No wonder retailers hear about this thing and immediately say, "Oh, I can sell that!"Īnd from a creative standpoint…Fico and I are ready. ![]() Dude, I was at the mall last week and I saw Dragon Ball merch – t-shirts, toys, statues, skateboards – in at least a half dozen different stores. The migration of manga & anime from niche interest to an established part of the American pop culture landscape. The continuing popularity of Dragon Ball FighterZ, which is one of the most popular games in competitive e-sports. The massive success of not only Dragon Ball Super, but the theatrical release of the Broly movie. Three decades of Dragon Ball, across multiple iterations and video games. What made now the right time for this particular story? I absolutely hate it when lettering feels like it's separate from the art, like it's just sitting on top of it, but that never happens with Taylor, which is a real testament to his ability considering how utterly bananas Fico's palette is. And Taylor Esposito came onboard as soon as we had sample pages to start pitching around! We'd worked together previously, and I knew he'd not only get what we were going for, but be able to work within the unique, distinctive aesthetic that Fico's created for the book. No One Left to Fight is Fico and my baby, so, to extend a metaphor possibly too far, we've both been there since conception. How early in the game did your creative team come together? It's like wrestling gimmicks, or, if you wanna get a little more fancy, commedia dell'arte – we start with these kind of stock characters that a lot of our readership is going to recognize, and bring their own history and baggage to, but by the end of the first issue, you'll see where we're deviating and spinning off into new directions. The idea was that we'd use the similarities to these established characters to evoke certain emotions and feelings from the audience, that we could then either pay off in satisfying ways, or subvert in ways they aren't expecting. It was our goal to really play with these character tropes, which, in 2019, are every bit as pervasive and readily recognized as Batman or Spider-Man. And the story was originally based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West, which was influenced by the Hindu tale of Hanuman in the Ramayana! So not only does this stuff have serious pop culture saturation, not only is it deeply embedded in the larger cultural zeitgeist, but it even has historical antecedents spanning multiple countries and traditions! I mentioned it earlier, but Dragon Ball has been around for thirty years. Was the idea here to kind of play with the tropes of this kind of storytelling but not to narrow yourselves down to necessarily specific character types?Ībsolutely. The characters in this book are larger-than-life in a big way. This is where structuring the story as a kind of "road movie" really came in handy, as it presented us with the opportunity to really explore how diverse and beautiful this place is. I think that approach – taking the stuff we love from Dragon Ball, then filtering it through Fico's aesthetic – extends not only to the characters, but the world itself. Comics is a visual medium, so if your book doesn't look incredible…what are you even doing? That's how I feel at least.įico has a really unique, distinctive style, especially when it comes to character design, so even when I'd say something like "Vâle & Timór are our Goku & Vegeta," I always knew that Fico would come back with something totally new and different. ![]() I think it’s worth at least that much.I'm so happy to hear you say that! I imagine that might seem odd to hear a writer say, but I really do see my job as being all about giving Fico amazing stuff to draw, just lobbing softballs over the plate so he can knock 'em out of the park, which he's totally doing, obviously. So if you dig what I’m doing… consider tossing the show a buck or two each month. Patreon is an amazing platform that allows you to pledge support to the things you love, and it’s the only way that I monetize SKALD. Of course, if you really want to help out the show, if you want to see it continue on forever…you need to contribute on Patreon. And now? Now you can enjoy SKALD not only as an audio podcast, but also in the glorious written word, with the SKALD ebooks, available exclusively on Amazon! SKALD Vol I: The One True King of Men and SKALD Vol II: By Blood & by Fire are now available for only $2.99 each! That’s less than $6 for 32 episodes worth of SKALD. Why is it The Only Story That Matters™? Because it’s about everything. ![]() Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Podomatic and, of course, streaming up above. Felt them fill with blood and vitality…”Īnother Tuesday, another best-ever episode of The Only Story That Matters™, SKALD.
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