Crystal Fractals Q&A: Howard Wong chats 'Redorik,' Indiegogo campaign

Howard Wong

Last week I chatted with Crystal Fractal Comics Publisher Derrek Lennox about the Redorik series and the ongoing Indiegogo campaign to complete the series as a 96-page graphic novel. This week I caught up with the series' writer Howard Wong, who chatted about his work, his storytelling processess, social media and crowdfunding campaigns and the prospect of finishing Redorik.

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Andrew Ardizzi: You're mostly known for your work on After the Cape, and have obviously written Redorik for Crystal Fractal Comics. For those unfamiliar with your work, what can you tell fans about you, your work and how you approach writing as a whole.

Howard Wong: My first published comic was After the Cape, a mini-series I created with Marco Rudy and was published by Image Comics/Shadowline. I was nominated for a Shuster award for it, which was very humbling. It’s a dark tale about a retired superhero who finds himself struggling to make ends meet in the city he once protected with his life. He’s feeling lost in a world he thought he once knew, while failing at raising his family. He turns to alternative means to do so, which resulted in him making hard life choices. It continued with a tragic end in the second miniseries, After the Cape II, which concluded that story arc. I’ve also contributed to short stories such as Grunts: War Stories from Arcana Comics, which was nominated for Comic Buyer’s Guide Fan Favorite Graphic Novel. The story is titled, Iron Snake and tells the harrowing backstory of Lt. Kiko before he joins up with the squad from the regular miniseries. More recently I contributed to Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology, with a story titled Master Tortoise and Master Hare. It’s a retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare, where instead of racing they use martial arts. I wrote this with the intention of showing how the same age old story can have an Asian take and still have the universal appeal and understanding like that of the original. No matter if it’s a full-on miniseries or a short story for an anthology, the approach is the same. You look at where you want to take your story and find the best way in getting there:

'After the Cape' #1 cover image

Do you take a direct approach or one that weaves its way to your destination?

Will it be full of simple or complex paths?

Where you start, is how a story ends. That to me, is the easiest way to start the construction of a good story. Knowing your ending helps define how you’ll resolve the great conflict of your story, which will then allow you to see the different ways at getting to that conflict. So yes, you work your way backwards, but it works. Besides the story, it helps you figure out how your characters will develop and be changed after everything is resolved.

AA: When you're writing, what sort of mental space are you in? Say, for example, do you become immersed within your project, or do you maybe do a little at a time and come back to it frequently?

HW: I have a few things on the go at the same time, but like to focus on one for the bulk of the day. I just find it easier to stay in that writing mode if I juggle my time between projects. It’s not for everyone for sure, but it works for me. Sometimes I create wonderful scenes when I work on something that’s perfect for another story. So I take notes (a lot of notes), which fuels the writing of another story I’m working on from wanting to bring those ideas to life.

Crystal Fractals Q&A: Derrek Lennox on 'Redorik' Indiegogo campaign

CFC Publisher Derrek Lennox

Since 2007, Crystal Fractal Comics Publisher/Founder Derrek Lennox has worked to make his childhood dream of publishing comics a reality. It's not been easy, but no passion-driven quest ever is. The company recently launched its own crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo in hopes of finishing off one of Derrek's more personal creations, Redorik. Derrek and I sat down recently for a short Q&A on Redorik, the creation of the title's main character, the Indiegogo campaign and collaborating with the incomparable Howard Wong on the plot.


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Andrew Ardizzi: Redorik is one of the three solo titles Crystal Fractal Comics has launched that ties into The Crossing books, but it differs in that it features a new character. What can you tell readers about Justin Henderson/Redorik and his significance to the Crystal Fractal Universe(CFU)?

Derrek Lennox: I can’t tell you much about his significance – that would be a spoiler – but I can let on that there is each a direct and indirect connection to the other Crossing books. However, it does stand on its own without having to know much about the rest of the universe. Knowing more just adds to the storytelling. It's a lot like being an adult and taking your kids to watch a Pixar film; there is a lot there for the children, and even more layered on top for the adults.

