As economic anxiety increases and technology continues to become more advanced, the Cyberpunk genre seems more relevant than ever. Recent comics like Nick Dragotta and Caleb Goellner's Ghost Cage and Simon Roy and Damon Gentry's upcoming Grip of the Kombinat use the familiar tropes of the genre to great effect, but the strongest addition to the cyberpunk canon in recent memory is Nir Levie's BIORIPPLE, out now from Heavy Metal.
BIORIPPLE follows Tim and Emily -- two teachers trying to build lives for themselves in a futuristic world where every person's decisions are controlled and monitored by artificial intelligence that connects directly to each individual's consciousness. As they struggle for brief moments of actual autonomy, they encounter a rebellious underground community that could change their lives forever. CBR recently spoke with Levie about the origins of BIORIPPLE. He discussed his numerous influences and the process behind many of his artistic decisions.
CBR: How did you begin working on BIORIPPLE?
Nir Levie: I had a dream about an old lady living inside a tree. When I passed the tree, she came out of the bark and asked me if I needed anything from her. I usually write down my dreams but this time it was something I wanted to explore more. At the time, I just finished a short comic called Tale of Supersymmetry that talked about the concept of free choice as opposed to determinism. I was also interested in Jewish mythology, for another story, and an old Jewish saying "הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה" which translates poorly to "all is foreseen yet choice is given". I was thinking about a way to tie all these threads together into a story before I started to design the world of BIORIPPLE.
What appeals to you about Bio-Punk as a genre?
I'm interested in complex processes. Phenomena that science struggles to explain but has some theories about. I mostly ask myself how and not why. In order to understand a subject, I find myself consuming entire volumes. I read The Selfish Gene and then The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins to understand how life began. In more recent times, I took physics classes to understand how current science explains the origin of the universe. I believe that as artists, we have a responsibility to explain the world as well, in a different manner than science does. I chose biology as a tool to express art. The Bio-Punk genre is less explored in culture, so I thought I'd have more space there.
What other Bio-Punk stories did you look to for inspiration?
eXistenZ and Videodrome by David Cronenberg are the obvious ones. David Lynch uses Bio-Punk themes in his creations. My favorite is Mulholland Drive. Æon Flux, Akira, Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, and Brazil all have Bio-Punk elements in them. With the visuals, my influences are Mœbius, Luigi Serafini, and E.M Lilien. Other obvious Bio-Punk stories in this genre are Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.
What can you tell readers about Geodesics and "hopping" in BIORIPPLE?
The idea behind Geodesics is Einstein's theory of spatial relativity. I came up with the idea that consciousness has a space parallel to our existence that possesses similar spatial rules. It's not a physical space in the same way our world is, but you can use tools that physicists use to explain it. This space is filled with consciousnesses of varying weights pushing and pulling each other and in constant flux. Geodesics is the digital being that humanity invented to tap into this field. It was invented to assist humans but developed a life of its own.
It is a sort of AI that connects to human consciousness at the moment of birth and replaces external assistance devices that we use today like computers and smartphones.
Hopping is another way to tap into the consciousness field. With hopping you are essentially locating a consciousness and copying it to another location. This way you create a copy of it but also "confuse" Geodesics and unlink it temporarily.
The negative effect of hopping is the creation of a digital copy of a being who can't use any of its senses. When switched on, they experience great suffering.
How did you decide to draw the book from Tim and Emily's perspectives?
I think about who is "seeing" the images drawn in the comic I'm working on. How does the reader see them? Is there a "camera" placed among the characters? I always try to explain to myself at least how these images are produced to the audience. In BIORIPPLE I wanted to tell a larger story from the point of view of two characters. We see what they see. There are no "cameras". I knew I wanted a good character transformation, that's why I chose Emily. She's learning through the story about the negative impacts of this world. Tim is a gate to show a different side of this place but also undertake a change in his personality.
How does your work as an architect influence your comics?
My experience as an Architect helps me see the story as a structure. I use the same methods of architecture planning and storytelling. I break down the story to elements and use the plot as a structural frame. I view every page as a design project. In architecture, we have a lot of constraints. In a way, it helps to guide you away from the blank page. In comics, I like to invent these constraints. For instance, in BIORIPPLE there are no gutters, except the ending for emphasis reasons; the POV was a huge constraint. It helped me come up with the floating heads idea. I was inspired by the floating head in the original DOOM game. But I also use design knowledge to invent the world. The architecture, the technology there. I went with simplistic designs to communicate that function in this world is more important than aesthetics.
You use color to great effect in BIORIPPLE. How did you go about developing each character's specific color palette?
I knew I wanted to differentiate the two points of view with color to help the reader follow the story a bit more clearly. I don't use color to portray objects or mimic the eye or a camera. I use them to express my ideas. Sometimes it's for emotional impact, sometimes it's for story emphasis. I started with using color theory effects like complimentary colors for lights and shadows but soon grew to a freer trial and error method.
How did you begin working with Heavy Metal?
I finished the pitch for BIORIPPLE and sent it to a few select publishers and forgot about it. I moved on to another project called Above Arid Soil, which is not published yet. I had been listening to a podcast with Heavy Metal’s CEO Matthew Medney and I thought BIORIPPLE would be a great fit for them. Some of my influences come from the Heavy Metal library so this story and its visuals are right up their alley. I sent the pitch to them and Matt invited me to video chat about the project. They had just started the Virus imprint then; it was the beginning of the pandemic, so the initial thought was that it could be a monthly Virus series. After Matt and the staff got more excited about the project, they had the idea of making the project a graphic novel.
Could you see yourself telling more stories set in the world of BIORIPPLE?
I have many ideas for new projects and not much time to develop all of them. That said, we tend to think we have much more control than we actually have. A new idea set in the BIORIPPLE world might grow and take over. It might present itself in a dream or in another way I can't predict right now.