24. The Making of a Comic: 'Savage Wizard #1' by Lesly Julien and Doug Wood
Co-writers on breaking tropes and using the Snowflake Method
Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back to The Making of a Comic! In this week’s series, I’m joined by writers Lesly Julien and Doug Wood, co-creators of the sword and sorcery/brutal action comedy SAVAGE WIZARD #1 with art by Brian Flint, and recently funded on Kickstarter. Wicked cool title, right?
Here they are to tell us all about their process and the secrets behind their characters, barbarian chief R'Nar and his best friend Skom.
Savage Wizard
Brittany Matter: Tell us a little bit about SAVAGE WIZARD #1.
Doug Wood: We really like to pitch this simply: What if Conan was forced to re-class as a wizard? I think there are some fun things that can be played with a big beefy man throwing out fireballs.
Lesly Julien: Savage Wizard is a brutal action comedy centered around R’Nar. There is only one thing barbarian chief R'Nar lives for; the battlefield. When R'Nar finds himself ousted from his clan by his best friend Skom, his life spirals out of control without a purpose. Savage Wizard is his journey to finding new purpose and saving the world.
BM: From the title, it's clear that this comic is for fans of the sword and sorcery genre, but how does it differ from others in the genre?
LJ: The centering of black/brown characters is something I have not seen in other sword and sorcery stories. Also when I think of sword & sorcery I think of a lot of self-importance and seriousness and Savage Wizard is very much a comedy.
DW: Neither Les nor I are big into fantasy. So I think a reader will get to see this through an outsider lens to an extent and maybe that will be some fun seeing two people stumble around tropes that are not common to fantasy.
BM: Since this story is about a barbarian, what does that word mean to each of you and how did you want to convey the barbarism that's throughout?
LJ: That's a great question. Initially when I thought about the concept, Conan came to mind, being the most famous barbarian. Despite the racism that gets loaded into the word "savage" in my mind I wanted to make a Conan style story I had never seen before. The term savage has often been a racist shorthand for cultures that don't mirror western ones. By design Savage Wizard attempts to break its titular character free of the convention of labels and prejudices put forth by society. I wanted to take the term "savage" and have fun with it. As fun as all the violent scenes are, there is nothing barbaric about the people at the center of the story. They just happen to be wearing less clothes and inflicting a different kind of violence than Fortune 500 CEO, infantryman, judge, etc.
BM: What else can you tell us about your characters, R'Nar and Skom?
LJ: On the surface R'Nar is a stereotypical barbarian, big, stupid, and violent. But when R'Nar is stripped of what he thinks makes him who he is, he's a bit smarter, weirder and more sensitive than he might care to admit.
Skom, is a man with a chip on his shoulder. Who feels like he does not truly fit in. Too smart for barbarian society and too savage for "civilized" society.
DW: I really refer to R'Nar as the himbo character. He has his one thing he is super into (fighting), but all he does comes from a genuine nice place. Skom, on the other hand, is the two-faced friend. He seems to be that ride or die friend when you are around him, but as soon as he sees that opening he wants to do what is best for himself.
The Process
BM: Tell us a little bit about how this comic started, and what inspired y'all to make it.
LJ: A few years ago I participated in pitchvember and came up with a quick concept for a story "what if Conan the barbarian was forced to re-class as a wizard?" Doug approached me to co-write a story and we thought there was a lot of room for potential with this idea.
DW: This guy. Every interview he is too humble. Les and I were in a comic creators Discord. I saw Les doing all these wonderful mini comics and I was like this guy knows what he is doing. I randomly @ him in the chat, asking if he would possibly co-write something with me. Luckily he said yes, despite me having no work to show. Les has been a huge mentor for me. He has taught me a lot about writing. I would not have had any of my Kickstarter successes without Les taking a chance on me.
BM: This comic will be in black and white. Tell us your thoughts behind that choice versus full color.
LJ: Part of the reason was cost. Economically it cut Kickstarter costs drastically. But also Brian's tones and shading are so strong, we're lucky the book looks as if it was always meant to be black and white.
BM: Tell us about your collaboration with each other.
DW: I had just done a graphic novel workshop that introduced me to the Snowflake Method. The core idea is you slowly build up your idea a step at a time. First you find your one-sentence logline. Then find your main characters in one sentence. Then you snowball the build; it expands to three sentences for your 3 acts, then you expand each sentence of the act into their own 3 sentences until you reach your full idea.
LJ: We broke the book down into scenes. Doug would take a scene and write it. Once written we would revise the page together. Then I take another scene and write it. And we would revise together making sure the tone of the book and characters were consistent. We split up the entire book in that manner so that the workload was even. It felt like a pretty natural process even from the beginning. We compliment each other well. Doug saw the big picture and I handled the details.
BM: How did you find your co-creators, artist Brian Flint, writer/letterer Toben Racicot, and cover artists Alaire Racicot, Sinnerman, and Maria Wolf?
LJ: Brian I had known from a creative group we had both been a part of called The Comic Jam, it paired artists and writers up weekly to make 1-page comics based on random prompts. We both got our "start" making comics there. Brian had done a comic called Kuru that matched the aesthetic of Savage Wizard. I approached him with our script and he liked it and agreed to handle art duties.
Toben saw some finished art from Brian before the Kickstarter went live and reacted as most people did, dropping his jaw. He asked to join the team immediately and we were lucky to have him as our letterer.
Alaire was able to create an amazing cover for us with very little heads up. Our initial cover artist had to drop out last minute very close to the Kickstarter launch. When Alaire heard about the rough spot we were in she came to our rescue and graced us with her skills.
Funny enough the Maria Wolf cover was a total fluke. Initially we weren't planning on doing any variant covers. But when we very publicly freaked out about losing our cover artist someone tagged Maria in our post. And to our shock she was free, we couldn't pass up the opportunity being HUGE fans of her Women of Marvel cover.
DW: Sinnerman just reached out to me one day and asked if I needed a cover. We were like well we might have this extra variant from Maria, why not another? Sinnerman has been such a kind person to me. I really appreciate him.
BM: What were your first reactions when you saw Flint's first pages?
LJ: We knew Brian's art was going to be good or we wouldn't have hired him but seeing his first pages I was awestruck. I knew then that we had something special and that we would hit our funding mark because the level of detail he put into the pages was unreal.
BM: What has been your favorite part of the comic-making process?
DW: Learning how to write properly from Les. I am a very much 'write from the gut' creator. I don't plan things out. Les really helped me learn to focus my shotgun approach.
LJ: My favorite part of the comic process is tied somewhere between seeing the roughs for the first time (because the idea finally feels real) and letters being finished (because it's finally realized in full).
BM: As Kickstarter creators, what about the all-or-nothing platform appealed to each of you, and would you seek funding through it again?
LJ: I liked being able to circumvent the pitch process. I hadn't done a lot of pitching but I did do some prior to the Savage Wizard launch and it was draining. I was grateful to have a way to make Savage Wizard a reality in a relatively short amount of time. We will definitely use it again for the next issue of Savage Wizard if all goes as planned. I can only see the audience growing for this book.
DW: I'm on disability from my time in the military. I don't have the money to create unless I have Kickstarter. Without it I just could not make comics.
Get the Scoop on Lesly and Doug
BM: What are some things that y'all do in your spare time when not making comics?
LJ: Lately I've been learning how to draw. It's as frustrating as it is fun.
DW: Oh no, all I do is make comics. Forgive meeeee!
BM: How do each of you break free of a creative block?
LJ: Tried and true methods like doing other things I enjoy, such as watching movies or reading comics. Working on other projects. Bouncing ideas off my wife is usually helpful; she tends to have the outsider perspective I need when I'm too close to a project to see solutions for myself.
DW: I don't do this for any other show, but I watched the Venture Bros director's commentary. One of the two writers discussed writing something else with the same characters to try to take your mind away from not doing the thing you are meant to. You reconnect with the joy of the characters and usually that unlocks what they should be doing next in the story.
BM: What are y'all working on lately?
LJ: I have shorts in Big Hype Vol 2 and Off Into the Sunset anthologies due out next year. I have a one-shot that is a revamped version of an old short called Rogue Marketing. I'm still deep in the middle of script revision but I hope to find an artist for it next year. Headcases, a crime thriller I co-wrote with AJ O. Mason with art by Paulo Sampaio, colors by Warnia Sahadewa, and letters by Micah Myers will hopefully go to Kickstarter next year.
DW: Too much forgive me. Next is In The Pale Moonlight with Max Morressi, which I describe as what if Batman was locked in a closed room with 6 other versions of himself and then one is murdered. How can the other solve the mystery when they are all on the same playing field? Then next is Big Hype 2, which is an anthology similar to Shonen Jump. Then a test one-shot called The Last Villain with Umair Khan. Another one-shot called The Devil's Bastard. And so many more on the docket. I have a comic-making addiction.
BM: Can readers expect more from y'all and SAVAGE WIZARD?
LJ: Savage Wizard # 1 will be fulfilled Spring 2022 fingers crossed. Doug and I are working on the script for #2 as we speak ;) so more Savage Wizard in 2022 if we're lucky!
BM: So exciting. Let’s hope we’re all so lucky!
Dear readers, be sure to follow Lesly Julien, Doug Wood, and their fellow creators linked above to stay updated with their work and more from SAVAGE WIZARD!