Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Supreme Villainy
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Asheville
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.cbr.com/supreme-villainy-interview-matt-d-wilson-king-oblivion-phd/ *
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2011078276
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Wilson, Matt D.
See also: Oblivion, King (Fictitious character)
Profession or occupation:
Author
Found in: The supervillain handbook, c2012: ECIP t.p. (Matt D.
Wilson)
Huffington Post, May 5, 2012: The 11 best supervillian
superpowers (Matt D. Wilson; alter-ego King Oblivion,
Ph.D.)
Associated language:
eng
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Wake Forest University, B.A., 2004; University of Maryland, College Park, M.A., 2008.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Reporter, humor writer, concept artist, illustrator, art director, and game designer. Alderac Entertainment Group, artist and art director, 1995; Wizards of the Coast and FASA, artist; Privateer Press, founder, owner, and CEO, 2000-; Chattanooga Times Free Press, reporter, 2006-10; Ragan Communications, reporter and editor, 2010-15; IBM, project manager and social writer, 2015-.
WRITINGS
Contributor of humor fiction to various websites and digital comics, including McSweeneys.net, Cracked.com, ToplessRobot.com, NationalLampoon.com, and Copernicus Jones: Robot Detective. Coathor of Write More Good: An Absolutely Phony Guide.
SIDELIGHTS
Humor writer, concept artist, illustrator, and game designer Matt D. Wilson is coauthor of several supervillain handbooks with his alter ego, supervillain King Oblivion, Ph.D. Wilson works in comics, tabletop game design, and art direction. He founded tabletop game company Privateer Press and also writes for humor websites such as McSweeneys.net, Cracked.com, ToplessRobot.com, and NationalLampoon.com, as well as for the digital comic book Copernicus Jones: Robot Detective. Wilson helps run the unconventional FaceAPStylebook Twitter account and cowrote the accompanying book Write More Good: An Absolutely Phony Guide.
Wilson published his first book in 2012, The Supervillain Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide to Destruction and Mayhem. Written with King Oblivion, a doctor of Nefarious Sciences from Ocean Trench Fortress University and CEO of the International Society of Supervillains based in the earth’s mantle, the book offers tips on how to become a successful supervillain. Wilson explains how to choose an evil name, find the perfect lair, dress in capes and scary boots, create plots for revenge, and engage in elaborate plans for world domination. Of course, supervillains are only as good as their superhero foes. Wilson followed up with the 2013 The Supervillain Field Manual: How to Conquer (Super) Friends and Incinerate People, which continues the instruction on how to be a supervillain. This book explains how to find and control minions, handle hostages, deal with celebrity, upgrade your lair, fine-tune your laser death ray, and exact revenge on enemies.
In an interview with Steve Morris online at Comics Beat, Wilson explained why he thinks villains are so much fun to read about: “Their incredible egotism in the face of near-certain, constant defeat for one. They just have this beautiful lack of self-awareness.” Wilson added villains’ theatricality. “Regular crimes are often mundane and sad, but super-crime is all about achieving ridiculously huge goals by the most circuitous and unnecessarily complex means,” said Wilson.
Next is Wilson’s 2017 Supreme Villainy: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Most (In)Famous Supervillain Memoir Never Published. After King Oblivion’s untimely death, Wilson scoured his journal, e-mail correspondence, and documents containing threats for world domination to present the manifesto of the supervillain who was responsible for such things as the Nixon presidency and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Wilson explains how King Oblivion was an orphan who trained and was educated to rule the world. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that the tongue-in-cheek faux memoir is a little too self-aware for its own good. The critic called it clever and irreverent but noted that “the sly humor sometimes works against itself” and includes “oft forced humor about an unreliable, unsympathetic narrator.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 24, 2017, review of Supreme Villainy, p. 73.
ONLINE
Comics Beat, http://www.comicsbeat.com/ (July 15, 2013), Steve Morris, “Matt D. Wilson’s Second Guide for World Domination,” author interview.
Huffington Post, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/, (January 1, 2018), author profile.
Matt Wilson LinkedIn Page, https://www.linkedin.com (January 24, 2018).
Matt Wilson Website, http://mattwilsonart.com/ (January 1, 2017), author profile.
World-builder and storyteller, Matthew D. Wilson has worked in comics and the tabletop game industry since 1993, as a writer, concept artist, illustrator, art director and game designer. He has worked for several game companies as an art director and world builder, including Hasbro's Wizard of the Coast on such brands as Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. Matt founded his tabletop game company, Privateer Press, Inc., in 2000 as an avenue to tell stories and create expressions of his own original property concepts.
