Here’s a question for the ages:
Can you be dumb and smart at the same time?
More specifically, can you make important art that appeals to some baser preferences or the lowest common denominator, but which is still savvy or life-affirming somehow?
Jake Smith tends to think so.
When we spoke recently, the subject of 2013’s Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon came up (as it should in all conversations). If you’ve never played, it’s basically an homage to every cheesy ’80s action flick ever, as Sergeant Rex “Power” Colt must “get the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the world” (which is basically an “[1980s] VHS vision of the future”). Smith had played it a week before our chat.
“I 100%-ed it again,” Smith said. “They’re just so overly serious that it’s hilarious. And that kind of humor, to me at least, just does really well in a written format, too, in a comic book. Like, a lot of humor I find in most comics is like people trying to write dialogue in a way that you’re reading it like a person out loud and it’s kind of hard to do comedic timing, When you write overly serious characters that are saying ridiculous things, I just think you’re reading that in your head, and it sounds funny in your head, too. So the cheesiness of ’80s movies…I just love the grimy aesthetic.”
It’s a core idea very much at the heart of Smith’s two biggest projects, 2023’s Blood Force Trauma and the forthcoming RoboWolf. While not technically connected, they’re basically the start of the “Smith-verse” of kooky, extra violent comics indebted to the ’80s and ’90s.
“I feel like [RoboWolf] is me almost trying to perfect that ’80s aesthetic and hone it in even more so and do it in its own way,” Smith said. “Where Blood Force Trauma was that ’80s cyberpunk neon aesthetic, this is the ’80s arcade game aesthetic. RoboWolf did start in the back of one of the issues of Blood Force as a fake video game. So I guess if you’re reading it, you can pretend you’re in that video game. You can have that double layer of a world within a world if you wanted to.”
But it’s not just that the two books are the comics version of a Blood Dragon — there’s some key differences. Blood Force follows Zap Daniels, a normal dude who unintentionally becomes the champion of a kind of global fighting league (think The Running Man meets deathmatch wrestling). But as Smith is quick to tell you, even that extra entertaining book had a significant enough downside.
“I got a note when I was pitching Blood Force that the story was fun because you have all the fight scenes and this character learning all these powers and trying to fight different characters,” Smith said. “But the editor said we need a hook right at the beginning, and why we need to follow this whole journey.”
So, in RoboWolf, we get that sense of purpose and focus “up front and right away,” according to Smith. Here, the titular wolf-cyborg-man hybrid and his misfit crew have to rob banks to save his daughter from the “villainous Colonel Massacre.” OK, it ain’t exactly Heart of Darkness, but it’s a project for Smith to further grow his work in the genre of “emotionally resonant, extra shlocky” comics titles.
“RoboWolf connecting with his daughter is the main theme of the book,” Smith said. “I have written versions of the script where it’s the most serious version of those themes. And then I’m like, ‘Whoa, this isn’t fun anymore.’ So if people need to think about that, if it strikes close to home, but I don’t want to depress anybody. I ride that tonal line, but it’s fun for me as the artist, because when you’re reading it, it’s not the most serious version of those themes.”
If you want to get a proper sense of said “tonal line,” Smith shared one of his favorite scenes of the book during our call. It’s one that feels hugely representative of Smith’s multifaceted love of extreme cartoon violence, uncomplicated character development, and whip-sharp wordplay.
“This guy sneaks up on one of our main characters with a pipe — if you’re in an ’80s video game, you got to try to hit people with pipes or crowbar or a little knife,” Smith said. “And the thug goes, ‘I’m about to lay some pipe.’ So then Zuki jumps into mid-air and goes, ‘You’ll never lay pipe again.’ Someone goes, ‘Do you mean hitting this guy with a pipe or sexually? ‘ And then she stabs him with her sai through his mouth and out the back of his head. And she goes, ‘Both.'”
Cue the groans and laughter. But as you quickly see, a basic scene like that isn’t just about cheap thrills and neon gore — it’s a way to cut to the morality at the heart of this book.
“Zuki is the assassin getaway driver on their crew,” Smith said. “She used to be an assassin with this really bloodthirsty gang in town and she left for unknown reasons. You’ll find out over the course of the story. All these characters used to be way worse. And now they’re on this crew with RoboWolf, who’s their dad in a way. They’re less bad versions of themselves, but they’re still robbing banks. They’re just not doing as bad of stuff.”
