startlingly original. Asymmetrical, organic, almost crustacean in influence. He gave something highly originals to start with visually and I think the boldness of his vision encouraged Nick and I to think against the grain.

Scoop: How did you end up with your current artist, Bagus Hutomo?
NS: Enormous good fortune. Kind deeds we did in former lives for which we are now reaping karmic rewards. I believe Radical made the introduction, and here again Mark can speak to this better than I can. However our paths crossed, it’s inarguable that Bagus Hutomo has terrific artistic sensibilities and quite an eye.
ML: Kai (Bagus) is one of the founders of Imaginary Friends Studios. Zack introduced us at Comic-Con and I took one look at his portfolio and decided we had to work together. Kai has the unique ability to source the form grammar of recognizable military elements and synthesize them into something completely new. We’ve since gone on to work on a game project together.

Scoop: You’re planned for three six-issue arcs. Is this something that could take on a life beyond that or is the story more finite in nature?
NS: We’re not looking past the story we’re telling, and we see a definite beginning, middle and end. The universe we’re creating, however, is proving to be a lot of fun for us to explore, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see us return to it somewhere down the line.
ML: We’re actually designing the game right now and it is a prequel three series arc.