Trover Cover #2 Interviews 

Tess Stone Saves The “Trover Saves The Universe” Comic Featuring Justin Roiland

By | August 2nd, 2021
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

There is a good chance many of the people reading this right now are doing so at an office – – maybe in a cubicle but definitely on company time. The company might not be thrilled with this but luckily those people don’t work for the ICJ—Important Cosmic Jobs, “where employees are ranked by their boss, and at the end of each month, the worst employee literally gets the ax.”

The new comic “Trover Saves The Universe” will explore the work place nightmare of the ICJ for the very worst eyehole monsters. From writer and artist Tess Stone, this five issue series will delve deeper into the humor and absurdity of the Trover property featured in the hit video game from Justin Roiland.

To learn more about how this project came together, what readers can expect, and the plan to translate the humor of the game to the comic medium we were able to speak to creators Tess Stone and Justin Roiland. Below you will find the interview with answers to those questions plus some of their own workplace memories.

A huge thanks to Tess and Justin for taking the time to talk about “Trover Saves The Universe” which you can find in shops and online this August 4 from Skybound Comics.


With this series coming off the heels of the success of the Trover video game, there is interest in what the comic series will focus on. What is this series about and why is the Troververse something you wanted to explore in this different medium?

Tess Stone: Well, I think comics is a really, really natural thing to be used and to explore for something like Trover because I also kind of always believed that comics and video games aren’t as far apart as they might seem. I definitely love both. And I think the more that they kind of hold hand in hand, they can really benefit from each other. I just think games and comics, they help each other out. I think it’s synonymous and works out well. I can make up a new world in a comic book, but I don’t have to model it for three months or more. And, you know, it’s nice to be able to just have free range and play around in this world that I think is really cool.

Justin Roiland: Yeah, I mean, for us, we’re, we’re hard at work on our next big game. It’s a different IP. But we didn’t want to sort of let Trover get a bunch of dust on it as an as an IP and you know, to test this point like I think comics are an obvious great sort of low stakes way to keep an IP alive. Build more world building and kind of, you know, create more around that IP. Partnering with Skybound and Kirkman, well it was, it was sort of a no brainer, just in that. I’ve been friends with him forever. He told me quite a ways before the inception of this that Skybound was starting to do licensed stuff. And I just knew partnering with those guys, they would find a really great writer, either writer slash artist or writer artists combo to work on the book, and they did. Tess has been phenomenal. Yeah. And it’s it’s very much in in the same kind of silly tone as the comic or as the game. It was sort of an obvious to everybody involved, you know, like the idea of doing a comic and, and sort of keeping an IP going. It was easy to say yes, there was no real resistance to that concept at the studio or, or anywhere else. So, yeah, I’m super happy with it, too.

TS: I’ve been having fun. So great, worked out for everybody,

Was there something specific that the series was going to in concept, or were you given free reign in your approach?

JR: My approach to this was, and in a lot of stuff I do is, you know, find really talented people, and then just let them run with it, you know. We have the kind of flow of like, you know, Tess submitting premises and submitting a bunch of stuff in the early days. I was like there’s so many ways to go with the Trover comic. You know, I think in the very early days, I was just like, you know, I think it’d be cool to see Trover or see some of the, some of the things from the game materialize. You know, as either locations that are that the characters go to or, you know, whatever, but I was very open to new characters and a whole new kind of side thing, as well. So, yeah, I didn’t really have like a, an overarching, my goal was like, just give it to a really talented person and let them have fun. If they’re having fun, it’ll be good. I mean, that’s kind of, in general, I find that to be to be true.

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TS: I agree. Like, as long as persons having fun … you can tell, it doesn’t have to be like that. I definitely like had a lot of free rein, and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t expect it. Most of the times, they’re pretty strict, I get a lot of notes, I get a lot of people coming back and saying this x, y. And I’ll try to get into these characters heads to these kinds of mindsets, and I just kind of struggle. And I guess I got really lucky this time, because this has been shockingly easy to do. There’s like, I feel like I’m living in a dream world where no one tells me to change anything that much. And I’m like, wow, that’s great.