AA: What inspired the creation of the character?

DL: The roots of this character were developed years ago when I was in high school and felt disconnected. I discovered that many people felt this way. So I wanted to develop a story and a character that could explain how the quest for connectivity – or a sense of belonging if you will – could be influenced to generate a slightly different response. That, and I wanted a dark-ish character that focused on someone in high school with a dual identity.

The original "Redorik" logo, featuring red where the current series logo is purple.

If we OWNED Spider-Man and Superman!

If we owned SPIDER-MAN and SUPERMAN we would do a cross-over to end all cross-overs...

The series would be WHAT IF? meets ELSEWORLDS...

What makes SPIDER-MAN who he is? "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

What makes SUPERMAN who he is? "...raised with wholesome family values..."

What if that changed?

What would happen?


If Crystal Fractal Comics owned SPIDER-MAN and SUPERMAN we would do a What If? / Elseworlds story where Ben and May Parker are driving through the fields of Connecticut on the way back to their place in New York... a meteor lands causing the truck they were driving to spin out of control.

They climb from their wreckage to find a small boy with extreme strength.

They bring the boy home, and call him Clark. He is raised with good family values and is told with great power comes great responsibility. And this is told again and again as May and Ben discover early on that their son, Clark, has a lot of strong powers.

Several years later, Peter Parker's parents die in a tragic accident and Peter Parker moves in with May, Ben and their son, Clark, and is raised as a brother.

Sibling rivalry. No longer raised with two-on one attention.

Clark becomes high-school football champion, letterman, all-around, all-American boy. While he is a few years older, he and Flash become friends as Flash looks up to Clark.

Peter, on the other hand, sinks further and further into his studies. While encouraged by Uncle Ben and Aunt May to be himself, they do slip into the habit of comparing Peter to Clark. Clark sticks up for him most of the time, but once in a while finds himself teasing his "younger brother." Clark, discovers some of his heritage and adopts the secret identity of Superman!

On a fateful field trip, Peter is bitten by a radio-active spider and finds himself with the powers of a spider!

Peter discovers his powers and enters into a wrestling contest and wins. Meanwhile, a robber escapes but is easily thwarted by Superman who flies in to save the day, even though Peter, now a wrestler, let him go.

Superman continues to become a super-hero, and Spider-Man continues to become a professional wrestler earning money and fame. Clark confronts Peter and Peter eventually admits he is the wrestler but agrees not to tell May and Ben if Peters tells them himself.

Peter doesn't. But Clark is distracted with being a hero and doesn't rush to tell them. The agency that had hired Peter's parents learn of Peter's abilities and approach him to work for them. He does. Along the way he works with people like Bullseye, Sandman and Scorpion on some missions that are rather unsavoury, calling his team, the ThunderBolts: Heroes for Hire.

Clark finds that his major nemesis is Kingpin and continues to thwart his plans teaming up with the likes of Daredevil, IronMan, and Hawkeye - forming the Avengers. The Avengers becomes a global organization sponsored by the U.N. More heroes join.

Spider-Man and his team of mercenaries - which includes Silver Sable, Power-Man, Iron Fist, Bullseye and Moon Knight - skirt the law, but are usually on the right side of it.

Following an unfortunate event, the U.N implements a plan suggested by the USA and Canada, co-led by Henry Peter Gyrich, James Hudson, and Senator Kelly. This plan involves the Super-Powered Registration Act and the creation of Sentinels.

The plan - and the Act - create a Civil War that pits Spider-Man against Superman. The Kingpin secretly hires Spider-Man's team, and has a block of Green Kryptonite delivered to Scorpion and Bullseye. In the final battle, sibling rivalry, built in with various levels of hatred between the groups, has Superman finally die as a result of the Green Kryptonite weakening him right before the arrival of Doomsday!

As Superman dies, Spider-Man finally learns the meaning of "with Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"  reveals his identity, and registers with the Act. He then joins Iron Man, inviting some of the ThunderBolts who join him, while others do not. He takes on a new costume to honour Superman and lives to watch his Uncle Ben, now proud of him, die of a Heart attack, further building in the lesson.

Then, Superman returns, and the two work together to face the war of the Skrull!

(we had other less "happy ending" versions, but felt that this version would appeal to the current property owners, fans and our own creative juices!)

Most of the above characters are (c) and TM Marvel.
Doomsday and Superman are (c) and TM DC. 

If we owned it... Star Wars Episode III

A randomly published column that talks about popular characters and properties that OTHER PEOPLE OWN and talks about what WE WOULD DO if WE owned it...

Several of us were drinking and chatting the other day, and as often happens, we began chatting about movies, and comics and books... and then we began chatting about what we would do if we owned the properties. We started with a few biggies... and a few small ones... and once in a while, we will put up our thoughts on some of the properties already out there... just to give an idea of what we might have done with it, if we owned it... from a story point of view...

For this first sample, we are taking on Star Wars Episode III...

DSL: I always pictured the movie covering a longer duration of time. This was the transition from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader after all!

DB: It was a little quick for me as well - the whole transtion took - what - three or four scenes? Which looked like they happened over a few hours in real time (not including flight travel time I suppose).

DSL: Yeah. I have always wanted the ability to travel vast distances in seconds...

DB: Digressing, so how did you see it happening?

DSL: The movie would be over a three to four year period... and maybe that is what is happening within the Clone Wars television show... but for the movie, I wanted one story to make the transition clear. I saw the Clone Wars taking their toll on Anakin as he got more and more violent - and had to have more and more of his physical body replaced by cybernetics. A foot here, part of an arm there.

DB: His spleen.

DSL: Exactly! And at the same time, Darth Sidious (Palpatine) was showing Anakin more and more tricks. Telling him how to learn battle techniques from Mace Windu (who, as a Purple lightsaber holder had dabled into the Dark Side skills but maintained his Jedi perspective) and from other people - and even set up events (the way he is good at) so that Anakin would learn these dark side skills from people that he would have to kill as a General of the Republic.

DB: So he would see these dark side force users, learn during the battles, and Kenobi would be shocked when he saw Anakin use them later himself!

DSL: Yes... and even moreso... Obi Wan would preach at him NOT to use the dark force tricks and skills, so Anakin would begin to use them when he wasn't around. Doing them in secret - and this would also eat away at him and burn away some of his body as he got better and better at it.

DB: The slightly darker scowl that Anakin had toward the end of Episode III wasn't enough for you?

DSL: That should have been the start! At the end of Episode VI, when we see Luke lift Vader's mast off, it looks like Darth is missing his jaw and the cybernetics are intwined - and I wanted to see little parts of that sooner. He burns through part of his jaw using the dark force to kill an opponent, and then pretends to get hit by a blaster to hide the damage - and that gets turned into the cybernetics.

DB: And what does Kenobi do during this?

DSL: Kenobi and Padme start to see the changes, and they talk with each other. Kenobi starts to keep an eye on Anakin, and once he begins to reveal himself further - as someone who is really on Palpatine's side - that is when they battle.

DB: The chase is on!

DSL: While I really like the effect of Order 66 - when the clones turn on the Jedi - I saw a bit more "Darth versus the Jedi" as part of that as he built and honed his skills.

DB: And then he really becomes Vader?

DSL: And then the battle with Obi Wan does the finishing touch... and the rest of the story goes as it did.

DB: Especially the ending... Vader screaming believing that his children died in child birth...

DSL: And even more so, convinced by Palpatine that their deaths could have been avoided if he had come to the dark side sooner and had defeated the remaining Jedi - who of course were responsible for their - and Padme's - deaths.

DB: That part was there a bit.

DSL: But I wanted that hammered home. To really show how Anakin was manipulated through guilt in combination with his impatience and the desire to achieve. And I really wanted a scene where Kenobi and Anakin - while they are still on the same side, but Vader is almost truly gone, and already more than 50% cybernetics - battle a large amount of separatists, battling through the droids, and then rushing up to kill their living field marshals. All while Kenobi watched. We got to see Palpatine manipulate Vader a bit and convince him to kill Count Dooku - and thus take his place as the apprentice to Palpatine - and that was a huge turning point that needed more following growth. But we didn't get to see scenes where he transitioned. He was working with the council... and then he was killing the separatist leaders.

DB: I always thought that Obi Wan took it too much in stride that Anakin was now his enemy during that last fight scene.

DSL: But, I do like Episode III - and now so do my kids. My eldest likes that episode the best as it is the Origin Story of Darth Vader to some extent.

DB: So what do you want to talk about next?

DSL: Let's save that for another article!

(Note: This article is a satire/review commentary and does not infringe on copyrights. All properties are the (c) their respective owner)

Doctor Twilight "redesigned" costume

... further to the previous post... here is now the costume as designed by Jon Lam for Crystal Fractal Comics in 2006 (while it was known as "Derrek Lennox o/a Bedlam Comics and Entertainment, Toronto")... a few of us liked it... it was the basis for the costume used in the preview edition... and a costume that will be seen (comic-book-market willing) once in a while...

Original Doctor Twilight Costume - circa 1990

In a previous post, I promised to put up images of the original Doctor Twilight costumes... here is the original one Derrek Lennox designed back in the early 1990s (that was considered way too close to a combination between Spawn and Doctor Strange)...

History of Doctor Twilight...

Why waste a good interview.... several weeks back I was interviewed for an article at the Fan Appreciation Convention June 2010 (which was mildly attended, although it was great that a future generation of new comic readers walked the halls and bought the odd book - including copies of Doctor Twilight 001 and The Crossing 001). While the article was cut for space (cut entirely) I am including it here since it did give a good background on Doctor Twilight. The interviewer's name has been changed for copyright reasons... or something like that...
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Int: So, how long ago did you create Doctor Twilight? With all of the speak of Twilight, and Doctor Who, and even the Doctor from Twilight... is Doctor Twilight a grab at those properties?

Derrek: Great question. I was beginning to feel the same thing - doing internet searches for "Doctor Twilight" I keep getting references for "The Twilight" storyline in Doctor Who, Twilight the series, etc... so it is a little unfortunate. Doctor Twilight actually was created in the early 1990s (I have dated sketchbooks as far as that goes) with a different costume (which will be posted shortly). But, as I began to move forward, thought that the costume looked a little too much like a cross between SPAWN and Doctor Strange, and so had another artist in early 2000's take a crack at it.

Int: And that was the costume that was originally presented in "Crystal Fractal Universe" 0.0?

Derrek: Exactly. The big brown shoulder pads, and a grey suit, no real boots, etc... but after running it past a few people, it didn't fly so to speak. So that costume - along with the old one - will show up once in a while... but the new design... drawn by Allison Borges... is the one we went with.

Int: A little more stylized?

Derrek: Actually, a little more TV ready. We wanted to make the transition to a TV show or movie easy enough with a look that was already suitable: a trenchcoat rather than a cape, a black T-shirt, black pants - but the same crystal imbedded in his chest.

Int: Are we going to see the old costume anytime soon?

Derrek: Keep an eye out for it posted on the website!

Wizard Con - update!

We've been moved once more - now at booth 612, we are excited!
Doctor Twilight 001 and Doctor Twilight: The Crossing 001 are both selling well - and getting some good feedback.

Everyone is excited about the news that Shiny Happy Pictures has optioned the rights to a live-action televsion series! More news on this as it comes available!

Pictures of the Booth, of Zatanna (long story) and the artists coming soon...

D.