Flash Facts wants to expand your concept of the word "home." In "Home Sweet Space" by Cecil Castellucci and Gretel Lusky, a short story included in Mayim Bialik's Flash Facts anthology, Supergirl takes her new friend Maya on an unforgettable tour of the solar system. Along the way, she drops some fun and surprising facts about our neighboring planets, as well as humankind's missions to visit them, and explains why she's happy to call it all home.
Speaking to CBR, Castellucci and Lusky revealed what inspired them to explore space in their Flash Facts short. The shared the influence of the scientists in their own lives, as well as their hopes to inspire younger readers to "engage with the world in a different way." They also explained why Supergirl was the perfect fit for this story, teased their favorite moments and more.
CBR: How did this project come together for you?
Cecil Castellucci: So [Assistant Editor] Courtney [Jordan], over at DC Comics, and [VP & Executive Editor, Young Reader] Michelle Wells, who was there at the time, emailed me and asked me if I would be interested in doing something for a science Flash Facts thing. I think my friend, and maybe Christie Quinn over at DC, had mentioned what a science nut I am.
I'm the daughter of two scientists. My dad's a neuroscientist; my mom's a molecular engineer geneticist. My brother was a science journalist. So I grew up with science. So I was like, "I'm 100% in! Which direction do you want to point me in? Just FYI, I'm obsessed with outer space! Just FYI, I like our solar system!" [laughs]
We kind of went back and forth about, you know, would I be doing exoplanets? Would I be doing things in space? Because that's my favorite. We settled upon the solar system. When we were trying to think about which character would be great for the solar system, and what the vibe would be, I thought, "Well, wouldn't it be great for there to be a science fair, and Supergirl -- this alien who doesn't have a home anymore -- has this home and she loves her home and, for her, the home is the whole solar system!" So it kind of narrowed down.
Basically, it narrowed down from the entire universe to our solar system, because I would have gladly written about any science at all. But for me, the space is the one.
Gretel Lusky: Shortly after I wrapped up our graphic novel Primer, I was kindly invited by DC to be part of a new STEM based anthology, alongside with many talented writers and artists. It sounded like a pretty exciting project and I was immediately on board!
I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, so I can definitely relate to that.
Castellucci: I think I wrote it for you and me at that age, because me too! If I hadn't become an artist, I would have become an astronaut. If I weren't an artist, a creator, I think I would have been like a receptionist at NASA or something! [laughs] Knowing scientists and growing up with science in my life, I always knew that research was never going to be my thing, but I just have such a healthy love and appreciation of science. For me, it was space. For my family, it's the human, but for me, it's outer space.
What was your familiarity with the solar system as a subject before you started working on this story?
Castellucci: I mean, like I said, I really am a space nut. Over the pandemic, I attended the the Mars conference, and I listened to lectures from CalTech and NASA all the time. I am always up on my space news. I have friends who are planetary scientists and a friend who works at JPL and is helping to bring perseverance to Mars. So I have people around me who know a lot about that stuff and I have such a love of it that a lot of it was my own knowledge.
But then, it was the sort of excuse I needed to dive deeper down rabbit holes. To be honest, we actually had to remove a lot of space information that I put in there, because I just couldn't help myself! [laughs] One thing that I thought was really important was to highlight some of the missions that we're actually doing. So when Supergirl is at the sun and they see the Parker Solar Probe, which is, right now, around the sun, measuring stuff, that was important to me. Or for Mars, which is our most visited planet, where we've sent the most missions to, to show all of the missions that we've had there -- not all of them, but a lot of them, and we will have more. It'll already be obsolete by the time it comes out!
I think what's so exciting about space exploration now and space exploration of our own solar system is that we're still just beginning to visit! We've only been visiting, since the 70s, our own backyard. We're just learning more and more, and it's extremely exciting.
Lusky: I always found the space fascinating to be honest. I got that from my dad. He is a geologist and loves nature and space so much. He never really misses any chance to talk about science, facts and sharing all his knowledge. My sister and I grew up learning a lot about the solar system and every other thing about space and our earth from him.
What was something fun you learned as you conducted your own research?
Castellucci: I think the most surprising thing that I learned was that, I believe, it's Io has active volcanoes that scientists can see. If they point their telescopes, occasionally, they can see a blast. I thought that was really -- like, I knew that it had volcanoes, but I don't know, I guess I just thought they were just dormant, and so I thought that was really exciting. But of course, it makes sense. That's why we want to go look at it!
Lusky: It was really fun to learn about the vast history of the different missions and human landing attempts on Mars. Besides the most iconic ones, I really didn't know much about them, so it was really interesting to learn about their history, relevance and impact. I also learned about Cecil's favorite object, Enceladus, Saturn's moon which has an entire ocean below its icy crust -- and after I researched a bit about it, I was completely in awe. Probably one of my favorite space things as well. It;s truly beautiful!
Comics is such a wonderfully collaborative medium, so I'd love to hear about your experience working together.
