MAweek2018: Memory. Putting them back into their childhood clothes, even though Zick's almost the same despite some micro differences lol I do miss the beanie he wore though.
For the last day of the Monster Allergy fandom week – and sticking to the tradition – we’re bringing you a new interview, this time with The Queen™ and mastermind of Monster Allergy, Mrs. Katja Centomo. Huge thanks to her for being so nice and for the time spent answering our questions!
If you want to read the original interview in Italian, click here.
If you want to read it in English, keep reading.
1. In this fanbase we obviously know you as one of the creators of Monster Allergy. However, we can also find your name on many other projects. Could you tell us something about them? Aside from comics, have you ever worked on any other field? What are you working on at the moment?
As a daily job I run the editorial studio Red Whale, which provides different services to various editors that work with comic books, books for children and young adults, and cartoons. Other than Monster Allergy I created a series called Lys, which came out in Italy a few years ago. I published 4 books for the editor Einaudi: “Tilly Duc e il segreto della Casa dei Tetti Blu” (which also came out in Spain), “La strada per Pont Gun”, “Franca Viola, la ragazza che disse di no” and “In fondo al crepaccio”. At the moment I’m working on a new book and on a new comic book series for adults.
2. When did you understand that you wanted to devote your life to writing stories? Has it always been your dream job? Do you have any advice for those who want to follow the same career?
Telling stories has always been in my nature – I’ve always done it ¬– but I only understood it could have been my job when I became an adult. What I suggest is always reading a lot and different genres, since every writer is first of all a reader.
3. It’s been three years since Monster Allergy came back. Are you satisfied with how the story is turning out? For how long had you been planning issue #30 before it came out? Are you happy you could give the comic book another chance?
Yeah, I’m very satisfied and happy to reopen the doors of Poddum-si. I’m attached to the characters of the series and it seemed natural to meet them again all grown-up and more mature, as we were when we could get back in touch with them. We’d been toying with the idea of writing about grown-up Zick and Elena for a while… since the moment we started working on the subject it took us a couple of months.
4. The new issue – which we remind is coming out at the Lucca Comics 2018 – seems to have a quite dark title compared to the previous ones. Is the comic slowly shifting tone? Knowing that both the characters and the older fans have grown up, are you aiming to the same public as you were before Evolution?
It’s exactly like this. The series follows the public that loves it and grows up with it. By now adults are more common than children among the fans, and it seemed right and natural to change the tone of the story according to this. But don’t worry too much… even if someone dies, we’ll still laugh in this episode as well.
5. What’s the process behind planning a new issue? Do you have a long story already planned that you divide in shorter issues year by year? Or do you follow a short-term generic outline trying to make every issue an independent and self-contained story?
Back when Monster Allergy came out every month, we had a planned storyline we followed. Now that we have much more time at our disposal we let the story guide us. There’s always a plot that joins the episodes, but we let it drive us.
6. Ever since Monster Allergy started, a lot of artists with different styles worked on it. While planning the new issue, do you already have an idea of what kind of art style could suit it?
We usually start thinking about the artists when the writing process starts. Rather than thinking about the style ourselves, however, we prefer letting the suggestions coming from artists we’re collaborating with at that moment inspire us. This job, in particular, is mostly responsibility of Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa.
7. Last year, we asked Francesco Artibani about the future of the comic. We were told that, at that moment, you still didn’t know how many issues there would be, or if it was possible to publish more than one a year. Has the situation changed in any way?
I’d prefer not to go further than this… But everything is possible!
8. Is there any plan on publishing new special issues, like Monster Allergy Evolution #0 or the Extra? I think they did a great job at expanding on the lore.
These are possibilities as well. However, I can’t say anything sure about them.
9. We’ve seen Sinistro come back through his son Leon. Can we expect the return of any of the old characters we haven’t seen yet, may it be villains or not?
Someone’s coming back for sure. A character that was beloved by every reader.
10. What do you think of the relationship between Zick and Elena? Do you approach it in a different way from the original Monster Allergy or do you try to keep the same dynamics as before? Did they get closer after what happened in #31 and #32 or are they still trying to overcome the six years they spent apart?
Something is changing, we’ll already find out in the next issue!
11. As a matter of fact, many fans came to know about Monster Allergy thanks to the TV show. Could there be an interest in developing a new season as an adaptation of Evolution in the future?
Who knows? We certainly wouldn’t back off…
12. Many thanks for the interview! Would you like to say something to the Monster Allergy fans that might be reading this?
Just a big thank you with all my heart and a sbuscicata to all of you!
Note: sbuscicata is a fictional onomatopoeic word that has no translation, since the writers came up with It. It’s something monsters usually do to show their love.
Okay so I sort of stupidly went way too overly ambitious for my skills on this one so it’s kind of late (and not really finished). It’s supposed to be a redraw of that one scene in The Other Tamer.
Forgot that this week is Monster Allergy Week, so I combined yesterday and today’s prompt, cappuccino and greenhouse, together. Guess Zick is showing off the rock he found to Elena lol
