Looking At The Big Questions And Seeing Where My Imagination Takes Me: Anthony Cleveland On His Cosmically Tripped Out New Comic "Starzgazer"
Anthony Cleveland has always had a deep love for comics, but it wasn’t until 2017’s self-published Siver Skin that Cleveland began publishing his own work. Since then, he’s had several shorts published, and now, his second series with Mad Cave Studios, Stargazer, is set to drop on September 2nd (currently available for pre-order). Experimental and spacey in all the right ways, Cleveland takes his readers on a cosmically tripped out journey with a compelling central mystery that is out of this world!
Years ago Shae, her brother Kenny, and two childhood friends experienced a traumatic, unexplainable event that left Kenny scarred for life. Kenny commits himself to the belief that what they experienced was an alien abduction. Twenty years later and the friends have since drifted apart, but the sudden, mysterious disappearance of Kenny leads the group to reunite and discover the truth of what took place all those years ago.
We had the opportunity to chat with Anthony about his book, the sci-fi films that influenced the series, his secret to creating believable characters, and much much more!
The book hits the shelves on September 2nd, and the series is getting really great reviews. How does if feel to have another series under your belt?
Great! It's always weird to look back at the series and say "holy shit, somehow that all worked out." I still scratch my head with this one. It feels like an anomaly at times. I wrote a lot of big checks with the questions I presented in this series, and I'm happy none of them bounced in the end.
I feel like everyone’s got some kind of alien or UFO story — or at least knows of someone who had a cousin who knew a dude who had an “encounter”. What’s your connection to the great unknown and the alien overlords who watch us from above?
It probably all started in the 90's and growing up all the crazy documentary TV specials that repeated on TV. There was always something UFO or alien related on at night. I think that rubbed off on me because for the longest time as a kid I thought I was abducted. I had a lot of weird alien dreams as a kid and I was convinced they were real, but years later I found out I was a sleepwalker. So now that's my go-to explanation for the strange happenings as a kid — but who knows, maybe the aliens will show back up and get me again.
Sci-fi is such a great genre to explore big ideas and the many possibilities of unanswerable questions. Where did your love for the genre originate?
Yeah, I like looking at the big questions and seeing where my imagination takes me. SciFi is the right genre for that if your mind never shuts off. And all those big questions can come from anywhere: technology, humanity, religion. But, what really gets me rolling is when an idea I have is challenged by another and my perceptions shift. There's some of that in Stargazer for sure.
I might be reaching here — and you can tell me if I am — but Stargazer, to me, feels like Philip K. Dick taking on a Stephen King version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Is that off target?
I've heard references to PKD with this before as well, and I'm not sure to be honest. Stargazer gets very experimental and mind-bending. You can see some of that in issue 1, and in 2 + 3 it's very apparent — but that comes from Alan Moore for me. Just picking and choosing from a lot of his works, a little bit of From Hell and a little bit of Swamp Thing and the LSD trip in V for Vendetta. I can't say too much without spoiling those issues though. I'll just say it gets cosmic, trippy, and reflective.
Were there any films that played apart in the shaping of this story?
The TV adaptation of IT and maybe IT Chapter 2. They were inspirations, but I also learned from the pitfalls both adaptations fell into and tried my best to avoid them. Before I set on Stargazer's final story, I wanted to tell a horror mystery and I looked to The McPherson Tape for that idea. This was a found-footage horror movie from 1989, about a family that is slowly taken away by aliens. As a kid, I had no idea this was a fake film. This was several years before The Blair Witch Project was a thing, and even when that was out, all the kids thought it was real. I wanted to bring some of the fear I had from UFO's into this story. I do think I achieved this, but it’s far from the horror story I originally wanted to tell. It's better for that too.
Comic scriptwriting is pretty similar to screenwriting. Do you read any film screenplays? If so, what filmmakers do you like to read and how have they influenced your personal writing style?
I used to read a lot of scripts. I began wanting to be a filmmaker, then a screenplay writer, then a comic book writer. Paul Schrader was probably the guy I looked to the most when I was writing screenplays. He grounds his characters, and then I feel like he walks a fine line between drama and a genre film. It's clearly drama he's writing throughout, but the sprinkles of genre are there. Like Rolling Thunder feels like an exploitation neo-western or Bringing Out the Dead is such a dark comedy, but Cat People is probably the best example of that. That style is here in Stargazer. I tried to ground my characters, then open the doors to new possible genres. Antonio Fuso's realistic art really helps with grounding the story as well. right before it takes it trippy turn.
Your characters are always very fully rounded and well defined. What’s your process for creating such believable characters?
I try to have an empathetic imagination with my character creation, but Stargazer was a bit different. I was short on ideas and close to mental exhaustion after just coming off another series, so I tapped into who I knew and put them into the book. I picked and chose what to take from the people I knew. I'm in there, my brother is in there, a few friends, and you're in there too! There's not one character that's entirely based on someone though; all the characters are a mix. It was interesting, but the best part was confronting myself on a few beliefs I had held closely my whole life. The book really grew from that.
Stargazer’s color palette of red, purple, and blue gave me MANDY and Color Out of Space vibes. How much of the artwork and coloration comes from direction in your script and how much is artist invented?
That is all on Stephano and Antnoio. I absolutely talked about how important color was with the orbs we see in issue #1 and a few surprises down the road, but after that what they collaborated on was their own. And the book is better because of that. I still can't believe how great the pages look.
Totally loaded questions, but… in your humble opinion, what’s the best sci-fi film ever made?
I really like A Clockwork Orange. Technology controlling our moral decisions and the compromise that brings to our humanity is very interesting to me. I also like Blade Runner which was the first film that made me question "what is human?" I don't know if I can commit to what the best is.
If you could live in the world of any sci-fi film, what would it be and why?
One where we meet the aliens, we become best bros, and quality of life improves for everyone.
Is there any additional hype you’d like to leave with our readers about the book?
Every issue gets bigger and bigger. With the way things are rolling, this looks like Stargrazer is going to fly off the shelves faster than Show's End and that went into 2nd printing in just a week later. Pre-order this book, because you may not be able to catch up if you're a fan of floppies. Call your comic shop and give them the code MAR201974.
Hungry for more?! Check out the links below:
Anthony Cleveland, Show’s End interview
Anthony Cleveland, Silver Skin interview
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!