Iron Harvest-Some thoughts.

So with last weeks concluding page (I hope you all read it ) ‘Iron Harvest’ has wrapped. I thought I’d post a little about how it came about, a bit of behind the scenes as it were.

The germ of the idea started when I read the graphic novel ‘Shooting War’ by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman. At one point in the book there was a scene (you’ll have to excuse my lack of memory on the context) where a room full of soldiers were controlling some unmanned combat drones and robots. Whether it was the artists intention or not it reminded me of a LAN gaming event. Thus the world of video gaming and the future of warfare collided and an idea was born (As an aside I highly recommend ‘Shooting War’).

I came up with the basic idea of drone’s being controlled by video game players first of all and went from there. This was all before the rise of drone’s into international headlines. There were a few articles here and there in science journals and the like, that’s all. The first few drafts of ‘Iron Harvest’ (back then it was called ‘Fragfest’, naming it after the game was Rick’s idea) were in the vein of ‘All the President’s Men’ as a journalist tried to uncover the truth behind the relationship between a shadowy multinational and a games company. Personally I thought it felt a little flat and I went back to the drawing board.

It was around this point that drones started to gain a lot more traction in the headlines. A raid here, a raid there, and even a few pieces on how the pilots and technology to pilot drones were heavily involved with gaming. Clearly I was onto something. It was also around this time that Rick Ross became involved. I’d met Rick via the boards at Digital Webbing after he replied to an ad I’d placed (the project never happened by the way, but I think I got a good deal out of it ). Eventually, we got to talking about his website and its anthology like nature. I can’t remember who mentioned the idea of working together first (probably me, I have a lot more to gain by Rick drawing my stuff than he does writing mine I think) but I mentioned the basic outline of the idea of Iron Harvest to him. Rick liked it and encouraged me to work on it some more.

The title ‘Iron Harvest’ comes from the term of the same name. This term is an annual harvest when people collect and retrieve any ordinance that hasn’t been expended. I also thought the term sounded perfect for the kind of pretentious overblown titles, war video games are often guilty of.

It wasn’t long after this that I had the notion of not having a central character in the traditional sense. Instead the game was the strips star, permeating every page in one way or another. The idea that each page would take on the form of a different type of media also came about at this time. Rick cemented this further by suggesting that each page stuck to a strict six panel grid (a great touch I thought). Rick also played a huge part in crafting the pacing of the ending of the strip, moving panels around and suggesting a slower burn on the last page building up to the reveal itself.

During the time I was redrafting the strip, a book entitled ‘Wired for War’ by PW Singer began to get a lot of press (featuring in Wired magazine amongst others). The book covers the future of warfare with an emphasis on unmanned vehicles. Whilst I read the book far too late for it to have any direct impact on the strip it did open my mind up to the various directions a story on the subject of unmanned warfare could go. Almost as a result of this (and also via Rick’s suggestion) I’m planning to take some of the elements of ‘Iron Harvest’ and the research I’ve done post-strip and spin them off into something a bit meatier.

All in all I’m extremely happy with the strip. A large part of this is due to Rick’s splendid art (I especially dig the last two pages). I know this was a bit of an experiment for him with each page calling for something different and I think the final results are great. The best part of writing in the comics medium for me is that moment when you first a page or visual that has been in your head for months. The art for Iron Harvest was better than anything I could have forseen. Rick has a real eye for capturing expressions and mood and I can’t speak more highly of the work he put in on the strip.

Give Rick’s site a visit today and you’ll be treated to the first page of a brand new strip penned by Rick himself, ‘Varangian Guard’. It further illustrates Rick’s talent of being able adapt his style to a number of genres.