Now 16 years into the business, Ben Mauro has dipped his toes in many artistic fields. His work as an art director and concept designer has spanned movies and video games, including the fantasy epic The Hobbit trilogy, Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi action film Elysium, the Call of Duty series, and Halo Infinite.
Most recently, Mauro has created the post-apocalyptic sci-fi graphic novel Huxley, which he wrote and illustrated. “A once-thriving world, buried in the ashes of a nuclear holocaust and ruined by generations of planetary wars, now lies in perpetual waste. To save humanity from itself, the remaining AI-bred and cloned elite humans are trained to become workers, soldiers, and enforcers―armored warriors known as Ronin―to help keep order and give humanity a purpose in this brave new world. After a certain age, the clones start to think for themselves and are sent on increasingly dangerous missions until they are killed or ‘retired,’ replaced by younger and more compliant clones, until the cycle repeats itself.
While humanity limps on, the lives of two soldiers, Max and Kai, become intertwined on a routine mission upon discovering an ancient sentient robot known as Huxley, and soon find themselves caught up in a mystery of galactic scale, as the robot’s true purpose is revealed…”
We spoke with Mauro at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto about Huxley, life in the industry, and what’s next.
HGL: Where did the initial interest in art originate? Was it something you always wanted to pursue, or did the interest come later?
Ben Mauro: I think everyone draws a little; we’re all creative, but for some reason, we drift apart from it. I think it was in high school where I became obsessed with video games, and Halo was the thing that made me think about whether there were jobs doing this. Then I realized I needed a portfolio, I needed to go to certain schools. So once I decided that, in high school, I had to convince my parents.
That was kind of like an investor’s meeting—how much I’ll need, what jobs were available, what schools I was looking at. My dad, who comes from an accounting background, was like I don’t know, it doesn’t seem very reliable. But I was persistent, did the research, and was adamant it was real.
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HGL: Let’s talk about Huxley. Where did the idea come from for this graphic novel, artistically and story-wise?
Ben Mauro: Some of the style came from when I was in college. I kind of gravitate towards this hand-drawn, illustrated style. But maybe it wasn’t until I started working on Elysium—it was almost like an arms race every day. Everything has to be more realistic; you have to use every tool everyone else was using. Learning how to be better, faster on the job.
Some of it didn’t feel like I was an artist anymore, just using highly advanced tools to create an image that sells an idea to a director or producer, which is great. You learn a lot doing that, but the part of me that was an artist wasn’t satisfied; it wasn’t being fulfilled. A lot of it came from, I want to go home and have something that was just for me, that makes me feel like an artist at the end of the day. Putting pencil on paper, drawing and illustrating it, and that kind of balance helped me long term.
HGL: When you’re going into a project like Huxley, do you already have something in mind, or does it evolve during the process?
Ben Mauro: Sort of. It all started with the original drawing of Huxley, a kind of orange robot. Even though the book is red-themed, I drew the character, illustrated it, and the name Huxley just came to me during the process. I didn’t know who he was, what his story was, but there was something there I wanted to figure out.
How could I turn this into something? Who is the character? What kind of world does he live in? It all kind of expanded from there over many, many years. It started small like that. Not just the output of work, but this was pretty cool. How do I grow this into something?
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HGL: During the process of story and world-building, what were the good and bad moments you came across?
Ben Mauro: Because it took so long, by the end, you’re just, “I could do so much better now.” The tendency to want to go back and redo everything, but you’re never going to finish. You have to say that was as good as I was then; it’s like a time capsule. It’s ok that that’s how it looks.
Then there were other things. Maybe I wasn’t good enough early on, and I kept trying to redo a page, spent a month on this environment. I’m just not good enough, but I’m going to trust that once I do twenty more pages, I’ll be good enough to come back and fix that. There were moments like that, where I’m such a completionist, that I want to finish it. But I kept saying, “I know this isn’t finished, but I’ll come back to it later when I’m better,” so that was really cool as well.
A lot of it was trying to keep the style consistent because I do grow, and there is a bit of an evolution in there. But I try to keep it consistent.
HGL: You’ve been in this business for a while now. What are some of the changes you’ve seen that have had an impact on you?
Ben Mauro: Since I’ve done both, I’ve never been too affected. I’ve always done the book side, maybe because everything has been moving so fast. I’m happy I’m doing this. I want to go back to physical media now. Everything’s gone digital, I just want to watch a Blu-ray and hold it in my hand, hold the artwork in my hand.
As for the entertainment industry, it’s like I mentioned earlier. Always trying to get the newest tool, getting the newest thing, and because I’ve always had this (the book side of things), I’m ok with that. I still have to keep up with whatever the advances in the industry are, but because I always have this, I’m happy creatively, so it’s not one or the other; it’s a bit of both.
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HGL: What’s next in the Huxley universe?
Ben Mauro: Next is the prequel book, which is called The Oracle. It takes place about thirty or forty years before this story. The early hardcover should be out in October, and the public version, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, should be out in the holiday season. I’m really excited about that.
It’s a more serious war story; this is more of a team effort with my artists, a little more like a story artbook. I’m trying to make each story a slightly different product to fit the story being told. Also, so you don’t have to wait another ten years for a story from me (laughs).
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