Inferno Girl Red - Mat Groom Interview

 

In 2021 I spoke to comic writer Mat Groom, who has worked on comics such as Ultraman, Mighty Morphin, and Self/Made, about his upcoming graphic novel, Inferno Girl . This new tokusatsu inspired series, with art by Erica D'Urso and Igor Monti, introduced readers to an exciting new world and some amazing new characters (check out my review for the book here). Having initially been released via Kickstarter, the Foundation Edition of the book was incredibly well received. However, being released via Kickstarter meant that not everyone had the chance to check out his fantastic series. Luckily, Inferno Girl Red is coming to general release as three individual issues fro Image Comics.

I got the chance to talk to Mat again about what it was like producing the Kickstarter campagin, and the journey to bringing IGR to comic shops.

Hi Mat, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions with me again. We last spoke when Inferno Girl Red was getting ready for her Kickstarter campaign; so my first question would be what was that process like? Having to organise everything yourself I’m sure there were a number of challenges you had to face along the way? 

Oh, yeah—it was all challenge! A lot of lessons learned, too. And it wasn’t just related to standard comic creation—because we had such an extensive and diverse range of reward tiers, there was lining up artists to do prints, figuring out how to get full-sized replica helmets sent around the world, figuring out how to do an ash-can mini comic… And then there was the Kickstarter element of it all, figuring out how much to share and when, to make sure backers were kept updated whilst maintaining realistic expectations, but also not giving away all of the story ahead of time. Thankfully, our community of backers was incredibly supportive and enthusiastic, which meant the world to us as we navigated the Kickstarter waters for the first time.

The Kickstarter campaign seemed to go very well for you in terms of public reaction and the number of people who took part. Were you ever nervous that the reaction wouldn’t have been as strong, and were you pleased with how it went?

Are you kidding, I was only nervous! I was 100% entirely comprised of nervousness, down to the cellular level. I think because there was so much on the line—we’d put so much work and effort in, were so invested, I think it would’ve been crushing if it didn’t work out. I think we had done everything we could have to prepare, we’d really hustled on PR (with the assistance of our friends at Superfan Promotions), I believed wholeheartedly in the book and the team… but you can never really know, you know? At a certain point, you just have to make the leap into the unknown. But I couldn’t be more delighted by (and appreciative of) the response. Hitting our funding goal so quickly took the pressure off fast, and then just the energy and enthusiasm of everyone… the fan art, the speculation, the general hype… I feel tremendously fortunate and privileged to have IGR’s journey begin that way.

When we last spoke you were singing the praises of your art team on IGR, talking about how wonderful Erica D’urso was. In the back of the Foundation Edition book there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff with Erica talking about the various stages of designing the characters and the world of the book. What was it like working with Erica from inception to getting the book out there?

One of the best experiences of my career. That backmatter you’re referring to shows just how much work Erica put in, how many different routes we explored… and jamming with Erica on that stuff was so creatively fulfilling. I think because she’s so passionate and detail-focused, and such a deft hand at worldbuilding, it’d only take a few words from me for a whole new person to arrive fully formed and totally unique from Erica. And she brought so much of herself to it, her innate sense of style and her nuanced sense of emotion radiates from all of these characters.

We spoke a little last time about how IGR draws nspiration from Tokusatsu heroes, and since then you’ve done a six issue run on Mighty Morphin, have produced a Power Rangers story for the new collection, and made two more series of Ultraman. It’s safe to say that this is a genre of storytelling that appeals to you. What is it about Tokusatsu stories and characters that seems to keep drawing you back to them, and do you think that they offer different challenges to other comic writing?

To me, tokusatsu kind of encapsulates my favourite thing about fiction—taking big, earnest, meaningful ideas, and then expressing them in the wildest, most creative, most vivid ways possible. Obviously there’s so much style there, but to me the key is how earnest it is at its core. I’ve talked about this before, but I had a real lightbulb moment when watching KAMEN RIDER BUILD—which is a show about the inescapable consequences of developing weapons of war, no matter how pure your intentions (and doesn’t shy away from the intensity of those consequences AT ALL)… but, also, it’s a show where the hero can fuse the essence of a helicopter and a rose to become a dual rose/helicopter themed superhero. Both of those elements co-exist, and are in fact empowered by each other… and there’s no self-consciousness about it. It’s brave enough to push any and all ideas to their strange and delightful limits.

I think that relates to the challenge element you asked about, too. To me, the bad version of doing something inspired by tokusatsu is to mimic the aesthetics but not engage with how tokusatsu stories are different to Western genre narratives. Tokusatsu has so much that superhero stories in particular can learn from—including how to break way from perpetual status quos, and how to incorporate progressive ideas by infusing them with wondrous, fantastical elements. So I think the challenge is making sure that when you look to tokusatsu for inspiration, it’s not a surface-level consideration.

Inferno Girl Red is coming to comic shops through Image Comics now, offering even more people the chance to read the book. What was the process like going from independently publishing the book to being published through Image, and was the popularity of the Kickstarter something that helped with that?

We were fortunate enough to have locked down that arrangement shortly before the Kickstarter launched, which I’m sure helped us tremendously. In a lot of ways, this is the only way IGR could have existed—because we were so insistent on doing it as a graphic novel first-and-foremost, that’s incredibly hard to fund, especially for a relatively-unknown creative team. But our incredible Kickstarter supporters gave us the funding to develop the whole story, and then Image helped us with the infrastructure to get that story to the wider market. I’m so thankful to be at Image, with IGR—because Image affords us total creative control and IP ownership, which was a must for us. Erica, myself and Igor put so much into IGR, both in the book and beyond, because we know we’re the ones who benefit from whatever we put in, and we know that nobody is going to come in and tell us to do it differently. It’s our story, we’re going fail or succeed on our own merits– which means we can diverge from traditional superhero storytelling in many ways, and Image enthusiastically affords us the freedom to do that.

Image Comics is the home of the Massive-verse, which IGR is a part of. Since starting with Radiant Black it’s continued to expand, introducing other Radiant characters, as well as The Dead Lucky, Rogue Sun, and IGR. How does adding more titles to the Massive-verse come about, are there some central folks who are in charge of that universe, or is it a more collaborative process?

It’s been a quite an organic process, to be honest! In the beginning, Kyle Higgins was developing RADIANT BLACK, I was developing INFERNO GIRL RED, and Ryan Parrott was developing ROGUE SUN—initially as entirely independent entities. But then Kyle pitches us the idea of them sharing a storytelling space, and we were into it. It was important to all of us that we entirely maintained our independence– nobody in the Massive-Verse tells anyone else what to do, all of the series read totally self-contained if readers only want to engage in one story… but the worlds collide every now and then in our SUPERMASSIVE specials, where we can see what happens when these quite different books start to overlap. Since then, as you mentioned, we’ve been joined by the immensely talented Melissa Flores (with her book THE DEAD LUCKY), and there have been RADIANT BLACK spin-offs which have brought in other creators, and now Kyle is doing another Massive-Verse book with NO/ONE… so the expansion has been rapid! I think what’s held everything together is my friend Michael Busuttil, who is the editor on most of the books… we call him “Mr. Massive-Verse”, because he’s the lynchpin that holds us all together. As I mentioned, there’s nobody “in charge”, all of the books are owned and run by their individual co-creators, the creators make the final calls on their own books… but Michael helps us stay co-ordinated and cohesive (at least where we need to).

With the series coming to Image, the ever expanding popularity of the Massive-verse, and the book leaving things open for more adventures from the character, are there plans to do more with Cassia?

Yes! >.> I guess I should provide a bit more an answer there. Um. Hm. Let me say this—Team IGR is INCREDIBLY invested in INFERNO GIRL RED. We adore the character, we adore the world, we love doing the book. So we’re going to go for as long as we feasibly can… and our plans for Cássia involve things that you might expect, and some… that you may not.

What are your hopes for the character and the series going forward, are there big plans for IGR and the other Massive-Verse characters that you’d love to see come to furition, or is it more a case of taking things one book at a time?

We have a big, long-term plan for IGR. That plan allows space for mingling with the rest of the Massive-Verse when those opportunities arise, but our core focus is IGR’s story as told through graphic novels. Now that Cássia and her world is established, we’re really excited to expand our her supporting cast, get to know very important characters like Harriette and Lillian better, and start to reveal some of the secrets we’ve layered into the story…

For those who haven’t tried any of the Massive-Verse titles yet, and who might be interested in seeing what Inferno Girl Red is like, how would you describe the book to them to win them over into picking it up? 

INFERNO GIRL RED: BOOK ONE is a graphic novel that’s inspired by Western superhero stories, Japanese tokusatsu storytelling and even a little bit by boarding school dramas. It tells the story of Cássia Costa. For a long time Cássia and her mother have barely been scraping by, bouncing from city to city as Cássia’s mother looks for work. But Cássia gets a big break when she gets an invite to a prestigious and progressive school in the near-utopian Apex City. Unfortunately, Cássia’s hope about things turning around for her are yanked away when an ancient cult and their army of demons rip Apex City out of our reality and cast it into darkness. To have any hope of saving it, and getting her life back on track, Cássia must survive the worst night of her embrace a secret legacy, and find the courage to fight when all seems lost—as the blazing light of hope in the dark, INFERNO GIRL RED! 

When making this book, Erica, Igor and I were trying to imagine how comics might (or should be) a few years into the future, and we tried to make that—it’s progressive, we think it’s a much more genuine look at how teenagers actually are today and the challenges they experience, and it’s extremely accessible! Even if this is your first ever comic book, we believe you’ll be able to dive right in and you’ll be hooked right away! So we’d love for you to take a chance on IGR!

You can find more information about Inferno Girl Red here at the Image Comics Website.

Check out more from Mat at his website.

If you're interested in picking up Inferno Girl Red make sure to talk to your local comic shop, or comic website, so that you don't miss out on this exciting new series!

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