James Tynion IV has written several series at BOOM! Studios including The Woods, UFOlogy, and Memetic. While The Woods is still ongoing, and he's also working on Detective Comics at DC, he has another series coming up through BOOM! With Rian Sygh on art, we'll see the first issue of The Backstagers on sale this week.
What is The Backstagers all about? James and Rian tell us Five Things You Need to Know about The Backstagers.
The Power of Friendship
James: It was about a year and a half ago that I started talking to Shannon Watters, who runs the BOOM! Box line at BOOM! Studios, about developing my first all-ages series, one that had been in the back of my mind for a long, long time. When I was a freshman in high school, I had this idea in my head what being a young guy was supposed to be. I was supposed to look a certain way, act a certain way, like certain things... And I just didn’t hit any of the checkmarks. I had just started out at an All-Boys High School, and I thought I would never fit in anywhere. It wasn’t until I was dragged along to a stage crew meeting after school that I saw a whole different world I could be a part of. The Stage Crew kids were ALL weirdos, and they LIKED the fact that I didn’t really fit in anywhere else. They introduced me to a whole different level of male friendship, a bunch of sensitive geeky kids who didn’t like the spotlight. I never would have survived high school without them, and that was the real inception for this series.
I wanted to write a book about the friendship between a bunch of weird outcast boys hanging out in the strange, impossible world that only exists behind the curtains of a high school theater. More than that, I wanted to write a book for the boys who FEEL that disconnected, who haven’t found that community, to show them that it’s out there.
Rian: James brought me on fairly early and as soon as I heard the rough pitch I was hooked. The Backstagers is exactly the kind of story I want to tell: A bunch of weird queer boys being friends against all-odds and navigating a magical labyrinth to help bring a little more magic into the lives of the audience. The forefront of the book is this group of boys’ friendships, as unlikely as they would be in any other context. The relationships between these friends feels so fresh to me, it’s a joy to help bring them and this book to life.
The Theater is Magic
James: I think comic fans are all fans of escapism, and there’s really no purer kind of escapism than the theater. Disappearing into a story, whether you’re acting, or you’re in the audience, there’s a real kind of power to it. And when you’re on Stage Crew, you have this tremendous responsibility. You need to build a world that people can get lost in. Throw a few chairs and tables on a stage, and light it in just a way that makes people see it as an office, or a castle, or a bar, or the streets of Paris in the midst of revolution. And nobody sees what you’re doing. You’re all in black, you move on stage unseen, you build and manipulate all these moving parts and It’s magic. It really is, being a part of that. In The Backstagers, we wanted to make that magic a bit more literal. We wanted to create a world behind the stage where the hallways never lead to the same room twice, where there are frightening, and adorable creatures behind every turn. I wanted to capture the real sense of adventure that happened day-to-day in this world that the actors never really understood. We were basically left to our own devices in the service hallways and workshops with props from 50 years ago, and told to build a world. We’d spend hours on building a thing, and they would just take the journey for granted. But we didn’t care. The adventure was in making it together. That was the feel I wanted to bring to the book.
Rian: The theatre has this unique charm that really doesn’t come across in any other media. It has the ability to suspend one’s disbelief in a way that no movie can. A huge reason why is that the stage comes to life in a way that cannot be replicated. You’re seeing rooms form together, sets being whisked into existence and dismantled again with extreme precision. You literally get to watch the forming and reforming of a performance in real-time by the hands of real people. There is no barrier between the stage and the audience, so it becomes this extremely intimate thing. It’s the closest thing to real magic I can think of and The Backstagers takes that and runs with it; to the end of an ever-changing labyrinth filled with horrors and wonders beyond imagination.
The Best Comics are All-Ages Comics
James: I think we’re living in a new golden age of comic books, and a lot of that comes down to the all-ages books lining the shelves at the comic shop every week. I remember when I was a young kid, all I really had was Superhero books. If I was lucky, there would be a chapter of Bone in the latest issue of Disney Adventures, or I could twist my dad’s arm into getting me a Calvin & Hobbes or Far Side collection... But there weren’t the books that spoke to me or my experiences. And now you can see that there’s really a comic book for ANY kid that walks into the shop. And when they feel that kind of connection, they’ll be comic book fans for life. That’s the most exciting thing about all of this. If we can make even ONE kid a life-long fan of comics by making a book that they see themselves in, we’ll have done this right.
