DF Interview: James Patrick unleashes cool science fiction, a dash of horror and, oh yeah, perhaps the end of the world in ‘Astronaut Down’



By Byron Brewer

Douglas Spitzer wants to be one of the "astronauts" selected for the crucial Mission Politzer. And just as astronauts like Buzz Aldrin and Sally Ride, Douglas is brave, adaptable and self-sacrificing. He's one of the program's best candidates.

But if he qualifies, Douglas won't be traveling through space; he'll be launched into alternate realities on a desperate mission to save Earth from a horrific crisis that has our world on the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, it's a mission where everything will go wrong, where Douglas' training and very humanity will be put to the test, and where a deep-seeded secret could sabotage everything.
Writer James Patrick (Kaiju Score, Campisi: The Dragon Incident) and artist Rubine (Search for Hu) lead us on a perilous undertaking to save the planet from total destruction in Astronaut Down! They had ME at “Buzz Aldrin and Sally Ride”, so I tethered myself to a wall and floated into an anti-grav chamber to discuss the coming comic with scribe James Patrick.


Byron Brewer: James, tell readers a little about the inspiration for Astronaut Down coming soon from AfterShock Comics. Curiously, I heard it had to do with your fondness for the 2020 film Possessor, written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg?



James Patrick: Sure. And yeah, Possessor had kind of pushed me into making this particular book. I watched and loved that movie, and the aesthetic and originality was just mesmerizing to me. It had a unique mix of sci-fi, realism and violence. It was one of my favorite movies that year. And so I wanted, initially, to kind of just create after seeing that. To do a unique mixture. You come out of certain art, viewing it or listening to it, with kind of a high and kind of an urge to create. Now, the final product that is Astronaut Down does not resemble Possessor. It didn't inspire it in that way. It's more of a carrot that gets you off the couch and to the keyboard, and that was the big giant carrot at that moment. And I've heard a lot of creative people say that same thing about the Green Knight lately – a kind of, "I want to do something that feels like the Green Knight!" – and this was exactly that. So yeah, this thing started spinning out of that spark, and we threw in some 70's NASA, some Akira, and a dash of maybe Moebius when the scripts started growing.

And the other inspiration for the book was that I had a sh*t ton of stuff rejected and I wanted another book! I'd just come off the success of Kaiju Score, I knew there was a window in there to maybe take advantage of, and I didn't want it to pass by.
So yeah, my two motivations were Possessor and practicality.


Byron: Before we discuss more about the comic and its cast, what can you say about the world you and artist Rubine are building here? Give us just a taste of this Earth, where folks travel through things other than space and oceans.



James Patrick: The canvas here is kind of our world and kind of not our world. It resembles ours. I've said this in interviews before, but it gets the point across. Frank Miller once said he uses iconic pieces of different eras to fill Sin City. So, he might like a gun from the 20's or a car from the 50’s and so on. Astronaut Down isn't exactly like that, but to put the reader in the right sort of mindset, hopefully, we used a little 70's NASA, even though what's occurring hasn't occurred in our world yet and would technically be the future. All while society is in a place that's straight out of two years ago to now. So there's no locking down if this is our world or when it would be in our world. And all of that doesn't work on a conscious level unless people think about it. So there's this world where there's a similar program for sending people into alternate realities just like NASA sends astronauts to space or the moon. It's approached the same way, here it's been sped up out of necessity, and all the problems that come with an expedited space race arise. And the backdrop is a world that is dealing with a crisis that has changed it dramatically physically and societally, the latter of which is very similar to covid. There's just no denying this is a post-covid book the same way you can feel the post-9-11 influences in entertainment after 9-11. I did not set out to make some allegory on covid in any way, but when I needed certain elements to populate this story, it made sense. It made sense for the mechanics of the story.



Byron: Introduce us to Douglas Spitzer. Who is he as a character, his vocation and family, and how those may or may not have bearing on what we’ll be reading in this exciting new mag?



James Patrick: Douglas has had one course his whole life. He's aimed, trained and been focused on one thing: to be an astronaut. Whether it be to explore space or, in this case, the more symbolic version of what that means and explore alternate realities. He's been on this path and he thinks he has everything that's necessary – the exact tool-set – but when his destiny occurs and everything is on the line, he realizes there's been a wrench thrown into it. And it begins to reveal itself at the worst time.



Byron: No spoilers needed, but talk a little about Mission Politzer and how that converges with Spitzer’s life.



James Patrick: Mission Politzer is one of the missions to put an "astronaut" into another reality in an attempt to save the world. Previous missions have ended in disaster. Launches have gone horribly wrong for the "astronauts", and it's basically all come down to this to save everything. It's going to be their last shot since they're out of time. So imagine if you had to send a space shuttle up after Challenger and the stakes were, well, everything. Douglas is one of the astronauts. He's exceptional. Physically. He thinks that there is no way he can not succeed at this mission.



Byron: Are there a few other characters in the series that you can tell readers about? Maybe spotlight two or three here?



James Patrick: After Douglas, the Project Manager of Mission Politzer is Beverly Engle, and she has to not only save the world, she has to deal with all the fallout and bullsh*t that revolves around the mission. A press that's critical of her every decision. Her own self-doubt. The very stakes of the decisions she makes when it comes to selecting the astronauts, the timetable, etc. And then there's Maddie, who I won't get into, but she's a breath of fresh air that is completely the opposite of the duty-driven Douglas. She evens him out.



Byron: I will probably get a “Read the book” comment for this, but I am going to see if I can get a bit about some of the book’s mysteries. Can you give readers even the slightest of clues about a crisis which threatens Earth or an existing secret which may lead to the failure of Mission Politzer? (Haha! I know, I know… read the book.)



James Patrick: The crisis is essentially a crisis that has to do with the laws of physics and I won't get into the specifics or its origins. This is comics, so it's executed in a visual way. And how the world deals with this crisis is, as I've hinted at, similar to the different ways we dealt with covid. Where it goes from there I won't spoil, but I will say that, yes, there is a deep-seeded ticking time bomb that all of this place into Mission Politzer. A personal truth that nobody knows. It's very hard to describe it more without giving too much away.



Byron: What makes artist Rubine a great fit for this series?



James Patrick: Well, firstly and generally, he's just an exceptionally talented artist. But he also has a knack for finding that realism while still drawing amazing sci-fi. His storytelling is also very clean. And they say that the more complex a story, the more need for a cleaner art style. I'm not saying the story is super complex, but in any event he delivers it perfectly.



Byron: James, what other projects in which you are involved can you tell readers about?



James Patrick: Campisi: The Dragon Incident TPB, which collects the series, just came out on May 11th, Kaiju Score: Steal from the Gods, the sequel to Kaiju Score (optioned by Sony) is coming out right now and issue 2 hits stands on May 18th. I can't say too much about anything after those and Astronaut Down.



Dynamic Forces would like to thank James Patrick for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. Astronaut Down #1 from AfterShock Comics is slated to be on sale June 1st!
For more news and up-to-date announcements, join us here at Dynamic Forces, www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/, “LIKE” us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/dynamicforcesinc, and follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/dynamicforces.

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