Since that time, Matt has created multiple worlds, designed several games and produced almost a decade’s worth of successful products, including the award winning WARMACHINE and HORDES miniatures games, the Iron Kingdoms RPG setting, and the latest Collectible Miniatures Game sensation, Monsterpocalypse. Matt has gathered six of the game industry’s esteemed Origin awards and numerous other accolades for the products produced by Privateer Press. Today, he is Privateer’s owner and Chief Creative Officer, overseeing the creative development of every aspect of the company, from game development to miniatures design to marketing.
Most recently, Matt has charted a new course for his creative efforts in the world of show business. Having guided creative productions for over 15 years, Matt is excited and equipped to achieve his lifelong goal of bringing his vision and storytelling to motion pictures.
Matt D. Wilson was imprisoned and brainwashed by King Oblivion Ph.D. to ghostwrite the new book, The Supervillain Handbook. He has written humor for websites including McSweeneys.net, Cracked.com, NationalLampoon.com, and ToplessRobot.com, and cohosts ComicsAlliance.com's podcast, War Rocket Ajax. He is also one of the Bureau Chiefs who run the FaceAPStylebook Twitter account, and cowrote the accompanying book, Write More Good.
Matt Wilson
Nationality American
Known for Fantasy art
Website www.mattwilsonart.com
Matthew D. "Matt" Wilson is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. He is one of the founders, the owner, and the CEO of Privateer Press.
Career
Matt Wilson got his start in the role-playing game industry with Alderac Entertainment Group around 1995, and worked there as an artist and art director before doing art direction for Wizards of the Coast and FASA. Wilson formed Privateer Press with friend Brian Snoddy and writer Matt Staroscik to publish their own d20 books. Wilson and Snoddy produced the covers and interior art for Privateer's first adventures published in 2001.[1]
His artwork for D&D has been featured in A Darkness Gathering (1998), Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001), Faiths and Pantheons (2002), and Unapproachable East (2003).
References
Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 392. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
INTERVIEW: Matt D. Wilson’s Second Guide for World Domination
07/15/2013 3:00 pm by Steve Morris
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With the launch of The Supervillain Field Manual this month, Matt D. Wilson has now provided the world with two sets of notes for supervillains looking to take over the world, conquer any hero who gets in the way, and earn the respect of a petrified general public. The book, written through the voice of Wilson’s villainous pseudonym King Oblivion, bills itself as a guide for supervillains looking to make their way up the chain. It’s also very funny.
As this is his second book in a row offering such advice, I felt it high time to have a chat with Wilson about the books, how they came about…. and if they aren’t all just a coded way for him to announce his deep-rooted inclination to one day rule the world himself?
mw1
Steve: This is your second book, following last year’s The Supervillain Handbook. What is it about villains which makes them so much fun to read about, do you think?
Matt: It’s a few things. Their incredible egotism in the face of near-certain, constant defeat for one. They just have this beautiful lack of self-awareness (though King Oblivion Ph.D. tends to have a little more than most).
Another part of it – and I harp on this a lot, but it’s important – is theatricality. Regular crimes are often mundane and sad, but super-crime is all about achieving ridiculously huge goals by the most circuitous and unnecessarily complex means. Taking control of a city by turning all the concrete and asphalt into glue or something like that, then talking for half an hour about what a genius you are for coming up with this ludicrous plan. There’s almost this unwritten rule (until I wrote it anyway) to not just achieve your lofty criminal goals, but make it entertaining, too.
Steve: How did you first plan out the style of the book – which is essentially a how-to guide for supervillains?
Matt: The character came first. I’ve been writing as King Oblivion for something like six years now. I had a comedy website for a while where I wanted to write under a name that wasn’t my own – didn’t want to lose my newspaper job at the time – and that could take shots at cultural targets. Eventually, I realized I had a lot to say as this guy, and it was mostly about supervillainy as a field. It was his area of expertise, so it’d make sense that’d be the book he’d write, even though he may have…ulterior motives.
Steve: How did King Oblivion move from being a pseudonym-of-sorts to becoming a character of his own? Do you think he still retains any of your own personality at this point (for better or worse)?
Matt: Oh, he’s mostly me, just amplified a whole lot. The voice is really easy to fall into.
Basically, I just take all my comedic influences, particularly the sarcastic or sardonic ones like David Letterman and The Simpsons, add in a ton of ego and subtract all the morality or empathy. That’s him, pretty much. That plus a ton of possibly made-up stories about the last 100 years of supervillainy. He’s not a very reliable narrator.
