THE DISCARDED from PETER MILLIGAN and KIERAN MCKEOWN is Worth Keeping Close

Another rowdy tale from Rebellion in the pages of 2000 AD, Peter Milligan and Kieran McKeown's latest story, The Discarded is now available, kicking off in Prog 2463.

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CBY: Greetings, Peter and Kieran! How is the approach of the festive season shaping up back in the UK?

PETER MILLIGAN:  Festive season? Yes, I suppose there the usual glittering tidal wave of commerciality and crass sentimentalism. All of which I embrace, of course, and play my part in—though naturally maintaining an ironic distance. 

My wife and I put on a large lunch (not a traditional Christmas meal, no turkey, sans plum pudding ) on Christmas Eve – this year it’s about 19 people – and so that takes a fair bit of planning. It’s also the time of year when I tend to catch up with friends I haven’t managed to see for a while, while is nice. In fact, I’m due to go out to lunch with one such friend soon, so if this all seems a bit rushed you know why!  

KIERAN MCKEOWN: Well, I’m actually from Ireland — but we’re not all that different from the UK in the grand scheme of things- although you guys call the 26th ‘Boxing Day’! My festive season is shaping up to be pretty hectic, which feels on-brand for the rest of the year. 

I took a short break from The Discarded recently to work on a few things for Marvel, but now I’m back on the final stretch of the book. I’m also squeezing in a comic art workshop with some local schools, which I’m really looking forward to. With a bit of luck, I’ll even manage to crank out another chapter or two of the Discarded over Christmas.

CBY: Mike Carroll made the same remark, Kieran, and I apologize, as I have to make sure I remember going forward with introductions to the Rebellion team that Tharg's sphere of influence is more inclusive than Westminster's! Though it launches in December, beyond an overarching cautionary message about the consequences of unfettered consumerism, The Discarded has little to do with the holiday season (so far). What is the series about, and when did you start working on this story together? 

PM:  Though not designed as a Christmas story and not immediately about the Season of Goodwill, The Discarded can be seen to have everything to do with Christmas.  The story takes places largely on Junkfall, a floating island of trash and junk, testament to the increasingly throw-away society we live in, and if it’s nothing else, Christmas is a great producer of trash and junk, creating mountains of discarded unwanted presents, wrapping paper, Christmas trees, and of course hopes and dreams.  

The Discarded of our title refers both to the physical trash that’s discarded, and to the people who are forced to live on Junkfall; prisoners, more trash casts off from society.  The story follows a police detective called Veera who is dropped onto this floating junk prison, her mission to find her father, the political prisoner called Aaxon Banksy, and the self-evolving intelligent chip that has been erroneously thrown away and is now threatening Junkfall and beyond. 

KM: We started working on the series back in March, if memory serves. Matt kindly pushed the launch to Christmas to give me room to fit in some commitments with other publishers along the way. Unfortunately, I’m not Dan Mora — I can’t crank out multiple books a month — so the extra time was hugely appreciated!

CBY: I'd agree it appears to have paid off! Without spoiling anything, there’s certainly an exploration at play of how access to technology provides advantages, skewing the playing field. What sort of reflections should we expect the fiction of The Discarded to provide regarding the reality of efforts by society’s authoritarians and crony capitalist grifters to institute techno-feudalism?

KM: I’d really have to defer to our esteemed writer on this one. 

PM I haven’t read Yanis Varoufakis’ book, Technofeudalism, but I gather it’s about late-stage capitalism. The Discarded is less about the end of capitalism than the way we as humans fit in – or don’t fit in – to the detritus of capitalism and advancing technology.  I’m general more interested in the human angle in any of my stories, however weird or political they seem.  And this is at heart a human story. 

KM: Even though I’ve read comics and books all my life, I’ve always had a blindspot to deeper themes and subtext- at least insofar as being able to articulate what they are.  These things tend to operate on a mood or feeling level with me. Peter is one of my favourite comic writers, but I’d say a good 80 percent of the deeper meaning in his work has probably sailed right over my thick head. The fact that I’ve still loved his stories on a purely surface, plot-driven level just shows how compelling a writer he really is.

CBY: The script is evocative, for sure, Peter, and I love the art you’ve come up with, Kieran. What sort of reference points came up for The Discarded in preparatory discussions - what sort of material did you recommend to each other in advance of working on the project? How much has the look shifted for characters and settings as you’ve put things together?

KM: It definitely has shifted. It usually takes me a little while to fully lock down a character’s look or the feel of an environment. I also try to improve by at least 1% with every page I draw — it’s not something you can measure, and readers may never consciously notice it, but it’s a promise I’ve kept to myself for years. The side effect is that characters can evolve visually as the story moves along, simply because I’m drawing them better over time. That can be a bit jarring for a reader — or for Peter, who sees everything through the lens of storytelling consistency — so I can only ask for their indulgence as the artwork naturally grows with me.

