The Not-So-Distant Future:

A Chat with Brian Wood

by Laura DePuy (laura@sequentialtart.com)

If you've come here looking for superheroes, you've come to the wrong place. Unless, of course, you consider the herculean efforts of Brian Wood, who takes on New York City and all its modern faults, and attempts to predict what could happen in the next few years if we are not careful: Channel Zero.

Brian Wood, an illustrator with a BFA from Parsons School of Design, has created one of the most visually exciting and politically daring books on the shelves today. He marries gritty storytelling, needle-sharp black & white linework, and an innate sense of typography to create a media assault on both the reader and the book's characters. Fueling all this is a terrifyingly realistic view that America is only a few scant steps away from implosion, where the Christian Coalition wins the war, where the government bends over for the Jerry Falwells ... and where the only hope lies in revolutionaries like the master hacker and tattooed journalist Jennie 2.5 or in the silent hope of one lone Cleaner. This futuristic media blast is Channel Zero, put out by Image Central.

I caught up with Brian online and asked to dig around a little in his skull. Here's what we found.

Sequential Tart: Would you consider Jennie 2.5's technology savvy or the Cleaner's terrifying reputation to be akin to 'superpowers' in the world they inhabit?

Brian Wood: i wouldnt consider Jennie 2.5 to be anybody special. i mean, she has her strengths, but apart from a strong will and a huge ego, she is pretty normal. her techno-savvy is more about her having contacts that help her out that anything else. i wanted to make her as normal as i could, complete with personality flaws and prone to making fuckups, just like anybody. Channel Zero is all about one person wanting to make a difference, that person being you or me or anybody, so what good would it do to give Jennie 2.5 "superpowers", as you put it, or skills above the norm?

The Cleaners, on the other hand, or the Powers That Be in general, now they have real power. The Cleaners drift around the city like ghosts, these wraiths that look like everyone else, but wield absolute power and total freedom. With the government behind them, they can do whatever.

ST: Why do they miss their goals of heroism--is it their lack of success, their approach, their ego?

BW: Jennie 2.5 has a big ego. She wants to bring about change, but she also wants to be famous, and i wonder which desire is strongest at times. She only met with marginal success because of this, and i dont think she would EVER succeed unless she can keep her ego in check.

ST: Since CZ is all about the media and how people react/respond to it, let's explore that a bit. How close to CZ's media is the current American media system? The propaganda-to-news ratio in CZ is frighteningly high on propaganda. What would you say is the ratio in current American and international media? Are we that far off?

BW: We are not that far off. Look at Fox News. Fuck, look at Fox's entire lineup. How many "news" shows do they have that are complete crap? Its all flash and no substance, all scandal and sex, all human interest and no actual news. Look at "The Fox Files". Or "Greatest Cop Car Chases" or whatever. They have dozens of them. Is this what passes for news? The local news in New York is horrible, on most of the stations. Newscasters openly comment of the stories, prematurely announcing accused people "guilty", or calling them "trash" and "perverts" even before we have all the facts of the crime, and WELL before they ever go to trial. What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?...people are supposed to be "innocent until proven guilty," but the way things seem to be going, with the media as irresponsible as they are, its more like "guilty until proven innocent," especially in New York, and ESPECIALLY if you arent white.

ST: Do you consider yourself a conspiracy theorist or a well-informed realist?

BW: i would never consider myself a "conspiracy theorist". That title alone screams out "incredibility", some unstable loser who has too much time on their hands. i think i am very much a realist.

ST: Go into that--how do you stay informed, what do you look out for, how do you use that information in your stories?

BW: i try my best to stay informed via television, and the many news sources i visit daily online. I read a lot, i attend my girlfriend's classes when i can and listen in (mostly literature and film classes, but there were a few last year that were great, like media in third world countries, and revolutionary literature), and i rely on my own education. I think its true that history repeats itself, and knowing your past is knowing your future.

i digest and analyze everything i read, see, and hear, and predict what i think will happen, to the best of my knowledge, and put it in CHANNEL ZERO, in the plot, and also in the newscasts that are scattered througout the series.

