What are three adolescent kids doing in Roswell 66 years ago? Tim Lattie knows, and if his Kickstarter for Night Stars: Staring at the World Through My Rearview is successfully funded, you can know too! Lattie was kind enough to take time to discuss the project with Comicosity and what readers can expect from Night Stars.
Aaron Long: Straight from the creator’s mouth: how did Night Stars: Staring at the World in My Rearview come to be? Have you been developing the concept for awhile?
Tim Lattie: It’s something I’ve been working on for a few years now. It started as a Hurricane Katrina story; I’m from New Orleans, and so the basic premise revolves around some of my experiences with that. Forced away from your everyday life, you wake up one day with nothing like it was before. The same thing happens to the kids in the story, after being taken back in time on a flying saucer, merging with mysterious “living” spacesuits, and landing in Roswell. All they’re really trying to do is make their way back home, but they aren’t really sure what that is anymore. The name, however, came from Van Gogh’s painting, “Night stars.”
AL: Night Stars follows 3 adolescents on an adventure in Roswell. Can you describe the main characters of the book and what is driving them through the story?
TL: Our story starts with Adam, a dreamer. He’s usually lost in his own thoughts, fantasizing about the future and the things he wants to do, but never actually does them. He’s always waiting for a sign or some divine intervention to show him what to do, but in Night Stars he actually gets it. Next we meet Leslie. Leslie is Adam’s neighbor. Unlike Adam she’s very impulsive, jumping into to new situations without a second thought. So those characters counteract each other in that sense. Though she’s generally in a great mood she can get very emotional, which sometimes gets her into trouble. John is Leslie’s older brother and Adam’s best friend. When he’s around them he acts tough and in charge, which is how he likes it. Outside of them he’s bit insecure and reluctant to stand up for himself. This is something he’s going to have to overcome, if the kids are going to survive in 1947 Roswell and hopefully find their way back home. Although not exactly a character, the ship itself seems to have a mind of its own. It, along with some key characters that the kids interact with from each place and time they end up drive the story and the development of the main characters .
AL: Roswell is a rather infamous location to set a comic. What does the New Mexico desert have in store for the teens in Night Stars?
TL: Once the kids are taken aboard the flying saucer they are engulfed in strange spacesuits. These bestow upon them special attributes but also make them look like the classic aliens of pop culture. So when they crash land in Roswell they’re mistaken for “little green men.” John, along with their ship, is taken by the military and brought to Edwards Air Force Base. Roswell becomes overrun with secret agents from a special branch of the military with the intention of covering up their existence of the kids and capturing them by any means necessary! Now it’s up to Adam and Leslie, along with a young ranch hand named Dee, to find John and recover their commandeered saucer against overwhelming odds.
AL: Can you discuss the pledge levels and rewards available to people looking to help fund the project?
TL: We have all kinds of different pledge levels that range from a basic PDF sent to your email to the actual original cover art for the first issue of the book! Some of the other unique rewards include a limited edition print, which I’ll be doing a sketch on the back, as well as, and this is one of my favorites, the exclusive sketch cover variant of issue one, with a personalized drawing. Other options also include getting your name printed in the book as a thank you, but with Night Stars you can take it a step further and actually receive a cameo in the book and get the original page of your appearance! So all you have to do now is choose which pledge level is right for you.
AL: Any final words for Comicosity’s readers regarding Night Stars?
TL: This book is just the beginning. We took the time to lay a good foundation to make it a something that has the ability to last. The kids have no control over their destination jumping through time and space randomly and interacting with some of history’s most notable characters and events. The choices they make literally affect the shape of the world as we know it today. But everything starts in Roswell, what happens there sets the tone for everything to follow. Their newfound power draws malicious plots from 3rd parties, who attempt to steal their technology and reform history. But ultimately, their biggest foe will be themselves, as they travel on a collision course towards the dawn of existence. They were there to witness the end of time will they last long enough to see the beginning?
The Kickstarter for Night Stars: Staring at the World Through My Rearview can be found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/916456504/night-stars-staring-at-the-world-through-my-rearvi?ref=live
