When a biological terrorist attack makes it impossible for anyone in America to conceive children, adoption of kids from other countries explodes. Brothers Jackie and Julian are adoption agents based in Nicaragua. They usually do all their options through legal means, but they’re facing increasing competition from straight-up kidnappers. One desperate move from Jackie could put them in the cross-hairs of some very dangerous people.

Last Sons of America is a new four issue series out November 11th from writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, artist Matthew Dow Smith, and BOOM! Studios.

Before the comic hits shelves this Wednesday, we got a chance to talk to Johnson about the comic series, and have a preview of what you can expect.

Graphic Policy: Where did the idea for Last Sons of America come from?

Phillip Kennedy Johnson: When I was just starting to take writing pretty seriously, I heard a story on NPR about the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, about missionaries who were trying to take Haitian kids out of the country. They said they were trying to save orphans, but these kids weren’t orphans. I did some research into what was going on in Haiti, and uncovered some pretty disturbing stuff about the adoption industry down there, and all around the world. Parents sell their children into adoption all the time, every day… Orphanages do, too. Often, the parents are trying to get their kids out of extreme poverty, but it’s not always that altruistic, and certainly not on the part of the buyers. It’s a complicated issue. Anyway, that concept of selling kids for profit stuck in my mind—hard. When something grabs you like that, as a writer it would have been a waste not to write about it. I dressed it up in a sci-fi high concept, figured out who the characters were, how they fit into this world, what they wanted, and Last Sons of America grew out of all that.

GP: How long have you been working on the concept from idea to BOOM! publishing it?

PKJ: I had the idea for Last Sons in late 2010, but I didn’t start scripting it until a few years later, when [artist] Matthew [Dow Smith] and I decided to make the book together. We made a few pages, put together a pitch, and I took it to San Diego in 2013, where I met [BOOM! Studios President of Publishing & Marketing] Filip Sablik.

GP: The idea is an attack called Agent Pink has rendered Americans unable to have kids. Will we learn more about that attack, or is it more background for the story?

PKJ: Last Sons of America takes place a generation after the Agent Pink attacks; it’s this world’s 9/11, a moment that shaped the world forever. Everything we see in the story is happening because of Agent Pink, but the story’s not about the attacks… it’s more like The Walking Dead, in that it focuses on our characters, and through them we see all the ways the world has changed. That being said, if we come back to this world for future story arcs, I do have an idea to tie it back into Agent Pink in more detail.

GP: When reading this I can’t help but think of some of the adoption agencies, especially the not reputable ones, and slave trading that occurs in our world. Did you do research into any of that while putting the series together?

PKJ: Human trafficking is something I care deeply about. I’ve done a lot of research, a lot of volunteer work with anti-HT organizations in Baltimore, given training seminars… it’s on my mind a lot. The dark side of the adoption industry is not something I knew much about before hearing that piece on the radio, but by the time I was ready to write the story, I felt like I knew enough to tell the story I wanted to tell. A lot of what you’ll see in this story is real.

GP: Have you had thoughts about exploring (or will we see) America in this new paradigm? Maybe in a follow up series?

PKJ: We don’t see the United States in this arc, but if readers want to see more of this world, I would love to show them what the U.S. looks like now. Every issue of this four-issue arc makes the world bigger, shows more of it, and how things have changed. But there’s still PLENTY of world to show people, in Central America and back home. I would love to show more.

GP: How did Matthew Dow Smith come on to the series? His art is fantastic and fits the mood perfectly.

PKJ: Matthew and I met at Baltimore Comic-Con a few years ago through Ron Marz, a mutual friend. The two of them had just put out a book together for Amazon Studios. Matthew and I became friends, his work was terrific, and later that year I dropped him a line to see if he wanted to do a book together. Of the stories I was working on, Last Sons of America is the one that spoke to him the loudest, and thank God for that, because like you said, he’s a perfect fit for this story: photo-realism with angular, Mignola-esque linework and shadows.

GP: When it came to the character design, how much input did he have?

PKJ: Oh, a ton. I had ideas what I wanted everyone to look like, and I gave him starting points for the main characters, but Matthew’s great; I didn’t want to micromanage him at all. This art form is all about trusting your colleagues. My initial vision for Julian was for him to be even smaller and more physically limited than he ended up in the final design, but I love the way he looks now. Matthew did an amazing job with him.

