@@@@ What the #$%! is AICN COMICS: Q&@? @@@@
Q’s by Optimous Douche!
@’s by SKULLKICKERS writer Jim Zubkavich!
Optimous Douche here. What happens when you take a dwarf and a bald giant and throw them into a fantasy world of werewolves, assassinated lords and legions of undead? You get the latest Image title SKULLKICKERS. I had the chance recently to sit down with SKULLKICKERS creator Jim Zubkavich to ask him what the future holds in store for this unlikely duo and why he has yet to name these ye olde bastards…OPTIMOUS DOUCHE (OD): What immediately entranced me with SKULLKICKERS was the amalgamation of fantasy lore, almost like “World of Warcraft”. You have ye olde ways of magik and such peppered in with gun works and explosives. What sources did you draw upon to conceive this world?
JIM ZUBKAVICH (JZ): SKULLKICKERS is the sugar-shocked bastard child of pulp fantasy concepts I loved as a kid – FAFHRD AND THE GREY MOUSER, CONAN, and DISCWORLD mixed with a heavy dose of Dungeons & Dragons and video games like “WoW” or “Monkey Island”. Fantasy hada massive hold on my mind when I was 9-15 years old and I'm trying to tap into that well of ridiculous energy for the comic.
OD: So is it safe to assume this love of fantasy is what drove you to craft the two main characters as a dwarf and what I want to keep calling a “monk?” JZ: Absolutely. It's low brow high fantasy. :)
The dwarf is pure "id" - violence, pleasure, instinct and the big guy is equally violent at times but it's done with a bit more of a plan and usually some forethought. He's not a monk, but I can see why he comes across that way compared to the short red-bearded murder machine.
They're mercenary monster killers in a world where most peasants just keep their head down and hope not to be noticed by the powers that be and evil that lurks in the shadows.
OD: Seems like a parable for the current state of our real-world collective malaise? JZ: Not intentionally, but I’ll take the deeper meaning, sure! :)
I didn’t want fantasy ‘heroes’ in the classic sense. If the peasantry are inspired by their deeds or create stories about them that get blown way out of proportion, I think that’s an extra layer we could play with.
The dwarf and big guy aren’t the type to think too far ahead. They deal with immediate physical problems without thinking of broader ramifications. I think some people assume that also means that I, as the writer, am not thinking about broader things, but that’s not true at all. As the series goes on it’ll be clear that there’s more happening and that these two are part of larger machinations. Their obliviousness to the other layers of story is part of the fun.
OD: Damn it, you called them Dwarf and Big Guy, I was hoping you would slip into my trap and subconsciously divulge the names of your Id and Ego as told through comics. Three issues in and we still don't know their proper names, yet we know a lot about who they are -- that's a definite testament to your characterization skills. So was this a conscious choice to not name the protagonists, will we find it out later, or the final choice...you forgot? JZ: It was intentional. :) Even in the original proposal and in the scripts I refer to them as 'Human' and 'Dwarf' or 'Baldy' and 'Shorty'. The concept for keeping them unnamed is three-fold:
First off, I always found it a bit off-putting how characters who were familiar with each would call each other by their first names over and over again as a way to drill those names in to the audience’s brains. I totally understand why that happens and it makes sense in the context of introducing characters, but I thought it would be funny to have 'real' conversations where familiar people just use 'Hey' or little nicknames the way most of us actually do (or, at least, the way I do).
Secondly, having these two morally reprehensible jerks roll in to town like some sort of spaghetti western-styled 'Men With No Name' kind of appealed to me. A 'No one knows who they are, they just showed up and started killing monsters left and right' sort of thing.
Thirdly, and I can admit this, it's also a gimmick. People noticed this 'no name' quirk and it stirred some discussion that wouldn't have happened if they were just two named brutes. In a comic market where launching something new is absolute hell, I wanted every edge I could muster, even if some people might be turned off by it. The key is that you knew 'who' they were without those names. They look distinctive, act distinctive and their motivations are clear. That's character, regardless of what they're actually called. Now that the book has gotten some legs and looks like it's going to have a fairly healthy run I feel more confident about delving in to these characters more. Our back-up plan of cutting this off after the first story arc if it sold poorly is thankfully not necessary. So now we can push past the gimmick. I'm pretty sure I'm going to reveal their names in the second story arc.
OD: So can we get a glimpse into their history? A prequel spoiler if you will...It's not every day a dwarf and monk decide to go on a mystical creature killing spree.JZ: The current plan is to have the second story arc advance the main plot we have brewing as the SKULLKICKERS pique the interest of evil powers much larger than they can currently imagine, but the third arc looks like it will be revelatory elements of their pasts, especially some key stuff about Baldy.
OD: For now though our "merry" wanderers are hot on the trail of a stolen corpse of a Lord, which by the way…I laughed out loud during the assassination. Come to think of it many of SKULLKICKERS moments make me LOL as the kids say. Will the humor continue to shine through as we move into issue 4 and beyond?
