In a dystopian future, all of mankind has been colonized by nanotechnology, able to take control of one’s memories and thus able to rewrite history each day.
Will the parasitism turn into a symbiosis ? One hope remains : a girl, raised off-grid, who could become the key to peace among all parts of this Humanity of the Future.
An ambitious graphic novel
Entirely written in verse, the original text is magnified by the beautiful watercolor paintings of each frame, adding meaning and visual emotion to the dense stanzas.
Mederic Degoy, author, and Christine Degoy, painter, started the graphic novel project in 2016, shortly after the release of the 300-page epic novel - which took 7 years of writing - in French. The release of the graphic version will be both in English and French.
This graphic novel is forecast to span at least 14 volumes of 90 pages each, starting 2017.
A special bond with the creators
the creators wished the readers to follow the ongoing work through the official website and social networks (instagram, facebook, pinterest, flickr) where new pages, drawings, and researches are regularly posted. Through this special bond, readers are invited to live, in real time, the creation of this artwork !
As the release date approaches, a crowdfunding campaign will allow readers to preorder the book ; buy all of the original, unique A2 paintings ; limited edition, signed prints ; and get different sizes of unique, large oil on canvas paintings by Christine Degoy, inspired by the series...
The first book is scheduled for fall 2017, with a gallery exhibition of all original drawings and paintings launching the first crowdfunding campaign.
An interview with the authors
- Q: This is your first graphic novel. How did you come to this project ?
- CD: We were thinking about comics since years, and we worked on several ideas and scripts around that. We love working together and this was a new, exciting project where we clearly had something special we could both bring ! Then, researching existing works, we fell in love with the graphic novel medium... It allows such a richness between text and drawings, that goes far beyond usual books or comics.
MD: I then realized my book was the perfect text for a graphic novel. It could be enhanced in such ways ! I wrote it in verse and thus the form is very compact, each stanza being a dense pack of meaning and information. Adding drawings and spacing the text on thousands of pages definitely allows a much better reading experience than a 300-page dense epic novel ! - Q: Why choose crowdfunding ?
- MD: We are creatives and we are web entrepreneurs. It came as an evidence, not to look after an editor, but create a direct bond with readers through social networks and crowdfunding.
The comics economy is quite tense and we wanted to keep our creativity at the maximum level. The only possible way was with a direct relationship with your readers, as the web now allows !
Of course there was an issue : my book was written in french poetry… I started to rewrite it in English and sent it to englishmen, poet friends. When they encouraged me to create the english version by myself, I knew I had it to rewrite it ! Thus, the crowdfunding will be held on the first book in two languages by the same author... Not entirely unseen but quite rare in the book business ! - Q: Mederic Degoy, can you tell more about the novel ?
- MD: I came to writing verses by accident ; I started the story in 2009, with a rough canvas of all first chapters ; I added then just 3 verses at the beginning of each chapter. My original idea was to write it in English. And when I started writing the first chapter, those 3 french verses just ballooned almost into a full chapter ! I sat back staring at this, and I then realised it was the perfect literary form to enhance my theme, where mankind and technology collides. While merging with any new entity, you usually go through a parasitic-like process, usually quite violent where all parts tend to want the best possible part ; and then, when the dust settles, you get a symbiotic-like process where all parts tend to a balanced agreement. In this regard, having a very rigid form at the beginning of the book (each chapter has the same number of verses, the same form) reflects what happens in mankind’s thoughts, once merged with a rigid technology. But of course someone has to balance this, and here comes the novel !
I won’t tell more about the plot, but I wanted to include the idea of some symbiosis on a new level in humanity ; basically, my point is that humanity is a product of several symbiosis, starting from bacteria and mitochondrias, adding ideas (an independent life form with memes acting as genes, and a lifespan far different as the physical body) and soul (also an independent life form, lasting much more than the physical body). The theme of the novel is the chaotic arrival of a fifth guest : nanotechnology. - Q: Can you tell about your background ? How do you work together ?
- MD: After finishing a movie school in France, while Christine graduated as interior designer in Paris, we created together a web agency, then several companies, mostly web-based. We are both of the creative type, Christine being mostly the visual one, and me mostly the conceptual one.
It was obvious for me, with my experience as a movie director and a graphic designer, to draw the storyboard and the general layout. Then, I handle the work to Christine.
CD: I am a painter - my main activity since almost 10 years - and my usual medium is oil on canvas, and watercolors - mostly an abstract research on colors and hidden energy networks. But now I love working on this project ! This is so different from large format painting… Each page could be designed with specific colors and arrangements, but we are far from abstract painting. In fact, I am now thinking of a way to merge the two mediums somehow… Let’s see at the opening exhibition or on social networks what it could become !