by Mike Favila, Senior Editor

I had been reading a number of the graphic novels from Random House recently, and came upon Rickety Stitch and The Gelatinous Goo series.  I had the chance to talk to creators James Park and Ben Costa at Small Press Expo this year and was really impressed at the range of influences they melted together on this book.  That being said, it stands well as an individual, engaging book for young readers and older ones alike.  Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo Book 2: The Middle-Route Run is the 2nd book in the series, and a great addition to your collection.

ComicsOnline: How did you guys meet?

James Parks / Ben Costa: We actually met in 2nd grade, and bonded over a love of comic books and cartoons. The first comic we ever made together was a Spider-Man comic scrawled with crayons. It was this epic about Spider-Man teaming up with Shaquille O’Neal to save the city of New York from we don’t even remember. Wild stuff. Wild, wild stuff.

But, we’ve been pals a long time. We came up together in elementary school, spent just about every waking moment on the weekends playing Dungeons & Dragons, reading comics, playing games. We were even roommates in college. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s so great to share this big, gnarly creative adventure together. And it really is a shared world. We live and breathe it and love to coordinate everything in our stories, both on and off the pages, to give it a richness. We love to geek out like that.

CO: Be honest: Did you own the Shaq-Fu game?

JP/BC: While we technically didn’t own it, it was certainly rented from ye olden, local video store on multiple occasions!

CO: Where did the first ideas for Rickety Stitch come from?

JP/BC: Well, we love fantasy. We grew up reading Tolkien and playing tons of Dungeons & Dragons. We love Brian Froud and his amazing fairy and goblin designs. Movies like Labyrinth, Willow, Beastmaster, Ator the Fighting Eagle, Hawk the Slayer. Classics, ya know? But probably the exact moment Rickety Stitch sprang to life was around midnight in our college dorm, eating chicken, watching the 1982 Conan the Barbarian, and talking about how on point James Earl Jones’ hair was.

We wanted to make a fantasy story with the mystery and depth of lore that we saw in Conan. One of the first things we came up with was the idea of the Gloom King, the grand villain of the Rickety Stitch series. Of course, we ended up putting our own wacky spin on everything, and out came a story about skeleton bard and his gelatinous sidekick.

CO: Do you have any other projects in the works, either separately or together?

JP/BC: We’ve got tons of ideas for other projects, some set in the world of Rickety Stitch, some not. But right now we’re focused on making Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo the best that it can be. Book 3 is currently under production and we’ve already planned an additional three. So six books total.

CO: What are you reading these days?

JP/BC: We’re reading some Terry Pratchett and Warhammer novels. The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk. Some speculative fiction like In the Land of Time and Other Fairy Tales by Lord Dunsany. The Frederick Rebsamen translation of Beowulf.

In the comics realm, some recent great reads were Head Lopper by Andrew MacLean, and Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.

CO:  I love the mix!  Are you doing any convention appearances or signings this year?

JP/BC: We sure are! We’ve already been to Seattle, Denver and Phoenix this year, and we’ll be hitting Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as New York, and several events in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ve got ‘em all up on Facebook.

CO: What’s the best way for fans to reach you and see what’s next? Instagram/Twitter?

JP/BC: Facebook and Instagram @Ricketystitch are the best ways to stay up to date on what we’re up to.

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