DF Interview: Jordan Thomas reveals what happens when black market clone babies go awry in ‘Skin Police’

By Byron Brewer

In the year 2142, fertility levels around the globe plummeted, and a black market for illegal clone babies emerged. Millions of parents used their own genetic material to welcome these new children, only realizing the horrific consequences far too late. At some point in their life cycle, three in four of these genetic duplicates transform into psychologically unstable killing machines. Fortunately, the United Nations of Europe has decided to take an active role in containing the growing threat. Their specialized task force – the Duplicate Identification and Capture Division – has taken up the unenviable task of hunting these killers before their violence can spread. The worst part of the job? It's always the one you least suspect.

From writer Jordan Thomas (The Man from Maybe) and artist Daniel Gete (Uber) comes Skin Police, a sci-fi/action spectacle that will force you to trust no one. I chatted with scribe Jordan Thomas about the miniseries.

Byron Brewer: Jordan, this is certainly something different in sci-fi: instead of a population explosion, in one Earth future fertility levels are dropping rapidly and, of course, chaos ensues. What was the inspiration for this tale of genetic oopsies and black market intrigue?

Jordan Thomas: Like with most clone stories I originally had the idea for this one after going to see a showing of Blade Runner at the cinema back in 2022. I thought doing a clone hunting story could be really cool but I wanted it to be much bigger than Deckard’s story, something where I could build out a whole society and perhaps comment of things happening today. That led me to think about reasons clones may be necessary, which brought me quite quickly to the idea of an infertility pandemic and sad, desperate people having to go to extreme lengths to have children. This raised more questions. Why would this be illegal? How could it happen without the government being able to track it? From here a whole history for this future United Europe formed in my head, with civil wars and dictatorship causing huge turmoil and displacing people leaving birth records next to useless, so once they learned that three in four of the clones would become homicidal paranoid schizophrenics the horse had already bolted. Now they needed the Skin Police.

Byron: Can you paint a mental picture of the world artist Daniel Gete and you are building for us come October? Certain canvases are sometimes so involving, they often seem like characters themselves (Gotham in Batman, Bambi’s Forest, etc). What is this world like in the year 2142? United Nations of Europe?

Jordan Thomas: The type of worlds we tend to see in dystopian stories tend to be these hyper New York/Tokyo-type cityscapes. Very dark. All modern with little of the past remaining. Advertisements everywhere. Dirty streets and never-ending skyscrapers. I really wanted to do something different and the guiding light when we were looking for an artist for the book was Europe and Moebius. I wanted to set the book in a future Europe that after various wars had ended up united under a dictatorship as a way to try and stand toe-to-toe with the other global superpowers but I wanted it to still feel very European. Everywhere in Europe is so full of history. Building, streets, monuments that are hundreds of years old, so there’s no reason why in another few hundred years these same structures won’t still be standing. I wanted a world that put an 800-year-old cathedral next to a piece of futuristic tech. That was what I put to Daniel and he has taken that and run with it to create something better than I ever could have imagined and different to anything I think you will have quite seen before. The visuals on this book are a true wonder and I just feel so fortunate that we found Daniel and he agreed to be the artist on the series.

Byron: Who are the Skin Police?

Jordan Thomas: Skin Police is the less than flattering nickname people have for the Duplicate Identification and Capture Division created by the United Nations of Europe dictatorship to track down and dispose of duplicates or ‘Dupes’. They are a highly trained group of government agents with the authority to deal with Dupes however they see fit, access the private information of any citizen, and they have passes to enter any building. You can not escape them.

Byron: Introduce readers to your protagonists. Can you spotlight them here?

Jordan Thomas: So, the main protagonist when we start is Brisson Eckis, the greatest DIC agent of all time with the most confirmed Dupe captures and kills of anyone in history. He’s in his forties but still as deadly as ever and when our story starts he is completely committed to the DIC cause and has just become a father. Eckis’ partner is currently in a coma after a mission that went wrong and so he gets paired with a trainee called Sheen Corfer. Sheen is the most impressive DIC academy student since Eckis himself, but Eckis isn’t overly thrilled at having someone take the place of his partner, especially not a ‘rook’.

Byron: Hmm… So intriguing and not far from today’s headlines at all in certain ways. Can you expound upon what we have already discussed about Dupes?

Jordan Thomas: ‘Dupes’ are duplicates or clones, as we’d call them. During the worst times of the infertility pandemic in the lead up to the wars in Europe thousands of people and couples turned to an illegal black market cloning technology to either purchase a baby or have a baby clone created using their own genetic material. However, the reason the government had discontinued the cloning research in the first place was because of an instability in the genes of the clones that were created leading to them beginning to breakdown between 28 and 32, with most becoming violent and delusional as well an increased amount of adrenaline suddenly filling their systems making them stronger and feel next to no pain.

Byron: No spoilers asked, but I have a suspicion there is a behind the scenes big bad. Can you at least confirm, deny or hint? (laughs)

Jordan Thomas: So, there is a ‘villain’ we are introduced to but as the story progresses readers will find that Skin Police is very much a story that operates in the grey areas with no true heroes or villains.

Byron: Talk about the awesome art of Daniel Gete.

Jordan Thomas: Daniel is insanely talented. Beyond the world building I’ve already discussed his character designs are so cool and distinctive, giving everyone in the story interesting and memorable looks. He also shines in the frantic, visceral action scenes the book is packed with. This is the most action-packed thing I’ve ever written and I chose an approach where we’d fill the page with panels to capture the speed and viciousness of the fighting, which asks a lot of the artist, having 12 panels on a page but keeping it clear what is happening and still being able to capture the necessary detail, and Daniel has just absolutely crushed it. I’m in love with his work and the days new pages come in are always a joy for me.

Byron: Jordan, what other projects coming out with which you are involved can you tell readers about?

Jordan Thomas: It’s actually been a fairly exciting few weeks for me. As well as the Skin Police announcement, my series Mugshots with Chris Matthews, a UK crime story that is like Brubaker and Phillips if they did a story with Guy Ritchie characters, is being published currently by Mad Cave Studios; two of the four issues are out so far and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Then Mad Cave also revealed that I have written a Flash Gordon story for Flash Gordon Quarterly #1, which is in stores in September, which is very cool. So, the rest of the year is going to be bursting with comics I’ve written, which hopefully people are happy about!

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Jordan Thomas for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. Skin Police #1 from Oni Press is slated to be on sale October 2!

For my DF interview with Jordan Thomas on Mugshots #1, click here: https://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/interviews.html?showinterview=IN03252482442

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