Castellucci: Well, you know, she lives far away. Every comic project is different, and they're collaborative in a different way. So this one, Gretel and I didn't talk directly. We would talk through Courtney. Basically, I think that I'm such a space nut that my biggest note all the time was like, "More plumes!" Like, "More steam coming out of the bottom of that moon!"
I think that, through our conversations through Courtney, it seems to me like Gretel is also a big space nut, and I think that she was taking a lot of joy in sort of learning, like when I would be like, "This is a minutia thing, like there needs to be more," and then I just send like 50 million reference pictures of the moons or whatever space thing.
I usually don't do this, but because it was a science-based thing, I wanted to make sure that everything was super accurate. I didn't want Gretel to feel like she had to do all of the legwork and research on her own. So for this script, I actually put in a lot of visual references and a lot of links to space sites -- NASA, ESA, stuff like that -- so that she would really have the very precise information that she needed.
Lusky: It was a blast working with Cecil and learning more about space. I always love working with passionate people. It was a huge responsibility to match her vision and understanding of the galaxy and I appreciated having her feedback. She'd share with me a lot of tidbits about our solar system and that added a lot to the comic which I hope will show in the final product!
Gretel, I'd love to hear more about your coloring process on this short and what that looked like for you.
Lusky: It was incredibly fun! Inks are usually the main focus on most comics, but colors were so important to tell this story as well because it’s all about space, atmosphere and light. There aren't many straight lines or pretty much any other complex figures besides our two main characters. I used lots of textures and layers set to different modes to create effects and add a lot of luminousness to each panel. It was challenging and different from my usual work process, but I don’t think I ever had that much fun coloring comic pages. I especially enjoyed painting hundreds of tiny stars, colorful galaxies and all the beautiful moons.
How involved was Mayim Bialik during the process of creating your short? Did you get to interact with her at all?
Castellucci: I mean, I did not. I mostly just worked with Courtney. I have other books that I was doing.
I'd love to meet Mayim. She's incredible. She's a neuroscientist like my dad, so I feel like we'd have a lot to talk about. She curated and I was so excited that she loved my story so much. I think one of the general notes that I got back -- I don't know if it was specifically from Mayim -- was just like, "Oh my gosh! So much science!" So I was just thrilled that that she loved what I was tackling and that I was going to use Supergirl for it.
In the past decade or so, there's really been a push to inspire girls to pursue STEM subjects. What has it meant to you to be part of an anthology with a story about two young ladies showing interest in and exploring science?
Castellucci: Oh, it means the world! I mean, look, I really believe that there's not very much of a difference between a creative brain and a scientific brain, because I think both fields, you have to be very creative in order to come up with questions and answers and think about the human condition and where we are in the world and our place and all of that. So I think that art and science are twins.
So, as far as me being such a science enthusiast, I feel like the greatest science fiction superheroes or otherwise, space operas, whatever it could be, they spark the imagination of the next generation of scientists. So I feel like writers' jobs, as well, is to make it as fun and cool as possible for new generations.
I will say this: I've been a 20-year volunteer at an elementary school here in Los Angeles, where I do literacy and readaloud, and I continued to do it during lockdown. Because I wrote this story, I was so excited to be able to write something that I could share with the fourth graders that I work with. So this whole year, we've been doing space science, so I've been reading books about space and doing literacy through space literacy and stuff like that, because I feel like if you can get kids -- girls, kids, anybody -- to get excited about science and about thinking, even if they don't become a scientist themselves, they're engaging with the world in a different way.
I think that's so important right now, when we think about our planet that we live on, that we need to take care of, to be able to look and marvel at that. I think that's what science literacy does, because I think you have to become fluent in science as well as fluent in reading or anything else.
Lusky: It was something very special to me, for sure. My work has always gravitated towards a more fantastical genre, so it was a big challenge to switch it up and illustrate a story that is more grounded, objective and real. It was an honor to contribute to this graphic novel because I know it will serve as an inspiration and learning source for so many kids and hopefully it will also spark the interest in more girls to pursue STEM subjects!
Can you tease your favorite moment or scene for readers who haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet?
Castellucci: Oh, gosh, that's really hard because I kind of am in love with every single page! I just want to give a huge shout out to Gretel. When I shared some sneak pages with my space scientist friends, they all were like, "Oh my gosh!"
I am going to go with, for me, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn -- the page where it shows all the moons and what is so intriguing and interesting about them and why we're interested in visiting these water worlds. Titan with the methane oceans and Io with its volcanoes are so interesting for us. I think that that page really made my heart sing.
Lusky: There’s a part where Supergirl is taking Maya throughout space passing by different planets, showing her the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. I just love the sense of vastness and wonder that double page gives.
That's a great note to end on! I'm excited for people to see it.
Castellucci: Yeah, me too! I hope that it makes a bunch of kids have a little bit of wonder about the world that we live on.
Flash Facts goes on sale on Feb. 2. The book is currently available for pre-order at DC's official website.