Many comics and movies utilize the events of World War II as a story-telling device, but not as many use the first world war. Eudaimonia, a new indie comic mini-series from writer Joshua Plack does just that.
Eudaimonia is also interesting for the fact that the entire story is delivered with a rhyme scheme. Also, the book is split into two separate perspectives that tell the same story, which makes for an intriguing conclusion.
We had the opportunity to chat with creator and writer Joshua Plack about his new series to learn a bit more about the complicated book. He was happy to share plenty of information with us and some great images from the comic.
Joe: I’d like to start by asking if you would explain the comic in your own words.
Joshua Plack: Eudaimonia is a story about people managing the personal calamities that emerged from World War One, not just from the gore and violence, but the crises of identity and meaning that spawned from the tectonic rupture of humanity’s unleashing mechanized warfare. It is a war story in the sense that it is about war, but it is an exploration of war’s effect on the individual.
Joe: What is it about the story of Eudaimonia that speaks to you?
Joshua Plack: I constructed Eudaimonia as a narrative built around pivotal moments, enemy child soldiers finding each other, the soldier hearing the song, the townspeople discovering the soldier, and tried to drape them in different contexts, meaning they are connected by circumstance but difficult to decipher truth from.
This is not a book that purports to take positions, moral or philosophical. It merely shows events and how different perspectives can drastically shift their understanding. I enjoy the idea of truth being tenuous and elusive, but still enriching in the struggle to attain.
Joe: I liked that you explained the meaning of eudaimonia in the issue for people unfamiliar with the term. Is it always something you have liked or is it something that you researched when starting this project?
Joshua Plack: That emerged from studying Western philosophy, Eudaimonia being the concept that stuck out to me as someone who struggles with depression, specifically seeing myself as having any value whatsoever. It’s something I doubt I will get over, but Eudaimonia has had a great deal of value to me personally, with this book being like a form of therapy to produce.
Joe: Are The Secrets We Keep and The Song In Our Hearts both halves of the same book, or are they considered two different issues?
Joshua Plack: They are distinct chapters of the story encapsulated in perspective. While they tell vastly different stories, they conclude in a singular event that is presented in a starkly contrasting view.
Joe: What was your inspiration for the unique plot?
Joshua Plack: I grew up in and love urban cityscapes, so when I moved across the country and drove what’s called flyover areas, I encountered this huge swath of what appeared to me as abject nothingness.That contrast drove my imagination wild, picturing things common to big cities, like neighborhood gossip or a street musician, out in the middle of “nowhere.”
Joe: What gave you the idea to express different perspectives in each of the issues?
Joshua Plack: I’m a music lover, and sometimes you experience something that changes the way you think about form. For me, that was Defeater, a hardcore band whose albums consist of lyrical stories about a working-class family post-WWII.
One album is from the youngest son’s perspective, one from the eldest son, the father, etc., with each layer adding more context until a clear picture forms. Their work was influenced by William Faulkner, so I was influenced not just by the form, but by translating ideas into an unexpected medium, and the tradition of forms influencing one another.
Joe: I enjoyed how music played into the story. Are you a cello player, or do you have experience with music yourself?
Joshua Plack: I was a terrible musician once, so I certainly wouldn’t call myself one. I believe that different art forms speak to the soul in various ways. Like languages in that they require an objective agreement between individuals to function, yet remain subjective to the individual. So you may hear a language that means absolutely nothing to you or hear one that is integral to who you are because of how it shapes your understanding of the world. So for me, music is like a native language that speaks to me in the most profound way.
Joe: I love the poetic aspect of the story and the rhyme scheme throughout the comic. Was there a specific book that inspired the use of rhyme in this tale or was it always something that has been a part of you?
Joshua Plack: It’s an interesting thing, isn’t it? The first stories men told predate paper. So, to remember the stories as they were, these sprawling epics were constructed with rhyme so the traveling storyteller could remember and perform them. That’s a powerful thing, to invoke memory through form with gravitas built right in by design. For a great book that is highly influential, Beowulf. For a boring one, Astrophil and Stella.
Joe: You mentioned that you’re from academia, could you explain how that assisted you when it came to this project?
Joshua Plack: This story is like an amalgamation of everything that reached out and grabbed me in my studies. Classic literature and philosophy, specifically how people communicated the struggle to find meaning in humanity. Really old questions in really old forms. It was invaluable to me to engage with directly, to discuss, and to disagree with. While there are many who criticize academia, and justly so when undertaken properly and with the right mindset, it’s worth can’t be measured.
Joe: How has your experience been with the IndieGoGo campaign so far?
Joshua Plack: It is a truly amazing platform, and I am continually surprised and grateful for the support I have gotten. Everybody who sees the book has nothing but praise and kind things to say of it. I often see comments saying I’m vastly underrated, and I think that is largely a personal failure of mine, struggling to connect with people or market myself.
Joe: Is there anything else about Eudaimonia or any other projects that you would like to share with our readers?
Joshua Plack: Not about the book, but to continue expressing my gratitude for everyone who has supported it and me. Oftentimes the world feels exceptionally cruel, but there are so many more kind people in the world than I ever imagined. If you read this and have had any part in supporting Eudaimonia, please know it means more to me than words can express. If you read this and think you may have a story of your own to tell, tell it. We are expecting you.
What do you think of these comments from Joshua Plack? Share your thoughts in the usual spot below!
Eudaimonia is a graphic mini-series about World War 1, featuring a series of seemingly disparate characters whose experiences with and overcoming the effects of the tragic war form an interlocking narrative. Part historical drama, part classic Philosophy, and supported by the amazing art of Emi Utrera, Eudaimonia will be a book like no other.
Eudaimonia is now live on Indiegogo. Interested readers can back the project and snag a copy here.