Not That Kind Of Juice — Talking 2000 AD’s ‘Ghosted’ With Guy Adams And Megan Huang
by Rachel Bellwoar
It’s all fun and games when “juice” means “orange juice,” but that’s not the juice Benu is consuming in writer Guy Adams, and artist Megan Huang‘s new strip, Ghosted. For more on their cyberpunk story (which is being lettered by Simon Bowland), here’s what Adams and Huang had to say:
Rachel Bellwoar: “Ghosted” can mean a lot of things — to be ignored; the supernatural. What does “Ghosted” mean to you in the context of this strip?
Guy Adams: On the surface it’s extremely literal, our main character is being haunted by someone but, yes, it’s a tool in the kit of abusive relationships everywhere and the citizens of this story’s world are in a very abusive relationship indeed.
Megan Huang: In the context of the strip it means to have someone who’s not in the same physical space interact with someone else. I wonder if that’s already too spoilery, so I’ll cap it there.
Adams: Benu is as shallow as I’d like to be! She floats through existence, as the privileged can. Naturally, because writers are bastards, sadists, her life is about to get a lot less easy.
Huang: Benu is a party girl. She lives fast, and honestly, I don’t think she has a job, but has loads of (inherited, I assume) money which enables her to live at the tippy top of society. So, in the beginning she’s very carefree and living her best life, but as the story progresses that all changes…
Huang: Hm… I think so. I’d have to say Deadly Class had a really well-done trip. And just generally speaking things I’ve seen in films and tv, even video games. There’s always this sense of vibrant color and distortion. I did my best to capture it.
Adams: The city of Kinshasa is run by The Trust – a loaded name if ever there were one. Who can recall a time when our leaders were trustworthy? The idea of a populous city that is riven by economics is hardly science fiction. It’s a place of image, of duplicity, of media control. Where the most powerful feed off the poor. So, yes, still not science fiction.
Huang: The police force (Clowns) are definitely watching everyone, and above them the governmental body. Though they’re revealed and more fleshed out as the story progresses. I’m not sure that gave much information, but for the sake of keeping things hush hush, that’s all I’ll say – for now…
Adams: When Benu discovers one of the bigger lies The Trust have been telling people, that they are actually at war with an alien race (and people are being pressganged from the poorer areas of the city in order to fight) then she’s placed in one of the worst places anyone can be placed in: to know more than you have the power the change. Doesn’t stop her from trying, if only because she’d like to stay alive.
Huang: I think the blue-purple mostly comes from it being night, and for night scenes I tend to gravitate towards those colors. For the day scenes it’s a much wider array of colors and they’re a bit more muted as the sun shines in over the neon, if that makes sense?
Overall, design-wise I really wanted to have the city look sci-fi but also a bit strange, to match the weirdness of Guy’s script. And I liked that weirdness, haha!
Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Guy and Megan!
Ghosted began in 2000 AD Prog 2427.
