Michael Moreci | Roche Limit

ComiXology: Conversations is an interview-type show with comic book writers, artists, colorists, letterers, storytellers, and just about anyone making or reading amazing books. Portions of the interview have been abridged for maximum hilarity and you can find links to the books mentioned here. Enjoy our conversation with Michael Moreci!

Matt: Welcome back to our podcast lair.

Kara: Podcast pit.

Matt: The worst name ever.

Kara: I like it. It’s catchy.

Matt: We’re here with a legend. You and I talk. Off-air, I call him the young Bobby Kirkman these days.

Kara: You did do that.

Matt: I did do that, off-air. Michael Moreci, welcome to the show.

Michael Moreci: Hi, thanks for having me. I had this vision of “Bobby Kirkman”that  was actually this guy who does caricatures on the boardwalk at Jersey.

Matt: I remember first reading about you when we had “Hoax Hunters” on the platform. I was like, “Who is this guy?” You have a ton of creator owned books out since that time that I didn’t know about. That’s a true statement.

I do see you as someone who has a ton of creator owned properties out of nowhere. You go tons of different creator owned books and “Roche Limit” is really interesting because you have this three part story for Roche Limit. It takes place in space. There is a funky anomaly happening. There is a colony out there and the first story is about that.

You have a second volume out now which takes place 75 years later. It reminds me a ton of the 2001 books, the Space Odyssey.

Michael: That’s one of my favorites.

Matt: Oh, so good. What brought you to this story in particular, to tell this kind of futuristic space story?

Michael: That’s a good question. The thing that really drives it is the themes of it of what I want to do on a thematic level. I wanted to deliver that in a way that the connectivity of the trilogy is the thematic of it. It’s human ambition, failure, and moving beyond that, which we will see in volume three.

That’s what I really want to do. How do I structure a story where I am able to deliver this stuff about these things I want to say? I thought a straight narrative, a mini-series would be too limiting. An ongoing would be too exhausting. To do those kinds of things an ongoing would be like you’re batting people on the head with it.

That would be a little bit too much. The formats, the trilogy and have that when people think about, “How is this linked together?” It’s not by character. It’s by place, so that’s something. It’s not really by character and it’s not the same story exactly. One and two are wildly different, at least in my opinion.

That is a way to help people think like, “How are these things tied? What do they do?” You start thinking about the subtext of it. Maybe that helps to bring that to the forefront without me having to bring it to the forefront of the story level.

There is still a good story there. That’s always the primary thing to build around. You don’t want it to be like theme, theme, theme, where you’re on the nose all the time. That’s never a good reading experience.

It’s a way to deliver that and make it be more palpable through a different sort of format. Plus, trilogies always work in sci-fi for whatever reason.

Kara: That’s a very neat way to tell a story.

Michael: Oh, thanks. It was also at a time I was doing a lot of stuff that’s ongoing or standard format stuff and I wanted to do something different. How do I do something kind of like different?

Matt: You just say you’re the first. No one’s done it before.

Michael: I’ve done the first sci-fi trilogy! Unless we’re counting Star Wars?

Matt: No, we don’t count that.

Michael: Matrix.

Matt: The Alien Quadrilogy. It reminded me of the second volume of Roche Limit, reminded me in this kind of weird way of “Aliens” of how it focused on the military team aspect of it. Roche Limit starts with that view.

It reminded me of how you see this team figuring out things on their own. Roche Limit, Volume Two is that same way where you have this team seeing what the heck happened to this colony after 75 years. You dig and dig and you see some funky stuff happening in the background.

Michael: Aliens is one of my favorite movies of all time. That was a huge inspiration. It’s funny, I call the first volume was “Blade Runner.” The second volume is “Aliens.” I can’t say what the third volume is. I am remaking my favorite movies.

Kara: I got to tell you, after reading the first volume of Roche Limit, I had the weirdest dreams that I think I’ve had in recent memory. I don’t know what you put in that book.

Matt: She texted me the next morning. “Matt… I dreamed about Roche Limit last night.”

Michael: We have special ink that we use.

Matt: It must be the Matt Battaglia colors that really connect with people’s dreams.

