Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper written & illustrated by Adin Milo
(Berbay Publishing)
“Nestled in a valley of mountains and surrounded by forests, the Terrible Tail Tavern sits along Old King’s Road … in the kingdom of Austerra.” (Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper)
The Last Sipper is the first book in Adin Milo’s ‘Terrible Tails’ graphic novel fantasy series.
Interview with Adin Milo, creator of Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper
Thank you for speaking with Paperbark Words, Adin.
Thanks so much for wanting to do an interview! I really appreciate it!
Where are you based and what is your background in books or art?
I am mainly from an art background, I would say. I got into doing animation for video games at university. Then got into hand drawn animation for some companies. Then I really wanted to tell my own stories, but saw how laborious it was to do that in an animation, so I started to venture into making comics and graphic novels, just for myself.
Which comics or other sources influenced your book?
I purchased Sean Probert’s LIGHTFALL series before a flight back in 2020. I read the whole thing on the plane and fell in love with it. It set the bar for just how beautiful, detailed, and enjoyable a kids’ fantasy graphic novel could (and should) be for me.
For better or worse, since I was a kid, I discovered Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer. The world in those games has pretty much been fused into my DNA, so after reading LIGHTFALL, my soul yearned for me to create a fantasy graphic novel, I guess.
What is the significance of your book and series title?
Terrible Tails as a name functioned in two ways for me. One is that it establishes a Tavern franchise that is always going to appear within every novel. And secondly, it was like a playful tongue and cheek reference to how Looney Tunes is spelled differently to how you think it would be. I always thought that was funny for Warner Bros to do.
The Last Sipper kinda sounds like The Last Supper. I didn’t base the story on anything religious, but I think it does a good job of telegraphing that one of the characters wants his “sipper” and it becomes a matter of biblical proportions.
What is the Terrible Tail Tavern modelled on?
There’s no particular building that comes to mind. It was more about trying to capture that wonky, strange and almost mystical feeling that I thought the main tavern should have.
I love old Germanic, late-medieval half-timbered buildings, particularly the ones that are narrow at the bottom with upper storeys that jut farther and farther out. I’m also a huge fan of German Expressionism, where everything looks slightly crooked and as though the whole building might collapse if you removed a single brick.
Please tell us about your world building.
The first thing that kicked it all off was seeing a reimagined map of Australia as a medieval fantasy-inspired world. That’s where the idea for Austerra came from.
Geographically, I did this exercise where I dropped a bunch of dice onto a big A2 poster, traced around the outside of the shapes they created, and used the different coloured dice to represent different biomes.
I followed Tolkien’s advice. “I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit”. And that’s exactly what I did! It’s after that that I started to see how all the different cities and cultures might behave depending on where they are and who their neighbours are.
Now, one of my favourite exercises is to look at the map while I’m thinking of a story and imagine where it could take place, as well as all the different people who might be involved depending on where I set it.
I usually write all this world building stuff out, but that’s for a hidden vault for my eyes only. No one wants to see how the sausages get made, so they say.
Could you briefly introduce your characters – including how you represent them visually?
In no particular order because they are all special:
Thea – The nimble and dry humoured elf. I knew I always wanted her to have a nice long flowing ponytail. She’s got an eyepatch due to an accident she had when she was much younger – but that’s a story for another time.
Vom – the Pork Brute. He’s huge, hulking, stinky and loves to wear a tiny little helmet made for a goblin. He found it and thought it suited him. Vom was the first character I created for the group. I always loved the look of very retro and old ORCS in fantasy stories, like in the 1970s and 80s.
Bruce – The smooth talking, clumsy and loveable Knight. Bruce wouldn’t be a thing if it wasn’t for Bruce Campbell [American actor and filmmaker]. Everything about Bruce is just Mr Campbell, the square jaw, the dashing good looks, the loveable clumsy fighter. I can just hear his voice saying all the lines whenever I read it back.
Could you explain the dilemma they’re trying to solve – their quest?
Thea and Vom stop in at their favourite tavern while adventuring around Austerra. They are there to order one of Vom’s most cherished drinks, but supplies in the area have been gridlocked by an evil presence that has forced caravanners to abandon their usual route.
When Thea and Vom decide to investigate what is causing the disruption, Bruce overhears them and decides to join. As a Sun Knight, it is his duty to stomp out any evildoing he becomes aware of… or so he thinks!
