SE: I'd like you to give our readers a broad description of what Hieroglyph is about. I think one aspect of it that is incredibly interesting is the combination of science fiction and the theology of another planet . . .
RD: Right. Well science fiction and theology both play a big part in Hieroglyph, but I think for me its more about monsters and archeology. I guess it's like looking through the pages of National Geographic when I was a kid and really enjoying that. From the time I was very young I was fascinated with ancient cultures, ancient civilizations, and other places in the world. Then eventually I also got into things like Ray Harryhausen films. They start off just being monster movies, but later on he started really injecting a lot of, I guess, anthropology and world cultures, and philosophy, too. The more stories he created, the more exotic they became.
SE: That's true. But he did some remarkable stuff.
RD: Yeah. I really enjoyed the part of being a kid and watching the re-releases of The Seven Voyages of Sinbad, I was really affected and influenced by that.
SE: In Hieroglyph you have a character who travels to another planet far on the other side of the solar system, and he encounters not only the contemporary lives that populate the planet but he also learns a lot about the history of their ancestors. It's a neat set-up for a science fiction comic.
RD: That's right. There is a whole back story there that you can sort of vaguely figure out, which is all I want. I just want people to read this and say "You know there is a really unique history to this planet that might sort of resemble our own." There are all these ruins and fish mummies and cool stuff, and there are mosaics that show people with cool robes and octopus heads . . .
SE: It's great stuff, and it's not too unlike things we've seen on our own planet. I mean, think of those Egyptian painting that show people with Jackal's heads . . .
RD: Exactly. So, all of this is deliberately for me to show that there was a past on this other planet as well as a present. There is sort of a direction that the cultures have been taking as the years on this planet have passed. The civilizations are advancing, and the deeper you go into the storyline, the more you realize this is a well-rounded world
SE: Oh, yeah. That's one of the things I really appreciate about Hieroglyph so far . It's like when somebody says, "Well, I wonder-if there are creatures on Mars, what do they look like?" And everybody has just one image of, say, little green men. So, if some being from another planet was coming to earth, would they expect all off us, animals included, to fit just one image?
RD: That right.
SE: Just considering the human population of this planet-there are adults who are seven feet tall and adults who are three feet tall. And, of course, there are different races . . . so I like how you take these sorts of factors into account here and populate this one planet with so many different kinds of creatures.
RD: Well, see that's the thing. If you look at a lot of science fiction films and books and whatever, when humans land on a planet or when you go to another world, there is often only one design philosophy. For example there is always the planet of the desert nomads, right? And there is the planet of the Egyptians, or there is the planet of the Mayans, so to speak. And so what I thought would be logical is if you were to go to another planet, there would be all these different cultures. It would be logical because it would mirror our own planet. We've all these sort of design philosophies, from gothic to baroque, which give you all sorts of really rich ways to express yourself. We are human beings, but to me its logical that aliens would do that as well.
SE: I think it's funny that humans have so much cognitive capacity, and yet, even when we fanstastically try to imagine life on another planet, it tends to be very narrowminded.
RD: That's right. For example, the aliens are always naked.
SE: Usually, yeah.
RD: And, you know, not to be silly about it, but a higher evolved personality would be vain and have an ego, and these cultures would probably have a societal way to judge people by the way they dress. If you go back through time, you were judged within your class by how you dressed.
SE: Yeah, and I think too often people think clothes are pretty much only for protection or for very practical purposes. Sometimes we forget that they also serve as adornment-I mean, another sign of civilization is adorning yourself. Clothing can very much be an art form.
RD: That's true, you know. For example, purple was viewed as being suitable only for royalty for so many years throughout Europe. Maybe if you go to another planet, ash gray would stand for royalty. And you always hear about how black absorbs heat, but I would venture to tell you that if you look through National Geographic, or if you look at almost any desert culture, you will see people shrouded in black-especially from the Middle East. You'd think it would be sweltering in there.
SE: I can't remember what it's called, but there's also a really ingenious layering system they do with lots of cotton layers where the black actually keeps them cooler . . .
RD: But its also a very theological symbol, as well. So with this series, I want to have that sort of thing where you can look at many different things that aren't being told to you exactly in the narrative. Or, if there is only one real conversation in the first four issues that there will definitely be a visual story to be told, as well. All of these visual elements show that these beings give off visual clues to their status, and their theological beliefs-and these beliefs dictate how they dress and who they are.
SE: Well, let's kind of get away from the broader discussion of what you are doing in Hieroglyph and talk a little more about the adventure side of it. Let's talk about Chavez-tell me about your hero.
RD: Well, the hero of Hieroglyph is Francisco Chavez and he is an explorer who has come to this planet to chart it, to explore, to document it. And he is a loner, but he is also an intellect. He's an adventurer, but I like to think that given a chance he would prefer to draw a camera than a gun. There is plenty of gunplay in the story but there is a lot of thought given to his reactions to different things. I think that given the chance, when his life isn't directly in danger, he gives people-or species in this case-the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. But he still has to protect himself. Again, he is an adventurer but he is one with a mind. He has a family that he misses very much, so he's not really a loner in that sense. But he has left earth for this long mission, and he thinks of his family very often and very deeply, but he is also capable of working independently with them in mind. He loves his family and he cares for them. He misses them, and he cries for them, and that is based on my love for my family. I wish for them to be safe, and comfortable, and Chavez wants the same for his family. I think it's hard on him to not only be away from them, but also to realize that his being gone is most likely affecting them, too. I want my characters to be that well developed, so that you see their emotions and know them more deeply as a person and a character.
SE: And while throughout the story Chavez believes that there is a very good chance he might never see his family again, either because he might get killed or because he might not be able to get off the planet because aliens take his ship and all that, he also doesn't give up.
RD: Right. Well, I think that missing his family is a huge thing for Chavez, but he is also incredibly fascinated by the things he sees. And I think it is one thing to be a loner on a desert island, but if that desert island has the ruins of Petra, for example, at least you'd be distracted by something cool . . .
SE: Yeah. That's true.
RD: And it's not in Chavez' nature to say, "Oh, yeah, that's a bunch of rocks." He'd be off exploring them and seeing what he could learn. And if you happened to be an artist there, you would draw them and paint them, and if you were a writer, you might write about them.