By Zack Quaintance — Join the Future hit in the early part of this year, delivering a great-looking book that mashes up elements of the western and sci-fi genres into something intriguing and new. Today, with the collected first volume of this comic due next month, we’re honored to have a new interview with the book’s writer, Zack Kaplan. Check it out below!

Interview - Zack Kaplan

ZACK QUAINTANCE: I really liked the concept of Join The Future since the book was announced, particularly the way it extrapolates the real world divide between rural and urban cities into a more fantastical story. What inspired you to approach that divide with a blend of sci-fi and westerns?

ZACK KAPLAN: Thank you! Well, I think that both the sci-fi genre and the western genre are unique in that they both, more than so many other genres, explore the nature of progress vs preservation. Dystopian stories often see futuristic cities facing the people’s isolation and our inability to connect to one another, while Westerns explore the freedom of the frontier and the dangers of encroaching civilization. JOIN THE FUTURE was a chance to combine all of these elements as one of the last small towns in the American countryside faces impending acquisition by the hi-tech big city. Setting up the project at Aftershock, allowed us to do what Aftershock does so well, take that fantastical and epic landscape and hone in on a badass female-driven character story at the center of it, wrought with rebellion and revenge.

QUAINTANCE: I think it's safe to say a lot of bad things happen to your protagonist in this book, which is obviously crucial to any story, but how did you decide exactly how hard to test the main character, Clem, in this comic?

KAPLAN: Yeah, our young heroine, Clementine Libbey, gets run through the ringer. But it was important to really demonstrate what she was up against. She’s been sheltered in this small town, and taught that the slippery slope of using technology is dangerous. She’s asthmatic, she’s small and then she faces a horrific attack on her community, by adversaries that have incredible technology like laser guns, energy shields and flying jetpacks. And when she seeks to defend her home and fight back, she can’t use any of that, because it’s against her moral code and her family’s ideals. So she takes quite a beating! But her arc into an incredible woman gunslinger is a testing story, to ask us if we could hold on to our ideals and values in the face of such deadly antagonism.

QUAINTANCE: I’ve been a fan of Piotr Kowalski for a while, and Brad Simpson is one of the best colorist working today. Not much of a question, but can you talk a little bit about the artwork on this book?

KAPLAN: The artwork is unbelievable! If anyone is unfamiliar with Piotr Kowalski and Brad Simpson, this dynamic duo deserves awards for their stunning landscapes, rich worlds and heartfelt character moments. Piotr draws so many lines and just holds the readers in his hands, and then Brad comes along and blows it up, from the eerie cool future cities to the hearty warm towns, to the deadly terraforming machines and the abandoned overgrown cities, it’s just stunning to look at. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou turns his letters into an equally incredible work of art in the book. You will be floored. It’s a stunning, gorgeous series!

QUAINTANCE: It feels to me like we're slowly having a western revival in comics, or at least the start of one. Do you think there is anything about right now that makes our times well-suited to western themes, and if so what? I thought he way you'd repurposed the genre here was really fitting...

KAPLAN: It's interesting, many readers have asked if I had some sort of political message infused into Join the Future, and I saw this story differently, not really about red state or blue states. I see that the world is changing very quickly right now. Even before the pandemic, we were facing extreme climate change and major social issues, and technology was transforming out lives faster than we could imagine. When things changing fast, we find comfort in characters who survive a dangerous world and live by a code of the land. We see this in THE MANDALORIAN or WESTWORLD, in comics like UNDONE BY BLOOD or PULP, and of course, this is the existential tension we explored in JOIN THE FUTURE. Can we hold on to our ideals, or morals, or will threats and advancement change us? 

QUAINTANCE: This new collection is tagged as a volume one, and the story certainly leaves room for continuation, if not outright demanding it. What's the scope of this story in your mind, and might we see another arc soon?

KAPLAN: When Aftershock and I created JOIN THE FUTURE, we always saw it as a five-issue mini-series, a contained story about Clementine’s survival in this moment. The first issue was one of March’s hottest books, and we immediately saw the potential for more. I certainly felt that appetite and opportunity as I wrote the rest of the first arc. Of course, then the pandemic hit. So, we’ve left this decision a bit up in the air. Certainly, I would love to explore the landscape of the city and see what other adventures might be in store for Clementine Libbey. So, I would say to readers, if you want more…

PRE-ORDER JOIN THE FUTURE TPB VOL 1!

Then tell all your friends about it, post online and then let us know you want more. If adventure calls, Clementine will answer.

QUAINTANCE: Finally, I know you probably can't get into specifics due to announcements coming later, but we're at the start of 2021 here, and I was wondering if you had any new projects you could tease or hint at for 2021? 

KAPLAN: I’ll have to be super vague, but I’ll just say, a lot of my projects and series with all of your favorite publishers, that were supposed to hit in 2020, have been pushed into 2021, so I’ll have a lot of exciting things in the new year! 2021 is going to kick ass! Stay tuned!

Join The Future, Vol. 1

Join The Future, Vol. 1
Writer: Zack Kaplan
Artist: Piotr Kowalski
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $16.99
The Future. Ultra-modern megacities reward millions of their citizens with a completely fund-ed life, with every need met, from food to housing and healthcare, in order to compete in an
economic power struggle in which population is key.
But a few rural residents still cling to their independence in what last American small towns are left. When a nearby megacity pressures the people of a small town to join up or else, a young teenage girl named Clem will learn how far she’ll go to defend her principles.
Release Date: January 6, 2021
Buy It Digitally: Join The Future, Vol. 1

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.