The following is an interview between Fantum Breed Entertainment founder Tony D. and CBC's own Jeremias de Leon.
Interview by Jeremias de Leon
Jeremias: Today, I'm with Tony D. the founder of Fantum Breed. Hello Tony how are you today?
FantumBreed: I'm doing good thanks for asking. And how are things with you
Jeremias: Good to hear, I'm doing great today actually. It's a sunny day today which we haven't seen in a while.So for my first question, I want to ask about your company, Fantum Breed. Just what inspired you to found it?
Fantum: It was always a dream of mine to be in the entertainment industry. I love comic books,Toys, Video games,cartoons and Movies so i wanted to put together a company that will focus on all the things I love and want to be apart of.
Jeremias: Indeed. Having drive and passion is always something good to have. As for the company itself, what exactly is the mission of the company or what is it that you want to do with it? Are you going to focus on just one thing like publishing?
Fantum: Publishing is one focus but I want to do it all. I want my company to produce comics,create our action figure toy-line and produce video games and cartoons based on our creations.
I also want to do a live action webisodes based on our current comic book series Demolition Dark Age.
Jeremias: Ah, a multifaceted company. How is it like working with the kind of company you're running? What are the challenges, ups and downs with not only publishing but producing videos and video games as well?
Fantum: One of the downs is dealing with unreliable artist and, of course, finance is another part but you can never give up on what your dream and goal is in life. Getting the proper equipment together is another slightly difficult process but if you have connections, you should be ok.
Jeremias: I know the feeling. So, since this interview is for a comic centric website. My next few questions have to be about comics. First off, is there any current arcs from the other comic publishers you're enjoying?Since this is an interview for a comic book centric site, I have to ask, is there any books recently that you're following?
Fantum: Actually, right now, I've been focusing on writing. I haven't been reading a whole lot but I am definitely going to go to the comic book shop and see what's out there. I will tell you this though; not too long ago, I did pick up the Expendables comic based off the Expendables movie. I haven't read it yet but it's the first thing on my list right now. What I have been doing is I have friend of mine named Don Hyun; he's actually a shaolin monk and olympic gold medalist on the Beijing Wushu team. He just finished writing a book called Kung Fu-cious. It's about releasing the inner dragon in you, your kung fu consciousness and it is just an absolutely inspiring book. You know, for the Mortal Kombat that came out last year, he did the motion capture for Scorpion. I read the transcript for his book and wow, very good. As for any books coming out right now, I definitely, definitely want to pick up Avengers vs X-Men. It's going to be the next thing I pick up at the comic book shop. Personally, I want to see more of Captain America taking on Cyclops.
Jeremias: On the topic of comic books, who are any current writers or artists that you like?
Fantum: As far as writers are concerned, the writer that it will be an absolute pleasure to work with would actually be James O'Barr, the creator of The Crow. James O'Barr is going to be at Wizard World this year and I'm going to put a story together and pitch him a story that I had wrote a couple years ago that had to do with the Skull Cowboy. Now, if you're a fan of The Crow comic, you'll know it was the Skull Cowboy who sent the bird to help Eric Draven. That is something they never really explained in an origin story. I would love for James O'Barr to let me write a Crow origin story. I would love to. I know exactly what I want to do with a Crow origin story.
As far as art is concerned, there is an artist that I think is fabulous. He's actually a Chicago local his name is Angel Medina. He's actually on our page if you look at him. He's done quite some work for Marvel and DC.
Another great artist I like is Tim Seeley. Tim Seeley has done some great work for Image he did art for He-Man. I recently met Tim at Dan con which is a local convention we have here for Chicago locals. Dan con 2013 will be taking place around March. I would love to see you come out here and attend one of these conventions cousin, have you attended a convention before?
Jeremias: No, but I'm saving up money to go to one this year.
Fantum: You should go. Honestly, it's a different world out there. It's a world that you'll love. You're going to see it and you're going to be like "wow" It's different. Another thing I want to start doing is eventually produce and start up smaller local conventions for local artists. Not charge them an arm and a leg but at the same time gather all of Chicago's greatest talent under one roof at a reasonable price for the visitors and for everybody there promoting their work. It's something I want to put together. I'm telling you this right now; that definitely within the next year or two, it's something that Fantum Breed Entertainment will be doing our own small conventions. We definitely want to be doing that.
Jeremias: So, then speaking of what you're planning what are your future projects that you wish to talk about?
Fantum: My main priority right now with future projects is that I have a comic book coming out called La Femme 9mm; which is based on, actually my wife, her name is Rosa Hernandez. She basically created this character which is an alter ego. When you're on our Facebook page; whenever you see a post that says Rosa Professor 9mm, it's an alter ego that she's creating for herself.
That character is called Professor 9, who is basically a supernatural assassin that runs a group called La Femme 9mm that has 9 other girls under her command. Each one of her assassins has a special ability, a special skill or a special supernatural talent that allows them to be a part of her elite group of female assassins and hit men called La Femme 9mm. They are also guardians of this weapon called the Soulbreaker; which is a supernatural weapon of mass destruction. It's a weapon created by both the demon king Erubis and the lord of light as well. It's a tie-in to my story Demolition Dark Age. It's a story of it's own kind but there is a small little tie-in as well.
Jeremias: So these stories are in the same universe?
Fantum: Same universe, different characters with a small tie-in to the story. (Demoliton Dark Age)
Jeremias: So, you not only want to publish comics but also want to do other things? Like a web series?
Fantum: Well, I would like to do La Femme 9mm as a web series but right now, with La Femme 9mm, we're going to focus on the comic book and we got some other things going on with it. Like a pin up calendar, we'll have some beautiful women modeling and hopefully, showing up to conventions dressed up like those characters. Another thing we're going to be focusing on, the first web series I would like to do will be based on Demolition Dark Age. I mean, the story of Demolition Dark Age is really crazy. The story with that is basically Dracula joins the federal government because he's at war with the devil. He's trying to locate the last living descendant of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. But what's going on is the devil, who is known as Demon King Erubis, is trying to break free from his prison which was created by the original horsemen of the apocalypse keeping him in a timeless prison. He's found a loophole to break out of there but in order for him to do that he needs to collect the last living descendants of the horsemen of the apocalypse. Or at least one to let him free of that gate of the prison that he is in. Which is basically shadowverse. It's basically oblivion. That's where he is right now and he's trying to break free from there.
Now, while this is going on you also have Methra; who is basically the general of the devil's army but he's basically living in modern times. He runs the Chinese Triads in Honk Kong. It's a real crazy story. It has to do with both mythologies and supernatural, as well as things that go on in modern life. One of the horsemen of the apocalypse; his name is Trent Lugano, is actually a muscleman for the mob. So, it's crazy because they're all living their own crazy lives.
So, it's how do you grab a story of chaos and bring it together with crazy fictional and realistic characters? Pretty crazy huh? *laughs*
So, imagine that wouldn't that make for a cool web series? It has martial arts. It has supernatural elements. It has horror, action and sci-fi elements in it too. So, it has everything combined into one, as well as humor.
Jeremias: So then, since it seems we ought to wrap this up. We both have busy schedules. Where can everybody find you and check your stuff out?
Fantum: Well, you can check us out at Facebook; look up FantumBreed. FantumBreed.com will be up and running in about three weeks. You can also find FantumBreed on twitter, we're also on twitter and if anything you can also e-mail me at tonyd@fantumbreed.com
There's a lot of things coming up right now. We're also going to be creating a like page for La Femme 9mm that will be coming in the next few weeks as well. We also have an amazing artist that's going to be jumping on that project his name is Tim Jansen a very talented, wonderful, and amazing artist. He actually recently did a comic book with a talented writer named Ivan James which is called The Awakened. A couple of good projects coming up.
If you want to be in the comic book industry, most major cities right now is where you want to be. Like Philadelphia, and Boston of course.
Jeremias: Thanks again for talking with me today.
Fantum: Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you giving me the time for this interview. Thanks for wanting to interview me, I appreciate that very much.
NEW YORK, August 7, 2012 – Just in time for its longest-running and most-attended show, Wizard World today unveiled the “Official Wizard World Comic Con App,” a must-have for attendees to get the most out of events before, during and after each show, beginning with Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, August 9-12 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. The free app is available for smartphones running on iOS or Android, in the App Store (Apple) and Google Play.