The following is an interview with writer/artist Reilly Brown (Deadpool, Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point) regarding the recent launch of a Zoop crowdfunding campaign for the comic book, Thunder Guardian, which he has created alongside his son Will. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Brown about his shared creative process with his son, what he hopes that readers will enjoy most about the story, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent launch of your Zoop crowdfunding campaign! What can you share with readers about the premise of this very special project on which you have been collaborating with your son?
Reilly Brown: Thanks! And thanks for having me here.
Yeah, it’s a really fun project. My son Will loves superheroes and all that stuff, and would come home from school with all these drawings of these characters. I’d ask him about them, and he’d tell me the craziest stories, and I was blown away! They were so creative and so out there, and I just thought, “This is too much fun— I’ve got to draw this!”
The story is about Thunder Guardian, who lives in outer space with his friends, in the future after the Earth has been destroyed. They explore the universe with their crazy powers and run into all sorts of monsters and other enemies.
BD: How would you describe your shared creative process in working with Will to bring this story to life on the page?
RB: Will has such a vivid imagination, and I’m just trying to capture it on paper. We usually start off with some characters that he’s drawn, and I’ll look at what he did and draw them in my own style. I try to incorporate any details that he draws— trying to make sense of different colors that he uses, and things like that, as well as other things that he tells me about the characters.
Then, I’ll ask him about the characters, like “Where does The Unknown live?” Or “What does Thunder Guardian use his robot for?” It’s usually not long before he gets excited by an idea and starts telling a whole story about it. It can be a balancing act deciding how much to edit him, because the point of the comic is to capture a little kid’s crazy imagination, and I love the complete lack of story structure. Heh, but as anyone with kids knows, they can really go off on tangents, and, sometimes, he’ll contradict himself, or tell multiple versions of the same story, so it’s my job to try to streamline it. But I make sure to keep all the best bits.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Thunder Guardian’s story may connect with readers?
RB: The fun part about reading Thunder Guaridan is remembering the types of things that you thought were cool when you were a kid, and how things made sense to you. Especially if that involved a lot of monsters, aliens, and boogers.
BD: In light of the crowdfunding campaign, are there any specific backer rewards about which you are most excited?
RB: I think they’re all pretty cool, but one of the rewards is original art by Will, and I think that’s pretty fun.
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
RB: I’m also working on a comic called Forgotten Runes: Wizard’s Cult, which comes out through Titan and is a lot of fun. Each issue is a standalone story that explores the world of the video game. The first collected edition comes out sometime around the end of the month, or maybe beginning of the next month.
I’m also doing work on a new Ultraman trading card game. I’m not sure when the release date is, but it’s going to be coming out pretty soon. It’s a pretty fun project— I hope the cards I did designs for are good ones!
And I’ve got a few other things on the horizon that I’m working on that I’m really excited about, but it’s too early to say too much about those.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Thunder Guardian and your other work?
RB: Make sure you check out the Zoop page for Thunder Guardian for a preview and any updates.
And I post a lot of sketches and artwork, for Thunder Guardian and other projects, on Instagram at reilly_brown, on X at @reilly_brown, and at Bluesky at ReillyBrownAr.bsky.social
