Curt Pires Channels Crazy Cool Conspiracy with 'Indigo Children'

The comic book creator is back for the third time (a CBCC first!), discussing his stressful action sci-fi adventure.

Welcome to our Creator Corner, our new reoccurring interview series, where we chat with the coolest and most thought-provoking creators in the comics industry. In this entry, we're conversing with Curt Pires about Indigo Children. Listen to the unedited audio on our PATREON PAGE.

Did you hear the news? Apparently, Ryan Coogler is hard at work updating The X-Files for a modern audience. If Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first series Brad ever obsessed over, The X-Files was number two. There was nothing better than Mulder and Scully up to their eyeballs in bureaucratic bullsnot while skulking through sewers looking for spacemen and flukemen. Stick Coogler's version into our eyeballs immediately, please.

Oh. We can't do that. The Ryan Coogler version may never happen, and if it does, it'll probably be years before we see a single frame. Booooo - wait, don't fret about it. Right now, in comic shops, there is a book that will scratch that itch instantly.

Indigo Children #1 just dropped from Image Comics. It's by creators Curt Pires, Alex Diotto, Dee Cunniffe, and Rockwell White. Image is calling it Radiant Black meets The Department of Truth, and we can get with that descriptor, but mostly, it got us nostalgic for those X-Files good ol' days while delivering a twist those familiar with Curt Pires' work have come to expect. The creator likes to mash genres, but never the same two twice.

Curt Pires is back in the Love Nest, chatting with Brad for the third time. Yup. Pires is the first comic creator to accomplish a CBCC triple, and with that familiarity comes an open and warm conversation. You're in for a treat.

Together, Curt and Brad dig into the inspiration behind Indigo Children. They also discuss why journalists make exceptional contemporary heroes and why the fight for truth gets more righteous by the day. This little bit brings them into bemoaning - and celebrating - social media. And a special shout out to all the exceptional Hollywood love Curt Pires' projects have been attracting recently.

Brad: Indigo children as an idea is something I've encountered in science fiction and fantasy, but my understanding is that you encountered it through a unique social media experience.

Curt: This in itself is funny. I was on Snapchat, which I never use because I was not of that generation that was caught in that particular bubble. But, my brother, I think would use it to send me pictures of his dogs and stuff. So, I had like a burner account and I was scrolling through the discovery feed. One of the stories was this Russian kid who claims to be a reincarnated Martian. I read it and it was just this really crazy story - the actual Indigo Children in real life. After reading the story, my head kind of got spinning. Who would the other kids be? What's the American counterpart look like? I started building the narrative off that foundation.

Brad: What is the basic idea behind the Indigo Children? What's the phenomenon?

Curt: It's young kids who are extremely gifted, and in a lot of the cases, it's with math or sciences. They just possess knowledge beyond the grasp of their age. Some of these kids would claim to be reborn Martians. There's a lot of pseudoscience and pseudopsychology - all this stuff claiming to be the result of an indigo child. All this different sort of snake oil stuff to be honest with you, but the core phenomenon that interested me was these children who are brilliant. When you ask them, "How do you know how to do this?" They say, "I'm from Mars." That's just such a crazy answer. There's a great science fiction narrative in this.

Brad: How do you throw your own spin onto that idea?

Curt: Some people pitch our book as, "What if David Fincher directed Stranger Things?" It's this conspiracy narrative that's grounded. There's this journalist character, Donovan Price, who's like our audience surrogate - our way into this world. He's trying to track down the Indigo Children and find them, because there's a flurry of activity fifteen years ago and then, they all disappear. As we reach each of the Indigo Children's stories, they have a different mood and vibe. It's generally grounded in science fiction and almost like a post-supererhero thing, right? They all have abilities. We're certainly trying to tackle it in a fresh way.

Brad: I'm a sucker for journalists as gateways into stories and I feel like there is a desire to see journalist protagonists right now.

Curt: It's the Fincher thing. It's like Zodiac, you have these journalists who are really detectives. But they're sort of doing it through the guise of public good. Journalists are public servants in a way. Even though most of these are private companies. They do feel like perfect characters to push their way into a science fiction conspiracy, this X-Files type narrative.

Brad: I think there's a lot of anxiety around truth and what is investigative journalism when the truth can be bended so easily, manipulated so easily. Today, they just make for natural heroes.

Curt:; We live in the time where journalism is increasingly under attack. The virtue of journalism was really eroded by the 24-hour news cycle of Fox and every major news networks responsibilities being to their advertisers. It's their shareholders. This idea of the truth since, I don't know, maybe it feels like 2015 or even before that really, I wouldn't credit all of it to the Trump era, but it feels like we're living in a time that there's no such thing as objectivity or facts. It's all about perspectives and feelings and whatever they're trying to sell you. Truth is...It's there for a reason, but it's getting harder and harder for us to hold onto it.

Indigo Children #2 hits stands on April 26th. Make sure you're following Curt Pires on Twitter, Instagram, and his Website.

If you haven't already, check out his previous CBCC guest-appearances, talking about Memoria and It's Only Teenage Wasteland.

Also, how beautiful is that Jenny Frison variant cover we used for the header image. Absolutely stunning.

Curt Pires Channels Crazy Cool Conspiracy with 'Indigo Children'

The comic book creator is back for the third time (a CBCC first!), discussing his stressful action sci-fi adventure.

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