Mixing high seas adventures with a cool spy mentality, The Mercenary Sea debuted last week to solid reviews, including ours here. The comic has a classic feel, influence by the wonderful tense movies of yesteryear.

We got to talk to writer Kel Symons about the series, its influences and what we can expect next from him and it.

Graphic Policy: Where did the idea for The Mercenary Sea come from?

Kel Symons: I’m tempted to say “Schenectady,” which is something Harlan Ellison used to say when anyone asked him where he got his ideas. He’d say there was an idea service run out of there, and you sent them five buck and they’d send you three good ideas, or something like that.

But in reality, The Mercenary Sea comes from nostalgia for classic action-adventure stories. After meeting artist Mathew Reynolds, we got to talking about movies and stories we liked growing up, and out of those conversations, this story started to take shape. There’s lots of influences, obviously ones like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Firefly. The Hama G.I. Joe comics, Jonny Quest, movies like The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen, the tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and old school action fare like the original King Kong (still a favorite of mine) and Only Angels Have Wings.

Mathew once said to me that if we grew up in the same town, we’d no doubt have spent long summer days making forts in the woods and coming up with elaborate play-scapes involving GI Joes and Star Wars figures. And since that was kinda my childhood, I can’t really disagree.

GP: How would you describe the series? There’s clearly spy elements, war elements, some political elements to it.

KS: It’s a swashbuckling adventure. That’s not to say it’s a pirate story, because I never saw it as such.  But its kin to that sort of seaborne high adventure – I can imagine Errol Flynn as Jack, on the bridge, scouting for the next island to explore in his quest to find Koji Ra.

GP: The series is set in the beginnings of World War II, what got you to decide to set it during that time period and in The South Seas?

KS: It’s actually not yet World War II, but you know it’s coming. And that’s part of the excitement of this time period – this hugely chaotic, world-changing event (perhaps the biggest such event ever) is looming just on the horizon.

As for why the South Seas, I knew the idea of a “lost island” was going to figure into our world – it’s only hinted at now, but it will evolve to be its own adventure soon enough. So that area of the Pacific suggests the sort of exotic and primal locations we’re going for.

But the time period and the setting work hand in hand. Not only is the story balanced on the edge of World War II, we’ve got conflict between Japan and China playing constantly in the background. This time, this area – it’s romantic in this spirit of adventure we’re going for.  There isn’t any GPS, no satellites. Radio’s still in it’s infancy and technology is still largely a wonder. At least compared to today.

So there’s still mystery in the world. The globe hasn’t been mapped. There are places unseen by man.  And you never know what’s just over the horizon until you go there. That to me is adventure.

GP: What type of research did you do in preparation?

KS: Not a huge amount. Mathew did more than his fair share to get the looks down. But I did just enough to get times and dates and world events straight, but not enough to get bogged down in too much reality. This is, after all, fantasy.  If you want reality, try another door down the hall.

But our story’s obviously grounded in history, so I have  to try not to make it all too fantastic. I’m a big believer in dramatic license, so when I come up with something I think is cool, which serves the story more than history, I’m going to err on the side of story.

Though we want to get our facts straight enough to keep the story moving forward, and so folks don’t see something and go “Oh, come on!” But it’s not meant to be a history lesson, a National Geographic article on ancient island cultures, or a thesis on the second Sino-Japanese War – it’s just a story.

So, you know, there’s obvious deviations from reality. One of the first I’d point out is there’s no way a UB III German U-Boat from World War I (which we based Venture on) is that spacious inside. I’ve been on a few submarines – modern ones, anyway – and even they aren’t what you’d call comfortable. So I’d be the first to debate how spacious their cabins are, or whether or not a crew of ten (well, nine, plus the dog) can man it. But ultimately, I didn’t care – if it’s not in service of the reality of my story, I have no problems making adjustments. So I say the boat’s been modified. Okay, that satisfies me – says the controls have been adjusted so a skeleton crew can man all stations, there’s actually a livable living space. Like an underwater secret headquarters, sorta like those forts I told you Mathew and I would’ve built. That’s fun.

GP: The first issue uses familiar archetypes and seems to draw from some classic films. What would you consider its inspiration?

KS: I’ve probably mentioned most everything already: Raiders, Firefly, The Magnificent Seven, Jonny Quest, GI Joe, Only Angels Have Wings… that last leads us to talk about how Howard Hawks figures into this world. He’s a favorite director of mine, who did To Have and Have Not, which The Mercenary Sea owes some of its “mercenary” tone to – the guys who say they aren’t going to stick their neck out for anybody, yet always do. Casablanca obviously has that, and I even dropped a direct quote from that one into the first issue – Bogie would be right at home on this boat.

