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FCBD18 Interview: Vault Comics Creators Discuss the Wonder of Maxwell’s Demons

From an early age, children use their imagination to bring things to life, to transform the objects around them and transport worlds. If you’ve ever played the game where the floor is lava, you know a little imagination goes a long way, and a creative imagination can take you across time, place, and dimensions.

For Maxwell Maas, those things that are imagined worlds to others are realities to him. Maxwell has the greatest mind on the planet, and uses it to create portals to other worlds (typically through his closet!), bring his stuffed animals to life, and create anti-matter guns. But with every adventure comes very real danger, and Maxwell may be up against more than he thinks.

Vault Comics brings a remarkably adventurous title full of wonder and imagination to Free Comic Book Day. Read our interview below with writer Deniz Camp and artist Vittorio Astone to learn more about what to expect in the pages of Maxwell’s Demons, and what Deniz and Vittorio love about Free Comic Book day! Then, click here to read through our PREVIEWS Prevue of the comic. 


Free Comic Book Day (FCBD): For those who might be new to your comic book, give us a quick rundown of the story!  Free Comic Book Day, FCBD, Vault Comics, Maxwell's Demons

Deniz Camp: Maxwell’s Demons is the story of Maxwell Maas, the greatest mind on the planet, destined to be a seminal figure in human history. Employing his incredible intelligence in outlandish ways, he builds gateways to other worlds, anti-matter guns, time travel machines, sentient stuffed animal friends, and a host of other amazing devices to escape from his grim home life.

Vittorio Astone: Maxwell’s Demons is the coming of age story of Maxwell’s Maas, the greatest mind of his time. Through parallel universes and tons of alien races, Max will try to find a meaning to life… and to death.

FCBD: What genre is your title?

Camp: It’s firmly science fiction, but in the vein of Rick and Morty or Star Wars; a heavy focus on imagination and wonder.

FCBD: What has been your favorite part of the book or main character(s) to tackle?

Astone: Max, with no doubt. I love how Deniz portrayed him, from his personality to even his brilliantly distinct, rectangular glasses.

Camp: It’s the character of Max himself, I think, that interests me most. He’s a boy, and in some ways very troubled, but with a mind beyond anything we can imagine. It’s interesting to explore the friction that arises out of an almost infinite capacity for action with a merely human capacity of judgment.

FCBD: What other titles would you compare to yours? If a comic reader likes _______ , they should pick up my title?”

Camp: Hmm, maybe Sandman, Black Science, or any of the works of Grant Morrison. We stretch our imagination - and hopefully that of the readers, too!

Astone: Rick and Morty immediately comes to mind, but also Superman and Watchmen.

FCBD: Looking to the future, is there anything you can tease about what's upcoming for the title and its characters?

Camp: Without getting into too many spoilers, later issues of our series will reveal: The truth about time, the secret origins of barns, and structure of human history!

Astone: It will be a story that will bring you to the farthest galaxies and to the end of times. Be prepared.

FCBD: What initially got you interested in comics? (or What is your favorite thing about working in comics?)

Astone: Comics have always been like a better form of writing to me. Every story that got into my mind, I pictured it already like a comic. I just had to make it into my daily job!

Camp: I’ve always been into comics. Originally, it was the combination of imagination and power fantasy; almost anything was possible in comics, at almost any scale. Some of the most wonderful, wondrous ideas I’d ever encountered came in comics, more so than in the books or television shows I could see. That fearlessness of proposition has always called to me, and it’s something we’re trying to put into Maxwell’s Demons.

Only as I began to write comics, though, did I really come to focus on the art of telling a story through the medium, and we plan to experiment with that, too.

FCBD: Many newcomers will pick up comics for the first time on FCBD—what was the first comic you remember reading?

Camp: Hard to pick an exact comic - probably something Superman - but the first one that really left an impression was New Gods 1, from DC Comics. Still nothing to beat Jack Kirby for imagination!

Astone: I started with Disney comics, especially with Carl Barks, who let me travel around the world without moving from my couch. But really started to love American comics reading Spiderman, later on.

FCBD: Tell us why everyone should read comic books!

Camp: Because there’s something for everyone! No one comic is for everyone, but as a medium we offer almost anything you can imagine, from passionate storytellers working on their dream projects. In film and television so much of the work is compromise, but comics remains one of the visual narrative art forms that allows real voice. What you get is the vision of the creators.

Astone: Comics are a unique language. Sometimes they resemble a ‘printed movie’, some other times they’re more like a new form of written language. A good comic can really open your mind. And that alone is a good reason to read one.

FCBD: What is your favorite part about Free Comic Book Day? What do you think is the best part of Free Comic Book Day?

Camp: 1st answer: Free comics, of course!

Serious answer: Discovering some new comic I’ve never heard of. Every comic has the potential to be the one that clicks, that you carry with you for the rest of your life, and that carries you through hard times. 

Astone: It’s actually something new to me, we don’t have it here in Italy, but I find it’s an amazing idea. Publishers, even the small ones, get to get known more and readers can discover new products and expand their tastes. Really a great opportunity for all!

Where do you plan to spend Free Comic Book Day?

Camp: Still finalizing plans, but somewhere in the New York City/Brooklyn Area!

Astone: I’ll be here in Rome, wishing, I must admit, to be there!

 

 

Free Comic Book Day, FCBD, Vault Comics, Maxwell's Demons

Free Comic Book Day, FCBD, Vault Comics, Maxwell's Demons

Free Comic Book Day, FCBD, Vault Comics, Maxwell's Demons

 

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