Assorted Crisis Events has taken comic shops by storm and readers cannot stop talking about the new launch from Deniz Camp & Eric Zawadzki. So much so, that fellow Image Comics writer Kieron Gillen (The Power Fantasy) took some time to talk to Deniz about the thought provoking debut. The two cover how the book tackles the chaotic experience of modern life through a unique multiversal lens. Camp dives into his inspirations, the challenge of crafting an ongoing anthology and so much more. But enough from us, Kieron, take it away.
(Subscribe to Kieron's newsletter by clicking here)
---
As well as the interviews in the Power Fantasy, I want to speak to more image creators about their work – I’ve got one lined up for next week, and will be continuing to reach out to folks to yabber. This will be fun. Talking to more people than just the ones we can get into The Power Fantasy is really exciting to me.
However, this time we’re talking to someone who is in back of The Power Fantasy, with Deniz Camp talking about Assorted Crisis Events. The Profile is in The Power Fantasy #7, but these are the raw answers, where Deniz lays it out. Assorted Crisis Events came out last week, sold out instantly and is being rushed back to press so speak to your retailer and get one. I’ve read the first five of these, and it’s startling, and is going to be all over the end of year lists come December.
When I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once I thought "okay, that's the multiverse done." As in, if I were working in the multiversal space, I'd be too ashamed to publish whatever I was working on, as it wouldn't measure up. That was it. Everyone can go home. And now, here comes ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS, making me go "Of course, you COULD go this". I don't want to flatten it, but "Non-genre short-story conceits built off the most genre of elements" is a one liner. How did you end up here? What do you love about this stuff?
Ah, thanks man. That’s really kind.
First: I love scifi and I think the best scifi is speaking to something real in a new, creative way.
“Non genre short stories built around genre elements” is honestly a perfect description of the book. For me, it’s primarily about the experience of being alive right now (at least my experience of it). That was my starting point; how can I capture this feeling I think a lot of us have that life has become a series of bizarre, horrifying, unprecedented crises over which we have no control or even influence?
It all sort of unspooled from there. Strangely, until you asked this question I didn’t really think of ACE as a multiverse story, though obviously it is at times. Really what I thought about was time.
Time is so bound up in comics in particular, it operates in such a unique way. I wanted to play with that. It’s also bound up in everyday human experience, right? We’re always making it, wasting it, running out of it, looking for more of it, killing it, saving it. A minute can feel like an hour if you're waiting on the results of a tumor biopsy, your twenties go by in a flash. It’s so fundamental it’s hard to explain, describe or define – and yet, at the level of fundamental physics, it’s not real.
So I thought there could be something in that.
This may step on your answer to the last question a bit, but... I sense you're having complicated feelings about life in the 21st century, and the prismatic horror experience of existence in this hall of mirrors. Where IS your head at? How did that push in the book? And how do you balance a book with a point of view versus the dangers of flattening didacticism?
Answering your last question first, I think the key is always to ground it in character, keep it small and truthful, don’t try to impress people. Didacticism sort of implies I have answers, or something to teach; I don’t. All I have are questions and feelings I want to explore. Sometimes through the writing I discover things, but I’m as surprised as the reader, you know? If you keep things small, even the very big things, and don’t talk down to or put yourself above the reader, I think you’re okay. The fate of one person can feel bigger than the death of a universe.
As to where my head is at? Nowhere good. I started thinking about this book in the first few months of the pandemic, which I think is this great trauma that we haven’t processed, but the feelings started before that. And now every day there seems to be some new horrible thing; multiple genocides, the rise of nazis, untold suffering and exploitation, bigotry, violent transphobia, wildfires, climate change, etc. It never stops. Once-every hundred years events now happen every few years; that's time collapsing, isn't it?
So I wrote a comic about it. But it’s not all doom and gloom, I don’t think. There’s beauty and hope, fellowship and grace. Because that's real, too; I see it every day.
Life isn't ever just one thing, it doesn’t fit neatly into genres or boxes. Life is tragic/funny/scary/sexy/sweet. I want the book to be, too.
The thematically connected anthology is a rare beast - the exception in recent years was the excellent ICE-CREAM MAN. How did you arrive there? What do you get from the format? You've got a connecting larger quiet narrative, but the backbone is "turn up and see what happens this month".
I didn’t want to get bored, that's the main thing. I want every issue to be something I’m incredibly excited to write, every issue to be a reach, an opportunity to try something new, feel something different, be ambitious.
On another level, I’m obsessed with accessibility and richness. I think is the most accessible thing I’ve made; you can pick up any issue and read it and understand it, feel something. Those who do read everything will be rewarded as an ongoing story emerges, but those who come in late or miss an issue won’t be punished. It’s certainly not the only way to do it, but I think having a beginning/middle/end every issue is very satisfying.
You're right that there’s nothing to hide behind with an anthology; you have to deliver every time. But that's exciting. It's a challenge I kind of take up with every project. I never want to have a "bum" issue, I want everything I write to move you on it's own. I want people to come back because they love the work, and I think anthologies kind of demand that.
Okay - a craft question, as I'm always looking for craft tips... What did you do to make Eric Zawadzki not murder you when he received these scripts? Have you chained him beneath a sink, like that person in Audition? Blackmail information? Or is Eric committed to the bit in a way which I find both petrifying and inspiring? Seriously - what does collaboration look like? How is this cooked up?
Funny you mention craft! Eric and I have been friends for years. We bonded one NYCC afterparty (the one with the surf board, you know the one) over our love of/obsession with craft and the language of comics. We talked for hours about stuff so specific and detailed even other professionals gave us a wide berth and looks of pity and disgust. So we both love this stuff, and I wrote the book with him in mind – because he is obsessed with the language of comics, and how to use it to best tell stories, most effectively. He's like a scientist or architect, which is just what this book would need.
When I write a script for ACE, it’s as ambitious and technically and formally inventive as I can make it. But then he gets them and he elevates them beyond anything I could have imagined. It’s impossible to say who is contributing what re: layouts and what not, because we work so closely, but what I can say is Eric is the only person I know who could draw this, that I dont’ think the book could exist without him and his dedication to the craft. I’m really grateful.
Also, in terms of craft: witchcraft.
Pro tip for all you writers out there; steal an artist's soul and put it in a little mason jar. If they refuse to work with you, shake it up real fast, until they agree or the light in their eyes dies.
Finally: ongoing. I checked, as I presumed it couldn't be, but... ongoing. Ongoing. ONGOING, Deniz. The first five issues are a concentrated burst of what one can do, with a staggering amount of emotional impact, formalist verve and ideas-per-square-inch. How do you plan to keep it up?
Well, I just love it so much. Love making it so much, love working with Eric, Jordie, Hass, Tom and Image. I have about 50 issues worth of notes in my various notebooks, and new ideas for it strike me every day. It’s just a dream project, truly, a kind of perfect alchemy of concept/creators that doesn’t always come around. I'll do it for as long as I possibly can.
Assorted Crisis Events is out now, and is currently in a second printing.
(Subscribe to Kieron's newsletter by clicking here)