I saw an interview Justin did when the game dropped where he was talking about tackling comedy in video games are the difficulty of that with players having a lot of the control and timing. I think there’s a difficulty with comics as well, which is why horror and comedy are so hard to do in comics. And I think, Tess, you kill it in this. What was your approach to the humor in this series and in comics, and what’s your theory on how humor can work in comics and how kind of this this comic series does that?

TS: I  think in a lot of ways, and I’m I’m not an expert by any means. But I think a lot of it’s just timing. So it’s finding a way to manipulate the page to trick the reader to read it in the timing that you hope that they will do it. And it may not always work out but you always try to . When you play video games and you have the layout the map, so that it’s very obvious where you need to go next without having like big signs pointing everywhere. They always have like visual cues, where to go and like how to lead you and you’re always you’re always being lead. There’s always a storyteller no matter what. And I think that’s kind of just like the job of the Comic artist is to kind of try and get as much visual cues and support to have it be read.

JR: Yeah, comedy is hard in comic book form. I’m literally trying to think of what comics make, if any have ever made me actually laugh out loud. is there’s a lot of comics I think are really, really funny. Like the Perry Bible fellowship, which is not necessarily like, you know, a linear ongoing, they’re like serialized narrative. It’s more just like quick punches, but they’re not different. I mean, I, maybe Simon Hanselmann. Maybe I have laughed out loud, like something from “Megg & Mogg” at one point or another, just that world and those characters and the specificity of certain situations that are kind of like dreamt up with those relationships and stuff.   I don’t know, the bottom line is like, yeah, I think you’re right about comedy and horror, in the comic medium are a bit trickier. Just because you don’t have that control over the timing in comedy, particularly. It’s like you don’t know. Yeah, sound is a huge. Yeah, I think I think sound for horror is like, you know, I mean, people almost rely on it too much these days. But I think for comedy, it’s like, you know, just how, where people’s eye are to where their eyes are going to go? Is that going to impact the punchline setup? punchline? The rhythm? Yeah, it’s tricky.

TS: Trying to draw a funny looking thing helps. That’s all I kind of tried to do sometimes. Just get the best joke.

Tess, you’re known I think for very expressive and detailed character expressions in your page and panel layouts. Is that something you could build on working in with Trover? Trover and the crew are pretty much blank slates. Does that help you not only explore the expressiveness but also play with the comedy in that way with this series?

TS: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Actually, the style was a really like, I never really have drawn in the style. So being able to draw it, I was very much like, relieved to see how a quick I could draw on it. And then also how much it could push their emotional like, features and opportunities it could be, I could really squash and stretch them. So it was a lot of fun to just sort of figure out how to play around with that new type of style and freedom in terms of characters.

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I think part of the appeal of Trover the game and any of Justin’s properties is his very distinct voice and very distinct delivery, cadence, and timing. In capturing that, especially in the opening page of the first issue with Trover, I think Tess nails it. You can read it with Justin’s voice in your head. Was this something going in when you were writing it? And Justin, do you think she did a pretty good job of getting you down?

TS: I knew it couldn’t be Justin. So I didn’t try but I tried to be inspired by this instant humor that I thought was funny in the game and just sort of like not try to copy it because I’m not funny in that way. I’ve just tried to kind of be inspired by it. So I’m glad that it kind of it feels it feels right. All I knew is that it was a lot of lettering because they do talk a lot, but it’s good.

JR: Yeah, it’s really I think it’s really well done and there’s certain characters that you can almost, it almost feels like Tess maybe you played the game a bunch and just not even just Trover but certain like other certain characters that maybe you were listening to how they talked?

TS: Oh, I yeah, I stood around and listened a lot. I think they’re about point at the gate  where the two are talking about sticking their arms or legs in each others butt and like it goes on for like 40 minutes and I like awkwardly sat there and waited for them to like just keep talking again. I was like “this is incredible.”

JR: There’s a lot to do in Trover like, it’s like a thing we were trying to do. That’s like a big thing in our studio with the games we make is like a lot have crazy shit that the player can opt in to listen to or just keep playing and get the fuck out of there if they want to. But we record a lot of stuff because it’s just it’s just great to have. But yeah, there’s characters in the book that feel like you were sort of into the rhythm of how certain characters talk and like what they’re saying. It felt very felt very on brand.

