From Mat Groom and rising star artist Erica D’Urso comes Inferno Girl Red, an all-new original graphic novel that combines the high school super-heroic drama of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse with the dynamic storytelling and world-building of Japanese tokusatsu superheroes, and the intrigue and relationship drama of British boarding school fiction.
We all need something to believe in. Especially Cássia Costa. An ancient cult and their army of demons have stolen Cássia’s home, Apex City. When a magical dragon bracelet rockets into her life and affixes itself to her arm, Cássia’s the only person equipped to stop the cult from offering the entire city to their dark lord. There’s just one catch…
The magical bracelet is powered by belief, and Cássia — an intensely pragmatic, rational girl – doesn’t have much to spare. She’ll have to find something to kindle her faith, though, and fast —because she has a secret legacy to live up to. Because her mother’s life is on the line. And because Apex City needs Inferno Girl Red.
Mat took some time out of his schedule to discuss his love of tokusatsu, his love of comics, and the biggest influences on his career.
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FOG!: What was the genesis for Inferno Girl Red?
MAT GROOM: It started with me wanting to explore the power and danger of belief—how it can drive us to unlikely victories, but also risks taking us down a toxic path if we fall into self-delusion. How can we believe in ourselves (and the future) when the odds are stacked against us, and not lose ourselves in the process?
With those ideas as the starting point, and with the help of my incredible co-creator Erica D’Urso, I got to work building a story for a graphic novel about having hope in the face of darkness, and taking action in the face of apathy—mixing in superhero action, tokusatsu approaches and high school drama!
From left, Art by Darko Lafuente and Nicola Scott
Your day job is at a creative agency where you work on branding and narrative development. Were you always interested in comics?
Absolutely! Like many people my age, I was obsessed with Batman: The Animated Series when I was younger… and that inspired me to seek out my local comic store, which was in the next town over. There, I grabbed my first trade paperback—it was a Grant Morrison/Mark Waid/Mark Millar JLA volume, and I was drawn in by Batman, but inside I met the strangest cast of characters, like Zauriel and Huntress and Big Barda and Plastic Man and Jakeem Thunder and so many more… I was really thrown in the deep end, but I was hooked. Going down that path actually informed my day job, it taught me a lot of communicating via stories, which I use to assist my clients in my day job.
Cover by Eduardo Ferigato
You recently co-wrote The Rise of Ultraman and co-host a Power Rangers podcast. What about tokusatsu do you find so appealing and how did it influence Infernal Girl Red?
Well there’s aesthetics elements and the scale of it that’s so unique and exciting, and we’ve certainly drawn some inspiration from that, but there’s also a lot to be learned from tokusatsu superheroes in terms of narrative.
American superheroes usually have an open-ended set of responsibilities, they fight ‘crime’ and defend the status quo indefinitely. But tokusatsu heroes have a finite, specific mission, and in the course of pursuing that mission they usually upend the status quo, rather than preserving it.
And a time when the status quo is not-so-great for so many people, I think there’s a lot we can learn from that.
The main character first appeared in your frequent collaborator Kyle Groom’s new series Radiant Black. Is this a shared universe in the making?
Well, look—there are a lot of benefits to having total ownership of a book.
It allows you to do whatever you want, big things, and small things. The small things, like having total control over the cover design and things like that, they’re great.
But it’s the big things that excite. The ability to take big swings and surprise people. And I know Kyle feels a similar way…
Radiant Black and Infernal Red Girl Team-Up by Marcelo Costa & Erica D’Urso
What prompted launching this as an OGN on Kickstarter vs. a standard mini-series?
This is probably a bit of an unsatisfying answer, but the story just felt like a novel to me. With the ideas that we’re exploring, and the world that we’re building, it needed room to breathe and to not have to get to a beginning, middle and end like you really should if you’re writing single issues.
So we wanted to do a novel, and we wanted to maintain creative control of the book, so that didn’t leave a lot of options… other than taking the book to Kickstarter, to see if it’s something the comics-reading public would be interested in investing in!
Who or what have been the biggest influences on your career?
Well, Kyle Higgins has been a big influence—his guidance and mentorship has been invaluable. Outside of that, I’ve been really influenced by reading about (and listening to) writers who think a lot about story structure and the meaning and implications of it—people like Dan Harmon, or Brian McDonald from Pixar. There aren’t any ‘rules’ to writing, but like any craft, there are things you can learn and approaches that can inspire you… and you should never stop trying to hone your craft.
What are you currently geeking out over?
Oh—speaking of tokusatsu—I have been absolutely losing my mind about Kamen Rider Build. It tells a story about the moral consequences and moral costs of involving yourself in a war, but does it in this way that’s so inventive and charming, but also tragic. And it just goes absolutely WILD with its ideas, like only tokusatsu can, without being self-conscious at all. It’s a show about a guy who can become a super-powered warrior by fusing the essences of different things, like a rose and a helicopter, but despite that zaniness it remains earnest and complex.
I’m also just getting into Dungeons & Dragons, for the first time in my life! I know that’s hardly a niche thing these days, but it’s new to me, and I’m having a blast getting lost in the lore and the mechanics of it all.
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