BEN CRANE and ARTHUR EBUEN Share their Sci-Fi Bonafides in SYSTEMIC
- Luis Godoy II
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Luis Godoy II is back, this time with Ben Crane and Arthur Ebuen, creators of the newly launched Sci-Fi anthology, Systemic, available now through Sept. 26h on Kickstarter.
COMIC BOOK YETI: Welcome to the Yeti Cave, Ben and Arthur. I was excited to see your upcoming kickstarter, Systemic, Vol 1 (launching September 2nd) on the list of available interviews. Thank you for choosing Comic Book Yeti to help cover your anthology. How is it going for each of you today?
BEN CRANE: I’m just riding the adrenaline and caffeine, being here at launch. After the campaign, I’ll sleep for a month, but right now I’m feeling great.
ARTHUR EBUEN: With this upcoming launch and another right after, it’s been really busy on the marketing side. It makes up for all the creative work I was doing the last couple of months. To be clear, none of that is complaining. I’m happy to be able to do any of this. Hoping it lasts!
CBY: Before we get started with Systemic, would you tell the readers about each of your creative backgrounds, or your “comic book origin” stories?
BC: My spouse, Andy Alves, is an illustrator, and I used to joke about wanting to hire them to draw a comic for me, but not being able to afford them. My background is in studio filmmaking, where you can’t do anything without at least thirty million dollars. I hadn’t realized just how open and supportive the comic book world is. Then around 2018, I happened to meet a couple comics writers through a board game night, and they talked us through putting a pitch together. Our first idea was a mess, but we kept at it and came up with what would become Cosmic Cadets, which is now an ongoing OGN series with Top Shelf.
AE: I started my creative career as an animator. I was fortunate enough to animate on the first season on Futurama then three seasons on The Simpsons. I’ve since moved on to advertising and marketing for social change; suicide prevention and mental health awareness campaigns. I’ve always been a reader and fan of comics. I’ve always made creative work for other IP or brands, and a few years ago decided to take the skills I have for research and storytelling for clients, to put into long-form stories I’ve always had brewing in my own mind. I started writing ©alifornia, Inc. back in 2017 with some guidance from my friend/editor, Justin Giampaoli. After writing all four issues, I met Dave Law and we hit the ground running in 2023 with issue #1 on Kickstarter. I’ve been putting more and more of my time into building my comics community since, and making more stories. It’s been a blast. There’s continues to be a lot of sacrifice but it’s so creatively fulfilling, it’s worth it.
CBY: I see from the press release you both have backgrounds in TV, albeit from different disciplines within the medium. Do you think having those experiences, help or hurt in comics?
BC: I think it’s helped enormously, but maybe for a different reason than most folks who’ve made the jump from one visual medium to another might give. I spent a dozen years as a film executive, working with the legendary producer Mace Neufeld, who I eventually ran development for. Our focus was on adapting novels for film and TV, so I spent a lot of time thinking about how different media use their own specialized tools to tell the same story in different ways. As a writer, it’s left me with a deep appreciation for the unique opportunities that comics offer. I don’t want to write movies with no movement. I want to write comics, doing what comics do best. As an editor, it trained me in organization, project management, and leaving my own ego at the door. My job as an editor is the same as my job as a development exec; to give my creative teams the tools and support they need to tell the best version of their story.
AE: I feel like my storytelling in script for screen really helps my storytelling for sequential art. There is a difference in pacing. I feel strongly that my training in screen, understanding of color and composition from painting/photography/graphic design only help me describe where I’m trying to go with my stories. I leave plenty of room for my illustrative partners to shine and do what they’re known for, but I can give them a strong understanding of where I want the story to go and how it might come across visually.
CBY: How did you two connect to start making Systemic? And how long has this project been synthesizing?
BC: We met a couple years ago through a comics community-building zoom call that Fanbase Press started during the lockdown. I had been getting more and more into short-form work, and had a sci-fi script I was excited about but didn’t know what to do with, so I asked that group for advice. Art chimed in that he also had a short sci-fi script in search of a home, and we realized that not only did our two stories have this major shared thematic throughline, but that between his publishing and design skills and my development experience, we could do this ourselves. I’ll let him take the story from there.
AE: It was kind of perfect. I was finishing up my miniseries while writing this shorter story. It wasn’t enough to be its own thing and like Ben said, we realized we both had these shorter stories that needed to exist but didn’t feel they could just be quick one-offs. I sent my story to Ben to read and he came back pretty quickly with a shared theme. I guess we were both feeling similarly about current systems in place. It led to a call, then the collaboration couldn’t be stopped from there. Really, we just riffed and within a couple of weeks we had a contract, a brief, and a timeline with which to reach out to creators.