But getting back to Hawks, he loved depicting desperate characters cast away on some frontier, trying to scratch out an existence and survive – whether it’s mail pilots in the South American jungles of Only Angels Have Wings, fishing captains in Martinique caught up in intrigue during the Occupation in To Have and Have Not, or a US Air Force crew battling the unknown in the frozen North Pole of The Thing from Another World.

Now, Star Wars certainly figures heavily into the construction of a guy like Jack Harper – just as Whedon cited Han Solo as the inspiration for Capt. Reynolds, I owe a lot of Jack to Han. But not just the movies – I was a huge fan of these three books that came out in the late 70s – the adventures of Han and Chewie before the events of Star Wars. Han was easily my favorite character, so I devoured them, reading them over and over. That played a big part in figuring out who Jack was.

GP: What thought went into this motley crew of characters? The team reminded me a bit of The Dirty Dozen, where you have specialists and people to fit roles. Did you create the characters and their roles evolved as you plotted out the story, vice versa? Were there characters you didn’t use?

KS: Well, I knew I wanted to stock the Venture with a crew of misfits, who’ve all thrown in together to make it on the South Seas. Most have checkered pasts, which played into that desperation which drove them away from whatever their lives were previously to start anew. Most have a unique skill set that allows them to find a place in this new life of theirs.

But I never planned on reinventing the wheel.  I’m taking archetypes from the new mythology: comics, movies, tv. I introduce an ensemble of 10 crew members (again, the dog counts) and probably half a dozen secondary characters.  All in 28 pages.  Of course they’re going to remind you of other motley crew characters you’ve seen before.  It’s intentional.  I needed a shorthand to get them across in the space allowed, so the reader and I shared touchstones from that mythology.  Hopefully you read it and get who each of these characters is, more or less.  As the story progresses, I think they’ll start to emerge as unique characters, take shape and definition as they interact with the story and one another.  That’s the plan, anyway.

I can’t think if there were characters we didn’t use… there are a few you haven’t met yet, but no, I don’t think anyone was left out of our original proposal… Though I guess we could have used a big cowboy named “Tex.” Dammit. Next time.

GP: One of the crew members is female, something you don’t often see in submarine movies. Was that something you did to purposely add some diversity?

KS: Well, I wouldn’t say I was influenced by some attempt at affirmative action, or equality in the workplace, or anything like that. The diversity is there simply because I wanted a rounded cast. Having a woman aboard is simply as inelegant as “I need a potential romantic interest for our main hero.” That’s about it, really. I think she’ll be a fun character, and a good foil for Jack, as the story progresses. Again, that’s the plan, anyway.

GP: How did artist Mathew Reynolds come onto the book?

KS: He was there at the very beginning. I saw some art of his and knew I wanted to work with him. As I said, the idea to do this story came from conversations about our favorite adventures, the stuff we grew up on.

GP: The look of the comic has a distinctive feel to it, was that something you were involved in at all?

KS: Not really. I mean, Mathew’s visual style is his own – it’s unique and certainly fit nicely into the story we’re telling. I script detailed action and sometimes get into specifics about how something’s supposed to look, but for the most part, Mathew has a free hand to do what he wants. Fortunately he thinks in the same cinematic terms I write in, so we’re a good fit.

One reviewer recently said that the book had an almost European look to it. Since I’m a fan of books like The Killer and Blacksad, that was hugely complimentary. I don’t know that Mathew intentionally went for that look, but the color palette he uses does have a similar feel to those books.

Another reason why it might appear European is that our letterer, Pat Brosseau, specifically wanted the dialogue bubbles to be like those books. I’d worked with him on my other Image book, I Love Trouble, and when I told him I wanted him for The Mercenary Sea, first thing he asked is can he do white balloons, with no black outlines and kind of curvy pointers. I said sure – go for it.  And I think it looks really great.

GP: So what can we expect from you next?

KS: More The Mercenary Sea, hopefully. We designed it as an ongoing – maybe not every month, but we’re planning to do 8-10 issues a year. I guess it depends on whether or not we find a steady audience, but we seem to be making some fans. Got one email from a fan last week who said if we ever stopped making this book, he’d beat the shit out of me. So, you know, don’t wanna let that guy down, right?

Aside from that, I’m developing another ongoing series for Image with artist Nathan Stockman. Nate lives in Ireland, and he worked on the last issue of I Love Trouble. This new one’s called Reyn: Warden of Fate, and is a swords & sorcery fantasy in the vein of Conan, seasoned with a dash of Sergio Leone. Colorist Paul Little, who originally recommended Nate, is coming aboard, along with Pat Brosseau. So we’re kinda getting the band back together. We’re aiming for end of the year on that one.

GP: Thank you Kel! Readers can check out an exclusive early preview of the second issue of The Mercenary Sea!