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Peter has worked in movie animation, video game development, and of course as a book author, so he was one of the most multidisciplinary artists at Celsius 232 and as you can see one of the most interesting interviews. Here we discuss alternate history, prose vs. audiovisual/interactive storytelling, Star Wars and Marvel, and naturally mechas, many mechas.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, I'm in Avilés, Asturias, Spain for the Celsius 232, 2026, and I'm here joined by Peter, and this is one of the most multifaceted profiles I'm going to be interviewing here, and you've got a past in both, you know, games, animation, books as well, so it's the perfect Celsius profile to us, I'm so happy to meet you."
"I wanted to ask you first about alternate history.
You are into it, you've used it several times, so would you say you use it more than changing the historical events, you use it to ask a question about how, if history had made different choices, how would it have shaped us as people, how would it have approached facts and events?
Yeah, so with United States of Japan, I specifically was drawing back on my own history, and so when I moved back to Korea for a few years when I was a kid, it was an interesting thing where many of my family members had Japanese last names and spoke fluent Japanese, and I didn't quite understand why, and then I realized it drew back to the occupation during World War II, and so there was this whole history that I had no knowledge about, and when I moved back to the States, you know, none of that was explored, and most of it was obviously because it's in America, it was Western-centric, and so as I was growing up, I became more and more curious, and as I learned more about that history, I wanted to actually share it with Western audiences and American audiences, and so I came up with this idea of doing an alternate history exploring that world, and originally it was a murder mystery about these two characters trying to investigate in this strange world, and then I came across, well, I love Philip K. Dick, he's one of my favorite authors, and part of that is because we both went to Berkeley, we both grew up in the Bay Area, and so I knew he had written Man in the High Castle, and I was rereading it for reference, and then as I was doing some background research, I found out that he wanted to do a sequel, but the material was so disturbing, he stopped, and so I thought to myself, I'm writing this story, what if I make it kind of a spiritual sequel, and so that's kind of how that came together, and for me, the most important thing about history isn't just to re-litigate the past, it's what it tells us about right now, so for me, it's another spectrum and another perspective on America, and I found it very provocative how I could explore that, and those questions and those ideas."
"There are meccas in there, but meccas, in the first book at least, are more symbolic of authority, and so what is the ultimate form of authority in this empire, and then I thought back, I grew up, I love Japanese culture, it had such a deep influence on me, and I love meccas, and I thought, wouldn't a mecca towering over America be the ultimate symbol of what happened in this alternate world, and then how do you fight against that?
That's interesting, because I wanted to ask you about meccas and Japanese culture, so meccas first, how do you work on them to feel more than just giant robots to the audience?
Of course, you just mentioned it, it's a matter of their symbolism, the identity and the presence they want to convey, and actually their values, and many more things, right?
Yeah, so what was interesting with that was I went back to my animation background, I worked in studios like Sony and Pixar, and during those times, I would work on the character setup and the puppets, so I was involved in the technical aspects of it and how to animate it, and so when I was describing how the meccas move, that's what I drew on, so they talk about inverse kinematics and joints and stuff like that, and so colleagues of mine who've read the books have been like, oh, you're describing character setup and animation and stuff, and so I hoped that would bring realism, but part of that also is when I'm rigging those characters up, they have to move realistically, so I have to think about where does the hinge go, where do the joints go, how will it actually move, what drives it, and so that also went into the meccas, and fortunately, the designer that I was working with who did my covers, John Liberto, he's also a big World War II buff, and so his drawings drew on World War II history, like he actually builds World War II planes, and so again, the meccas have that realism to them, and so that also really helped inspire the mecca movements, and the other thing that I found interesting was that if you look at tanks, most of them have crews, even jets, there might be two pilots, but there's a huge crew behind it, and so with the meccas, I wanted them to be more realistic, so it's not just a pilot getting in there and working by himself, but there's actually an engineer in there, and sometimes there's artillery people in there, and so again, just trying to make it more realistic, and the other big thing for the realism is that I love Japanese anime, I love mecca anime, but also there is the trope of the hero who basically is the chosen one, and so in Neon Genesis Evangelion, I mean, I love that series so much, I've seen it like 10 times, but Shinji gets in the Evangelion the first time, and he rocks, right?
