ORSON JAMES and ROMAN CALAIS Reveal a New BAD INFLUENCE

Luis Godoy II is back with another pair of creators; this time it's Orson James and Roman Calais, who have brought Bad Influence to Webtoons. Check it out now, linked here!

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COMIC BOOK YETI: Hi, Orson and Roman, Welcome to the Yeti Cave! I’m going to be honest, I haven’t read many webtoon, infinite scroll-type comics (probably under five in total), so please forgive me if I use some of the wrong terminology for the format. After you graciously offered an advanced read of Bad Influence, a few questions came to mind. In preparation for writing these questions I typically try to do a dive into the creators I’m interviewing to see other interviews or other creations they’ve done to develop some really good questions but I had a hard time finding credits or social media accounts, I probably wasn’t looking in the right places, so can you give the readers some background on what brings you to comics?

ORSON JAMES: Well, that’s because we’re from the future! We write under Orson James and Roman Calais for our writing partnership, so Bad Influence is our debut in that respect. 

ROMAN CALAIS: We came from advertising originally, which teaches you how ideas work – and how they get killed by a thousand cuts. So we started making things on our own. At first, we were just world-building obsessively, designing entire cultures and characters without a real endgame in mind. It was liberating, and exciting because it was all a bit secretive. But that slightly blind creativity gave the writing real depth. Now, I think it has become part of our DNA as writers, where the character journey becomes far more interesting because the world is so fully realized.

ORSON JAMES: I think comics are one of the few mediums where a real purity of thought is possible. You get visual storytelling at its most expressive, complete control of the frame – and no need to sanitize your ideas for a pitch meeting or a huge team of executives. Our artist, Jor Ros, brings a huge influence from manga that gives it movement and rhythm. It’s a great blend.

CBY: What can you tell readers about how you feel about being the debut writers from the brand new collaboration between HiHi Studios (founded by Valkyrae and Kai Gayoso) and Otherly Productions?

ORSON JAMES: It feels great – and honestly, a bit surreal. Anyone who's brought a comic to life knows how hard it can be, especially getting attention at launch. That’s what this partnership helped unlock. There’s pressure, but you have to believe in the thing you've made. At the end of the day, we’re in the hands of comic fans. If they take to it, that’s the engine of success.

ROMAN CALAIS: Bad Influence made sense as a launch title. It’s bold and subversive, set in a pop-drenched dystopia where a rebellious girl takes on a broad-smiling totalitarian empire that looks more like a theme park on the surface. It’s very fun to read, but it has something to say too.

CBY: What type of direction did you receive from HiHi Studios and/or Otherly Productions?

ORSON JAMES: The Otherly ethos is all about creator control and ambitious storytelling – projects that are very broad in scope but also very deep. It often feels like there’s a choice to be made between those two things. We think an all-action ride can be smart and intimate too.

ROMAN CALAIS: Bad Influence was already in development when HiHi came on board, so it was less about originating the vision and more about them backing something they genuinely believed in. What’s cool is that HiHi has a very similar philosophy. They bring a pretty innovative perspective on the shifting media landscape but creatively they’re extremely focused on just bringing great projects to life without getting bogged down in industry stuff. Rae’s whole brand is rooted in being real and trusted by her community. So anything that felt overly manufactured or inauthentic would get sniffed out.

CBY: The setting of Bad Influence could be seen as very prescient, you have a city under surveillance of a charismatic dictator and in the real world companies like Palantir are being hired by the US government to do some surveillance on their own citizens. How weird is it to see life imitate a story you probably wrote months ago?

ORSON JAMES: We talk about politics constantly while writing. These days, reality is often stranger than fiction – so stories have to adjust. One element in Bad Influence is the social credit system in Weisshorn – a way to access higher tiers of life. That was partly inspired by real-world systems in China, but it’s also a tempting proposition when power meets technology.

ROMAN CALAIS: The real theme isn’t just surveillance and control. It’s how control creeps in through the side door – through pleasure and distraction. You're so entertained, so hooked, that you give up freedom voluntarily. That’s the more subtle, insidious threat – and probably the more realistic one.

CBY: Nel, the lead of Bad Influence, seems like a strong female lead. If you were to liken her to another strong female lead, who would you choose and why do you think readers will like Nel?

ORSON JAMES: Nel’s complicated. She’s not a polished hero – she makes mistakes, she lashes out. But she refuses to pretend things are okay when they’re not. That instinct, that refusal to go along with the lie, is what makes her powerful.

ROMAN CALAIS: Furiosa from Mad Max springs to mind for that kind of quiet relentlessness. She’s also skilled and sharp like Asuka from Evangelion or Tatsumaki from One Punch Man – impulsive, fiery, but loyal to the people who matter. And there’s a part of her that reminds me of San from Princess Mononoke. She’s not in it for attention or glory. She’s hunting for the truth – even if it hurts.

CBY: Coming back to the infinite scroll format, I really enjoyed the pacing of the panels. As a creator myself, I could see the benefit of having even more control of how information is conveyed to the readers strictly based on the screen limit. With traditional print comics, as soon as you turn the page, the next two pages are revealed, spoiling some story early as an unintended side effect. If you’ve also done traditional comics, how different is it writing the script for a Webtoon-style comic?

ORSON JAMES: We’ve done some traditional comic work – and the scroll format is honestly kind of freeing. With print, you’re always worrying about page turns, spread layouts, which beat should be the splash. There’s a lot of overthinking.

ROMAN CALAIS: With vertical scroll, surprise becomes a real tool. You control exactly when a moment lands. That precision is huge – it changes the pacing and the way you build tension.

ORSON JAMES: You lose some horizontal space, sure – but the flow is fantastic. We write more scene by scene than panel by panel, and let Jor build the rhythm and energy. He controls how it breathes on the virtual page.

CBY: Thank you to each of you for taking the time to answer these questions, where can people find Bad Influence, the release schedule and where can readers find you on socials if you have them? And do you have any other work you’d like to promote?

ORSON JAMES: Bad Influence is a WEBTOON Original – you can find it exclusively on their app or site. New episodes drop every Thursday starting June 26. Just search “Bad Influence.” Or link from our socials.  The first three episodes are free, and so is every new one as it drops. But if you're enjoying it, you can use Fast Pass to read up to five episodes ahead. That kind of support means a lot.

ROMAN CALAIS:We’re on Instagram, TikTok, just search for @badinfluence_otherly. We’ll be sharing behind-the-scenes peeks, updates, and more as the series unfolds. 

CBY: This was Luis from Comic Book Yeti, signing off with another interview from the Yeti Cave. Be Good, Do Good, and Read Comics!

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