ART of the Solar System: Interview with Cody Schell

One of the upcoming regular features of Dream Theory is ART of the Solar System, a narrative strip with Cody's unique visual take. Here is an interview where we speak with Cody about his upcoming project and experiences.

1. Cody, tell us a bit about yourself and your background.

I’ve always been a visually creative person who is also interested in storytelling. As a child, I drew and wrote notebooks full of stream of consciousness comic strips about geometric shaped creatures with weird powers. My mom kept me busy with drawing, collage, paper sculpture, photography. When we got a VHS video camera, I made whatever the 12 year old version of video art was, and have never really stopped creating - painting, photography, zines.

I’ve written prose for Obverse Books, and 4 Dark Shadows audio drama scripts for Big Finish Productions. I’ve designed over a hundred book covers for Obverse Books. I self publish photography and art books (find me on IG: @kodiakschell)

2. What can you tell us about ART of the Solar System?

The series is a way for me to do storytelling that combines my different typical visual tools (photography, drawing, collage, digital layering) and presenting them in a way that probably isn’t being seen elsewhere. Rather than being some long unfolding space opera, these are flashes of ideas that weave together loosely. Some of the art in the solar system is ancient, some of it’s brand new. But the solar system is an old place and a lot happens there.

3. What were some of the key inspirations for the series?

My original inspiration was David Lynch’s comic strip The Angriest Dog in the World and Bill Griffith’s Zippy the Pinhead, or even Gary Larson’s Far Side. I wanted to do some kind of recurring weirdo strip with a sci-fi visual creativity bent, but not comedy and not necessarily about any particular characters. (although characters are starting to pop up already). The solar system and everything that’s happened in it is the focus of the strip. A not-funny comic strip is sort of a funny idea in a way. It could also be the same kind of storytelling as the Mars Attacks trading card series.

4. Without giving too much away, what are some of the themes you would like to explore in the series?

Wild possibilities of what could happen in the future, it’s not all Dyson Spheres and Warp Drives, people of the future would be making highly impractical and outlandish art. People do it on Earth today, the Nazca lines is an example from history, but there’s modern folks doing large scale “Land Art” using natural materials. In the first strip of the series it’s implied that the solar system has been remade for human colonization, and these art works are further alterations on top of that.

5. What is your dream collaboration?

I’d love to do more album art in collaboration with musical artists. Music is very inspirational to me, and very visual. Ideally I’d want to collaborate to create art/design that enhances someone else’s creativity and create something bigger than the individual pieces. I am a big fan of David Carson, Mark Robinson of Teenbeat Records, Ruben Tamayo of Static Discos, Chris Bigg and the late Vaughn Oliver (4AD records).

Musical artists I admire - too many to name, but Helado Negro, His Name is Alive, Silva, Aldous Harding, etc. - but honestly collaborating with someone unknown who’s putting our their first album would be an amazing opportunity, to create a look and identity for them, maybe the start of working together for years.

I was honored to have my work printed in Plastikcomb Magazine #8, there’s a whole movement of visual artists returning to analog output rather than digital. I’d love to do more of that type of thing as well.

Oh - and anytime the Criterion Collection wants me to do a Blu-ray design for them, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing, 100%.

6. Given everything going on in the world right now, why do the Arts matter now more than ever?

The Arts will never not be important, and creativity is a way to process feelings, to create meaning, and boy - we need that now. We always need it, need to look forward realistically but positively.

I also see practical things as creativity - tools we create to solve our many problems have the potential to be used for even bigger and better things in the long term. Something we create as a short term solution could open possibilities into the future, which is part of the idea of this strip. The way we clean up something toxic on Earth could lead us to being able to terraform entire planets in the future. Creativity is about examining possibilities. Innovation is creativity - Never stop creating.

ART of the Solar System debuts in May 14, 2025.