Rafael Albuquerque is best known for his haunting art on Vertigo's American Vampire comics, but he's running out of time (literally!) in Ei8ht, co-written by Mike Johnson, and due out next February from Dark Horse. We're thrilled to announce and reveal the first details regarding this chronally challenged scifi epic.
io9: What can you tell us about Ei8ht?
Rafael Albuquerque: Ei8ht is a story about Joshua, a chrononaut from the future, who is sent to this inhospitable place called the Meld. By trying to save his wife from a deadly disease he accepts the mission to travel in time to kill someone and, by doing that, accepts that everything will change if and when he returns. But weird things happen when arrives in the Meld. Dinosaurs, humans, and many levels of technology can be found there. It's not a place in time, but something else and Joshua will have to figure it out to stay alive and save his wife.
Mike Johnson: We really wanted to create a setting where we had the freedom to introduce any kind of character, animal, vehicle, and costumes we wanted. The unique nature of the Meld gives us the opportunity to let our imaginations run wild.
How would you describe The Meld?
RA: You've probably heard of the aircrafts that just disappear over the Bermuda Triangle, the events at Stonehenge, or the dark side of the moon? The Meld is a place where some things that inexplicably disappear [or] reappear. So, basically, the Meld is a big "temporal trash can." A place where you can find anything that ever lived on the face of Earth, coexisting.
MJ: The Meld is the place your keys go when you lose them. It's where you'll find the matching sock that disappeared in your laundry. It's where a medieval knight lands after he falls through a "magical" portal. Maybe a mastodon or two. Things pulled out of time and into the Meld. It makes it a dangerous place, because so many different things are colliding in this new dimension.
A Man Challenges Time Itself To Save His Wife In Comic Epic Ei8ht

By Rob Bricken

Rafael Albuquerque is best known for his haunting art on Vertigo's American Vampire comics, but he's running out of time (literally!) in Ei8ht, co-written by Mike Johnson, and due out next February from Dark Horse. We're thrilled to announce and reveal the first details regarding this chronally challenged scifi epic.

io9: What can you tell us about Ei8ht?

Rafael Albuquerque: Ei8ht is a story about Joshua, a chrononaut from the future, who is sent to this inhospitable place called the Meld. By trying to save his wife from a deadly disease he accepts the mission to travel in time to kill someone and, by doing that, accepts that everything will change if and when he returns. But weird things happen when arrives in the Meld. Dinosaurs, humans, and many levels of technology can be found there. It's not a place in time, but something else and Joshua will have to figure it out to stay alive and save his wife.

Mike Johnson: We really wanted to create a setting where we had the freedom to introduce any kind of character, animal, vehicle, and costumes we wanted. The unique nature of the Meld gives us the opportunity to let our imaginations run wild.

io9:How would you describe The Meld?

RA: You've probably heard of the aircrafts that just disappear over the Bermuda Triangle, the events at Stonehenge, or the dark side of the moon? The Meld is a place where some things that inexplicably disappear [or] reappear. So, basically, the Meld is a big "temporal trash can." A place where you can find anything that ever lived on the face of Earth, coexisting.

MJ: The Meld is the place your keys go when you lose them. It's where you'll find the matching sock that disappeared in your laundry. It's where a medieval knight lands after he falls through a "magical" portal. Maybe a mastodon or two. Things pulled out of time and into the Meld. It makes it a dangerous place, because so many different things are colliding in this new dimension.

Get the rest of the interview at io9!