Steve: Were there any particular villains you had in mind when building up the King Oblivion character?
Matt: Dr. Doom more than anyone. You may have noticed by virtue of the fact that he’s the monarch of a made-up country, wears a mask, has a doctorate and loves to make big, all-caps pronouncements at times. There are some differences, though. He’s got that biting sarcasm. He’s a huckster, too. He loves playing mind games. Almost like a Riddler or someone like that.
Steve: Do you ever have to stop and cancel a grandstanding monologue from the character, before he goes ‘too big’ – or do you let yourself run free with the role? Can he keep topping himself?
Matt: I don’t think you can ever really go too big with him, but I also think there’s an element to him where some of that stuff is an act. He’s doing theatre. If he’s to be believed, all supervillains are.
mw2
Steve: You’re joined on the book, as with the first, by illustrator Adam Wallenta. What does he bring to the book, as an artist? Has his work helped influence the way you see the world of King Oblivion?
Matt: When we were pulling together the art for the Supervillain Handbook, I came up with this pretty nutty idea to tell a whole side-story in the illustrations, about this character named Max Badguy. He would go from fast-food-employee slob up to supervillain through the illustrations. Adam got what I was trying to do right away, and really told the story of Max Badguy in just a handful of images. It blew me away.
His vision of the world lined right up with mine. There’s an illustration in the Field Manual, in the “accusations” chapter, where a bunch of detached arms are pointing upward toward Max Badguy. It’s hilarious. I initially pitched that illustration to him as “a bunch of disembodied hands pointing toward” him. I meant their bodies wouldn’t be visible; he made them actual, severed arms. It was genius. He does exactly what I hoped for – his style is realistic and cartoonish at the same time. That’s what King Oblivion is, too.
Steve: Was it difficult to pitch the first book to publishers, or did you find that – with comics entering the mainstream more and more – they were actively looking for superhero-themed content?
Matt: I think it took a while for them to catch up to me. I actually wrote the first book several years ago and shopped it around to agents. Nobody bit. It took a serendipitous meeting with another Skyhorse writer, Scott Kenemore, who specializes in zombie stuff, to really get anyone to pay attention. That was two years later. Once Skyhorse knew of the book, they jumped on it. I got an approval email like a week after sending the manuscript. I think they were ready for me then.
Steve: With the success of the first book, how did you decide on the direction for this sequel? Do you have any plans for a third, if possible?
Matt: It was a discussion between me and my editor. I knew I wanted there to be an element of dealing with the media and building a public image in this one, but that’s not where the real action is. They suggested adding in more about the actual action on the ground – taking over cities and stuff. Now, I’m really glad all those topics are covered. It’s pretty thorough.
Steve: A surprising number of comic critics are involved in comedy – yourself and Chris Sims both first wrote for Cracked, and Brett White’s a member of Upright Citizen’s Brigade, for three examples. Do you think there’s a connection between comedy and capes?
Matt: I think you need a sense of humor, or at least a healthy sense of the absurd, to devote a lot of your time to reading these weird, floppy books about people in tight costumes, some of which look like American flags, punching each other on the moon. Not that those things can’t be capital-S Serious literature, but it’s a pretty absurd concept when you think about it. And I have spent, if you added it all up, probably years of my life on that stuff. Not that I regret it. Maybe “Rising Stars,” but not much else.
The other thing is, when you write about something, anything at all, for a living, the best way to get noticed is to do it with a voice. It needs to come across with personality. One of the easiest ways to to that is to have a comedic voice. It makes it distinctive.
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Steve: On that note, I of course have to mention that you are a writer for the once-gone-newly-reborn Comics Alliance. When it looked like AOL were taking the site away, it felt like a steady blow for comics journalism/commentary as a whole. Being on the ground floor, so to speak, what were your thoughts at the time?
Matt: I was bummed out. It didn’t hit me as hard as it did the editors. I was (and am) a freelancer. That was their jobs. So I was way more upset for them than myself. But for comics in general, as a community, I did think it was a pretty big blow. I’m not going to talk up my contributions to the online comics dialectic or anything like that, but a lot of the writers there did some really thought-provoking and important writing. I mostly made fun of “Arrow.”
I’m glad it’s back, mostly because I get to read things by my colleagues again, and somewhat selfishly, because eventually I may get to make fun of “Arrow” again.
Steve: Did losing the job at CA and then regaining it put things into focus for you, at all, in terms of what you were writing and why? You now seem to split your time evenly between your own projects – like the podcasts War Rocket Ajax and Movie Fighters – and writing for sites like MTV or Comics Alliance.
