2021 saw the beginnings of a new tokusatsu inspired super hero comic, Inferno Girl Red. Funded through Kickstarter, the first volume was an immediate success, and was quickly reaching its goals. The book, featuring script from Matt Groom, and art from Erica D'Urso and Igor Monti, combined the best parts of teen high school drama and character driven story with the action, adventure, and excitement of Japanese tokusatsu entertainment. And this year the first book made its way to comic shops, giving an even larger audience a chance to enjoy the series.
And now it's time for the second book in the Inferno Girl Red series. As previously, Matt Groom has offered fans the opportunity to back the book via Kickstarter, complete with the chance to own an exclusive version of the book, along with a host of other extras such as art prints, and the opportunity to be in the book itself.
I got the chance to chat with Matt about the new Kickstarter, and book two.
Thank you for taking the time to chat about Inferno Girl Red book two, and the Kickstarter.
Of course! It’s always a delight to chat with you, Amy!
The first Inferno Girl Red book launched to huge success, your Kickstarter went really well, and it went on to have an Image Comics release. Did that inspire confidence going into the second book, or did it create a feeling of pressure of having to live up to the first book?
It probably should have inspired some level of confidence? Maybe I’m just not wired that way, though.
The community response from our first Kickstarter was really overwhelming, people who have read the first book have reached out to say just the nicest things, it felt very validating and rewarding to have the physical books in my hands… but I’m also very aware of the (sometimes harsh) realities of publishing, marketing and… well, life.
So while I’m extremely confident in the book, and always have been– I believe wholeheartedly in the story we’re telling, and I’m constantly amazed at the talent of my collaborators– I never take any wins for granted or take any next steps as assumed. At least at this stage, we’re still very much at point where any success is hard won and reliant on at least some good fortune. So yeah, I feel the pressure, I worry. But I also believe it’s a journey worth embarking on. (Again.)
The first IGR book did a fantastic job at creating the world and establishing a history for the characters, have you already planned out a lot of the history for the IGR universe, and if so will readers be learning more about it this time round?
Well, thank you! Yes, I had a lot of the world-building stuff figured out (beyond what is textually in Book One) very early. I think it’s important to work that way, to have lore and logic constructed a few layers deeper than you actually need in the moment, so you have the strongest story foundations for later.
And yes, readers will absolutely discover more in Book Two! It’s a careful balance, we don’t want to bury readers in lore and background details immediately after the introductory book, but I also think a key ingredient of the series is keeping Cássia on the back foot a lot of the time. So just when she feels like she’s getting a handle on things, there’s more to learn, more to reckon with, more to challenge her. So Cássia and readers alike will learn a bit more about her allies, and the legacy of the Inferno Girl– but also more about the forces aligned against her and her friends.
Cássia is new to being a hero in the first book, and is very much discovering her powers and skills. Will she have improved much by the time book two starts, or is she still very much figuring things out? And if so what made you choose to focus on an inexperienced hero?
I guess tying into that last question a bit, Cássia will undoubtedly be a bit more experienced, and bit more confident – but she will very quickly be coming up against challenges that throw all of that into question.
In some ways, like many of coming-of-age stories, there’s an allegory for becoming an adult here– in your teens you have to master so many things so quickly, but the new things pile on as fast (or faster) than you can reasonably deal with them. And I think Cássia’s story doesn’t just represent a stereotypical teenage experience, but what it’s like to come of age now– when it feels like the whole world is coming apart at the seams, and prior generations (who largely created the world-threatening problems) are looking to you to fix them.
So, yes, Cássia will continue to be inexperienced, in the sense that we’re all inexperienced when we’re thrust towards new challenges. But each new challenges will shape her development and build her sense of self.
The first book introduced The Griffin for Cássia to go up against, a more human and intelligent leader for the monsters attacking the city. Will she be getting a new ‘boss’ type adversary in the new book, and if so are you able to tease any details about them?
I can tease a little, sure! So we won’t be getting a new human antagonist in Book Two– we’ll be getting two! And they’re twins!
Specifically, a brother/sister team, around Cássia’s age, who– until very recently– attended Cássia’s school. But how much trouble could two teenage siblings cause, right?
Well, they’re going to turn Cássia’s world upside down, and put Apex through a reign of terror like never before…
The first book gave Cássia the beginnings of a decent support group around her, helping her in her mission. Do you prefer to have larger casts of characters, even if they’re not heroes in the field, over something like a lone character?
