My friend and coworker, Josh LeQuire, and I have been working on the plot and concept end of Blasted Space for a few months.
In that time, Josh has loved seemingly every idea I bring to the table. I, however, can't take credit for those ideas because I wouldn't be having them if it weren't for Josh.


Blasted Space started as a nameless project, that Josh proposed to me, meant to while away the time as we waited for collaborators on the junkrocka.com comic to post their work. Honestly, when Josh said he wanted to do a space comic, I cringed at the idea. Aside from Firefly/Serenity, I'd had it with space operas.
In fact, I'd never been much on space at all. Even as a child, I thought astronauts were losers & never understood the public's infatuation with shuttle launches and the like.
I remember reading X-Men comics and being frustrated, when Chris Claremont wrote a story that involved the team venturing into space. I hated the Phoenix Saga and considered it an Avengers story in disguise. The Starjammers are cool and all, but where does going to space fit into the X-Men's agenda? Given these feelings, it was only natural that I'd be reluctant to mix a space odyssey into my own comic writing. But . . . I was warming up to Star Wars, recently discovered and loved Space Hawk, and my affection towards Firefly was only growing, so I decided to keep an open mind.
I'm glad I did.

Since we've started, the story, characters and settings have all come together like we've been planning it for years. Even jokes at the expense of the idea find a way to be included. The name, Blasted Space, itself came from a joke I made regarding the fact that I hated space; sitting at a table, in the smoking section of an IHOP, I slammed my fists on the table and growled, "Blasted Space!" Maybe it was the permissive sense of humor that we had about it all that got the ball rolling so quickly.

So, what is Blasted Space? It is a universe, set in the distant (but not too unfamiliar) future. Earth has expanded beyond its terrestrial borders and terraformed multitudes of territories. In their acquisitionary exploits, Earth's government (NUPACT) has come across many other cultures and different kinds of intelligent life. Many aliens have allied with us, even more are apathetic towards our agendas and a dangerous minority is opposed to Earth diametrically. This oppositional society is called the Ugarit. They are territorial, imperialistic and, frankly, too much like us to be anything but at war with Earth. But we're not writing Dune, so this surely can't be the story of Blasted Space . . . and it isn't.

Blasted Space is the story of people that live in the midst of these waring societies. Blasted Space is about a universe where people still drink, smoke, have pockets and utilize simple machines like wheels and doorknobs. Blasted Space is a story about a future where punk isn't necessarily dead. Blasted Space is about having faith without moving things with your mind or choking people by remote. Blasted Space is a story that simultaneously thumbs-off-to and embraces the great space operas that have come before it. Blasted Space is going to be an online comic book series for fans of old school sci-fi, American anfi-folk-heroes (like Bonnie and Clyde) and the music of The Clash.

We look forward to uploading the first pages, sometime this year. In the meantime, we will post updates and concept art, here and on our "fan page" on Facebook.

So, thanks for sticking around in our online waiting room while we write the first story arc of what will hopefully be a long and very fun, ripping yarn.

-Joshua Jordan