*** StarBurst material (Ed Fortune)
Metal Made Flesh is a critically acclaimed high-octane comic book series set in a hi-tech cyberpunk world, produced by Subversive Comics.
Well regarded for its eye-catching art and addictive storylines, it’s always a pleasure release Metal Made Flesh books. Writer Cy Dethan and legendary artist Gary Erskine will reveal something about the latest instalment, "The Final Piece of Me'
*Cy Dethan:
The Final Piece of Me, and by necessity any peripheral story told within Metal Made Flesh, is a tightly-focused snapshot of a galaxy in motion. By taking the workings of a traditionally near-future SF genre and unfolding them into this enormous, war-riven epic, Simeon and Jeremy have built a supermassive vortex of alien politics and universal extinction. Any story told within it, however personal its concerns, needs to reflect that. You're basically picking a single atom from the larger whole and splitting it, then riding the chain reaction outward.
*Gary Erskine:
I was a fan of the Metal Made Flesh series already [and the wider genre] so was excited to be a part of this universe. Cy’s script really captured the world perfectly while also allowing for more personal moments with the character and inspired me to push the visuals as much as I could on every page. Simeon’s art is so rich with detail that it played to my strengths and I had a lot of fun working with Cy’s script to push that.
~ Is cyberpunk ever going to go away?
*Cy Dethan:
Not while I live... Honestly, the relationships between the gross machinery of our bodies and the intricately fallible software of our consciousness is something that I can't see getting definitively resolved any time soon. As long as there's tension and evolution in the way people and information interact, I think the cyberpunk conversation is always going to be relevant and worth pursuing.
*Gary Erskine:
No. The genre is too rich already and open to new interpretations. If anything, it will become more relevant to our current lives with the assimilation of machines/gadgets in our everyday lives. We are so tied to devices now for almost every aspect of our lives that cyberpunk is a closer possible narrative than many will consider.
~ What makes Metal Made Flesh so unique?
*Cy Dethan:
Simeon and Jeremy's universe offered a number of very specific and fascinating opportunities when writing The Final Piece of Me. For one thing, as an action-based story it allowed me to combine my enduring love of fast-moving and/or bladed metals with my overwhelming suspicion and resentment of the fragile human(oid) form. More importantly, it was an invitation into a vibrant, vital world and a chance to pry apart some of its most intriguing characters - physically, psychologically and philosophically.
*Gary Erskine:
I feel Metal Made Flesh reflects [to me] the combination of many great sources and inspirations including film and art: Metal Hurlant, manga like AKIRA and Ghost in the Shell/Appleseed and other Sorayama’s Gynoids. The work that Jeremy and Simeon have done to distil everything into a fully realised and personally individual world is remarkable.