Smith said that Blood Force Trauma was about “straight up bad guys and good guys.” This time around, though, he wanted to at least try something deeper, and to explore ideas of people facing the consequences of their actions and coming out the other side of this violence more self-aware.
“I actually have themes in this book where characters are doing wrong and they’re not even aware of it,” Smith said. “Like, there are other things that they’re doing that are wrong that they’re like, ‘I know what’s wrong, whatever.’ And then there’s things that another character says and they’re like, ‘I had no idea. Thank you for pointing that out.’ I think a big deal is people dealing with not having awareness about things they might be doing that are bothering other people.”
It’s a dissection and overarching interest that comes from a decidedly personal place for Smith. By filtering real-world pain through over-the-top theatrics, he’s able to surprise the reader with this deeply human story.
“Usually the themes that pop up in the books are the ones I’m dealing with in my life. RoboWolf is kind of a metaphor for my dad,” Smith said. “We talked about how he had a lot of growing up to do when he was my dad when I was young. How he might not have been the best equipped to be a dad at that age. I told him, ‘Hey, you inspired the idea of RoboWolf.’ He’s trying to become the dad he’s supposed to be by the end of the book. The story seems like it’s people doing sick wrestling moves on ’80s thugs, but it’s in there deep down.”
Smith added, “It’s like a video game, where if you really looked at a video game, you’re playing the guy who has already killed 400 people. We have a main character I’m trying to make a straight up scumbag. You don’t get why they like him or why he’s around. The story explores that character and can he be redeemed and is he really a good guy deep down?”
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
At the end of the day, RoboWolf isn’t too serious. It’s biggest selling point, after all, is the inclusion of “bloodthirsty cannibals, ninjas, [and] robots,” among other stupid, wonderful goodies.
“I want to learn my lessons in a cool way,” Smith said. “Don’t make me feel things too intently. It’s still a goofy, fun time. It’s not going to make you go, ‘Man, RoboWolf really changed how I think about humanity.’ But what if it did?”
Whatever you do take away from RoboWolf, it’s value goes even deeper still. Because more than being emotionally resonant and creatively robust, you could also see it as a kind of statement of both modern storytelling and even comics at large. Even if Smith himself doesn’t always see that in the most intellectual of terms.
Case in point: RoboWolf is a kind of reaction to those ’80s-inspired comics, films, video games, etc. Those titles that don’t really get the way jokes ought to be done in this “genre.”
“I try to not do the jokes where someone does something crazy and another character goes, ‘Wasn’t that crazy.'” Smith said. “I hate them.”
As an extension of that idea, Smith also tried to make every character in the book feel big and well-rounded. There’s no B-players here, folks.
“In a regular movie, the main character is usually the boring character, and the weird best friend is way better,” Smith said. “You come out of the movie going, ‘I wish the weird best friend was the main character.’ I try to make every character the weird best friend. I’m making RoboWolf as weird as the other characters.”
It’s not just throwback titles a la RoboWolf that are guilty of some of these crimes. Smith got to discussing a beloved mainstream franchise, and how they’re guilty of the most heinous crime of all: Forced self-awareness and humor that ruins what’s already cool about these adventure stories.
“Me and my friend were talking about Marvel movies lately, where the jokes used to work back in the Avengers days where they’d be like, ‘Look how goofy and dumb this is, right?’ Because they were trying to get audiences to accept Marvel movies,” Smith said. “And now we’re 20 years in, everyone’s on board and they’re still doing that. Like, in the Thunderbolts trailer, they go, ‘Thunderbolts, that’s so dumb, right?’ And I was like, ‘No, that’s pretty cool.’ That’s a cool name. You guys don’t have to dog on it.”
There’s some real evidence that Smith’s “approach” is having something of an effect. Like Blood Force Trauma, RoboWolf is being published by Dark Horse Comics. (They also released Smith’s OGN with Kyle Strahm, Into Radness.)
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
“I was just pumped that I pitched them a book called RoboWolf about a cyborg-wolf-man, which in my head would be in line with maybe ’90s Image Comics or something,” Smith said. “In my head, Dark Horse is classically Hellboy or gothic horror and all these other serious books. I think since then, they’ve been way more in line to pick up these fun, goofy, books.”
Smith also agreed when I mentioned a book like No One Left to Fight as moving Dark Horse into wonderful new territories. He added, “Dark Horse just feels like a different publisher the last few years.”
As far as Smith is concerned, any of this is just an unintended bonus. Because RoboWolf was really done as a way not just to engage his own emotions or perspectives on media, but fully challenge himself as an artist.
For one, it’s his first proper solo book, and he went it alone after working sans Blood Force Trauma co-writer Hiram Corbett. The two really had something magical going.
“He had a character in Blood Force that never showed up: Windbreaker, who had the power of wind,” Smith said. “And I was like, ‘I don’t know, dude, that’s so lame to draw.’ And he was like, ‘What if he could blow the wind so hard, the guy’s skin came off?’ That’s the kind of fun I’m missing on this book.”
Yet the solo path has taught Smith some vital things about his creative process and work as both a writer and artist. For instance, he’s now more cognizant that he has to tell a story with his art (even if the story is, again, a bank-robbing robot-wolf).
“I’ve always only ever wanted to make comics, and to put art to a story,” Smith said. “It’s what interests me. I’m very bad at making pinups and still images. It has to mean something. So when I start drawing a character, a story naturally will always evolve. And it often gets me in a pickle because I have, like, 100 stories and I’m sad that I’ll probably won’t get to all of them.”
He’s also realized the only way he can properly write a script, and it’s not always the most sensible of approaches, either.
“The less of a script I have to write, the better,” Smith said. “I literally write the script as I’m thinking through the story. The art is what starts the story. I draw a character and the story starts coming. I’ll start sketching in a sketchbook and [then] I’ll write. My script is basically like, ‘And then she says something.’ I don’t know what they’re going to say until almost the end. I like writing the dialogue right at the end because I know what the story is and the dialogue feels like the gravy on top. It’s very symbiotic between art and story.”
And in taking this approach, Smith’s not afraid to make a little extra work for himself.
“For some pages, I can go, ‘Oh, this could lead into something way cooler than what I wrote in the script,” Smith said. “I will literally rewrite the whole thing from that story. I have an outline of where it needs to go, but if along the way something cooler happens, I just go with the flow.”
While he could absolutely rework his entire comics-making style, Smith is dedicated to it so long as it means results that actually matter.
“It’s so funny because I’m always thinking, ‘That can’t be the right way to do it,'” Smith said. “I know there’s no right way, but I’m almost trying to figure out my system for what is the most fun way, because hopefully the more fun it is that I’m having, hopefully someone reading it’s having just as much fun.”
And speaking of results, Smith also has more proof thanks to world’s most badass lizard. His recent work (alongside writer Andrew MacLean) on Godzilla: War for Humanity offered both valuable insights and a little confidence boost.
“I think, artistically, I took lessons learned on Godzilla into [RoboWolf],” Smith said. “I’d never done five issues back-to-back before. So doing that was a big help because now we’re at four issues and just that mental hurdle of knowing I am able to do that is huge. Like, ‘I’m going to be able to do this.'”
All of this time and work have confirmed to Smith that what matters most of all is the humanity. No matter how weird or bloody things get, the best comics (really, the best stories) show you the creator exactly as they are and let you connect in this pure, life-affirming sort of way.
“I like that image of Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman making comics in their basement together and just throwing shit at the wall and being like, ‘What, if he’s got nunchucks?’ And then they’re just doing it,” Smith said. “I like feeling that in a comic book, where you can feel how hand-drawn it is. I remember talking to Aaron Connelly. I showed him [RoboWolf] and he read it and he was like, ‘Dude, what I love so much is it just feels exactly like you.'”
So, then, what’s next for Smith post-RoboWolf? He’s got plenty of personal projects he’d like to tackle, including a “fantasy pitch I’ve been working on” and a book featuring “all original Kaijus.” But whatever comes next, you can rest assured that it’ll always be a little dumb, a little goofy, and always 100% personal.
“Is the sequel called RoboWolf 2: A Wolf in Thieves Clothing,” Smith said of my suggested title. “Did you get into my Google Docs?”
RoboWolf #1 drops May 21. FOC is Monday, April 14.
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