Dan is a friend and has given me lots of advice regarding my comics. We cross-pollinate and share lots of talent. I was very excited about his latest adventure and invited him here to tell our readers all about Thunder Guard!
First Comics News: What inspired the creation of Thunder Guard?
Dan Sehn: The other creators and myself were having a lot of fun creating our shared universe but we knew we had to establish our own books a bit before some type of crossover. Beyond that, Kickstarter came into play where we were able to invite a few more to the party, and thus Thunder Guard was born.
1st: How does Thunder Guard stand out from Argo 5?
Dan: Argo 5 are all characters of my own creation. Thunder Guard is a multi-creator crossover involving Ezekiel Zhong-Han Azib’s Meta, Dan Hoins’ Thunder Woman, Jerry Hinds’ Singapore Sling, Francisco Zamora’s Vulcan, Damion R. Waldbrunn’s Realmer X, and my own Capitan Honduras. Thunder Guard Mission Director, Major Payne activates heroes whose abilities are best suited for the mission at hand and thus we can have an ever-changing line-up.
1st: Can you share some details about the core members of the Thunder Guard team?
Dan: Meta has an interesting backstory as he’s based on the creator’s own real-life Singapore pro-wrestling identity. We just released SupaCross #3 and Jerry describes her as a “hapless young hero of Singapore Sling, aka Crissy Lee – a low-achieving convent school girl”. Thunder Woman is the powerhouse of this line-up with a backstory rooted in mythology. She has a mortal form as well which lends itself to interesting story potential. Damion describes Realmer X’s story as Jheryd finding his way through the trials of teen angst while dodging those who would control him and his amazing abilities, all the while searching for his place and purpose. Capitan Honduras is a descendant of the Mayan god of war, Buluc Chabtan. He has super-strength and a solar attack not unlike Colossus had in the arcade game for anyone old enough to remember that, lol.
1st: Are all these the characters from existing Thunder Zone comics?
Dan: Singapore Sling, Vulcan, and Meta have appeared in previous Thunderzone releases (SupaCross, Junkyard Joe, and Chronicles of the Metaversal respectively). Thunder Woman has past appearances in Power Company from Coalition Comics. Realmer X had its own successfully funded Kickstarter and Thunderzone will re-release those issues. Capitan Honduras is a new creation debuting here.
1st: What can backers expect in terms of rewards or exclusive content for supporting this campaign?
Dan: At this point, Thunder Guard is exclusive to Kickstarter, and thus far, the Thunderzone Comics variant covers have not been offered beyond the initial campaign as our add-on category is already pretty stacked.
1st: Were there any particular challenges you faced while working with other creators’ characters?
Dan: Yes, writing other people’s characters as main characters rather than cameos does take an open line of communication. You want to get the characters right and give them all a proper spotlight which I believe we achieved here. We even included a full-page pin-up for each character at the end of the issue.
1st: How do you balance storytelling, action, and giving each character enough of a spotlight?
Dan: That’s the trick of good writing. Malcolm Gladwell said it takes 10,000 hours to master something and in my 23 years in comics and almost 20 years of Argo Comics, I have put in the hours to strike that balance.
1st: Can you share any teasers or insights about the villains in Thunder Guard?
Dan: Someone or something is out there threatening all that there is in the Omniverse/Metaverse/ Multiverse (depending on who you ask, lol). This particular mission is high stakes. Now the villainess trio in the Thunder Guard backup story in Junkyard Joe #2 is a bit more straightforward. They are after the magic pick of the Tommyknockers. These were tricksters, much like leprechauns, who reside in Colorado’s gold and silver mines. Cornish miners believed many an eerie underground noise was attributed to Tommyknockers, who also warned miners of impending disasters by knocking from inside the walls. The magic pick leads to Gold so it’s up to the assigned Thunder Guard agents to stop it from falling into the villains’ hands.
1st: What is your creative process when it comes to developing a superhero team dynamic?
Dan: I do try to put together a balanced team in aspects of personalities, powers, and visuals. I do feel it’s important to have a variety of power levels and proficiency between the teams though without making them all overpowered and undefeatable.
1st: Are there any real-world influences behind the characters in Thunder Guard?
Dan: Yes, Meta is based on his real-world pro-wrestler counterpart and he has had some cameos in his book from his fellow pro-wrestlers of Singapore in Chronicles of the Metaversal #1. Vulcan was influenced by the public domain character Vulcan but has nothing to do with real-world Leonard Nimoy, lol.
1st: What can backers expect in terms of variant covers?
Dan: We have our main cover by SupaCross creator Jerry Hinds with the variant done by the interior story team of artist Eduardo Vienna and colorist Téo Pinheiro. Both are fantastic and we have an awesome Gilbert Monsanto variant cover choice as our first stretch goal.
1st: Can you talk about the creative team working on Thunder Guard and their roles?
Dan: Aside from the character creators listed above, artist Eduardo Vienna, colorist Téo Pinheiro, and letterer Francisco Zamora really brought their A games to the project which I couldn’t be happier for as the series writer.
1st: What do you hope readers will take away from the Thunder Guard series?
Dan: The enjoyment of having experienced a great comic. There is undoubtedly an added level of enjoyment for those creators whose characters appear here and in the Thunder Guard backup story in Junkyard Joe #2 also available in this campaign.
1st: How long has Thunder Guard been in development? Can you share any behind-the-scenes stories from the creation of Thunder Guard?
Dan: The idea actually came about during our SupaCross campaign 4 years ago where we had a backer characters variant cover created. People wanted to see them in a book as a team so after the line-up was finalized the new book came into being.
1st: Are there any crossovers planned between Thunder Guard and Argo5?
Dan: Not at this point. There have been a couple of cross-dimensional cameos between Thunderzone and Argo Comics in the pages of Argo 5 and Pink Puma & Red Rooster but nothing on a large scale though. The idea did cross my mind after a recent post so you never know.
1st: Can you talk about the world-building in Thunder Guard and how it shapes the characters?
Dan: With a shared universe like the early Image Comics multi-studio set-up, the variety of books tends to help build the world. It’s just a matter of tying those events together and having story points carry over from book to book. We are still establishing the separate books though so much of this is not too evident yet. Thunder Guard is our first peek into tying things together.
1st: Do you have plans for future Thunder Guard stories or spin-offs?
Dan: Thunder Guard is more of a spin-off from the main line of comics but we do have the Thunder Guard back-up story in Junkyard Joe #2 from this campaign that is a stand-alone story that conceptually spins off of the main book.
1st: What is the minimum price for a digital copy?
Dan: $6
1st: What is the minimum price for a print copy?
Dan: $10 but we do have levels that shave a bit off including combined shipping.
1st: What is the URL for the campaign?
Dan: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dansehn/thunder-guard-1
1st: What makes Thunder Guard so cool, no true comic fan should miss this first issue.
Dan: Just look at the Kickstarter campaign page while playing Thunderstruck by AC/DC and you will know at that point that it is a comic that you can’t live without!
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