TS: All right. I’m glad. I also when in doubt I tried to think back to the Rick and Morty.

One of the big things you guys touch on both in the game and the comic is the comedy around office culture, especially in the comic. Why is it something that’s ripe to be explored, especially with comics? It’s a good jumping in point, very relatable – – and I think that’s where humor can work a lot because I can relate to it.

TS: I pulled a lot of my my days being a barista at Starbucks. And I felt a lot of those feelings I poured in there. Just that sort of hamster wheel grind you feel sometimes under giant corporations.

JS: I mean, when we when we were doing the important cosmic jobs DLC. Like we, we knew that would be a really fun place to sort of build out just because it’s a place you do go to in the game, but you specifically are going to the boss’s office, and you don’t really get to see the rest of the, the, the sort of office. And so building that out was a really fun thing. It just, it’s like, it’s like a Yeah, it’s like an office place. But it’s got like the weird… You know, when I worked at Best Buy, they were constantly I don’t know if they still do this, because this was forever ago, but I worked at Best Buy for a couple years. And they were always pushing us to mention to the, to the customers that we’re not on commission. And then on the other side of that coin, they really wanted us to push accessories and service plans on customers. So like, you’d have an attached rate in your department. And it was like this kind of like in you know, like, all the different departments were pitted against each other. And everyone was like, it was very bizarre because it was like, well, we’re not on commission, but but we’re still really like, yeah, we’re competing. And also, it was like it was a problem. Like if you weren’t like pushing those things and convincing people to buy these service plans and a bunch of fucking accessories with these huge markups. Like your, you would get talked to, you know what I mean? Like, it was like, it was like, Oh, yeah, we’re not on commission. So there’s no, there’s no upside for us. It was like, you know, why do I give a shit about these people? And also, I knew that the service plans were bullshit. And also that the accessories were heavily marked up. I mean, in some cases, it’s like, that’s just how it is. They’re marked up. I don’t know if there’s any other places you can go to get that much cheaper, but, but yeah, they really wanted us to sell like bags, and you know, this, that the other just anything that was an accessory, it was like a huge, huge thing. And I thought I don’t know that that kind of stuff is sort of in the background of ICJ, and I think in the comic, a bit more in the foreground with like, you know, the leaderboard and sort of the weight that that holds and stuff like that. It’s very, like, classic, you know, bullshit. But it’s funny because if, at this place, you get you get murdered, if you’re, if you’re, you know at the back of it, so it’s like I don’t know, it raises all these questions. It’s like, Why don’t they just quit? That sounds like a pretty rough.

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TS: Yeah, I’ve got a couple of times. And I’m like, maybe they can’t quit. Yeah.

JR: Yeah, we don’t know. Maybe they maybe Yeah, maybe they literally, when they, when they sign on, they’re confident they’re never going to be at the back of that that list. And then maybe an agreement is you know, you can’t you can’t quit if you’re in the bottom five or something. You’ve got to like work your way out before you can put in your resume. I don’t know, there’s all kinds of rules we can come up with. But yeah, it’s funny that we were just talking about how I forgot that that I thought that stuff got cut from DLC, that whole concept because it was a bigger thing originally in the DLC that that whole idea. Narratively, there was a much bigger kind of story around that concept. But we ended up pulling it way back. I thought it got cut completely, but it’s in there.

TS: I always liked it. Because I’ve always thought that it was, it’s always been a nice opportunity to kind of just be able also to talk about like, sort of like how a lot of the times when you’re kind of in the field of any industry. A lot of the times you’re kind of put against your peers, even when that shouldn’t be how it is even though we’re kind of all in this together. There can be a lot of hostility towards each other and it’s just because of the people at top that one has to like fight over the scraps they got. So I kind of just integrate that smoothly into this silly situation where you get murderedized if you suck at your job too hard for too long. Like a really nice opportunity to kind of like touch on those kinds of frustrations.

What can readers expect from this series and the rest of the Troververse going forward? 

TS: I feel like a lot of fun. I try to just shove a lot of the things that I love about the universe in there and things that I love. I like drawing lead, I like disaster characters and like things that are funny and bit dark. And I think that’s kind of all on package to find their way.


Kyle Welch

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