Comics

Interview: David Baillie On Tharg’s 3Riller – Blue Skies Over Deadwick

3rd June 2024

Three episodes, one complete, self-contained stories – a condensed hit of super-charged Thrill-power beamed to you directly from the Nerve Centre! That’s what a Tharg’s 3Riller is all about!

The latest 3Riller, Blue Skies Over Deadwick by David Baillie and Nick Brokenshire, wraps up with it’s third and final part in this week’s Prog 2385 – a humans vs Mechs tale that ends with a perfect twist. But before that finale, time for a chat with script droid Baillie about Deadwick and the thrills of a short story…

David’s been a script droid since his first Prog credit with a Future Shock, The Lie, with art by Nick Dyer, in Prog 1611.

Since then, he’s written thrills for both the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine, including plenty of Future Shocks, Tales From The Black Museum, and Tharg’s 3Rillers. He was also responsible for the recent series of Chopper with Brendan McCarthy, Wandering Spirit, a psychedelic delight of a tale of the now retired legendary skysurfer. But his latest 3Riller takes us into a very different world of humans and mechs at war… so, over to David to tell us more!

David, hello and welcome once again to the 2000ad site. How’s life treating you?

DAVID BAILLIE: Things are going great, thanks – I’m currently recovering from Portsmouth Comic Con and MCM London here in the UK, and taking a week off to catch up with non-comics stuff, like swimming, drinking cocktails and looking out of the window.

Oh, the life of a comics writer eh?

Blue Skies Over Deadwick opened in Prog 2383, the latest of Tharg’s 3Rillers. We’ve now seen parts 1 and 2 and eagerly await the third and final part in Prog 2385. Okay, first things first, for those new to it, what’s it about? And as we’re now well into it, feel free to give us some spoilers!

DB: As you say, how I’d describe it now is obviously slightly different to how I would have before part one came out! 

Deadwick is the last human outpost, the final surviving settlement after AI rose up, commandeered a bunch of robots and stomped us all into oblivion. The residents of that small town have been fighting back, climbing up the mega-mechs as they march across the radwastes, from their own gleaming city to obliterate Deadwick. And when the humans get to the head they break in and smash up the robot’s brain. With a big hammer.

This has been going on for a couple of hundred years now, and one of Deadwick’s residents, Dilemma Jones, discovers that his psychic abilities seem to extend to these robot brains!

The finale takes place shortly after the end of episode two. Dilemma has rounded up an army of dusty and dated mechs and intends to take the fight to Automota City!

And weirdly if you Google “Dilemma Jones” right now you get People also ask: What is the existential threat of AI?

The 3Riller format is one of those things 2000 AD’s done for so long, whether it’s one-off Future Shocks or Time Twisters or these longer three-parters. And of course, when we’re talking longer here, we’re still only talking about something that’s 18 pages long – and you’ve still got to deliver everything in there – start, middle, end, the whole world building thing, character development, the works.

What’s the unique challenge of the 3Riller and is it something that you enjoy? If so, what is it about something so short that requires so much work to make it work?

DB: I really love 3Rillers – reading and writing them! I was an immediate fan when Tharg first introduced the format.

I’m a Future Shock nerd, and quietly shake my head whenever I hear someone moaning about how ‘all the good twists have been done.’ Well, here comes the 3-part Future Shock – there’ve only been 30 of them so far, get in there before you have an excuse!

In saying that, I think the 3Riller might be an easier task than a 4-page story with a twist (Future Shock, Terror Tale, Time Twister etc.) as you have so much extra space, and a lot more leeway with the structure. It’s a lovely canvas actually, fifteen to eighteen pages. Long enough to deliver some nice worldbuilding and narrative surprises, but usually not long enough to risk outstaying your welcome. 

We’ll see if I’ve managed that with the third episode this week!

How did Nick come onboard? Were you paired up early on or was it a case of the finished script passed to him?

DB: Nick emailed me in the New Year saying he had a bit of free time coming up, as whenever we see each other at conventions we always say how we’d like to work together again (we did a Future Shock a few years ago).

