Comic Related - What's Perhappenin'?

Okay! In spite of being extremely late (this is nothing―I was supposed to start a Manhunter column last month that still hasn't happened, and the new issue hits today), let's dive right into some chatter about Perhapanauts #3 from Image, with creator and writer Todd Dezago. This issue featured three total stories―a lead story wherein Big takes a trip to Loch Ness, and two backups; one featuring Hammerskold and one that starred Choopie and the Gremlins who have named him their king.

ComicRelated: Will we see more details about what the Red Team was doing in the Phillippines, why it bothers Arisa, and what that little dog-thing is?

Todd Dezago: What an incredible, unintentional intro to a shameless plug...!!! Why, yes, Russ--we'll see what alla that was about in the very next issue--Perhapanauts 4--in a beautifully illustrated back up story called, oddly enough, "The Red Team Adventure!" by me and artiste dynamica, Jason Armstrong! (Although, I gotta say, long-time readers (of the Dark Horse books) will already know what's up with that dog and why it pisses Arisa off so much...!)

CR: I'm feeling very old right now. I'll have to dig out my graphic novels and aid my memory loss, as I haven't read the Dark Horse material in a long while. What was happening in that panel right after Dr. Mike moved the gremlin away from the machines keeping our favorite Mothman alive?

TD: I dunno...what WAS happening there? (If you check back to issue 2, there is a hint...)

CR: Will we see more of Dr. Salazar? Somehow, having an Evolo-Ray at his disposal, a name like "Salazar" (anything that has a Z in it is suspect) and Big's enigmatic description of why he's no longer with the company, it sounds like a badguy in the making to me.

TD: Dr. Salazar definitely plays a big part in the Perhapanauts' future...and their past!!! (I dunno--would it have sounded more ominous if I reversed that? "Dr. Salazar plays a big part in their past...and future!!!)

CR: I think it might have! But I'm leaving in the whole questioning process, as I think it's funny, so our readers can decide for themselves. So I see the "L" word in there―am I to take it that Nessie and Big are a couple?

TD: Ha! No, just good, good friends.

CR: Onto the backup features, then. I feel like it'd be easy to make Hammerskold a prick. Even though he's not technically a villain, it's easy to have him be the guy who just "does what he has to, to get the job done," and not actually develop him much. Was it important to you that every character get a "fair shake?"

TD: I have long-term plans for ALL of the characters and Hammerskold's saga is a big part of the grand tapestry. Though not a member of our "premiere team," he has always been a main character in my mind and his story arc is one of the ones I'm most eager to see unfold.

CR: It seems like Hammerskold would be the kind of guy--Batman-like, almost--who might already have a clue about Katherine's secret. Is that just me giving him too much credit?

TD: No, you're probably right, he is very keen. However, here he was addled both by injury and love--either one of those can play havoc with your thought processes and intuition, but in combination...

CR: Fair point. As a side note, I told my girlfriend Catherine that I liked her name a while back and she made fun of me for it (she tends to call me a suck-up when I compliment her). Then I used 'Haps #3 and the idea that the nymph was calling the phonetically-identical name "lovely" as ammunition to revisit the argument.

TD: I think it's a very pretty name.

CR: Yeah. I often tell her I'm always right, but she never listens. There's something odd in the third feature: Is Molly really corporeal enough to get a hole blown through her by the gremlins' gizmo?

TD: That thing blasts through anything! And takes a chunk of it off to the other side of the galaxy! So while Molly is much too ephemeral for anything to affect her, something like that suddenly taking away some of the space that you are hanging around in would have that kind of startling effect on someone as keen to be real as molly.

CR: I really like the understated way that some problems are solved in this series--the gremlins' "Uh, we can fix that" on the last page reminds me a lot of the "Karl can do that" moment from the end of a previous issue (possibly my favorite last page of the series). Was that intentional?

TD: I just think it's funny that the gremlins are these little electronic/mechanical/engineering geniuses but they don't know how to function as a society. They can solve any problem but are dangerous because "invent" and "construct" comes before safety precautions and consideration for ramifications...

CR: Sounds like any number of mad scientists in any number of B-movies, and probably a good place to pick up the next time we chat (I like to keep some of the good stuff in my utility belt in case I run out of questions next time)! Until then…!

Learn more by visiting

www.perhapanauts.com

Also...