Behind The Kickstarter Curtain: ‘The Astonishing Adventures of Heracles Flint’, Interview with Creator Nick Moore
Today on Kickstarter, we explore the weird and wild of steampunk storytelling with Nick Moore’s “The Astonishing Adventures of Heracles Flint“, a promising action-filled steampunk and horror extravaganza that not only allows, but invites prospective writers to come roll around in the Victorian dirt with Heracles and his team a while. The adventure pits the titular Heracles Flint against a time-travelling Dracula who obtains this infamous time-travelling device from a descendent of H.G. Wells out on one of those carefree time-travelling sprees. That’ll teach you to drink and time-travel (unless you’re drinking necks, apparently).
As an opener, I interviewed Mr. Moore on why we should be giving Heracles Flint a first, second, and possibly a hundredth look.
So I have to say it: Alan Moore… Nick Moore… steampunk comic-style…
No relation unfortunately, but maybe there’s something about the name that makes us seek out the weird. Shame he’s not a relative as trips to the pub would be damn cool! I am a huge fan though with his run on Miracleman, rather than everyone’s favourite Watchmen, being my top comic read. Strangely though I’ve never actually read his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books!!
Was Kickstarter your original goal for this project?
Not originally as I’ve been tinkering with Flint’s world for years before Kickstarter launched in the UK allowing me to submit a project. Every passion project at some point, if you want to let other people into the little universe in your head, will need money behind it to grow and flourish. Kickstarter gives me two things if it’s successful. Firstly a professional edit of the book, which is a necessity for any writer. Apart from checking spelling and grammar, it’s a pair of fresh eyes to ensure you haven’t sliced the same vampyre twice, and the airship is pointing the right way when battling on the Las Vegas strip. When you’re in full flow little crucial details can trip you up.
The second thing is art. While comics are a huge passion of mine, I’ve a 10,000+ collection causing stress fractures in my house, I’d already spun the novel out of a movie idea, and didn’t want to change formats having expanded the tale to try to fit it into a comic, yet. But the chance to have those characters made real as comic art was too good to pass up, so the funding also goes to bring the services of fantastic artist Bentti Bisson on board. He’s already done one amazing piece for me to make sure we were on the same page creatively, and wow he just stepped into my head and laid Flint out in grand comic book style. I really want the Kickstarter to work to get all his character pieces done as a showcase of just how good he is.
Have you slept at all?
Ah… no 🙂 Crowd-funding is all about getting eyes on target, as no matter how good a project may be if no one knows it’s there, you’ll get nowhere, there’s no crowd-funding without a crowd. While there are plenty of tools to let you automate Tweets, G+ posts, etc, there’s still a huge amount of work in setting that up, and trying to balance getting the word out without spamming networks to death. I hope I’m getting that right with reaching 41% funded in less than two weeks, though the lack of sleep is making things blurry.
Steampunk opens up a rich opportunity for world-creation as well as social commentary. What’s your favorite twist about the genre, and how do you keep it all straight in your head?
I have no shame in saying I’m an action fan, and I think my favourite thing is the element of shock and awe you can give to a Victorian setting. Everything is sedate and oh so very proper, ladies and gentlemen dressed in their finest, horses hooves and carriage wheels on cobblestoned streets is about as loud and busy as it gets. Then you can smash into that street with a four story high mechanical man, all gears and boilers, smoke belching from huge chimney stacks on its back, and a maniacal crackpot inventor sitting in its chest pulling levers. You get to quickly and spectacularly shatter that civilised veneer, that was always pretty thin as it covered horrible divisions in society between the rich and poor. This was the era that found it ok to stuff children up chimneys to clean them, maybe some people still do, but I can’t get any of my three to fit!
As for keeping it all straight, reading is the key, along with Evernote, man it’s a blessing. If you want to write about a place or real person from the era that Steampunk springs from, it’s essential to read up on them and find out as much as you can. There’s a wealth of history to play with and it’s a delight to delve into historical figures, and learn about things that don’t make it into the general view people might have of them.
