Since 2016, Ray Chou and company have been working on their post-apocalypse fantasy, Glow. And now, issue #7 is hitting Kickstarter in a very different world than when the climate change metaphor comic started.
“When I first came up with Glow the ramifications of the themes wasn’t fully developed in my own mind yet,” Chou told Comic Book Club over email, “but it’s something I’ve thought about extensively in the past few years, which, ironically, occurred while I was experiencing major writer’s block on the project.”
Luckily, Chou got past that writer’s block — and as of this writing, Glow is on the cusp of hitting its $8,000 goal on the crowdfunding platform. To find out more about the project, how he’s tackling the pesky back-and-forth of tariffs, and more, read on.
Comic Book Club: Let’s start broadly… Where did the inspiration for Glow come from?
Ray Chou: Hi! Hello! The inspiration for Glow came all at once one day in a dream… one of glowing towers and a vast desert, two siblings and a magic rifle. It was almost like a download – in an instant I knew these were wanderers of a world that had fallen because of the overuse of magic, and these towers were once massive repositories of that magic and perhaps were used to transform the world.
At the time of conception, I was cooking a number of fantasy concepts – each of them a thread, and not really a fully formed idea. There were some traditional knights and realms, some mythological creation stories, and some others. I think fragments of those ideas made their way into Glow via my subconscious and presented itself to me more or less fully formed.
Part of the metaphor for the book is climate change, and you’ve been working on this since 2016… How has the, let’s say, lack of progress in the real world impacted the fictional world of the book over the past near-decade?
Great question! I think a lot about how post-apocalyptic fiction has been popular for so long… and how that must be symbolic to us as a species in the point in our existence in 2025. I’ve also observed the rise of new genres like solarpunk which presuppose climate change as an inevitably but choose to nonetheless ask how we would survive and thrive with hope in spite of that.
I think when I first came up with Glow the ramifications of the themes wasn’t fully developed in my own mind yet, but it’s something I’ve thought about extensively in the past few years, which, ironically, occurred while I was experiencing major writer’s block on the project. One of the main characters of Glow, the Witch Myra, wants to restore the world to what it once was, and will do anything to see it so. I think, how the other characters feel about that – namely, the siblings Caszy and Koken – align with my own beliefs a little more closely. But, those beliefs evolve in the course of the story, which I hope resonates with people. You can’t fix everything.
Not to keep getting real but you may be aware of the current situation in the United States regarding tariffs. That’s been back and forth, and by the time you answer this and we publish this fifty different things will have changed. But as someone who is publishing TTRPGs and games, as well as comics… How’s that going for you? What are the challenges at this current time?
It’s challenging. I currently have a big order of around $25k worth of product from China that may be hit with whatever tariffs the administration feels like levying currently. We’re in a bit of a holding pattern to see if things will calm down a bit. The good news is it looks like comics and ttrpg books may be exempt, but there is uncertainty around that as well. I think overall it’s just so unstable right now and if things hold there will certainly be massive ramifications in our little hobby industries. It reminds me a little bit of COVID and the crazy spikes in ocean freight that resulted from that. We operate in very small industries with thin margins. Without sugar coating it, the current situation could potentially sink us and many other small publishers.
Similarly, how has the current global economic situation impacted how you approach a Kickstarter (if at all)?
I think with all of this, transparency is key. Communicating with our audience what is happening and why is always the best policy, even if it isn’t necessarily the easiest one. So far, it’s business as usual. I do think telling our story and explaining how these tariffs and other turmoil – which can feel abstract – affect what we do is one way of showing people what they actually mean. So far, it’s business as usual, but I do wonder in 3-6 months time when these economic policies start really hurting people’s bottom line what will happen.
Okay, heavy stuff out of the way: what can folks expect from Glow #7?
A bit of levity! Glow #7 is all about Hearts and Minds! The gang decides to throw a puppet show to tell the woe of Shoddai, and meanwhile the Stonehands go camping! It’s a light-hearted issue that hopefully will help offset the heaviness from the first six issues of the series. We get to see the personalities of our heroes a little bit when they’re not under immediate duress, and we set things up for the next half of the series.
And what can we expect from the Kickstarter? Any fun levels?
Yeah! We have a few options for beautiful variant covers, including one by the original series concept artist of Glow, Dia Jamandron, who now works on X-Men ‘97. We’re also offering a beautiful box to collect the floppies of the comic which we’re really excited about.
Last thing: since you’re already doing a Kickstarter for Glow any chance you can tack on a Kickstarter to let Netflix finish GLOW Season 4? Thanks.
Hah! I wish. Alison Brie is beautiful 🙂
Glow is live on Kickstarter now.
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