Virgin Comics and NBC Universal/SCI FI have gotten together to develop stories as comic books first, and then later developed into the world of television, films and beyond. Stuart Moore is the editor for the comic series and Mike Carey is the writer behind its creation. Both with plenty of experience and a heap of talent.

ACED spoke to both of them about the comic series and the involvement of NBC/Universal/SCI FI.

Getting started, Moore says, "First, I'd like to say SCI FI has been very involved, very -- they’re not just slapping their name on this. It’s actually been a real collaboration and a very exciting one. The Stranded is I think one of the best and most solid first issues I’ve ever been involved with. If you pick it up, you read it, you will -- I think you’ll be instantly captivated by it. And you get a full introduction to the story, a couple great fight scenes, a few gun battles and some great characterization."

Comparable to hit television series, Heroes, The Stranded centers around a bunch of people who discover their entire world, everything they knew, all their memories were a lie— and that they’re actually from another place (planet) entirely...and of course, they have powers...they have to have super-human powers.

The artwork on the first cover was done by Marc Silvestri, with upcoming creations from Chris Moeller. Moore says, "Chris did some of the covers for -- he did some for Lucifer, and he’s done his own series called Iron Empires,and a lot of gaming work. He’s terrific. I’ve worked with him before. There’s also an alternate cover on the edition cover on the first issue by Greg Horn which is quite stunning."

The Stranded will initially be released in a five-issue SCI FI mini-series format. Inspirations for the comic range from 1960s sci-fi television shows like Sapphire & Steel, to modern, short-lived productions like Josh Wheaton's Firefly. What is the true telling of a good sci-fi story? Carey says, "They look like excursions into other times and places, but actually they take you back to our own time and our own world and they make you see it through different eyes."

Among the character creations, Tamree was sparked by a twinkle in Carey's eye. "Tamree, the telepath who is the lynchpin of the team... I really, strongly had Clea DuVall in mind for her and I don’t know why, apart from the fact that I’ve loved everything Clea DuVall has done over the past few years. She was great in Carnivále. She was great in Heroes. I think she has a really strong face. I was sort of seeing her visually in my mind when I wrote Tamree. And I think she’s also sort of great for the other - the characters she incarnates, sort of very different from each other. And all very convincing and compelling."

The actual artistic style of this comic is eye-popping. Moore talks a bit about this. "Well we actually went through a bit of a development period with the artwork, because we had - well we had an artist in the very beginning who didn’t wind up working out. But the other who we wound up with is terrific.

"And what we’ve tried to do more with is again with Siddharth Kotian, who’s done other work with Virgin. And we’ve pretty much just gotten out of his way and let him go once he got started. There’s a lot of - there are a lot of details that need to be addressed in this book. It has a lot of special effects, and we want to make sure that everything’s clear enough.

"Sid has been great with all the characters and the settings. So it’s mostly been a matter of making sure that if we need a character to...if we need a particular special effect for when Janus kills people, we get that right. If we need a character to have a tattoo to distinguish her from an identical twin character, we get all that together I think."

Carey adds, "We tell him roughly what effect we want. And we let him find the way to produce that effect. There’s a fight sequence in the first issue where Tamree is fighting a bunch of these very, very strange robot creatures called (Knolls). And he just sort of basically...he took my panel descriptions at the starting point, but what he came up with was actually very different and much more kinetic, and much more exciting than what I’d actually scripted. He’s very good at sort of conveying the intensity of the physical action when it happens."

"I would say the overall look is very...it’s very realistic by comic book standards. It’s less exaggerated than most superhero work. So it’s a little more relatable and a little more down to earth while still very exciting," throws in Moore.

You can purchase your own copy of The Stranded at any local store that sells comics, or you can check it out online as well! 

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