Greetings everyone,
We are T-minus 6 days from the release of Torchbearer 2, and we’re quite excited! It’s been a long and winding road that has led to the release, but we think you all will love it once you have it.
As we are feeling nostalgic about Torchbearer in general, I thought it was time to share what some of the inspirations behind issue 1 of Torchbearer.
First off, we here at Odd Truth love sci-fi and espionage. We’re fans of Asimov, Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick and many other sci-fi writers, as well as Alfred Hitchcock thrillers (Vertigo and North by Northwest, in particular) and TV shows like Mission:Impossible, Alias and Dollhouse. Naturally, there are elements here and there that have inspired us throughout the years, but our greatest source of inspiration is actually the KGB. Specifically, a book called “The Sword and The Shield”, which was written using the Mitrokhin Archives , an extensive archive of the history of the KGB from its rise until the time it was smuggled out in the late 80s, 90s. As a writer, it fascinated me just how exactly the KGB infiltrated a lot (and I mean A LOT) of organizations in the West and have always found that fact to be very appealing.
But historically, Torchbearer had its start at Comics Experience’s Introduction to Comic Book Writing course. At the end of the first day, we had to write a one line description of the story we wanted to work on for the course. I did not want to use any of my previous ideas for comic books, so I had to come up with an idea on the spot.
The idea I submitted was crap. And I knew it. I was completely not happy with it. Thankfully, we were asked to write a more detailed description for the next session, and we didn’t need to use the submitted idea. I was happy, but felt stuck as I couldn’t come up with a suitable idea. I then saw two books on my desk, one of which was the “Sword and the Shield”. Those two books, along with my desire to write a story featuring strong female characters, lead to what has evolved to Torchbearer.
And no, I’m not ready to reveal what the second book was. I’ll do so once the series is done (promise!!).
Now, I’ve heard our artist Dennis Calero refer to Torchbearer as actual sci-fi. And I was proud 🙂 Torchbearer may seem like it has a lot of fantastical elements, but a lot of them are rooted on research and technologies that exist or are in development currently. For example, remember the holographic table on issue 1?
This kind of technology does exist right now. It utilizes something called Augmented Reality to present a city (in this case, Hyperia) in a way that one thinks it’s as real as models.
How do I know this? Because I’ve built it. Here’s an example of that technology showing the Statue of Liberty.
And here is another example of that same tech showing part of the WTC complex.
Pretty cool, huh?
As for drones and other pieces of tech mentioned: no, I do not have drones (though I did base their propulsion system on ion drives, which is why they emit a blue-ish light) nor some of the other pieces of tech.
Yet 😉
Well, that’s all for now. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and drop us a line at Twitter either through our official account or my own. We’re always eager to hear from our fans!
Best,
-Nick D.