GP: The one character that really stood out is Julian who looks to have dwarfism. Where’d that come from? For as much as people talk about diversity, that’s not a character we see often in comics.

PKJ: I’ve noticed that, too. The comics industry is taking some amazing strides in diversity right now, and it’s time for the little people community to get more comic book characters they can identify with and admire. This is a story about two brothers, and it was important to me that Julian, the more “heroic” of the two, have some physical limitations. (It goes further than just dwarfism; he has some pretty severe birth defects, and we learn why that is in issue 2.) Jackie and Julian’s strengths and weaknesses complement each other—they’re completely interdependent. They make a whole person between them, which is part of why they’re so close. Jackie’s the tall, good-looking “leading man” of the two, the one people talk to, but Julian’s the more capable brother in a lot of ways. Julian’s easily one of my favorite characters I’ve written, and not because of the way he looks; it’s because of his heart, the decisions he makes, and his relationship with his brother.

GP: There’s a scene where Jackie is bonding with someone about Star Wars (I’m trying not to spoil things). I thought that scene was really interesting in that we see America is exporting something not substantive like entertainment yet we’re importing something vital. Was there thought to that when writing the scene?

PKJ: That’s an interesting take on that, and I love it when people take things from my stories I didn’t see myself. I admit, I wasn’t thinking about luxury vs. necessity when I wrote that scene; it was a reference to pre-Agent Pink America when things were happier, a reprieve from the gravity of the situation. And more importantly, it was a fun way to give those two characters a way to communicate.

The subject matter of Last Sons of America is obviously a serious one, and that was at the front of my mind throughout the entire writing process. I’ve had enough conversations about human trafficking to know it’s easy to “dark out” while you’re talking about it. You see people shut down, they don’t want to hear any more because it’s just so damn depressing.

I did NOT want that to happen with this story. I never want our readers to “dark out” or make them feel preached to. Last Sons is a fun, exciting crime story, and the Star Wars thing (which continues throughout the entire series) was a fun way to lighten the tone. People who look for them throughout the series will see lots of cool little parallels and references to the original trilogy, kind of an “easter egg” for people who are looking forward to the movies starting up again.

GP: You also write a webcomic called The Lost Boys of the U-Boat Bremen. Have you noticed a difference in writing a webcomic like that and a four issue series?

PKJ: Yeah, they’re two completely different experiences. The biggest difference is in the tone of the books themselves; Bremen is a period horror story, a love letter to Warren Publishing’s old Creepy and Eerie anthologies, with beautiful, ink-spattered pages of scary, gory awfulness. Last Sons of America is more of a cool-looking, smooth-talking, Elmore Leonard-esque crime story, with colorful characters who are fun to read getting themselves into serious trouble, trying to do the right thing, or at least not get killed. It’s been a total blast to write, and the writing and art styles couldn’t be more different from Bremen.

Writing a weekly webcomic that will eventually be printed is tricky, because you need to serve the 22-page format, with long scenes that drive forward, page-turn reveals, and a big jaw-dropping moment at the end of every issue, but you ALSO need a little mini-ending or cliffhanger at the end of every single page. Each page needs a clear purpose, something specific that pushes the story forward; you can’t be as patient as you can in a four-page scene, in a comic that’s bought and read all at once.

Another big difference is working with editors. Bremen is just me, artist Steve Beach, and letterer Ken Bruzenak. We’re the whole crew. On Last Sons, I’m working closely with editors Eric Harburn and Cameron Chittock, whose input is without question making this book better than it would have been without them. BOOM! has been terrific to work with, it’s exactly where I wanted this book to be.

GP: Any other upcoming comic projects you can announce?

PKJ: Not that I can announce, unfortunately, but there ARE more stories coming, swear to God! For people who don’t want to wait for The Lost Boys of the U-Boat Bremen to come out in print, they can read the first three issues for free at PhillipKennedyJohnson.com/comic/Bremen, new pages every week. And pick up Last Sons of America #1 on November 11^th! Veteran’s Day! ‘Merica!

GP: Thanks Phillip! You can check out a preview of the series, which comes to shelves this Wednesday, below.