Souls Beyond The Surface in Ed Brisson's Cluster

by Vince Brusio

Yes we will colonize other worlds. How do you not see that coming? Humanity has spread across the globe since it first learned to make sensible shoes. And now that we’ve got space junk landing on Mars, it’s only a matter of time before Ed Brisson’s sci-fi story Cluster (DEC141166) is reality instead of fantasy. So now would be a good time to introduce yourself to the second-stringers who are out on the front lines fighting for your freedom. In this PREVIEWSworld exclusive interview, Ed introduces us to some of the personalities that are dodging danger for the future of your family.

Cluster #1 (DEC141166) is in stores February 4th.

Click here to see a PREVIEWS Prevue!

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PREVIEWSworld: What can you tell us about the storyline for Cluster? And spare no details. We’re counting every crumb.

Ed Brisson: Cluster is set at an undetermined time in the future. Earth has, of course, exhausted its resources and is looking to expand, to colonize other planets. They've found a planet, Midlothian, that has a similar atmosphere to Earth's and have begun terraforming it to make it fully inhabitable for human occupation.

There are two other alien races inhabiting this planet and they're none too pleased about Earth coming up here and just taking their planet from them, and so Earth finds itself at war. Pretty quickly Earth burns through its armed forces and has to start conscripting prisoners—offering to pardon life sentences in exchange for a fifteen-year tour of duty. Seems like a bargain for Earth's many lifers, however, when both your military and prison system are privatized. Well, some hinky stuff is going down.

That's all sort of back story, that's what's going on when we come in. We follow Samara, the daughter of a senator, who's been sentenced to life for a crime that is not immediately revealed to the reader. Her father attempted to block her joining the MID program (Military Inmate Deployment), but is powerless to stop it.

Landing on Midlothian, she's already an outsider. An upper-class spoiled rich kid slumming it amongst the poor. The book is about her trying to find her place here, trying to atone for her crimes all while having to fight off roving gangs of alien marauders. 

Saying any more than that would lead to spoilers. Let's just say that everything on Midlothian is not as it seems. Lots of twists and turns along the way.

PREVIEWSworld: Petty criminals as soldiers? Not exactly Starship Troopers who are fighting for citizenship. What’s the chemistry among the ranks of those fighting side-by-side. What can you tell us about the character dynamics?

Ed Brisson: As mentioned, Samara is a bit of an outsider, but she manages to, reluctantly, befriend Grace. Grace is abrasive and seems fully incapable of staying out of trouble.

In the prison, there are cliques and posturing. You know, jockeying for position and trying to be the top dog. But out on the battlefield, everyone manages to come together to fight the Pagurani, an alien race that seems hell-bent on destroying all terraforming efforts and wiping out the human occupation. If they don't work together on the battlefield, the prisoners are dead.

PREVIEWSworld: Why did you decide to write Cluster? What was the motivation?

Ed Brisson: There were a few things at play.

First, I really wanted to work with Damian on a creator-owned book. He's the first artist I ever worked on pitches with, nearly 10 years ago now. I've always really liked his work and count myself lucky as hell to be able to work with him. When the opportunity arose to do a creator-owned book with him at BOOM! after our run on Sons of Anarchy, it was a no brainer. In fact, I'd already been sort of putting together an outline with the intent of approaching Damian.

The idea of a prison-fed military is something that's been kicking around in my head for a few years now. Hell, just out of high school, I was trying to write and draw a comic with a similar premise (it was TERRIBLE, by the way). I wanted to do something that would evoke the feeling that I got when watching a lot of '80s sci-fi flicks. That sort of gritty and desperate feel. Something that nodded to '80s cinema without being all tongue and cheek, wink at the reader, if you know what I mean. Something serious. Something gritty. Something badass.

PREVIEWSworld: Without spoiling anything, what scene(s) would you be most excited to write about, or blog about in full geek mode?

Ed Brisson: Hrm. I don't know. There are some real twists coming up that I don't think readers will see coming, but there's no way of even hinting at them without risking a spoiler.

I think right now, what I'm most excited about is getting inside the heads of the characters. There are many that are second-string characters which been a lot of fun to write. For me, I think that's the thing I get off on the most when writing: getting inside the head of a character and giving them real human moments. You'll have all this crazy stuff happening, robot hordes, spaceships crashing down all over the place, alien genocide, and I'm fully focused on finding the humanity in it. The part that's going to make the reader care for the characters. That's what I get most excited about.

PREVIEWSworld: If people want to learn more about Cluster, how can they use social media or other web sites to get information?

Ed Brisson: Folks can track BOOM!s coverage of the book online at http://boom-studios.com/ and on twitter at @boomstudios. They can follow me at edbrisson.com and on Twitter I'm simply @edbrisson. Damian's also on Twitter at @DamianCouceiro.