In the world of comics, Ricky Lima wears many hats, from working at House of Anansi Press as a production manager to teaching college courses on the craft of graphic novels to writing books of his own. His latest work, the collected edition Undergrowth (Top Shelf Productions), tells the story of three friends who are killed by alien mecha and then resurrected, given massive organic constructs to control, and tasked with saving the planet. Together with artist Daniele Aquilani, colorist Yulia Shevtsova, and letterer Andrew Thomas, Lima has created a work of ecological science fantasy with plenty of action and drama.
Is Undergrowth the first project of this scale that you've worked on as a writer?
Yeah, this one was huge. It took us about five years to put it all together. It involved more people than I've ever worked with before: the artist and then the colorist and then the letterer. Each of the self-published versions had different covers for all the books. So this was a massive project. When I started off, I didn't really think it'd be that big, but then it just kept on going and getting bigger. And then luckily, Top Shelf was able to detangle it all and put it together.
As you went from the self-published single issues of Undergrowth to the collected edition, was there anything that was that you revised along the way?
A little bit. I remember when Top Shelf got involved, Chris [Staros], the publisher said, “There are a couple of things that we could change here.” So we made little adjustments, but overall it was pretty much the same from when it was self-published. The original issues were black and white and the graphic novel is in color. I do think that the colors add a whole lot more to it. I think there's a whole lot more nuance too, especially for the character of Bloom, which is the big flower mech that changes color based on the mood that she's in. And I think it makes it overall a little bit more epic.
I’m assuming you had an idea for what the mecha as a concept were going to look like, but what did your contributors bring as those designs went from an idea to something that existed on the page?
Similar to everything else, it was very collaborative with Daniele. The character of Willow is a sad, big character. Bloom is a hot-headed and really outspoken character, and Red is more laid-back. I gave Daniele an idea of what I would like them to look like: a redwood, a flower, and a weeping willow. He just came up with these really cool designs, and I took inspiration from that in order to start writing.
When I wrote the first script, I didn't have any of the visuals, but then as like the second script came, and before we published the first script, I had looked at the characters in the way he designed them and then tweaked the dialogue a little bit just to fit closer into what he was envisioning. The characters really developed as the visuals developed as well.
One character design drew inspiration from redwoods; there’s also a character who resembles a sasquatch who represents the spirit of Earth. You’re Canadian, working with an artist and a colorist from Italy and Ukraine, respectively. Did that shape the project in any unexpected ways?
Being a North American creator, I'm influenced by all these different things. In Canada, we have a really strong connection to the Native community. Just by me living here in Canada, I'm exposed to that kind of thing; that aesthetic brings itself to me. Daniele is Italian and he brings in his own kind of cultural interpretations to the project. The spirit of the planet character that you mentioned—that character was completely Daniele's design. Initially he was this weird alien thing. Daniele made it a little bit more down to earth. He connected it with the redwoods and the tree stuff. I always tell people, I think that the book visually feels very European, but maybe thematically feels North American.
Undergrowth has a very interesting take on both mecha and kaiju in its storyline, but there’s also an aspect of it that reads like it’s drawing on reincarnation manga. Was that also something where you wanted to allude to the tropes of the genre?
That's interesting to think about. I don't think I had initially thought of that as a genre, but I do think that that is certainly something that is very applicable to the story. These characters do wake up in a new kind of world, but it's not a new world. They're still in the physical world, but mentally they're in a new world. Now they've been opened up to this whole new way of seeing the world and they have these new abilities that they'd never had before. A huge part of the story is them dying and coming back to life and dealing with the trauma of dying and coming back to life. It almost reminds me of the first Rambo, where he comes back and the world is not different, but he's so different, and maybe he can't integrate into this world.
As someone who’s also worked on the publishing side of things, what was it like being on the artistic side for this book?
I always tell people, I'm lucky that I work in publishing because now I know how that pipeline works. I can't imagine how someone who has no idea how publishing works gets a publishing deal and can do that. It's such a chaotic thing. So much is expected of the creators that I don't know how a first-time person just getting into it can handle it. Nowadays publishers are so, so busy and they're not making as much money as they used to. There's just so much going on that the creators really need to step up and take on some of that burden to help make your book a success. And I don't think that a lot of people understand that.
Your work in comics and publishing has also led to you doing some teaching. How does that fit in with your larger creative project?
I think that with education, it's a selfish thing for me because it inspires me to create more things. To see these students who are just learning and experiencing the joy of creation for the first time helps me remember what it was like when I was starting off. You get so jaded, you know what I mean? To see these students ask these questions that you take for granted, it takes you back to the beginning and you start thinking about ways that you can solidify these ideas that you had taken for granted and expose them to these ideas. It's so much fun, and I love doing it. And to see the students grow and become successful is really fun.
