From MTV website.
Mark Verheiden On The 'Falling Skies' Comics And Life During An Alien Invasion Posted 8 hrs ago by Rick Marshall in Dark Horse
In just a few weeks, the dead will rise to walk the earth and eat anything with a pulse. Next summer, an alien invasion will leave scattered pockets of humanity struggling to rebuild civilization. Is it just me, or does the future of the human race on television seem a little... bleak?
During this year's New York Comic Con, I spoke to "Falling Skies" writer and co-executive producer Mark Verheiden about the upcoming TNT television series that explores life during an alien invasion and the print- and online-comic prequels published by Dark Horse Comics.
"What we didn't want to do was the classic 'Independence Day' story," explained Verheiden, "because that's been done — you've seen the invasion."
"We wanted to tell a story that focuses on the survivors and how these survivors manage to pull themselves together," he added. "In the context of the show, this invasion has been devastating. We've lost 80% of the human population, we've lost electricity, and we've lost all sorts of infrastructure, so it's about people under incredible stress and challenge gathering and not only finding a way to fight back against the alien invasion, but also finding hope and something they can hold onto as they go forward."
No stranger to the comic book world, Verheiden brings his extensive resume of comics credits and work on comics-friendly television properties like "Smallville" and "Heroes" to the alien aftermath of "Falling Skies" — and the one-shot comic book prequel written by Paul Tobin that leads up to the series' Summer 2011 premiere.
"The comic starts out with Noah Wyle's character, Tom Mason, and his sons," explained Verheiden. "Something terrible happens to one of his kids and that's a plot thread we pick up when we get to the series itself."
"The comic book takes place essentially a month after the invasion of Earth," he added. "The [television] series itself starts six months after the invasion. The comic book is, to some extent, a prequel that sets up our characters before we meet them in the show."
According to Verheiden, the show originated as an idea shared by producer Steven Spielberg and writer Robert Rodat, who penned "Saving Private Ryan." He cited "Private Ryan" and other classic resistance movies such as "The Great Escape" as some of the projects that came up while discussing the series' tone and themes.
"On top of that, it's a very deep, emotional story between Tom, played by Noah, and his sons," he said. "It's a family story and a fight-against-aliens story, and a story abou tpeople trying to hold on to the things that make us human."
"After the comic, we're doing webcomics every two weeks," he told MTV News. "[The webcomics] will be four-page stories that explore other aspects as we bring our characters up to where the first episode of the series starts."
Of course, the question on everyone's minds when it comes to projects involving alien invaders tends to be: What will they look like? Attendees at this year's San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con received a peek at the two types of creatures that will be making life hard for Tom Mason and the remaining humans, but Verheiden offered some additional details.
"One is a spidery creature that's not human in any sense, that the humans on Earth have decided to call 'Skitters,' because there's no other word for them," he said. "And then they seem to run mechanical creatures that can fire machine guns and missiles that [the humans] call 'Mechs.' Those are the two aliens that have landed and are devastating the planet."
"Falling Skies" premieres Summer 2011 and stars Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood ("Terminator Salvation"), Drew Roy ("Lincoln Heights"), Maxim Knight ("Brothers and Sisters"), Seychelle Gabriel ("Weeds") and Will Patton ("Armageddon").
The "Falling Skies" prequel comic debuted at New York Comic Con. The "Falling Skies" webcomic series kicks off in November, with new comics every two weeks via iTunes, TNT.tv, or Darkhorse.com. You can check out two pieces of art from the one-shot comic book below.
splashpage.mtv.com/2010/10/20/falling-skies-tv-comics-mark-verheiden/