What are your sources of humour in the book?
I’m a huge fan of The Guardians Of The Galaxy movies. I remember going to the movies and crying with laughter thinking “How can a superhero movie be so action-packed, so interesting and yet so funny all at the same time”. The writing in those movies is genius and I really wanted to try to emulate a bit of that. I’m also a big, big fan, for many years of Michael Cussack’s work, and that funny conversational tone of the animated show Smiling Friends gets me every time. Oh, and Joe Abercrombie’s awesome dry wit. I try to hear Steven Pacey (the narrator who reads the audiobooks of Joe Abercrombie’s work) saying some lines as I write them.
How would you describe your illustrative style?
I also absolutely adore the illustration style of Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania, Animated Clone Wars Series). He took that same old school style inspiration from mid century and made it more modern and a style that is unanimous with Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon to this day.
Basically, lots of straight lines and shapes with a few curves chucked in for good measure. I think I just took what I learned and loved from Tartakovsky and cranked the dial a small percentage more towards a retro mid-century modern inspired illustrator techniques like using aged paper and ink effects on my work.
Why is orange your feature colour?
That kinda washed-out orange / terracotta is my favourite colour! I dunno why but I just love it. But every Terrible Tails book is going to be in a different colour. I’ve already chosen the next colour for Terrible Tails 2 – but that’ll all come out in due time.
How do you enjoy showing action or movement? Or, specifically, going up and down?
They are certainly my favourite pages to draw. I love drawing it once, then again and just pushing it further, then further, then further until its either too much or just right. I learned a lot of that stuff when learning the principles of animation. Stretch Squash etc etc.
Could you tell us about an innovative or expressive illustrative element or feature you’ve used in the book?
The little seed of the idea for Terrible Tails actually came from a little micro-project I created called Tavern Tales. I had this idea of drawing a story like a side-scrolling, old-school video game. I worked on it for a long time, and the idea was that you would swipe across your phone and reveal the next part of the game level.
This was actually the very first idea I had for a kids’ picture book, and it eventually blossomed into the graphic novel that became Terrible Tails. BUT I still wanted to keep this kind of game element in the books, so I had the idea: what if you turn the book on its side and get this nice full-page spread where I frame the scene like a side-scrolling video game? Kind of like how Dav Pilkey has his amazing Flip-O-Rama as a staple of his books, I wanted to have a similar thing. So, in every book, I plan to have one, if not two, side-scrolling pages where you see a character traverse a scene in this fun, gamey, and expressive way.
What is a technical difficulty that you had to overcome while working on the book?
It’s my first graphic novel, so learning the process of how to put in bubbles, where and how to do SFX and font was a big challenge. Lots of trial and error. Sally Varne did absolutely exceptional work and was so patient with me.
It is an achievement but getting all the colour and linework down is kinda the tip of the iceberg, then comes the hours, if not days, of exporting and adjusting everything in photoshop.
One time my iPad crashed mid chapter and it completely deleted my whole chapter 9 of the book after spending about 2 weeks on it. I’ve never felt so instantly sick before, but thanks to the above for Procreate because they received it after I sent them the session.
Why aren’t the pages numbered?
I’m not sure, but I like it. Feels like a vinyl record. No stopping. No skipping. Just pay extra attention, or you’ll struggle to find where you were!
What is the moral of the story?
Without spoiling anything, I think it’s about facing your fears. Also, just because you have a title that says “You’re a king” “You’re a professor” or “you’re the best” that doesn’t really matter. It’s what you do and how you do it that really matters most.
How would you suggest using Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper in schools?
I think big picture (no pun intended), it’s an awesome tool to teach young authors about world building, but also archetypes. Also, how characters can and do have flaws. Especially heroes! And they should have flaws! That’s what makes them human…well not always human, but …you know what I mean.
Could you give us a sneak peek into the next book in the series?
Definitely! I feel like the world kind of writes itself somewhat because I create characters as cameos and then imagine what their story or life was like.
Exactly like what I did for Tumbol and Jerik (the Dwarf and the Bard in the Tavern at the start). I had a great idea for what they get up to whilst The Last Sipper is going on. All to be explored in Terrible Tails Vol 2 – The Snot Snatchers.
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