Advent Rising: Rock the Planet, a six-issue mini-series featured in
the August 2005 Previews, is the first offering from 360jams, an imprint of
360ep, Inc. Based on the video game Advent Rising and due in stores October 26,
2005, this series marks more than just the debut of a new publisher. It’s the
return of former Marvel Comics executive Bill Jemas to comics.

It also
marks the second time writer Rob Worley has worked with Jemas.

Worley is
best known to many comics fans (and Hollywood types) as the man who developed
www.Comics2Film.com into a
must-visit site, but he also was the writer behind Young Ancient One,
part of the ill-fated Epic Comics initiative at Marvel.

With Advent
Rising currently one of the video games with a definite buzz, Jemas, Worley,
and a team of creators came together and created this prequel mini-series.

Scoop: We know you from the days when you made Comics2Film.com one of
the daily “must visit” spots on the web. Beyond that, what’s your background in
comics?
Rob Worley: To date, Comics2Film.com is my primary claim to fame
in the comics business. My work on that site over the past eight years really
grew my network in the comics and film industries and I’ve been working hard at
making inroads into each. My sole published work in comics at the moment is
Young Ancient One, which was meant to be a three-issue miniseries under
Marvel’s infamous Epic imprint. Only one issue was published.

That all
changes this year, with Advent Rising: Rock the Planet as the first of a
number of published works coming from various outlets.

Scoop: 360ep
is the new company that Bill Jemas and some associates started after he left
Marvel. How did you get the gig writing the first comic they’re publishing?

RW: As you know, the Epic imprint was Bill’s baby, so he was familiar
with my work from that. Teresa Focarile, who was one of my editors at Epic, is
now Director of Development at 360ep. I guess they liked me or something.

First thing this year Teresa drops me a note to say “hi” and keep contact,
and to let me know there may be some opportunities on some upcoming work. I
basically cyber-stalked her until the Advent gig opened up a few months
later.

At the time the game wasn’t out yet, but it was being promoted
pretty heavily, so I was aware of it. They showed me a bunch of materials,
character studies, back stories and the like. They had some big story and
conceptual ideas worked out with Donald Mustard, who created the game and asked
me if I could make a series pitch around those ideas.

They liked my
pitch and took it to Majesco. Majesco liked it and we were off the races pretty
quickly.

Scoop: Bill’s reputation at Marvel was that of a showman,
sometimes with some of the more negative implications. That said, people like
Brian Michael Bendis have lauded his story insights. What was the working
relationship with him like when you were doing Young Ancient One?

RW: Honestly, Bill was not very hands on with YAO. In fact, I had
one initial story meeting with him, Joe Quesada, Stephanie Moore and Teresa.
After that, I worked exclusively with Stephanie and Teresa.

So, I wish I
had some war stories there, but I really don’t.

I will say that I was a
first time comics writer on the line with the two most powerful guys in comics,
and I found it very intimidating. Bill was very forthright in his comments about
my first YAO script and the consensus in the room was that I had missed
the boat by making that story too dark and horror-oriented. I basically killed
off everyone’s favorite character…the Hero’s wife. Well…I literally killed
off everyone in script except the hero and the villain, who died an obscure
comic villain death and was destined to return to fight again.

Bill
thought this was the wrong way to go and ultimately we reworked things to keep
the book from becoming too grim. The hero’s wife would have lived, had Marvel
actually published the story I wrote. I struggled with this change because I had
such a clear vision for where I would go with the character long term…the
broken-hearted loner seeking redemption…Shane or Mad Max. By the
time I worked through the third issue script though, I was totally on board with
the new direction.

So, I’d have to agree with Bendis and laud Bill’s
story insights. But I also admit that Bill isn’t afraid to push buttons and see
what happens.

Scoop: What’s it like now? Any changes or just the
same?
RW: Well, it’s quite a bit different as Bill is much more hands on
with the production of this book. He’s given me feedback on everything so far.

I’m aware of Bill’s reputation as being a tough guy, but I just haven’t
had those experiences with him yet. In fact, I feel like he must be going easy
on me since we haven’t had any terrible confrontations or upsetting arguments
yet. In all honesty I love the process. It’s been a great collaboration so
far.

Scoop: Were you a fan of the Advent Rising game prior to
the comic book or did you become one during the process?
RW: I was
officially introduced to the project at the end of March and the game wasn’t out
yet. So, initially I was working from the game’s script and Donald Mustard’s
background materials for the game, along with artwork and trailers and the like.

Since then I’ve been given a pre-release copy of the PC version of the
game and I think it’s incredible. I mean, it’s really a rich, epic story, which
allows the player to step in for the action scenes.

Scoop: What’s
the back story for the game?
RW: The game tells the story of the human
race on the planet Edumea and their first contact with an alien race, the
Aurelians. These aliens have a great, almost religious reverence for humankind.
Unfortunately in discovering the humans, they’ve also alerted the Seekers,
another alien race, to Edumea’s existence. The Seekers are bent on extinguishing
human life from all existence. Without giving too much away…Gideon and Ethan
Wyeth, along with Gideon’s fiancé Olivia become central to the struggle
for mankind’s survival.

