With the Kickstarter campaign live for Rick and Morty 10th Anniversary Deluxe Omnibus Library from Oni Press, we are delighted to be joined by Kyle Starks and Troy Little. Kyle is a comic creator and a three-time Eisner nominated. Troy Little is an artist, writer and publisher.
Hi Kyle and Troy, it’s great having you both here with us.
Could you please introduce yourselves to our readers?
TL: Hello! I’m Troy Little, comic artist / writer / publisher at Pegamoose Press. I’ve worked on projects like The Powerpuff Girls, adapted Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, done a fair share of Rick & Morty comics as well as my creator owned books like the Angora Napkin series, Chiaroscuro, and Butterfly House (with Brenda Hickey). I have lost numerous Eisners and awards to far more talented people. That’s fine, awards make you weak.
KS: Hey I’m Kyle Starks, a three time Eisner nominated comic creator and the longest tenured writer in the history of the Rick and Morty comic series! I have a slew of creator owned works fans of Rick and Morty would almost surely enjoy and I, recently, most notably, wrote the Peacemaker: Tries Hard series.
When did you first discover Rick and Morty?
TL: At first I dismissed Rick & Morty (based on YouTube clips) as just another poorly drawn improv cartoon trying to be edgy. It wasn’t until I sat down and watched a few episodes that the show began to click. Once the show got its legs it can be pretty damn clever, and the amount of design that goes into creating this multiverse is truly insane.
KS: I’ve been a big Dan Harmon fan since The Ben Stiller Show and Community is an all-time favorite. When I saw this new cartoon he was working on I -like Troy – was like “what is this awful looking thing?” But I watched Season 1 right after it wrapped up on the Adult Swim website on a lark and fell in love with it.
How did you get involved with the Rick and Morty comic?
TL: Jim Zub was gunning for me to be the artist on the Rick & Morty VS Dungeons & Dragons miniseries he was writing with Patrick Rothfuss. This is actually what spurred me into really looking at the show to see if it was a good fit for me. Turned out it was and we kept on rolling with a sequel and followed up with the legit madness of Rick & Morty VS Cthulhu.
KS: I was asked by Oni to do five issues starting after issue 10. At the time that was the plan – to bring in a different cartoonist every five issues to work on the book. I did a good enough job the showrunners asked if I would do five more. After that they said “let him do it as long as he wants to.” That ended up being a 48 issue run!
Do you have a favourite character from Rick and Morty?
TL: I like the contrast of playing the two main characters off one another as they have a really interesting dynamic. Rick is fun because he can behave in such extremes, so you can get really creative with that. The worst thing is drawing Morty’s hair blob. It’s oddly difficult to make that thing look right.
KS: It’s tough to pick just one! I love all of them, honestly. Summer is a real comic series favorite for sure – we all loved writing her, but Rick is the center of everything and so much fun so it has to be Rick, I think.
What has it been like working with Oni Press?
TL: Oni has been fantastic. My editor Bess Pallares (also my editor on Cult of the Lamb) has been super supportive and a very loud cheerleader of my work, which I appreciate! She’s gone to bat for us numerous times and steers the ship in what is often very turbulent waters. I’ve had nothing but a blast working with them.
KS: Oni was one of my very first publishers in the comic industry and I had a long, wonderful relationship with them for years and years and I’m honored and thrilled to be working with them again. They’re great!
Do you have a favourite episode of Rick and Morty?
TL: “Rick Potion #9” was the episode that hooked me on the series and showed me the clever potential the show had. It was after that I knew I was fully on board to work on the comics.
KS: With so many great episodes it’s so hard to pick just one favorite. The first episode I saw – the one that made me really go “what is this?” was Meeseeks and Destroy (Season 1, Episode 5) so it’s a sentimental favorite, I think. The first two seasons are, honestly, perfect television. I really like Ricklantis Mixup for how much lore escalation it did and a bunch of great characters and bits.
What can you tell us about The Unreprintable Rick & Morty?
TL: I should let Kyle reveal what he will do story-wise about this exclusive little tale but I will say I had a hoot going full “Duck Amok” with Rick & Morty in the comics medium and jam packing a whole mess of dimension hopping madness in there.
KS: I can tell you this is the ONLY way you’ll ever get it. It will only exist in this Kickstarter this one time! So it’s MEGA COLLECTIBLE OOOH WEE! I can also tell you that I wrote a million issues of Rick and Morty and it’s the one story I never got to do. And in the backup we sort of answer the question about what came after my last issue and let Troy (like he said) have a lot of fun with some comic book formalism. Wait, too many words – all you need to know is it’s SO MUCH RICK AND MORTY FUN!
Do you have a favourite Kickstarter reward?
TL: I haven’t seen all the tier options yet, but if there’s an ultra-rare, die-cut, glow-in-the-dark, scratch-and-sniff, holographic foil edition of The Unreprintable then that’s my favorite.
KS: I don’t know any of the rewards yet, either. But I know you get a whole giant pile of great Rick and Morty comics that are going to blow your mind if you’re a Rick and Morty fan. So many fans of the show don’t even know there is a comic and I think so many are going to be blown away by how similar in quality to the show the comics are.
Can you tell us what other projects you are currently working on?
TL: I’m about to begin work on the Cult of the Lamb follow up series and I can not wait! It’s such a brilliantly written series by Alex Paknadel and the game design is so much fun to illustrate in comic form.
KS: I am wrapping up my newest series THOSE NOT AFRAID about two serial killers competing to break the state record for murders and have a bunch of exciting upcoming things I can’t talk about yet!
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
TL: This box set is going to have you dimension hopping for a while so keep your portal gun handy and thanks for supporting the Kickstarter!
KS: Hey you can’t say it any better than that. If you’re a real fan of Rick and Morty you HAVE to have the Kickstarter box set. DON’T MISS OUT and STAY SCHWIFTY! Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!
We would like to say a big thank you to Kyle and Troy for chatting with us, and we wish them the best of luck with the release of Rick and Morty 10th Anniversary Deluxe Omnibus Library.
Feel free to check out the Rick and Morty 10th Anniversary Deluxe Omnibus Library Kickstater campaign.
