The following is an interview with William Gosline regarding the BackerKit crowdfunding campaign for the third issue of the YA fantasy comic book series, Baby Barbarian and the Forgotten God. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Gosline about his shared creative process in bringing the story and characters to life on the page, the exciting backer rewards available to supporters of the campaign, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the success of your BackerKit crowdfunding campaign! For those who may be unfamiliar, what can you share with us about the story’s overall premise? Likewise, where will returning readers find themselves in the adventures of the Berrserk family?
William Gosline: Thanks for asking about the series. The idea for the comic came up during COVID when my wife was onboarding remotely for a new job and my eight-year-old son and I were stuck in our little one-bedroom apartment. We had moved back home to Seattle from Hawaii just six months before the world fell apart and were just getting happily acclimated to life back in the big city! As has become customary now, everyone was suddenly online at all times, kids included. I thought wouldn’t it be nice if parents had something to read to their kids that was both fun and entertaining but also broached some headier subjects that might stimulate conversation. I had loved comics as a boy… young man… adult (lol) and had always wanted to write one.
Thus were the Berrserks born! A loving family of teeth-gnashing barbarians from the Coldfast Mountain in the world of Shenanigania!
One of the central themes for the comic would be how boys and men learn to control their impulses. My son and I both have superlative levels of ADHD (We passed the ADHD tests with flying colors!), and I thought that using the classic Barbarian Rage trope as a metaphor for ADHD could provide another level to the story.
In the first story arc, Baby Barbarian and the Player’s Throne Issues 1&2, one member of the family makes an ill-advised bet with a traveling mage about whether or not the infamous Player’s Throne will indeed send him off to a land of “endless fun and games” as the mage promises. Spoiler alert: It does!
The next morning the other members of the family have to go off in pursuit of the missing Berrserk.
Thus does the entire family find themselves scattered throughout the ruins of Castle Slapdash, a ruined castle with an awesome dungeon, full of monsters, tricks, and traps. When they eventually do get home, they bring back a princess they rescued. At the end of the comic, they make a promise to return her to her family….
The current issue being run now on Backerkit is called Baby Barbarian and the Forgotten God. It opens with Brunhild’s 30th birthday celebration, a bitter sweet occasion; who knows how long anyone will live when you’re in the Coldfast Mountains? Brunhild’s looming mortality makes her think of things she’s left undone and promises unfulfilled. Promises like returning Meera, the princess, to her family!
When she brings it up with Bjorn they have a fight and Brunhild decides to take the kids and set out on their own. Thus begins a new adventure with new characters, new challenges, and new dangers!
BD: What can you tell us about your shared creative process in bringing this incredible world and characters to life on the the page?
WG: I have always worked with artists whose work I trust can get the story down with little fuss and muss. I am pretty detailed in panel descriptions so that helps. To be honest, a lot of the credit for the world building must go with Igor Wolski, the artist on the first two books. I gave him character descriptions and he sent me some mockups and right away, I was like: “That’s our family.” He totally got it. He also go the gonzo aspect of the fantasy (gonzo fantasy to me means like just random fantasy elements with no real internal logic) so well and threw in his own details to make the world that much richer.
For the most recent comic, I worked with Arthur Mask, a Brazilian artist whose style is very different from Igor’s. I didn’t know how it would go initially, but Arthur really brought his own sensibilities to the pages. I think that Arthur’s art is more organic and warmer than Igor’s in some ways, and the colors just pop in a way that is so intimate.
So really, I just try to find the right artist and trust them to do their thing.
The letterer, Lucas Gattoni, is the only carry-over from the first two comics and the current one. I got his information from an independent comic creator probably five years ago now and since then he has gone on to create quite a career for himself, lettering for DC among other big houses. But he’s always willing to help me with Baby Barbarian because he really likes the story and characters. He’s a real gem.
BD: You are no stranger to crowdfunding, having successfully run several campaigns for various projects. Why do you feel that crowdfunding has been such a valuable resource to ensuring the success of today’s comic book creators?
WG: I don’t know that much about crowdfunding to be honest. My first campaign was ran in 2021, when crowdfunding very different. I learned a lot from Comixlaunch/Comixtribe, an organization created by a man named Tyler James who has helped a LOT of independent comic creators figure out how to launch their comics.
I sometimes do freelance work for a table top game company that built itself from Kickstarter. The founder says there is no way he could build his business today with the way things are on KS. At that time, Kickstarter was really used to help people fund. Most of the time now I think it’s used more for promotion; the project is done already. It’s very crowded and the big corporations launch things now, which suck up a lot of the oxygen. That’s partially why I used Backerkit this time, although I don’t know if that really moved the needle!
The only other thing that the independent creator has other than crowdfunding though, in my opinion, are cons. That’s what I’m going to be working on getting my books into next! Regardless of whether you use Kickstarter or any other crowdfunding service, building your brand is a long game.
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 the Berrserks’ story may connect with and impact readers?
WG: Well, like I said above, I am trying to make something for the whole family. I think it’s hard to find anything that the whole family likes to do these days because of the breadth of options for entertainment that exists on SM, streaming services, YouTube, etc. Not sure if this will work but one has to try!
I also hope that Baby Barbarian just makes people smile. The humor and the characters are ridiculous and whimsical. I don’t believe that everything has to be “consequential” or “edgy” or “an emotional tour de force.” There is space for us to just sit back and laugh at what is silly or ludicrous. This kind of laughter is a release. It breaks down barriers between the person and the world and functions as a sort of pressure release. This is why control-freaks have a hard time laughing!
A huge theme that emerged organically in Baby Barbarian was the juxtaposition of biological family versus found family. Can one really only have a found family? Can one ever escape their biological family? I understand that some people’s families are just awful and they have to leave to survive, but the pull of biological family possesses an atavistic solvency. I have friends that are like brothers, but my biological family is central to my sense of self. Our parents are like gods when we are young! And over time, we learn that they are not like the Christian god, but more like the Greek ones: powerful, aloof, mysterious, and flawed.
BD: In light of the crowdfunding campaign, are there any particular backer rewards that you would like to highlight for our readers?
WG: Yes! Please look at the full packages of the three comics plus the posters of Castle Slapdash or Shenanigania!
The poster of Castle Slapdash was done by one of Igor’s friends, Thomasz Spell, and is a cross-section of the castle the family has to escape in the first comic. It is gorgeous with a lot of funny little details, some of which are not shown in the comic! Shenanigania is the world that Baby Barbarian is set in and was drawn by the British fantasy artist, Jamie Noble. Something I really loved was that Arthur Mask adopted Jamie’s clouds and mountains in his drawings for the new comic!
BD: Are there any projects – past or current – that you would like to share with readers?
WG: Yes! Thanks for asking. I am currently in discussion with some game companies to adapt Baby Barbarian into a card game or perhaps even a roleplaying game. We also have a proof-of-concept metroidvania-style video game that we developed to pitch to other companies.
Other than that, keep a look out for the movie, Giant Rabid Flying Squirrels, which I wrote and which I am currently working on developing with some industry people in the PNW.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell readers who want to learn more about the Baby Barbarian and the Forgotten God campaign and your other work?
WG: I think I’ve said a lot. I guess I would say I hope that if you have children you have the chance to read to them, take advantage of it. My sons are nearly all grown up now, and the one who sang the Baby Barbarian theme song with such dulcet tones no longer has that sweet angelic voice. There’s a lot of cracking and squeaking going on as he goes through adolescence.
You can always check out our webpage at babybarbarian.com. It is still being updated but someday soon, it will all come together.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
