Dirty Deeds Make Brilliant Trash

by Vince Brusio

Sci-fi landscapes sandblasted by comic pioneers was an exercise in imagination that writer Tim Seeley never forgot. He took what they offered, miniaturized the energy, and stored it on the tip of a hypodermic needle. Recently, that tip was inserted into a long plastic tube which fed into the writer’s brain stem, and what we have is a seizure on paper from AfterShock Comics that Tim calls Brilliant Trash #1 (SEP171085). The series is a salute to all things combustible that Tim thinks will turn our Earth inside out and sideways, and we were more than happy to talk to him about it in this PREVIEWSworld exclusive interview.

Brilliant Trash #1 (SEP171085) is in comic shops November 15.

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Vince Brusio: Brilliant Trash #1 is being pitched as a “sci-fi superhuman epic.” So are we to expect cultural and technological outrageousness in the vein of Transmetropolitan and Lazarus Churchyard? Or are you serving up another kind of toxic mixed drink cocktail?

Tim Seeley: This is definitely my William Gibson/Paul Verhoven/Warren Ellis future epic. And, I mean, so much of what those writers wrote about, which seemed so outrageous at the time came true, some of it even more insane and outrageous than even their incredible imaginations could ponder. Brilliant Trash is an angry, twisted, funny science fiction action comic containing all my bitter observations about the world, with exploding people and head-punching.

Vince Brusio: Click bait headlines and bastardized journalism seem to be the ruins one walks through as he attempts to understand the landscape in this story. But what about the air a teenage girl is supposed to breathe? Or the water she is to drink? How far does the politicization of our world and its natural elements extend? Or is that part of your plot, and because I’m two miles down the road, I’m about to run into pipe-wielding road warriors?

Tim Seeley: Brilliant Trash takes place in a not-so-distant future in which America is in the midst of some kind of massive social upheaval...still hanging on, but limping. The world is tense, there's fear in the air. No one is sure if machines will replace them at their jobs, or maybe just replace them all together. In the midst of this is a scientist who wants to allow people to have more control over their own destiny, and a reporter who becomes part of the story, but can’t get anyone to listen because no one reads the news for truth anymore.

Vince Brusio: There’s no denying the social context of this story. Artists and writers since the beginning of the printing press have always tried to interpret their times and reflect their opinions in their craft. What thoughts have you been entertaining lately, and how are you trying to bring those ideas forward in the actions/dialogue of your characters in Brilliant Trash?

Tim Seeley: I think we're at a critical point in human history. Because it's 'easier' to survive thanks to technology, we've got time to be think about other things. But, at the moment, instead of using that time to solve our problems, we seem to be using it to be afraid. And that fear is making us dangerous to each other. We live in the safest time in human history, but you'd never know it. It seems very possible that we'll undo our own comfort, because our brains won't let us accept it. I think, at its heart, that’s what this book is about. Why won't we let ourselves become gods?

Vince Brusio: What does Priscilla Petraites bring to the table as the artist for this book, and how did you know she was the right person for the job?

Tim Seeley: Priscilla's draws these really slick, clean, beautiful people, and then she puts them in these gritty, dirty, dilapidated scenes, which is perfect for a dystopian cyberpunk superhero story. Brilliance among the trash. She works with her colorist husband, Marko Lesko, and they make an incredible, synchronized team. 

Vince Brusio: If you could focus on a particular scene that would work well as a teaser image for the book, what would we see, and how is it representative of Brilliant Trash?

Tim Seeley: There's a scene in the first issue where our government 'superman,' Jim Heller, has to fight another superhuman in Chinatown, and he has to debate how much of his power to use. Too much and he'll die. Not enough, and the guy will kill him. Meanwhile, the target of his hunt is writing a listicle about dollar store Jesus figurines and how they are just 'everything.' I think that sums it up nicely.

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Vince Brusio writes about comics, and writes comics. He is the long-serving Editor of PREVIEWSworld.com, the creator of PUSSYCATS, and encourages everyone to keep the faith...and keep reading comics.