Strangers Publishing, known for celebrating overlooked artists and pushing the cutting edge of genre comics, is breaking new ground with Hostile Planet. This environmental science fiction anthology is a two-year passion project from publisher Eddie Raymond and longtime collaborator Tom Kneeshaw, who want to pay homage to the creators who shaped their friendship. Influences like Mad Max, the Armored Core series, and Tsutomu Nihei’s gritty techno landscapes are still reflected in its DNA, but the project has evolved far beyond its initial spark.
Reimagined, expanded, and finally ready for readers, Hostile Planet brings together 13 creators from around the world to tell stories about what remains after ecological collapse. From post-capitalist wastelands to wind-scarred deserts, each piece offers a glimpse of resilience after destruction. The Beat reached out via email to discuss further.
Diego Higuera: What inspired the creation of Hostile Planet, and how did the concept evolve from early influences to an anthology of 13 creators?
Eddie Raymond: Tom Kneeshaw and I have been talking about collaborating on a project for some time. We were both very inspired by anthologies like Ex.mag and Dagger Dagger and wanted to do something that had the same aesthetic sensibilities but had its own unique themes. I pitched him that I wanted to do something with a “solarpunk” theme, and he started sharing games like Armored Core with me, and eventually the project was born. Initially, it was planned that there would be more than 13 people, but due to some people dropping out, the number had to be reduced in the end.
Higuera: How did you manage to curate such a diverse group of international artists?
Do you maintain a consistent vision for this book?
Raymond: Thankfully, Tom and I are both drawn to very similar types of art styles, so we put together a “wish list” and went through it and brainstormed names to see what would fit. It helps a lot that I spend way too much time on Instagram looking for new artists, but it’s meant that over the years I’ve naturally built up a good bench of international artists that I already wanted to work with.
Additionally, this was a really great opportunity for us to connect with artists that we wanted to work with, but the stars just weren’t aligning because of the bandwidth to put out a book on both sides of the aisle. It also gave us the opportunity to bring some of the lesser-known artists we admire to join Strangers, who may not have had the opportunity to present their work before, and hopefully help get their work seen by a wider audience.
Higuera: Environmental collapse is at the heart of every story. How did the creators make it?
Will we tackle this theme without repeating each other?
Raymond: First, Tom and I reviewed all the pitches to make sure no one was crossing. Certain themes seemed to come up in common, and “New Gods” was one of them, and I found it interesting enough. I think one of the things that really helped guide people to expand their thinking in the first prompt was simply telling people, “It doesn’t have to be all bad.” We told people we could focus on human resilience, small stories, and worlds being built anew.
Higuera: What are the unique perspectives and surprises born from a global perspective?
Were the authors imagining a post-collapse world?
Raymond: I wouldn’t say it’s a unique perspective, but one of the things that was interesting to me was what kind of landscape everyone ended up focusing on. Cold Canada’s Tyler Landry unfolds stories in the snow, while England’s Landry does portrait studies of blown-down buildings and disaster-stricken cities. They were also a version of the town he grew up in.
Maybe I’m reading too much into the British psyche, but I’ve spent enough time driving around England to see where old factories and post-World War II communities influence this way of looking at their surroundings.
Higuera: Why should we prioritize fair pay, such as $50 per page stretch goals?
Is it important to this project?
Raymond: I think compensating creators for their time is not only fair, but the only way. Starting at a minimum of $50 per page seems to be the most affordable rate, but we’d like to go above and beyond if possible. I know other anthologies have done things like provide a certain amount of comp copies to each artist in lieu of payment, but since we work with creators all over the world, even that is extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive.
Higuera: This is not Strangers Publishing’s first project, what makes this different from other projects?
Raymond: I’ve jokingly called Hostile Planet a masterpiece. had this
As a publisher, I have a vision of what I want Strangers to be like.
And the books I’ve published so far, I’ve been slowly working on them over the years.
The connections I made with what was published. This project feels like the true definition
A statement about what I want Strangers to represent: the single-vision genre
Manga on a global scale.
Higuera: What could you have improved, especially as an indie publisher?
RAYMOND: I don’t know if I’d say it’s a huge improvement from how we normally do things. If anything, I think the approach to Volume 2 has improved considerably. Tom and I started this project about two years ago at this point, but I think we gave ourselves too much grace in terms of deadlines, hoping to keep certain creators on board and drop them. So the project ended up sitting idle for a long time.
Going forward, we will set clearer deadlines and stick to them, but we will also add a buffer period to give some of the creators we work with a reprieve if needed. Tom made a good point that this is also a really good confidence booster for some of the creators that we’ve gotten buy-in from or have just joined a project who are interested but haven’t been able to do it for whatever reason. This helped me set my sights even further for Volume 2. We don’t yet know if everyone will make it, but so far we’ve gotten a “yes” from 8 of the 13 creators we’ve contacted so far.
Higuera: What do you hope readers take away about humanity and resilience after experiencing this anthology?
Tom Kneeshaw: We emphasized that we’re not looking for an apocalyptic story full of doom and gloom. I think it’s important to show that even through the darkest times and complete collapse, there can be hope and silver linings. This is something Margot (Ferrick) wrote about being a little playful, and I think it worked really well.
For more information, check out the project here before it’s too late.
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