TITAN 1 STUDIOS is a Toronto based comics publisher that has recently launched their Guardian Knights of Relativity Universe.
CGM spoke to the company in March about their plans for the line, and now that the universe has kicked off, we got a chance to talk to one of the writers.
Editor’s Note: The following interview with TITAN 1 STUDIOS is available in full in this month’s issue of CGMagazine. Click here for more details!
Kyle Smith is a local boy who writes comics in his spare time. His first story with TITAN1STUDIOS is a one-shot called Weathered Spirit, which drops this August. CGM got a chance to chat with Kyle about his project, why he loves comics, and what it takes to actually make a living writing them.
CGMagazine: Tell us a bit about yourself!
Kyle Smith: I’m a writer and illustrator from Toronto, I make comics. I started making comics just kind of independently, self-publishing them, probably like seven years ago or so. I kind of did it part time, I also worked in post-production for a while and just early last year I decided to have a go at turning comics into a full-time career so I’ve been doing it full time since the beginning of this year.
CGMagazine: How did you get in touch with the guys at TITAN 1 STUDIOS?
Kyle Smith: Me and a guy I do a lot of comics with, a really talented illustrator named Gabe Sapienza, did a comic together called Scare Tales, which is like a Tales from the Crypt-esque horror anthology series. The TITAN 1 STUDIOS guys approached us about maybe doing something with it through their company. What they wanted to do didn’t really pan out with what we wanted to do with it, but through that conversation I got talking to [TITAN 1 STUDIOS owner] he owns TITAN 1 STUDIOS he’s the guy that makes stuff happen and we started talking about some ideas about stuff we could do with TITAN 1 STUDIOS with their Knight Guardians universe.
CGMagazine: What can you tell us about what you’re working on right now?
Kyle Smith: We just finished a one-shot called Weathered Spirit, which is this supernatural thriller mystery with some horror elements thrown in. It’s about a girl who lost her mother when she was young, and she’s kind of this failing private investigator down on her luck and struggling to make ends meet as she’s trying to discover what happened to her mother and on top of all that she’s haunted by this visions. She’s basically trying to discover what happened to her mother and on top of all this that’s happening in her life she’s haunted by these visions of this terrifying ghost and she doesn’t know why or what it all means and the story follows her journey to unravel these mysteries and goes from there.
CGMagazine: How does this tie into the rest of the Guardian Knights of Relativity universe?
Kyle Smith: It’s set in the world of the RU and takes place in one of the last remaining city states—in the RU the world is war-torn as far as I know about it and there is six city-states and it doesn’t really tie into the main series but what we’re doing with these one shots, with Weathered Spirit and future projects, is we’re expanding the RU by following other characters on different journeys that take place within this world.
CGMagazine: Provided this goes well for you, do you have anything else in the pipeline?
Kyle Smith: We’re doing another one shot called Dogs of War that follows one of the Knight Guardian characters, Aaron Seth, as a young soldier. It’s a story that takes place during the past of this characters life. It’s a war story, not sure when it’s coming out, but we just finished the script on that and if things go according to plan with weather spirit I’m pretty sure we’re going to see a mini-series spin out of that.
CGMagazine: I know print sales for comics aren’t what they used to be, is it hard to make a living as a comic writer?
Kyle Smith: Well, since this is the first time I’ve ever tried to make it a real thing I also have to do freelance work on the side because you can’t really pay your bills by writing one comic every couple of months. Like I said earlier, I come from post-production so I do work as a video editor and colour correctionist as well, so I just take jobs when I can get them and when I’m not doing that I work on comics.
CGMagazine: Do any of your own experiences bleed into the comics you write or are they purely works of fiction?
Kyle Smith: I try to take things that I think about and if there’s something I want to make a point about or if I have an opinion on something that creates a bit of an emotional investment for me when I’m writing and that obviously makes it more creatively fulfilling. I think I try to do that a little bit but not to the extent where it’s going to overpower the character or take away from the story.
CGMagazine: Thanks a lot for chatting with us Kyle, good luck with everything!
Kyle Smith: Thanks man!