Scoop: And how about the new comic
book?
RW: The comic is a prequel to the games, but not a direct lead in.
We’re taking the main charcters Gideon, Ethan and Olivia back 10 years…to
their teens. It’s much more The OC than Star Wars. It’s our
Smallville to the game’s Superman.

The game and comics
deal with many interesting themes, but on a different scale.

One of
the main things that appealed to me was the idea of human potential. It’s at the
core of the game in a very overt way: Human beings are bristling with hidden
power that Gideon learns to tap into as the game progresses. He starts to become
almost a superhero by the last act of the first game.

But the potential
of human beings to be powerful in their world is very real. We’ve all got it in
us. The comic explores that idea on a different level. In “Rock the Planet”
Gideon learns to tap into a whole different kind of power.

The other
interesting thing that attracted me to the comics is that Gideon and Ethan are
brothers and best friends, but they oftentimes oppose each other. Bill said it
nicely the other day in that, “it’s not good guys against bad guys. It’s good
guys against good guys.” I loved the mandate that Gideon and Ethan be in
opposition to each other, but still be brothers and best friends…and really
heroes in their respective stories.

I feel like the idea of passionate
but respectful disagreement is almost completely lost in recent times…in the
political conversation in this country. People want to boil arguments down to
black and white and really vilify each other. If you voted one way you’re an
ignorant hick. If you voted another way you’re unpatriotic or a communist. What
ever happened to trying to win the other side over?

Don’t get me wrong
though. I went off on a tangent there. It’s not a political book.

Scoop: Does one have to know the game to enjoy the comic or is it open to
new readers?
RW: Absolutely not! Donald Mustard said recently that this
comic is really the start of a very long and epic story that ends with the third
of the planned trilogy of video games. But we’re starting ten years ahead of the
first game and we do square one introductions of all the characters.

It’s accessible for everyone.

And there’s a huge potential for
stories that would fill the ten-year gap. I’ve seen a tiny bit of what’s coming
and it’s gonna be great.

Scoop: What can you tell us about the other
creators on the book?
RW: We’re doing this book in this cool
collaborative mode that’s sort of similar to the old school Stan and Jack style.
I start by describing the plot of the book in blocks of pages.

Arthur
Dela Cruz, who fans know well from his Oni press book Kissing Chaos, then
takes that plot and renders it as comic page layouts. I have to say, Arthur is
such a critical element to the process. He’s such a talented visualist and he’s
basically putting the story into the visual language of comics, picking the
shots and telling the story. We can all look and see what we’ve got and if it
looks as cool as it possibly can.

Once the layouts are set we ship
everything over to Cliff Richards, who has penciled books like Buffy The
Vampire Slayer for Dark Horse. Cliff just goes ahead and turns Arthur’s
layouts into beautiful pencil art. I feel really lucky to have Cliff on board.
He draws such great, expressive faces and all the kids look sexy as the WB.

Dennis Crisostomo (Emma Frost) is doing a bang-up job on inks. Chris
DeLara (Serenity) brings in the colors and Simon Bowland puts my words in
the characters’ mouths.

And we’ve even got a Greg Horn variant cover on
the first issue.

Scoop: What do you think of the results you’ve seen
thus far?
RW: Like I said, I’m really loving the process. Everybody’s
been so cool so far. It really feels like a nice team effort. I’ve seen most of
the first book colored and lettered and the pages look great. It’s really
first-rate. I’ve been showing the pencils around my local shop and the kids get
a look at Olivia and they’re like, “How do I get her number?”

Scoop:
What else are you working on?
RW: I just finished writing a young
readers chapter book for a new publishing imprint by my friends at Komikwerks
(http://www.komikwerks.com ). The name of the book (and hopefully series) is
The Legend of TigerFist. It’s sort of Warriors Jr. with kung fu and
sorcery, about a boy named Conner who lives on the streets of a very dark and
strange city called Los Perdidos. Conner comes to learn that he’s descended from
a line of heroes that the world has not seen in over 300 years. It’s all about
the power of inspiration to make positive changes. And it’s got kids kicking
demons in their butts too. That’ll come out early next year.

I’m also
doing some work with a new publisher out of Italy called Narwain
(http://www.narwain.com ). I’ve written a number of short stories for their
upcoming anthology titles. The first one, Brian Yuzna’s Horrorama is due
to hit in November.

I have a few creator owned things that are further
out. The first will be published in the Komikwerks anthology. The other, I’m
still working out the pitch with a certain rock-star artist who I’ve sworn to
keep secret until the time is right (Andy Kuhn).

Scoop: Anything else
you’d like to add?
RW: I hope everybody checks out Advent Rising,
the comic and the game. It won’t crack the internet in half or anything, but
it’ll be a damn fun read.