Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins are both creators pretty well known for their various works. Whether it’s guiding parts of the Valiant Universe or reimagining Peter Pan against a WWII backdrop, these two have done a lot in comics. Their next book brings them together at BOOM! to tell the story of three brothers and their little off-the-grid kingdom in the middle of the Canadian prairie. Robert, Bruce, and Ashur are the three “princes” of the Grass Kingdom, a hodge podge of trailers, barns, and who knows what else that is home to a group of people who are setting out to be fully in control of their lives, even if that means doing things a little differently.
At Emerald City Comicon, I had the chance to talk with Kindt and Jenkins about the book and Tyler even gave me a random piece of prairie grass that was in his jacket pocket. Read on as we chat about “Grass Kings,” the Canadian prairie, the psychology of environment, the dynamics of brothers, thinking of the worst, and much more.
The title “Grass Kings” and the setting of the Grass Kingdom evokes a bit of fantasy vibe just from the names, but it’s obviously a very different book.
Tyler Jenkins: It’s interesting because some people go that way when they see it, but some people think it’s a book about drugs. I’ve gotten that reaction.
Matt Kindt: I was worried about that.
TJ: There are people out there who buy a book because it’s about weed and that’s fine with me. There are literally no drugs so far, though.
I read that a lot of the aesthetics are based on where you’re living at in Canada, Tyler. What was it about that landscape that made you want to capture it in a comic?
TJ: Everything. The landscape has such a mood of its own. It’s very emotional. It feels very alive. It feels like nothing else. I just moved out there five years ago, so it’s with very fresh eyes that I came to seeing it. It’s not like I grew up there living out there my whole life, out in the middle of nowhere.
Are you from a big city originally?
TJ: Yeah, I’m from Calgary, so I grew up in one of the biggest cities in that part of the country. I’ve always gone out to the country, but going out and living there firsthand, going into old barns and buildings, I couldn’t not draw it into something. It’s too easy to not do it.
What about you, Matt? Are you from the country or the city? How does that affect things?
MK: I’m from the Midwest. I used to wander around the woods, but it was never oppressive to me. It was always fun, it was always an escape. I liked how there’s an awareness of geography. We were talking at dinner last night about the mountains and how if you’re around mountains long enough, they start to be oppressive – just these tall things looming over. You become aware of that and I think the psychology of your environment is interesting. Whether it’s Southern California and you’re super laidback or living in the mountains your whole life or where Tyler’s at. The photos he sends me, I just have to go visit. One of the things I like about Twin Peaks – and that’s an early influence – is the shots of the woods and the roads at night. I try to capture that, but it’s really up to Tyler. I type up a script, but Tyler has to figure it out.
At the core of “Grass Kings” are the three brothers – Robert, Bruce, and Ashur. Who are they and what are their relationships with one another? What roles do they play?
Mk: It’s interesting to me because they’re three generations, kind of. They all kind of get along, but one of them is a mess. The middle one is the responsible one.
TJ: No, the older one is the responsible one.
MK: Oh yeah, I always mix that up. Wait. Who are you calling the responsible one? Robert? Or Bruce?
Continued belowTJ: Bruce. I always thought of Bruce as being the oldest one. It’s funny because it’s not even that important, necessarily.
MK: It is though. To me, a middle child is different than the oldest.
TJ: I always thought of Robert as being the middle guy. It’s weird that he started running the show and why Bruce didn’t.
MK: I’m the youngest and I just have a brother, so I don’t know about the three child dynamic. How many brothers do you have?
TJ: I’m the oldest and I have three brothers that I grew up and then my parents adopted four more kids, so I have six brothers and one sister. I’m the oldest of all that mess.
MK: I have an older brother and he was always the leader and I was always sort of following him. At some point, I tried to usurp his dominance. I love the dynamic of brothers. I think it’s going to be fun to see that play out. One of my favorite movies is The Darjeeling Limited. Have you seen that? I love that movie because of the relationship of the brothers. It’s so great.
TJ: I love brother movies that have that sort of dynamic.
