Kids can drive you crazy honestly. It isn’t called the “terrible two’s” for nothing and only gets worse as they age with the kicking, punching, and delusions of world domination. Co-creators writer Mark Andrew Smith (The Amazing Joy Buzzards) and artist Armand Villavert (Muppet Robin Hood) have created a world in Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors (a top pick of ours back in 2011) where these little titans of villainy get put through their paces at the prestigious Gladstone’s. Think Sky High but for younger kids…who are villains. The series is at the half-way mark and about to launch into a Kickstarter to finish the series. I touched base with Mark about where the book began and where it’s going.
ComicAttack: I love the concept of the book, what was the genesis of the idea?
Mark Andrew Smith: The genesis of Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors began with the title. From there we came up with a list of names and different classic villain archetypes. Many of these were from classic B movies and others followed different tropes from comic books, science fiction, classic TV shows, mythology, anime, and horror.
Armand did an initial round of sketches for the characters bringing them to life. Originally many of the students had generic or temporary names. We later decided that in the Gladstone’s universe many students have nicknames and after they graduate they are knighted with their ‘nom de plume’ or official super-villain names. Some of our current cast will get their official names later.
The book really started off with the short origin story of the school’s founder Ashu Gladstone and how he was a failed super-villain who turned to trying to teach and inspire others. His dream was stolen from him, but the school began and thrived really because he was out of the way. Once the origin story was finished we began with the day to day life of the students and their interactions with each other at Gladstone’s academy. From there the book grew and grew and the Gladstone’s universe expanded more and more.
CA: Cool. Yeah I get the feeling that some of the background of the villains have roots in classic archetypes, but Gladstone’s takes those concepts and turns them into something I haven’t seen before in a school for powered individuals and adds a mystery that plays into the idea of the never ending battle of Heroes and Villains. Can you give us a brief run down of the main cast, truth be told those Skull brothers are my favorites so far.
MAS: Kid Nefarious is a legacy villain with Dark Matter powers. His family’s line of villainy spans across generations. He has huge shoes to fill to live up to his parents’ legacy. Despite being a villain he comes from a very loving home environment. In a lot of way you can see him projecting who he thinks he needs to be at the academy and then at other times being completely authentic and normal as a human being. He also can’t ride his family’s coat tails. He needs to be able to stand on his own with his own accomplishments. In many ways he’s almost overeager to prove himself and tries too hard. He’s usually at his best when he let’s all of that go and is just a kid.
Martian Jones is a science villain based on the Martian Invaders from War of the Worlds and classic science fiction films. He’s not the most powerful. He uses his brain to handcraft most of his gadgets that give him the upper hand. When he’s bored in his science lair he’s making usually building an army of robot invaders. He’s best friends with Kid Nefarious.
Mummy Girl is a legacy villain whose parents come from the ancient tombs of Egypt. She can summon the powers of ancient Egyptian Gods who her family have crafted alliances with. She’s a magic villain in many ways. But that magic may be science that is so old and was lost that they just stopped understanding it.
Ghost Girl is Korean. She was inspired from a lot of Korean mythology such as Haetae, Dokkebi, the Ice Maidens, and the 9 tail foxes. She has elder spirits who guide and mentor her on her missions and she can often call upon their supernatural forms for her attacks. She’s best friends with Mummy Girl.
The Skull Brothers are loners and the wildcards of the series. They will usually kick the hornet’s nest. Their father was killed when they were younger and their mother is in a super-max prison for super-villains. Unlike Kid Nefarious, they don’t have any kind of loving home life or childhood. They had to grow up quickly. They’re like feral children who raised themselves. The Skull Brothers know much more than the other characters do about the world in which they live. Right now they’re foot soldiers, doing their mother’s work while she’s behind bars. The have mental attacks and engage in mind-warfare. They are actually more frightening when they take off their skull masks and you see their faces.
CA: Comic book superheroes and villains, as we come to know them, are hard baked into archetypes. So much so there are given tropes like a school for the gifted and the main character trying to live up to standards set forth. As a book, is Gladstone’s trying to sit within those archetypes of the past or is the book trying to reinvent the wheel and break past those long tried and true dynamics of the genre?
MAS: Using shorthand and tropes is a common storytelling device. To use educational terminology, tropes are ‘scaffolding’. Tropes get the reader to places faster and allows the story to unfold without having to be dragged down by too much exposition. Often, those tropes get turned onto their head. Gladstone’s was built on many familiar tropes. Gladstone’s quickly breaks past those tropes at the end of the first 34 pages and becomes purely about story, because tropes will only get you so far. Tropes are a tool in the writer’s toolbox, but no replacement for a dynamic story. At this point in time we have 500 pages of our story finished (3 Books). We’re doing more and more universe building in Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors that reinvents the wheel and tells an original story.
CA: Cool. So we can expect a long and engaging story from you guys and I bet readers will be too.
For more info on the series and to catch up on the previous books head over to Gladstone’s School. Sign up for the newsletter and you can get a copy of Volume One of the series. The Kickstarter for Book Three of Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors kicks off in May!
Kaos Blac
Kaosblac@comicattack.com
Twitter: kaosblac
