Back in 2017, I interviewed comic pros Fabian Nicieza (co-creator of Deadpool and writer of many beloved comics, including my personal fave The New Warriors) and Reilly Brown (artist extraordinaire on everything from Deadpool to Dark Horse’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) on the cusp of the debut of their LINE Webtoon series Outrage. For the uninitiated, Outrage follows an individual who can ride the waves of the Internet and physically appear at the source of toxic online behavior, including social media, taking matters into his own hands to clean up the Internet’s irritants.
That was less than a decade ago. And in that decade… oof. The Internet is just… oof. Outrage has been needed more than ever. The series concluded in 2022, but fans need not mourn. With Outrage at an end, Nicieza and Brown have recently partnered with Rocketship Entertainment–which published the series’ first volume–to bring to print Outrage Across the USA. Now funding on Kickstarter, this volume ties up the tale of the terror to toxic trolls on the Internet and gives readers one last ride with the World Wide Web Warrior.
I spoke with Outrage creators Fabian Nicieza and Reilly Brown recently about where we find the protagonist in Outrage Volume 2, how the Internet’s toxicity maybe hasn’t actually changed over the years, the Kickstarter itself, and what they’d do with Outrage’s powers for a day.
It’s always a blast speaking with Mr. Nicieza and Mr. Brown and while I hate to see Outrage at its end, the ride has been entertaining and very cathartic in this weird timeline we live in.
FreakSugar: For folks who are unfamiliar with the series, what can you tell readers about Outrage?
Fabian Nicieza: Outrage is the bully who bullies the bullies on the Internet. A sentient hard-light program that can emerge from your device and smack you around if you’ve been an ass on social media!
Reilly Brown: Fabian and I worked together on Deadpool for years at Marvel, and eventually we said “what if we did our own thing, where we could tell jokes that Marvel would NEVER let us get away with?”And then once Fabian hit on the idea of a character who could ACTUALLY smack the people on the other side of the internet who we all want to smack, the story sort of wrote itself!
FS: The second volume is called “Outrage Across the USA.” What can you tell us about it and what the cast has been up to since the end of Volume 1?
FN: The second volume takes place a few months after the events of the first book. Outrage is trapped in someone’s phone with the bad guy from the first season, Trigger. But Outrage’s message of anger at anger has been taken to heart by thousands of people who are generating out on their own twisted idolization of our hero’s philosophies.
Our main character, Outrage’s creator, Kenny Choi, is serving his sentence working for the U.S. Government on developing a better version of the hard-light program.
RB: And of course the military just LOVES having a better version of that hard-light program…
FS: I remember the early days of the Internet when it wasn’t always exactly an idyllic place to visit, but it was a hair less toxic. I say that because the series is incredibly timely and makes me further sentimental for “the good ol’ days” of the web. What are your memories of the early web?
FN: You must not have been a member of the old rec.arts message boards or the AOL chat boards. They were just as vile and toxic and anything you see today, just under more limited parameters. Honestly, I’ve seen the internet for what it was all along: a wonderful tool for information and communication that is unfortunately in service to and serviced by human beings.
Luckily, if every single science fiction book, TV show or movie ever made might give us a clue, AI will likely take care of that pesky problem.
RB: Yeah, like Fabian said, it was pretty much the same back then, but in a more limited scope. I remember the epic flame wars on the Marvel vs Capcom AOL message boards lol Back then we were still inventing the dirty tricks you see people use today, like creating multiple accounts just to gang up on other people; challenging people to video game face-offs at arcades in states that you didn’t even live in, and then accusing the other guy of not showing up… Ahh, the good old days!
Editor’s note: Upon thinking back on some of the folks I had experiences with on the message boards of the late 1990s, yeah, I agree with Fabian and Reilly.
FS: I have to use social media quite a bit for FreakSugar and other gigs. I know both of you have a social media presence. How would you characterize your social media interactions and experiences? Do you ever get exhausted with *waves vaguely toward the whole of social media*? Have those experiences impacted how you approach Outrage?
FN: I have been pretty lucky to skate by on the fuzzy feelings most man-boys have for things I wrote that they had pre-pubescent nocturnal emissions over, stuff with X’s on the logos, NFL Superpro, all the greats.
I find the fight over morals – I’m sorry, what most people without morals call “politics” – to be exhausting, as so much of it is performative rather than personal.
The best part about the internet is that every single minute of every single day, the reason for the existence of Outrage is being validated.
RB: I think the comic is our way of venting our exhaustion with it, but at the same time, we’re both still there, aren’t we?
