Exclusive Interview: Revel Guts on his webcomic ‘Sparks’ becoming a Graphic Novel

I recently had a chance to chat with Revel Guts, creator of the hit coming-of-age, epic-fantasy webcomic Sparks. Dark Horse Comics will begin collecting the series in trade form for the first time when Sparks Volume 1: Portals hits shelves July 17, 2024

Check out our conversation below and be sure to pick up the first volume later this month!

DERBY COMICS: Welcome, Revel, and thank you for your time! Before we begin, since we’re technically doing this interview in June, Happy Pride! What does Pride mean to you? 

REVEL GUTS: Thank you, happy pride to you too! I guess pride, to me, is the opposite of shame, right? I spent a lot of my life feeling ashamed of who I was and trying my best to be somebody else, and I feel like I’m just now starting to really break free of that. I grew up in a pretty conservative area, but where I live now I have a wonderful circle of queer friends, and I feel so lucky to be able to be visibly trans without having to fear for my safety. It’s really nice seeing the city come out in support during Pride month, but pride is all year long to me. 

DERBY COMICS: Aside from getting jazzed about the first collected edition of Sparks collection coming out soon, are you doing anything special to celebrate Pride this year? 

RG: I actually just moved back closer to the city after living very rurally for a couple of years, so I’m really excited about being able to attend Pride events this year! I’ll probably try to catch some outdoorsy ones– I still can’t stand how long Canadian winters are so I try to get outside as much as I can during the summer hahaha. 

DERBY COMICS: Speaking of Sparks Volume 1, congrats on the upcoming release! Can you share a bit about what Sparks is about? 

RG: Sure! Sparks is set in a fantasy world where human society is slowly rebuilding after a near-cataclysmic event. They do this with the help of the Satyr, who are able to utilize and produce magic, and who they believe have been sent by the Gods to help them. 

The story itself follows Philo and Atlas, two Satyr about to graduate from the academy where they’ve been trained all their life on how to be useful for humans. Philo is the worst in his class, has zero motivation to improve and no real plans for the future. Atlas meanwhile has worked incredibly hard to reach the top of the class, even if it means he hasn’t had much time to make friends. The two of them get transported far from the academy during an accident caused by Philo’s magic backfiring, and they have to work on understanding one another and putting aside their differences in order to get back... volume 1 covers up until their graduation! 

Sparks explores the feeling of being thrust out into the world as a young adult, and finding out you weren’t prepared as well as you thought you had been. The two of them grapple with their new–found responsibilities and the failings of those who have power over their lives... while also navigating their tumultuous romantic feelings for one another. 

DERBY COMICS: For those who don’t know, you started Sparks as a webcomic back in 2020. What inspired you to write this story and embark on this nearly 5-year journey?

RG: Initially it was kind of a personal challenge for myself, to see how many pages I could manage to draw before losing steam. I’d never drawn a comic before, even though I’d always wanted to, so it was meant to be a low-stakes experiment. Obviously, it became a lot more than that... here I am still making it! 

I’d always wanted to read a queer romance comic that was set within a complex fantasy plot and had multiple arcs. I’ve since found more in this genre, but at the time it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so my solution was to make my own. Sparks is everything I wanted out of a comic but couldn’t find– it has queer relationship drama, angst, political intrigue, adventure and magic... and fanservice, haha. 

Now what keeps me going is my attachment to the characters... I have to see it through, for them! Making such a long series appealed to me because it really gives me the space to explore a large cast of characters and their motivations. It’s so satisfying to see readers get as drawn into them as I do, and I can’t wait to share the ending of their stories with everyone! 

DERBY COMICS: Even though it has elements of niche fandoms and genres, one of the things I love about Sparks is how approachable it is for readers of any background. The story and characters are so relatable, especially the main duo of Philo and Atlas. Did you ever think a story about magical Satyrs could reveal so much about us as humans?! 

RG: Thank you, that’s so nice to hear! It’s been a total surprise to me, hahaha. I write Sparks from a very personal place and work a lot of my own feelings and experiences into it, so I really didn’t expect it to resonate with many people at all. It’s actually been really affirming to see comments from readers with completely different backgrounds and experiences to my own, who are still seeing themselves and their struggles reflected in the characters. It’s made me realize how universal certain feelings are... everyone can relate to feeling powerless, or lonely, or like an outsider. 

Philo and Atlas in particular are kind of extreme aspects of my own personality, so it can feel quite vulnerable writing them sometimes. I don’t let myself dwell on it for too long, but they’ve been a great way of exploring concepts like repression, perfectionism, self-confidence, etc. I actually wasn’t out as trans yet when I started Sparks, and I think creating it really helped me through that process. I hope it can help other people too! 

