Howard Shum talks about his space-based adventure story miniseries
By Kevin Mahadeo
Posted 7/1/08
Take a fun-filled ride through the cosmos and explore alien planets with the crew of Hyperkinetic, four female bounty hunters trying to save their ship and their lives.
Howard Shum, writer of the four-issue miniseries, talks with Wizard about the wild and crazy crew, the future of the series and gross acts of revenge.
What's this book about exactly? It looks like crazy space adventure with some hot females.
SHUM: Exactly. [Laughs] It's a science fiction, action comedy. It's about four girls that are intergalactic bounty hunters. They're after this alien bounty they really need to obtain, or else their spaceship Hyperkinetic is going to get repossessed. They end up chasing him through this wormhold and crash land on an alien planet. They have to find him on this planet, and there's a bunch of other crazy stuff that ends up going on.
How'd you come up with the idea for this comic?
SHUM: I've always been a fan of science fiction, and [this comic] is a combination of a bunch of elements I like. What sort of inspired me to do this particular comic was this movie called "Freeway," with Reese Witherspoon.
Yeah. And Keifer Sutherland as a crazy serial killer.
SHUM: Exactly. I'm pretty sure you realize this, but they just took the basic premise of Little Red Riding Hood. I thought it was really interesting that they took a simple idea like that and just made it into something crazy. You could see a little resemblance of Red Riding Hood, but they went totally nuts with it. I wanted to do something similar where I took something that I thought was a basic story and I changed stuff around and put in elements that I really liked—science fiction, alien robots and Hong Kong action. And instead of guns we have laser guns. So, it's just basically a continuation of stuff I did previously—like a continuation [in style] from my previous book Gun Fu. It's combining elements that I really like into something different than what you see elsewhere.
What can you tell us about the four main female bounty hunters?
SHUM: Alicia is the blonde-haired girl. There's no leader in Hyperkinetic, which is really good for her because she likes to tell everyone what to do. Shirley is the Chinese girl. This makes no sense for the comic because I don't write in the dialogue, but in my head she's born in Scotland, so she speaks with the accent. [Laughs] She likes to act tough and she really enjoys violence. Then there's Milla. She's an alien girl and she's way more into fashion than she is to bounty hunting. She seems a little like an airhead. Then there's Katiya. She's the best mechanic and engineer on the crew, but she's really introverted and really shy. She's a little bit too naďve, too. Initially the girls want her to stay on the ship... Let me just cut that off because I don't want to give away too much. [Laughs] She has her own adventures. Let's just say that.
Will you be exploring their backstories or will you leave that open?
SHUM: I'm going to leave that open. I don't think it's important. I think when you read the miniseries you'll see a friendship there. You'll see they've been together for a while, but I don't think it's important to see how they got together, why they got together.
What can you say about their interaction and how they play off each other?
SHUM: Oh, they bicker like crazy. And they threaten each other with violence. But I'd like to think that you'll see even amongst all this bickering, they're always there for each and they work together as a team. But they do crazy stuff to each other.
Can you maybe give one instance of crazy?
SHUM: Okay. When they initially go through the wormhole, the planet they're about to crash on is right there, so they have no time to react. Milla freaks about because she thinks she's going to die, so she confesses everything that she's sorry about regarding what she did to them. One thing is particular to Shirley; she apologizes for peeing in her shampoo bottle.
[Laughs] Dear lord, that's awful. Umm... Jeez. The peeing in the shampoo bottle thing has completely derailed my questioning now. [Laughs] Okay. You said you drew influence from things you like. Is there any particular film that you really liked growing up?
SHUM: For this particular story, no. It's just Hong Kong movies in general. But I really liked "The Fifth Element," as well. That's not a Hong Kong movie, but I think people that liked that movie will like Hyperkinetic, as well.
I love that movie. Do you have a particular favorite of the four main characters in the book?
SHUM: I don't have a particular favorite. I like them all. They all have their pros and cons. I feel real protective of Katiya though. She shouldn't have left the spaceship. [Laughs]
You're really hinting toward terrible things for this poor girl. Well, what can you say about the series as a whole? What can readers expect?
SHUM: There's one particular character that penciler Matteo Scalera really likes. There are these really perverted aliens, and maybe this says a lot about Matteo. They run into them, but those pervert aliens get their comeuppance. These girls are not easy prey. They're not waiting for some guy to have them.
Would you ever continue the stories of these characters in the future beyond this first miniseries?
SHUM: Man, I'd love to. If this miniseries does well, we'd like to do it as a series of miniseries like how Mike Mignola does Hellboy. It's just that when I write, that's how I think. I think of complete stories. If there were never any more Hyperkinetic stories, this one can stand on its own. That's just a better method for me to write. That's how I've written all my stuff. But there's other ideas that I have—other missions and adventures to send these girls on. And if there are more, they'd be miniseries. I can't even imagine how to write something ongoing. I can't get that process in my head.
Any particular ideas you have already for future stories?
SHUM: Just other missions, really. And I'd like to not have it be where it's similar to what happens in the first miniseries. I'd like to mix things up. Just because they're bounty hunters doesn't mean that in every story they're after a bounty. I think these girls are interesting enough where they can be doing other stuff and those stories would be interesting as well.
You mentioned Matteo earlier. What can you say about the art?
SHUM: I think people are going to be really pleased with the artwork. Matteo Scalera is penciling and Oscar Celestini is coloring it, and these guys are phenomenal. Matteo is just amazing. Artist like these don't come around that often. He's really great to work with, too. His storytelling really clicks well with mine. I like to have a particular way to tell stories, which is a little different from mainstream books. But people don't have to take my word for it. Just flip through it and just for themselves.
There's also a variant from the late Mike Wieringo. How'd that come about?
SHUM: I knew Mike for a long time—since I started working in comics. Mike's done alternate covers for a bunch of my other books, like Gun Fu and Intrigue. He was a friend of mine. He knew I was doing Hyperkinetic, and we've been working on it for a quite a while, so he saw the first issue a year ago. He offered to do the alternate cover for the first issue. He was a great friend and a great guy.
