One of the hottest comics at Comic-Con this year was Deadly Class written by Rick Remender and illustrated by Wes Craig.
The story is set in the 80’s and follows Marcus, a teenage boy living on the streets. His reputation gets to Master Lin, played by Benedict Wong in the TV adaptation, who is the principal of King’s Dominion. He recruits Marcus into his elite private academy where the world’s top crime families send their next generations. You can imagine the adventures and chaos are unlimited between the various crime cliques and assassin classes such as AP Black Arts and Beheading.
We sit down with the original duo behind the Deadly Class Comic Book.
Rick Remender (Writer): How you guys doing? Good show so far?
Lindsay: Actually, this is my favorite moment so far.
Wes Craig (Artist): Aw! Thanks.
Lindsay: Prepare for some questions.
Rick: Lets do it!
Lindsay: So there is obviously some great clicks in the series. The Jersey Kings, the Dixy Mobs, Preps, to name a few. Each with their own personality. Is there a particular click that you guys relate to, or enjoy writing for?
Wes: Oh man. That’s a tough one.
Rick: For me I’m half Billy, half Marcus. So those characters, to be on set…
Wes: There’s no crazy Canadian gang unfortunately.
Rick: Crazy Kanuks!
Wes: Yeah, with all plaid shirts. I don’t know…
Rick: (To Wes) You were a greaser, a rock-a-billies kid.
Wes: I was always a rock-n-roll kid. So Quan. Quan comes in a little later on in the series, and I definitely helped make that guy. He wore all the clothes that wore as a teenager growing up. So he is pretty close. I always thought Latino culture, like bandannas and plaids was the coolest thing growing up.
Rick: Still is.
Wes: Yeah, it is. It’s classic. It never goes away.
Rick: It never goes away. Now it’s all the way to the top button. That was also a skate punk thing, that was kinda the suicidal style. Love it.
Lindsay: I’m all about that top button by the way.
Wes: Yeah man!
Rick: It’s a good look.
Question: Was the school laid out before the TV series, or was that something you had to help layout and design how it looks?
Rick: Well, in doing this show, I realized that… Well I wrote something for Wes once. It was a Batcave with a school in it. Then at some point, I believe it was Joe Russo, who said “Why isn’t it just an underground labyrinth?” That would make a lot more sense.
(Both Rick and Wes laugh.)
Wes: Yeah, that’s the one thing, that after a certain amount of issues, your like, “This doesn’t make a lot of sense…” Wouldn’t they all be trembling? Somethings make a lot more sense in a comic book world, in the real world, you don’t know if you could pull that off. Sometimes the craziest of ideas had to be pulled back. Maybe that’s not true…. That one thing.
Rick: That one thing! It kinda logic-ed better. Instead of a giant cavern with a school in it, the school itself is a maze, and a labyrinth underground in San Francisco. So in terms of unpacking that, it’s given me ideas where I don’t necessarily think it’s better, but it has given me more story potential, which may bleed into the book as we move forward. Because once I got into it, I have an instinct to take it inside of the book, but Wes will say, “We’ve been out of the school for a while…”
(Both Rick and Wes laugh.)
Wes: We are just constantly playing hooky…
Rick: We ARE constantly playing hooky, because all of our stories, our youthful stuff that we talk about, not a lot of it happened in school. The labyrinth gives you more to play with in the school.
Stay tuned for more information about when the Season will be premiering on SYFY!
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