DERBY COMICS: As of this interview, I believe you have written over 550 pages of Sparks so far. Wow! How much of the current story did you have mapped out when you first started writing? 

RG: None! Not even joking. When I started Sparks all I had was the first scene– Philo’s magic backfiring and sending him and Atlas away from the academy. I kind of flew by the seat of my pants for a while, and in the meantime the overall plot was slowly taking shape in the back of my mind. I wouldn’t recommend this method! There are some aspects of the plot I think I could have done better if I’d started with more planning. On the other hand, I don’t know if I would have gotten as far as I have if I didn’t just jump in at the start. I’d like to reassure everyone that I now have the entire story mapped out, hahaha. 

DERBY COMICS: Can you talk a bit about what it was like taking Sparks from a webcomic to a physical medium? 

RG: Sure, it’s been a great experience! When I started Sparks I envisioned it as a multi-volume book series– I’ve always been a huge fan of manga, so I wanted to make my own, essentially. When I started it there weren’t really any indie queer comics of that kind of length getting published. I assumed it would be far too niche to ever appeal to a publisher, so I had vague plans that I would eventually crowdfund printing the books myself. That’s why I made Sparks using a single page format, rather than the vertical scroll style webcomics that are the norm now. It’s also why I chose to make it in black and white instead of colour. 

Before I started any pages, I reached out to a friend who had been published, and they shared the template they use for page dimensions and bleed margins with me. I’ve been using that template for all of my pages from the beginning. As far as I know, Dark Horse didn’t have any trouble formatting my pages for printing. One thing I did learn from the process is to keep my layers (inks, flats, lettering etc) more organized– some of my early pages were really messy and I had to spend time cleaning them up. I got to have more input than I expected on the look of the final book, and I love it– it really looks like the Sparks manga I envisioned from the start. I’m so excited to see all the volumes next to each other on a shelf, I think they’ll look great! 

DERBY COMICS: If you could have any current comic book artist provide colors to the pages of Sparks, who would you love to work with? 

RG: This is such a hard question! I’m going to say a top 3 because there’s too many options that I think would do an amazing job. 

Suzanne Geary makes the webcomic Brainchild, one of my favourites, and her colours are gorgeous. She’s so skilled at using colour to convey mood, tone, and atmosphere and she manages to make colours I would never consider using look amazing. She also recently coloured on Overwatch: New Blood so she’s worked with Dark Horse before... wink wink! 

Kay O’Neill is the creator of the Tea Dragon Society series, among others. I particularly love the colouring work they did on their latest book, The Moth Keeper. Their colours are so soft and dreamy, I think they would make the world of Sparks look absolutely beautiful. 

And my final pick, Ariel Ries, creator of Witchy. I love their colour work, particularly in chapter 6 of Witchy where they swapped to using a limited palette. I think this is such a smart move for longform comics- I’d love to try colouring a comic in this style one day, although I know it's a lot harder than they make it look! 

DERBY COMICS: I’ve seen you reference growing up during the heyday of webcomics & also being a big fan of manga. Do you have any particular favorite series or series that may have had extra inspiration on your work? 

RG: Absolutely! I’d say manga was my biggest stylistic influence growing up– although I was reading webcomics, I wasn’t necessarily taking art cues from them, moreso just being inspired by the concept of being able to share comics online without needing to be a professional. 

The work of CLAMP and Rumiko Takahashi were my favourites, particularly Ranma 1⁄2 and Cardcaptor Sakura. Philo’s braid when he has his hair up is actually my own little homage to Ranma’s design haha, and any time I draw a romantic scene overflowing with flowers you can thank CLAMP. Sparks is kind of my attempt at combining the raunchy humor of Ranma 1⁄2 with the focus on character’s emotions and relationships in Cardcaptor Sakura. I still have volumes of both series in a bookshelf next to my desk that I flip through whenever I need an extra boost of creative motivation! 

I also have to mention webcomic creator Kosmic (Feast For a King, Nasty Red Dogs, both 18+). This was more of a recent influence, but his philosophy behind making comics and the sketchy style he uses for both series were a huge push for me to finally approach making one myself. It was so refreshing to see someone make a comic in a looser, faster-paced style. It helped convince me to make decisions to speed up my own process and make pages easier to complete, rather than spending my time polishing each page to perfection. I think this is the secret to avoiding burnout on a long series like this. 

DERBY COMICS: What’s a question that you’ve never been asked, but have always wanted to answer? And what’s the answer?! 

RG: Who is your favourite character in any media? Ogata Hyakunosuke from Golden Kamuy. Thank you for asking. 

DERBY COMICS: How can fans keep up with you and Sparks in the future? 

RG: Sparkscomic.net is your go-to website for keeping up with the comic! I post a page every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. For keeping up with me, I’m Revelguts on most social media (Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr).