Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?
By Brian Fies

What was your inspiration for Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?
I was a “Space Age” kid who grew up in the sixties and seventies believing in the possibility of a utopian future made possible by science. The kernel of Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? is my lingering disappointment that it didn’t happen—not just flying cars and jetpacks, but the very idea that technological progress is a force of good that could improve the world. I wanted to understand why that didn’t work and suggest how it still might.

Your first graphic novel, Mom’s Cancer, was widely acclaimed by critics and readers. Are there any similarities between the two works?
Mom’s Cancer centered on the relationship between a mother and her children; Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? focuses on a relationship between a father and his son. Although my new characters are fictional, I approached both books in the same way, almost journalistically, to tell the story as straight and true as I could. The subject matter is completely different, but I think readers will recognize the same voice and commitment to tell a story about people rather than about just things and events.

Your new book covers the period from the 1939 New York World’s Fair to the last Apollo space mission in 1975. How did you approach the research for this project?
I’ve worked as a journalist, chemist, and science writer, and research is a big part of what I do. Both the beauty and curse of a graphic novel is that nothing goes on the page unless I put it there. What shape were cola bottles in 1939? What did a street light look like in 1945? I compiled probably a couple thousand pages of reference, in addition to old family photos, comic books, and my own memories, to help me get it right. Dread of readers discovering my mistakes after it’s too late to fix them drives me to make as few as possible.

How did the story surprise you from when you first conceptualized it until the time you finished?
My concept for Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? grew almost unrecognizably from its origin. Bouncing ideas off my editor and others helped me focus on what the story is really about: the characters. Everything else is seen through that lens. As I worked, I was surprised by how often new information or solutions to problems appeared exactly when I needed them. As with Mom’s Cancer, threads in the story wove together in ways I didn’t expect but which were very satisfying.

The story required you to emulate the styles of different artists from a range of time periods. You also employed a variety of mixed media. How does your own style show through in the work?
A big challenge with this book is making everything look like it belongs in the same universe. I worked hard to make it visually consistent while trying to adopt both the form and the content of work from different eras. My characters remain recognizably on model, but I hope that subtle differences in technique, palette, and style will evoke a general sense of time and place for most readers and suggest specific allusions among comics fans.

About the Author:
Brian Fies is a science writer, illustrator, and cartoonist living in northern California with his wife, Karen. His first graphic novel, Mom’s Cancer, was published by Abrams after finding an audience as a serialized Web comic. Among the recognition he and Mom’s Cancer have received are the 2006 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, the 2007 Harvey Award for Best New Talent, and the 2007 German Youth Literature Prize.