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Originally published January 17th, 2024. When I decided bring back the podcast in a fresh and new way, I started looking for some Dragon Ball pages to follow. Dragon Ball is my top anime. To quote King Cav who I saw in a video on Instagram: “No anime makes you feel like Dragon Ball.” DB A New Hope captures that.
Going through accounts, I came across this fan manga entitled Dragon Ball New Hope.
Though I know it’s out there – I guess with the exception of Star Wars novels – I have not come across any good fan fiction. I am sure that I may get some amazing suggestions from people who read this post and I will check them out. It is not in my experience to go and search for fan fiction, so I haven’t really come across anything.
What drew me in was this panel of Piccolo fighting Janemba and I thought I had missed something in Super.
I clearly missed the watermark, but, come on, look at that! It’s beautiful.
I downloaded the app that it is available on and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the art great, the storytelling was fantastic. I absolutely love the alternate outlook that Brice explores, but Ill let him talk to you about that.
I am constantly reaching out for guests on my podcast and I reached out to him immediately. He got back to me to say that his English isn’t very good, so he didn’t think that it would make for great listening.
I respected that entirely, but was disappointed because I really wanted to ask him some questions and get insight to his creative process, inspiration etc.
That’s when I came up with the idea for print interviews in my blog. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before hand – it’s kind of obvious – but it is an idea I will always behold to Brice. I know there will be many content creators that I want to highlight here (that’s the whole goal of this) that may not be able to speak English and this just gives me the ability to get them in front of more eyeballs, while selfishly learning what other people’s nerdy journeys are.
I love the answers I got from him, so without further ado, here is my interview with Brice, creator, author and artist for Dragon Ball New Hope
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1. What inspired you to create a Dragon Ball comic, particularly starting by exploring an alternate timeline where Gohan dies fighting Cell?
It goes back a long way; if I remember correctly, more than 25 years ago. To put this into context, I was born in 1987. That same year, Dragon Ball began to be broadcasted on TV in my country of France. I grew up with the series. Qhen Goten appeared for the first time in ’93, I was 6 years old just like him, so I identified with the character. The series ended 3 years later in 1996, leaving me with a taste of unfinished business concerning Goten. I’ve always been a fan of the dramatic moments in Dragon Ball, especially the TV specials, Trunks’ future, and Son Goku’s father. That’s how I came up with the idea of a universe in which Cell wins against Gohan, giving Goten the chance to star in a brand new story. And as I’ve always really liked Krillin, it was the perfect opportunity for him to shine too. In DBNH, Vegeta doesn’t attack Cell during the Kamehameha duel with Gohan, and that small event changes the whole story as we know.
2. Can you share some insights into the creative process behind developing your comic? Is this something that you always wanted to do?
Yes, it’s a story I’ve had in my head all this time, and I’ve thought about it a lot. But I never thought I’d be able to pull it off; let alone get to 15 chapters, which is over 700 pages. If someone had told me that 5 years ago, I would never have believed them.
3. What inspired you to use some non-canon characters? Despite not liking Fusion Reborn as a movie, Janemba has always been one of my favorite characters, so it has been nice seeing him utilized well.
Using Janemba is an idea that came to me less than a year ago. I was looking for a way to show what the future Z Team went through while in the otherworld and explain their progress. Naturally, a re-adaptation of the movie Fusion Reborn became an obvious choice for me. Just like in the original movie, it also gave me the opportunity to bring back certain enemies from the past and create some new background stories between certain non-canon characters such as Slug/Turles & Cooler/Paikuhan without them contradicting my main story.
4. Are there specific themes or messages that you aim to convey through your DB New Hope?
Nothing else apart from my love for Dragon Ball.
5. How do you balance staying true to the original Dragon Ball series while adding your own unique twist to the story?
A lot of thought has gone into the interactions between the characters. I try to stay as close as possible to the original characters, even if some of my scenarist choices are highly debatable lol. I also lived in Japan with a Japanese host family for 2 years when I was a teenager. I started to learn Japanese by rereading the Ball manga in their original language. Already knowing all the dialogues from the French version, I wasn’t lost in translation lol. Speaking Japanese and living in Japan also helped me a lot with better understanding the characters from Dragon Ball, their cultural references, the language codes, their specific way of speaking, etc.
6. Can you tell us about the artistic style you chose for your fan comic and how it complements the Dragon Ball aesthetic? I probably wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t canonical material if I didn’t know.
I’m trying to stick to the DBZ style from the ‘90s.
7. What kind of research or preparation went into ensuring the consistency of your DB New Hope with the Dragon Ball lore with your vision?
A lot of rereading of the original manga and some research on the internet to make sure of certain facts that I didn’t know about.
8. Are there particular Dragon Ball arcs or moments that influenced the development of your comic?
Mainly the Androids-Cell Arc.
9. How do you approach character design for non-canon characters, and what considerations do you take into account when adding them to the story, especially in terms of certain transformations?
You can easily add any non-canon character to the Dragon Ball universe as long as you give them a coherent background story.
