What would you do if a plant had the ability to grant your heart’s desire? How would that change a world and its people? And to what lengths would people go to take that plant for their own devices?
That’s the through-line for the comic Budding Crisis, a new Comixology Originals series from the creative minds of writer MK Reed and Jonathan Hill. The Onomanthe plant is all but extinct, and with it the chance for just anyone to take advantage of its wish-granting powers. While the people of Cygnus attempt to guard the plant’s last seeds, seafaring travelers might have other plans.
I spoke with MK Reed and Jonathan Hill recently about the conceit of Budding Crisis, their collaboration together, the science fiction and fantasy elements of the series, the dynamic look of Budding Crisis, and how the real world plays a role in the series’ inspiration.
Budding Crisis is a series that feels so lived-in and yet so accessible. With a format that allows for stand-alone stories, the comic is the perfect series for folks who don’t want to get bogged down with past issues of backstory and just want to throw themselves into a new universe of engaging tales.
Budding Crisis #2 cover
FreakSugar: Budding Crisis is unlike any book I’ve read in quite a while. What is the genesis of the series?
MK Reed: Watching societal collapse in motion? The pandemic definitely gave me time to think about what kind of world I wanted to live in, and so many of the things I wanted seemed so large, the only way to actually change them was to get wishes granted. One of my real life wishes is to work with my friends as much as possible, and when Jonathan’s schedule opened up after he finished drawing Lizard Boy 2 last year, it felt incredibly lucky. So many things just snapped into place when he came on.
FS: Who are some of the characters we’ll meet in the series?
MKR: Each story is written to stand on its own, so while there’s a little crossover between issues of some characters, there’s not necessarily a main character to follow in our series. There’s the people who wished for immortality who make up a kind of loosely organized illuminati, soldiers from a country that’s waiting for the end of magic to make their power grab, clueless adventurers trying to save the world, and the normal people that have to put up with them all.
FS: The story feels very much like something I’d read in myth and legend—in the best way possible. What were your inspirations in crafting the tale?
MKR: We’re both fantasy nerds, I think I lean a little more into scifi utopias than Jonathan? So a little of stuff like The Left Hand Of Darkness, a little classic 90’s Star Trek, and then more modern authors like Susanna Clarke, David Mitchell, Sarah Gailey, Charlie Jane Anders, and R.F. Kuang. Comics-wise, I don’t think you get to talk about fantasy without Bone. but there’s a bunch of 90’s comics like Finder and Amy Unbounded that are in the mix. I guess it’s worth mentioning I did work on an adaptation of an Irish myth as a webcomic a while ago, it’s sort of been on hiatus because paying work has taken over.
FS: The art and words and story feel so seamless that it feels like they come from one mind. What is your collaboration process like?
MKR: Partly we’ve known each other for a long time, and we’ve done two previous VERY different books together. So I can write to Jonathan’s strengths, and I just trust him a lot. We’ve gamed together- we had a one shot ttrpg club before the pandemic- so we’re used to throwing ideas around and building on a piece of lore that the other one throws out, and taking that in a new direction if it makes sense to.
Jonathan Hill: MK already said it, but it’s trust. That might seem obvious in a collaboration, but I really can’t express how much trust we have with each other and how that brings so much joy to this thing. And I do think knowing each other for so long and also spending so much time weaving stories and laughing together has a big part to play in that. Like sure, there’s ego in the parts we contribute, sure, but it’s like a knee jerk reaction. We know that whatever we put forward and however it gets riffed on, it will be made better by the other person. That letting go and seeing what amazing thing comes back is really special.
I think the fact that we’re also weaving everything together and bringing it to life in kind of real-time as we work issue-to-issue is a lot of fun. Allie, our colorist, has fit in seamlessly to that process and even though I’ve known her for a while, MK hasn’t, and I feel like she has the same sensibilities and has fit really well into that rapport that MK and I have. Her work on bringing the linework and my story to life with her coloring book has been perfect. I really can’t express how proud I am of this book and how it’s truly been the three of us working together.
JH: MK had some loose documents on the world-building and what they had in mind, but I appreciate that they hand me a script and in no uncertain terms is like ‘Do what you do and let’s see what happens’. And on my end, I love making my own books. I love writing and drawing my own stuff, but there’s something really nice about not having to do it all – to just get to focus on your part of the process.