I always love a supporting cast. Even my first creator-owned work, SELF/MADE, which had exactly three recurring characters in the book (including the antagonist!) was built around the relationship between the protagonist and the deuteragonist.
I think it’s because… in some ways, we’re only what we are to each other, you know? What we mean to each other, what we do to each other, what we owe to each other. And as much as I understand that it’s important to maintaining our healthy sense of self, I do think our perception of ourselves as individuals is something of an illusion. In ways grand and small, at societal, communal and personal levels, we’re so shaped by each other (and so powerfully shape each other) that I think it’s more honest to look at ourselves as fuzzy nodes in a profoundly-complex, layered series of interlocking systems… and the points at which I stop and you begin is much more nebulous than we like to pretend.
So a strong, fleshed out supporting cast is simply my preference, but I also think it’s the only way to authentically represent our humanity in storytelling.
Are there any themes and ideas that you’re looking to explore with the series that come into play in the second book? Some fans picked out some subtle hints at LGBTQ+ representation and romance with some of the characters, for example.
Absolutely. There’s a whole lot to our cast, our storytelling objectives and our world’s history that we only subtly planted tiny seeds for in the first book, so as to not overwhelm readers in the first volume. But all of that will unfurl as we continue.
As much as INFERNO GIRL RED has a background of oppressive darkness, Apex and our heroes are the contrast to that– an optimistic vision of what we can be as the best version of ourselves. And it’s our firm belief that the most optimistic version of our future is a diverse and inclusive future. And a future with a bit of romance, of course!
You and Erica have created a really cool, incredibly designed world, and I love how the Helix campus looks and it feels like a place you’d want to live; and the monster designs are both frightening and beautiful. What’s the creative process like between the two of you, and was it different working together a second time round?
Particularly in terms of design, it’s very free form and it’s very Erica-led. I’ll speak to her about the story importance of the character, setting or element in question– what I think it means and how I think it should feel– and then Erica takes that and does something incredible with it. Sometimes we’ll go back-and-forth a bit to finalize the design, but that’s always about feeling out a subtle nuance of direction, because every design I’ve ever seen her do is genuinely incredible.
We’ve (thankfully) always had a very easy collaborative dynamic, so I don’t think too much has changed, except that maybe we know each other better, which saves some time– I have a better idea on how to write to Erica’s exceptional strengths, and I suspect she finds it easier to understand what I’m trying to express now.
Is there anything new that you feel Erica really knocked it out of the park with and are excited for readers to see?
Oh, so much! Most of which I can’t bring myself to spoil. But honestly, every new page is a delight. Like, on the very first page, I wrote as a small detail that Inferno Girl Red flies close to a building, and we see her mirrored back by the reflection on the glass. A tiny, unremarkable thing, right? But Erica (and our colorist Igor Monti!) made it look so damn cool that I genuinely gasped a little when I saw it.
But in Book Two there are some big things, some very-important-to-the-lore things and some iconic locations that we’ll see for the first time, and I can’t wait for you all to see how Erica brings them to life.
IGR has appeared outside of her own book in the first Supermassive, are there any more plans for her to pop up in other places, or are you concentrating more on her own title at the moment?
It’s a balance. Our mission with IGR was that it always remained excessively straightforward and self-contained– to get Cássia’s story, you never have to do anything more than read Book One, Book Two, and so on.
But having a connection to the Massive-Verse allows us to do additional things with Cássia that are really fun, like having her appear in Supermassives or having her (and the Griffin!) be playable characters in the upcoming Massive-Verse card game. So as long as those things never feel mandatory and never derail the core story, we absolutely plan on continuing that. It’s just too much fun not to!
If the Kickstarter goes well are there plans for further volumes of the series?
We’d absolutely love to continue, yes. Tying into what I said at the start, we never want to take it for granted or assume it’s going to happen– but it’s our intention to continue if we’re able. We have a large, overarching story in mind, with a lot of exciting destinations we’d love to reach one day.
Finally, if you had to sum up the second book in one sentence to convince people to back it, how would you describe it?
Oooh, okay. One sentence. Let’s see. I’d probably go with “It’s about finding hope when you can’t succeed, finding romance when you’re not looking for it, and finding compassion when it feels like there’s none left – all wrapped up a blistering, action-packed, explosive and expressive superhero epic.”
I hope it’s not cheating to use that much punctuation. >.>
If you're interested in backing Inferno Girl Red Book Two make sure to check out the Kickstarter!
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