By [ad_1]
Inspired in part by Blade Runner, Fernando Dagnino (Blade Runner Origins) crafts a whole new world of AIs in Smart Girl. The black-and-white graphic novel follows Yuki, a Smart Girl android who recently became self-aware and is determined to fight against the same people and corporations that abused her. Yuki’s programming forced her to be a domestic servant, secretary and sexbot for years, but after she gains a conscience, she escapes her master and must outrun Gorgona, the same tech giant that created service bots like her.
Speaking to CBR, Dagnino broke down how he built Smart Girl androids to work in his cyber noir world. He also discussed how the book’s use of quotes from thinkers like Foucault underscores the narrative’s themes around freedom and wealth. Dagnino also provided CBR with a first look at the earlier sketches of his work.
CBR: Timeline-wise, it seems like you were creating Smart Girl around the same time you became the artist on Blade Runner: Origins. How did these two works influence each other?
Fernando Dagnino: No, actually, Smart Girl was published two years before I started my run on Blade Runner Origins. However, I have always emphasized the fact that Smart Girl is heavily influenced by the Blade Runner universe, especially by the original Blade Runner movie. I guess it was the cyber noir imagery of Smart Girl that made Titan editors think I would do great as an artist for the Blade Runner series.
In Smart Girl, AIs started out with something called Schemata, which sounds almost like a new internet — one that’s built out of relationships and not profit and built a kinder way of life. Why was it important for you to present this idea as a possible future in the world?
Throughout history, whenever new technology was developed, a wave of optimistic expectations would make the world believe this tech would contribute to human progress, until the powers that be took over that same technology and made it work for its own profit. I was not there when the printer was discovered but I experienced the first years of the internet. Schemata represent the wonderful possibilities that flourished back then and which showed a glimpse of what could have been.
Elitech is a group of people in Smart Girl who are hoarding AI tech for themselves, despite that its use could help humans on a global scale. This debate reminds me a lot of the “We are the 99%” rallies that happened in the 2010s in the U.S. Were you channeling any real-world events into this narrative? If so, I’d love to know which ones or which topics drove the class struggle in this story?
It does indeed relate to the “We are the 99%.” The social struggle in Smart Girl comes from the concentration of wealth, energetic resources, and state-of-the-art hi-tech among a reduced group. The Elitech enjoy the use of Smart Boys and Smart Girls to fulfill the dreams of power lust and efficiency, whereas in the slums the “have nots” are trapped in cybernetic poverty, suffering energy scarcity, unemployment due to robotic labor and very restrained access to the hi-tech that had already covered areas as healthcare or education.
This social unrest has been channeled by conservative groups such as the P.R.I.F. (Primitives of the Future) to claim back an idealized essentialist version of humanity. Distinguishing their humanity from the soulless matter and trying to “make Humans great again.”
The hardest part to read about Smart Girl was its take on how elitist humans would use this technology and what for and, in some ways, it feels like it’s commenting on the future of Amazon Alexa… Except now these Smart Girls and Smart Boys could also be sex slaves to their owners. Why was it important to you to include this sexual use of these A.I. into the story?
Sex and technology have been mutually interacting way before the first erotic photographs were taken in the XIX century. It was the porn industry that killed Betamax in favor of VHS. Nowadays, whether we like it or not, robotic sex dolls resembling humans are being sold and improved day by day. This, of, courses raises the issue that [Isaac] Asimov and other geniuses of sci-fi have pointed out. What about the rights of the robots/Gynoids or androids? As in all speculative sci-fi, this moral controversy should bring a reflection towards all the minorities whose rights nowadays are not being recognized.
I was really curious about the fashion designs for Smart Girls and Smart Boys. Early on, there’s a panel where we see Yuki with other droids and they all dress wildly differently. Are these fashion choices meant to show how their owners expect them to look and be?The premise is that this Elitech can customize their Smart droids according to their personal tastes, passions, hobbies or fetichisms — in the same manner that we customize the cases for our smart phones nowadays but taken to a different level. So each Smart droid is just a projection of their masters’ or mistress’ unleashed ego.
I love when Yuki “compiles” her memories and the choice to use a full-page spread to actually see snippets of her memories presented as files. What inspired that choice for you?
That’s a very intense scene. Yuki has been “fired” not only as an assistant but also as a friend, a lover and bodyguard. Her identity has been based on those behavioral patterns and her experiences are the trophy of her programming. But most of all it’s her relation that’s ending. And just as in the same way our whole life is supposed to flash before our own eyes when we’re about to die, I guess, when a sentimental relation dies, so do the memories we have together with that other person.
Throughout Smart Girl, you use real-world quotes like Foucault to illustrate larger points about class systems and social inequality in this sci-fi narrative. How hard was it to pick which quotes to use? Why did you ultimately choose to use real-world quotes instead of having fictional characters’ quotes about the time instead?
Most of them were quotes from authors I really loved from way before Smart Girl ever existed. The link is that Smart Girl deals with issues I have always been interested in. It was not really hard to place them in between the chapters.
The idea of using real quotes to illustrate the feeling of a comic book story has been used on many occasions during the 70s and 80s — sometimes as the title of the story or others as a footnote. In the case of speculative sci-fi, I think quotes help to reinforce the theme and the dramatic entanglement between the readers and the story they are reading.
When Yuki is trying to battle her coding, the reader actually sees what her code is telling her as she speaks/reasons/fights against it. It’s a rare moment that’s telling and showing us a lot at the same time. Why did you ultimately land on showing us her coding as she develops independence?
My intention is for the reader to identify with her struggle to follow her step by step and to understand the motivations for her to advance on her liberation. Also, to experience her setbacks in this fight. It was really important to emphasize the mental dialogue between her essence and her artificial identity built by her programming.
Who was your favorite character design in this book?
Cynthia Butler. She’s so fun to draw!
What’s one thing that you hope audiences take away from Smart Girl?
My first aim is to entertain. If the story does not provide any type of fun, then it’s not working. Besides that, one of the most beautiful things about this experience as a writer-artist is to get feedback from readers. Each one makes their own creative reading and brings out a different understanding of the story. This is one of the most beautiful rewards, as it expands the original meaning intended and now it becomes a story that goes far beyond my intention.
Created by Fernando Dagnino, Smart Girl is on sale now from Titans Comics.
About The Author
[ad_2]
