PREVIEWSworld Video Game Month: Box Brown

Video games have often been considered the “enemy” of comics, drawing readers away from comics for the glow of arcade and home screens. But somewhere along the way, video games became fodder for the comics, drawing gamers away from their screens and back to the four-color page!

Years later, they’re seemingly inseparable now, with dozens of video game-based comics on the market.

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This month, in honor of our Video Game Month theme, we reached out to creators to ask them about the video game comics they’re working on, their favorite games, characters, and more. Read below what we discussed with Tetris writer Box Brown!

PREVIEWSworld: What are you currently working on?

Box Brown: I am currently working on my book Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed and another fiction book called Child Star, about an ’80s/’90s child actor.

PREVIEWSworld: What video game properties are you working on right now, or have you worked on in the past?

Box Brown: I did a book called Tetris: The Games People Play (AUG161648) about the history of the creation of the video game Tetris.

PREVIEWSworld: Are you a PC or console gamer?  Which console do you prefer? 

Box Brown: Mostly PC right now. My Nintendo Switch is getting a lot of miles.

PREVIEWSworld: What video game started your passion for gaming? 

Box Brown: It goes way back… almost before I remember. I have vague memories of playing an all text PC game with my uncle when I was like 3 or 4. I got a Nintendo when it came out in 1985, I was 5 and I’ve been playing ever since.

PREVIEWSworld: What current release is taking up your free time?

Box Brown: Just got Octopath Traveler which I’m really enjoying.

PREVIEWSworld: If you could create a comic out of any video game property, which one would you choose?

Box Brown: The Legend of Zelda! The greatest video game series of all time! I have bought entire consoles just to play Zelda many different times; owned multiple versions of the same games. I can’t get enough!

PREVIEWSworld: If you could create a video game comic book crossover like Marvel vs. Capcom or Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, what two properties would you choose?

Box Brown: Oh, I don’t know… maybe She-Hulk vs. Samus from Metroid?

PREVIEWSworld: How is telling a story in a video game different that telling a story in a comic? How are they the same?

Box Brown: I think a lot of times in a video game you want to act out a lot of trivial things. You want your character to walk over to the dresser and change clothes for 45 minutes. That doesn’t happen in comics. In comics that type of stuff happens in the space between the panels. I think a lot of games have these long, extended cut-scenes that feel like comics.  But I also don’t love them and wish they’d get rid of them!

PREVIEWSworld: Who is your favorite character from a video game and why?

Box Brown: One of them is Kuribo’s Shoe from Super Mario Brothers 3. For some reason we all loved that character and part of the game. We would pretend to be in Kuribo Shoe when we played!