The following is an interview with Eisner-nominated and Eagle Award-winning writer Alex Wilson and critically acclaimed artist Tony Gregori regarding the Kickstarter campaign launch for the final installment of the sci-fi noir series, Starweed. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Wilson and Gregori about their shared creative experience in bringing the story arc to a close, what readers can anticipate in terms of backer rewards, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the Kickstarter campaign launch for the final installment of Starweed! For those who may be encountering the series for the first time, what can you tell us about the story’s premise?
Tony Gregori: In the future, people smoke the ashes of dead celebrities to get high, and our protagonist, Digs, is a freelance “grave robber” caught in the middle of a drug lord turf war. That’s the elevator pitch!
Alex Wilson: Thank you for this interview/the interest! Yeah, that about covers it. Also starring dinosaurs and an inflatable Clark Gable.
BD: For returning readers who are eager to see the story continue, what are you most excited for readers to experience with this final issue?
TG: The last we saw of Digs, she was barrelling through space with a naked Clark Gable and a cargo hull full of dinosaurs, and the last we saw of Taj, he was lying in a hospital bed, healing from multiple gunshot wounds. Somehow, we were able to tie all this up in a convenient bow.
AW: In order to survive the trip back to Earth, the only food on board was in the form of edibles. So, we have this high-strung, control freak who’s been kicking butt all over the solar system. And now we get to see her kick butt on starweed.
BD: How would you describe your shared creative process in bringing this trippy story to life on the page, and what has been your experience in seeing these characters’ arcs through to their conclusion?
TG: It’s been a joy to work with Alex. He’s a willing and generous collaborator and has a seemingly endless well full of ideas and gags. He also has a magnificent bald head.
AW:: Back at ya! Unless you grew it back since last time I saw you, traitor. Tony’s amazing. And talk about an endless well! For every broad choice I made, he made a dozen. Seriously, go through the Moscow heist at the top of issue 1 with a magnifying glass. And he and Claudia (Aguirre) worked so well together! There’s a climatic page in the final issue which I’ve been calling “the Mural page,” which is so gonzo and wild, I think I pre-apologized for it in the script. But in their hands it’s a thing of chaotic beauty.
BD: If given the opportunity, would you like to further develop the world or characters of Starweed into additional story arcs or other entertainment mediums?
TG: Absolutely! I feel like we’ve truly only scratched the surface of this world and its inhabitants. For example, here’s a ship full of marauders in issue #2 that I think deserves some exploration down the road, if we ever had the opportunity. Also I think Starweed would make for an amazing video game!
AW: Yeah, I’d be down, especially if a publisher was interested. And, yeah, that’s a good thought, Tony, how it might work in another medium. I’ve dug the way Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (cough, writers of Pineapple Express, cough) have explored the culture of celebrity by mashing it with genre ideas, like in The Boys or This Is The End. Something like that could be fun.
BD: In light of the crowdfunding campaign, are there any specific backer rewards that you would like to highlight for our readers?
AW: I’ve been wanting to do a tie-dye shirt for a while, so I’m particularly excited about that. At the high end, you can get a Starweed strain named after you, so you are canonically famous in this universe. And I’m a TTRPGer, so I’ve asked some gamedev friends to help us make a Fiasco module which will be a stretch reward. And if you want to play that with us, an improvised “Starweed heist” roleplaying game over Zoom, that’s an option! But we make comics because we love comics, and it’s honestly the new readers taking a chance on PDFs or hardcopies of our little book that I get the most excited about, no matter how cool the Daniel Irizarri variant cover might be. (And it is very cool.)
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find out more about Starweed and its Kickstarter campaign?
TG: Folks can head to Starweed.com and get a taste there. Alex put together a fun and entertaining video package and also you can pick up issues 1 and 2 as well as #3 and get high on our supply!
AW: But please read responsibly.