CBY: Sacrificing consistency for improvement seems as though it might be one of the better trade-offs to engage in. In particular, there’s a use of shadow and perspective to achieve both dynamic action and a claustrophobia - many noir motifs come through clearly. There’s a shot of one of your trash bots with the shadow of Venetian blinds cast upon it - expertly capturing an ominous mood. Peter, how much of this visual detail do you include in the script as guidance on page elements to illustrate, and Kieran, what does your illustration process look like in terms of tools, materials, and techniques?

PM: My scripts are pretty full.  Out of interest, I showed one of my comic scripts to a film producer once and she said it was pretty similar to a shooting script, so that gives you and idea. So, I describe every shot, and I hope give a clear guide through the story.. And whatever details I feel are necessary to tell the story and handle the emotion.  Some details – like Kieran’s Venetian blinds – come from the artist. That’s their job as artists.  I’m all for this and want this, but only when the artist is doing it because he or she understands the story and knows why they’re drawing it.  In my view, there’s little worse than a randomly-placed Venetian blind! 

KM: In terms of tools and materials, my process isn’t wildly different from most illustrators—you’ve probably heard versions of it a hundred times. I thumbnail traditionally, work digitally on a Cintiq, and ink with the standard mix of software tools. There’s no secret weapon hidden in my toolkit.

What is essential for me, though, is staying artistically inspired throughout the process. That’s the part I consider just as important as the technical workflow. I genuinely don’t know how artists stay good if they’re not constantly feeding the muse.  We seem to live in an age where people would rather listen to a podcast or Youtube video with someone critically analysing a particular comic, movie or video game—than actually watching the movie or playing the video game itself. We’d rather have a “hot take” than an artistic experience.   

So outside of drawing, I make a point of consuming a lot of art—comics, anime, films, books, and video games. When I’m on a 2000 AD project, for example, I’ll generally gravitate toward sci-fi games or anything set in the future, just to keep my head in that world.

Having said that, while I was drawing Discarded, I was reading Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying and Tarantino’s novelisation of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Totally different subject matter and eras but it didn’t matter—the storytelling itself kept my creative energy up. Consuming great art fuels me, and it always finds a way of seeping into my work in unexpected ways.

For me, inspiration is a tool just as much as a pen or tablet. I gave up listening to news programmes.   It just made me want to crawl into a wardrobe and hide rather than draw something exciting. That may be seen as a form of denial—and maybe it is—but being up on all the current events or the latest social media feuds aren't going to pay any of my bills.  Artists need art—it’s our fuel.  

I really hope that doesn’t sound too preachy!  

CBY: Not at all, Kieran. There’s this absolutely bonkers panel of a bunch of hovering trash compactor drones passing Big Ben, and I was just thinking about the energy/material logistics of off-shoring waste. From both a socio-economic and environmental policy standpoint, source separation and diversion of various waste streams back into production supply chains is generally the most efficient way to handle material flows, and clearly this is not the option your alternate near-future London has chosen; what can you tell us about the special brand of authoritarian government you’ve concocted for The Discarded? How does it differ from Mega City One or other dystopian regimes often found in the pages of 2000 AD?

KM: That’s interesting, Andrew.  Peter—do you want to handle this one?  The big themes and ideas are your department. 

PM:  I’m not sure how close to the regime of Mega City One our future state is, but I liked the fact that the little we’re told about it feels like it belongs among the long and baleful list of 2000 AD authoritarian governments.  I’m glad you spotted the trash drones. Trash runs through this story.  The way this government handles its waste – shoveling it carelessly from one place to another  -- is symptomatic of how it deals with its people.   Milligan’s rule: the worse a society deals with its trash, the worse it deals with its citizens. 

CBY: You read it here first, folks! I also see you’ve got Jim Boswell on colours and Simon Bowland on letters for this title; is there anyone else you’d like to mention who has helped you bring this project to life? Is there anyone out there in your lives providing other support for your work without getting credit on the page?

KM: Jim is great. In fairness, all the 2000 AD colourists I’ve worked with have been great- Jim, Matt and Quinton.  They have the confidence to let my art breathe- and not smother my already busy artwork in tonal shifts and highlights.  The 2000 AD stable of colorists also use more muted palettes than American comics which I personally prefer.  

I also want to thank our editor, Tharg. He’s always been incredibly good to me, and he went above and beyond on The Discarded—primarily in accommodating my chaotic schedule. His flexibility made it possible for me to juggle a few other projects with different publishers—as well as dealing with some family health issues—and I’m genuinely grateful for that kind of support.

