All about his graphic novel Under Kingdom

Who is Christof Bogacs?

Christof Bogacs is a comic book and video game writer based in Sydney, Australia.

His body of work covers topics of living with mental illness and is largely concerned with examining identity.

His debut graphic novel ‘Under Kingdom’, a middle grade fantasy-comedy with an emphasis on non-violent problem solving, was released in April 2023 through Dark Horse Comics. It was listed by The Mary Sue as one of the best Graphic Novels of 2023.

What is Under Kingdom about?

After the sudden disappearance of his mom, high school freshman, Shay, is thrust into a secret world of monsters that exists underneath his small West-Virginian town. Under Kingdom, a young adult graphic novel full of adventure and familiar creatures from folklore and fantasy.

Interview

What inspired your book Under Kingdom?

Under Kingdom came from a few different points of inspiration. 

The first was the idea of a ‘dungeon crawl’.  In video games and TTRPGS you generally have a space filled with all these different monsters. They exist purely to be adversaries for the players, but  I wanted to make this dungeon a cohesive world where very different creatures live in harmony and work together. It was about making this very ‘gamey’ concept into a living, breathing environment.

Thematically, It’s about kindness and extreme empathy. I describe the book as ‘Ted Lasso meets Dungeons and Dragons’ and I think that sums the whole thing up rather nicely.

It grew from the observation that a lot of the media I watched growing up was conflict focused (Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Beyblade etc). In these stories all conflict tended to be physical conflict. With Under Kingdom, Marie and I wanted to present a different viewpoint; a world where non-violent problem solving and diplomacy can win the day.

What drew you to writing?

I always wanted to create, and while I did draw, writing has always felt way more accessible and approachable to me. In particular, comic writing is insanely accessible. 

For example, a graphic novel script is less than half the word count of a prose novel of the same size.

How did you choose which character to centre the story around?

For me, character and story are inseparable. Story comes from character and vice-versa. So, for Under Kingdom, once I figured out Shay’s character journey I knew what the story was going to look like.

What was your process for writing your book?

I always start with character arcs. Generally, I use a three act structure or the Dan Harmon Story Circle. Recently the story circle has become my go-to method because of just how character focused it is.

Anyway, I get the character arc and story beats roughly worked out, then I go to outline to fill in the gaps between the beats. I’m a heavy rewriter, so I repeat this step a couple of times until I have an outline I’m happy with.

Then, I move on to scripting. Again, I tend to start vague and add more detail with each pass. I start with basic actions I need to show on the page and filler dialogue. As I revise the script, I hone in on details and refine the dialogue. Finally, I do one last pass to check for errors and to see if there’s anywhere I can tweak or even cut dialogue. 

As a comics writer, the only part of the script your reader actually sees is the dialogue. So, I always try to spend extra time to make sure the dialogue is as tight and character driven as possible.

What is your approach to world and character-building?

Honestly, world building is character building. The world exists to serve character. It adds context and meaning to your characters.

In the case of Under Kingdom and our protagonist Shay, his refusal to fight and insistence on kindness means so much more in the context of a world filled with violent monsters.

Did you have a favourite moment in the book to write?

My natural writing instincts always steer toward comedy. If I can, I’ll always try to make jokes.

In Under Kingdom, I loved writing the ‘explainer pages’ for the various monsters as they are just a bunch of jokes!

Which of the characters do you relate to the most and why?

Shay shares a lot of my philosophy about the transformative power of kindness and empathy. That said, I also strongly connect with Sa’Belle’s chaos energy. To be honest there’s a little pinch of me in every character.

Has writing and publishing a book changed the way you see yourself?

Yes and no! 

It’s given me more confidence in my work and also means that I tell people I’m a writer when they ask what I do for work. However, at the end of the day I was always going to make up stories – getting published just formalises it.

Are there any books or authors that inspired you to become a writer?

Mark Millar… I don’t read his stuff any more and a lot of his older work is extremely problematic, particularly in regards to female characters. However, one thing that did stand out to me from his work is how accessible it was. All of Millar’s premises are rock solid and easy to understand. Plus, he ALWAYS delivers on his premise in the most bombastic way possible.

The older I get, and the more I write, the more I appreciate a writer that can really deliver on a premise. I mean how impressive is it to tell your reader exactly what you are going to do and then still surprise and delight them!

That’s the aim of everything I write. To me, that’s a magic trick, and whether I like it or not, I happened to learn it from Mark Millar.

What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book, and what advice were you given?

When you’re starting out you really want to be able to prove to others, and yourself, that you can tell a complete story – beginning, middle and end.

Keep it small. A big novel for your first time realistically isn’t going to get made. For comics, that means short stories that you can fund and produce yourself. I recommend no more than 8 pages. 

What’s your favourite writing snack or drink?

I tend to switch between coke, Dr Pepper and coconut juice. As long as it’s sweet I’ll drink it!

Do you play music while you write — and, if so, what’s your favourite music?

Yeah, for the most part I can listen to music and write pretty comfortably. I really struggle writing in silence.That said, it helps if the music is mellow and I already know it. 

My go-to writing artists are the Mountain Goats, Father John Misty, Indigo De Souza, Christian Lee Hutson and Bon Iver.

Who has been the biggest supporter of your writing?

So, there’s three people that immediately come to mind (although also WAY too many to mention).

The first is my friend Mitchell. I first met him 10+ years ago when he started listening to the very bad community radio show I used to host and produce. Since then he’s made it a priority to show up for everything I’ve done. We’ve become close friends and honestly he’s been like a big brother to me. He’s a tireless fan and supporter and I’m so lucky to have him in my life.

The second is my wonderful friend Chris. He’s been with me right from the start of my creative journey. He was actually doing his PHD around the same time I was aggressively trying to break into comics. We sort of went through this process of giving it our all without any guarantee it was going to work out. That really bonded us.

Now he’s an academic with a fancy job and I’m a full time writer – so it all worked out!

Finally, there’s my incredible partner Nicky. From day one she’s celebrated my writing and truly understands what a big part of me it is. I’m also extremely lucky that she’s my ideal reader. She loves my writing and there’s no one I trust more to give me feedback on work I’m unsure about.