Adrian, as one-third of the A.N.A. tribunal, where the heck did you get your start? Did comic books just present an outlet for your writings, or are you a lifelong fanboy?
I first got into comics watching the old Super Friends cartoons on Saturday mornings with my father. We'd watch it and then we'd go to this drug store and that was when I first saw Green Lantern. My eyes grew WIDE and I begged my father to buy it for me. He tried to be slick with me by saying that I can either get the ice cream cone or buy the comic book. I was a fat kid so I got ice cream. But I was a smart fat kid. I got home and got up another 75 cents and went back to that same store and bought that book. That was in 1983. As time went on I started collecting other books. Then I read what really made me want to write comics...The Dark Phoenix Saga. There was something about how I felt the emotion that Claremont put into the entire story. The love story, the anger that Wolverine seemed to have all the time, and the action and the power that Phoenix had. I mean, she wiped out an entire star system just because she's hungry...AWESOME.
Now comics actually, were not exactly an outlet for my writing. Writing comics was a way I got extra credit in my sophomore year in high school. Crazy, I know. We read an article in my English class about Milestone coming out and for me being an African-American young man at that time...as if I'm old now at 35...my English teacher challenged me to write a story using Icon, Superman, Phoenix, Green Lantern, and Static. I thought it was cool and I did the assignment and when she gave it back to me, she challenged me to come up with my own characters and write stories for them. So I guess you can say I've been a lifelong fanboy as well. I always said back then if I could be any character in any comic book, I would be Thor. Everyone else wanted to be Wolverine or Cyclops, but me..I wanted to be the Norse god of thunder and that would play in my writing in the many years to come. Along with my love of the Green Lantern and the GL Corps.
That sounds like an ideal teacher. All high school students should be so lucky.
You live in the DC area, right? Do you see some irony there, between writing stories about fictional power struggles while living where real power struggles happen everyday? And what genres interest you nowadays?
Yeah, right now I do live in Washington, DC, and we got here totally by "accident". When I say "we", I mean my wife and me. We are planning on moving back to the NY/NJ area as soon as she finishes law school this semester and passes the bar. But to answer your question, it is kind of ironic that I write comics and even some stories that have to do with power struggles and big corporations "ruling the world". The wildest thing to me was when I saw the Barack Obama comic books and the shirts that Alex Ross did depicting Obama taking his shirt off to reveal the "O". Really cool. I got two of them so my wife doesn't say that I stole hers.
I tend to drift while "rambling" from time to time. Just ask Nic and Anthony. I don't say much but I never seem to stay on subject at times when I do talk. Now about the genres that interest me. WIDE variety. Mecha. Love the giant robots. Superhero most definitely. I don't know what you'd call the DragonBall Z/Street Fighter type of comics, but that style. I also like Invincible. I don't know whether to have that as a superhero or as a spoof. I like a good spoof here and there.
So share with us some of the projects you worked on before A.N.A. was unleashed on the unsuspecting world. And what's the origin story behind your Supreme Knight alias?
Well there are a few projects that I have been working on before A.N.A. came about and I hope to unleash onto the world through A.N.A. One is a spoof comic called Earth Zoners. Have you ever wondered how superhero teams would always fight to save the planet, but do more destruction than anything? Well, that's what happens to this group of heroes and they received a BILL to pay for damages to one major city. They didn't have the money to pay for it so they do what any washed up celebrity would do. No, not commercials, but reality TV!
My baby project is 12 Rings. That goes ALL the way back to my sophomore year in high school when I was challenged by Mrs. Johnson, my English teacher, to create my own characters. Now granted the characters I have now are lightyears ahead of what I came up with in my sophomore year. 12 Rings, although I can't reveal too much of the story at this time, is an action-packed story. This one is aimed directly at those people that miss DragonBall Z. It's not DragonBall Z, I can't even try to recreate what Akira Toriyami came up with, but the action is there. There's also a merger of projects so to speak as I am merging The Further Adventures of James & Medes and Solar Phoenix together. I haven't come up with a name for that yet, so I'm calling that Project X.
