Paul L Mathews Talks The New Campaign For First Men On Mars

Is There Still Life In Mars?

Paul L Matthews is relaunching the First Men On Mars crowdfunding campaign very soon and Tripwire just chatted to him about the new campaign and how they are trying to avoid the pitfalls of the previous campaign…
TRIPWIRE: What was the genesis of First Men On Mars?

PAUL MATHEWS: I wrote the very first draft in 2013. At that point I’d written some material for Accent UK’s Zombies and Predators anthologies, so I asked Dave West and Colin Mathieson (the bosses at Accent UK) if they’d read and consider my synopsis for First Men on Mars. Whilst they liked it, Dave asked if the format could be changed from its simple, third person narrative to something closer to the collection of unreliable, first-person testimonies they’d just used to such good effect in their book Who on Earth was Thaddeus Mist? So, the book in its current format very much owes a debt of gratitude to Dave.

TW: What is your role on First Men On Mars?

PM: I’ve written the story and the script. I’ve also built the Kickstarter and I look after the social media.

TW: How did you get artists like Mike Collins and Gary Erskine on board?

PM: I’d met Gary a few times at the Thought Bubble convention. He’d been gracious enough to draw some sketches for me (for free, no less!) and my wife had bought some of his prints. He’d even been so kind as to give us one of his sketchbooks as a gift!

I then bumped into Gary at the 2019 MCM Comicon in London. Despite the fact it was something like three years since I’d last chatted with him, he still remembered who I was, which tells you everything you need to know about Gary.

At that juncture I still had First Men on Mars burning a hole in my imagination, so I asked Gary if he’d be interested in working on it. When he expressed an interest, my business partner Andrew and I created E.M.PRESS Publications and commissioned Gary to begin work on the first issue.

One of the many great things about working with Gary is the amount of artists he knows. We owe the depth of talent on the book to Gary and Gary alone.

TW: With a number of different artists on the series, how did you create the bible for the series?

PM: The amount of artists we’re using has had no impact on the bible. Gary has designed the various characters, uniforms, flying machines et al as required by the script and the bible, and he’s supplied those designs to the artists accordingly.

TW: You ran a kickstarter for it in 2021 which didn’t hit its target. What have you learnt from the last campaign?

PM:The main thing we learned was how unprepared we were! There were so many pledges that didn’t even have the required illustrations. We also realised we needed to not only simplify the pledges and add-ons, but that we also needed to lower the page count in order to have a more reasonable funding goal; that’s why that goal is a third of what it was in 2021!

TW: Talk us through the perks people can bid on for the new campaign

PM: As well as a core comic which boasts work by the likes of Gary Erskine, Paul McCaffrey, Mike Collins, Ian Richardson, Yel Zamor, John-Paul Bove and Annie Parkhouse, we also have some amazing variant covers by Ian, Paul, Lee Carter, Staz Johnson and Tiernen Trevallion. Our stretch goals include a really cool 48-pager full of concept art and unused material, and the add-ons include some more artistic gems including prints, postcards and an absolutely amazing Victorian map of Mars created by Gary. Backers can even buy original art from the book!

TW: What is the target this time around?

PM: A mere £6,000. If we can’t hit that with a book of this quality, then I’ll eat my hat. Without a garnish.

TW: Are there plans to take this past its initial four issue run?

PM: There’s definitely scope for a sequel and that’s all I can say for now. Our immediate goal, however, is to get the first issue funded and published. After that we need to finish the series. Only then can we consider ourselves a legitimate publisher and begin developing our next series.

TW: And would you be exploring opportunities to take it into other media like games or even TV?

PM: I make my living in tabletop gaming and I have some connections in film and TV, so I can’t deny I’ve entertained the notion of branching out into those arenas. But, I say again, our entire and immediate focus in on getting this first issue funded and fulfilled, and then releasing the rest of the series. Once that’s done, we can start to talk about First Men on Mars toys, lunchboxes and pyjamas. Maybe even some stationery. Okay, definitely stationery.

sign up to the pre launch campaign here now