Clash of Clans remains one of the most downloaded mobile games ever since it was released in 2012. Following Supercell's expansion of the Clash universe with Clash Royale, Clash Mini, and Clash Heroes, to name a few, the Finland-based game company is now releasing Books of Clash, an eight-volume graphic novel that brings the quirky, yet chaotic characters of Clash to life.
Clash of Clans is a free-to-play online multiplayer game where players--who serve as the chief--form clans, train their troops, and attack others to earn resources in a fantasy-themed world. Its success has been credited for spurring a revolutionary new era in mobile gaming. Books of Clash graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang told Game ZXC in a recent interview about the new perspective that fans will be introduced to and the overall goal of the upcoming series.
Books of Clash: From Players to Readers
There are over two dozen characters in Clash of Clans alone. The main characters are lumped together in troops including Barbarians, Archers, Goblins, Giants, Wizards, Hog Riders, Valkyries, and more. Each character has a specific role, strength, and weakness, and using any of them involves a specific strategy whether it be to defend the town or raid someone else's land. But aside from that, there's not much else to them. None of the clan members have their own name or differing characteristics, not even the player has a distinction to the village--they're just referred to as chief. And this is where Books of Clash comes to use, according to Yang, who said that fans will be taken from a player's view to a reader's view who can now get to know the characters as individuals.
The game is made up of these groups of troops and every group, they all look the same... So when you're playing it, you're kind of like looking at this world from a God's eye view.
You don't see the characters as individuals. You see them as groups. It's hard to tell a story about a group of characters. Stories are generally about individuals. They're about the interior lives of characters. What we want to do with this first volume especially is we actually want to move people from the player's eye view down to the reader's eye view, so you get to know individual characters.
The main character of the first book follows Hog Rider member Terrodicus, or Terry for short, and his beloved hog, Pim Pim. Yang said that the dialogue between the two is a "window into these interior lives of these two characters" and Pim Pim functions as Terry's Jiminy Cricket, a reference to the cricket who served as Pinocchio's conscious. As the journey progresses in the graphic novel, Terry encounters other characters and, after getting to know them, he starts to see them as individuals (like the reader). But it isn't all easygoing in the book, as Terry is faced with conflict with his older brother, and leader of the Hog Riders, Rokkus.
For this first volume, I wanted to explore the sibling relationship. Part of that was inspired by my own kids, who actually played the video game. They get along great now, but my son and my daughter, when they were younger, they didn't get along as well. Clash was one of the few ways that they actually interacted well together. I've made a sibling relationship kind of the center of this first story. It's the story of Terry and his older brother, Rokkus, and [Terry] feels like he's always in his older brother's shadow and how he gets out of that shadow eventually.
Bridging Gamers And Readers with Books of Clash
Yang is no stranger to the graphic novel industry. In 2006, he published American Born Chinese with First Second Publishing which explores a young immigrant who struggles with his Chinese-American identity; Disney Plus is releasing a television adaption of the book on May 24 and Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan will star in it. In 2012, Yang wrote the first five graphic novel trilogies based on hit-show Avatar: The Last Airbender. In 2016, he wrote a Chinese character in New Super-Man and returned for the limited series Superman Smashes the Klan. And after all of these experiences, Yang said that writing a book that's tied to a video game has been his dream because it's "a way of bringing more readers into comics," adding that this desire stems from being Asian-American.
For me, going from home to school did feel like going from one community to another. It felt like I had one name at home, another one at school. I spoke one language at home, another one at school. I lived with one set of cultural expectations at home and another set at school. The act of going from one spot to the other felt like a bridge. Like I had to be a bridge just to survive. That idea kind of informs everything I do, including Clash of Clans .
A graphic novel for longtime fans of Clash of Clans and Clash Royale may be what they need in order to refresh their love for the series as well as see the games in a new light. Books of Clash could also be a way to draw in some new fans who may have some interest in gaming and want to see the illustrated characters that they've grown attached to in action. The book is also written in a way that could be appreciated across all ages thanks to its sprinkles of humor and overall message on individualization and a sense of belonging.
Books of Clash's first volume releases on May 30.