Capeworld Collection: Kaiju Summer

by Otto on May 26, 2022 at 8:12 am

Table of Contents

Editorial

Welcome to the grand experiment! I’ve wanted to get more involved with the online independent comic community (I like “indie comics” as a term better than “webcomics.” Besides, “online independent comic community” gives you OICC, which I think is a very nice acronym. Oh-ic. It sounds nice. And if you turn it on its side, it makes a little snowman, which is a bonus) so here we are, the Capeworld Collection!

The Capeworld Collection is a monthly newsletter/showcase for the OICC. Comments and questions are welcomed. If you have a indie comic and you want to get the word out about it, leave a comment and I’ll see about giving it a plug.

Ah, summer! It used to such a magical time when I was a kid. Softball. Sprinklers. Sunshine. Snow cones. Sonic ice cream bars with bubblegum eyes.

It still has a little magic to me, even today.

And what better to go with summer than giant monsters! As big as the summer day is long, kaiju just want to eat, sleep, and chill. Kaiju are naturally in permanent vacation mode. So sleep late and long and get yourself an extra-large snow cone, it’s kaiju summer!

Have a happy kaiju summer, everyone!

Kaiju Summer Artwork

(Big thanks to Passer for the artwork!)

Smacky Jackson Interview!

We got an interview with Smacky Jackson, mastermind of the world’s best comic for giant robots, giant monsters, and giant laughs–Tad Danger, Substitute Ranger!

Question 1: When did you first come up for the idea of Tad Danger? Has the idea of Tad Danger changed since the drawing board?

It just came to me rather randomly. I like to play word games and find stuff that alliterates, or word play, and sometimes when I get one that sounds really good, I just try to see where the phrase takes me. So with Tad Danger: Substitute Ranger, the title came before anything. I liked it, so I tried to figure out where I could take it.

The pieces were there at the start. Originally it was only going to be like six chapters. Have a simple plot. It was just a vehicle for a joke. However the story just kinda wrote itself. The ideas kept rolling in, and next thing I knew, I had a massive story with a huge cast. Originally there was going to be many more mecha parodies, such as Big O, Darling and the Franx, and Evangelion. The idea was that sometimes, Tad would fill in and pilot their mecha’s.

However, while I did have some good jokes for those, there was no story. Furthermore, I felt that it detracted from the sentai aspect. So I made combination the key aspect of the story. If the combination aspect was not there, then it got cut.

The Space Vikings arc was a relic of the original idea, that I adapted because I couldn’t give up the jokes I had for it. Originally Tad was going to just team up with them as a Viking. The sword idea made it fit in with the combination aspect, and showed off how adaptable a character like Tad could be. I felt the ‘arm and leg’ aspect would get old quickly, so that story was a method of showing the potential of the Manipod.

Many of the characters are also retrofitted from a previous mecha story I tried to make, called Dark Lord Dan, and many of the Kaiju are old monsters i used to draw as a kid. So TD:SR is a Frankenstein of about a million ideas slapped together into something resembling coherent story.

Question 2: Tad Danger has been called “The best Adult Swim cartoon Adult Swim never made.” Your take on that? Also, what works influenced Tad Danger?

Unfortunately for me, Xavier Renegade Angel exists. I cant compete.

Aside from the obvious classic mecha series, I pull from a lot of pop culture. The original idea TD:SR was a sort of spiritual successor to Megas XLR. I would say the biggest influence was probably Venture Bros. I really wanted to emulate its story telling style. I love how everything is interconnected and references over and over. I believe the trope is called “continuity porn”.

Not mention it is rife with bad wordplay.

Adult Swim is the tone I wanted. A weird, hilarious, wacked out world that looks surface level but has a little more hiding underneath. The kinda thing you enjoy at 3am when you cant figure out what you are doing with your life.

Question 3: There’s a lot of mecha/toku/kaiju influence in Tad Danger. Share us your history with the “giant dudes” super-genre. Were you a Power Rangers kid? Do you grow up watching Gundam Wing on Toonami? Impress us with your power level!

I’m afraid my power level might be weaker than you’d expect. I had a phase of power rangers as a kid, and frankly Gundam never really did it for me. (except Mobile Fighter G Gundam. I like my Mecha series to be violent AND stupid.)

