The Storybundle Indie Superbundle is beating back supervillains as if the human race depended on them… which they do.
And who better than to discuss the fate of superheroes than Adam Oster, author of The Legend of Buddy Hero.
What made you decided to write in the superhero genre?
I spent my childhood in love of superheroes. I remember reading any single thing I could get my hands on. However, as a kid, I was somehow completely oblivious to the existence of comic books, which meant that I spent my days browsing the library shelves for anything on the subject of superheroes I could find. My first reading of the Death and Return of Superman was the novelization of the series. I made my parents buy me a book called The Gospel According to Superman, a title which aimed at showing the similarities between Jesus and Superman, and read it over and over again, even though it made little sense to me.
Obviously, a whole new world was opened to me when I made it into the doors of my first comic book store.
Yet books like Stephen Gould’s Jumper (much much better than the movie, IMO) and Stephen King’s Firestarter caused me to realize that superhero tales could be so much more than what we saw in the pages of comic books. They could be real. They could be dark. But they could be, ultimately, these deep multi-dimensional characters that aren’t defined purely by one simple character flaw (I’m aware this is an over generalization, but it’s still true of the majority of comic book characters, in the majority of their stories).
And, it just so happened, that as I started getting older, I started realizing there was a story I had to tell, one that just so happened to fit well within the realm of the superheroes. What happens when the good old days are over?
How does your superhero differ from the average fare?
The characters of The Legend of Buddy Hero (or of the greater Defenders Saga series) fit a lot of the moulds you might see in your standard superhero fair. These books work to take the tropes and missteps of the superhero storytelling technique and turn them on their head. Sure, there’s the standard banter between villain and hero, there’s the secret underground lair, and there’s even an abundant use of the word chum, but underneath all that is a much deeper world that I think all readers can enjoy.
Would you like to see your superhero in the hands of Hollywood? If so, what do you think they’d do with it to help sell it to consumers?
I honestly don’t know how Buddy Hero would work in the hands of Hollywood. It has some very cinematic qualities to it, especially when it comes to dialogue, but it’s not as focused on the action as the superhero films of today. I’d love to see Buddy on the big screen, but I’m guessing that there would be some severe changes requested to the source material…I guess it would depend on what those changes are for me to be okay with it.
Tell us something about your book that can’t be found in the blurb, the reviews, or any other description.
The Legend of Buddy Hero is really just the beginning of a much larger story. It’s an origin story, but at the same time, the origin isn’t there at all. The sequel, Rise of the Fat Mogul, starts to delve into the reality that LoBH only begins to hint at. But in the end, it’s a story about learning to accept who you are, as well as learning things about yourself that you never even knew.
Was there a superhero (or supervillain) that inspired you to write your book?
I worked really hard, when initially developing the series, to come up with something that was wholly different than what already existed while also paying homage to the artform’s roots. You’ll see references to characters like Adam West’s Batman, Punisher, Spider-man, The Flash, and many more well-known superheroes. But in the end, the inspiration for the story was more to do with real life people than it was characters already in existence.
About The Legend of Buddy Hero
Buddy Jackson is the world’s greatest superhero. He just doesn’t know it.
He’s unemployed, a drunk, and has a tendency to go weeks without showering; yet Buddy Jackson may be the only person capable of saving the world from total destruction.
Once convinced to leave the comfort of his bar stool, Buddy battles tentacled bug-monsters, finds himself on the run from shadowy government officials, and teams up with a super-powered mafia. This adventure leads him to a final confrontation with his past self’s arch nemesis, the evil minister who goes by the name of Dominion. He is hell-bent on destroying Buddy and the world which loved him. The last time this superhero and supervillain crossed paths, the entire course of history was forever changed.
Buddy is now left with two options, live up to the legend he supposedly created and once again don the bright-green spandex, or allow the damnation of all mankind.
About Adam Oster
Adam Oster hates writing bios. If you ever find him working on an auto-biography, you’ll know he’s finally been taken over by some sort of memoir-loving group of pod people.
That being said…here’s a little bit of information about him.
Originally hailing from Columbia, SC, Adam lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with his gorgeous wife and three adorable kids. He spends a lot of his time trying to figure out what part of this world he’d like to visit next.
When he’s not traveling or writing books, he’s watching his kids and dreaming up further tales of adventure, both for the page and his family.
His favorite activity is to explore, whether it’s his current hometown, or anywhere else he happens to end up. When he’s not exploring, he often finds himself enjoying stories in whatever form he can find them, through television, movies, books, comic books, and video games.
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