The truth is, if most of us got into a mecca, it would probably fall over and stumble, right?
So the characters in my books, they struggle, they suffer, and so that's kind of my hope of trying to make it more realistic."
"I guess the same question goes for the Japanese culture and the stylism that you use, and when we see in the West Japanese influence or Japanese-based works, sometimes I get the impression that the audience only gets the visual style to it, so how would you say authors have to work for what's behind it to actually permeate and reach the audience?
Same as we said with meccas, the message, the angles they give, and the emotions and the expression beyond just the visual."
"Yeah, that's a great question, and that gets down to making sure when you see the meccas and the way they fight, it's about the character, and it's about the personality of the pilots, right?
So otherwise, then you would just have a bunch of robots fighting each other, and after a certain point, it's really cool to see the spectacle, but if there's not a personal stake, then it just doesn't have as much meaning, and so I really think about what is at stake when the pilots are fighting each other?
It's not just about, hey, I'm going to win, but it's about what are they standing for?
What does each side really want?
And so with each of the books that I do, I think of a theme, so the first one, United States of Japan, the word that came to mind was sacrifice, and for the second one, it was persistence, and for the third one, it was rage, and so behind every single motivation, somehow that is intricately involved, and so hopefully, then when readers are reading it, it's not just about, oh, you know, I saw this big mecca, I've seen it smash this guy's face, but it's about, oh, this guy is struggling against the odds."
"Everyone is against him, and they want him to fail, and somehow he is drawing on his willpower to succeed.
Okay, we've mentioned you've worked, you've seen it all.
You've worked with games, you've worked with animation, you've written your books as well.
Which would you say is a single aspect that can't be beaten from prose compared to the other media?
And the other way around, what would you say games teach writers, or you can bring back from interactive storytelling to actual static writing?
Yeah, another great question, and what I enjoy so much about games is that for the best games, the canon choice is not up to you, it's up to the player."
"So ideally, you would have, it's not just writing one novel, like if I was writing, you know, again in Cyber Shogun or Mecha Samurai, I decide what happens to the main characters, I decide who lives and dies, but when I'm working on games, hopefully I let the player decide."
"So those are some of my favorite moments in gaming, when I look back, say like Mass Effect, you decide who lives and dies, that just blew my mind.
Grand Theft Auto 5, there's a moment at the end, you decide if you want to take revenge or not, and so that involves a lot of permutations, and so the format also is very different."
"So when I'm writing a novel, obviously it's just chapters and stuff, in games, a lot of it is like sheets.
So you're following all these sheets, all these branches, trying to figure out what goes where, trying to keep it logically consistent and whatnot, and so it's a lot of fun, but also I think the format changes the way you approach it, and the way you think about it, and so I find that really fascinating."
"So that's about formats and industries, but also there's universes, and you've touched on several universes as well.
You've worked with Star Wars, you've worked with Guardians of the Galaxy, if I'm correct, and with Marvel.
So for such beloved and sort of integrated and assumed, took for granted universes and franchises, when you work with them, what is the challenge for authors and for, no matter your role in those universes, to sort of try and leave a mark and try and express themselves with such wide and sort of canonically strict franchises?
Yeah, I think the most important thing is approaching any of these franchises with respect and love, because there are people who really love them, and so anything I do, whether it's the art or just characters, animation, it's really trying to figure out what makes the characters tick."
"Again, it's not so much about making the animation stylish, it's about the characters, and so trying to understand what the characters are doing, but also a lot of that also relies on the director's vision, and so what is the director trying to do with the IP in this certain instance, whether it's in games or movies and whatnot."
"And so I think the communication is really important, so it's okay to innovate, it's good to innovate, but also you have to be mindful of certain legacy and history of anything that came before it.
And so that's a lot of fun, because sometimes when you have restrictions and restraints, you can actually be more creative within them."
"Sometimes it can be more daunting when you have no restrictions, and you're told, just go do something, whatever you want, and you're like, what does that mean?
Whereas if you're like, here are the rules, this person has to live, this person, you can do whatever you want, this person has to die, and you know, then you go, okay, how do I get there? And that's part of the fun."