MK: You see it a lot in things, but not quite in the right way. I think the fun of this is going to figuring that out.
TJ: There’s this other movie, Four Brothers, that’s just ridiculous and moronic and is all about the brother dynamic.
It shouldn’t be as good as it is.
TJ: I enjoyed the hell out of it and it’s kind of terrible, but I love it. It’s not a great movie, but I enjoy it. It’s great to watch.
In opposition to the brother and their “kingdom,” is the city of Cargill and their sheriff Humbert. They have an ongoing feud. What are these two factions feuding about and how deep does that go?
MK: It goes deep. It goes back generations. We start out issue 1 in 1200 AD. We’re sort of exploring that area of land over a long stretch of time, but we’re mainly focusing on this one period of time where this neighboring town has a feud. It’s funny because this is Tyler’s idea that he came to me with, so it’s grown out of that. It’s me bringing some of my ideas and blending them with his.
Oh yeah? How has process been since you brought it to him? How has the back and forth been?
TJ: There’s nothing weird about it all. I honestly can’t think back, I can’t separate which idea came from where. It all felt like it was already there. Unless I read my original documents, I couldn’t separate the two. All I remember is that the entire mystery element was not really there before and Matt brought all those levels of mystery and all those pieces sliding under the surface. Originally, it was more drama, much less of a mystery. I love crime stuff, which is dumb that I wouldn’t even have to thought to put a crime element in there. Like, now it’s good.
MK: That’s what I’m always trying to do. How can I put crime into everything?
I think that’s the beauty of it. Your idea of this small “kingdom”, village, whatever, I don’t even know the proper term. It’s not even a village. It’s this crazy collection of trailers with a mini airport and barns. All of that, I feel like those are people who decided they wanted to live their own life how they wanted to live it, off the grid. They didn’t want to be beholden to anybody and wanted to live how they wanted to live with their own rules. They’re carving out this little areas for themselves.
The neighboring town doesn’t want any part of that. They’re saying, “You can’t just DO that. You can’t do whatever you want. You can’t do that.” There’s this tension there. They’re trying to make them live by their rules.
TJ: It’s not like they’ve set it up so they have rules or laws that contravene the laws in the real world. It’s not even because they’re necessarily breaking the laws that it’s a problem, it’s more of a personal thing.
Continued belowMK: I see that in real life. I think the more you want to be on your own, people don’t like that. For some reason that irritates people. I don’t know if it’s jealousy, or people wanting and not knowing how to do it, or being afraid. It’s kind of an analogy for what we do. We could choose to go into work everyday and have that stability of health insurance and a paycheck. But we decide to stay home all day and write and draw comics.
TJ: Which sounds ludicrous put like that.
MK: It is crazy! It’s one of the craziest life choices. I’m sure my parents were terrified when I decided to do it. It takes a little bit of guts to do that, but also a little bit of crazy. But there’s that freedom that comes with it. The difference between Monday and Friday is nothing to me.
TJ: Take a weekend? When should I start that?
MK: Right! I can relate to it in that way. People just wanting to take their fate in their own hands.
You talked about how Matt inserted mystery and crime into the story.
TJ: Well, not inserted it. He wasn’t taking something weird and making it fit, he made it work organically.
MK: You had all these characters and ideas and settings.
TJ: And how I wanted them to feel and what I wanted them to do to each other.
MK: You just need something to happen. It’s hard to separate our ideas though.
TJ: It started from the loss of the child. That was where it started for me. How would I deal with losing a kid? If it was me writing it, it would be a lot of gloomy silences and them sitting there and contemplating life and death. And that’s in there, but they also need to do some shit.
MK: I remember that. That resonated with me because I had those same thoughts. Once you have a kid, you can’t help but think about it. I used to go on long drives and imagine what it would be like if I jerked the wheel off the highway. Like, what would the car do? What would happen to me? When you have a kid, to me, it’s the same thing. I can’t help but imagine the worst and what that would be like.
TJ: I know that feeling. That’s the entire impetus for this. That’s the worse thing I can imagine. Everything would fall apart.