Michael: Touch it, but don’t lick it.

Kara: I really liked all the pieces that were articles from that world or some kind of meta experience for the readers so that they can get more of a sense of what the world is that the story takes place in. Where did the idea to add that kind of content come from?

Michael: It was a few things. That’s funny, I really wanted to do a value added thing in addition to that. You have 28 pages in a comic. 32 is cover, back cover, inside covers. Then you have 28 live pages.

I said that there are interesting ways to fill it up instead of ads or a letters page. I like all that stuff. I wanted to do something that was like, because I’m so invested in the book. Roche Limit is my baby. I really love Roche Limit. I inhabit that world so deeply. I really want to make it an immersive experience. That was where it started. What do I to do that rather than asking my artist to draw four or five more pages?

I started thinking off that. One of the things I looked at, one of my favorite books in the last, I don’t know for how long, one of my favorite comics ever is “Nowhere Men.”

The experience with reading that was so cool. It’s funny. I read it in single issues first. I thought it was cool and it was good. I went in trade and I loved it. You didn’t know where even the issue’s broke and all that ancillary stuff. I thought it was so smart and such a clever way to enrich the world and make it that much more fuller.

It was also problem solving. There was all this pieces that was hard for me to deliver in the comic without doing an info dump. When some character says, “Well, the thing was discovered…Roche was discovered…” Doing that kind of thing where it’s terribly painful to read. Let’s do that in a more fun way.

It’s weird. The response I got from people is they really loved it or they really hated it.

Michael: “It takes you out of the experience.” Don’t read it then. It’s fine.

Kara: A polarizing experience.

Michael: It’s like, “Prose, what is prose doing here? Why do I need to read?”

Kara: There are some maps, some galactic maps.

Matt: There are maps, pictures, cartography. That’s what the world is really into right now, cartography.

In the most recent issue of Roche Limit, Volume Two, you find out about the cyborg character. There is a deep backstory about why that guy is on that planet. I read it and it’s a newspaper clipping from that time about what happened to him. He killed somebody.

Then I was super fascinated by it because, let’s assume that the reader is lazy and never reads this, do they need to know that while reading? Will they eventually find out because the story alludes to something happening to this guy in the past? Then you find out in the newspaper clippings. I was fascinated by how that will interplay into the actual story if you’re too lazy to read it.

Michael: It’s funny. In Volume Two, I was definitely a little more braver. I was very careful in Volume One. If people aren’t reading it, I don’t want to put anything in there that’s essential.

In volume two, I am like, “Well, if people are reading it at this point, I am hoping. It gets explained in a more, you’re right, it’s very specific to that character. It gets explained in a more indirect way in issue three. It does happen. It is seeded in there, but reading the newspaper is a lot more direct and a lot more clear of what his story is.

The Volume Two stuff is a little bit more essential. I don’t want it to be too much. Some of it is like, "Yeah, you should be reading it.”

You paid for it. You should read it. It’s yours. Read it or don’t. Just get out.

Matt: The movie news! Congratulations on the movie news that came out yesterday about Roche Limit. Another Bobby Kirkman reference, a young Bobby Kirkland. How does that work as a writer?

I see stuff get optioned and I am fascinated because I think you’re listed maybe as executive producer. I can’t remember what the press release said, but what is your level of involvement in it? Do you push for deals where you have a high level of involvement when that happens?

Michael: I actually do push for involvement. I know ultimately that the final decision is not going to be made by me. I am OK with that. I also want to be part of the process. That’s important to me.

There is a potential for something a few months ago where we’re going to take this and we’re going to take it away. We are going to do something with it or not. I didn’t really like that. That’s how they operate and that’s fine. That’s how they work and this is how I work. It didn’t gel and that’s OK.

It’s very important to me. Everything that I am developing on that end of stuff I am involved on some form. It’s weird. It’s something that I always say. I want to be involved, but I don’t want to be intrusive. I am still learning that side and seeing how things function and how things get made, how things are produced and everything like that. I have a lot to learn, but I want to be involved so that I can learn and also be involved so that I can help guide the material.