"That's really interesting, because I think that's what happened with video games in the early days, that restrictions made them more creative in what to try with the very limited resources they had.
I think we've gone through it all, you were with LucasArts as well, but also with Pixar several times with characterization, and you've been awarded for that."
"I wanted to ask you about Pixar characters.
I recently watched Toy Story 5, it actually surpassed my expectations, I enjoyed the script a lot, and it's been going on for so many years.
You worked on the fourth film, and also on Soul, which I think is fantastic in terms of characters."
"So how would you say characters have to change to sort of align with audiences?
Because I've seen it with Toy Story, I watched it as a kid, and now the visual language of the characters has changed, and the design as well.
How would you say you artists have to work on them to click with the new generations?
Yeah, so one of the things I have to say about Pixar is it's one of the best places to work, by far, hands down."
"And it kind of amazed me, because when I first got there, I was like, is it really this good?
The communication is so wonderful, everyone works together so well, and they're very open.
And so you can go talk to the director anytime, give your feedback.
When you do reviews, like in a lot of other companies, there might be layers of bureaucracy, so you have to go to this person and this person for the review."
"There, you just pitch it directly to the director.
And the directors are very knowledgeable about technical aspects, which again was very different from what I was used to, where they might be like, oh, technical stuff, let's leave it."
"No, they're actually very interested in it, and understand the technical process is very integrated with the artistic.
And so because you have all of these very skilled and talented people involved, the focus is on being as creative as possible."
"And because of that, you always feel okay to fail, right?
And I think that's a really big thing with creativity, is no matter what you're doing, like say there is an established IP, you might say, oh, this kind of goes contrary to what I was saying before, but you might be afraid to take risks."
"Whereas in the environment that Pixar encourages, it's okay to take the risk, and they might not end up using it, but still they're open to trying it.
And that sense of experimentation and creativity, I think, is what makes Pixar so alluring, and the fact that they're always willing to adapt and change."
"It sounds like the Nintendo way of doing games, actually, in a way, right?
Okay, final one.
So many disciplines, so many facets to your art and your work.
What can you tell me, how would you say you would like to combine all that into a work in the near future, as in coming from books, from games, from animation?
Is this something that you want to scratch in terms of combining your sort of multifaceted grounds?
Well, thank you."
"And there are a few projects that are in progress at the moment.
I unfortunately can't talk about them quite yet.
And embargoes and NDAs.
Yeah, I'm dying to tell them, but I gotta wait."
"But yeah, there are a couple things that are merging those interests and disciplines, and I really hope I can share them with everyone soon.
And any recent work that you would like to share with the audience for us to check out?
Yeah, obviously there's Estados Unidos de Japón and Imperial Mecha Samurai."
"Those are my two mecha books, and this festival has been amazing, and just getting to meet all the fans and just, you know, again, interacting with them.
So thank you all.
And I had a new novella come out called Kill or Be Killed."
"And so it's an illustrated novella, and it draws on my history working in tech and gets into a strange situation where a killer who may or may not be an AI is threatening people on social media and forcing them either to kill someone or be killed.
And so it sets up this really intense dilemma."
"And then it dives into what it's like to work in the tech industry, and, you know, there's a whole mystery behind it.
And it was co-published with Vertigo Entertainment, which is Roy Lee's company.
So he's done movies like It and Barbarian and just tons of great horror films."
"And so, fingers crossed, it gets made into a movie.
The adaptation to come. Okay, I'm looking forward to reading that one.
Thank you so much for your time, Peter. Enjoy the rest of the seals here.
Yes, of course."
"One thing I just want to say, so I was mentioning Mecha Samurai and United States of Japan.
My co-translator, his nickname was Goen Kai, he passed away earlier.
Yeah, and so he was just such an important part of it.
And so I had really hoped to meet him here."
"So I just, yeah, I wish I could have thanked him for all he did.
And so when you see creatives, a lot of times you might not see the people behind them, but even for me, there's like a whole team of people who have supported me.
Just an amazing translator, Natalia, and just publisher, editor and everyone."
"So I always just want to thank the people and just always keep them in mind.
This one is to him. Thank you so much for your time. Enjoy."
