Fair Fight Comics Travels through Space and Time

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Tyree Pope

Tyree Pope

Tyree Pope is the creator of Fair Fight Comics, a comic book and animation series about three heroes named Ultra, Lennox and Human on an intergalactic journey to escape being used as tools of war by a hostile alien race known as the Bilnon; along the way they battle bounty hunters, come up with plans, and travel through time and space. The series launched on March 25, 2021 with both volume one and an animation pilot; volume two was just released a few weeks ago on July 7.

Pope has been working on the series for quite some time. “I started writing it in 2015 back when I was a sophomore in college sitting in the cafeteria,” he explained. “I sat on it for a bit, and then in the summer of 2016 I wrote about four books, and then sat on it again. I always thought of doing it as an animation; that was my goal for it.”

When the pandemic hit, Pope thought about how he could make his vision come to life without spending a ton of money. When his friend suggested he make Fair Fight into a comic book first, Pope found an illustrator and printing company and got to work while also boosted by the Carvd N Stone Creative Scholarship he was awarded. “It all came about from wanting to do something artistic while not having to be around people (laughs).”

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Fair Fight Comics

Fair Fight Comics

Pope cites Milestone Comics and Rick and Morty as major artistic influences on the series. “It’s more of an adult humor type comic,” he described Fair Fight. “As a 19-year-old in 2016 I wanted to make people laugh but also wanted some action. You can see that Rick and Morty type relationship between Human and Ultra and Lennox, like where there’s an all-knowing big brother character and then there’s the two dummies.”

Writing a comic book can take Pope a day or it can take him six months, while illustration typically takes about a year. He has three other books in the works including ones outside the main Fair Fight series that feed into the same universe, not unlike the way Marvel series such as The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy are written. Pope’s goal is to eventually build an entire world of characters and stories through his comic books and animations.

“The name came from the idea of these characters turning the table on the aliens and making it a fair fight,” Pope explained. “They’re freeing themselves from the brainwashing and imprisonment, then going across the galaxy and doing the same with other planets. In the end, when they do have that last encounter with the Bilnon aliens, they’re able to overpower them and free their people after having a fair fight.”

Pope recently attended FAN EXPO Chicago and promoted Fair Fight Comics there, selling about 70 books. “It got a really good reception,” he recalled. “I was playing the animation on the TV to get peoples’ attention and a lot of people told me that they loved it. It’s one thing to be in your hometown and do something that people like, but it’s really something else to go out of your comfort zone and have people say they like it.”

Additionally, Pope has started a program that teaches kids how to write and create their own comic books. “I’m seeing potential in a lot of kids that are worlds ahead from where they think they are,” Pope reflected. “I was astonished by some of them. Like, they’re more organized than I am (laughs). I only taught them to write a one-page story, and one kid wrote a 30 page pilot! And not every kid knows how to draw but they can still find the concept and find the best ways to describe the characters. Their pitch deck was so magnificent. When you invest in the youth, you have a bunch of kids that believe they can do what they want to do, which changes everything around them.”

Pope hopes to continue attending as many expos and conventions as possible to share Fair Fight Comics with folks. Visit the website here.