Comics Features

INTERVIEW: Daniel Brodie – Creator of Morgan’s Organs

Do you enjoy movies like Inside Out and Osmosis Jones? Don’t you wish there was a more mature, adult version of these films? You’re in luck. Morgan’s Organs is a fresh new comic that takes place right inside the human body, and A Place to Hang Your Cape has the inside scoop! Head on over to Kickstarter and see how you can contribute to this campaign!

We were also lucky enough to interview Morgan’s Organs’ creator, Daniel Brodie, who shared some light on the project.

 

A Place to Hang Your Cape: How would you best summarize Morgan’s Organs? Like let’s say you were going to pitch it to a movie studio – how would you explain it in one or two sentences?

 

Daniel Brodie: The best way to describe Morgan’s Organs is that it’s Inside Out for grown-ups. Similar to Inside Out, my concept imagines the body as a place where tiny beings live within. Except we’re not dealing with characters who control emotions; we are dealing with a much bigger network of characters who control the various organs of the human body. So Morgan’s Organs sees the body as a sort of office building, with each room representing a specific organ, and each organ-shaped character being responsible for the functioning of that room.

And the inside is only half the story. On the outside, we have Morgan, your average college student, just learning to grow up, which is made that much more difficult when the organ characters in his body all have an influence on his thoughts, wants, urges and actions.

 

AP2HYC: What made you want to create this story?

Brodie: From the moment I thought up the idea, I’ve always been completely allured to the premise. It feels like a completely unique, new perspective on a concept that has been done before. That being, that there is something going on in our bodies. Except I’ve always strongly believed what I am trying to tackle with Morgan’s Organs is much different. By taking a more mature perspective, I am trying to deal with topics and ask questions that have not been explored before. I really don’t view this as me “wanting” to create the story, but rather, me “needing” to create it. If I don’t, I felt one day someone else just might, so I might as well be the one to tell the story.

 

AP2HYC: What was the biggest challenge of creating the story (or completing the project overall)?

Brodie: Simply put, the biggest challenge of my project has been the inner turmoil I have gone through in its development – as a thinker, a writer, and as a person. Firstly, one of the biggest challenges has simply being trying to nail down my vision. There are so many ways the premise can be tackled. Are the organ characters the organs themselves? Can Morgan speak to the characters? Should the characters be able to live in the human world? And being the only person who has been involved in the project from day 1, it has been up to me to decide what execution fits best for crafting stories. My concept really has gone through many revisions to get it to where it is today. I’ve written a few major rewrites of the script, on top of the thousands of minor edits along the way, to get it to the point that I feel confident with the concept and the story.

Writing Morgan’s Organs has challenged me as a writer too. I’ve always considered myself a creative person, and a strong writer, but I never expected that I would try to pursue creative writing as a professional career. Writing this project has really tested my ability to craft narrative, create effective dialogue, and really, to be confident in my ability to be the one to tell this story.

Lastly, this project has challenged me as a person dealing with the ups and downs of following his passion. There have been people who have praised my concept, others who have had constructive criticism I’ve tried to build from, and even some who completely hate what I’m doing. I am ultimately the captain of this ship, and the success or failure of this project falls on my motivation to see it through. There have been times I’ve wanted to quit after receiving rejection, or when I had a huge writer’s block, but I’ve still kept to course and seeing this through no matter what roadblocks I’ve faced.

 

AP2HYC: What’s your favorite part of working on Morgan’s Organs?

Brodie: Definitely crafting the personalities of the organ characters and writing about them! Writing as these characters is just so fun and comes to me so easy. In crafting my organ characters, I really tried to explore what an organ might really think or do as people goes about their daily lives. I tried to answer questions like: “What’s most important to this organ? How does one organ’s wants clash with another’s? How much does an organ’s functions influence its personality?” These questions and more helped me define the personalities of my characters. For example, one of my characters is Andy the appendix operator. Now, we all know appendixes are all but useless in the human body. So from there, I thought, “what would a character who has no functional purpose find important?” And of course, the answer is “find purpose”! So I crafted Andy to be this ultra-intelligent philosophical guy who spends his time trying to consume as much literature as he can in hopes that he can find a higher calling within the body. And what do the others think of him? Well, you’ll just have to wait to read Issue #1 to find out.

Definitely my favourite characters to write for are Andy the appendix, Liv the liver and of course, Pepe the penis. But really, I feel like each of my organ characters is so unique, I love writing as all of them.

 

AP2HYC: Any plans for the future of the story? Sequels, spin-offs, etc.?

I definitely have some huge plans for the future. I already have about 12 future storylines planned, and I have a draft script for Issue #2 in the works. In the long-run, I always envisioned Morgan’s Organs working as an adult comedy show on Adult Swim, but for now, I’m focused to the comic book medium. I also have big plans for how Morgan’s Organs can evolve. So far, we know Morgan has organ characters inside of him, but do other humans do too? And where did these organ beings come from? There is so much opportunity for this concept, and I hope there is an audience who wants to explore this all with me in the long run.

 

AP2HYC: Any artists or comics in particular that inspired you and your work?

Brodie: I think a lot of the inspiration for the art approach I envisioned for Morgan’s Organs has come from my love of animation television shows like Rick & Morty, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, and more. Given the mature subject matter, I really wanted to apply an art style that felt more family friendly, as if to balance the two dualities. My artist, Rob Jennex, really nailed the vision I’ve been going for.

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AP2HYC: Do you ever plan to branch out into more kid-friendly stories with Morgan’s Organs, or is this comic purely for adults?

Brodie: Morgan’s Organs is definitely not a comic book for kids! But on that note, I don’t try to push the subject matter too far into the adult-side either. I think ultimately, I want to challenge certain ideas that the world has always deemed to be too “mature” for a youth audience. Topics related to sex, drugs, alcohol, gender, sexuality, peer pressure, and more are all just part of growing up. And while for now, Morgan’s Organs is targeted to an adult audience, I see no reason why it might not work for kids one day either. Perhaps one day, a spin-off series can exist that explores Morgan in the much earlier years of his life.

Does Morgan’s Organs sound like it could be the comic for you? Don’t forget to check it out on Kickstarter before the campaign is over! Let us know what you think of this project in the comments or on Twitter!

About the author

Alex Reale

From a young age, Alex knew he was destined to be a writer. He also harbored a deep infatuation with superheroes and comics. Luckily, he was able to combine these two passions through his role with A Place to Hang Your Cape, where he works as Junior Sidekick and Social Media Hero.

When he’s not writing for AP2HYC or working full-time as a content manager for a small business website, Alex is diligently at work on other creative projects including a fantasy novel collection and an independent comic series.

You can find Alex's first book, Dodger's Doorway, on Amazon!