Posted in: Comics, Preview | Tagged: digital conics, fantasy, Purpah, Suitor Armor, webcomics, Webtoon

Suitor Armor: Interview with Hit Webtoon Creator Purpah on Vol. One

Suitor Armor, the hit fantasy comic series from Webtoon, has received its first graphic novel collection, so we interview the creator Purpah

Suitor Armor is one of the breakthrough hit comic series to come out of WEBTOON, getting a printed graphic novel edition that turns the story from a vertical scroll reading experience to a more traditional comic with panels laid out on a single page. Purpah's story takes place in a fantasy medieval world with magic and fairies where a handmaiden to a princess, who's also her best friend, has to hide her true identity as a fairy in a time when fairies are at war with humans and persecuted or worse. She develops a budding romance with a mysterious black knight who's only a suit of armor, seemingly animated by magic, but might have secrets of his own that even he isn't aware of, and the two have to navigate their place in an increasingly dangerous and chaotic world.

Suitor Armor Vol. One is out now in a lavish hardcover graphic novel that covers the prologue to the saga in full colour with a new bonus chapter created specially for the book. We got to interview creator Purpah about the creation of the series and the printed edition.

On the Creation of Suitor Armor

Congratulations on getting your gorgeous first volume in print. Let's start with the obvious question. What inspired the creation of Suitor Armor? Of the many series ideas you could have come up with, why this story over the others?

Suitor Armor originally came from a dream! Not the whole thing, of course, just the skeleton. 'Young woman meets and falls in love with a dark knight only to find there is nothing other than the armor.' The premise was an interesting one, and over time, I started adding the things that I liked and wanted to see more of. Mainly that of fairies and fantasy after we had been locked in a very superhero-heavy time. As for choosing it out of the other story ideas because I was the most passionate about it! I started it as a side project while looking for animation work. I wasn't hearing back from anyone, and I had moved to a whole new state in an effort to get a position. Suitor Armor was my little project for myself that kept me going – just a story I enjoyed and made for fun to keep my spirits up. I had no idea that so many people would enjoy something I had made. It was the first instance that I had ever really put any of my writing out into the world.

Themes of discrimination, racism, bigotry, and even genocide are a key part of Suitor Armor. Can you discuss why you decided to center the story around them?

Oh boy, all heavy topics. Initially, when I was working on the Canvas version of Suitor Armor, it was only supposed to be a dramatic romance. But as I was writing Lucia, a fairy hiding amongst the humans, I realized where the story was really going, and I chose not to shy away from it. My own experience of feeling out of place as a bisexual was part of my writing process, but I also have a lot of very close friends who have dealt with mistreatment in their lives due to their race, sexuality, or gender. As Suitor Armor went on in the writing process, I realized that I had the chance to talk about these issues in the form of a story. To hopefully get people to talk and think about things through a format that I was confident in. Stories have always been a powerful way to communicate lessons or points to people, and I wanted to try and do my part to solve these issues. It is by no means perfect, and I will no doubt continue to learn as I write, but if I tried to push Suitor Armor into being just a fantasy romance, I would be doing it, and those I care about a huge disservice.

On the Transition from Vertical Reading to Page Layouts

I originally read Suitor Armor through Webto, which made the reading experience a vertical scrolling experience. What was it like converting that into a more traditional single-page reading experience for the graphic novel? 

Luckily, I did not have to do much to change the format—that was all done by the wonderful Miranda Mundt! However, I had to draw and format the bonus chapter for print from start to finish, which was very interesting. I had to be more thoughtful about dialogue and panels as I was working with limited space, as well as taking the page turn into consideration. It was a very interesting challenge, and I think both formats have their appeal!

On the Creation of a Long, Ambitious Fantasy Saga

Volume one of Suitor Armor, the graphic novel, ends the story on a fairly light note, though it hints at how serious things will get. In fact, the story gets darker as it goes along, and the worst things that could possibly happen proceed to happen. Can you talk about how you plot the story's direction and if you worked closely with editors to keep it on point? 

Suitor Armor was a little bit of an oddity in the way of writing. When it came to submitting the story summary to Webtoon when the series was picked up, I wrote the entire thing in one night. Up till that point, I had been making up the six episodes that were on Canvas as I was going! Because I had to explain the whole story I wrote like my life depended on it in the hopes that it would make sense. As a result, I didn't allow myself time to overthink anything. The main thing I considered for the story direction was the consequences of the character's actions or inactions, as that is the driving force of the story in Suitor Armor (or any story for that matter). I am mostly left to my own devices when it comes to writing, although I do have a small group of people I trust and discuss things with when things get darker or venture into topics that I myself have not experienced.

Volume One ends before things start to get worse and more intense. How did you determine that this was the appropriate ending for the first collection?

I viewed Volume 1 as I did for the Webtoon. I took a lot of time, allowing the readers to get to know the characters and their interpersonal relationships. It is a bit of a slow burn, but I found that the payoff once things begin to happen is even better as things begin to happen very quickly after that. I felt that if I did not take the time for the readers to get to know the characters to the extent that they did, the following events would not hit as hard. It seemed the best option, given that we also wanted the split between volumes to be even.

Suitor Armor Volume One is out in stores this week. The serialized series is on WEBTOON.

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