In Roche, I know the writer Shep Sherwood has already been working on it and we’ve had a lot of conversations. He is a really good writer and a really good guy. I know things are going to have to change. I am interested to see what needs to change because I want to learn how things work in that respect. You’re making this apples to oranges change. What are you doing and what needs to be changed and why?

I know especially with Roche, because Roche is such a complex weird thing where it’s going to be less. They will be hitting on things less than I did. It’s going to be a lot less nebulous and a lot more streamlined, which I think is good.

I want to be part of the process so I can see how that goes. I can also have my insight hopefully part of the process. That’s definitely important to me. It’s a matter of seeing where things go from here.

Kara: Like you said, you feel like you’re inhabiting this world with your headspace, so who better than you for them to ask obscure questions that may be only you know the answer to about the world and little details that maybe didn’t quite make it to the comic, but are still living in your head. Things like that.

Michael: Totally. Some things that I didn’t even know, Shep would ask, “What’s the timeline?” When are things taking place and what’s that. I feel like I have no idea.

I didn’t really think about it. It was cool because it forced me in a position to think about that and figure that out. Some people are respectful and say the exact same thing, “Well, who knows better than you so let’s use you as a resource.” That’s cool and there are some people who will be like, “Stay out of the way.”

Kara: It’s also more people involved, like, your creative team on the book is very small compared to the creative team on a major motion picture. Many more people who are going to have creative input, but it will be an interesting way to see how other people see the work, their interpretation.

Michael: That’s kind of cool to see. There are good people involved. One of the producers is this guy, Brian Witten, who has done a ton of movies. He’s super smart and he did one of my favorite movies that inspired Roche. He did “Dark City.” I don’t know if you guys ever seen that one? It was from ‘96. It was this sci-fi movie that is so, so good.

I met him this weekend and I was totally in awe. He’s like, “I am so excited to work with you.” I was like, “All right.” [laughter] Sure man.

Matt: I think I figured out what volume three of Roche Limit is going to be based on, “Avatar.” James Cameron’s Avatar.

Matt: I can see it. I can see your artists redrawing the movie and adaptation.

Michael: It’s still going to cost $400 million.

Matt: When you have time, I saw you walked in with “Rumble”, what do you read in your free time or try to seek out?

Michael: I’ve read a little of Rumble and I love it.

Matt: It’s gorgeous.

Michael: I love Arcudi and I love Harren. I had to have it. I picked up that. “They’re Not Like Us.” I mentioned Stephenson before. It’s weird being like, “Hey, boss, I love your work.”

I generally love his stuff. We’re in the same wheelhouse of being more sophisticated and adult sci-fi and things like that. We inhabit the same space aesthetically and creatively. The stuff that he does, which is unfortunately rarer than I like because he is busy running a company. I think Nowhere Men is coming back in September, October. They’re Not Like Us. It’s been great.

“Revival” has been consistently great. “Sixth Gun” is a book that I love. Let’s see, “Five Ghosts” from my buddy.

Matt: I think we are talking to him tomorrow. Our buddy Frank. I love his new book too. Is it “BOOM!”? I don’t know if it’s from Image, “Broken World,” so good. That’s good, too.

One thing that I troll him with all the time is one of his earlier books had a press shot of him and he’s got the thickest curly hair that I love. It’s this hilarious angle and he’s looking up, sometimes I text him that photo.

Michael: I’d just send it to him day and night.

Matt: I appreciate you taking the time out to chat with us. Roche Limit is a very enjoyable sci-fi book. If you liked any of those movies that we talked about, you should definitely check it out. If you, like Kara, want to get nightmares, night terrors.

Kara: I don’t know if it was nightmares. It was really a different way of seeing the world through a dream.

Michael: I want to ask you about it, but I didn’t want to be like “Hey, we’re on recording. Can you tell me about your dream?”

Matt: Her lucid dreams about Roche Limit. I appreciate it again, Michael.

Michael: No, thank you, guys. This is awesome.

Matt: Hopefully, you can make time for us when the movie is out and you’re like a huge, bigger star. When the Avatar comic book comes out. Thanks again.

Michael: No problem, thank you.

YOU CAN FIND LINKS TO THE BOOKS TALKED ABOUT DURING THIS CONVERSATION HERE!

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