Just a few weeks ago, Legendary Comics officially launched a brand-new Kickstarter campaign for their latest project, Monarch: The Lost Adventures, a comic developed in partnership with Rocketship Entertainment. This exciting new title expands the world of the MonsterVerse, offering fans a deeper dive into the lore surrounding the formation of the Monarch along with stories centered on the characters from Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023).

To celebrate the campaign’s launch, we’re thrilled to present an exclusive interview with Robert Napton, Senior Vice President and Publisher at Legendary Comics. Be sure to read the interview below, and don’t forget to visit the official Kickstarter page to learn more and support the release of Monarch: The Lost Adventures.

Chris Mirjahangir: How did this project come about?

Robert Napton: We at Legendary Comics really loved the series. The inspiration for the Lee Shaw character was born from our graphic novel Godzilla Awakening from 2014, so it was natural to want to revisit the world of the television series in a graphic novel.

Mirjahangir: Why go to Kickstarter as opposed to a traditional in store release?

Napton: During the pandemic, Kickstarter became a space where publishers would pre-sell and pre-market their books to the hard core fan and collector. It is a great community and almost every major comic publisher is on Kickstarter now. The book will come out at retail also. It’s not one or the other – but a combination. You can get it early on Kickstarter, with an exclusive version, or wait for the mass market version. It’s up to the consumer.

Mirjahangir: How were the stories created for this set?

Napton: As with all of the graphic novel tie-ins that we publish at Legendary Comics, we work with the creative stakeholders behind the scenes who make the films or series and come up with stories for all of our books. This allows us to come up with stories that are canonical and we try hard not to craft anything that might be contradicted later in live action. In the case of Monarch there were clear areas we wanted to delve into such as Keiko in Axis Mundi or depicting the destruction of the USS LAWTON, which was first mentioned in our movie SKULL ISLAND and expanded upon in MONARCH season one.

Mirjahangir: Will any new monsters be debuting in these stories outside of what’s been shown?

Napton: Not brand new, but the book will showcase some fan favorites like the Ion Dragon and Bramble Boar.

Mirjahangir: Kong is given a bigger role here than in the TV show which was just a brief cameo, what can you say about his new story?

Napton: One of the surprise revelations at the end of season one was the appearance of KONG and an APEX base on Skull Island. We are going to pull back that curtain some more in the graphic novel.

Mirjahangir: How will these stories expand upon the constraints of the show?

Napton: Well, again, we have the benefit of being part of the same company making the series, so the producers and our friends at APPLE TV have been very helpful in helping us find the turf that was safe to explore. So these aren’t just throw away “what if” stories, these are canonical and tie directly to the live action version. As we like to say often, these are the adventures you didn’t see on the screen.