The following is an interview with writer Ralph Tedesco (The Courier, Man Goat & The Bunnyman) regarding the release of the All Guts, No Glory series from Zenescope Entertainment. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Tedesco about the shared creative process of bringing the world and characters to life, what readers can anticipate from the series, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of All Guts, No Glory! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the series’ premise, and what was its inspiration?
Ralph Tedesco: Thank you. I’d probably describe All Guts, No Glory as a coming-of-age comedy wrapped in an supernatural action series. Ultimately, it follows a pair of biohazard cleaners who specialize in cleaning up the messes left behind by monster hunting teams who secretly battle supernatural threats for the government.
It’s not a glamourous gig, but our two cleaners find themselves in a dangerous situation after they attempt to help a vampire they deem to be worthy of saving.
BD: What can you tell us about your shared creative process in working with artist Guillermo Fajardo to bring this story to life, and what (or who) have been some of your creative influences?
RT: As far as inspiration, I probably drew from comedies like What We Do in the Shadows, Cabin Fever, and This Is the End.
Guillermo is an incredible artist and really set the tone for issue 1. He’s worked on some of our other titles like our other action comedy, Man Goat and The Bunnyman, It’s really on the editor, David Wohl, to help bridge the writing and the artwork and he does a great job of that. It’s not always easy to do comedy in comic books. So, it’s essential the art team understands the tone you’re looking for.
Due to a scheduling conflict, we had to bring in a new artist named Jordi Tarragona for the 2nd and 3rd issues of the series to replace Guillermo. It’s absolutely incredible the job he did in matching Guillermo’s lineart and overall style from issue 1.
BD: Do you have a certain number of issues planned for the first story arc of the series?
RT: The format we’ve been doing more recently at Zenesope are three-issue mini-series with each issue being oversized. For example, a normal Marvel comic is 20 pages for $3.99, but for this series, we’re giving readers 36 pages for $5.99 per issue. So, a lot more story crammed into each issue for only a couple dollars more.
BD: What makes Zenescope the perfect home for this series?
RT: Zenescope has the reputation of only doing fairy tale reinventions or only doing cheesecake covers. And while we do both these things, that’s just a part of what Zenescope does. We put out tons of well-reviewed horror, sci-fi and fantasy comics and have been doing so since our inception back in 2005.
All Guts, No Glory is falls into our newer comedy universe, and I think for readers looking to give us a fair chance, they’ll be pleasantly surprised by many of our titles.
BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?
RT: I’m constantly helping develop all the Zenescope titles with the rest of our writing team. But right now I’m working on the 3rd volume of our series, The Courier, which follows a motorcycle courier named Eve Harper who traverses a rebuilt United States after an apocalyptic event wiped out the majority of humanity decades prior.
The Courier is an action series with horror elements that also deals with some of the same socio-economic issues that mirror today’s society. It’s as if we’re destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over because there will always be greedy and power-hungry people who rise to power.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about All Guts, No Glory and your other work?
RT: Just head to Zenescope.com and you can’t go wrong!
