AMA with Rippaverse's Andrew Rodriguez On 11/26 @ 1pm EST

[alexj-12]

Hey everyone! We’ve got an AMA next week with Andrew Rodriguez, Creative Manager at Rippaverse

Rippaverse is an independent comic publisher building its own original universe: new characters, new stories, and a continuity that isn’t tied to the usual big-publisher baggage.

Andrew is a lifelong comic and video game fan, a heavy reader of fantasy and sci-fi, and someone who likes to dig deep into the worlds he follows. His background is in Business Management and Marketing, and he’s also trained in TV & Film. Most days you’ll find him at his PC with a coffee and a book nearby.

Bring your questions about the Rippaverse, the creative process, worldbuilding, characters, or anything else you’re curious about!

 

[EmberVine]

Awesome! I have a couple questions myself:

• How do you decide which new characters or story arcs should take priority when building out a fresh universe like this?
• I see your background is in marketing, business, and film. How much do those influence the way you approach storytelling and shaping the Rippaverse?

 

[PixelNomad42]

• How do you balance fan expectations with sticking to the original vision?
• How much freedom do you have when shaping characters or story direction?
• If you could greenlight any Rippaverse project tomorrow (no budget limits), what would it be?

 

[Billy]

Sounds great, can't wait to ask about his ability to balance fantasy and reality in his comics in such a way that they both click.

 

[J1nx018]

When you’re creating a new character, what is your starting point?

 

[mostapunk]

What are Andrew's four favorite films? And what are Zephyr's?

 

[mostapunk]

Assuming the bulbs charge up Zephyr's speed (confirm pls if so), is there a technological limit that he will have to keep innovating to reach? Also is it addictive, like perhaps he relies on them too much and will learn to let go? Or are they like traininf wheels?

 

[Warshark]

Does Zephyr look up to any member of Alphacore as an inspiration?

 

[RustedComet]

Which character in the Rippaverse do you think has evolved the most from their original concept?

 

[PhineasFlash515]

I’m curious, just HOW FAST will BlueShift be? I assume he’s gonna start-out relatively tame, (maybe like Dash from the Incredibles?) but what will his EndGame Speed and Power look like?

Just wanting to manage my expectations. I already know the RippaVerse won’t be having any Multiversal or Time-Travel shenanigans, so BlueShift’s probably never gonna be as Ludicrously Fast and Cracked as WallyWest or Archie Sonic, and I do appreciate you keeping the superpowers relatively tame for the earlier arcs, since character-development and world-building should always come first, but at the same time, I’d LOVE it if the RippaVerse had some crazy cosmological Shonen Power-Creep. Like, maybe End-of-Series BlueShift is fast enough to outrace the Millennium-Falcon or some crazy stuff like that. And EndGame Zalen could solo the Viltrum-Empire as easily as OmniMan wiped out the Flaxans!

It’s up to you guys, of course. Just wondering if we can expect the superpowers to get a whole lot crazier as the story continues and the world opens up.

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

1.) What was your "Favorite Part" of Horseman #1? Mine was when he was able to tell when the bad-guys' belt-fed machine-guns were out of ammo because he'd been mentally keeping count of every individual bullet they fired.

2.) You've talked about how you're a big fan of Rin'Lyn, the captain of the Dirty Deeds crew. If you could pick from any of the Rippaverse heroes and any of the Rippaverse villains to have her fight against, who would you pick for both categories? Given that, as keeper of the NDAs, you have access to greater knowledge than us about how her powers work, I'm interested in which matchups you think could provide the coolest, most epic battles.

3.) Which Sonic comics arcs and characters are your favorite, and why? One of the characters I personally enjoy is Antoine D'Coolette, with how in the Classic Era, he's the C3PO of the group who you love to laugh at whenever he gets hit by a comic relief gag after having spent a lot of time annoying everyone around him, and how in the Modern Era, he's matured into a courageous swordsman and caring husband.

4.) Care to elaborate more about the process of coming up with a rogues' gallery for Blue Shift, and the inspirations for the villains? (And might he have an upcoming opponent who can stun-lock you by saying "It's no use!" and then throw you into outer space?)

5.) As your "Caffeinated Wolfe" moniker suggests, I'm guessing you know a fair amount about the bean brew that let the Founding Fathers win the war against the British and their tea-drinking ways. What types of coffee do you personally recommend, and why? Which brands, flavors, and styles stand out above the rest to you?

6.) You've given us a bunch of clues and inside baseball about Zephyr Arland and the inspirations that went into creating him. Would you be up for doing the same for the supporting cast of characters he meets attending a "normal school" for the first time?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

Also:

7.) We've all seen awesome stories come out that later have sequels that didn't need to exist and mess with the character development that the protagonist had in the first story. As someone who's planning a bunch more stories for Zephyr if and when they get greenlit, what approach(es) have you used in your outlining process to come up with sequel stories where you develop the character in new ways without doing dirty the character development he's already had? Also, how do you personally avoid falling in the other ditch of the character learning so many moral lessons across different arcs that eventually there's nothing left for him to learn?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

8.) I notice that the strap on Zephyr's school bag at the beginning of the Blue Shift trailer has bulbs on it in the colors yellow, cyan, and green. Could this potentially have a connection to the bulbs on his suit or the Chaos/Super Emeralds that inspired them?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

9.) Might the design on Zephyr's T-Shirt be a reference to your internet moniker "Caffeinated Wolfe"?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

10.) I notice that when Zephyr falls down on the running track in the Blue Shift trailer, his shoes fly off for some unknown reason, but his socks seem to be undisturbed and staying on his feet just fine. This seems very peculiar, especially given that it seems the shoes are flying forward ahead of him as he falls over. Care to talk about that?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

11.) In the part of the trailer showing Trinity, she appears to be wearing a hero outfit, and the girl with glasses to the right of her is wearing a shirt that looks like the shirt from the suit of Black Bolt— ruler of Attilan in the MARVEL Universe. There's also a light-haired guy in a hoodie in the shot next to them. I wonder if this might mean that there's something Exceptional going on at the school that the three of them might know about?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

12.) You said that Blue Shift takes a lot of inspiration from shounen media. Does this mean that Zephyr has a list of running techniques for handling different enemies, and that he'll say their names aloud every time he uses them?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

13.) Might there be anyone in Zephyr's series who "embodies the Spirit of 'Coming Through!'"?

 

[Joshua Ignatowski]

14.) Being such a big fan of Chuck Dixon, have you used the fact that he writes for the Rippaverse to get some time asking him how he does what he does? If so, are there any nuggets of comicbook-writing knowledge he's given you that you could share?

 

[alexj-12]

The AMA starts now! Keep an eye out for responses from @CaffeinatedWolfe