Comixology: First, give us the obligatory plot summary. What's Contraband about, and who are the major characters?

TJ Behe: Working at a run-down Internet cafe in North London, mobile fanatic Toby is stuck helping "social laggards" who still need computers to communicate and access video content. Bored, ambitious and unable to suppress his desire to film sensational events, Toby captures an illegal content deal using his camera phone. But when he's caught in the act by the entrepreneur Tucker, Toby is then forced to hunt down Charlotte, a female activist who has been sabotaging Tucker's cell-phone channel Contraband.

Toby eventually finds Charlotte, he's completely mesmerized by the charismatic and assertive activist who's dead keen to highlight the dangers of mobile video abuse. Toby becomes sympathetic to her agenda, and his objectives begin to blur. But when Tucker finds out...

Cmxlgy: In reading Contraband, one of the first comparisons that comes to mind is "A Clockwork Orange". It's a world where kids have taken to committing random acts of violence in order to entertain themselves. Could you tell us about the influences that went into Contraband? And, what inspired you to tell this story?

TB: The idea came about while working on a user-generated project at a UK mobile operator. Some sneaky kid had upskirting a woman on an underground train and posted the clip on our network. So while top management were blowing their nut and the tech team began implementing an age-verification layer, I was thinking how some nasty bloke could probably offer a good revenue share to motivate sh*t-disturbing kids to send in more.

I thought up this violent channel called Contraband, a sort of "urban theatre", where youths prowl city streets secretly film strangers then post sensational, erotic and violent mobile videos. So men can no longer shower in gyms. Women in dresses avoid seats on trains. Teens run daily exhibitionist mobile blogs featuring candid clips of close friends and family members. User-generated mobile spy-cam content becomes big business as society demands increasingly radical videos.

But it's also tough to police corrupt individuals like Tucker because it's not in the mobile operator's best interest to do so. They've beaten the government (ID card), internet community portals and banks in the race to create robust personal profile to track people, sell them products, invade their privacy for commercial gain. So it all kind of spirals out of control...

Cmxlgy: How did the two of you come to work on this together?

Phil Elliott: It started with an email from Thomas. He was looking for an artist to work on a new book and asked whether I'd care to draw some sample pages. He liked what I did, and a year later, Contraband is finished. Hmm, that makes the process sound so simple! It wasn't all plain sailing and I realised quite early on that, with my other commitments, I wasn't going to be able to complete all the drawing on my own. So I called upon the services of Ian Sharman, who took over the inking. Ian's partner at Orangutan Comics, Cherie Donovan also helped with the tones.

Cmxlgy: TJ, what are your comic book influences? How did you get into writing comics/graphic novels?

TB: Contraband is the first comic I've created. Although I had written the story (many times over) before approaching Phil, the script was still pretty choppy. Phil was a real professional in helping identify key areas for panel development improvement. My influences? I like reading all sorts of indie comics but I guess my writing is more influenced from cool foreign-language flicks. That being said I also love pigging out on cool American flicks like Fight Club and Blade Runner.

Cmxlgy: Phil, similar question. What is your illustration/art background, and how did you get into drawing comics?

PE: I know it's a cliche, but I've been creating comics for as long as I can remember. Starting with my own versions of British comics like The Beano and Whizzer & Chips, then discovering American comics- starting with Marvel, moving onto DC, Warren and Underground Comix. Its odd that despite living only a short boat trip away from France, it wasn't until my mid-teens that I came across European comics, and that was via the US translations in Heavy Metal.

Cmxlgy: There's a very European feel to Contraband. Tell us about how this came to be published by SLG, an American publisher, with distribution in the US, rather than going with a UK publisher.

PE: I've had a long partnership with SLG and it seemed natural to me that we should offer them the book.

Cmxlgy: A lot of the story takes place in Belgium, which has a great comics tradition closely connected to the French bande desinnee. Is Contraband being distributed (translated or otherwise) in France and Belgium?

TB: I'd love to get Contraband into non-english-speaking markets. I think the comic's art and storyline could attract a fairly strong readership in most North European countries. Phil recommended we attend France's Angouleme BD festival in late January so we've picked up some pro passes for the trade exhibition. And couple of nice folks from a social networking site were kind enough to translate our first chapter and synopsis into French & Flemish - so we'll have something to hand these guys. It's funny but us kids growing up in North Bay (near the Quebec border) studied French until we were 13 - and there were lots of European publishers' BDs floating around in classroom. Casterman, Delcourt, Glenat. Here we are 25 years later and we're going to show these same big companies Contraband...

Cmxlgy: What's next on the agenda? Will the two of you be collaborating in the future?

TB: I've dusted off a 130-page GN script of a thriller looking at how sedate people define "terrorists". I'm keen to pack in plenty of punching stuff. Hate crimes. Cocaine use. Urban and lush jungle warfare. But somewhere down the line I'd be keen to revisit the world of Contraband with Phil.

PE: I hope to have a couple of new comics published in the Spring, which'll collect together some stories that I did with Glenn Dakin. I'll be spending the next year illustrating the second Tupelo book- "45 Revolutions per minute".