After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the graphic novel The Last Spartan: Red Tape is now available. Tyler Mane teamed up with a talented group of comic book creators to bring this story to life, and I asked him all about his experience in our latest Q&A. We also have preview pages that you can read right now!
This is a fictional story, but one that comes from the real-world horrors of human trafficking. What inspired you to tell this story?
Tyler Mane: I moved to Atlanta in 2016 and heard announcements about human trafficking every time I was in the airport and became aware that Atlanta was a huge hub for it. This story is loosely based on a novel called THE LAST SPARTAN that a friend of mine, John F. Saunders wrote. Because the book was set in Atlanta and was the tale of Frank Kane being called back for one last mission to rescue a girl from traffickers, I wanted to expand on that and build out the extent of the operation to reflect what I was hearing about in the real world. We also added the character of Amanda Harper, his unlikely partner, to be able to say what Frank doesn’t. The novel is told from Frank’s perspective and inner thoughts. In a comic, you can use narration captions, but with a largely silent character like Frank, that gets to be a lot. We learn about Frank and his motivations through his dialogue with Amanda.
What was the path that led to this story being developed as a graphic novel and why did you feel like this was the best format for this story?
Tyler Mane: It was actually my friends Tom DeSanto and David Hayter who brought up turning it into a graphic novel. It’s funny. My wife has been editing comics for almost 30 years and for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me. That was “her” world. It’s been really fascinating to be a part of the process and learning the ins and outs of comic book production and meet so many talented artists.
Can you talk about your interest in comics and graphic novels over the years? What are some of your favorites that inspired you to create your own?
Tyler Mane: I read Gold Key comics when I was young, BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY, DARK SHADOWS, SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON. I fell off when I got into wrestling and was on the road all the time. X-MEN was my first foray back into a comic shop. (laughs) I asked if they had any X-MEN titles and he looked at me like I was dumb, waved his arm at the back wall, and said, “All those.” I had some catching up to do! Then, I met my wife at Chicago Comicon and, all of a sudden, I was surrounded by comics all the time. We had a lot of Image comics in our house, so I was reading THE WALKING DEAD way back in the beginning. My wife was obsessed with this “new” black and white story that gathered a cult following in the age where the prevailing thought was that no one cared if it wasn’t full color. She brought home a few each of the early issues because people weren’t taking their comp copies. She had them signed and graded and sold them before the TV series came out. Ugh. Just one of those first printing #1s was up to like ten grand at one point. I loved that series and seeing how it translated into television. PREACHER is on my favorites list too. My latest reads were SPREAD by Justin Jordan and GIDEON FALLS. I definitely gravitate to the darker stuff, but I suppose that makes sense!
Who are your collaborators on this graphic novel and what did they bring to this project that helped evolve it from the original concept?
Tyler Mane: Christopher Priest was a great addition. We had a bunch of meetings to break the plot. We had ideas of where we wanted it go, so we all hatched the general storyline. Priest ran with it and came back with a lot more pages than we had room for, so we had to cut for space. Some of those characters I’d love to come back to. And then Leonardo Manco and Ron Leary helped us out with designs and then Will Conrad came on to bring everything to life in chapter one. His schedule didn’t allow for him to do the whole book, but we had broken it into chapters. Jimbo Salgado and Michael Montenat both did great work on their chapters too. And man, when Marc Silvestri came through with a cover, I was STOKED. Seeing that first pencil…I don’t know. It’s hard to explain what it’s like seeing something come to life that was only in your head before. So exciting.
What can you tell our readers about Frank Kane and what he experiences over the course of the story?
Tyler Mane: Frank lives by a code. That code isn’t the same as your everyday 9-to-5er. He’s a warrior and addicted to violence. From his time in the military to his days as the enforcer for the motorcycle club The Last Spartans, he got to use that in the service of a brotherhood. Now, he’s a lion in a cage, living in a suburb on parole and having to deal with mudane crap like the HOA. When he gets a call to get back to his old stomping grounds to pay back a debt and save a girl from a trafficking ring he needs to decide if he’s ready to risk breaking parole and also if he can keep a promise not to kill anyone while busting down doors and using his old contacts and assets to get some justice.
What’s next for you? Anything that you’re able to share with our readers so they can keep up on your latest projects?
Tyler Mane: We’re cooking up two more properties plus the next story in THE LAST SPARTAN, so stay tuned for that!
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To learn more and pick up a copy for yourself, visit: https://tylermane.com/the-last-spartan
“Frank Kane, the last known survivor of The Last Spartans MC, walks a perilous path guided by ancient Spartan maxims, but his journey takes an otherworldly turn as visions and omens from the gods beckon him to break his parole and risk his freedom to rescue a kidnapped child from the clutches of Atlanta’s human trafficking underworld.
When determined decoy agent Amanda Harper crosses his path, fed up with government bureaucracy and on a mission to “save them all,” they both find an unlikely ally in a monumental showdown against an international cartel.”