Rian: I love all-ages comics. More than half of my monthly pull is all-ages titles. There’s this misconception that “all-ages” means specifically “for kids” and that’s just not true. All-ages means just that, they’re for everyone. And now, more than ever, are comics accessible to that everyone. I believe we’re in a true comics renaissance—it’s not just cape books and undergrounds anymore. We’re finally seeing books out there specifically for those who need them—and that’s what The Backstagers is for. It’s a book that at its core is a supportive and engaging reflection for the kids most similar to its cast. Someone somewhere is going to find this book, see themselves in it, and just maybe they won’t think they’re alone, wrong, or broken.
We Poured Ourselves into the Book
James: From the very start, this was going to be a pretty queer book. I think the first group email between Rian, myself, and the Editors was titled, “LET’S MAKE A SUPER GAY STAGE CREW BOOK.” Because the series came from my life, and the whole reason I felt so alone as a high-school freshman was the fact that I was a queer kid in an all-boys high school; I knew I wanted to explore those dynamics. Mostly, I want to show young kids that there’s no normal way to be. There isn’t a normal way to be straight, and there definitely isn’t a normal way to be gay, or a normal way to express yourself when you’re transgender. You need to be yourself, even if it doesn’t put you in one of the standard high-school archetypes. In fact, it’s by letting yourself be a weirdo that you’ll find the best friends you’ve ever had in your life.
And beyond the queerness, Rian and I just poured a lot of our love of Shojo Manga into this series, in a way that I’ve never seen in a book about a bunch of dude friends. There are a lot of flowers and sparkles and hugging. In the second issue there is also a big scary spider-monster and a Modern Warfare-style videogame. It can show all of those things at once, because it’s a diverse group of kids just hanging out and going on adventures in this magical backstage world.
Rian: This book is hands down the most “me” thing I have ever worked on. James and I both brought a lot to this series that wouldn’t have been the same without one of us. We had dynamically different experiences, but a lot of our goals were the same. We wanted to make a book that focused on a group of queer boys, we wanted to show vastly different interpretations of masculinity and strength, and we wanted to tie it together with a sense of support and acceptance that I personally feel a lot of queer media tends to forego. Both James and I had our own personal struggles with our identities, and most queer kids will, too. The Backstagers is and will always be a place of overwhelming acceptance re: Queerness and its interpersonal conflicts have to do with emotions and magical mishaps rather than adversity toward anyone’s identity. We wanted to make a book that confirms and normalizes youthful queerness while emphasizing conflicts that necessitate emotional growth.
And It's so Dang Pretty to Look At
James: When I started developing the series, there was only ever one person I considered for the job. I had met Rian at a convention a few years back and we hit it off pretty much immediately, but it wasn’t until a few months later that I really came across his art and I was floored. This series had been in the back of my mind for a while, and when I saw Rian’s work, I knew in a second that I had found the EXACT partner on the series I needed. I was still working with Shannon then, developing the book, and I told her pretty directly that I was “Rian or bust” for this series. I still remember sitting him down and talking through the concept and I knew immediately I’d made the right choice (he may or may not have rolled on the ground a little bit in excitement). Within a few days he had the rough designs of the cast, which he brought to life so freaking perfectly; I was floored. But it was nothing compared to seeing the first pages come in. This is the perfect book for Rian, and I’m just glad I get to work with him before he becomes a comic book superstar and leaves me in a trail of dust behind him!
Rian: Oh jeez. Shush up, James!! now I have to write a thing while being EMBARRASSED!
This book is a complete meld of James and I. We’ve worked extremely cooperatively during every stage and a lot of decisions get run past one another before anything is finalized. I think working together has spoiled me a little! Having your collaborator and yourself being so completely on the same page is really special and it makes the book so much stronger than having everything compartmentalized. The team is really communicative and I feel like the finished pages really show that. The book really came into itself after we picked up Walter Baiamonte on colors. While James and I knew roughly the direction we wanted to go, Walter’s work really blew us both away. His palettes are dynamic and engaging and they put just the right amount of magic into the pages. His color work has heavily influenced the way I approach later issues of the series and you can really tell that us all working together keeps raising the bar higher and higher.
And speaking of high bars, the covers of The Backstagers are flat-out gorgeous. Our cover artist, Veronica Fish, is a beast AND a dynamo. I may or may not have more than one of her covers saved to my desktop so I can stare lovingly into them as I’m working. I’m extremely grateful and humbled by the massive amount of talent I get to collaborate with every day, and this book is the end product of an exceptionally brilliant team.
Check out the preview pages for the first issue:
The Backstagers #1 is on sale this Wednesday, August 17.