After Red and her friends are killed by invaders from beyond, they’re revived inside massive organic battle-mechs. Time to take their planet back! It’s a truly epic graphic novel about global crisis, mental health, and giant robots.
Writer Ricky Lima talks about his love of Gundam and Evangelion, collaborating with his creative team partners, and more in this interview about his upcoming YA graphic novel Undergrowth – releasing September 3rd. Final Order Cutoff for retailers is next Monday July 29th, be sure to pre-order at your local comic shop!
Firstly we gotta start with the origin story! What got you interested in writing and comics?
In the 90’s my older brother was a comic collector. He would proudly display his cool books on the wall, and he would give me some every once in a while. As a kid, I obsessed over the books thinking they were the coolest thing ever. Combine that with the 90’s animated shows and I was hooked for life. So I’ve been a fan forever and would draw dumb little stories for my friends all the time, but it wasn’t until I got much older that I thought about actually making real comics.
I began to read the “serious” books, you know the kind they called Graphic Novels. I was impressed by the depth of the stories that could be told and I gained a brand new appreciation for comics. I thought to myself “How hard could making a comic be? I bet it’s easy!” Spoilers, it’s not easy. Turns out it’s insanely hard! But now as a 20-something, I was obsessed with the idea of making comics. The challenge of it all hooked me. I started going to comic cons here in Toronto to meet comic creators and learn how it was done. Local legends (at the time, superstars now) like Brian Evinou (link to Instagram), Adam Gorham (link to Instagram), and Marcus To (link to Instagram) encouraged my enthusiasm for comic making and they taught me a whole lot about the process. It took about 12 years of flailing around wildly to eventually create a book as excellent as Undergrowth.
I also want to say that comics are the best storytelling medium and it’s my favourite form of writing. What got me interested in comic writing is the intense collaboration and unlimited possibilities. When you find a collaborator that you work well with it’s magical. You can create anything!
The ancient forest battle-mechs in Undergrowth looked SO COOL! I want one (well preferably without dying)! I feel like monster & giant robot fans all have that one property that jump-started their love (i.e. Gundam, Godzilla, Power Rangers, Neon Genesis Evangelion, etc.). What was yours?
Funny enough you can own one without dying! (kind of) I was so infatuated by Daniele’s character designs that I wanted them irl too! I commissioned a very talented artist Grumpii (link to Instagram) to create 3D models of the giant mechs, which I then 3D printed and painted. I was a bit delusional to think I could easily mass-produce these figures. Did you know it costs a lot of money to mass-produce figures? I know that now! Well, once I figure it all out you’ll be the first one I send a figure to, no dying necessary! Sorry, I got sidetracked, but I think toys are a HUGE part of the giant mech conversation. Gundam might not be as popular as it is now without Gunpla.
Speaking of Gundam that is the first property that got me into giant robots. Right after the 90’s Marvel cartoons I was watching Gundam Wing. But when I got older I went back and watched the Gundam 79 series and was absolutely blown away by its themes, maturity, and of course amazing robot battles. The way that show dealt with themes of trauma, but still kept rocking you with wicked robot battles was inspiring. AND THEN I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion and was gut-punched by the trauma exploration in that! Evangelion took everything I loved about Gundam and supercharged it.
When I sat down to write Undergrowth I wasn’t having a good time with life. I wanted to explore trauma and how we deal with it. So after watching Gundam and Evangelion, it became clear to me that cool giant robots were the ONLY way to explore themes of trauma.
Out of the three teen leads (Red, Bloom, and Willow) – was there a character or struggle you identified with in particular?
Each character has a small piece of me inside of them so while I relate to all of them I would say that Red is the most like me in the story. Her nonchalant attitude, use of jokes as a coping mechanism, fear of not achieving her potential, and constant people pleasing is uncomfortably me. But I think that’s what makes the characters feel so real in this story. My goal with Undergrowth was not to present myself within the characters but to create characters that I could see myself in. With Undergrowth I try to explore all these concepts and characteristics without ever presenting answers. My hope is that people will read this story and see themselves reflected in it as well and through the characters maybe find their own truth, whatever that may be.
Which of their battle mechs would you want to pilot in real life?
100% I’d want to pilot Red’s mech. It’s just a huge, towering, powerhouse. Yeah, give me that! I probably wouldn’t even fight things with it. It’d just be real cool to be that tall and see the landscape from those heights.
What was the best part collaborating with illustrator Daniele Aquilani, colorist Yuliia Shevtsova, and letterer Andrew Thomas on the book?
For me the best part of the collaboration is how talented everyone is. There is an incredible amount of trust you need to have during a collaboration and it’s easy to trust such professionals. Daniele was a rock, consistent in all his work with a strong eye for sequential storytelling. His designs solidified the character in my mind and helped me to develop their voices in my head. As his sequential pages came in I was able to understand his strengths in storytelling and write scenes specifically to his strengths.
Yuliia’s colouring then took Daniele’s work and elevated it beyond what either of us could have hoped for. Her colouring is nothing short of spectacular. She brought so much character to the world of Undergrowth. There were things in the book that could only happen with her colouring. Specifically, you’ll find that the flower on Bloom’s mech changes colour depending on her mood.
Lettering can make or break a book. Andrew’s lettering is spot on, it leads the reader around the page in such a perfect way. He understood how with Undergrowth I was looking to juxtapose quiet and loud moments. His lettering guides the reader into perfect quiet spots on the page even among action scenes.
I’m lucky to have found such a perfect team for this book. Everyone’s strengths complimented each other and together we created something special. Undergrowth is bigger than anyone would have imagined and it’s because of this collaboration that we were able to get it done and in your hands!
Given your experience working in the book production-side of things, was there anything that surprised you about publishing Undergrowth as a writer?
This might sound silly but holding the physical copy of the book really shocked me. It was so heavy! It is an impressive weight and in my mind, it solidifies how much work everyone put into the book. It’s like a physical representation of the 5 years we all spent making this a reality. So that surprised me and made me feel real proud of everyone. I teared up a bit, I won’t lie to you.
The other fun little bit about the physical book is that all the flashback pages have a black background and so that means when you look at the closed book from the top you can pinpoint the moments in the story where there are flashbacks. Haha, it kind of makes me feel like I’m in the fourth dimension looking down at the characters living their life and I can see things in time that they can’t. I don’t know maybe no one else will find that cool, but it’s a fun physical element of the book.
What are you currently reading and watching?
I just finished reading Taka by Ryan Jampole. It was fantastic. It had so much charm and character to it. What was the most impressive thing about it was that it felt like one of those insanely long anime series but crunched down into a digestible Graphic Novel. All the character moments, big and small, were there and all the action scenes were spot-on and drove the story forward. I can’t recommend the book enough!
In terms of shows I recently finished season one of Severance on Apple TV. I’m pretty amped for the second season. I need more creepy corporate stories in my life.
