Talking ‘Full Tilt Boogie’ With Writer Alex De Campi

All Tee wants to do is sit back and eat noodles with her Grandma (preferably on a beach). With another member of the royal family aboard her ship, however, the likelihood of that happening anytime soon is pretty bleak.

Writer Alex de Campi and artist Eduardo Ocaña are back for another round of their all-ages space drama, Full Tilt Boogie. With colors by Eva de la Cruz and letters by Annie Parkhouse, find out more about the strip in this interview with de Campi below:

Rachel Bellwoar: I was trying to find Messiah Complex (the series you did with Ocaña for Les Humanoïdes Associés) and could only find some used copies of the French edition. Was that story ever translated into English, and how has it been working together again on Full Tilt Boogie?

Alex de Campi: No, unfortunately neither volume of Messiah Complex was translated into English. It’s been great working with Ed again — we stayed in touch after MC and wanted to do another project together, to the point of doing some sketches and concept art for Full Tilt Boogie. Then when Tharg asked if I had any all-ages stories that would work for ReGened (the all-ages 2000AD special a couple years ago) I immediately thought of Ed and Full Tilt Boogie, and the rest is history.

Bellwoar: Tee comes up with the name for her ship pretty fast. How quickly did you land on the title, Full Tilt Boogie?

De Campi: I used to race sailboats when I lived in Hong Kong — usually Etchells, a very competitive three-person dayboat. Racing sailboats have great (and often very daft) names, and one of them was called Full Tilt Boogie. Was always a mite jealous of that name and had carefully stored it in my ragbag with all the other good names for future use.

Bellwoar: What’s the best part about writing a strip geared towards all-ages?

De Campi: How easy it is! My character writing’s always been my strongest point, so I don’t feel constrained at all by being able to show bloody violence, or swearing, or sex. This arc has some really scary and really eerie scenes in it, and I feel like the scenes are actually scarier for not showing onscreen horror. But also, there’s no overwhelming atmosphere of horror throughout the piece. It has sweet moments, and funny moments, and quiet moments, and they both relieve and serve to accentuate the scary parts.

Bellwoar: As someone who’s studied history (including medieval times for books like The Scottish Boy), how has that research come in handy when writing about the Luxine royal family line?

De Campi: Oh, I threw in a few royal names from world history in the list of Luxine kings and queens, but that’s really just a wink and a nod to any other history nerds out there (and a way of making sure I had a fun variety of names). One of the things I most enjoy about Full Tilt Boogie is it doesn’t take any research. I just make it up.

All my other recent projects (Parasocial, Scottish Boy, Bad Karma, an upcoming medieval heist book with Tom Fowler) have taken a ton of painstaking research to reach a degree of accuracy I was happy with. Did they need that much research? No, probably not. Do I really like reading history and/or diving into niche subjects? Yes, yes I do.

Normally my stories are super deliberate and planned, and Full Tilt Boogie is just a bit… more free. (Not that free, I still script each arc completely before the first episode goes to Ed.)

Bellwoar: Having gotten Princess Nix to a hospital (and given the price of parking on Tanzagar), Tee isn’t really under any obligation to stick around. Why do you think she stays, or is it more about trying to salvage something from this messy job?

De Campi: She is tired. She just wants to rest — the Luxine empire is clearly following her and the Black Dog, and if they just ditch Nix and Lilac on Tanzagar and leave… where do they go? They have to keep running. They’re safe, on Tanzagar, at least for a little while — and if Tee can figure out how to pay for parking.

Bellwoar: Until now Tee has been holding it together, but in book two we see the strain of trying to survive as a freelance bounty hunter start to get to her. Will that pressure only get worse after she agrees to a solo mission?

De Campi: Oh, the solo mission almost breaks her. Almost. (The double-page spread in episode four or five is one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, because of the sheer indulgence of eating up two pages with a gratuitous big spaceship image in what is only a five page episode.)

Bellwoar: Tee’s Grandma isn’t just a passenger on this trip. She’s a capable member of the team. How early did you know you wanted Tee to travel with family?

De Campi: Grandma was there from the very start. The lazy way to write this would be to have Tee be an orphan, for her to have no family commitments. I think it’s much more interesting, and realistic, and makes the stakes much higher if she’s not an orphan — if she’s a caregiver. Lone Wolf and Cub is so memorable for a lot of reasons, but a big part of it is the cub. Otherwise it’s just another ronin story.

And I wanted to keep Tee a teen, so while she could have had a kid (a cub), that didn’t feel like the right direction for her. She takes care of her grandma, and grandma takes care of her … but that also means Tee can’t fall apart, even when she really, really wants to.

And, you know, Grandma helps where she can, both emotionally and practically — she has a very particular set of skills (ramen; mah-jong).

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Alex!

Book 2 of Full Tilt Boogie started in Prog #2367. Prog #2370 comes out February 21st from 2000 AD.