The Vort Preview

The enigmatic Crispy
From the forthcoming series The Vort
© 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G. Powell & Me.

This week's 2000AD contained an announcement that my latest project, The Vort, will be one of the slew of new stories staring next week. It's a double first for me; a full-colour series for 2000AD, written by newcomer G. Powell (in other words, it's not black & white and not written by Ian Edginton. The scar where they had to separate us surgically is still smarting :-)

Journalist Meridien Bless
From the forthcoming series The Vort
© 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G. Powell & Me.

The Vort is also a departure from my usual 2000AD subject matter; it's a future war story set on a bizarre alien planet made entirely of water, and permeated by a powerful electromagnetic field that prevents electronics from functioning. This means that all the technology on the Vort is either ultra low-tech (manual typewriters and hand bells for sounding the alarm) or "genekit" (biological rifles and sensor devices). Imagine Apocalypse Now with set dressing by H.R. Giger and you have a rough idea of what we're aiming for.

Chairman Dil
From the forthcoming series The Vort
© 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G. Powell & Me.

The story follows journalist Meridien Bless as she arrives on The Vort to cover a visit to the war zone by bigwig Chairman Dil; while there she begins discovering disquieting things about the nature of the war. It's about corporate imperialism and the brutalization of people in terrible situations, but it's also a corking good adventure story with a terrific, claustrophobic atmosphere. To add to the sense of confinement and suffocation, the whole thing is designed on a strict eight-panel grid (Mr. Powell's scripts even include page layout diagrams). I'll be interested to see what people make of it; it's a very different kettle of fish from Leviathan & Stickleback, but judging from this, we may expect great things in the future from Mr. Powell.