CBY: Thank you for providing Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of a couple stories by each of you. Ben, you wrote "Provenance" and Arthur, you wrote "Reclaim CA." What can you tell me about your individual stories that may excite readers?
BC: I’m fascinated by the con artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who took advantage of both social instability and major technological advancement to swindle a lot of people for a lot of money. We’ve seen a lot of those same patterns emerging recently, so “Provenance” was born from my curiosity about what a classic 19th century scam would look like, adapted with near-future technology.
AE: It takes place in the near future where we live in a world of renewable energy. This explores some of the darker sides of what it takes to get there. As a bonus, readers of the miniseries, ©alifornia, Inc., will get to see a character they’re familiar with in a side story.
CBY: I love some good sci-fi stories. This anthology definitely give off the vibe of Black Mirror or Twilight Zone but with modern sensibilities. What can you tell me about the other creative members involved or their stories? From the list you provided they include; A.H.G., Kevin Betou, Simon Birks, Frank Cvetkovic, Adam Douglas, Richard Fairgray, Val Halvorson, Norm Harper, Chris Hill, Dave Law, Pepper, Nina Poulston, Oceano Ransford, and Stephanie Williams. That’s a great list of names. I’m familiar with quite a few of them.
AE: What a lineup we have. Ben and I are still scratching our heads as to how we were able to gather these talented folks. Yes, most are friends but they’re busy. How quickly they said “yes” was even more baffling. We do have a massive range of stories that all somehow do come back to the theme of personal stories against systemic forces. They might be fiction in story, but the ethical questions aren’t too far from what some of us face today.
BC: Editing this book has been such an absolute thrill. Getting to work with folks who are so skilled at what they do, who are just firing on all cylinders…there is a joy to collaborative media that’s just impossible to describe. Seeing how these teams took the brief of individual people fighting systemic forces and just ran with it in the direction that was most meaningful to them has been pure delight, and I don’t want to give away more. I want our readers to be able to experience that for themselves.
CBY: What do you hope this collection of stories provides readers either in the moment or long term?
BC: Hope. Science fiction is a powerful tool for reflecting our world and our struggles back to ourselves, filtered through the fantastic to somehow be more pure and realistic. I hope readers come away from this book feeling seen, knowing that their struggles and their pains are real and shared. Yes, a bleak future is possible, but it isn’t fixed. We can move towards hope.
AE: Reflection. I hope everyone can take time to reflect on their current situation to either appreciate what they have and if they’re not happy, I hope they feel empowered to make change for themselves.
CBY: Based on Systemic and your own past comics, it's pretty safe to assume you’re both big Sci-Fi fans. What other sci-fi comics are you fans of that may have had some influence on Systemic? And if not comics, what movies or TV shows?
AE: Comicswise, anything by Greg Rucka. Lazarus, sheesh, that’s a good one. Then being an ’80s kid, give me some Transformers, that DWJ stuff is so good. I swear to all that’s mighty, if I get the chance I wish I can write a Voltron series one day. I may have a pitch. As for recent TV, Andor hit all the buttons, especially in that last season. Finally, two of my all-time favorite movies are The Iron Giant and Arrival.
BC: I’m a huge Trekkie, and am thrilled there’s so much high quality Trek stuff out there right now. I loved Ryan North’s run on Lower Decks and I’m excited to see where Tim Sheridan takes it. I Heart Skullcrusher was a neon-soaked delight. Jason Horn’s Settle is a work of quiet and profound beauty. Outside of comics, The Expanse is just without compare. Tales from the Loop was perfectly melancholic in all the best ways. I could write a dissertation on Scavenger’s Reign. Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean Le Flambeur trilogy is a fantastic sci-fi heist series. I’ll stop myself there, otherwise I’ll just be gushing forever.
CBY: I’m excited to check out the rest of the stories and I’m probably going to be a day one backer. I’d like to thank you for your time in responding to these questions. Before I let you go, did you have any other topics you’d like to bring up and if not where can people find you on the internet or social media?
BC: In addition to editorial and comics work, I’m also a prose author. If folks are curious, they can find more of my stuff at bencranewrites.com. The next book in my middle-grade Trek-inspired series Cosmic Cadets comes out in December, if people want a very different sci-fi story from me.
AE: You can find all ways to connect with me through bio.site/artebuen. Also, Studio 12-7 will be launching the trade paperback for ©alifornia, Inc. right after this campaign. It’s 132 pages with the full miniseries, design breakdowns, character bios, early development sketches, and a variant cover gallery. The pre-launch is live at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artebuen/california-inc-trade-paperback?ref=6hbttb
CBY: This was Luis from Comic Book Yeti, signing off with another interview from the Yeti Cave. Be good, do good, and read comics! Find me on the CBY discord or BlueSky @luisgodoyii.bsky.social.
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