Throwing More Wildcards In: Talking with Victor LaValle about ‘Eve’

Last week, you may have seen our review of the latest Afrofuturutist series from Boom! Studios, Eve, created by Victor LaVallle and Jo Mi-Gyeong. And this week, we were fortunate enough to sit down with the critically acclaimed author and discuss in details what it took to bring Eve to a local comic shop near you. BlackNerdProblems: I was first introduced to your work when a mentor recommended an earlier title you did with Boom!, Destroyer, which was a riff on the Frankenstein mythos and a response to the rampant police brutality that has and continues to be omnipresent these last couple years. Victor LaValle: Yes. BNP: And now with Eve, we have a story that is a response to the omnipresent threat of climate change. Victor: *laughter* Yeah. BNP: Do you think that science fiction stories are inherently reactionary to the things happening around us or is that something more coincidental with these two stories? Victor: Well, I certainly wouldn’t speak for all of science fiction, but I would say my take on it, at least, has been that. I guess that… certainly there is the strain of science fiction that is sort of looking at where we are and thinking about where we might go, right? Sometimes, maybe more often than not, that’s the more hopeful strain of sci-fi. But certainly, there’s also the ones we’re going nowhere, we’re going to the pit, and that’s what they do. In my case, I can only claim for me, it’s definitely me entering into writing sci-fi as a way to wrestle real world …