INTERVIEW: Sean Wang, Part II

REPUBLIBOT 3.0:

Wecome back to our two-part interview with Sean Wang, Writer, Comics Illustrator. Part one of the interview is online here http://www.republibot.com/content/interview-sean-wang-discusses-%E2%80%9...

So, Sean, you were self-publishing it right? That can’t have been easy in those days. How did that come about?
 
SEAN WANG:
The self-publishing was more out of necessity, since many comic publishers at the time, like a lot of comic readers, had a strong aversion to sci-fi comics. Historically, they haven’t done well as a genre, so most publishers were unwilling to take a chance with RUNNERS, despite really liking the story and art. The actual self-publishing wasn’t too difficult, but it’s certainly gotten more difficult in recent years, which is why I decided to go online with the series. As a small press title, it’s very hard to compete with Marvel and DC. A lot of stores just don’t have the money or space to order everything, so, understandably, they stick with what they know. But that sort of thing also hinders me from ever building up a sizeable audience. But by putting the entire series online for free at www.runnersuniverse.com, I’m making it available to everyone, everywhere, so hopefully there will be no impediments to people checking it out. Unless your internet connection goes down!
 
REPUBLIBOT:
When I first introduced Runners and your website to our readers a little while ago, I mentioned how your fictional universe seemed very fleshed out. There isn’t a need for a ton of exposition, things are consistent enough that readers can pick them up through context or inference, and get a small sense of how the larger Runners Universe works. I like that you’re not talking down to your audience, there’s no “Here’s how it goes: Long ago there was a war between the koozbanians and prosthetic forehead peoples of blah blah blah the treaty of hoobajoobah.” That kind of thing gets tedious really quick, but they way you’re telling the story you’ve set it up so you don’t *need* that sort of thing. That’s pretty clever. Was it fun ‘world building’ and setting up the rules the Runners Universe runs by?
WANG: 
Ha ha! Yeah, in my initial drafts of the first story, back in 1994-95, there WAS lot more exposition, with characters explaining things to other characters who should have already known better. That was bad. So when I revisited the scripts in 1999, I cut a lot of that out. I realized that as the writer, I needed to know the mechanics and history of the RUNNERS universe, but the readers didn’t need to be let in on everything.
For story delivery, I was very influenced by the early issues of the comic series Bone. That book eventually built into a big epic story, but it started out very light and very accessible, which was great. So I planned for the first RUNNERS arc to be a light romp, a fun introduction to the universe, while still planting some of the seeds for the bigger story to come. I figure an epic story is much more engrossing when you start small and eventually build the situations around the characters, rather than just dropping them into the thick of things right away.

REPUBLIBOT:
Sometimes it’s good to have a long gestation period like that for a story. It lets you prioritize it and give it that