As some of you may have heard, the founder of Thought Balloons - Mr Ryan K LIndsay has a My Little Pony one shot coming out for IDW this week. What kind of friends would we be if we didn't push his stuff? As such, here is an interview Mr Lindsay did with Equestria Daily on the one shot.
Next you should totally head here to pre order the book. It's fantastic.
Were you a fan of the older generations of My Little Pony?
Y’know, I was more of a Care Bears kind of kid, honestly. MLP wasn’t something I ever really found.
So, tell us a little bit about the comic- just an overview. What’s the dealio?
This one-shot is my analysis of Rainbow Dash and what makes her tick. Ultimately, I found Rainbow to be an incredibly strong and motivated character so I wanted to test her convictions. I set up a situation where Rainbow has to work out why she is so stubborn at times, why she always tries so hard, and then I test just how hard a force she will push against, and what will truly motivate her to do her best.
In the story, a cloud full of negative emotion sucking gremlins invades Rainbow’s airspace and brings sadness to the land. Rainbow tries but consistently fails to get rid of them causing more frustration, which the gremlins then food upon. Rainbow needs to work out a way to get a victory but it’s not going to be easy. It’s a tale of struggle but with some laughs thrown in, too.
What sort of research did you do in order to get started? Were you prepared for what you found in the course of said research?
I went straight online and dug in. I spoke to Katie Cook (she who is writing the fantastic main MLP comic) about which episodes of the show I should watch in order to get a great grasp on the character of Rainbow. I went through scores of websites to see how the fandom thought of these characters, what their favourite moments were, and then analysed how I could present this vibe in my own script.
I spent a fair bit of time looking at the various MLP memes that proliferate the information highways. These were great because it showed me what moments and what dialogue really resonated with the fans.
Probably my greatest asset was a girl in my class. I teach Year 5, so 11 year olds, and just as I landed the gig I heard her mention something about Ponies. I inquired and found out what a huge fan she was. I surreptitiously asked her about Rainbow – who it turned out is her favorite - and why she liked the character so much. It was great to hear from a young girl exactly what she got from the series as I’m writing this for that demographic and I want them to get so much from this issue.
As for my level of preparedness, ha, yeah, I was fine. I’m a major comic book fan, I’ve seen all levels of fandom and all the MLP stuff I found was really awesome and definitely inspiring. I may have been singing auto-tune YouTube clips around the house for quite some time.
Were there any limitations (story or otherwise) set upon you by the powers that be? What couldn’t you fit into the comic, but perhaps wanted to?
The only limitations, I guess you could say, was that I had to remember this is a kids comic. My tendency is to go dark so I had to ensure I didn’t veer into the black. That being said, I did try to bring a pompous level of evil to my gremlins and I’m really pleased with how they’ve come out. My artist on the issue, Tony Fleecs, has done an amazing job bringing these creatures to terrifying life.
Hasbro is the ultimate parent of this project, they get final say on everything, and they’ve been A-mazing to deal with. Their notes are always clear and make the story better and they’ve been champs about letting me tell my story.
Any final thoughts?
Absolutely, I want to thank every MLP fan out there whose support of the franchise, and the phenomenally great sales on the comic, have made this opportunity come to life. I’m pretty certain fans are going to go nuts for this issue because it’s got high stakes, it’s got some funny moments, and it’s a great morality tale spun around the core concept of who Rainbow Dash is. I had so much fun writing this book, Tony Fleecs is doing amazing things illustrating it, and I hope we all get to do this again some time. Until then, let me know your feedback on Twitter as
Want to write a page of script starring Rainbow Dash? Then simply post it below for feedback! Don;t forget to post your thoughts on the tenured writer's pieces as they appear throughout the week as well.