I was already talking to Tharg about the Harrower Squad story currently running in the Megazine, so it seemed obvious to try and pull the two email strands together – if for no other reason than potentially halving that particular chunk of email workload.

I asked Tharg if he’d like a giant robot story, written by myself, drawn by Nick and he said yes. After an initial idea that was probably too structurally ambitious, we settled on this one – with its episode one visual reveal, and the epic robo-battles currently landing on subscribers’ doormats.

By this stage, you’ll have seen the first couple of parts in print – what do you think of Nick’s work here? Everything you hoped for in bringing your script to life?

I’ve seen all the art, but only lettered versions of the first two episodes so far – and I couldn’t be happier. It’s always great to work with someone like Nick who has tremendous experience, a great visual library and the storytelling ability to carry off anything my feeble brain can come up with!

It’s honestly been a joy having these pages drop in my email inbox!

It’s such an interesting premise, a nightmare world, a long-running war, and you’ve taken a very different way to tell a three-part 3Riller with it.

Episode 1 told the tale from the human perspective, particularly Dilemma’s tale, the first ‘eavesdropper of thought’ to ever go out on a climb. And what a climb – three humans out on the limits of human endeavour, climbing for weeks to reach the summit. But of course it was the reveal of what they were climbing that was the wow factor here.

How difficult is it to do this sort of mystery, building up the questions and the tension in something with such a limited page count?

DB: Episode one was all about that reveal, that it wasn’t a mountain – it was a giant snowy mech. All the other beats had to work around that.

There are other reveals later in the story that, again – I knew where they would land so I had to seed the ground around them. After that, it’s mostly about trying to control the pace – both narrative drive and plot clues, so that it hopefully reads well and doesn’t end up requiring an expository splurge. 

That’s one of the dangers with this size story, or at least that’s what I find – occasionally you write yourself into a corner and to avoid a character dropping lots of plot in one or two panels, you have to go back and unpick some of your crochet.

So, was this one of those things in your head that’s been knocking around for a while – the what if Transformers and humans were in a war thing?

DB: Ha – I started with that first big reveal, which I found in a notebook of ideas I’d written a few years ago – and built the world around that. I decided that it couldn’t be the only robot they’d climbed, so there had to be an army of them.

Then I had to figure out who was sending them? And why? And by the time I’d answered those questions I’d filled ten pages, and Nick had drawn a whole bunch of giant robots!

I did actually have a weird quasi-Transformers vs humanity pitch that an American publisher was interested in a few years ago, but the usual stuff happened: the editor left, another took over but was less into the idea and then the publisher went bust. The fate of many a good comics pitch, unfortunately!

You’ve rather subverted the idea of the 3Riller somewhat – by jumping us who knows how long into the future after part 1, one where Dilemma has been working on a plan for a long time, way different from the usual 3Riller.

So, presumably the switching things round and stretching things out this way was all part of the reason Blue Skies Over Deadwick got picked up, the way you’ve done it differently?

DB: That’s a good question! I often say that it’s not for man to know the mind of Tharg – and I think that’s as true about this story as it is any!

Of all the editors I’ve worked with in my bullet-riddled career, I’d say Matt is one of the toughest but fairest. If he says something doesn’t work, when you inspect it yourself you can be sure it really doesn’t work. It’s easy as a writer to become story-blind, where a pitch looks good because you’ve been building it and tinkering with it for weeks – and that’s when a good editor is worth their weight in Galactic Groats!

I really just needed that first big jump, to take us from the young Dilemma discovering the repercussions of his newfound abilities, to having put a plan in motion. Revealing that plan to the reader is what part two is all about.

Speaking of the time jump – I did it before in a previous 3Riller called The Ghostship Mathematica (Progs 1827-1829 [2013] and reprinted in Megazine 371, fact fans!) and found it a really good use of the format. You can tell complex stories in short time frames if you’re bold enough to fast forward and rewind. 

And at this point I’d like to recommend the stories of the wonderful, and recently departed, Alice Munro – who did this like no other human who ever lived.

Now, as always, I’d imagine there’s so much gone into putting this together?

DB: Deadwick was a relatively painless birth actually – I really, really enjoyed writing it! I’d just come off the second book of Harrower (with the incredible Steve Yeowell!) and had a quiet week or so before I had to start a ten pager for an American publisher. This was the perfect length for that gap, and scratched a very specific sci-fi itch I’d just become aware of! 

And knowing that Nick was going to knock it out of the park made the whole process even easier, of course. I hope that at least some of that joy is apparent when you read the story!

It’s the thing that makes short stories so difficult – you have to do huge world building things here, map out everything about the place, the people, the Mecha, the whole thing. I always imagine writers thinking of tales beyond the short debut where they can make use of all that worldbuilding they’ve worked on. But this one has a definite ending – is there scope for continuing Blue Skies Over Deadwick for another series?

DB: Never say never, but I think this one might be a one and done! Perhaps Nick and I could work on a thematic sequel?

Now, as for the future, what else have you got lined up for us, whether it’s for Tharg or elsewhere?

DB: I recently had an American project fall through, actually, so I have a couple of weeks to work on personal projects. I have a long list of artists I’ve promised to write something for and never seem to find the time – so I intend to get started on that roster as soon as I’ve finished this cocktail and swam forty more laps. (Last month I got an underwater mp3 player to go with my Bath Kindle! They’re both getting a lot of use.)

I wrote quite a 2000AD/Future Shock-esque take on the Valiant character Bloodshot recently, and I’m hoping that sees the light of day soon. I also have a number of other projects, comics and TV, that I’ve written and are sitting in vaults around the world, waiting for release slates to open up or something to do with numerology…

And I’m hoping to write the next book of Harrower for the Megazine soon. I always love working for the House of Tharg, so here’s hoping he spins that Rosette of Sirius and gives me a call soon.

And one final, fun one – you can do anything you want at 2000 AD, any character, any story. What/who would it be and why?

DB: If you mean impossible characters – I’d have loved to have written a Khronicles of Khaos era ABC Warriors story, with Kev Walker in full paint mode. I mean – there would be nothing cooler, right?

I think Chopper was at the top of my character list, and I got to write him twice – which I’m still slightly giddy to think back on.

Oh yes – and here they are, from Chopper: Wandering Spirit (art by Brendan McCarthy) & the Chopper tale from the 2021 Sci-Fi Special (art by Tom Foster)…

DB: I also loved writing the Gronk and Middenface McNulty. I’d really like to take a stab at Johnny Alpha, actually – as a kid I read Slavers of Drule a million times, memorising every line on the page. And I bet as soon as I hit SEND on this I’ll think of a dozen more.

And again, here’s all of David’s ventures into the world of Strontium Dog – no Johnny Alpha yet though!

Thank you so much to David for taking the time from the cocktails and the pool to answer a few questions!

You can find the third and final part of the Tharg’s 3Riller: Blue Skies Over Deadwick in the latest 2000 AD – Prog 2385 – out right now wherever Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

We’ve talked to David a few times here at 2000AD.com and it’s always a great experience. So why not head back and read his thoughts on getting to write some of his fave characters?

There’s the time he and Colin MacNeil put together Middenface McNulty and Dougal the dog in Strontium Dug in Prog 2256 [interview with David and Colin], more Middenface McNulty getting musical in the 2022 Sci-Fi Special [interview with David and VV Glass]. Sticking with the Stront theme, there was the great Gronk tale in Prog 2020 [interview with David and Rob Davis]. Then there’s the two times he got to write the iconic Chopper, first with Brendan McCarthy on Chopper: Wandering Spirit [interview with David and Brendan] and then again in the 2021 Sci-Fi Special [interview with David and Tom Foster]. And finally, David and Anna Morozova talk about their creation, Viva Forever from Prog 2020 [interview with David and Anna].