It’s time for another exciting look behind the scenes of Jupiter Jet! Jason Inman, creator and writer, gives us some insight into the latest issue as well as a few hidden cool easter eggs. Join us now as we dive deep into the world of the flying girl!
SPOILER warnings for Issue #3.
Chris Campbell: Jupiter Jet #3 opens with the introduction of some awesome new characters: pirates! What can you tell us about them and will they be recurring characters?
Jason Inman: The crew of the Elara are such a fascinating bunch. In fact, Captain Calista and Bob Hardy are based on friends of ours. We even had our artist, Ben Matsuya, draw the characters like our pals. These pirates were a way for us to expand the world of Jupiter Jet. If you look at what Bob says to Jacky, he clearly knows more about this world than she does and his crew are part of the resistance, which gets it’s first main story mention in this issue.
Unfortunately, these characters do not return in this volume. Originally, Bob was supposed to have a bigger part in issue five, but during the rewrites for the issue we realized that all of his scenes needed to be about another character. So I’m sad to say that they both got cut do to the confines of the story we’re trying to tell. I can tell you that Calista does affect the plot of issue four though.
CC: Besides being the name of the pirate ship, Elara is also the name of one of Jupiter’s moons, is there a hidden connection here?
JI: YES.
CC: What can you tell us about Jacky and Chuck’s cat? He seems to always be hanging around and even gets used as a potential weapon by Chuck. What does the cat think about all this?
JI: Their cat Puddles is a proud and cantankerous feline. He’s named Puddles because he was found by Chuck in the alleyway behind the repair shop in a puddle as a kitten. (Which is a story that we’d love to show someday.)
If you were to ask him his thoughts about the adventures of Jacky and Chuck, I believe he would be ambivalent as long as his milk dish is full.
CC: Neil and Chuck seem to figure out a way to get the jetpack working better. What can you tell us about what they did with the power sources?
JI: This is a big reveal that will happen in issue five.
But I can tell you to look at the colors of the final panel on that page, you’ll discover a lot of clues about what Chuck and Neil did with them. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing for Jacky remains to be seen.
CC: Verterium is the triangular power source that Chuck is introduced to at the end of the issue. Any particular reason you chose this name? Perhaps due to your love of Trek?
JI: Nice catch! With all of the names for things that we choose in Jupiter Jet, I like to make sure that they have significance. Since Ashley and I are big Star Trek fans, how could we not include a reference to Star Trek in our story.
Our element Veterium is taken from Verterium Cortenide which is used to make warp nacelles for Federation starships. So, it seemed very appropriate that our power source that makes things fly very very fast has a nice wink to the faster than light engines of one of our favorite sci-fi worlds.
CC: Praetor Pluto mentions the resistance when talking to Chuck. Can you tell us more about them? What was Chuck referring to when he mention Clark Gable and Gary Cooper?
JI: First, Chuck was referencing movie actors Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. They’re two people he enjoys watching so there is no easter egg there.
But when Praetor Pluto mentions the resistance? Hoo boy, that’s a big one. Spoiler, Jacky will meet the resistance next issue and it’s going to change everything in this book. In fact, the resistance features heavily into volume two of Jupiter Jet. They are the key that something isn’t right in this city we’ve seen. They are the fighters who keep the bad guys like Praetor Pluto and his legates at bay.
The most interesting thing about the resistance is the one thing that no fan has figured out. You’ve already met the resistance in our comic. Who do you think stars in our “Origin of the Jetpack” backup stories?
Come back next month for another behind the scenes look at Jupiter Jet #4!
