Games Workshop’s Blood Bowl has been a cult favourite among board game players for decades and last year, we finally got an updated version of the brutal, fantastical take on the NFL. To celebrate that return, Titan Comics is translating the world of hurt that is Blood Bowl into comics!
We got a chance to sit down with writer Nick Kyme and artists Fabricio Guerra and Jack Jadson to talk about what fans can come to expect from their “Blood Bowl” miniseries. Needless to say, expect a lot of bloodshed. It’s in the name, after all.
First up, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Now, even for our British readers who might have heard of it before, Blood Bowl is a bit of a weird concept. Can you explain just why the heck orcs and humans are playing American Football?
Nick Kyme: They actually think they’re fighting a battle, sort of. Blood Bowl has become the way rival races, cities and realms resolve their disputes and fight their wars. To you or I, it’s a game, to the orcs, humans, dwarfs, halflings, ogres and so on of this fantasy world it’s much more than that. It’s also a kind of ritual, dedicated to Nuffle who is the god of Blood Bowl, hence the reason there’s only 11 warriors or players allowed on the battlefield or pitch at any one time – that’s because it’s Nuffle’s sacred number.
To cut a very long story short, in ancient Blood Bowl times, two rival armies reached a stalemate during a battle. Neither side could grasp victory, and after a bored orc discovered a cache of archaic armour hailing from the land of ‘Amorica’ and a one-eyed dwarf translated some dusty old texts that described the rules of the ritual or game, the two armies ended up determining the victor of their battle on a crude pitch, fighting over an inflated pig’s bladder. It was the first ever game of Blood Bowl.
So much fun and carnage was had by all that word spread throughout the lands and kingdoms. From those humble beginnings, the sport of madness and mayhem was born. So instead of fighting wars on the battlefield, now the races of the world do it on the Blood Bowl pitch instead.
Fabricio Guerra: Good question … I don’t know, perhaps a less deadly way to confront each other in battle? A sort of duel without deadly weapons like swords and axes?
Jack Jadson: One thing I can guarantee – It’s been a lot of fun to draw on this project.
I want to ask about the process of translating what it essentially a board game to a comic book. Even though it has it’s own lore in tabletop format, what was it like bringing Blood Bowl to comics?
NK: It was a lot of fun, creating the teams and star players, thinking about a narrative unique to the world of Blood Bowl, but also representing the game faithfully on the page. I think to be successful in that you need two things, a great story for each issue that happens on the pitch and an equally great story that happens off it. There’s drama inherent in the game itself but the real stakes come from caring about the characters and wanting them to succeed (or fail).
Coming up with a story arc and a cast that achieved those things, whilst keeping the game front and centre was the biggest challenge. And it has to be funny! Blood Bowl is all about the dark humour. When the star blitzer gets run over by the Deathroller or the goblin dressed as the ball gets impaled by an over eager catcher, you should be laughing.
JJ: As I said before, for me it has been fun and bloody, but a real challenge.
FG: A great responsibility, because I discovered that the game has many fans, including here in Brazil. We do not want to disappoint these fans, we are striving to try to get the same emotion you get from the board game in the language of comics.
Following on from that, Blood Bowl is known for it’s unique tone. It’s high fantasy, but it’s tongue in cheek. It’s very Warhammer, but pushed a little bit sillier. What was it like trying to capture that tone in your story?
Continued belowNK: This was probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of the writing, getting in the jokes, the madcap antics, but at the same time using them to serve the needs of the story. Coming up with various sporting tropes and subverting them in that devilish Blood Bowl manner was fun too. Putting in farting troll gags or goblins on pogo sticks is great but it’s even better if it’s part of a story twist or speaks to character development in some way. It’s actually quite dark humour (that pogo stick goblin is going to be bounce himself to an untimely death at some point, and that farting troll is likely to over inflate and explode messily), and though we’re laughing, the characters (well, the coaches especially) are usually taking it much more seriously.
JJ: The characters are very cool and the game scenes are very violent and funny to draw.
FG: I love this medieval fantasy universe. I played a lot of RPG in my teens and so it has been quite pleasurable and challenging at the same time. We did not know the Blood Bowl specifically, but I had seen some Warhammer stuff on the Internet, especially the miniatures, so I’ve been researching daily about the game so I do not make mistakes.
Blood Bowl is known an extreme contact sport, famous for only really having rules so long as the referee is watching. Can we expect a level of carnage for the comic as well?
NK: Oh yes. A LOT of carnage. If someone’s not getting grievously injured (or worse) and having to be stretchered off then you’re not doing Blood Bowl right. The game is notorious for cheating. Players pushing it far as they dare and risking getting caught in order to win is what Blood Bowl is all about. Naturally, mayhem and carnage are part of that, while staying true to the fact that the two teams are still trying to win a game and not (just) trying to kill each other. Give the fans what they want. More guts, more glory, am I right?
JJ: Yes, you can expect a lot of carnage (and humor as well).
FG: Yes, certainly we will have enough action that pleases all audiences.
While humans and orcs are clearly the mainstays of Blood Bowl judging from the cover, will we be seeing the other weird and wonderful races and factions of the Warhammer world show up to play a game or two?
NK: There’s definitely a fairly broad spread of teams and races that we’ll get to see take to the pitch. What I’ve tried to do is give the heroes of the story, the Hochland Harbingers, a variety of different opponents that present a different challenge. Slow, bruiser teams that rely on bulk and muscle as well as faster and more nimble teams that are nigh impossible to catch.
JJ: All the races will be represented!
FG: Yes, we will have other races besides Humans and Orcs.
Now here’s the real question: which team do you support? Because I’m patiently waiting for Game Workshop to provide support for Death players in the new version of Blood Bowl so I can unleash skeletal hell on the field.
NK: Ha, ha. I actually had a Death or Undead team too (cheap linemen) back in the previous iteration of Blood Bowl, but my favourite team, the one I support, is definitely Dwarfs. Nothing more satisfying that watching your line of scrimmage slowly roll over and demolish the opposing team and then score the single winning touchdown when most of their players are in the injury box. I’ve actually played loads of teams. Humans run a close second, just because of the versatility. Needless to say, I’m assembling and painting a team to represent the Hochland Harbingers from the comic…
JJ: Tough question.. human, I think
FG: I think I’ll stay with the humans. They do not have the strength of the orcs, but I believe that speed and intelligence is a factor that can be favorable.
“Blood Bowl” #1 from Nick Kyme, Jack Jadson and Fabricio Guerra and published by Titan Comics will hit store shelves May 10. Be sure to check it out!
