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INTERVIEW: The Expanse Comic Team
The Expanse is a unique project among indie creators. The group bills itself as one universe with multiple realities. Individual creators, each with their own IP, creating together in a shared universe. Their first crossover comic, The Expanse, is live now on Kickstarter. I recently caught up with the team at The Expanse and was able to ask them a few question.
How did you all come together? What’s your origin story?
It all started with a random conversation one day about doing a crossover between The Alpha series by JM Comics and the Legends series by Tableflip Entertainment. Joel and I started making indie comic books around the same time and we both ran in the same circles so it was inevitable that one day we’d give it a shot, little did Joel know I had this huge comic event I already had planned for my comics. After weeks of discord calls trying to work out the logistics of how a collaboration would work between just the two of us without causing any issues or mistrust, we figured we might as well expand the collaboration to some other creators we consider our friends in the community.
Take us through the creative process from idea to finished story, while working with so many creators.
Incorporating 10 different indie creators into 1 story was actually pretty easy, as the Tableflip team had already thought about its big “crisis” level event that their stories were always going to lead. All that was needed to be done was to drop these other creators into the event in a way that didn’t affect their storylines considering the majority of the 10 had already published multiple books. The Tableflip team have a way of adding twists and misdirections to every story they do, The Expanse story was no different in that regard, so to ensure that everyone was happy and that nobody’s storylines had to change to fit the new continuity, we took the concept of a “multiverse” but limited its capabilities, we figured out how this multiverse is created and we figured out how it was going to end. This meant then that the entire collaboration fits perfectly around everyone involved.
What is the hardest part of creating as a team?
The two major problems we found in the creative process was firstly getting everyone on the same page, we found that a big problem a lot of creators face is translation and not from different languages but instead multiple creators were trying to express the same idea but we’re using different words to explain it, which then lead to confusion and frustration through the changes of context. The second issue was ego, luckily we managed to snuff that out in the early days before production of the series had begun.
Tell us about the Kickstarter, what rewards or tiers are you most excited about?
As a creator I’m more excited about the physical rewards more than anything, there is something truly satisfying in holding a comic book in your hands that you created or had a part in creating.
What advice would you give to someone running their first Kickstarter?
Understand that not everyone will like your project and that’s okay because everyone is different. Don’t take it personally if your Kickstarter fails, just because you think it’s an amazing idea doesn’t mean everyone else will. Succeed or Fail with grace and in either outcome take it as an opportunity to learn.
How can people find the Kickstarter and support this project?
Here is the link to our Kickstarter, you can show your support by either backing our project or you can simply just share it with a friend – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legends-tableflip/the-expanse-1?ref=6fu64q&token=fc2d1ba9
You can also show support to all 10 creators involved through our website in the link below.
https://theexpansecomics.co.uk/
What’s next for The Expanse?
The Expanse Issue #2 is already in development with plenty of small crossovers between the creators planned and ready in the meantime.
