My experience making a Metroid fan-fiction SciFi comic

One of the most rewarding and liberating projects I've ever made

One of the things I really enjoy is making smaller, short-story comic books in between larger graphic novel projects that take so much longer to complete and get through publishing cycles. Here’s an account of one of my favorite pet projects of the last couple of years.

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In October of 2022, I released a digital, fan-fiction comic based on Nintendo’s cult-classic video-game franchise, Metroid. I did this to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the release of the 2D, side-scrolling game Metroid DREAD — a game that loyal Metroid players had been waiting on for nearly 20 years. With so much pent-up demand for Metroid content, I felt I had to contribute something back to such a loyal, rabid fanbase, of which I count myself as a member of the community.

It is a fan fiction, meaning that I can’t sell it or profit off of it, so I put it up for free on my website as a downloadable PDF that you can access here: Metroid SHRED PDF. I’ll also drop the individual comic pages at the bottom of this post, so read away!

Here are some things that I learned doing this fun and deliciously satisfying project.

• Partner with a fellow enthusiast - I deliberately chose to work with a long-time collaborator in artist Mau Mora because he is also a massive Metroid fanatic. This made it easy to move quickly with a short-hand for visuals and references that required virtually no research by either of us. It also gave us the ability to check each other and make sure were were treating the material with the utmost care and respect to both Nintendo and the franchise’s supporters.

• Have a logical release plan that resonates - in my case, it was rather simple: Metroid DREAD released on Oct. 8th 2021, and I released my fan fiction project a year later as an anniversary celebration. This made sense to the fandom and it gave me and Mau a target date to aim for, with the game’s announcement by Nintendo in June ‘21. Until then we were just working at a leisurely pace, and having a deadline with the bombshell news of DREAD’s surprise release gave us motivation.

• Leverage fellow fandoms and fan sites - I was so fortunate that fellow fans were so willing to support our project. I gave some preview images and the full story to some outlets ahead of time, to give them confidence that the story was a legit endeavor at full production with colors and professional lettering. I offer sincere thanks to Metroid Database, Metroid Monday, countless other Facebook groups, and international fan sites for their support! The story was read and shared thousands of times the world over, and I’m grateful for it.

• Writing your favorite characters can be liberating - I’ve heard many comic book pros talk about how hard it is to do licensed characters, at places like DC and Marvel, that are so heavily governed and managed by committee. Because I didn’t ask anyone’s permission, I had free reign to write any type of story in any way I chose, and it was thrilling. Even more exciting was the great reception the story enjoyed from my beloved circle of Metroid fans from around the globe.

• Never apologize for your passion for an IP - a great piece of advice I got from a pro’s pro (Bryan Edward Hill) was to let it all hang out on social media with regard to your fandom(s). His view is: you never know who could be looking at your content and see you as a potentially good fit for a project that is similar in tone and genre. Whether you are a producer, writer, line artist, cinematographer, or whatever… let people know what type of stuff you are into. In my case, this became a truism, as I was approached by a publisher for a potential project based on my relentless celebration of Metroid on social media.

  Metroid Shred is the comic book adaptation that the world and fans of the mega hit Nintendo franchise need right now, and Omar Morales’ The Force Media imprint delivers it! The writing on this 15 page adventure is everything that you’d want the story to be – clearly and indelibly led by visuals, it’s as if you can feel the actual game play. Needless to say, the art by Mau Mora is phenomenal, capturing every aspect of the game and transferring it to the comic book medium seamlessly as our main character, Samus Aran, is placed perfectly in the fast paced setting of a galactic sojourner always in the midst of some battle. So, yeah, if you haven’t read this yet or told your friends about it, like, get on that – now!

  ~Brian Hawkins (The Vineyard, Black Cotton)

  So that’s where I’ll stop for today. I hope you enjoy this quiet, little side story about a solitary bounty hunter named Samus Aran, a science fiction hero that Nintendo based on Ripley and the ALIEN SciFi movie franchise. You’ll see that Metroid SHRED is an homage to an homage, made with so much affection for these fantastic worlds and heros that I adore. Also, I encourage you to indulge in other wonderful fan-created Metroid comics that are available and collected at the aforementioned Metroid Database site.

  As for what is next for Mau and I? All I can say is… See You Next Mission! 😉✨

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