Matt: I definitely learned putting my eggs all in one basket can be the cause of great calamity, but most of that stuff happened by accident. We started Movie Fighters – our one-dollar podcast version of the movie reviews we used to do at ComicsAlliance – because we thought CA wasn’t coming back. That’s the same reason I jumped over to MTV Geek. Those things probably wouldn’t have happened had CA not gone away or we knew it would return. But now I have those venues and I’m glad to have them.
Steve: What other projects do you have in the works at the moment? Where else can we find you online?
Matt: I’ve got a couple comics projects in the works, neither of which I can really talk about in specific terms right now, but one of which is definitely happening. Chris Sims and I still do War Rocket Ajax, our free comics and pop-culture podcast every week. I waste a lot of time telling jokes on Twitter. And I relaunched the old King Oblivion, Ph.D.-helmed comedy site, The International Society of Supervillains, as a Tumblr. That’s probably enough stuff to send people to.
Steve: One last question, unrelated to anything else – can’t we all agree that Generation X is the best X-Men film to date?
Matt: That depends on whether you consider the two-part pilot of “Mutant X” to be a film, Steve. I’m not sure we’ll all ever agree on even that.
Matthew D. Wilson - Chief Creative Officer
Matt Wilson has worked in the hobby game industry since 1995 as a concept artist, illustrator, art director and game designer and has even managed to get a little writing done in there as well. After working for several game companies, from the smallest startup to the largest corporation, Matt founded Privateer Press in 2000 as an opportunity to create expressions of his own original property concepts.
Since that time, Matt has created multiple worlds, designed several games and produced almost a decade’s worth of successful products, including the award winning WARMACHINE and HORDES miniatures games, the Iron Kingdoms RPG setting, and the latest Collectible Miniatures Game sensation, Monsterpocalypse. Matt has gathered six of the industry’s esteemed Origin awards and numerous other accolades for the products produced by Privateer Press. Today, he is Privateer’s owner and Chief Creative Officer, overseeing the creative development of every aspect of the company, from game development to miniatures design to marketing.
King Oblivion Ph.D Unleashes Supreme Villainy in New Memoir
06.06.2017
by Steve Morris in Comic News Comment
King Oblivion Ph.D Unleashes Supreme Villainy in New Memoir
They say that history is written by the winners, and that’s certainly the case for the supervillain known as “King Oblivion Ph.D,” whose reign over the world lasted for decades and saw him responsible for some of the most heinous acts in history. Previously, his long list of tyrannous deeds — which included stealing Japan, greenlighting Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and helping Nixon get elected — were one of the great lost secrets of the modern age. Truly, his history is terrifying and dastardly one.
In reality, King Oblivion Ph.D is the creation of writer Matt D. Wilson, who has spent the last few years detailing the life of his fictional supervillain through a series of books. Supreme Villainy is billed as being a “memoir” of sorts for the character, retelling various stories about the various misdeeds he got up to before his timely demise.
On sale now through Talos Press, Wilson spoke to CBR about how the character first came to life, his fictional biography and the various villainous vexations which readers can enjoy reading throughout the new book.
CBR: Who is King Oblivion Ph.D? And what’s his doctorate?
Matt D. Wilson: King Oblivion is the founder of the International Society of Supervillains, the world’s largest, most dastardly and, according to him, only supervillain organization. Actually, I guess he’d be considered the co-founder, but he’d prefer that people didn’t know that part.
His doctorate is in nefariology from Ocean Trench Fortress University. He got it by writing a dissertation about splitting New Zealand in half using magnets.
You know, when you write this stuff out, outside of the context of a memoir, it sounds a little silly.
When did you first come up with the character, and what gave you the idea to translate him across into his own series of books?
It’s a little bit of a weird story. Back in 2007 or so, I was trying to make a go of writing comedy in a freelance capacity, but I also was a working reporter at a newspaper. I didn’t want my name to appear on some of the stuff I was writing on the website I was starting up, not because I was ashamed of it, but because I was writing some political humor and other stuff I didn’t think my bosses would love to see my name attached to. So I decided to call the website “The International Society of Supervillains,” and thought up the name “King Oblivion Ph.D.”
Over time, I got more and more invested in that character’s voice, and I decided — with no idea it’d be published — to write a book as the character. I felt like I just had a lot to say as him. And apparently I did.
King Oblivion has released two books before, but what can we expect from his third?
The first two are both how-tos, and as such they’re what I call joke delivery systems. This one is more or less a novel. As I mentioned, it’s King Oblivion’s memoir, so it’s him (and his ghostwriters) telling his life story, from beginning to end. And there are some pretty distinct arcs of his life. There’s way, way more story in this one than in the other books. But there are also jokes. Don’t you worry about that.
