Todd Dezago on The Perhapanauts: Danger Down Under #4

With its penultimate issue on the stands last week, The Perhapanauts: Danger Down Under has set up a n elaborate and potentially messy climax, involving a number of nasty creatures being transported through subspace to the North American headquarters of BEDLAM while two teams of Perhapanauts struggle to keep the situation on the ground in Australia under control. Alternating between the art talents and subplots of co-creator Craig Rousseau and Comic-Con: A Fan's Hope star Eric Henson, the issue is written by co-creator Todd Dezago, who draws the disparate plots together in an unexpected and potentially messy way, while playing with the seemingly split personalitites of Gef, a mongoose who can appear in more than one place at one time, but whose interactions with the people where he is aren't limited to who's standing in front of him. Yeah, it's a pretty annoying power. Dezago joined ComicBook.com to discuss the issue, and what's next for the 'Haps. As always, remember that this is a spoiler-filled conversation and you should buy the book first and read along with us. Russ Burlingame: Okay, so first thing's first: Why did you opt to go with the simple image with the word balloons instead of a more traditional cover?

Todd Dezago: With over two hundred comics coming out every month, it's tough to try to come up with something new and unique that might catch a Reader's eye. Gef about to be buried under an armada of his own word balloons not only piqued some interest, but also gave us a chance to feature his somewhat obnoxious ability to have several conversations at the same time. Russ: I particularly like the surly bookstore owner telling the reader to buy the comic. Todd: Glad ya liked it! Russ: It's interesting--will we see next issue what motivation Big's old mentor would have to fib about the nature of their communication? Todd: Salazar and his so-far hidden agenda will be come more apparent in future issues. A lot has been building to this--his reveal and his revelations--and will continue to grow in upcoming chapters. Russ: Big is such a warm personality that he often feels like an open book, but obviously he kept his relationship with Nessie pretty quiet over the years. Is this a similar situation, where he feels it's better to keep the potential conflict brewing under wraps?

Todd: Oh, Big is an incredibly deep, multi-layered guy, with lots of irons of his own in the fire. What we--and the rest of the Perhapanauts--see are only his dealings with events and activities that might include them. He is tres complex. Russ: The D-Gate revelation that Big had--is it too much to hope we might see some movement in terms of the missing team members by virtue of that strategy? Todd: No, it's not too much to hope. Hope is a good thing. Russ: Toshi's attack, I have to say, is particularly sensible since a creature so invulnerable is probably not particularly used to pain--but pain that comes from a mental place is no harder (one assumes) to inflict on a mighty beast than on anybody else. Todd: It's always good to remember that David slew Goliath. You never know what's gonna do the trick, so why not throw all your rocks at it...? Russ: The main feature in this issue read really fast--which I suppose is the risk you take once you get into an action scene in a book that's effectively an anthology at this point. Has that format helped move things along and increase the odds of seeing more regular installment of the 'Haps in the future?

Todd: Actually, the fact that the pacing has been upped and that the action is so urgent was part of the plan; start off with new introductions and gradually put all of your players in motion. Issue's 4 and 5 should be wild, non-stop thrills and that was just a taste of it. Russ: That asked, what made you decide to split up the issue this way? Todd: When Craig and I first saw Eric (Henson)'s artwork and asked him to do a back-up with us, his enthusiasm and fantastic (and fast!) work ethic inspired us a lot! Craig and I decided to bring Eric in to speed up the production of the series and to take some of the huge weight of the art chores offa Craig. That said, it suddenly became apparent to me how the two stories--the main one Craig was doing and Molly's Mission, the "back-up" Eric was drawing--could slam into each other! It all made perfect sense, story-wise. Now we just had to make it work coordinating it in the book! Russ: I like the center tech with his can-do attitude: "Yeah, this is gonna be great, right?". Can we see more of him? Todd: That's Scott--based on our pal (and occasional Perhapanauts scribe) Scott Weinstein--and he's been in a lot of 'Haps stories since his introduction way back in Perhapanauts Annual no.1! Also, he really does have that can-do down pat! Russ: For some reason, I see a really gross D-gate collision coming. We've already seen those kinds of things can be messy. Todd: Yeah, we're gonna make a mess.