Hi Andrez, welcome to SFFWorld, many thanks for giving us some time here. In your own words, who is Andrez Bergen?
Ha-Ha-Ha… Good question. I often wonder that myself. In a nutshell I’m an Australian indulging in the expat life in Japan. I have way too many jobs – I work as a journalist, teacher, writer, artist, music producer and DJ, and moonlight as dad to a super-cool ten-year-old. I’ve been lucky enough to get seven novels published, and work with a bunch of insanely talented comic book artists. That’s about it for now. Oh, and thanks for having me too.
Let’s talk a bit about ‘Bullet Gal’, which originally was a 12-issue comic series, but now has been turned into a novel. Can you tell us a bit about the story?
Sure. It’s a book I’m really proud of. It wears the influences of hardboiled noir, pulp and comic books very clearly on one sleeve. On the other are epaulets paying tribute to the cynical, dystopia-riddled edginess of science fiction, and a wink at superhero-flavoured comic book culture. These things pervade the story, which is basically one about a woman trying to do right in a city seized by violence. Yes, there are super-powered individuals here, ones that hardly see the big picture of their corrupted streets from such lofty heights. An underlying mystery, as well as revenge, justice and the nature of humanity all get their part to play.
What originally inspired the story?
Bullet Gal, a.k.a. Mitzi (last name unknown) was a character in my 2013 novel ‘Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?’. She was originally intended as an homage/spin-off from a 1940s golden age comic book character called Bulletgirl, created by Bill Parker and Jon Smalle, but somewhere along the lines of writing that story she morphed into a composite, I guess, of Tank Girl, Lara Croft, Buffy Summers – the strong female character with an attitude archetype – merged with a bit of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer. In 2014 I wrote another novel called ‘Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth’. Somehow – don’t ask me exactly how – that turned into Mitzi’s offbeat origin tale. Once I finished it, I was left with more to tell. At the same time I’d fallen into making comics, so decided to write and illustrate a noir-oriented series that takes up after Mitzi arrives in Heropa. That became ‘Bullet Gal’.
What is it with this neo-noir dystopian crime setting you find fascinating?
God, where do I start? I’ve been a huge fan of noir, sci-fi and dystopian fiction since I was a kid, and compressing them together was something I applied to my writing since I could hold a biro. At the same time the era we live in is not the 1940s, so towing the hardboiled pulp line, with an eye on science fiction B-movies, just doesn’t cut it unless you take things to the next level: self-aware, softly parodying these things, yet still paying respect. The noir aesthetic, anyway, is dateless. It can be applied to pretty much any genre, and works so well in terms of drama as much as pithy humour. I’m always re-reading Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, along with the more recent comic outings of Ed Brubaker. The ‘sense’ works regardless of setting or time.
From comic series into a novel is not something we see every day. Why did you decide to go down this route?
I think doing the comics-to-movies route, or books-to-comics (think Darwyn Cooke’s ‘Parker’ adaptation, for example) has been done, and recently done well. Adapting my comics to novels, however, wasn’t a conscious decision to test out new waters. I just felt that the comic series I made, in this case ‘Trista & Holt’ and ‘Bullet Gal’, worked really well in that sequential medium but had more to say. In many ways the comics became the blueprints, or storyboards, for the two spin-off novels I’m publishing this year. I had the overall tales down. I just needed to expand and nurture the content. And that was a lot of fun to do. I love these characters – granting them a second wind in a new format seemed right.
I believe you ran a ‘Bullet Gal’ Kickstarter a couple of years ago. How was your experience with Kickstarter? Anything you saw work better than other things?
Actually, that was run by Underbelly Comics in Canada, in order to fund the 350-page trade edition of all twelve issues, with added extras. I thought they did a brilliant job (it was successful), but sadly the company seems to have gone belly-up over the past year and I have no idea about sales or figures. I know a lot of money was committed by very supportive people, and I just hope every single one of them got their copy and rewards. The lesson? Doing a fundraiser through a third party is like walking thin ice. Better to run these things yourself.
You live and work in Tokyo which probably is the biggest metropolitan area in the world. How does living in such a place influence your work?
On so many levels it’s ridiculous. I mean I’ve been here 15 years, and the culture, language, atmosphere – whatever – sinks right into my comics and novels. Most of my fiction is based in or around Melbourne, Australia (my home town), yet Tokyo infiltrates the views.
Totally off topic, but one of my favourite things about Japan is the abundance of vending machines. So what is your favourite type of vending machine?
I used to love the beer vending machines on the street, but now you need an ID and I haven’t got around to organizing one. But they are brilliant, they’re not as pricey as ones in other countries, there’s a diabolical range, and you can stumble across them hiking in the middle of nowhere!
What’s next? Do you have more new and exciting projects you’re working on?
Yep, actually, I think I do. The ‘Bullet Gal’ novel comes out in November, and I’m working on a new comic book anthology zine based around another character I created called Magpie. It assembles a bevy of related ‘heroes’ such as Onna Bugeisha, The Fenders and Crash Soirée, again heavily influenced by noir – but also pushing artistic perimetres and a sense of mirth. Then there’s my next novel ‘The Mercury Drinkers’, which is still in its early stages.
Once again, thank you very much for your time.
Thanks for yours!
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2016
LINKS:
Andrez Bergen’s novel ‘Black Sails, Disco Inferno’ (based on the comic ‘Trista & Holt’) is out now via Open Books
His novel ‘Bullet Gal’ will be published through Roundfire Fiction in November
