Bad Mojo On The Jolly Roger

Space epics. Who doesn’t love ‘em? They let us enter another realm, and forget our everyday woes and worries. Star Wars and Star Trek fans will testify to that. For those kind of dedicated fans we’d like to appeal to your insatiable appetite for adventure, and point you towards a new sci-fi story brought to us from Magnetic Press. The book is called Warship Jolly Roger (MAY161625), and in this interview with creators Miquel Montllo and Sylvain Runberg we get a peek at upcoming explosions and eccentricities.

PREVIEWSworld: Warship Jolly Roger is a sprawling space opera filled with the sort of drama and adventure fans of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica will very likely appreciate, yet it has a very unique look and feel to it. Miki, what first inspired the idea for Warship Jolly Roger?

Miquel Montllo: Well, the main idea was to bring back the feeling of pure adventure that science fiction had in the 70s and 80s, when the first series of Star Trek were part of the pop culture, and movies like 2001 a Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner, just to give a few examples, were big hits on cinemas. I think these movies were giving people the possibility to speculate with different futures for mankind, or the dangers of uncontrolled evolution of technology and genetics. To me it’s really important that we discuss these issues as soon as we can because science fiction of today will be the science of tomorrow.

So, at the same time I was trying to create something that had a strong entertainment element to it, but also to create an ethical and philosophical debate about how we want to build our society.

PREVIEWSworld: The story is filled with mystery, betrayal, fantasy, technology, heartbreak, and revenge. What elements of the story do you find the most interesting and exciting to write?

Sylvain Runberg:  For me, the core of Warship Jolly Roger is the “space pirate” theme. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of this Japanese anime, Captain Harlock, and I always had in mind writing my own version of a space pirate.  So I was really excited when I received the proposition to develop Warship Jolly Roger, and was also amazed by the fantastic visual universe Miki was creating. But then, it’s really a mature, twisted, and violent version of the myth, as Jon Tiberius Munro becomes a space pirate after escaping from the prison he was serving a 170 years sentence for being a war criminal, having killed more than 10,000 civilians during an attack on a city during a previous civil war. The challenge was to develop a character that actually did that horrible thing he’s guilty of, no doubt about it, because as a military pawn, Munro was simply following orders from his hierarchy, without questioning them. But in the end, he’s the only one convicted for this terrible crime, the politician that gave the order, President Vexton, remains in charge and out of trouble. So Munro becomes a “space pirate” in order to achieve vengeance against Vexton.

PREVIEWSworld:  Were there influences that you specifically wanted to pay tribute to with the story?

Miquel Montllo: I remember on the early stage of character creation I was reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and I was fascinated by the character of Long John Silver and his relationship with Jim Hawkins. So I used them as an inspiration when I was working on Captain Munro and Thirteen, and I tried to capture that spirit and translate it to the science fiction genre.