Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

Do you find it easier with a story like this one where you have to

create all the characters your self or using already established
characters?
 
I don't think that one is harder than the other; they are just two different
types of challenges. Obviously, it's hard to create new characters that
are on the one hand original, but on the other engage people in the
way the best characters always have - by being both relatable and
compelling. With established characters, like Cyborg or Two-Face,
the challenge is to make them fresh after dozens of writers have done
very good takes on them already.

This comic series also had an ARG running along side it; what is an
ARG for readers that don’t know?

ARG stands for Alternate Reality Game, which is an online game that
use real life platforms like the internet as a way to advance the story.
In The Unthinkable ARG, we tasked players with working for a fictional
private military contractor, The Wolfpack (www.wolfpackpmc.com), to hunt spy on and eventually hunt down some of the supporting characters in the book. They used real life websites and programs - everything from blogs, to twitter communications, to geolocation software to do so.
It made perfect sense to do an ARG, because like the book itself, it blurs the line between fact and fiction.If anyone is interested in checking out some of the characters blogs, here are some links:

PEAK OIL, a geologist, economist and conspiracy theorist: peakoilishere.blogspot.com

The amazing story of ISOMER, a nuclear physicist, holocaust survivor and creator of the theoretically impossible nuclear hand grenade: isomergrenade.livejournal.com

And personal favorite, the slightly tongue-in-cheak ramblings of THE PROPHET, a Timothy Le Hay (Left Behind) type Christian Fundamentalist author:
www.bringontheendtimes.wordpress.com

Where there many difficulties in making the ARG?

Well, the greatest challenge was not only making these seem like real people - with Amazon wish lists, linkedin resumes etc - but make them seem as if they've existed since at least 9/11, which was nearly a decade a go. Thank god for the ability to backdate blog entries.
The other challenge was, we were working on a very limited budget. I have to give a lot of credit to Chip Mosher, Dafna Pleban and Ian Brill for a) coming up with the idea of ARG in the first place and b) helping me make the most of what little resources we had to create a believable story.
 
How do you think it went looking back?

Very well. Maybe even too well. The players were great, and I have to thank them because they pushed me to make it better. They are by far smarter players than I was a designer. The solution to last challenge - finding Peak Oil by looking for embedded geo-location coordinates in an Image of Peak Oil that Julian drew - I didn't think anyone would be able to solve it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity of the ARGers.
When I say "too well" though, I'm referring to...my biggest fear was that some people might mistake this for a real conspiracy. It's a fine line to walk between making the conspiracy believable and not scaring non-players.
As I write this, I'm just in from a cross country flight, where I was stopped by TSA officials, who gave me not on e but two invasive searches, and actually read through the script for the third issue, which I happened to be carrying. I don't know whether my writing flagged me or I was subject to a random search. It was unpleasant; I mean, it was hard enough explaining that comics are not always about superheroes and that people actually write scripts for them, let alone that you are writing about fictional scenarios, not plotting terror.
On the other hand, I could appreciate the irony of the situation and laugh about it now. Unthinkable - both the comic and the ARG - blend fiction and reality. I should have expected a little reality would intrude on me at some point.