Contraband - An Interview with TJ Behe
Brian Eison;)
Contraband Cover
One of the nice things I have learned about the comic book industry since we started The Dollar Bin is that it is very easy in the internet age to have a real sense of community between everyone involved. Sites like ours, MySpace, Comic Space and countless message boards can help us all make and keep contact and share our enjoyment of comics. It was actually on Comic Space that I first came into contact with writer TJ Behe. Thanks to that just mentioned magic of the web we recently had the chance to talk about his recent project Contraband with artist Phil Elliott being released via Slave Labor Comics. And it goes a little something like this…
Brian - So, how about starting with just a basic introduction for everyone. Who are you and where are you from?
TJ - I’m a Canadian writer living in London with my cool and very patient wife Stephanie and newborn son Theo. I spend my day hours working on wireless marketing and commerce development projects and evenings/weekends on writing stories.
Brian - Let’s get some background of your personal history with comics. How long have you followed the medium and what types of things do you read and enjoy in comics?
TJ - Like lots of 70’s kids, I bought lots of comics and hid out in a tree fort to read ‘em though I didn’t keep much of a collection as my brothers would borrow ‘em then wreck ‘em! I was more into the adventure stories than cartoon or super hero stuff my big bro likes so much. He actually started making a nice chunk of cash paint brushing them on t-shirts before high school which always impressed me.
Brian - When did you decide that you wanted to be creatively involved in the industry and what made you decide to make the leap from reader to writer?
TJ - After ten years of working on cell phone projects I was keen to create a story revealing how mobile technology use and abuse can affect today’s society. I guess it was more about getting the idea out than thinking about becoming some sort of official comic artist as Contraband is the first piece of fiction I’ve ever written.
Brian - Who and what are some of your creative influences in producing this comic? What about creatively outside of comics?
TJ - I like reading all sorts of indie comics but I’d say my writing is more influenced from clever stuff I’ve seen in cool foreign-language flicks. I see as many as possible which is easy here in the UK. Looking back over the past 20 years, I can name over a half-dozen foreign flicks robbed of the Best Picture Oscar. That being said I also love top American flicks like Fight Club and Blade Runner so there’s probably some of these movies in my writing too.
Brian - How did you come up with the idea for Contraband?
TJ - The idea came about while working on a user-generated project at a UK mobile operator. Some sneaky kid had up-skirting a woman on an underground train and posted the clip on our network. So while top management were blowing their nut and the tech team began implementing an age-verification layer, I was thinking how some nasty bloke could probably offer a good revenue share to motivate sh*t-disturbing kids to send in more. So my antagonist Tucker was born. I thought up this violent channel called Contraband that thrived in a sort of “urban theatre”, where youths prowl city streets secretly film strangers then post sensational, erotic and violent mobile videos.
Brian - Is there any sort of statement you hope comes across about modern technology and how we use it for entertainment as it relates to your story?
TJ - Above all, I want Contraband to be a fun read. I love hearing readers say they had a good time tucking into it. But I did work to get the idea of “more tech = less privacy” threading throughout the tale. In this society, men could no longer shower in gyms. Women in dresses avoid seats on trains. Teens run daily exhibitionist mobile blogs featuring candid clips of close friends and family members. User-generated mobile spy-cam content becomes big business as society demands increasingly radical videos. But it’s also tough to police corrupt individuals like Tucker because it’s not in the mobile operator’s best interest to do so. They’ve beaten the government (ID card), internet community portals and banks in the race to create robust personal profile to track people, sell them products, and invade their privacy for commercial gain. It all kind of spirals out of control – because technology users and consumers let it…
Brian - How did you and the artist team up for this project?
TJ - I was searching for someone who could bring the book’s ideas to life in a more European style. After checking out over a dozen artists, I found UK comics veteran Phil Elliott who’s previously collaborated with GN heavyweights like Eddie Campbell and Paul Grist. He’s a far more of a big-hitter than I originally thought (his work has been praised by the likes Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman in the past) but after he started pumping out solid pages, I knew I was very lucky to have him on board.
Brian - Tell us a bit about your relation ship with Slave Labor Comics and how you came to work with them.
TJ - Phil’s been doing books with SLG for many years (Absent Friends, Tupelo) so it made sense to work with such a cool brand. For a small publisher, they’re quite professional and the top dog Dan Vado is a pretty down-to-earth guy. Because each title creator-owned, you’ll find that most Slave Labor’s artists are pretty motivated to promote and sell their sequential art.
Brian - What’s next for you creatively?
TJ - I have another chunky 120 pager nearly ready to go. The story’s a tad more gritty/intense and I’m currently looking for someone whose artwork suits the tone/themes & really knock folk’s socks off.
Brian - Ok, sales pitch time. You’re in your local comic shop, and you see a guy eyeing a copy of Contraband. What’s your sales pitch to try to get him to pick it up?
TJ - Phew! watch out, this one’s really “selly”. Contraband is an alarming, entertaining and timely thriller - and the first to detail the growing abuse of video cell phone technology by youths like social network scams and bullying and telecoms companies with privacy invasion and data profiling. It’s doing pretty well in the US/UK and has picked up some cool recommendations from comic sites like Newsarama and Comics International, artists like Ben Templesmith and even weird non-comic rags like The Financial Times and Wired.com. I think you’ll like it so give it go. Hey, if you hate it, drop me a mail at contraband[at]live.co.uk and I’ll give you your money back. Told you it would leave a scent!
Thanks again to TJ for the interview and you can get more information about Contraband at http://www.contrabandcomic.com and you can check out a trailer for the comic here.
Reader Comments (2)
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