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With the release of the\u00a0MPLS Sound<\/em>\u00a0graphic novel\u00a0out this week from Humanoids, we are delighted to be joined by co-writers Joseph Illidge, Hannibal Tabu and artist Meredith Laxton for a chat.<\/span><\/p>\n Hi Joseph, Hannibal and Meredith we are so happy that we have all of you here with us today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We would love to start by finding out a bit more about yourselves, would you please introduce yourselves to our readers.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n JI: Thanks so much! I started in comics at Milestone Media, Inc., the creators of the first mainstream multicultural superhero universe and \u201cStatic Shock\u201d, moved over to Gotham City and the Batman Editorial group for the birth of Cassandra Cain, The Batgirl. Worked for Lion Forge, Archaia, A Wave Blue World, Valiant, and now Heavy Metal as the Executive Editor.<\/span><\/p>\n Advocate for diverse representation in comics. Foodie. Sharp Dresser. Husband of Big Barda. No, really. My wife is a warrior who can kick Parademon ass.<\/span><\/p>\n HT: I\u2019m an award winning journalist, novelist, comic book writer, poet and DJ who has worked professionally in the entertainment space since the Hieroglyphics got going. I\u2019ve written for Aspen Comics, Top Cow, Comic Book Resources, Bleeding Cool, and many other places. In other arenas, I\u2019ve built web experiences for American Honda, Kaiser Permanente, Toyota Motor Sales and lots of other corporate and smaller clients. I live in Los Angeles with my wife and two children. My main focus has been decolonizing the comics space with perspectives and quality stories often untold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ML: Hello! Thanks for having us. I\u2019m Meredith and I\u2019m a full-time comic artist and illustrator. MPLS Sound is my very first full-length graphic novel and I am really honored to have been part of the team.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph and Hannibal, can you tell us a little bit about how the two of you originally got together as a creative team?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n JI: Hannibal was the first member of the MPLS Sound team, and I was brought on to build on the groundwork he laid through his experiences and extensive knowledge of music history.<\/span><\/p>\n HT: With Fabrice Sapolsky, I laid out a lot of the framework. I\u2019m a huge fan of the old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, so every character has a gigantic write up that informs their choices in the plot and how they look at things. Fabrice had a very specific aesthetic he wanted, and Humanoids likewise had specific things they wanted, so they smushed me together with Joe into a writing version of Voltron 2, remember the weird one with six arms? Anyway, that was us, and off we went.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joseph and Hannibal, could you tell us about the origin of the\u00a0MPLS Sound<\/em>\u00a0graphic novel?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n JI: Humanoids, the Publisher, and more specifically the book\u2019s founding editor Fabrice Sapolsky brought me on board to join the team and galvanize the story of Starchild, a fictional band competing to become Prince\u2019s band instead of The Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n HT: Out of the blue, Fabrice Sapolsky contacted me and asked me to come to the Humanoids offices. I took the morning off work and did so, and when I sat down in the conference room, Fabrice asked me to sign an NDA. I shrugged and did that too. Then he outlines this big new superhero vibe Humanoids was gonna do with\u00a0Omni\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Ignited\u00a0<\/em>and how the plan was going to revolutionize the space. I got very excited and said that all sounded amazing. Fabrice said, \u201cGreat, forget about all that.\u201d I was very confused.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, Fabrice talked to me about his deep passion for the Prince-flavored musical legacy of Minneapolis from the early 1980s. He talked to me about doing an original graphic novel set in that era, brushing up against Prince the way people experienced tornadoes in my hometown of Memphis. We talked about the politics of who got the spotlight and who didn\u2019t, which led to a lot of research that reinforced our loose suspicions, and we were off to the races.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Meredith, when you first hear the pitch for\u00a0MPLS Sound<\/em>,\u00a0what did you think?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n M: Initially, I wasn\u2019t allowed to know which prominent musical artist was going to be featured in the book until I signed an NDA. Oh my god, I was so excited when the editor told me it was Prince. I could not ask for a better book to cut my teeth on. I had actually been working on my own Prince-inspired project, so I was in the perfect headspace and everything.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n JI: The story takes place during the Eighties Minneapolis music scene for which Prince became the tip of the spear, the pebble dropped in the pond leaving ripple effects continuing to manifest into our present. Theresa Booker is the leader of Starchild, a band fighting against the tide of the white male-dominated rock scene with their skills, heart, and their unique mix of backgrounds. Theresa\u2019s a determined Black woman who goes through a personal journey that tests her endurance and integrity.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a story of funk, soul, joy, sadness, little victories, anger, music, love, and that Purple vibe from The Purple One.<\/span><\/p>\n HT: The best thing I can say is that you can get it now, because I\u2019ve literally been avoiding talking about it in detail for years. It\u2019s a very hard secret to keep, and I kept wearing Prince t-shirts to conventions (back in the before times, when we had conventions) but nobody ever got the joke. Ah well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That said, this is a tale of defining success for yourself and working to achieve it, even in the face of structural and personal opposition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Meredith, to make the look of the world authentic, what reference materials did you use?