Back in 2021, Dark Horse released Renegade Rule, by Ben Kahn and Rachel Silverstein, with art by Sam Beck. The book went on to be a hit, GLAAD-nominated, and a unique — and fun! — look at VR esports that ended with a surprise twist that you don’t usually see in sports fiction. Cut to 2025, and the team is at it again with another round in Renegade Royale.
Picking up after the events of the first book, the underdogs, Manhattan Mist, are a little older and a little wiser, but still wrestling with everything from ideas of identity and romance to the game at the center of the book.
“It was like settling back into your most comfortable chair,” Kahn told Comic Book Club over email. “As soon as Rachel and I sat down to write a scene, it was like the characters would just start bantering on their own, and all we had to do was get it down on paper. This was my first time really writing a Volume 2, and it was so different getting to dive right back into the world knowing everyone would already be familiar with the characters, setting and tone.”
To find out more about the book — and beware spoilers! — as well as how to get the perfect order at Katz’s Deli, read on.
Comic Book Club: Before we get into the book proper, your thank you in the sequel is to all the libraries who ordered the first book… How important are libraries to the health of comics/graphic novels? And what can readers do to help support books at their local library?
Ben Kahn: Libraries are such a crucial part of our literary ecosystem. Libraries truly are vital resources and partners for authors, publishers, and readers. They can be essential in helping a book find readers. There are many books, including Renegade Rule, that would have struggled far more without the support of librarians. And every librarian I’ve had the pleasure to meet knows how special and important comic books can be.
The easiest and best way to support your local library is simply to visit, check out books, and make use of all the amazing resources that libraries have to offer. They’re here for the community, and showing how important and beloved they are is the best way to support them.
Okay, to talk about the book, the characters have grown up since the last time around… What new challenges did that bring as a writer?
There’s about a year and a half between the books, but the Manhattan Mist are still the same mid-20s queer disasters that they’ve always been. Some things in their lives have definitely advanced though. Thanks to her new pro-gamer stardom, Amanda has been able to get her mom the care she needs, and that lets her put her hair down so to speak and live without the weight of the world on her shoulders. And Jessie is getting married! But if anything, matrimony has made her even sillier and more immature. Tonya and Sasha are still trying to make sense of their feelings for one another though, and that ends up forming the emotional core of Renegade Royale.
Getting to step back to these characters, honestly it was like settling back into your most comfortable chair. As soon as Rachel and I sat down to write a scene, it was like the characters would just start bantering on their own, and all we had to do was get it down on paper. This was my first time really writing a Volume 2, and it was so different getting to dive right back into the world knowing everyone would already be familiar with the characters, setting and tone.
Similarly, you’re evolving the game in the book – how do you script something like that out, so it feels like video game sports, versus “just’ comic book action scenes?
For the sequel, we shifted from a Team Shooter type of game to a Fortnite style Battle Royale (hence the title). To keep it feeling like a video game, we tried to make it clear their abilities come from Character Classes, their attacks are Special Moves and Combos. And the new concept we added to the game that I absolutely love are Super Modes, where every character can get a massive power boost if they fulfill very specific gameplay conditions. So we always tried to keep the ‘game mechanics’ at the front of our mind when we were scripting the action. And we decided early on that there would be no blood, all the violence would be represented with blue pixels to show that it’s all in Virtual Reality.
And when you have someone as talented as Sam Beck doing the art, seeing those action scenes come in was like being a kid on Hanukkah.
As video games themselves have involved (Fortnite, for example, continues to be wildly more complicated than how it started), how does that impact how you approach the games in the series?
The current video game zeitgeist absolutely informs the game elements of the series. When we wrote Renegade Rule, team shooters like Overwatch and Apex Legends reigned supreme. After that, it was all Fortnite and battle royales, so we knew that had to be the direction for the sequel. Not only does it capture where gaming is right now, but it’s the exact kind of escalation you want for a sequel.
Of course Fortnite is still the king of the gaming castle, so we’ll need to figure out something different if we get that Volume 3.
And what’s the balance for you between in game scenes, and real world scenes? What’s important in that mix?
With how action packed all the game scenes are, the real world scenes are a chance for us to slow things down, catch our breath, and really home in on the characters. It’s a chance to get to know the characters beyond their banter while dodging lasers and energy swords. Comedy and romance are just as important to this series as the action, and the real world scenes are way to put those aspects front and center.
Tonya and Sasha take center stage here, what made them the right stars for book two?
When we ended Renegade Rule, we were very aware that the budding romance between Tonya and Sasha was a plot point we left dangling. There just wasn’t enough time to properly explore it with everything else going on. But we wanted to plant those seeds early on, with the hope that we’d get to give it the focus and time it deserves in Renegade Royale. They really form the emotional arc that needed two volumes to develop – Tonya going from the team’s least confident member to someone who believes she can be champion, and Sasha learning how to truly be the support that Tonya needs.
The villains seem a little Team Rocket-inspired. Or maybe Fenris? I can keep naming things, or just ask you where they came from.
You hit the nail on the head! They are absolutely Team Rocket inspired! Way before we even started working on Renegade Royale, I sent Rachel and Sam a piece of fan art of Jessie and James being the gender bending icons they are and said, “If we get a sequel, this is the vibe I want the new villains to have.” Some of the other inspirations were villains from Sailor Moon and their incredible androgynous styles.
It was really important to me that this volume increased our non-binary representation, and a transmasc and transfeme LARPing as vampire assassins fit the bill perfectly. And we also wanted to make sure they served as both foils for Tonya, and something for her to aspire to. Like Tonya, our villains (KJ and Leaf), love the lore of the game and getting lost in their imaginations. But unlike Tonya, who’s surrounded by people who put her down for it, KJ and Leaf have embraced the power of their imaginations. It’s the source of their incredible strength in the game. In that way, they represent what Tonya can be if she can become that best version of herself.
Without spoiling anything, in book one, our team of heroes came in number two… How did that impact going into this book, and the eventual conclusion of the tournament, this time around?
Ooh, this is a hard one without giving away any spoilers. Renegade Rule did indeed end with the team ultimately losing in the finals. But it was a sweet-bitter ending, as team captain Amada Cassidy proved herself an eSports star, got her mother the medical care she needed, and even bagged a date with Renegade Rule’s #1 player Gabby Martinez. But as we find out in Renegade Royale, the other team members didn’t take losing quite as graciously. Tonya especially still has something to prove, both to herself and to the world. So trying to not give too much away, if they lost in the first volume…well, maybe things turn out a little different in the sequel (insert winking emoji here).
You set a scene in what is essentially Katz’s Deli… Any tips for ordering there, or is it all in the book?
Like it says in the book, you can’t go wrong with corn beef on rye with mustard and a pickle on the side. Add in a Doc Brown’s soda (I like Black Cherry the best), and you’ve got yourself a classic New York Jewish deli experience. But whether is pastrami or turkey or matzoh ball soup, know what you want before you get in line. When they ask you what you want, you better be ready, or you will be sent to the back of the line.
Any chance of a Renegade Volume 3? Or is that what your local library ordering is for?
I sure hope so! Rachel and I already have lots of ideas for another story arc. I think in an ideal world, each of the main characters would get their own arc focused on them. So Amanda and Tonya have had their spotlight stories, and hopefully Jessie and Sasha will get to be next. But like you said, that all depends on support from readers. The more people read it and request it at local stores and libraries, the more likely that Volume 3 will be a reality.
Renegade Royale is in stores now from Dark Horse Comics.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.