With Game of Thrones returning to television this month, you may suddenly feel like you need more dark political fantasy in your life. So, this week we catch up with Adelaide comic creator James Wilkinson, author of the brutal melancholic fantasy, Sovereign’s Dread.
What are you playing right now? Well to be honest right now I’ve fallen victim to a free to play video game that goes by the name of Warframe. I love a good plot-based game but Warframe is not this, and feels like a bit of a guilty pleasure. It’s a different mechanism that feels like you’re creating something yourself, that’s where the immersion really sets in for me. Warframe has some of the most extensive customisation I’ve seen in a game. It’s also a bit of an adrenaline rush too. Yep, I’m hooked. It’s the switch off, and hero escapism.
What is Sovereign’s Dread? Well Sovereign’s Dread has been my project for the last few years, since finishing my Masters of Illustration and Design. I’d been conceptualising the world for a long time, and the Kickstarter for my graphic novel is currently live!
It’s a dark fantasy set in a world that is intended to mirror elements of our own in it’s problems, but not its aesthetics. On the surface it’s an end of days scenario in a bizarre world of magical drugs and swarming monsters but I think its charm is in the gradual revealing of the details of the world as the series progresses.
I hope it transitions from alien to familiar as the problems the characters face become more and more familiar and human. It takes inspiration from Daoism and the transition from Chaos to Order that humans impose on everything around them to create a sense of control in life. The ‘magic’ in Sovereign’s Dread represents Chaos in life and is the centrepiece of all the themes. Or you can just enjoy the brutal action. It gets bloody.
Image by James WilkinsonApart from your comics what should everyone be looking out for in local Australian Pop Culture? Well recently I’ve been getting to know some of the other Adelaide comic creators as I’m still a bit of a newbie to it all, and there are some great independent projects out there. Hail Comic, the guys at New London Comics, Heart of Millyera, Universe Gun, all the stuff at Dark Oz, George Rex’s Comics and Amplified Press, all great stuff made by people who genuinely love the medium.
Besides this, the music. Band culture in Australia is for the most part pretty great right now I think. The Pub Rock resurgence is real! Bands like West Thebarton, Bad//Dreems, Little Captain and Ron the Ox There’s a sort of self awareness to it now that has eliminated some of the crassness and insensitivity of it, and what’s left is just good fun.
Major prediction for Pop Culture 12 months from now? Well, I’m very intrigued to see where Superhero worship goes in the next three or four years. I think comics are already very much diversifying, just look at Kickstarter! I for one have a massive case of Superhero fatigue. Personally with Sovereign’s Dread I focus on deeply flawed characters.
Some borderline unlikable. The hero’s journey is the archetypical story and we’ve read it, seen it and played it enough. We know what happens. Martyr or straight up victor. They’re the outcomes. I think it’s part of what strikes people about something like Game of Thrones, it doesn’t follow that formula strictly, and elements build emotional investment. I’m wondering if popular culture will look outside of the hero’s journey archetype more, and maybe come up with a new sort of narrative. I hope so! Maybe I could be a part of that. I’m trying.
Best last thing you ate? Oh man, Well, I’m vegan but admittedly still get meat cravings, which is sacrilege to say to some other Vegans! So Mai’s Kitchen on Wright Street is my go to when that happens. Delicious Vietnamese and mock meats galore and just general deliciousness. Vegan or not I do recommend!
That’s 5! You can follow James Facebook and learn more about the Sovereign’s Dread, Kickstarter campaign, which finishes up this week!