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n M: I binged a ton of music videos from that era and explored a lot of music that I hadn\u2019t known much about until then. I also had the opportunity to go through a plethora of old photographs of my dad and his siblings from that era and that gave me a lot of inspiration for the characters.<\/span><\/p>\n Joseph and Hannibal, what can you tell us about Starchild?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n JI: They\u2019re a band of musicians from different walks of life, backgrounds, and ethnicities, all brought together by one goal crystallized by the dreams of one woman.<\/span><\/p>\n In another timeline, Starchild would have been The Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n MPLS Sound is the story of how and why that was not their destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n HT: \u201cStay tuned for Starchild,\u201d from the Parliament song \u201cMake My Funk The P-Funk,\u201d would have felt like an invitation to Theresa, I figured. She was trying to make the presence and vibe the world needed to tune into, to represent and decolonize a musical scene in a very similar way to Prince, but with fewer weapons in her arsenal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Meredith, has it been a challenge creating the characters and the world they inhabit in the\u00a0MPLS Sound<\/em>\u00a0graphic novel?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n M: Surprisingly not so much. Both writers were very gracious to provide me with reference imagery whenever they had something specific in mind and most of the notable locations from the book can be found via Google maps. I have never been to Minneapolis myself, but I found out that you can actually go inside the First Avenue\/7th st entry music venue with Google street view and look around with the 360 camera and go backstage. It\u2019s really cool.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph and Hannibal, how did Humanoids get involved in the\u00a0MPLS Sound\u00a0<\/em>graphic novel?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n JI: Humanoids is the Publisher of MPLS Sound, so they\u2019re the nucleus, origin point, radioactive spider of the equation. Their imprint, Life Drawn, is about real people and stories that live within and alongside history, and we\u2019re honored to be a part of their mission for distinction of story and voice with MPLS Sound.<\/span><\/p>\n HT: From what I understand, there is a whole line of graphic novels the company wants to produce that are of a very high literary quality, to introduce work that can elevate the discourse. This was one such project, and while I was there, Fabrice showed me so many things\u2026 and now I think about it, I don\u2019t know how much of that I\u2019m allowed to talk about. I\u2019m going to stop talking now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meredith, do you have a favourite character that you like to draw?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n M: I enjoyed drawing Theresa so much. I felt such a connection to her, her journey, her relationship to her dad, everything. Every concert scene you could tell that she was really singing her heart out and I absolutely love drawing those moments. Designing her stage wardrobe was also a lot of fun and I got to explore clothing options that, maybe, I might be brave enough to wear someday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph and Hannibal, how did Tan Shu, Troy Peteri, Ryan Lewis and Jen Bartel join the team?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n HT: Jen was discussed very early on, as she\u2019s from Minneapolis, and her work is so freaking dazzling. Fabrice wanted her to be involved from almost the beginning. I have known Troy for years, and I presume the high quality and reliability of his work were the selling points. I can\u2019t speak beyond that.<\/span><\/p>\n JI: All credit goes to the Humanoids editorial group for bringing together our dream team. Tan\u2019s color is beautiful, from the very first page. Troy and Ryan are the narrative aesthetic gurus. Jen Bartel is a leader in the industry, so having her create such an iconic, evocative cover for MPLS Sound is nothing short of awesome and heartwarming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph and Hannibal, if readers what to see more of Starchild in the future, would that be possible?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n JI: Anything\u2019s possible! If readers want to see more of Theresa and Starchild after this story, let Humanoids know!<\/span><\/p>\n HT: To paraphrase the philosopher Christopher Wallace, if the check\u2019s right, I\u2019ll be there err\u2019night. There\u2019s a lot of timeline that didn\u2019t get covered, and a LOT of Minneapolis-based musical things we didn\u2019t get time to cover, so if the demand is there, the words will likely rise to meet it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n HT: Thank you for reading, thank you for your interest, thank you for supporting the work in a time when you clearly could do other things. We appreciate you!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n M: If you pick up the book, I really hope you enjoy it! A lot of love and hard work went into making it a reality and I\u2019ll be so happy to see it hitting the shelves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JI: Read MPLS Sound. Feel good. Get funky. Fight for your dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n We would like to say thank you to Joseph, Hannibal and Meredith for taking the time to chat with us, we wish them the best of luck with their new project. The\u00a0MPLS Sound<\/em>\u00a0graphic novel\u00a0out this week from Humanoids.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>","post_title":"ComicBuzz Chats With The MPLS Sound Team","post_excerpt":"Graphic novel","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"comicbuzz-chats-with-the-mpls-sound-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-10-08 15:54:48","post_modified_gmt":"2022-10-08 14:54:48","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/comicbuzz.com\/?p=206153","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":206022,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2021-03-10 15:40:02","post_date_gmt":"2021-03-10 15:40:02","post_content":" We got a chance to sit with Eisner nominated writer\/artist Ibrahim Moustafa to talk about his upcoming graphic novel Count from Humanoids. He is best know for his work on Jaeger and High Crimes but has worked on numerous titles including James Bond, Mother Panic, Moon Knight and Guardians of the Galaxy to name just a few of the titles he has worked on.<\/span><\/p>\n Hi Ibrahim we are so delighted to have you here with us today, we have been fans of your work since your High Crimes comic with Christopher Sebela. We are so happy that you are here to chat with us today.<\/span><\/p>\n Thanks so much for having me, and for the kind words!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before we talk about your new graphic novel Count, can we just step back a little bit and talk about you signing a three-book deal with Humanoids, can you tell us how the deal came about?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Count was actually how it came about, haha. I had pitched the book to Humanoids, and we had developed a really great working relationship, and when we were about 2\/3 of the way through, Mark Waid and editor Rob Levin presented me with the idea of signing an overall deal for Count and two more books. It was a very good email to receive, haha.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Your new graphic novel Count which is out on the 16th of March it's an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, what made you want to adapt Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I love stories about justice and revenge, and I've really loved the story of Edmond Dantes for a long time. It's the ultimate story of comeuppance, and I realized it was incredibly fertile ground for a reimagining of this scale. There are also a lot of themes in the original that are sadly still relevant today; classism, wrongful imprisonment, governmental corruption... I wanted to amplify some of that by putting it through a new lens that highlights the fact that whether it's 200 years ago in France, or in this adjacent sci-fi world I've created, they're issues that affect us all.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What has it been like working with Humanoids?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Great!<\/span><\/p>\n When did you start working on Count?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I had the idea to adapt it back in 2017, and then I began the process of slowly developing it in my head for a while as I did various other projects, and then I went back to it in earnest in 2018 and started chipping away at character designs. I pitched it in early 2019, and then started working on it full time in the summer of that year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Brad Simpson and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are both working with you on the Count, how did they join the project?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hass and I have been online friends for a handful of years, and I had been chomping at the bit to collaborate with him on something. So when the opportunity came up I was thrilled that we were able to ask him to join this project. Brad and I had a lot of mutual friends in comics and so I was familiar with him and his work, and when it was time to find the right colorist for the book, his work was 100% what the book needed. And luckily, he was available at the time!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n During the adaption process is there any part of the process that you enjoy the most, the layout of the pages, pencilling, inking?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I actually came to the realization recently that my favorite part is always the step that I'm about to do next. Then when I'm doing it, I can't wait to get to the\u00a0next<\/strong>\u00a0step, because then\u00a0that<\/strong>\u00a0step is my favorite part, haha. If I had to choose though, I think penciling is my favorite. It's often the most relaxing (unless I keep messing up a face and having to redraw it over and over).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Before you signed your deal with Humanoids, what did you think about them as a publisher?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Humanoids is a publisher that I think people discover when their taste in, and love of, the comics medium and what it has to offer elevates to the next level, and they begin to go deeper into the rabbit hole. For me personally, I got into comics, I read a bunch of the excellent superhero books that are available, and then I went \"okay, what's next? What else is out there?\" and that's when I discovered Humanoids.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How would you describe Count?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Count is a story about revenge, retribution, and revolution, with cool sword fights, and robots.<\/span><\/p>\n What has it been like working on Count?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Incredibly fun and very exhausting, haha.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have a favourite scene from Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I really love the scene where Albert has challenged Edmond to a duel, and Edmond in a display of prowess, shoots a bullet through the ace of spades on a playing card. It was a cool way to show how much he had honed himself over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n We would love to know what comics are you currently reading?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I recently tore through several volumes of\u00a0The Undertaker<\/em>\u00a0by Ralph Meyer and Xavier Dorison from Europe Comics. It's a really cool western about a traveling undertaker who is more than he appears to be. I also recently finished\u00a0Hawkeye: Freefall<\/em>\u00a0by Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt, which was maybe the funniest comic I've ever read, and very good.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"mplssound11\"](\"http:\/\/comicbuzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/mplssound11-763x1024.jpeg\")
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Joseph and Hannibal, what can you tell us about the\u00a0MPLS Sound\u00a0<\/em>graphic novel?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"mplssound13\"](\"http:\/\/comicbuzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/mplssound13-763x1024.jpeg\")
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Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"count-14\"](\"http:\/\/comicbuzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/count-14-656x1024.jpeg\")
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