Interview: Joe Corallo Revisits A Beloved Animated Adventure!
May 28, 2024
Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen
High school quarterback Arthur King and his team have just won the big game... but a portal to another realm transports them to Camelot, where the real King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been imprisoned by Merlin's evil protege, Morgana.
In the following interview, writer Joe Corallo introduces readers to King Arthur & The Knight of Justice from Mad Cave Studios/Maverick. A new take on the classic 90s animated hit series.
Let’s get into King Arthur & The Knights of Justice. Catch us up to speed. What is the story about?
Morgana of Arthurian myth has finally won her battle against King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (our Knights of the Roundtable)! She’s even bested Merlin himself. With the help of the Lady of the Table (our Lady of the Lake) Merlin is able to use some of his remaining magic to seek out twelve men who can work as one to be the new King Arthur and the Knights of Justice and help to free the originals from Morgana’s clutches.
This is based on an animated series from the 90s?
It is! I used to watch it when I was a kid and had since revisited it over the years and would show friends an episode when given the opportunity.
What can you tell us about this Arthur King?
In D&D terms he’s a Paladin through and through. He’s also the glue that keeps the team together to the best of his ability. Not everyone is fully on board with everything that happens over the course of the book, but he’s able to rally everyone and get things done.
What about his football team? Can we expect a rag-tag group?
It is more of a rag-tag group than not! It’s a large cast of heroes so we unfortunately can’t spend a ton of time exploring everyone as deeply as I’d like, but I do the best I can to establish the different personalities and interpersonal relationships between the characters with the space we have. We get an idea of who is closer to who, who is less fond of who, who is all in on saving the day, and who just wants to go home, and all that. What’s interesting is while they know they’re a rag-tag team in this situation, most of Camelot is completely unaware because they think they’re all the true King Arthur and the Knights of Justice!
How could a football team possibly help King Arthur?
It’s a little less about the fact that they’re a football team that led to them helping Camelot and more than they are twelve men who can work as one. But they wouldn’t have those skills without having been on a team together, to begin with.
What made you team up with artist Gaia Cardinali?
Chas Pangburn, our letterer on the book as well as being a Senior Editor at Mad Cave, showed me the previous book Gaia had worked on for them, In The Shadow Of The Throne. Seeing how gorgeous that book looked it just made perfect sense for her to be on board. Our editor Lauren and the licensor had the final say, of course, but I was thrilled by the opportunity to collaborate with her!
Tell us about the rest of the collaborators on the book. Who is on the art team?
Gaia IS the art team! She did very detailed layouts of every page, then would do a pass tightening them all up with the inks, then moved on to colors. And she nailed it every time. There were one or two panels, not pages just panels, where we had to figure out a different approach to make it work for the 124 pages. It’s about as impressive as it gets!
As mentioned above, Chas is our letterer and adds a great deal to the look of every single page. Poor lettering makes the whole book suffer and could detract even from Gaia’s incredible work, but Chas took the time and care to truly elevate the experience. Like me, he was a fan of the show as a kid and it was important to him that this book look as good as we could make it.
In terms of audience, who is King Arthur & The Knights of Justice for?
This is considered a young adult graphic novel, and I feel this is good for ages 12 and up. There is violence and it does get dark at times, but there isn’t anything too over the top in terms of the violence or language and there isn’t anything in the book I’d consider explicit. If you’re a teen or young adult interested in the fantasy genre, I think this will be right up your alley. There’s plenty for people to enjoy who are older as well. If you enjoyed the cartoon as a kid and now you’re in your 30’s or so I think you’ll get a kick out of this too!
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