Chart-topping, two-time Grammy-nominated producer and DJ Steve Aoki teamed with new publisher Impact Theory and Eisner Award-winning writer Jim Krueger to craft Neon Future, a sci-fi comic book series inspired by Aoki's electronica concept albums of the same name. The adaptation launched last year at New York Comic-Con, illustrated by Neil Edwards and Jheremy Raapack, with additional story input from Impact Theory founder and CEO Tom Bilyeu.
As the comic nears the end of its first season, Krueger sat down with CBR at Comic-Con International in San Diego to discuss the collaboration with Aoki and Impact Theory, and to tease where the immersive, dystopian sci-fi story will go next.
"[Bilyeu and Aoki] are both techno-optimists, they're both anti-Terminator type people," Krueger said. "A future where technology brings evil and destruction is not in their DNA at all; they see technology as the only way for mankind’s advancement. We’re going to have to create solutions, we’re going to have to make the world a better place. Tom and Steve have a hangout and Tom says, ‘We should do a comic book together’ and Steve is like, ‘Yes, I love Wolverine, I love comic books. This is a perfect idea.' They both love comic books inherently. It was around that time that a mutual friend that [Tom and I] have tells Tom, ‘I know a guy who’s been on the inside of the industry, including marketing, who has become a writer that people know, he’s won an Eisner, I think he’s someone you should get to know.'"
During his first meeting with Bilyeu, Krueger discussed the logistics of launching a comic publisher, and the breadth of his knowledge from decades of working in the industry, to the filmmaker and Quest Nutrition co-founder. Impressed, Bilyeu brought on Krueger initially as a consultant, along with Aoki television writers Dana Brawer and Samantha Levenshus as a sort of writers room. The ensemble envisioned a world in which advancing technology, including artificial intelligence, would result in millions losing longtime analog jobs. In the comic's dystopian future, advanced technology, employed by those known as the Augmented, is outlawed and hunted by traditionalists known as the Authentic.
"Tom and Steve began to envision this world where there was a giant economic collapse [because of the sudden advancement in technology]," Krueger explained. "Because this is 2025, everyone moved back to a technological place like we had in the '90s. A decree, Proposition 10, known as 'the Return,' declared any new advancements were illegal unless sanctioned by the government. The story really begins with a show like COPS, with our celebrity hero Clay and his partner EZ going out to arrest illegal black-market technology. In the very beginning of the first issue, Clay dies mysteriously in a car accident and wakes up resurrected by technology by a technology no one has seen before from an underground figure named Kita Sovee, and he doesn't want it. His entire life he's hunted whom he considers criminals and now he's considered a criminal himself. He has to face his old family and his new family of Augmented while being brought against his will into this political movement."
For the creative team, the story was intended to reflect current issues, including racism and other forms of discrimination, as the Augmented are facing widespread persecution. Krueger noted that Bilyeu often quoted the late writer Frederik Pohl, who famously said, “A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.”
With Kita visibly resembling Aoki, the DJ worked closely with the creative team to craft the story, reviewing every issue ahead of publication, and providing feedback. While the six-issue first season depicts the Augmented origin of Clay, the next six issues will focus on Kita.
Krueger has planned ahead for the series, including potential spinoffs, pending approval by Bilyeu and Aok. Despite being a new publishing company, the first four issues of the series have already sold twice as many copies as initial high-end estimates, with Krueger noting that Diamond Comic Distributors was surprised by the success of the launch. The publisher plans to release the first trade paperback in October. Krueger observed that Bilyeu approached Impact Theory with a clear objective of community building, and reached out to comic book creators from a grassroots perspective.
"Any story that means anything is a defiance of the status quo," Kreuger said, "and so Tom defies the rules of how this industry works; to find a new way to do it. And so that's reflected in Clay Campbell in a sort of meta-textual way. Just as Tom is figuring it out, so is Clay. And at the same time, he's trying to find new ways to make this comic industry he loves become really special."
Neon Future is written by Jim Krueger, with co-creators Steve Aoki and Tom Bilyeu, and illustrated by Neil Edwards and Jheremy Raapack. Issue 6 goes on sale Aug. 14. The trade paperback collecting the series' first six issues goes on sale Oct. 2 from Impact Theory.