As much as I love Tolkein and the LotR and D&D or whatever, I hate the Euro-centric fantasy that has had a stranglehold on fantasy for so long. Like MK said, we are both nerds, we’re both TTRPG gamers, but growing up the ones that stood out to me were the ones that didn’t have that.
I went to high school in Kuwait and got to travel a lot around that area and the Mediterranean while I was there. So there’s a nostalgia for the aesthetic and design of those places for me. I have never really had a chance to use it for any projects I had been working on, but the city of Cygnus seemed like the perfect opportunity. It’s funny how as an artist you have ideas and sometimes you sit on them forever until the moment arrives. This was one of those cases.
FS: The linework has a cartoonish dynamism to it that keeps the eye hooked. What is your creative process in deciding the look of the book?
JH: Thanks for the kind words! When MK approached me to work on Budding Crisis, their pitch to me was that we got to work together again and that we would have total creative control. I’ve made my career by making books for young readers and my style has pretty much been solidified with tight, clean lines and cartoony and expressive characters. Budding Crisis was going to be a different kind of story and I saw it as an opportunity to play and experiment in a way I hadn’t really gotten a chance to in my other work. I was flipping through my sketchbooks and was thinking about how I draw in them in a completely different way than my final work for publication. They’re straight to pen and are really loose and organic. I had big ambitions about basically trying to draw the whole comic like I draw in my sketchbook, but the reality is that there is so much muscle memory built up after two decades of making comics, it’s hard to completely change the way you do things.
What you see is the amalgamation of that muscle memory and me trying to let myself be looser and more organic. It’s been SO. MUCH. FUN. to play and approach things differently after doing them a certain way for so long, I’m interested to see how I bring what I am learning in this process to my next book for young readers.
FS: If you could switch places with any of your characters, which one would it be and why?
MKR: I feel like Bert has really figured out how to take on immortality, which is to go fishing and see if you can convince your lady to buy you a boat, and only occasionally faking your own death.
JH: Okay, I’m gonna say Bert too, but not because I necessarily wanna live forever, but I wouldn’t mind going back to having a younger body without all the aches and pains of two decades of comics making catching up to me.
MKR: Bert FTW.
FS: What are you reading right now?
MKR: Let’s see, I’m in school again so a lot of modern poetry and experimental novels for that. On my own, I just finished up Emma Rios’ Anzuelo, which is one of the most gorgeous books I’ve seen in ages. Tokyo These Days was my favorite series I read last year. And lately I’ve been putting on Discworld audiobooks while I do chores, though I will probably get to Jeff Vandermeer’s Absolution after I wrap up the next one.
JH: I actually just read Absolution… And then immediately re-listened to the Southern Reach trilogy while inking chapter three of Budding Crisis to help put it all into context since it had been 10 years since I had originally read them. Now I want to re-read Absolution again to make the connections. Ha ha.
I just got back from vacation and the two books I read were The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which was a perfect sit-by-the-pool vacation read and then I also read Joe Country by Mick Herron, which is the sixth book in that series. As someone who has come to love spy stories and loves characters who are complete f***ups, that series is a perfect blend of both of those things.
FS: Do you have any other projects coming down the pike you’d like to discuss?
MKR: None that are out soon!
JH: Lizard Boy 2 (Walker Books US/Candlewick), the sequel to my last book, Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy is coming out this April, which I’m very excited about! I had never done a sequel before and felt a lot of pressure but am really proud of it! It’s a different audience than Budding Crisis, obviously, but if you have a middle reader in your life they should check it out (and the first book if they haven’t). That’s the end of my shameless plug, though I guess you asked so I shouldn’t feel self-conscious about it. Ha ha.
FS: Is there anything you can tease about what we can expect in the series?
MKR: I just figured out how pro wrestling figures into this world, so that’s in one of the later issues for this volume. Magic scams? There’s something in the air about scams that I’ve been writing a lot of them into the series in different ways.
JH: This is the first I’m hearing about the wrestling! Ha ha. Makes me excited to read the next two scripts! Always down for what MK throws at me.
FS: If you had one final pitch for the series, what would it be?
MKR: I don’t think anyone is having as much fun as we are with this book, which in comics is really saying something. A lot about the future feels pretty unfun right now, but I’m actually optimistic that people want to change things for the better and can do it…. somehow. And if not, I’m gonna joke about it as the ship sinks. Come for the fantasy, stay for the gallows humor.
Budding Crisis #2 is on sale now from Comixology Originals.
From the official description of issue #2: