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You've Never Heard Of – Mythallica: Lux Nova By Mikhail Sebastian

Published Thu, 06 Oct 2016 11:00:00 -0500

Last updated Sun, 09 Oct 2016 17:23:55 -0500

Marco Lopez writes,

To all you nerds out there I just want to say thank you for checking us out and You've Never Heard Of… The purpose of this bi-weekly series is to shine a spotlight on self-published creators who release their work in print or digital and creators who work for publishers that don't rank in the top 10.

We're in a golden age of comics right now and in an age of geek none of us could have ever imagined, but with the good comes the bad. As our geek news sites become more corporate they tend to focus less on comics and in some cases less on independent creators. Which is why this series was created. As you all know Bleeding Cool is a popular site and has never shied away from giving a soap box to those starting out and trying to carve a niche for themselves.

So with that having been said let's get this show on the road. Today I'm gonna be interviewing Mikhail Sebastian. A fantastic writer/artist who has recently found great success with his series Mythallica Lux Nova. The first volume he released was a Kickstarter hit and is currently available via Amazon.

The Solarian, or the "Sons of Suns" are a peaceful people and for years have stood on the outskirts of an intergalactic warfare being waged between the Hyperion Regime and The Feed. The ruthless Void The Sever has claimed the universe as his own and wishes to annihilate the Keystone species (Solarian included) who inhabit it. When young Aether and Caelum are separated from the rest of their Solarian tribe, their only hope of getting back to them is to join the fight! Along the way, they discover fascinating worlds and powerful allies from various myths who assist them on their quest to find their family. They quickly find out that freedom is not easily acquired. It must be taken! Lux Nova is set in a universe where science and fantasy collide, featuring a unique and vast collection of characters, creatures, and locations.

Marco Lopez: To start of why don't you tell us a little about yourself, your art background and how Mythallica Lux Nova came to be?

Mikhail: Well that's a long story but I'll try my best to condense everything into some bullet points. Well, I'm 24 years of age, native of NC. I'm the son of a Marine and a Professor so hard work, focus, and drive are genetic. I received my Bachelors in Fine Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design where I studied Illustration. Since then I've just been building by brand, making a name for myself as best as I can using everything available to me.

As for Lux Nova, it's been the focus of my attention for almost a decade now. It started when I was in middle school. And like most middle school artist who thrived off the attention received from drawing DBZ characters, all of our own stories in one way or another originated from Japanese/manga culture. Names, tropes and all.

Originally, it was titled Kuro Kurai. I don't even know what that means. And I highly doubt I ever did haha. Eventually, though, as time went on, and the story began to build. I landed on Lux Nova. Which was actually thought of before Mythallica. I was in my Art history class, and we were learning about gothic architecture and the methods of lighting used to illuminate the cathedrals. The term "Lux Nova" was mentioned and instantly struck a chord. I learned it meant "a new light" and realized it perfectly described everything I wanted the story to be.

Marco Lopez: One of the things for me that was blatantly apparent in reading Mythallica (and I could be wrong) is the influence of Shonen manga. Has any of the popular Shonen series like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and others influenced your comic? And if so what other influences are there as well.

Mikhail: Shonen manga was my comics growing up. It's natural to have that show in my work today. That's actually a quality of my work I really like. I've gotten the compliment of my art being described as "Disney on steroids" which I think is the dopest thing anyone can say to me. I always tell folks that in the approach it's very Shonen, but the story and characters do to reflect that as much. I think in those aspects my western style of storytelling shows through. DBZ and Naruto are directly from my childhood so it's natural those influences would show. There's some Avatar the Last Airbender in there too.

Marco Lopez: What made you want to base the appearance of the Solarians on the Melanesians? Which by the way was a fantastic choice since not a lot of people know about the Melanesians.

Mikhail: I remember in the early stages doing a bulk of research just on obscure tribes of people of color from around the word. I eventually tumbled upon the Vanuatu islands and the people who live there being the Melanesians. A very beautiful people with naturally blonde hair.

I remember reading somewhere that their hair is sort of bleached that color due to the water of the beaches and the intense sunlight. I don't know if that is true, but reading that the sunlight had an integral part in the color of their hair just seemed like a perfect fit for a fictional alien race that is considered to be the children of stars themselves. There were many moments during the construction of this story where everything just clicked. In ways, that for me felt like some form of divine direction.

Marco Lopez: Another thing I noticed when reading the first volume is this theme you have of family running throughout the book. Whether it's Aether and Caelum whom are best friends but act more like brothers to Ahlelli ensuring the boy's survival to them meeting Ginsu and his relationship with Whistle and then, of course, the young Yona and her guard Erebus and her father Zynrial. Was that a happy accident or was that planned from the beginning when you set out to tell this story?

Also nice job on not using the blatant character archetypes of the Shonen adventure/fight manga like so many countless fans or even creators do. Not to knock those series but it amuses me when you can sit there and be like there's the Vegeta, there's Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, etc. Was that another decision on your part as well?

Mikhail: I think a little bit of both. Some were happy accidents, some things were intentional and others were just unconscious decisions. Family though was the foundation of Lux when I started to develop the story. That's just something that is personal to me and it certainly shows in the way I tell my stories and how my characters interact. What I wanted to show especially with the characters is that they all have somebody that in one way or another, they consider to be family.

The interesting thing, I think is that it shows people who find the concept of family with people they aren't necessarily related to, with the exception of the characters who are (Aether and Ahlleli). Volumes two and three will dive more into the positive and negatives of that idea in regards to certain characters As for the archetypes I completely agree. I think they work for the settings the stories originated in but it's definitely an overused number of tropes out there that I don't necessarily want to contribute too.

It was imperative actually that I did not create another Vegeta/Sasuke. You don't have to be a brooding and condescending to be smart and tactical. Something Caelum has shown and will continue to show as the story progresses. As I said before though this is where my more western style of storytelling shows. Especially in the banter and dialogue between the characters.

Marco Lopez: Now I know you did a Kickstarter for the first volume of Mythallica Lux Nova and it was pretty successful. Do you plan to do the same for volume two and is that something we can expect for every volume? And has there ever been an attempt (on your part or theirs) to get a publisher behind this?

Mikhail: For this second book I won't be going the Kickstarter route. I'm in a position where I can produce the books of my own volition. I personally have not been looking for publishers but I have been offered the opportunity by a few. I'm not entirely sure if I will do so for Volume two just yet as my main focus is finishing the book. But when that time comes I will see what happens.

Marco Lopez: Who are your favorite creators in comics? Also what comic book stories get you excited? And who inspires you?

Mikhail: Besides illustrators/comic artists, I find a lot of my inspiration from film and television. The attention to small details like Peter Jackson, Stanley Kubrick, Keishi Otomo, Hayato Miyazaki, the humor and characters of Stephen Chow films, the Cinematography of Andre Lesnie, Emmanuel Lubezki, Takuro Ishizaka. That list can go on for ages. On the illustrative side there's Yusuke Murata (One Punch Man), Eiichiro Oda (One Piece, , Gainax, Star Wars, Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), Kim Dong-Hoon (Veritas), Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars), The list is pretty long but these are a few at the fore front of who inspires me.

Marco Lopez: Is there an end goal for Mythallica? Or could this series go on forever? And if there is an end goal are we looking at a short number of volumes or something long like Naruto and One Piece.

Mikhail: Lux Nova is designed to be a long-running series in some capacity. It actually consists of 3 major part. I can't say it will last to the extent of One Piece or even Naruto. Not consecutively at least. There will be points in between releases dedicated to other projects. But I personally imagine it being somewhat shorter when compared to Naruto or One Piece.

But I can say the story is structured to give me that option to go that long if I see fit. I do have a lot in store for this series as a whole so it will be around for a while. At this time, however, there is no end in sight. There are a lot of themes I want to tackle with this story and it will certainly take time to do so. But I don't want to give myself a limit on that. I'd much rather let the story be told and end on its own as naturally as possible.

Marco Lopez: Tell us what else do you have going on besides this comic? I remember seeing on your personal page the original art for Cereal Fighters and then some designers in the gaming industry reached out to you and I know some stuff is going on behind the scenes cause I've seen the new designs. You haven't been shy about posting some progress on that project. What's going on there and with anything else you're at liberty to talk about.

Mikhail: I have a couple of projects I'm working on. After volume 2 is finished I plan to take some time to focus on those. Cereal Killaz is definitely in the works. Which I'm looking forward to fully putting my time and efforts behind that once Volume 2 is completed. At the moment I am working on the animations and the mechanics for a demo to launch alongside a potential Kickstarter campaign should we decide to go that route. We are making steady progress taking our time to make sure all our ducks are in order.

I've also been sort of secretly developing a television series alongside another creative team of mine called Sorcerority. I'm keeping that one under wraps for the most part but I'm looking forward to putting some more time behind that as well. I'm also planning some one-shot comics down the line that I hope folks will enjoy.

Marco Lopez: Let's talk a little bit about Mythallica Lux Nova and the crossover with Space Pop that's coming soon. And for my readers that don't know what Space Pop is, trust me you will. The creator of that book and the artist will be my second article in the Indie Talk series. Now how did this crossover come about? And what should we expect?

Mikhail: The crossover is going to be something really fun to create. Corey Mikell and Sebas Riera are a great team and I'm really excited to be working alongside them on this. I think the decision to go forward with a crossover just sort of happened. We just realized how well our stories mesh and next thing you know we had the plot pinned, and pages were being written. The story is really fun as well as you'll get to see characters from both of our series interact with one another which if you know both of our stories is sure to be action packed with some great humor as well. I think fans of both our series and new fans will enjoy it.

Marco Lopez: Saving the best for last what can the fans of Mythallica Lux Nova expect with Volume 2? Give us a tease man. I've seen some of the sweet art you posted. Which, by the way, fans can check out as well on the Facebook fan page. Now spill with a bit of the plot details.

Mikhail: This second book is going to be a lot of fun. Volume one ends with a revelation that sort of shakes the foundations of both Aether and Caelum. This second book digs a bit deeper into that revelation and also expands more on both Aether and Caelums abilities. Which are completely different from one another. There's also more exploration into that theme of family the positives and the negative. Particularly with both Ginsu and Yona. As well as a deeper look into the origins of Zoter and the settlers of the planet across the different territories. The stakes are heightened significantly in this book with some interesting twists and turns. I'm really excited to get this book out. It's some of my best work to date.

Well, that's it for the first article in the Indie Talk series. I hope you enjoyed it. Let us know how you feel below. And don't forget to check us out in two weeks when we interview Corey Mikell and Sebas Riera of Spacepop. But before you go if you liked what you read and seen of Mikhail's work then follow him via the links below and buy yourself a copy of volume one via Amazon.com

Marco Lopez is the co-owner of the website Atomic Rex Entertainment. Where you can find the ongoing weekly webcomic Massively Effective, that Marco describes as Abbott and Costello in tights. Also hosted on the site is Marco's web strip series Orion's Belt that follows an Afro-Latino family of adventurers in space and his anthology series A Shot of Whiskey. Marco has also written for Zenescope Entertainment and Lion Forge Comics.