INTERVIEW: TONY LEE ON DYNAMITE’S STEAMPUNK BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: 1880

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Tony Lee is the writer of such comics as comics as physician Who, Battlestar Galatica: Starbuck, MacGyver: Fugitive Gauntlet, hope Falls, as well as more. He’s returned to the Galactica as well as is providing it a new spin in Dynamite’s upcoming Steampunk Battlestar Galactica: 1880. Westfield’s Roger Ash contacted Lee to discover much more about the book.

Westfield: exactly how did Steampunk Battlestar Galactica: 1880 come about?

Tony Lee: extremely much a situation of being in the best location at the best time. It was back in February this year; I’d completed the Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck series as well as we were searching for something else to do together. I’d gone over to Los Angeles for a convention, as well as had organized to show up a few days in advance to take some meetings with producers in relation to a couple of screenplays I have out there. So, there I am, in the office of a extremely high-up as well as prominent producer, anxious as hell as well as staring at a choice of posters as well as props from a few of my preferred films ever as I talk about the film – when my phone buzzes, telling me I have an email.

Now, I always turn my phone onto silent, however for some reason this time around it didn’t happen. I apologise, as well as bring on the pitch. however the producer states to inspect it, as it might be important. as well as to be honest, he needs to take a phone call rapidly himself. So, I inspect my emails, as well as there’s one from Joe as well as Nick stating that they’ve had this concept for a Steampunk Battlestar Galactica series, they’re not sure exactly how it’d work, did I have any type of thoughts on it, that kind of thing. The producer comes back in and, from one look on my face, he understands I’ve hit some type of motherload. So, I tell him. as well as it turns out he’s a huge Battlestar Galactica fan. as well as we spend the next ten minutes bonding as I discuss exactly how I’d do a Steampunk Battlestar Galactica series, before moving back to the film I was there to pitch. however those ten minutes were invaluable, as it implied that by the time I replied to Joe as well as Nick, I already had a completely fleshed out concept of what I wished to do, as well as exactly how I wished to play it. as well as bar a couple of characters, it’s quite much exactly how I visualized it back in February.

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Westfield: What makes Battlestar Galactica a great match for Steampunk?

Lee: Honestly? To me Steampunk has always been about the industrial struggle of guy as well as machine, a world where the mechanised fantastical is real, as well as let’s be truthful here, that’s quite much the story of the Colonials as well as the Cylons, right? I mean, right here we have a race of robots transplanted into a genre where robotics are wonderful as well as special.

In addition to that, a great deal of Steampunk stories keep close to the concept of a British Empire, or similar entity, Colonial soldiers as well as a armed forces dictatorship of some kind. as well as that’s there in the Quorum of Twelve, as well as the Colonial Fleet. Steampunk likewise has primary characters costs a great deal of time in the Aether (space) as well as of program that’s the core basis for Battlestar Galactica. one of the very first things I did was get a believe storage tank of different UK Steampunk luminaries I know, including set Cox, Jema Hewitt, Ian Crichton as well as Sam Stone, where I asked what tropes they truly DIDN’T want to see in Steampunk Sci Fi, as well as what they’d like to see much more of. Suffice to say, there will be a unique lack of cogs that don’t do anything in this series!

Westfield: who are a few of the characters we’ll be satisfying in the series?

Lee: Oh, quite much all the primary characters, as well as a great deal of the minor characters will be in the series, primarily as I’m a huge fanboy as well as couldn’t assist myself. Of course, they’ve all been modified considerably. That’s the most significant delight about this book, the truth that it’s a blank canvas. I get to take all the things I liked from the series as well as massively screw around with them. So we have Arch-Duke Adama, the de-facto leader of the Colonial empire as well as the commander of the Aethership Galactica, his son, the Crown prince Apollo as well as his daughter, woman Athena. We have the Cylons, of course, however they’re now the Cylonics, clockwork soldiers with punch-card brains that were produced by professor Baltar for the Colonial Empire, as a last ditch reaction to the Ovion War. as well as of program we have Starbuck, Boxey, Daggit, Sheba, Cassiopeia, Tigh, Boomer as well as Jolly… Oh, as well aswe have Lucifer, however it’s a Babbage computer Server named Lu-C-Fer. This is the fun I’m having here.

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Westfield: Is there anything you can tell us about the story?

Lee: In a way, I parallel the series, since we begin with the damage of Caprica by the Cylonics, led by a bitter as well as now rather crazy professor Baltar. as well as a few of these Cylons are big, I imply Pacific rim sized big. as well as the humans are having the snot kicked out of them. Apollo’s been caught as well as woman Athena goes on a determined search for the one guy that can assist her rescue her brother, the disgraced Aethership Captain Starbuck, one time finest buddy of Apollo, now a smuggler, captain of the Starchaser with his very first policeman Muffit, a humanoid Daggit/robotics hybrid. It’s extremely Han as well as Chewie. In fact, believing about it, it’s star Wars, if Leia hired Han to assist her rescue Luke.

But as they deal with off against Pirate Queens as well as Alien races, Apollo escapes Baltar’s clutches with three other prisoners, Boomer, Jolly as well as Iblis – the very first two are soldiers in the Colonial army that have been injured in responsibility as well as patched up with Cylonic parts, as well as the third is a one time associate of Baltar, who produced the Cylonics as well as the Babbage Network with Baltar as well as his protégé, a young scientist named Athena…

Let’s just state that every problem has a ton of in-series references, pulp action as well as area battles!

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Westfield: You’re working with artist Aneke on the book. What can you state about your collaboration?

Lee: I’m extremely lucky to have her involved. I was a huge fan of Moore as well as Reppion’s Damsels series, as well as that was the very first time I ever saw her artwork. She brings a life to the page that a great deal of artists just miss, as well as her characters are always area on. She nailed what I was searching for in the Cylonics from the very first sketch, as well as I can’t wait to see what she does with the Galactica. As I stated earlier, Steampunk is all about the fantastical, as well as Aneke’s background with Damsels has provided us an angle to the look that I don’t believe we would have had without her.

Westfield: any type of closing comments?

Lee: I’ve been a fan of Steampunk because before it even had a name, reading H.G Wells stories about Cavorite-fueled rocketships flying with the Aether, as well as I’ve wished to compose something in the genre for years. A while back Dan Boultwood (artist with me on The Gloom, hope Falls as well as agent mother among others) wished to do a Steampunk book with me called The Daringly Occular Excitables of Captain Ambrose Faraday (Retired), as well as ever because that fell through, I’ve been searching for somewhere to continue my addiction.

And of course, anybody who’s checked out Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck will understand precisely exactly how much I like the series. I won’t corrupt it, I won’t exploit it. however what you will get is, in my opinion, one of the most fun books I’ve written in a while, with building sized Cylonics handling Aetherships flown by humanoid Daggits while their partners offer their souls to Pirate Queens as well as Alien Races…

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