It seems he was behind several of the more sinister events of the last century. Are there any stories in this collection you’re particularly fond of?
The part where he gets involved in the Woodstock festival was very fun to write. I don’t want to give it away, though, so I’ll leave it at that…
The future for King Oblivion himself seems to be sealed… or is it? What are your plans for the future?
Well, King Oblivion’s dead, so… all roads lead to this being his last hurrah.
Art by Rodrigo Vargas and Joe Hunter
I know you had a Kickstarter recently, as well, which made its goal in April — can you tell us a little more about that, and how it came together?
Sure! It’s for a comic miniseries called Everything Will Be Okay, and it has an amazing team — Rodrigo Vargas on art, Joe Hunter on colors and Josh Krach on letters. The basic idea of it is, “What if every single disaster happened all at once?” It follows a sister and brother as they trudge through all of that, escape Earth and get into even more difficulty after that.
It’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for a few years now. I’m terrified of all these things I can’t control, and I eat up a lot of my brain power worrying about them. But like, if it all broke loose one day, what could I do about it? Thoughts like that are what really got the ball rolling on it.
About
Suggest Edits
CONTACT INFO
the.mwb@gmail.com
http://www.mattdwilson.net
@TheMattDWilson
MORE INFO
About
Author of SUPREME VILLAINY, THE SUPERVILLAIN HANDBOOK, and THE SUPERVILLAIN FIELD MANUAL, and writer of comics including COPERNICUS JONES: ROBOT DETECTIVE.
Biography
Matt D. Wilson has been writing humor for over a decade, for websites including McSweeneys.net, Cracked.com, NationalLampoon.com, and ToplessRobot.com. He also writes the ongoing digital comic Copernicus Jones, Robot Detective. He co-hosts War Rocket Ajax, a podcast about pop culture and comics, and Movie Fighters, a film podcast. He's a member of the Bureau Chiefs, the group behind the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter account. He's a resident of North Carolina.
TitleSupreme Villainy
SubtitleA Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Most (In)Famous Supervillain Memoir Never Published
AuthorBy King Oblivion, Edited by Matt D. Wilson
PublisherSkyhorse Publishing
ImprintTalos
Published13 June 2017
FormatPaperback
ISBN-139781940456805
Pages344
Dimensions6.00 x 9.00in.
About the author
King Oblivion, Ph.D., earned a doctorate in the Nefarious Sciences from Ocean Trench Fortress University. Until his untimely passing, he was the CEO of the International Society of Supervillains, ruling from his giant lair in the Earth’s mantle.
Matt D. Wilson is a former reporter and has also been writing humor for over a decade for sites including McSweeneys.net, Cracked.com, and NationalLampoon.com. He also writes the ongoing digital comic Copernicus Jones: Robot Detective. In addition, Wilson co-hosts the podcasts War Rocket Ajax and Movie Fighters, contributes to the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter account, and co-authored the acclaimed manuals on evil, The Supervillain Handbook and The Supervillain Field Manual with King Oblivion, PH.D.
Supreme Villainy
264.17 (Apr. 24, 2017): p73.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Supreme Villainy
Matt D. Wilson. Talos, $14.99 trade paper
(240p) ISBN 978-1-940456-80-5
In this tongue-in-cheek faux memoir, legendary supervillain King Oblivion, Ph.D., recounts his century-long life of evil and mayhem from his not-so-humble birth through his fifth (and most recent) death, growing from orphaned pawn to educated menace to towering figure in the supervillain profession. Comedy writer and authorial self-insert Wilson (The Supervillain Handbook) pieces together the contradictions, lies, and self-aggrandizing braggadocio to paint a picture of a villain who never fails except on purpose, and whose setbacks are all according to plan. However, the sly humor sometimes works against itself: ghostwritten chapters told in different styles by kidnapped writers include numerous edits in the margins by Oblivion himself, which verge on the I distracting, and it's often tempting to skim through the vocational quizzes and essays. Wilson's irreverent take on comic book tropes is caught between parody ' and satire--side characters include Mr. Wonderful and the Bioluminescent Brawler--and a little too self-aware for its own good, resulting in a clever story with oft forced humor about an unreliable, unsympathetic narrator who will undoubtedly incinerate this reviewer in due time. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Supreme Villainy." Publishers Weekly, 24 Apr. 2017, p. 73. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491250829/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1db3961b. Accessed 25 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491250829