I also want to shout out to my creative partner on this, Peter. He fought my corner when I was having issues getting paid at a previous publisher.  He’s also—as we all know—a legend in this industry, and getting the chance to work with him again has been a genuine privilege. Peter wrote some of my all-time favourite comic series, long before I ever imagined we’d collaborate, so stepping into a project together has felt both surreal and inspiring. 

I also want to thank my wife, Claire. She’s a true “comics widow,” as we joke, and none of this would be possible without her. She’s taken on so much—especially looking after our daughter—during the late nights and weekends when I needed to get pages done. Her patience and understanding have been a huge part of bringing this project to life, even if her name doesn’t appear on the page.

PM:  I know you mentioned Simon, but a double mention for him.  He’s been unwell, just recovering from something nasty (it’s not for me to give details) but he’s always an excellent and professional letterer. I’m with Kieran and want to thank Matt. Also, Kieran. What an excellent artist he is.  And it’s always good to see how an artist has developed. Kieran’s work on The Discarded really has been on another level, so cheers, Kieran. 

CBY: Well, there's some sentiment in keeping with the holiday season! As is customary here on the site, we also like to provide creators with an opportunity to make mention of other creators whose work – be it comics, film, literature, music, or other art – has been inspiring you lately. What material unrelated to your own has been catching your attention?

KM: My tastes are pretty eclectic, so I’m usually bouncing between a book, a series, a movie, a game, and a few comics all at once. Lately, a handful of things have really been lighting up my imagination.

On the comics side, reading 2000AD every week is mandatory- and has been for years.  It is like my visual arts multivitamin—without the metallic after-taste. But I try and avoid reading the issues I’m in—as I tend to recoil at seeing my art in print.  It’s like looking at a photo of yourself and only seeing your double chin and receding hairline.

Other than that—Evan Cagle’s New Gods has been a standout—gorgeous, ambitious, and full of mood—and I’ve been digging Absolute Martian Manhunter, which is doing some really interesting things both narratively and from a visual storytelling standpoint. In animation, the Netflix series Scavengers Reign has been living rent-free in my head for a while now; its worldbuilding and Moebius-inspired aesthetic is just on another level.

I’ve also been on a great run with books. I just finished S.A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland, which was an absolute blast—lean, tense, and with the best car chase scenes I've ever read. And right now I’m deep into Joe R. Lansdale’s The Bottoms, which hooked me from the first chapter.

On the film side, I recently watched Train Dreams, a quiet, haunting piece that made me cry proper man tears.  I don't really care about the Oscars anymore but I hope it cleans up at the awards- if only to incentivise more movies like this being made. And I have to mention the anime Slam Dunk—one of the best sports movies I’ve ever seen. It has this perfect mix of energy, sincerity, and character that totally caught me off guard.

And on the lighter side of things, I’ve been playing Astro Bot with my daughter. It’s pure joy—creative, upbeat, and a reminder of how fun games can be when you’re sharing them with someone.

So, a bit of everything… but all of it inspiring in its own way.

PM: I’ve just peeked at Kieran’s answer. Yes, Train Dreams was a good effort at filming Denis Johnson’s strange, haunting short novel. Denis Johnson is, or was, a very interesting writer. 

I’ve also enjoyed James by Percival Everett, a reimagining of Huckleberry Finn putting Jim —the slave—centre stage. Trees by the same writer is also worth checking out. 

With films, it hasn’t exactly inspired me but I enjoyed Bring her Back by the Philippou brothers,  good follow up to the interesting Talk To Me.  Was looking forward to Frankenstein; the director, the hype. Ultimately disappointing. 

CBY: Well, one disappointment aside, I think you've both given our readers plenty to dig into once they read The Discarded. Peter and Kieran, it is a delight to have a couple more of Rebellion’s finest pop in for a chat! If you have any other social media, publication, or portfolio links you’d like to share, now is the time and place. Thank you for sharing your work, and enjoy the holidays!

PM. I know it’s Twitter and evil and everything but it’s one of the few things I bother with to occasionally talk about what I’m doing. I’m @1PeterMilligan

KM: Sure — my Instagram is @kieran_mckeown_illustrator if anyone wants to keep up with what I’m working on- I’d love a follow. I’ve also got a couple of books dropping over the next few weeks. One is a Jar Jar Binks special for Marvel, written by Ahmed Best, and I’m really happy with how that one turned out. The other is a DC KO tie-in called Boss Battle. I can’t say too much just yet, but there are some pretty wild guest stars in that book. 

Thanks for having me, and happy holidays!

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