Adam Gallardo's Gearing up for School
In the future, Earth’s dreams of empire have brought them into conflict with a mysterious and warlike alien race. To fight these aliens, humanity has created giant fighting machines called Gear.
Being a Gear driver is the dream of most of society. But drivers aren’t born, they are made—training at elite military academies begins at a young age. The most prestigious school, The E. D. Swinton Academy, known to its teachers and students as Gear School, is exacting, rigorous, and unforgiving. Into this harsh world comes Teresa Gottlieb, a thirteen-year-old prodigy from an old military family. At Gear School she finds all of the travails/challenges/tribulations of any middleschooler—mountains of homework, byzantine social cliques, and the opposite sex—but she also has to contend with crazed military instructors, dangerous equipment, and imminent
alien attack!
If she can survive her first week at Gear School, Teresa may just become humanity’s best chance at survival . . .
“Gear School is an idea that has been kicking around in my head for a while, so I’m happy to finally have the chance to do it,” said creator Adam Gallardo. “It combines two of my favorite things—teen angst and giant fighting robots! What’s not to love? Then there’s Núria Peris’s awesome robot designs and beautiful illustrations. To sweeten the deal, I get to work with Dave Land and Dark Horse Comics again and that makes Gear School a dream project.”
Gear School features story by Adam Gallardo and art by Núria Peris and will arrive in 2007.
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That’s the hype, writer Adam Gallardo and ML’s Craig Johnson sat down for a quick chat to find out more…
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Q - The US Con season is getting into full swing, any plans on attending any?
I'm in San Diego at Comic-Con as I fill out this questionnaire.
Q - How's it going at San Diego? What's your slate like, or is it all pleasure?
The convention is going very well, thanks. The second 100 Girls collection is here, which is nice. Todd Demong, my co-creator on that book, and I spend most of our time in the Arcana Studios booth talking to people and pushing awareness of the book. But I do still have time to walk the floor a bit, buy a few things, and get lots of snaps of costumed fans.
Q – What's your take on the gradual migration of SDCC towards films and toys, rather than comics?
You know, I'm fine with it. I think that it can only help bring a wider awareness to comics. And I think it's not film, toys, and games RATHER than comics, it's all of those things AND comics. Think of it like this – there are people at this convention to see what's new in video games, or in toys, and who never gave much thought to comics at all. But you can't really avoid the comics aspect of it here and maybe that exposure will make this theoretical consumer give comics a chance. I am open to the idea that anything that gets comics in front of people is good and anything that ghetto-izes comics is bad.
Q – Tell us how Gear School originally started life.
The book began like most things for me, just a few notes in a day book. If I recall correctly, the one sentence hook was, Degrassi High meets Mobile Suit Gundam. My thinking on the idea solidified when Dave Land asked me if I had any sci-fi ideas I wanted to submit to him. I worked it up from that sentence to a paragraph and then sent it off to Dave along with maybe half a dozen other ideas. Gear School was the one that Dave responded to most, so together he and I started working on the pitch. I actually love that whole process. It's all about working from the very general to the very specific. You start with a description that's one sentence, work it to one paragraph, then a five- or six-page plot and finally a full script.
Q – Something about the book itself?
The book is set in the future. Earth is in perpetual war with an alien race and the main weapons are giant fighting robots called Gear. Military academies begin training drivers very early, about the time that kids in the U.S. start middle school, so thirteen or fourteen. The first book focuses on a girl named Teresa Gottlieb who has just entered the school and who, on top of all the other perils of Junior High life, also has to contend with learning to operate insanely complex and dangerous machinery.
Q - What's the format intended to be? Mini-series, set of manga books? A definite beginning, middle and end or will there be scope for future volumes/series?
Gear School will be an 88-page color, original graphic novel. I believe the size will be the same as the Dark Horse Manga trades. For now, I believe it's planned as a one-shot, but Dave Land has hinted that there could be more if this one does well.
Q - What's your favourite word?
Schadenfreude.
Q - What do you consider to be your single best piece of writing - comics or otherwise?
There are some sequences from Star Wars: Infinities – Return of the Jedi and from the later issues of 100 Girls that seem almost like they were written by someone else I like them so much.
Q - What is your favourite cheese?
I've always liked bleu cheese, but cheddar may be my favorite.
Q - What is your favourite writers' quote and why? "Death is no obstacle." Michael Moorcock. To me, it just describes the approach that sci-fi writers should take to their subject.
Q - What inspires you to write and why?
I write because I couldn't not write. Simple as that. Even if my stuff weren't getting published, I'd still write.
Q - How long have you been writing, what do you do with your unpublished material?
I've been writing since grade school. I've written everything: poems, stories, chapters of unfinished novels, essays. For the most part, everything goes into boxes. If I ever become famous for writing, all of that will have to be burned so that it can't be found and prove an embarrassment.
Q - What do you think makes a comics writer successful?
Speed. And creativity and fearlessness. I'm still trying to work on that last one.
Q – How important are industry contacts compared to talent, do you think?
I guess they're both important. It seems difficult to get any work in the first place without some contacts. But once you have some work, man, you'd better have some talent to bring to bear, or you're not going to get anywhere.
Q - What are your goals as a comics writer?
To make writing comics my job. By which I mean I want to support myself with it.
Q - What's your current day job? How do you manage to find the time to write around it?
My current day job is running a blue print reproduction machine. I work at a place called Fox Blue Printing which is actually a really cool place to work. And that job makes it easy to write when I get home, it takes up very little mental space once I'm off the clock. The thing that takes up all my time right now is planning my wedding in September!
Q - What is the best tip you can give to aspiring comics writers?
Read everything, not just comics.
Q - Which comic do you wish you'd written?
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. In my opinion, the best comic ever written.
Q - Moore's annotations to From Hell are almost worthy of a book in themselves, is this something you could see yourself doing for a project?
One dream project is a three book cycle focusing on the English Civil War. One volume each for Charles I, Cromwell the Protector, and Charles II. I could see that requiring the insane amounts of research and annotation that From Hell used.
Q - Which comics are your current favourites?
I love nearly everything written by Warren Ellis. Grant Morrison is also a favorite. Wednesday I bought a copy of Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls. I have a feeling that is going to be a new personal favorite.
Q - Regarding Lost Girls - where does art end and pornography begin?
At the point where a gal is doing it with a donkey? Seriously, I don't know. High courts have wrestled with that question and haven't been able to answer it, I don't know what hope I have of settling it. But there is some invisible line that exists where people say, "everything on this side of the line is erotica, everything over there is porn." Part of the problem is that line is highly individual. Maybe it's a question of intent. Are the creators involved aspiring to art, or are they just trying to move product? Moore and Gebbie are clearly trying to create something meaningful, whereas most porn producers are just trying to titillate and capture eyeballs. Or so I assume.
Q - Do you have aspirations to hit the big two and take on, say, Superman or Spider-Man?
I think it could be fun to work for DC or Marvel. They each have a wealth of characters, so it'd be fun to play in those sandboxes. Why, have you heard they're looking to hire some new writers?
Q - What next for Adam Gallardo?
Todd Demong, my co-creator on 100 Girls, and I are talking about doing a new miniseries, so that's going to happen soon. And I'm working on the initial stages of a new book with an artist friend of mine, Devon Devereaux, called Triptych. It's sort of a coming of age story as told by David Lynch. And if anyone out there would like to throw some paid work my way, I wouldn't mind!
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