Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Mark Miller, The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book: Fall of the Wild, zenescope

Baby You Can Drive My Kaa – Talking With Jungle Book: Fall Of The Wild's Mark Miller

By Matt Krotzer

Combining bits of the classic Jungle Book story with the dramatic warring houses intrigue of HBO's Game of Thrones, writer Mark Miller has delighted readers with his first two Jungle Book volumes from Zenescope, The Jungle Book and The Jungle Book: Last of the Species. The adventures continue in The Jungle Book: Fall of the Wild, available on store shelves December 24th.

Matt Krotzer: Mark, The Jungle Book: Fall of the Wild is the third (and final?) volume of your Jungle Book tales. For those who missed the first two, what can you tell us to get us ready for this volume?

Mark Miller: Well, this being the third in the series, it's hard not to have a little backstory, especially when I aim to wrap up a lot of the little plot threads I've been sewing into the story here and there for the last two series. Still, I try to make the story as friendly to new readers as I can with the first issue, hoping they don't get lost along the way.

The story so far follows four young adults who were kidnapped as children by pirates from their cribs. But before they could get to their destination, the boat they were on crashed ashore on a mysterious island filled with exotic talking animals segregated into their own tribes. An eternal battle has been going on between these tribes and when the children wash ashore as the only survivors of the wrecked ship, they were seen as an omen and were divvied up amongst the strongest of the tribes as a sign of peace. Dewan went with the Apes of Bandar, who reside in the crashed pirate ship and has been driven quite insane by his chaotic parents. Akili was taken in by the Tribe Tavi, which is made up of the smaller beasts of the island and the tribe looks up to her as a hero of the jungle due to their diminutive size. Bomani was adopted by the Shere Tigers of the tribe and is constantly reminded of his failures as a tiger. And finally, Mowglii was raised by the Seonee Wolf Pack and challenges authority at every turn.

Each of the children were kept separate in their tribes as an uneasy peace was upheld along the island until that treaty was shattered in a conflict between the wolves and the tigers. Soon the borders between the tribes were shattered and the tribes, along with the children, were sucked back into conflict with one another. With the battle rekindled, the last series ended with Mowglii being cast out of her tribe for endangering them one too many times, Baloo (who trained Mowglii to fight) set out to lead the once banished and ferocious Bada Dar bear tribe, and the island was again in the throes of out and out war. This series picks up with Mowglii getting caught up in the battle as the war rages on around her. All of the tribes are battling one another and somehow, Mowglii is the key to the island's salvation. In this series, Mowglii learns what she must do to save the island.

So the story has all of your favorite Jungle Book characters, it's just a bit more brutal and savage. I often describe it to newcomers as kind of like Game of Thrones with animals.

MK: So, with a title like "Fall of the Wild" is it safe to assume "winter is coming," in a fashion, to Kipling?

MM: In a fashion, yes. There's a lot at play in this miniseries. The battles have reached a fever pitch. A lot of the animals who were kind of lovable have become hardened and battle weary. It also seems like the island itself is sick of all of this fighting and striking back. All of that and there's a threat that was introduced in the last series that proves to be very dangerous to the children of Kipling.

So there's a lot off bad stuff happening on the island this time around.

MK: So tribeless Mowglii is trying to unite the warring animal tribes, in order to prevent their demise from this new threat and the island itself. Does she have any allies?

MM: With Baloo off keeping his tribe, the ferocious Bada Dar, in check in the caves under Kipling, Mowglii's only allay is Bagheera the panther, who is her reluctant and self-appointed guardian.

She's also got some close ties with Akili of the Tribe Tavi (though not as close as Akili might like them to be) and there may or may not be a romantic interest between Mowglii and Bomani, the adopted son of Shere Khan. And there's kind of a love/hate relationship between her and the monkey boy Dewan. Her relationships with the children she was kidnapped with are rather complicated.

This isn't a soap opera, by any means, but when you get four kids stuck on an island there's bound to be some drama.

MK: Oh, no doubt! My favorite thing about this series is the diverse cast. You've got the human kids, but then you've also got treacherous tigers, an opium-snorting orangutan, and a tribe of meditating sloth monks, just to barely scratch the surface! Which character do you find the most fun to write?

MM: My favorites are King Louis and Dewan since they both are completely insane, so having either one of them bouncing off of the more serious characters is a lot of fun. I also love Tobaqui the Fox, who is Akili's sidekick and is not-so-secretly in love with her, though he's a fox and she's a human, so that'll never happen.

In this series in particular, I really like writing Hathi the elephant, who was introduced in the second series as a young trunkling, but has now grown to be a massive pachyderm. He's a total badass, especially when he is battling the tigers.

Of course, Kaa is always a lot of fun to write too. He has a huge part in this one too. So many cool characters to play with.

MK: Kaa strikes me as a bit of a counterpoint to Mowglii, as neither has a tribe, but where Mowglii is working to save everyone, Kaa just wants to devour everything in his path. Is it safe to assume we'll see these two forces collide at some point? Or does Kaa have a different path entirely?

MM: Well, in this series all of the forces collide in one way or another. The cool thing about Kaa is that he's everyone's enemy. He's the simplest character to write since his motivation is that he is constantly hungry, but that also makes him the most fun to write. I've set him up as the enemy of the Tribe Tavi, which consists of the small animals of the island, but also the Apes of Bandar Log, who he sort of keeps in check from spreading their mayhem all over the island. Having a snake tattoo myself, I have a special affinity for snakes, so it's always fun for me to write Kaa.

MK: Well, I've gotten a peek at where this story is heading, and I have to say I think readers are in for a treat. Thank you for taking the time to discuss the book. Any final points you'd like to mention?

MM: I think with all of the news about the two new Jungle Book movies coming out next year, it feels like this is the time for a new take on Kipling's stories. So if you're excited about those films and remember and revere the cartoon from your youth like I do, I think you'll enjoy this different take on the story at play here. I love writing these adventures of Mowglii and the tribes of Kipling and I hope folks will dig my take on it.

Graphic designer & comic book letterer Matt Krotzer holds a lifelong love of comics, video games and popular entertainment. He has worked for the past 15 years as a graphic designer for a national publication; in his spare time, he freelances as a comic book letterer, posts incessantly on Bleeding Cool, and on his own blog, Ono-Matt-opoeia (http://mattkrotzer.tumblr.com/), where he highlights comic news and art he finds interesting, or just spotlights his current projects. He is @mattkrotzer on Twitter.

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