I think being an artist online helps soften some of the interactions in some ways, because my talent allows me more than just my personality and opinions to some people, where that would make a difference. But also, I’ve learned to not voice my uninformed hot takes on every little rage-bait post that passes my screen, because when you do that, you just seem like a lunatic.
You kind of have to know what topics are worth it to speak up about, where maybe I actually know what I’m talking about, and be willing to just silently roll your eyes at the rest.
Also, insidiously, the Social Media Lords are TRYING to get you to respond to that anger, so being able to just scroll by the bait feels like you’re getting one over on them lol
But then every now and then you can get into an actual great discussion with other people. So I suppose there is a benefit to social media sometimes.
FS: In the past few years, the conversation about and around AI has become more and more heated and relevant. Has that impacted how you think about Outrage?
FN: Well, season 2 is a few years old, and unfortunately (or fortunately) it was as predictive as it was reactive. I am confident that AI will destroy us all, but I am hopeful I will be dead before that happens.
RB: It’s somehow gotten even more relevant with time.
FS: With this being the conclusion of Outrage, what has been your favorite part of working on the comic? What are you most proud of?
FN: Working with Reilly for me, is always the best part. Getting to have fun by being allowed to express all our frustrations with the stupidities of the human race is always a nice flush of the brain pan.
RB: Thanks Fabian, it’s always a blast to be able to work with you as well. There are so many things that we’ve put in this series that, after it was drawn, I’d actually see it happening in the news and think “ah-ha! We called it!” Unfortunately for the world, most of those things are stupid, frustrating, or terrifying, so that pride is a little bittersweet.
Why can’t my He-Man comics be as predictive?
FS: What was the original idea for the look of the comic? Has it changed over the years? If so, how?
FN: I saw something stupid someone said on Facebook or Twitter, I forget which, and I thought, I wish I could reach through their phone and smack some sense into them. Who hasn’t thought that? I guess maybe the people who deserve the smacking, come to think of it.
Anyway, I thought, “What if someone could do that?”
And therefore the book, Outrage.
RB: The original idea for Outrage was that he would have a mask with a digital marquee on it, kind of like Daft Punk, but instead of words it would show his facial expressions. I wanted his face to be simplified, and really raw and kind of manic looking, so that I could get as much expression out of him as I could. My excuse for him having a crude face was that maybe his facial expressions were all originally drawn by Kenny, who’s not actually a very good artist. He tried his best!
Outrage’s look changed a few times over the course of the series, and it was usually to accentuate his face and hands, which were the focal points, and simplify the rest, to make my life drawing him easier lol
FS: With the comic at its conclusion, do you have any plans for collaborating again?
FN: I’ll work with Reilly anytime he is dumb enough to want to work with me, but we don’t have anything in particular on the agenda.
RB: No plans at the moment, but I’m just waiting for an excuse to bug Fabian again!
FS: On to the Kickstarter itself, what can you tell us about the campaign?
FN: Rocketship does a GREAT job with their campaigns, the items they offer, their pricing, and especially for me, the quality of the printed material. It is top-notch production from design to printing to delivery.
There are LOTS of great offers, different formats, the slipcase looks totally cool and I want to display both volumes in one on my shelves!
RB: Rocketship always makes such gorgeous books, I can’t wait to see this in print. We’ve got some cool stuff for the campaign, like pages of original art from the book, and things like that. Go check them out!
FS: If you Outrage’s abilities for one day, would you use them? If so, how?
FN: I have a hit list of people who should be punched, starting with the President and working my way through his cabinet of fools and liars and thieves, then several Senators and Congressman, then LOTS of media personalities and pundits, then finally, probably Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, for never, ever, EVER getting it right.
RB: Oh, don’t tempt me!
I’d raid the crypto-accounts of the big tech oligarchs, and go cell phone to cell phone redistributing the stolen bitcoins to all the people who have lost their jobs thanks to AI, or whose property values plummeted thanks to newly constructed data centers, or people who just post really funny memes.Justice is more fun when it’s poetic.
FS: If you had a final pitch for Outrage Volume 2, what would it be?
FN: It’s more entertaining than sitting on your ass reading this interview, so go buy it so you can sit on your ass and read the book!
RB: The internet serves you outrage every day, don’t you deserve some that you can actually enjoy? I think you do!
The Kickstarter for Outrage Volume 2 is fully funded with over three weeks left in the campaign as press time. If you love action and satire and want to delve into a world where the Internet trolls get their comeuppance, this is a book you definitely need to give a look!
