Remember growing up in the '80s?  Or, if you were born later, remember old people talking about growing up in the '80s?  In a lot of ways, it was like any other decade---adults busied themselves with bills and politics and war, and kids focused on what mattered: toys and cartoons.  But what set an '80s kid apart was the toy and cartoon Golden Age we were living through!  The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, and later Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... without a doubt, they were half hour commercials for toys, but we never noticed.  We were simply transported to an amazing place full of heroes, bad guys, monsters, weirdos, weapons, battles, and triumph! 

 

Although these shows were only created to sell toys, even the most cynical Babyboomer or Gen-Xer can't deny that the characters in them were larger than life.  The men and women who breathed life into these shows, for the most part, actually cared about making a good story to go along with the merchandise.  I like to think that was the reason these shows stuck with us.  As kids, it was our culture.  Our mythology.

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When I watched them, it didn't just make me want to buy toys, it inspired me to create my own characters, tell my own stories, and be more like the heroic figures that defeated evil week after week.  Previous generations had John Wayne to look up to.  We had Optimus Prime.

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Like a lot of my contemporaries, the lessons, inspiration and fun of those shows and toys never left me.  It pooled in the back of my head, inspiring me as the years went by; eventually, I wanted to bring it out in a way that honored those beloved cartoons. 

 

...Or maybe it resurfaced because I needed those lessons again.  Being an adult kinda sucks, and at some point we all want to return to when life was easy and fun.  The Revival is a love letter to the things that inspired me while growing up, but also a re-examination of their world as seen through the eyes of the adult version of myself, and how it might relate to the world I find myself in now.

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In other words, don't worry that I'm pitting these characters against each other for a cheap, cynical laugh or for shock value... at its core, this story is what those old cartoons were always about: good vs evil.  Maybe that concept isn't always as black and white as it was in those old stories, but the principles are the same.

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I write and illustrate the comic with help from my friends, Pete Bloome and Pat Ethridge, and my brother and sister, Mike and Katie.  I bounce ideas and designs off of them and they bounce back much better than when they started.

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Thanks a ton for checking out the story, and I hope you enjoy it! 

 

Till all are one!

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TOM KYZIVAT

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