Comics

Interview: Exploring The Scorched Earth in Helium Series 2 with Ian Edginton

28th September 2023

For the triumphant return of Edginton and D’Israeli’s Helium with Scorched Earth, beginning in 2000 AD 2351, some eight years after the first series left us with a huge cliffhanger, we talk to series writer and co-creator Ian Edginton.

It was all the way back in 2015 that those talented droids Ian Edginton and D’Israeli (Matt Brooker) delighted us with the 12-part series Helium in Progs 1934-1945.

It was a medley of fabulous things: a devastated nightmare world of post-Great War pollution, a thrilling adventure, loads of pulp action, incredible aerial battles, and full of fascinating characters and ideas. This was big sci-fi concept stuff done so well, each page a beauty to behold with D’Israeli seemingly rewriting the colour rules of comics to make pages pop so hard.

And it all ended with a cliffhanger, the heroes plunging to their certain doom into a toxic cloud of biological and chemical weapon smog that blankets this world. That final page promised us that ‘Helium will return…’

Well, it may have taken eight years, but finally, FINALLY, Edginton and D’Israeli are back with Helium series 2, Scorched Earth, kicking off in 2000 AD Prog 2351.

It’s been a long, long time and the fans of the series will be cheering its return. But what of the new readers about to be plunged into this technicolour delight of wonderfully different sci-fi?

Well, we figured we’d do you a double service here, not just interviewing the team behind Helium but also giving you the skinny on what you may have missed.

But first, a special gift from us to you – in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2351, you can find a download code to get hold of the entire first series of Helium, perfect to catch up with this zarjaz series!

So, what have you missed in Helium series 1? Here’s a quick recap for you…

Set in the far future, the world of Helium takes place 300 years since the Great War ended, resulting in eighty-five per cent of the Earth’s surface lying underneath a vast gaseous ocean known as the Poison Belt — a toxic, mutated cocktail of biological and chemical weapons designed by both sides to win the war. Instead, it almost spelt extinction for the human race.

Life on Earth is either on the tops of the highest mountains or takes flight in the skies in all manner of airships. But something from below the Belt is shooting these ships down… meaning a grisly death for all on board…

In one of the little towns above the Belt, Foundling Hodge is a tenth-generation officer of the law, an adopted daughter discovered, as the name suggests, as a baby on the shores just above the Belt.  

Along with the strange and frightening Solace Grimsby, ‘Sol’ to Hodge, a ‘revenant’ according to some of the less inclusive towns-folk, she’s pulled into the investigation of the missing ships…

And then we meet Professor Pontius Bloom who pops up from under the Belt. He and Hodge are similar creatures it seems. It certainly explains Hodge’s pallid colouring and the green tint to her hair.

Prof Bloom is on the run from his own people below the Belt and the mutants living in it and claims to have discovered a way to restore the Earth to what it was…

All of this leads us to revelations about Hodge and who she really is, why she ended up on that shore above the Belt as a foundling, a glimpse into the dangerous world below the Belt, and a huge finale of aerial combat that ends with Hodge, Sol, and Bloom shot down, plunging into the Belt to their certain deaths… just like this…

Okay then, that was your recap… now, without further ado… Ian Edginton.

My first question to you, the obvious question to you, has to be – you left us with a thrilling cliffhanger… for eight years. Eight. Years. How could you?

IAN EDGINTON: We were busy doing other things. Life and other stuff happened. Matt and I did other series for 2000 AD both together and with others. I was busy writing several series for Iron Maiden and KISS, Matt drew a Witch Hunter series, part of the Hellboy universe, for Dark Horse. I got divorced. You know…stuff.

Now, I’ve given the readers something of a recap of the first series, but it’s always good to hear it from the horse’s mouth. So, what was that first series of Helium all about?

IE: Airships, mysteries and monsters. A plucky heroine, a Yorkshire cyborg, much daring-do and shenanigans. If you pick up Prog 2351 there’s a code that lets you download the entire first series. It’s all in there.

It is indeed – everyone, do yourself a favour, use the QR code, grab the collected first series of Helium. It’s a beaut of a comic.

So now, on to Helium: Scorched Earth…

The first series ended, of course, with a cliffhanger – and when we last saw them, Hodge, Sol, and Bloom were plunging to seeming certain death into the Belt. So, unless Scorched Earth is either going to be really short or you’re introducing a whole new main cast, can you let us into the secret of what the readers can expect?

IE: They don’t die. We see more of their world and the extraordinary things it in.

Will we be finding out more about Hodge’s history and how important she is in the grande scheme of things?

IE: Yes. I’m going to be really cagey here and give next to nothing away! If you enjoyed the first series you’ll love the second!

Oh darn those writers and the whole wanting to leave it to the reader to discover!

I’ve seen the first couple of episodes of Scorched Earth and you’ve gone in a different direction than I expected.

IE: Yes, it’s part of the job. If I’d gone in the direction you expected wouldn’t you be a wee bit disappointed?