There is one exception, however, and thats in CZ#4. I invented the Cleaners, obviously they don't exist, but everything else in that story is true, thats what New York is like now, thanks to our infamous Mayor Rudy Guiliani and his "quality of life" campaigns. This is an ongoing thing, and i want to follow up on this issue in future stories. It' important to me, and i dont like seeing my favorite city turned into a cultureless amusement park for tourists and rich white people, presided over by the largest police force on the planet.

ST: What made you create the Cleaners? Do they represent anything beyond the bastard child of the coupling of the Religious Right and the government?

BW: The Cleaners are the NYPD, basically. People who know me know i have no love for the cops in New York, and the Cleaners are how i see them, maybe not right now, but very soon, especially if Mayor Guiliani keeps doing what he is doing.

ST: Will you be exploring their role further?

BW: Based on what most friends and readers have told me, the Cleaners are possibily the most interesting aspect of Channel Zero. I want to explore them further, and will in the near future.

ST: Speaking of readers....Response to Channel Zero has been overwhelmingly good, if the lettercols are any indication. Have you gotten any feel for your readers' other preferences--comics, internet, tv/film, etc.?

BW: i think i have received maybe 150 letters so far, and maybe a half-dozen have been negative. im amazed by this, i assumed the controversial nature of the book would warrant lots of hate mail, but no. Ive received some mail from christians and even priests who complain that i am biased in my representation of christianity, (which is true, but i am not looking to present a balanced view of christianity in america. its not what the comic is about).

Most readers recommend books to me, mostly Marshall McLuhan, and the like. I get compared to Frank Miller and Warren Ellis, and sometimes to Grant Morrison. A few bright individuals catch on to the similarities to Max Headroom, which is possibly the strongest influence. What a great show.

My readers are very smart, and like i said before, always present me with smart, well-thoughtout letters that always give me lots to think about. i love getting mail. i only wish there were more of them.

ST: In CZ, you occasionally touch on a ray of hope for the reader. Jennie 2.5 broadcasts her call to attention; the Cleaner thinks for himself...any more rays of hope for the reader to cling to? Any chance of a real uprising among the masses, or even a small percentage of the masses?

BW: i dont want to put out a depressing book. i want people to think there is hope, and i want to believe that too, but honestly, personally, i just see the world www.brianwood.comsteadily declining to a shittier and shittier state. i just dont think its human nature to rise above our defects. its too easy to just let things be.

maybe someone or something will prove me wrong. maybe it will be someone like Jennie 2.5 or whatever. that would be pretty cool.

ST: How long a series is CZ planned for, and do you have your eye on any future projects?

BW: i am taking a break from CZ for a little while, for a number of reasons. its a matter of not having the time to do it the way i think it should be done, the way it deserves to be done. the first few issues were rushed, and i hate that. im working on a CZ graphic novel now that i hope to have out by years' end, and i have a couple other projects planned, such as a comic/graphic version of CultureSpit, my girlfriend's zine, and a project with Warren Ellis.

The story of Channel Zero is really a huge story. i want to spend more time on it, really make it killer. i will be posting new art up on www.brianwood.com in the coming months for all to see. i think you will all realize that the final product will the worth the wait.

ST: Any last thoughts?

BW: just a little tidbit i remember... Darick Robertson [Transmetropolitan] once told me that Jennie 2.5 could be Spider Jerusalem's grandmother, the whole tattooed journalist thing. i though that was interesting.

The comic is called Channel Zero, published under the Image I. If you can't find it at your local shop, stop by www.brianwood.com and drop Brian a line. He's more than happy to spread the tale of an America that very well could come true — if we take the easy way out, stand back and let things happen.

" ... i wanted to make her as normal as i could, complete with personality flaws and prone to making fuckups ... "

" ... i want people to think there is hope ... "

" ... Jennie 2.5 could be Spider Jerusalem's grandmother ... "

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