10. What role do you see Turles and Janemba playing in the alternate timeline you’ve created, and how do they impact the narrative?
The Janemba saga in DBNH is a flashback that future Gohan tells future Vegeta about. After that, I doubt we’ll see Janemba or Turles again in DBNH.
11. I’ve loved it, and a friend I sent it to has loved it. Can you discuss the fan response to DB New Hope and how the Dragon Ball community has reacted to your unique take on the series?
To be honest, I didn’t think I’d have such a big audience, and for the most part, the feedback has been positive; even if, as I said earlier, some of my script choices are questionable. I think DBNH readers are now looking forward to returning to Goten’s timeline.
12. How has your background as an artist influenced the visual storytelling aspects of DB New Hope?
I’ve been drawing Dragon Ball since I was a kid. I try to stay as close as possible to the original material and not stray from it.
13. Are there specific manga or comic book artists who have inspired your artistic style or storytelling techniques outside of the obvious influences?
Aside from Akira Toriyama, not so much.
14. As an author and artist, how do you navigate the challenges of balancing action sequences with character development in DB New Hope?
I take great care in developing the story because if the story is messed up, the action scenes won’t be interesting to read.
15. How do you keep the pacing engaging and maintain the reader’s interest throughout each chapter?
I try to create a plot hook at the end of each chapter.
16. Are there any Easter eggs or hidden references in your fan comic that fans might have missed but hold special significance to you?
In Chapter 3, Goten teaches Krillin how to play Street Fighter 2 on SNES (a game I grew up with). When I started Chapter 5, the Granolah arc had just started in Super, so I included some references to that in DBNH. On the Chapter 5 cover, there’s a pack of Granolah cake on Goten’s TV. After he came back to Earth, Cell tells Krillin that apart from Namek and Earth there’s another planet with Dragon Balls. It was a reference to the planet Cereal, but I don’t have any future developments planned for that one. From memory, in Chapter 12, future Gohan breaks the wall of the fourth dimension twice and talks to the readers. In Chapter 15, Yamcha breaks the panel with his special attack, and later in the chapter, there’s a reference to the clash beams from the Budokai era on PS2. I may have forgotten some of them among the 700 pages lol.
17. Can you share any hints about upcoming plot points or developments in upcoming DB New Hope chapters without giving away too many spoilers?
The next arc will take place in the main timeline, that of Son Goten.
18. Has the process of creating DB New Hope impacted your appreciation for the Dragon Ball series and its characters at all?
Not really; I grew up watching the anime series and reading the Dragon Ball manga, so I was pretty up to date on the series, but it helped me remember some details I’d forgotten about over time.
19. Are there particular challenges or advantages you’ve encountered by working within an established and beloved franchise like Dragon Ball?
The advantage of working on a franchise as established as Dragon Ball is the global audience of fans around the world. This can also be a double-edged sword, as each Dragon Ball fan has their own vision of the franchise. It will, therefore, be difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy everyone. In my opinion, straying too far from the original spirit of the series can sometimes be a mistake.
20. In your opinion, what makes a compelling and memorable fan work, and how do you strive to achieve that with your work?
I think it’s all about the story.
21. How do you approach the depiction of battles and power levels with DB New Hope, especially when introducing characters not originally part of the Dragon Ball canon?
For the power levels, I created my own specifically for DBNH. I use them as bonuses at the end of certain chapters, and as the official figures became almost incalculable from the end of the Namek arc, I thought it would be simpler to make my own. For non-canon characters, you can easily estimate their power based on the films in which they appear. Even though I gave power-ups to Slug and Turles, I tried to keep their power levels consistent with the story I’d created for them.
22. How do you engage with your audience and fans, and what role do they play in shaping the direction of your DB New Hope?
It’s happened a few times that I’ve been called out on some little script errors of my own. One that comes to mind is that I had forgotten that Cell knew about Dragon Balls in the official series. In the manga, he only mentions them in 1 frame when he’s facing Piccolo. My subscribers reminded me of this sequence, and I was able to correct my mistake by changing a line of text in DBNH. But over the last 3 years, I think every subscriber must have told me what they wanted to see in DBNH.
23. If given the opportunity, would you want DB New Hope to be officially recognized or incorporated into the broader Dragon Ball franchise in a similar respect as “That Time I got Reincarnated as Yamcha”?
It would be incredible, but I think DBNH is a bit too dark and wouldn’t fit with the audience that the official franchise is aiming for.
24. What advice do you have for aspiring artists and authors who are passionate about creating fan content within established universes like Dragon Ball?
Just do it; there is room for everyone and for every type of material fans produce.
25. Is there anything else you would like the readers to know?
I’d like to thank all DBNH readers for their incredible support and, of course, The Nerdyverse of Madness for its interest in DBNH and for giving me this interview opportunity. To keep up to date with news about DBNH, go to my Instagram or my Patreon.
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I’m telling you: you got to check this out. You can find the manga here.
Go read it and support him on Patreon if you can.
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