Okay, okay, fair enough, you got me.

With that first series of Helium, what was the original idea that came to you? And what was the elevator pitch that you came up with?

IE: That World War One went on for decades. The Earth was covered in a miles deep toxic fog known as the Poison Belt that grew from all the chemical and biological weapons being used. Only those living on the high ground survived. All commerce and conflict is carried out using aircraft and airships but something from below The Poison Belt is shooting them down.

When I was thinking about all the different elements in the series, I came up with retro-futurist Steampunk pulp sci-fi adventure. Too much perhaps?

IE: Sounds about right. I’d lean more towards Dieselpunk than Steampunk though.

But it’s a strip that really did resonate with so many readers and one that’s been missed by us all. It’s one of the strips that readers always ask about – wanting to know when’s it coming back. What was it, do you think, that made that connection?

IE: You’d have to ask them. I just wanted to write a story about airships, mysteries and monsters. It has a very pulp feel to it, action and high adventure. I think in many ways it calls back to UK comics such as Lion and Valiant that I read as young tearaway, growing up with characters like Kelly’s Eye, Robot Archie and Adam Eterno.

Oh, it absolutely does have that pulp feel and the sense of old Brit comics to it – but what else is there in the essential DNA of Helium? Where does it pull inspiration from – what influences, literary and artistic, have fed into it?

IE: Old books. Old movies. Also, not-so-old books and not-so-old movies. There’s everything from Alexander Korda’s film adaptation of  HG Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come with its huge art deco aircraft to the Jules Verne novels Clipper of the Clouds and Master of the World, and the Vincent Price movie of the same name. There are also nods to Dastardly and Mutley in Stop The Pigeon and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

Yes, yes, absolutely the Stop the Pigeon and Those Magnificent Men, that worked so well in the aerial battle scenes in the first series!

IE: There’s also the Miyazaki classics Porco Rosso and Laputa: The Castle in the Sky also heavily informed the look of the series. Then there’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,which I love, and a thousand pulp magazine and novel covers.

Prior to working on a project like this I put together a mood board of images that set up a visual feel for the series.

There’s a lot going on in Helium, a delightful mix of intrigue and a lot of lightness and good old adventure thrills. This was never a series that went down the grim and gritty route, instead it’s full of light, both in art and tone.

Was that a deliberate choice on both your parts or simply something that happened organically during the creative process?

IE: Yes and both! I wanted the story to zip along at a brisk pace. The atmosphere I was aiming for was along the lines of the Cohen Brothers film O’ Brother Where Art Thou? It’s breezy and fun but with some dark turns at times.

Another thing I realised when reading it again was just how cleverly you’ve done it. It’s both tight and expansive, a very limited cast of characters for the reader yet you’ve managed to sell it to us as a huge world, ready-made.

It’s a very simple tale at its heart, not trying to be too much, just a mystery of who we’re dealing with and the revelation of what lies under the Belt and Hodge’s secret past. But then you’ve both dressed it up in such wonderful pulp sci-fi finery, built a world for it, populated it with all that retro sci-fi and made it feel, almost effortlessly to the reader, that it’s a massive tale.

And I can’t help thinking that all that, plus the sense of adventure and sheer fun of it all is what made the strip so popular.

IE: I hope so. It’s not rocket science – hah!.  The goal was to try and recapture that feeling of wonder when I was a kid and watching Jason and The Argonauts or This Island Earth or even Star Wars (A New Hope of course) for the first time. We’ve become so cynical and over-analytical these days. Why can’t we like something just because it’s fun and it reminds us of a simpler and sometimes happier time?

One particular thing that everyone seems to remember are those great aerial scenes of Hodge et al flying those gorgeous blue skies.

IE: Again, that’s the Miyazaki influence. If you look at the backgrounds in his films they’re so sumptuous and expansive.

Ian, when I was reading Helium back in 2015, I made comment that you’re a writer that benefits, it seems to me, from a close artistic partnership, something that we’ve seen here in 2000 AD and beyond – with D’Israeli there’s been various Dredds, Scarlet Traces, Leviathan, Stickleback, and of course Helium in 2000 AD, plus Kingdom of the Wicked, Murder in the Rue Morgue, and Torchwood. Then there’s been Brass Sun for 2000 AD, and the great adaptations from SelfMadeHero; Dorian Grey, Princess of Mars, and Sherlock Holmes, all with INJ Culbard. And of course there’s 2000 AD‘s Red Seas with Steve Yeowell. 

Do you find you’re naturally drawn to working with these guys and what are the benefits to you from working closely with a group of artists like this?

IE: Having a like mind, shared interests and life experiences goes a long way to informing a relationship with an artist. I’ve been very fortunate to work with some extraordinary talents. On the flip side there have been a couple who I didn’t really click with. Nothing egregious, it was more that they just didn’t get what I was after.

Indeed, your earliest comics work was God’s Little Acre with D’Israeli back in 1990 in Revolver issue 2. (Yes, that makes us all feel old.) That’s 23 years of collaboration, something you previously referred to as being ‘the Morecambe and Wise of comics.’

So, what is it about the Edginton/D’Israeli partnership that’s meant it’s been both successful and longstanding?

IE: Matt and I like working together because we share a similar mentality and mind set. We’re both around the same age, read and watched a lot of the same stuff, we’re only children raised by our mums.

There’s a sense of nostalgia, dry humour, warmth, and Britishness to what we do. I don’t mean a jingoistic nationalism but something more kind, civil, and understated. There’s as much Victoria Wood, Alan Bennett, and Coronation Street in what we do as there is Doctor Who, Space 1999, and Thunderbirds. Basically, we’re a couple of creaky, grumbly old blokes sitting on a park bench and talking about spaceships.

There’s also a thing in your work that tends towards the big high-concept stuff – usually big high-concept sci-fi and fantasy. It’s there in Leviathan, Brass Sun, Scarlet Traces, and obviously Helium.

There’s that sense of a huge world to build, a big idea, the inclusion of fantastical elements, a subversion of traditional sci-fi and fantasy, the steampunk-esque nature of a lot of what you do.

Is that something that’s always been there or is it simply a style of work that comes easiest to you?

IE: Building worlds appeals to the megalomanic in me! It’s not something I thought much about in the early days, I just used to like coming up with these big concepts and how cool they would be. Giant ocean liners, clockwork solar systems!

It’s only as I’ve got older that I realise that I like to set up these big, broad sweeping set pieces but then zoom in and focus on how they affect the lives of individual people. That’s where the story lies, not the extraordinary environments they live in.

Scarlet Traces may well be the defining strip of your careers, the thing most people know you for.

Back in 2022, we had the finale to Scarlet Traces with Storm Front, ending the long-running tale of the Human-Martian conflict.   And when I interviewed you last, there was talk of more to come, tales away from the main storyline. You talked of a tale ‘set back in the early days of Scarlet Traces, just after the demise of the Martian invasion force.’

So, how soon can we expect more?

IE: Funny you should ask! I am in the process of penning said prequel as we speak!

Whoop!

And then, speaking of missing in action strips… there’s Brass Sun, with INJ Culbard. It’s not been quite as long away from the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest as Helium, just the five years since the end of Engine Summer, the fifth storyline.

That was a storyline that ended with this – ‘To be continued in Brass Sun: Pavane… coming soon.’ Again, you have a strange idea of what soon means!

What’s taken so long with Brass Sun and is there any hope of seeing a new series at some point?

IE: It’s on my list and is creeping towards the top! As with Helium, life and other work have got in the way.

Life and work… they always get in the way!

Okay then, time to wrap this one up – but not before we get to ask you what we have to look forward from you in the next however long? New work for 2000 AD? New work for other publishers?

IE: As I mentioned there’s the Scarlet Traces prequel that we’ll be working on next. There’s another series of Kingmaker in the works. More Fiends from myself and Mr Trevallion. I also have something coming out Stateside based on a console game that I can’t talk about!

And finally – of course, we won’t be waiting long for Helium series 3, will we?

IE: Not quite so long but after the Scarlet Traces prequel, Matt and I have a new series set in 1950s L.A. that we are desperate to get cracking on!

Oooooh, now that’s a great place to leave it. Edginton and D’Israeli doing ‘50s L.A. – already sounds like a must-read! More on that in the future!

But as for the fact that Ian’s a little quiet on how long we’ll have to wait for Helium series 3, I’ll let Constable Hodge comment on that…

Thank you to Ian there for chatting with us about all things Helium. You can find the first part of the new series, Scorched Earth, in the pages of the new jumping-on Prog 2351, out right now wherever Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

And remember that there’s a QR code in all copies of Prog 2351 with a download link to the complete Helium volume 1. How the PR droids got that one past The Mighty One we’ll never know!

Now, you should, of course, be tracking down everything that the Edginton & D’Israeli droids have had in the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest… Most recently, how about picking up The Best of 2000 AD Volume 2 which contains the complete Leviathan, a truly epic tale of a mile-long ship powered by hellfire and trapped by a terrible curse.

Then how about Stickleback? a steampunk crime thriller about the Victorian crime lord who’s harbouring a very big secret, one we discovered in the most recent series, New Jerusalem. And finally from Edginton/D’Israeli, there’s Scarlet Traces, the adaptation and expansion of War of the Worlds, telling their tale of Martian invasion and everything that comes after in a true sci-fi epic.

Finally, for more from both Ian and Matt, do be sure to dive into the interview archives… Fiends of the Eastern Front: 1812, interview with Ian and Dave Taylor, Fiends of the Eastern Front: 1963, interview with Ian, Judge Dredd: Babel, interview with Ian and Matt, and Scarlet Traces: Storm Front, interview with Ian and Matt. Plus, don’t miss both Ian and Matt talking on The Lockdown Tapes.

And finally, finally… the first couple of pages of Helium: Scorched Earth…