Jay Eaton’s science fiction graphic novel Runaway to the Stars (from Iron Circus) is an immersive story that combines real world science and out of this world sci-fi elements.
We got a chance to speak to Eaton about writing and illustrating Runaway to the Stars (now available to back on Kickstarter) in this exclusive interview.
Your new graphic novel has a lot of different hard sci-fi story elements and characters. Where did the idea for Runaway to the Stars originate?
Jay Eaton: Runaway to the Stars started as an excuse to design some aliens and dump all my science fiction thoughts into a single side-project while I was working more seriously on fantasy settings for comics. Then a decade later that side project is my full time job and a 300+ page graphic novel, so obviously it won my heart in the end. I was particularly interested in writing about alien culture and biology, and daily life in spaces shared by humans and aliens.
The protagonist Talita is an excellent vessel for this, because she’s a centaur alien raised by humans, and thus a person of two worlds. Physically she is related to an alien species with an entire planet’s worth of rich histories, but culturally she is a native of Jovian human society. She often runs into accommodation issues in the human-majority place she calls home, but other centaurs don’t “get” her, finding her human-like facial expressions offputting and her life priorities strange.
While grounded in science, your story also has plenty of traditional sci-fi elements as well, particularly with your diverse cast of characters. How did you balance the real and the fantastic in your graphic novel?
Eaton: While there’s a lot of classic fantastical sci-fi concepts in Runaway to the Stars, my focus in worldbuilding is always daily life. Wherever there is a society, the majority of people in that society are going to be living their everyday lives, keeping the electricity on and the water running. I find that focusing on the mundane in a fantastic setting actually highlights the differences in a more visceral way, because every reader has a point of comparison. What does someone living in a company town on an isolated exoplanet with aliens for coworkers eat for lunch? How was that food produced? Who produced it? There are so many threads to pull on for worldbuilding in the simplest questions.
Of all of your characters, which one resonates with you the most in terms of their story and character-type?
Eaton: This is like asking me to pick a favorite child. I think all of them have interesting personalities and stories, although obviously Talita is given the most focus as the protagonist. The main characters are all alienated in some way from the culture they grew up in, and in that shared loneliness, they find connections with each other. Whether they’re a sapient quantum computer on the run from the law, an 3 meter tall hexapod raised by humans, an off-model GMO catgirl with congenital deafness, or a biracial lesbian; they know what it’s like to struggle to find community.
You are both the artist and writer on Runaway to the Stars. Do you sometimes come up with concepts that are difficult for you to capture visually?
Eaton: Oh, constantly. I also struggle with designing things that are out of my field of expertise. 3D modelling software and research are my best friends, or failing that, I talk to my actual friends who are more knowledgeable about engineering and aerospace than me. Capturing alien anatomy and non-human expressiveness can also be quite challenging, but that’s very much my wheelhouse, so it’s a more fun kind of difficult. There is a scene where I had to come up with a believable gait for a six-legged gallop, and I ended up doing a rough animation to figure out the leg positions. I’m quite proud of how it turned out.
In terms of reference points for sci-fi fans, where did you take some of your inspiration from for the graphic novel?
Eaton: Hmm… I feel like if I’m thinking about other media while writing, it’s usually in broader terms like genre tropes– which tropes I want to avoid, which tropes I feel like I can use in an interesting way. That makes it difficult for me to pin down specific media that’s gone into my graphic novel soup pot. But for useful points of comparison, I think readers who enjoyed Becky Chambers’ Long Way to a Small Angry Planet will probably enjoy the co-species cast and interpersonal drama of Runaway to the Stars, people who enjoyed the future humanity and colonized solar system in Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 will probably enjoy this book’s technology, and people who enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time will enjoy the empathetic exploration of non-human societies.
Thoughts on Kickstarter as a platform to get your story to the people?
Eaton: Crowdfunding is a great way to tackle printing costs for smaller publishers, and it allows publishers to take a chance on riskier and more niche projects, since the campaign doubles as a way of gauging interest. I also like that it lets readers directly contribute to the production of books they want to see published!
Runaway to the Stars is available to back on Kickstarter until May 15.
