Inside The Cave With Oliver Bly

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your personal connection to The Mushroom Knight?

The Wissahickon, where the story takes place, and where the fae creatures live, is a 1,800 acre nature preserve that cuts through part of the North-Western region of Philadelphia. It really is a special place, with a particular vibe, and many people use it to get away from some of the abrasiveness of concrete living. It’s immersive, it feels like a fantasy setting, but it is right next door to Philadelphia, which is a hard reality. Two lenses, one pair of glasses.

I was lucky to live close to its perimeter for a few years, during a vulnerable time in my life when I really needed help. And this woodland, for me, was a calm and caring place to reset, to stretch my legs and my imagination and to enjoy peace and solitude. I volunteered there, and I got to meet some incredible people who keep places like this healthy and functional. So I am very thankful for my time there, and in a way this book is a bit of a love letter to the Wissahickon.

Q: What initially got you into comics?

They were gifted to me, I think, as soon as I was reading on my own. That was when comics were still sold in gas stations and grocery stores, and they were significantly cheaper. My parents would sometimes grab a handful of them at the checkout as a treat for when something special happened, or when I was really sick. But since they were grabbed willy-nilly, and the stories were serialized, I had an interesting reading experience. I might have issues 86, 87, 92, and 95 of a single title, but that was it. Just those four. I had to use my imagination to fill in the blanks, and I never had a number 1. This likely influenced the story structure of The Mushroom Knight, which starts en media res, jumping into the characters lives as if they were already existing before you got there.

But I was really enthralled by them. They were often darker and more interesting than kids television at the time, and in spite of being sold in mainstream places like airports and bookstores, they felt underground. A lot of the heroes and titles (outside of the big ones like Superman etc.) hadn’t hit the zeitgeist yet, so when you met them as a kid, they felt like they belonged to you, they were part of your culture. They were mysterious and compelling and if you met another kid who knew them, you had a certain kind of bond. You were both part of a subculture and you shared a specific kind of excitement. I think that is what has kept comics alive over the years, that special feeling, and the fellowship fans have with each other, even when they’re arguing and hurting each other’s feelings, which happens a lot now on the internet.

There were also the newspaper funnies, which I read daily. Newspaper comic strips, Peanuts especially, are a big influence on The Mushroom Knight. You can see it in some of the character designs, but also in some of the gags and panel formatting.

Q: Which character in The Mushroom Knight do you personally connect with the most?

Oh, all of them have a piece of me in there.

When I was younger—maybe Lem. I was shy, overweight, and I struggled with bullies and with being seen and feeling safe. I sat on a lot of my potential and missed out on a lot of experiences because I was afraid and self conscious. When I was in my early 20’s—maybe Gowlitrot. Intellectually based, but naive, and maybe arrogant. Now? Maybe Erdagaude, the cryptic femme fatale who incites Gowlitrot and is at the center of his personal mystery. Or The Chief, Gowlitrot’s boss, who has a lot of things on his plate, and usually needs a nap.