Dan Sehn talks about Sumo Boy

My longtime friend and fellow indie comic creator, Dan Seh,n has a third comic in this latest ThunderZone Kickstarter, Sumo Boy #1

First Comics News: Who is Sumo Boy?

Dan Sehn: Sumo Boy is Hiro Tokunawa. His family moved from Japan to the US, and he’s adjusting to a new school in the first issue. Not all that unusual,ual but he happens to weigh one ton.

1^st: Why is he so skinny?

Dan: He’s 9 years old, so he has not grown and beefed up yet.

1^st: Why choose professional sumo wrestling as the central theme?

Dan: He was trained in sumo wrestling by his uncle before issue 1, so the actual sport is not a theme of this first story arc.

1^st: How would you describe Sumo Boy’s personality?

Dan: As with most kids his age,e starting a new school, he just wants to fit in and make friends. He has confidence from having super-strength due to his density, but also shyness, as he has to keep his abilities a secret.

1^st: What is the comic about?

Dan: The first issue focuses on Hiro’s first day at his new school. We see him attending class and meeting others as potential friends or enemies. Of course, we pepper in a bit of action as well.

1^st: Is this a humorous story?

Dan: I usually have at least a dash of humor in my books,s but not so much in this one.

1^st: How did you choose your creative team?

Dan: Rafael Lanhellas had drawn issues of Argo 5, and I really love his work. Alexandre Coelho was also working with us a bit at the time and has a fantastic style. Bruna Costa’s color samples were magnificent,t so I didn’thesitate too put her e in putting her in the book, and she has since become a very in-demand colorist.

1^st: Did you use any reference materials for sumo wrestling accuracy?

Dan: Yes, through the series, I did send occasional sumo wrestling references to artists, and his final costume is more sumowrestling-inspiredd and closer to our variant cover for issue one.

1^st: Are there plans for Sumo Boy #2 or future arcs?

Dan: Yes, the first Sumo Boy story arc is four issues. The first issue was chopped up and presented in Antarctic Press’ Exciting Comics and finally collected here as a full issue as originally intended. I had time since then to pretty much finish the rest of the series, which we’ll be able to release regularly in subsequent Thunderzone Kickstarters.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dansehn/thunderzone-comics-returns

About Author

Rik Offenberger

Rik Offenberger has worked in the comic field as a retailer, distributor, reporter, public relations coordinator, writer and publisher since 1990. He owns and operates the e-mail bases Super Hero News service, and his published works in print can be seen in The Comics Buyers Guide, Comic Retailer, Borderline Magazine, and Comics International. On the internet he has worked as a writer and/or editor for Silver Bullet Comicbooks, Comic Book Resources, Newsarama and First Comics News. He was the Public Relations Coordinator at Archie Comics for a decade. He is currently the Editor-In-Chief at G-Man Comics. For TwoMorrows Publications, Rik co-wrote The MLJ Companion with Paul Castiglia and Jon B. Cooke, charting the history of Archie’s superheroes, and for Gemstone Publishing wrote chapters of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide to Lost Universes.

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