The following is an interview with writer Amit Tishler (Edenfrost) and artist Elliot Sperl (Bob’s Burgers) regarding their exciting announcements from New York Comic Con 2024. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Tishler and Sperl about having their comic book series, The Last Wardens (Mad Cave Studios), adapted into an audio drama and a TTRPG, their new graphic novel to be published by Humanoids, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: New York Comic Con yielded quite a few exciting announcements for you this year! Let’s begin with your series, The Last Wardens, from Mad Cave Studios. What can you share with us about the genesis behind the series’ adaptation into both the audio drama and TTRPG mediums?
Amit Tishler: The Last Wardens went through many iterations before settling into its current form. Name changes, worldbuilding overhauls, and even character swaps were all part of a development process we started all the way back in 2019. Our publishing deal with Mad Cave Studios proved that the series was ready to go, and back in 2022 we started writing the first Last Wardens comic arc that’s hitting comic book store shelves today. We don’t know what the future will bring, but as fans of the wider media spectrum, and craftsmen who spent their careers working in games, tech, TV animation, and comics, we always look for different ways to tell our stories. We took a leap and built The Last Wardens for serialization, and when the opportunities to expand its world into other formats presented itself, we went for it. We now have a chance to expose the Wardens’ world to a wider audience and experiment with different ways of telling our story…as creators, what more could we ask for?
Elliot Sperl: Amit and I have always been drawn to supernatural horror and knew early on that we’d end up taking a stab at the genre, but little did we know what it’d eventually turn into! It took finding the perfect partners who saw the same potential we did and could help bring our world to life in all the ways it couldn’t fit on the comic page. With the audio drama, we had a chance to highlight more of the subtle hints and clues about the wider story through the inner thoughts and narration of our main lead, Danielle Pryer. The TTRPG on the other hand was a golden opportunity to reveal even more of our world’s mysterious monsters, secret societies, and twisted history that we couldn’t reveal in the comic’s first arc. Fans who experience all three mediums will definitely see the bigger picture and will love how it all connects!
BD: How will the forthcoming tabletop game and audio drama tie into the existing story, and will both serve as a solid jumping-on point for new gamers and listeners?
AT: We didn’t want these adaptations to mindlessly regurgitate the same narrative. We wanted each to stand on its own and fully leverage the medium it was in. The Last Wardens audio drama, for example, adapts the first arc of the comic series, but transforms it into a very different experience through structural changes. We challenged ourselves to rewrite the story in present tense, through our protagonist, Danielle Pryer’s point of view. This automatically scraps some scenes from the comic and replaces them with ones that give new information and a fresh perspective on how our hero experienced the events unfolding around her. We’re going to be in Danny’s head, and through her thoughts we will learn new things that both align with and expand on what we show in the comic. You don’t have to read the comic to enjoy the audio drama, and you don’t have to listen to the drama to understand the comic. But a fan that consumes both will get extra value out of each experience, without either feeling redundant.
ES: While the comic series and audio drama follow Danielle’s death-defying experience in the Bleakwood arc through her perspective, The Last Wardens TTRPG gives players a chance to try and survive their own harrowing adventures. But instead of just adapting the existing story, we wanted to expand on our world and open it up to anyone daring enough ready to roll the dice! While fans of the comic and audio drama will have to look and listen carefully to fish for clues about the greater mystery, the mechanics behind the TTRPG will give a lot more insight on what horrors befell Danielle and the town of Bleakwood from the get-go. More than that, anyone really looking to put all the puzzle pieces together will love the campaign itself since it helps to set the stage for how the Wardens collide with Danny in the first place when our story kicks off.
BD: Adapting an existing concept to a new medium can be a daunting process. Will you have the opportunity to be creatively involved in adapt the world of The Last Wardens to new mediums?
AT: Definitely! Due to the nature of each product, and the terms of our partnerships, our role in each adaptation varies, but we’re heavily and actively involved in the development of both. With the audio drama for example, we re-wrote all the scripts for the adaptation and were given full creative control of the narrative. As the production company in charge, Encyclopocalypse Publications takes the lead on casting, recording, mixing, composing, and distribution, but they keep us involved as supervising consultants through every step of the way.