Now the Supreme Knight alias/persona...it actually came from my time in the wrestling ring. When I started pro wrestling I was known as Supreme in New Jersey. I was also known as Supreme in a lot of forums that talked about championship belts. That's a huge thing I'm into. Anyway, when I made my debut people said that I looked like Suge Knight. The fans started chanting "You killed Biggie! You killed Tupac!" It was a lot of fun! Shortly after that a few of the fans actually came up to me and said, "Hey Supreme Knight, can I get your autograph?!?" I looked over at the promoter, Mike Morgan, and he was like, "You got a new name. I like it!" And that name was born right there in New Jersey. And the Supreme K night that's in 12 Rings is actually how I wish I could be. I think that's somet hing all writers do. They put a part of themselves in the characters they write.
I don't watch wrestling as much as I used to, but I still keep in touch with some of the guys I worked with in the ring. Shortly after my mother passed away last year I went up to the old promotion I worked in up in New Jersey and talked to the promoter, and he expressed interest in me writing some storylines for the promotion. That really piqued my interest. I have been to a few shows and I have some storylines I'd love to have injected into Ace Championship Entertainment. And you never know...Supreme Knight may make another appearance real soon.
So as both a creator and a fan, what today gets you enthusiastic about comic books?
As a creator I get excited just by thinking about the art and seeing the stories come to life. To me, if you don't ge t excited about what you're writing or drawing or coloring or inking, you really need to stop! How can you NOT get excited about what you're creating and other people reading it and talking about what you've done on forums- whether it's good or bad? For me, I get VERY excited thinking about the end of 12 Rings. Back when I finished the story, I got to thinking about having cartoons made out of it, and then I met Dr. William Hanff at the University of the District of Columbia. I had him for SEVERAL classes and he found out I wrote comics and I really gave him the "Map of 12 Rings". He read it and said it has potential to be as big as DBZ, which to me made me giddy, but he challenged me to keep the story going so, I am currently adding another chapter to it. Now as a fan, I get excited from the wait. Take Fall of the Hulks right now. I'm rea ding and then I get to the end of a part and I'm like, "DAAAANNNNGGGG!!!! I can't wait for the next part!" I may be one of the very few to like the wait til the next issue. Also as a fan, I love reading the stories and at times I put myself in the shoes of say, Sinestro or Rulk. To me it's a way of escaping "real life".
I don't know man, I'm not the biggest fan of J eph Loeb, but I like what Greg Pak has done with Herculese.
What persons have influenced and inspired you, in or out of comics? I mean the folks that really expanded your views, your passions, your personal drive.
Well, I have mentioned my English teacher, Mrs. Johnson, and one of my college professors, Dr William Hanff, to instill that creative drive in me to keep going; but as far as people in comics, I would have to say that I wanted to be like Claremont. I mean, I just loved what he did on the X-Men. Chuck Dixon actually made me want to research more into what I was writing. Imagine that...not researching anything. One guy that really lit a fire under me is a writer named Brandon Easton. I met him when I moved to Brooklyn, NY from South Carolina and when he found out that I was trying to get into comics he took me under his wing. At that time he was writing Arkanium for DreamWave. At this time I was still a little green behind the ears and he told me how to be when I meet other creators and editors. Another big influence to me is Dwight MacPherson. I met him on the Arcana boards and then not too long after that I met him at HeroesCon down in Charlotte, NC with my good friend John DaCosta who is a budding comic artist as well (man, I'm name dropping), and just the few moments I spent talking with Dwight and the encouragement he gave me kept me in, because I was close to stopping altogether. I got a little down with hearing about all these other projects coming out ahead of mine and people getting jobs that I was trying to get.
I really thought that I wasn't good enough to write in comics. If it wasn't for Dwight, John DaCosta, Brandon Easton and Will Caligan, I may have stopped altogether. I'm glad they encouraged me in ways they don't even know.
Any parting shots for the future A.N.A. readership?
Well, I would say that I am offering a $1,000,000 cash prize to anyone that can name all my characters, but I barely have $10 so that's out the window. Really, I want to say that we're a family friendly company. We're working on producing quality stories in which everyone in the family can sit down and enjoy together. We're planning on growing slowly and we're looking on building great working relationships, and our roster, in the future.
Follow Adrian Wilkins on twitter: http://twitter.com/SupremeKnight
Dude, nice interview. I hope everything works out for you guys. You deserve much success my friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks Will!
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