How much does historical accuracy factor into Heracles Flint’s world?
Historical accuracy is a double edged sword when it comes to writing fiction. You can have great fun tying a character into a factual setting, but it can quickly become a creative nightmare if you can’t get room to manoeuvre in that setting to tell your story. For Flint’s world I haven’t rewritten history as many Steampunk themed tales do, as the battles Heracles and his Society of Esoteric Technica fight are kept away from the public. Their efforts are meant to spare the everyday person from the horrors that the forces of darkness want to visit upon them. It’s the small, I suppose geeky, details of history that I get to have fun with. For example Queen Victoria fell down stairs in Windsor Castle in 1883 which had a permanent effect on her health from then on. That tiny detail I work into her appearance in the story just for the lark of having it there, it’s terribly geeky 🙂
You list several impressive genres in your description of the story. Tell us something loveable about these genres that can be seen in your book.
The story touches on several of the ‘punk’ genres of sci-fi in some way or another, and the expanded universe, will give more focus to each one. In addition to these the classic monsters of horror are also along for the ride. Vampire hordes led by Dracula himself, none of whom sparkle by the way. Werewolves, who are a misunderstood society pushed to extinction by humanity. Frankenstein’s butt kicking bride, a McDonalds loving stranded alien, and a traveller from the 22nd century. For Steampunk elements, aside from just having the general air of Victorian science fiction, I have the staple of the genre, the airship. A grand leviathan that makes it to present day Las Vegas to take on some modern aircraft above that brilliantly crazy city. As for the other fringe sci-fi elements we have, without wanting to give too much away, cyborgs, biological nightmares, other worldly nanotechnology, and some lightning infused Teslapunk.
Now how about something new that this world brings to the genres.
Beyond the fact that I don’t think I’ve seen a story that mixes up the wide range of sci-fi and horror that runs rampant throughout the book, I hope the thing it brings is accessibility. Flint’s first astonishing adventure is a wild ride that acts as a mainstream on ramp to the many genres it incorporates. It will allow the deeper themes of those genres to be further explored in the planned sequels, the expanded universe, and in other tales featuring the characters together and on solo adventures. If you ask people in the street if they’ve heard of Steampunk, or perhaps Atompunk, you’ll most likely get a blank stare. I hope to be able to give them a doorway through which new readers will take their first steps into a fantastical new world, within which they find tales to make the heart race, and challenge their attitudes on many social issues. If I can gain an audience for my stories, and signpost them to William Gibson, G. D. Falksen, or Gail Carriger, I’ll be a happy man.
What’s your hope in regards to opening the world of Heracles Flint up to other artists and writers?
I’d love to be able to build a platform for other talented creators to set up shop in a corner of Flint’s universe, and create spin off novels, comics, maybe even web series or radio dramas featuring the characters. I’m writing some new ones just for this purpose and it will give people the opportunity to make things like roleplay blogs, which Tumblr is brilliant for, though there’s far too many Tony Starks on there 🙂 The book establishes a time-line of events that spans over a century, and the sequels will expand that further. There’s the potential for a new comics and novel universe waiting for people to dive in and have fun, the sky’s the limit. It would be so amazing to head to my local comics shop, or make my weekly download from Comixology, and see some of my characters in books that have other people letting loose with their imaginations.
Who would win in a fight: Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Heracles Flint?
Hmmm this one is hard to call. While Heracles is a Victorian era gentleman he has a healthy respect for women’s abilities as warriors, and is all too aware that some may outclass him. So as soon as he sees Buffy is capable of possibly kicking his ass he’ll give no quarter in his efforts to put her down. He’ll also have an edge due to a handy array of gadgetry so I’ll give this one to him 🙂
Thank you to Nick Moore for sparing some of his blood, sweat, and no-sleep filled time with Geekscape! You can donate to the Heracles Flint society here. In fact, one of the rewards even includes your visage as a society member! Don’t wait. Act now. The world may depend on it.
