PopImage Interview and Preview

Here’s some great stuff from Jonathan Ellis at PopImage:

Testament Preview. Jonathan was a major influence in getting me to write for comics, so I wanted to give PopImage something special. His idea was to do for comics what Criterion did for movies – that is, create some annotated versions of new works. This little preview is a taste of what he has in mind.

Rushkoff Testament Interview. Here’s the most extensive and intensive interview for Testament, yet. Jonathan kept coming back with more and more questions in an email exchange that lasted several weeks.

Here’s a few excerpts from the above:

PopImage: Speaking of the allegorical nature of the Bible, I had a similar conversation with a colleague recently. This person was pointing out recent events and there relation to the events leading up to judgment day, to which I posed the question, how is that any different from 20 years ago? Or 20 years before that? Or 10 or 5, etc. There are always recurring characters and archetypes but are there any particular events in history or present day that you see as a glaring representation of events that occurred in the bible?

Rushkoff: I do think there are certain shapes and themes in the Bible that are more prevalent on the global stage than at other times. The Sixties may have felt like an Exodus-type liberation from false gods, where the Internet era feels like the descent into Egypt and the slavery associated with debt or indentured servitude. The war against Al Qaeda is interesting, because America is closer to the Romans or Egyptians in this case.

You have to remember, though, that while one set of stories may seem to be happening on a global stage, a whole bunch of others might be happening on a personal one. The parents leaving their kids off at college may feel like Moses dying outside Canaan as his children – the next generation – go in and have all the fun. So many different kinds of mythological strains are playing out simultaneously.

—

PAGE 5: Love this page. One of the first pages that made its way to press, it’s such a great boding instant that you don’t even need to see the previous page to understand what’s coming next.

Any relevance to the altar being placed in the womb of the statue?

There’s remains of real altars to Moloch, and that’s the way they were used. Usually, you shove the baby (still alive and kicking) into the mouth. From there, he falls down into the belly where the fire is going.

I thought of this particular splash page really early on. I love starting the series with it, because it says what we’re looking at in the story: a civilization that sacrifices its kids to false ideals. This book is the story about how we liberate from this sad dynamic.