My foray into big robots started with Transformers. I was and still am a massive Transformers fanboy. I started with Beast Wars, RID 2001, and Armada. While I enjoyed those, a bargain bin VHS of the 1985 Transformers movie is what totally enthralled me in big robots. The combiners most of all fascinated me, like Devastator, or the really big titans like Metroplex or Trypticon. Of course Unicron being an entire planet was just insane to me as a kid.

I remember that my love of the genre would come and go, until something would accidentally cross my path and reignite it. Megas XLR during my teenage years was the first, then Big O not long after. I’m afraid to admit it because it’s entry level as hell, but Gurren Lagann is the one that turned my passing interests into a passion. Then I kinda went back and delved into all of these old series, because I have an obsession with finding the sources of things that interest me. I see Pacific Rim, and think “that was cool… Now I need to seek out every Kaiju movie ever.” I play Wonderful 101 and think “I didn’t know sentai could be so cool. Now I gotta scrape up every sentai series i can find.”

So I think by working backwards as an adult, I’ve built up my knowledge on the genre. There are still a ton that I have yet to get into just for lack of time. I’ve had Getter Robo on my backlog forever. It’s shameful really. I think what all these series I name dropped have in common (and what I love most of all) is that there is no upper limit on how crazy big or powerful the robot can get. Superheroes just don’t have the same audacity as mecha do. I think mecha speaks to not just the fans of underdogs, but guile heroes surviving on human ingenuity. Goku and Superman can fight gods, while your average joe will just build something to fight gods. I wanna root for the guy attempting to warp reality with nothing but a lawnmower, a gun, and a bottle xanax washed down with red bull.

Recently Godzilla Singular Point hit that note with me. I went in for Godzilla obviously, but it is completely unlike any Godzilla you could ever think of. The series really leans into the sci-fi so hard that it’s downright esoteric and difficult to make heads or tails of. (or i’m just stupid. Distinct possibility.) Yet at the heart of all the giant monsters, occultic science, and apocalyptic interdimensional time shenanigans, is a ramshackle Jet Jaguar that was built in some old guy’s garage defending humanity. Hell I’ve gotten that same feeling from a Kirby game. Kirby Planet Robobot is actually a fantastic mecha game. It hits every note you could possibly want out of a mecha series, just with a cute pink puffball. Mecha just hits different. It generates a type of hype that other heroes, genres, and tropes do not.

Question 4: Let’s talk the nuts and bolts of comics. How do you go about creating your comics? Do you draw first or script first? Do you use a tablet?

I wrote a loose outline of the script. I know all the beats from beginning to end. As for the nitty gritty, almost all dialogue is ad lib. I feel it is funnier to come up with that as I go.

As for hard work, I do work on a cheap tablet. My process is usually just staring at a blank page until I am able to visualize what I want. Then I use all my limited art skills to attempt to replicate what I imagine.

Writing isn’t particularly difficult. I treat it like an ever increasing math equation. I know all the stuff that already happened, so you kinda just add it all together and the next event just becomes self evident. I let these weird characters go where they want to. I’m just as much along for the ride as the rest of you. (I know where the pit stops and final destination is, but the speed bumps and roadside attractions are new to me.)

Question 5: For people thinking about starting their own webcomics, any advice?

First off, just start it. Something is better than nothing. Second, take criticism with grace. Third, be kind to others. It goes a long way in all your endeavors. Never be afraid to fail. Never be afraid to start over. Just keep trying stuff until something clicks.

Question 6: Last one! Which character do you find is the most fun to write? The most fun to draw?

Most fun to write is Professor Peek. He is a total insane degenerate that I can insert into any situation. Not only is he funny, he is a wonderful resource to move the story along. If I need a throwaway character to fulfil a brief role, I can use him instead and its way more entertaining. He gets the best one liners too.

My favorite to draw is Leif the space Viking. He is big, bulky, and has giant arms and hands which I can have fun putting into poses. He is a complex design at first glance, but relatively easy to draw. His armor and furs hid some of the more difficult anatomy like joints, and noses… Faces in general. His proportions can be wonky too and no one will notice or care. Tied for my second favorite is Howling Wolf and Decider. Both have similar designs. They are lithe, feminine, and very spindly. I can put them in the most absurd poses. They are by far the most expressive with their body language of any of my characters