Review Fix Exclusive: Madefire’s Josh Wilkie Talks ‘RAD’

Review Fix chats with Madefire’s Josh Wilkie, who discusses his new motion book, “RAD.” Powered by awesome art and a one-of-a-kind story, it’s the type of story that comic book fans will quickly latch on to. From the inspiration behind the series and his love for the news, Wilkie gives us an inside look at the series.

With goals to branch out of the series to other mediums as well, Wilkie has a plan to take RAD and his buddies all over the world, from tablets to laptops and even a possible 3D animated project.

Review Fix: For those not familiar with the series, can you give us the basic plot?

Josh Wilkie: RAD is a story about a very special dolphin born into the Navy Mammal Marine Program. His dad, Navy top gun Mav, has high hopes and unfair expectations for his son even before birth and is completely derailed when his son first appears with this rare and odd condition. Let’s just say RAD never really had a chance to ever establish a respectful and loving relationship from the start.

Always feeling out of place while beginning his training in the Navy dolphin program, RAD begins to rebel. He starts to sneak off to explore the notion of freedom and the nature surrounding him. In his explorations he meets a human – a soul surfer who befriends RAD and teaches him to surf and nurture the anti-establishment sentiment RAD has begun to find in himself. Although strictly forbidden, sneaking away and surfing begins to represent RAD’s freedom of expression… a militaristic society’s worst enemy.

One day while heading out to go surf, something doesn’t feel right and his friend goes missing. Several clues in the surf spot point towards the Navy program and Wolfe as the one’s responsible so RAD tries to talk with his parents about the whole ordeal. Mav’s narrow-minded and ignorant approach only causes more strife in the relationship and sets off a series of events that turn their worlds upside down.

NOLA, RAD’s mother, starts to buck the system and begins to probe into the matter because she believes in her son. Her investigation becomes a nuisance for Wolfe and his new project so she is secretly sold off to “the Cove” in Japan to be slaughtered for meat. RAD is then hushed with strong meds and forcefully subjected to an obtrusive cybernetic prototype surgery. This is where the motion book starts off.

This is the basic plot for RAD’s side-story until he meets up with his super-hero ally Tsunami Tuna, a mutated tuna fish off the coast of Fukushima, Japan after escaping and searching to rescue his mom from the notorious death cove. After some intense altercations with the poachers, the duo then begin their life-long pursuit of justice for the environment. This is where the animation will begin.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the comic?

Wilkie: My father, Jim Wilkie, is developing an IP for animation, Tsunami Tuna – about a tuna mutated by radiation off the coast of Japan during the Fukushima earthquake in 2012. His inspiration was a story during the news coverage of the effect the radiation was having on the blue-fun tuna population in the area. He thought to himself, “if only nature could fight back…” His hero was born. An animation series is in development at the moment…meanwhile we thought it would be fun to develop the back-story to the sidekick and find out more where he came from.

Upon further story development, a sidekick emerged on the tuna’s mission to free the dolphins from being harvested at the “Cove” in Japan. The sidekick was inspired by yet another news story about a confirmed rare albino dolphin (RAD) among one of the many dolphins to be killed. The original character was further developed by myself and Evan as we built the backstory on the motion book platform.

Review Fix: What did you guys read as kids and teens that played a role in your creative process?

Wilkie: When I was a younger, I was a big fan of cartoons… and then animation shorts and features as I was growing up. The most influential reading for this creative process has been the news. The most fascinating and absolutely crazy things can come out of a newspaper or online story, “Navy has a special program dedicated to marine animals”, “tuna fish drones used by the military to sneak under the radar” – stories like these are written everyday and have inspired many of the core themes in our stories.

At our core, we believe nature’s beauty is precious and demands respect. The over-fishing of seas, haphazard pollution control and exploiting animals for our selfish human reasons are unacceptable and we like to think of it as giving the environment a voice to fight back.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?

Wilkie: I hope everyone can find something here they enjoy. Evan did an amazing job with the art and bringing the characters to life so visually it is stunning. The mixed media storytelling format makes it engaging and appealing to a wide audience — not just comic fans.

Also – if you are the one always rooting for the animals in the movies to win – this story is for you.

Review Fix: What makes it different from other Madefire Tales?

Wilkie: RAD is not part of Madefire in an official capacity. Although it was created by people on the Madefire operations team, it is not being released under their publishing umbrella. This project was privately funded and is creator-owned.

Review Fix: What else makes the comic cool?

Wilkie: The sound really sets the tone throughout the episode and the animation components really bring it to life. In my opinion this format is the perfect bridge between reading and cinema — from a creator viewpoint, it’s great because the motion book format is also easily exportable to video so I not only have a book but also a video I can share.

I also took advantage of the features in the platform with hot links embedded in the end page to allow for email signups and social links to gather contact info on people seriously interested in the series. Fostering a strong community around the characters is the ultimate goal in releasing this free motion book series and may be useful in case we end up doing a Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the series?

Wilkie: This series is a side-story to the feature production of the bigger tsunami tuna 3D animation project. The goal is to engage and promote the overall Tsunami Tuna universe and have some fun doing it.

Review Fix: Bottom Line: Why should someone read it?

Wilkie: 1st reason – his name is RAD.
2nd reason – the book has something in here for everyone… in a fun and engaging format that’s free, fun and mobile.

Check out the Series Below: