Jeff Smith: Let’s get ready to RASL

After taking a successful plunge into mainstream comics with last year’s Shazam: The Monster Society of project for DC Comics, Jeff Smith is returning to the world of self publishing with his new series, RASL, which debuts in February. But fans of Smith’s long-running and internationally acclaimed independent series Bone be warned: RASL is a departure from kid-friendly material. Planned as a quarterly series, RASL is a blend of science fiction and noir, following an art thief who jumps dimensions to steal famed paintings. PW Comics Week recently spoke with Smith over the phone as he took a break from his Columbus, Ohio studio. In this first half of the interview, Smith gives a detailed look at the background of his new series.

PWCW: First off, how do you pronounce the name of your new book?

Jeff Smith: You know, everybody asks me that. It just seems so obvious. It’s Razzle. Apparently everybody does wonder about it. It’s like an acronym, his hacker tag. Finding out what the acronym is for is part of the story.

I am keeping very busy. The first issue comes out in February. It’s the first indie book I’ve done since Bone ended in 2004. It’s kind of a wake-up call for me to be responsible for my own deadlines again and deal with all the aspects of publishing—which I did for 15 years for Bone. It’s kind of getting back into it. It’s been a lot of work.

PWCW: What can you tell me about the story of the book?

JS: First of all, I have to stress that it’s not for the same audience as Bone. It’s a little bit more grown up. I don’t think there’s going to be anything pornographic in it or anything like that. I’m picturing more, you know, adult entertainment. It’s science fiction, so I’ve been describing it as Blade Runner meets Jason Bourne, so that gives you the flavor of it. And the story idea is, well, I’m very interested in science. That’s what I read when I’m trying to relax. I’ll read Brian Greene or Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking. I love physics and I’ve always been really interested in certain parts of physics that get to the extreme edges of what we know and what we can theorize about.

And one of the things we theorize is that there are other dimensions. That’s what RASL is. He’s a dimension jumper. He’ll steal art. He’s an art thief. So, if you have enough money, I mean stupid money, like Bill Gates money, and you want your own original Picasso to hang in your living room, you can pay RASL and he’ll strap these giant engines on his shoulders—this special suit he’s invented—and he’ll step through the dimensions. It uses thermal magnetic power to bend reality so he can step into another dimension.

But it hurts. It hurts so bad that it takes him days to recover. He usually spends those days drinking and smoking and womanizing. But once he’s recovered enough, he can go about his thievery, steal the object he’s been sent for. But to return, he has to do the opposite. He has to clean himself mentally, physically. He almost has to become centered, like a Zen-Buddhist monk. Only then can he actually step back through the dimensional barrier. But then once he steps back through he’s on the ground, writhing in pain, and it takes him five more days to recover. So that’s why he wants a lot of money.

That was kind of a long explanation. You can’t really tell that from the preview, but that’s the background for his life.

PWCW: How big in scope is this story? Is it going to be another 15-year opus?

JS: No. Bone took 15 years. It was a single story, but it was 1,443 pages. I knew the ending when I set out, but it was a long and unfolding process. I think this one’s going to be shorter, at least by my standards. It’s probably going to be about 250 pages. I’ll probably do it for two, two and a half years. It’ll still be a graphic novel, but it’ll be serialized.

PWCW: How much research did you do on the science side? Obviously, with it being science fiction you don’t need to stick to reality. But how close did you want it to be?

JS: One of the secret pleasures of doing comics is the research. You get to sit in your studio with books and DVDs and you can surf the Internet and look up history and science and other kinds of similar fiction. That’s really a joy for me. I love those moments. It’s dangerously close to just playing hooky. It’s really just falling into these other worlds that aren’t my specialty.

But I stuck as close to it as I could. I really worked hard to understand physics, at least, theoretical physics, and worked to put RASL right in the center of all those theories. His theory that he comes up with that actually allows him to pull off this stepping between dimensions is not that ridiculous. I actually came up with something I think is a good science fiction principle. I mean, it still is science fiction. But it’s not outlandish. It’s not magic.

I also tied him into a lot of, oh, current… ah, geez, I don’t know if I want to say this. I don’t want to give anything away. The actual story is really, really fun. When you find out what everyone wants RASL to steal it gets down to the nitty gritty. I think it’s going to be fun.

It’s kind of like a noir film. He’s this man who’s kind of unplugged himself from the rest of the world, and he’s kind of operating outside all systems. Literally outside our known universe. And he’s got a lot of flaws. There’s a woman in his past whose name is tattooed on his arm. He meets her in one of the other dimensions, only she’s different in this other dimension and he falls in love with her all over again. But pretty soon she actually hires him to go after an art object, and he doesn’t know who to trust… I’m trying to not give anything away. I hope I’m not just making it sound more boring.

PWCW: Are there any noir films that particularly influenced your work?

JS: Yeah. Absolutely. My two favorites are The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. Actually, in the first issue of RASL there’s a scene very much inspired by The Big Sleep. There’s a gunman who’s following Humphrey Bogart around, and Humphrey kind of slips beside him and pulls his coat down to trap his arms. I have RASL do that. Just for anyone who’s watching, a little wink to you.

PWCW: The art thief angle is interesting. Obviously, if you have this ability, there are a lot of different ways to make a lot of money. Why steal art?

JS: In the story, that’s part of the question. Why would he use his miraculous power he’s discovered for such a private, petty use? It just kind of became a good way to make money. People around him will wonder, and he’ll wonder himself why he’s chosen that. One thing that’s interesting about that for me as a cartoonist — I was working on it and drawing actual pieces of art. In those six pages [from a preview that debuted at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con], he breaks into a person’s penthouse and steals a famous Picasso painting. And I put a real Picasso painting there. I had to learn to sign Picasso’s name. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Maybe I’m missing something. In fiction, now and then we’ll see product placement. But, they usually make up object art to be stolen. I’m actually putting in real works of art.

PWCW: Was that scary at all, replicating famous works?

JS: For a split second it’s intimidating, but I don’t think anybody expects me to draw like Leonardo Da Vinci, especially in another medium. So I felt pretty comfortable just suggesting the Mona Lisa. I just needed to get it close enough so you knew what it was.

PWCW: What would you steal if you were RASL?

JS: The painting I was just referring to was The Guitarist. It was considered the first of Picasso’s blue period. And it’s just a painting I love. It would be something, if I had billions of dollars, that’s one of the paintings I would go after. Yeah, for sure.

In real life, I’d probably have him go steal an original Sunday page by George Herriman. I think even art thieves would think that was a waste of money.