Going Deep Into Sam Lotfi’s Innards

Energy insecurity can have a psychologically traumatic impact on society. Measurably so, and to the extent of biologically impacting the development of children's brains. Thus, the people who do the harmful work in coal mines and oil rigs accept the danger in exchange for a drastic upgrade to their socioeconomic prospects. And that is where we begin in Ignition Press' new subterranean horror series Innards, with a new father-to-be coming to the same conclusion.

Innards is an intriguing story, and one that constantly sent my mind wandering. The world needs energy, and I'm not sure a giant underground horror flick baddie situation would change anything about what humanity would do to obtain it.

Much of that is due in large part to its specific mix of creative collaborators. Sequential artists make for exceptional writers, as Rob Guillory (of Chew acclaim) demonstrates here. But the visual continuity brought by series artist Sam Lotfi might be its best and most understated attribute. I fell into the panels, submerged in the narrative of the comic, and the one concurrently happening in my head that posed questions like: do the actual physical properties of photonic light during human teleportation allow it to look this cool? (See top featured image.)

"At the end of the day, I go with my gut and the rule of cool. Comics is a visual medium. The art must capture the reader's attention, otherwise they lose interest and stop reading," Lotfi told me via email, though he does enjoy researching the science. "I wanted to give the digital displays/teleportation a sense of movement or vibration, and warping organic shapes felt right."

A Landman story that swaps oil for 'Lucifuium'

Innards is a tale set about three generations into the future in the aftermath of an event involving the destruction of entire world’s oil supply. But with the discovery of new power source Lucifium (aka “Lucy”), society can once again function — so long as there are workers willing to brave the dangers of harvesting the glowy blue substance from underwater caves located miles below sea level. Those dangers include cancer-causing deep sea base teleportation and falling into a dark seemingly endless pit of nothingness while excavating. Possibly a questionably creepy coworker with a nickname to match. The work pays well, too. Enough to treat the factual reality (of an energy-hungry society with no alternative options) as its own dutiful philosophy.

In this way, Innards has much in common with TV series like Landman — though Lotfi is worth at least three Billy Bob Thortons in terms of making everything work. The oil man TV show metaphor breaks entirely once you remember he’s joined by writer Guillory (Mosley, Farmhand) and colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu.

"Jean-Francois is a joy to work with and has such a great sense of what each scene needs that I typically only tell him the mood/atmosphere we want or the color temperature for a given scene and let him work his magic," Lotfi said, to which I concur about the magic (below).

Turning the spotlight back on the art: We're immediately pulled into the series straight from the cover. The blue glowing gem-like object looks like a sparkly brain at first glance, containing what appears to be the shape of a human fetus and a dose of foreshadowing.