Tuesday April 1, 2008

Interview with Arie Kaplan of "Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer"

Arie Kaplan writes the new series of Speed Racer comic books, called "Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer." Separate from the big-budget movie coming out later this year, the comics provide Speed Racer with a wider range of settings and a deeper backstory than he has had before. I talked to Kaplan about Speed Racer and his other projects, including his three-part series for Reform Judaism Magazine about the Jewish origins and themes of comic books and comedy performers. Kaplan also writes for Mad Magazine, speaks often on subjects relating to Judaism and comedy, and has a new book coming out later this year: From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books.

How did you get involved with Speed Racer?

My series for Reform Judaism Magazine about the the influence of Jews on the comic book industry gave me a lot of contacts in the comic book world. I went to Wondercon and talked to IDW about Speed Racer. I had to go back and catch myself up on what was going on in comics. If you haven’t been reading comics for a while and then read the One More Day series, you think, "What the Hell has been going on?" The quality of the writing is getting stronger. It is more like TV shows, but there are things you can only do in comics.

I wrote a horror screenplay a while back. Even though it had a horror element the special effects had to be pretty low key. It couldn’t be like Transformers; it had to be low budget. For this Speed Racer series, each issue if they filmed it would cost like $300 million. In comics, you can do a story where it doesn’t feel self-indulgent but you can have pirate ships, giant transforming robots, not too grandiose or too loaded or over the top, but make it work. It costs the same amount of money to draw people having a conversation as having an action sequence, that's the difference between comics and movies. Anyone who wants to draw Speed Racer likes to draw action sequences, racing, blowing stuff up, but it won’t take a special secret expensive pen. Your imagination is honestly the only special effect; the budgetary limits are met.

But you don’t want to put too many story twists; you don’t want to pack the story too much. You do burn through story quite a bit because Speed finds out he is the last of a long line of racers. His last name used to not be the family name, but the occupation. There is a chosen one in each generation, the one to outrace the evils of the world. He is a crime-fighter but instead of super powers or a utility belt he has the Mach 5.

How did you come up with your interpretation of Speed Racer?

I wanted to make him more iconic, more comic-booky, more kinds of stories. I wanted him to be more of a teenager, and I wanted to bring in some of the The Hero with a Thousand Faces themes.

The name was one of the inspirations for this series. I wanted some explanations about why the goofy characters would have such on the nose names. I thought about my own name. Arie means lion, Kaplan means religious leader. A lot of names come from occupations – what if Speed's family was like that?

I have a passion for history. The more things change the more they stay the same. Andrew Harris [of IDW] and I talked in Wonder-Con – what hasn’t been done? You have to have a set-up that is a built-in story-generator. In the Fantastic Four, the story generator is that Reed Richards is a genius so he can come up with any invention. With Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the story generator is that any monster can jump through that Hellmouth, she comes from a long line of slayers. She is a legacy character. With the Green Lantern – he is in any space sector. With our Chronicles, the story-generator is that Speed is connected to this long line of Racers.

From the website: Speed discovers that he's the last in a long line of "Racers," champions who were chosen by fate to out-race the evils of this world. The story alternates between the present-day adventures of Speed chasing after his cryptic foe, and the past Racers battling an eerily similar villain. Specifically, we see the Racers of Ancient Rome, Medieval England, the Golden Age of Piracy, and the Old West. Like TIME BANDITS or STAR WARS, SPEED RACER: CHRONICLES OF THE RACER is the ultimate children’s adventure story, chock full of chariot races, knights in shining armor, princesses, dragons, pirates, monsters, giant robots, and cowboys. And lots and lots of racing. Also, while it’s largely a children’s comic, there are also plenty of Easter Eggs for older, long-time SPEED RACER fans to enjoy.

I obsess about tradition and heritage. And the theme that no man is an island. Story arc, in Chronicles is that Speed gets this information but at first shrugs off the responsibility. He is not just in the line but the last in the line. At first he acts like a jerk to his girlfriend and parents. But he does not want to see Trixie and his parents hurt. He learns that he needs them; he needs everyone.

What audience is this aimed at?

All ages. There is some action-movie violence, maybe a light PG-13. It is for ages 8 or 9-up, but adults can enjoy the pop culture and literary references. There is a lot in there for comic fans and fans of the original cartoon, Easter Eggs, and geekout moments. And there are references to the Arthurian legend, to Robin Hood, to the Nautilus from "20000 Leagues Under the Sea," to Popeye, and to the TV character.
One thing that is fun is the way we bring the Mach 5 car into the stories about all of Speed's ancestors. In the medieval story the Speed character is way out of his depth, nerdy. There is a wizard named Myrddin, inspired by Merlin, and he has a super suit of armor. Because it was made by a wizard, that’s my out for making it so mechanically powerful, and it is an homage to iron man.The Mach 5 is different in every era. It's a chariot in ancient Rome. I am fascinated by ancient Rome. I researched chariot races. They were the Nascar of ancient Rome, even had product placement, exactly parallel. The name Horatious, comes from Horus, the Egyptian god of immortality. It matched up in a perfect way. Parts 2-4 in the series are a guessing game. I subconsciously made it as multicultural as possible. You can have a Nubian kingdom, Tokyo, you could have Speed Racers from anywhere, a female racer, a Jewish racer, a WWI setting with a Model T Ford Mach 5.

I wanted to make it kind of Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) for kids or Alan Moore (Watchmen), a lot of layers. I'd love to do an annotated version, a kind of director’s commentary, explaining all the sources of the material. Maybe on the website. Or on some blog.

What inspires you?

I am inspired by tradition and heritage, passing from generation to generation.

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Filed Under: arie kaplan, comic books, judaism, speed racer

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