ES: While I definitely consider myself a tried and true TTRPG enthusiast, Amit and I are more than happy to hand the reins over to the incredibly talented professional dream team at Studio Far Horizons. They take the lead when it comes to mechanics, balance, and game design while we provide guidance, documentation, and lore about the story at large. Together, we hop on calls to coordinate design choices and brainstorm ways to make this the most nerve wracking supernatural-grindhouse-inspired-horror game of all time! Working with them has been an absolute blast, and we all can’t wait to see this game up on shelves!
BD: In addition, you will soon have a new graphic novel releasing from publisher Humanoids! What can you share with us about the premise of this upcoming title?
AT: You have no idea how excited we are to finally be able to talk openly about Post-Mortal! It’s the first out of two original titles we’re producing with Humanoids, and it’s been in production from before I even started working on Edenfrost! This book is a fantastical dramedy that tells the story of Bleak, a soul reaper who quits his job in the underworld to become a life coach and teach mortals how to live life to its fullest. But his new adventure hits a snag when the distressed life insurance agent Vicky Singh introduces him to her client, famous film director Nicklaus Dawn, who pulls them both into a whirlwind of self-destruction. This story’s creative, emotional, philosophical, and pretty fucking funny.
ES: Ditto to what Amit said above! It’s great to finally talk about Post-Mortal and how fun those characters and world are. While it IS a fantastical dramedy, it’s also our version of a “love letter” to Los Angeles after living here for so many years. Anyone familiar with some of the more famous sights will see them integrated into our characters’ lives in really fun ways! On the flip side, the Underworld where the Reapers process souls of the dearly departed was also really fun to work on and develop.
After rowing up to the docks at Port-Limbo through the River Styx, the Underworld looks like an old medieval city with a clockwork aesthetic that winds its way up Mount Purgatory in the distance. Spread all throughout the city, processing towers beam souls from that realm to the next while the Reapers are forced to guide the scared, confused, and often belligerent souls from point A to point B over and over again…forever. We both really went to town with the concept, and it was all brought to life by our incredibly talented artist Chad Lewis, whose work is absolutely jaw dropping.
BD: What makes Humanoids the best home for Post-Mortal?
AT: As you’ll soon find out, our work with Humanoids is very different in tone and style to the stuff we produced with Mad Cave Studios. Over their 50 years in the field, Humanoids developed a highly prestigious brand, known for telling stories with a cerebral and humanistic touch…and Post-Mortal fits right into that description. It’s artistically rich, narratively deep, tonally goofy, and highly introspective. A real mish mash of creative flavors!
ES: It definitely has a different pace and tone from something like The Last Wardens which is brutal, action packed, and keeps ramping up with one chaotic over-the-top moment after another. With Post-Mortal, we wanted to take a more gentle approach and really take our time balancing on the thin line between “funny” and “bittersweet.” With how vastly different these two stories are, we hope to show off our range as writers and to drum up excitement for our next unannounced title which is also super-duper different from the previous two. That said, the one thing these titles do end up having in common are characters we think fans will fall in love with and would love to see again! Amit and I always end up building more into our character backstories and lore than we can fit in a single arc, so we look forward to continuing them both on the page and adapting them off the page for the foreseeable future!
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about your work?
AT: Aside from my website, which also includes info about my general work in media, I’m very active and responsive on all the evil social media networks. You can follow me on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Tiktok. But if you really want some crazy “behind the scenes” shenanigans, you can check out Mindsplatter, my monthly blog / newsletter. It’s celebrating its 2-year anniversary this November! Through it, I regularly share exclusive details about my upcoming projects, new developments, work process tips, and even media recommendations. It’s been growing fast in the last year, so – check it out!
ES: Feel free to check out my website which features a ton of work I’ve done over the years on Bob’s Burgers and other Bento Box shows, along with a few other projects I’ve animated on over the years. You can also find me on Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook.
