The following is an interview with co-cretors Amit Tishler and Elliot Sperl (Solar Sisters, The Last Wards) regarding the recent Kickstarter campaign launch for the graphic novel, Stomping Grounds, with publisher Humanoids. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Tishler and Sperl about their shared creative process in bringing the story and characters to life on the page, the backer rewards available to those supporting the campaign, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: You recently launched a Kickstarter campaign in collaboration with publisher Humanoids for the graphic novel, Stomping Grounds. What can you share with us about the premise of this family adventure?
Amit Tishler: The best way to describe STOMPING GROUNDS is: “It’s like BOB’S BURGERS meets PACIFIC RIM” or like “FUTURAMA meets BIOSHOCK”. It’s a fun, wholesome, but poignant, sci-fi comedy that tells the story of an atypical family who struggles to get by in a world terraformed by a shower of interstellar seed pods and giant alien monsters. In the world of STOMPING GROUNDS, an event called “The Fermi-Fall” ushered in a new age of giant creatures waltzing across the horizon and fuzzy, house-sized spores bouncing around like tumbleweeds and terraforming nearby suburbs into colossal alien forests.
But craziness aside, artificial stability was achieved behind the walls of the heavily fortified Centuri City – the so-called “last bastion” of human civilization. This walled fortress is where old school human civilization is MOSTLY shielded from the weirdness that is slowly creeping its way through growing cracks in the city walls. But for our protagonists, the Shin family, the REAL challenge is living through the craziness that fills their day to day without losing their minds (or limbs) in the process.
BD: Your continued creative partnership exudes a rhythm in your visual storytelling that is truly palpable for the reader. Do you find that you have developed a creative shorthand in your shared creative process?
Elliot Sperl: Well, first off, thank you! We always put in the extra elbow grease when adding hyperlinked reference photos and jotting down detailed descriptions for panels and locations in the script. For STOMPING GROUNDS in particular, we sorta had to build the world from the ground up (pun intended). We created a comprehensive art guide describing fashion, architecture, Centuri-City propaganda, alien Kaiju and mech designs… even the underground sewer system!
It also helps that Amit and I share a background in Animation and have oodles of overlapping interests and inspirations. Thanks to that, it’s easy to know when to dedicate pages to moving the plot forward, and when to leave space to let the visuals speak for themselves. I also like to think that, over the years, we’ve learned how to balance, edit down, and/or combine parts of our story to really “save up” for big visual moments much more often.
While the characters and story are always our main focus, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to read if every page was riddled with rambling speech bubbles, right? Luckily, visuals are also our bread and butter! So, whether we’re creating space to pack an emotional punch or dazzling readers with something that pops off the page, it all comes down to craft and experience.
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 Stomping Grounds’ story may connect with or impact readers?
AT: Saying this title is like BOB’S BURGERS meets PACIFIC RIM isn’t just a funny gimmick. It reflects how we structured the entire book to make a thematic statement we believe will resonate with many readers. In the same way that BOB’S BURGERS isn’t a show about the burger business, STOMPING GROUNDS isn’t a book about giant robot vs. monster battles or aliens invading Earth. These are background elements that contextualize the characters’ lives and the challenges they face every day.
At its core, STOMPING GROUNDS highlights the importance of EMBRACING CHANGE, and we believe this message has only become more relevant since we wrote the script. While the stories are fun, colorful, and quirky, the book’s bittersweet tone is rooted in the characters’ struggles with clashes between nostalgia and history, self-expression and stability, and idealism and factual reality. These themes translate into plots that are simple, emotional, and relatable, yet perpetually covered in alien slime… and I mean LOTS of alien slime.
BD: Why do you feel that crowdfunding has been such a valuable resource to ensure the success of today’s comic book creators and publishers?
ES: I think it’s a fantastic way to take the temperature on brand-new titles that no one’s ever heard of before! Even if you hope your story hits retailer shelves after release, adding crowdfunding in the mix beforehand not only helps you market it, but also with mitigating the financial risk of trying to sell something that hits a bit different. Typically anything that’s not Batman, Spider-Man, or any other mainline series gets lost in a sea of titles all vying for attention. I think Crowdfunding is a pretty smart way to help cut straight through the noise and acts as a direct line right to the audience you wrote that title for in the first place. Plus, as a fan, who DOESN’T want to be “first” to discover the next big breakout hit? Right?
BD: In light of the crowdfunding campaign, are there any particular backer rewards that you would like to highlight for our readers?
AT: Yes! Firstly, Humanoids will offer a Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcover edition of STOMPING GROUNDS with bonus material and “behind the scenes” content from the creative team. The cover on this version of the book in particular slaps REALLY HARD.
Second, the campaign will offer bundles that include the Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcover for STOMPING GROUNDS and the Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcover of the other book in this combo campaign: Kaiju Heart.
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to share with our readers?
AT: Boy, do we! In terms of current projects: Our first co-created middle-grade title, SOLAR SISTERS, is coming out October 13 through Papercutz. It’s a charming sci-fi comedy about a washed-up pop idol who accidentally turns her young alien sibling into an interstellar ICON in order to save their family’s failing moon resort. You can already pre-order it from Papercutz, Amazon, and various retailers like Barnes & Noble, Indigo, Target, and Walmart. Pre-orders make a huge difference in publishing, so if this sounds like your jam, secure your copy now!
As for past projects: my critically acclaimed solo title with Mad Cave Studios, EDENFROST, is definitely worth checking out if you’re into historical fiction, fantasy, and wartime drama. It’s personal, emotional, powerful and gorgeous through and through.
And if horror is your thing, last year’s THE LAST WARDENS became an entire multimedia franchise shortly after its original 2024–2025 run. The Last Wardens audio drama, featuring Felicia Day, Anjali Bhimani, Mark Meer, Ginny Di, and Shiva Negar, was spotlighted as one of Spotify’s top independent audiobooks in 2025 and is now available on iTunes, Audible, Soundbooth, and more. Studio Far Horizons is also about to release The Last Wardens Tabletop RPG’s one-year anniversary edition to stores through Mad Cave Studios and Simon & Schuster, alongside Encyclopocalypse’s scriptbook, “The Last Wardens: The Drifter,” which includes a novelization of the audio drama’s script and the original THE LAST WARDENS lore documents. Give any of these a shot, you won’t regret it!
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about the Stomping Grounds campaign and your other work?
ES: Follow the Humanoids Kickstarter today for updates! Also follow us on Instagram to check out our kick-butt Stomping Grounds campaign and to sneak a peek at some animated comic page previews!
AT: Beyond our overactive social media accounts, for more “behind the scenes” content – I invite you to check out my monthly creative zine, MINDSPLATTER, through my website, or substack. This November will mark its 4th year, so there’s a massive back-catalog packed with goods to explore!
And finally, shortly after Solar Sisters graphic novel release, Lichenwood Games will launch a glorious Kickstarter campaign for “STARDOM: The Solar Sisters game”. The campaign pre-launch page is already up, so be sure to follow it. Trust me: When we start updating it this fall, it’ll blow your mind all the way to Andromeda.
