BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO Rebekah Brem's world of Misericordia is one she said where "human beings have become completely powerless against humanoids." Humanoids who have taken over the surface world, imprisoned some humans, and sent those who escaped into underground havens. It's a crazy world that might not be too far from our own if we keep letting machines take over the jobs of ordinary people. But just how did these events come to pass? What hope does humanity have of getting "mercy" from these beings? Is it even possible. Brem has the answers as more details unfold each issue in her eleven part saga.
THE PULSE: Most people aren't familiar with the term "Misericordia." It has several definitions from a monastery room to a bracket under a church seat to a dagger used to kill knights; which, if any of those definitions, comes into play with your eleven-part Archaia Studios Press saga?
REBEKAH BREM: In Latin "misericordia" means full of mercy. Today, in Spanish, "misericordia" translates to "God, have mercy on me".
In the book, the humans are completely powerless against the humanoids. My use of the word "Misericordia" applies to the humans asking for mercy on them. Whether it be from their God or from the ruthless humanoids.
Misericordia is also a Latin word for the knife that delivers the death stroke. I appropriate this with the humanoids destruction of the human race. When they are down, the humanoids go in for the kill.
THE PULSE: Reading some of the descriptions from Previews solicitations, this sounds like an alien story -- or at least one not set on any kind of "traditional" version of earth we're familiar with, especially with the mentions of an underground world and surface world. Where and when does Misericordia occur?
REBEKAH BREM: Misericordia takes place in the distant future. Far enough for technology to have advanced to the extent in the book. If it is not Earth, it is a parallel planet.
THE PULSE: Who is Luscinia Solita? How did you come up with your protagonist?
REBEKAH BREM: Luscinia is Latin for nightingale. Solita is Latin for alone. A lonely nightingale. She goes by Solita. My head always turns when I hear my Spanish coworkers use "solita" to describe being alone.
She is a reflection of me and some of the things I go through on a daily basis. (Not so literally.)
THE PULSE: What kind of beings occupy this world? Previews mentioned humans and humanoids ... how did one race become the "surface" one and the others become outcasts below?
REBEKAH BREM: Humans created robots to help service them and to help them better service others. The humanoid robots eventually replace humans in schools, in the banks, in operating rooms and finally in government. Human cities are quickly turned into humanoid police states. The humanoids start enforcing laws that make it impossible for humans to coexist. The humanoid police abduct people from their homes and throw them into holding facilities until they die or are killed off.
Some humans manage to escape and form underground refugee cities. As a child, Solita is rescued from a humanoid orphanage after being abducted in a home invasion. She is brought to one of these cities, but her mother never made it to the city.
I imagine if humanity's fate fell into machine hands, humans would revert back to simpler means of survival. Necessity would replace desire. The human government in Misericordia is very close to communist. Computers choose the daily job assignments. People are forced to live in cheap tenement buildings. They are rebuilding cities, but at the expense of the people who live in them. All able humans are required to do physical labor to help in the ongoing construction. They are also sent up to the surface to trade with the humanoids at the black market.
The humans hope to someday find a weak spot in the humanoid infrastructure and take back their surface.
THE PULSE: What inspired you to even tell this kind of story? Were you influenced by H.G. Wells' Morlocks or any other tale of clandestine underground civilizations?
REBEKAH BREM: I have always been an avid Science Fiction reader. I also used to keep up with all the new advancements in science and technology. I would say Misericordia is based on reality more than fiction. I like to think it could happen at the rate we're going.
THE PULSE: How did you come up with these groups so that they wouldn't seem like something we've encountered before, but not totally alien as to put off potential readers?
REBEKAH BREM: I guess it just came to me over the years of reading so much science fiction and science fact. I didn't want to call them robots or androids, to avoid clichés. I know the "robots taking over humanity" story has been done many times. I like to think of it more as a Frankenstein story where the monster turns on its creator. I also use a lot of my real life in the story.
THE PULSE: What inspired your artwork for this series?
REBEKAH BREM: I think about design a lot when I'm planning compositions. I like minimalist comics and graphic design. I love the draftsmanship and color in anime. I know everything I've ever picked up that has inspired me is in there somewhere.
THE PULSE: Who or what influenced your sequentials the most?
REBEKAH BREM: I tend to picture the story as a film or animation in my head. I prefer to let the artwork tell the story instead of explaining everything in so much detail with words. I leave a lot for the reader to figure out.
THE PULSE: Why did you break this down into eleven issues instead of an even dozen or releasing it as four or five double-sized issues?
REBEKAH BREM: When I pitched it to ASP I described it as a graphic novel with about ten chapters, thirty pages each. Then it was decided to put it out as single issues, and they came up with the number eleven.
THE PULSE: What have been some of the biggest challenges to getting these issues created?
REBEKAH BREM: Time. I work a fulltime day job and commute from Staten Island to Manhattan five days a week. It's difficult to find the time to give the book what it needs. There are not enough hours in the day.
THE PULSE: How has the reality of working on this, getting it into print, been compared to what you thought it would be like?
REBEKAH BREM: It's a much longer process than I imagined. I always imagined the publisher and editor pushing their opinion on you. Or ask you to change things all the time. The guys at ASP have been great, they give me total control. I have to ask their opinion.
THE PULSE: How did ASP Press come to publish this tale?
REBEKAH BREM: We met at the New York Comic Con. I dropped off a postcard and ran away. Luckily, ASP contacted me via email and we began discussing Misericordia.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on in or around comic books?
REBEKAH BREM: Just Misericordia right now. I would like to do something for children and teenagers. I would also like to find a story that could grab the average reader's attention. To get people that don't normally like comics to pick it up and enjoy it.
The first four issues of Misericordia should be in stores now.
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