Exclusive: Royden Lepp Talks Rust: Boy Soldier [Video]

Last week, Rust creator Royden Lepp and publisher Archaia Entertainment reached out to ComicBook.com to say that, with a new trade paperback being released, Lepp had a video he had produced, speaking directly to fans about just what the book...was.

It isn't the fourth and final volume in the graphic novel series; that's expected along soon, but will be coming out in hardcover, as have the first three volumes. It also isn't just the first hardcover over again, finally being released in paperback.

Rather, Rust: The Boy Soldier tells the story of Jet Jones's origin prior to the start of the graphic novel series' first installment.

The 144-page paperback will be mostly familiar territory to longtime fans of the series: in each of the four Rust hardcovers, there are about 30 pages of story establishing Jones's backstory and set before his first meeting with the Taylor family, with whom he's living by the time the story in Volume One takes place. It's these pages, including the as-yet-unreleased pages from Lepp's Volume Four, which comprise Boy Soldier, due in stores on March 2.

The result, when the rest of the story is collected in paperback, will be a radically different reading experience for audiences who have never read the hardcovers and perhaps a new perspective for long-time fans of the books.

Lepp joined ComicBook.com to introduce his video, and talk about the project, including why it took so long to get to paperback, why the new format makes sense, and whether there could still be a future for the project in Hollywood.

The world of Rust is a rich one, but fairly simple to understand. Are you excited for the prospects of opening the series to a whole new audience?

I sure am. There's a whole fan base following the the hardcovers, waiting for me to finish Volume 4 and this is going to be a great way to get the story and the world of Rust into the hands of a whole new audience. I hope existing fans like it too. I really feel like it's a new way to read the story

Why did it take so long to start this in paperback?

I'm not sure honestly. We'd talked about it several times over the last couple years but my focus was always on each major volume. It was after Volume 3 was released, my son was born and I had some health issues in my family, that I realized that Volume 4 was going to be a lot later than I wanted it to be. But it wasn't until last year that I thought about releasing the prologue as it's own book. I mentioned it to my editors and they loved the idea. It seemed like the best way to launch the soft covers.

The new reading order is a really cool idea. When did it occur to you? Was it partially driven just by having that portion of Volume 4 done and ready?

I don't really know when it occurred to me. I remember mentioning it to my editor Rebecca Taylor on the phone and she kinda paused and said "that's a really good idea". The next thing I knew it was happening. At the time I hadn't even started final art for Volume 4 but I had enough done that we could kind of preview it in a PDF to see how it read. It read surprisingly well considering I never wrote it to be read chronologically.

This is a property where we've heard Hollywood buzz more than once. Do you think having the final volume coming up soon makes the series easier to adapt, or harder to sell, or both?

Honestly I'm not sure. Hollywood got very excited over the idea when it started, but I never got to finish telling the story. There was all this attention after the first book and a lot of producers and writers asking how it ends. I could tell them how it ends but I realized that it was really different from showing them how it ends. Whether it helps the movie or not I'm looking forward to bring the story to a close before it hits any big screen.

On the other hand, you never really struck me much as someone whose top priority was being able to market yourself in other media.

Ha, well I fooled you! Honestly I'd love to help get the movie made. But I can't really, I just have to stick to my job which is to tell the best story that I can. If my story continues to fuel the imagination of other creators or film makers then I've done my part.

The kind of mystery of Jet Jones's exact nature helped drive a lot of discussion in the early going. Do you think this new paperback will change the way people read the stories going forward, since there will be a lot more awareness of his backstory before you even start Book One?

That was the only part that kind of bothered me about this format. There are some big moments for Jet Jones that come out of the final prologue of Volume 4, and some new readers will read that part of the story first without even knowing who the Taylor family is or what happens after the great war. There may be some that say one way of reading is better than the other. I'm looking forward to hearing what new fans and old fans think.

Once this is completed and on bookshelves, have you guys talked about putting together a big omnibus? If you did, which reading order would you use?

There's been some omnibus talk. There's been some slip case talk. There's been talk about full color versions of the story. Nothing concrete yet, I need to make sure volume 4 is complete and out in both hardcover and softcover before we continue any of those conversations, so that's still a few years away.

As to which format.. I'm really not sure, I want to wait and see if fans have a preference.

Have you thought about what's next for you after Rust? As a creator, this series is beloved but it defines a lot of your identity in the comics marketplace.

Rust was a huge passion project, it was something I never expected to get as much attention as it did. Because of that I don't feel locked into anything. I'd like to write another story some day, something that's not Rust, and maybe it will be as popular, maybe it won't, but what Rust taught me was to only draw and write what I love. I have to be the first and biggest fan of whatever is next.