By Patrick Lugo
Ask anyone who’s created them, and they’ll tell you, comics have always taken a long time to create. But martial arts’ longest running comic strip Tiger’s Tale has always been a bit different than the typical comic. As its creator I’m admittedly biased, but I can explain; I’ll even offer an example. Despite having spent whole decades out-of-print, the comic strip Tiger’s Tale can still boast that it is the only comic to have consistently run in a newsstand martial arts magazine for over four years.
Print magazines are now rare and magazine newsstands are even more so, today it’s a feat to even publish four issues of a magazine. The whole print eco-system has changed over the past few decades with crowdfunding and print-on-demand replacing print advertising. This is true for magazines as well as comics, both markets and industries experienced wild shifts during this time. Our whole media landscape is different now than it was when Tiger’s Tale first saw print in the premiere issue of World of Martial Arts magazine in 1996 (still available).
Up until that time, TC Media International had been rotating through a roster of three martial arts magazine titles; Dojo, Dojang and Wushu Kung Fu or Wushu Kung Fu Qigong or Kung Fu Qigong. We ultimately settled on Kung Fu Tai Chi for the print magazine. In 1996, the decision being made was to consolidate Dojo and Dojang into a magazine titled World of Martial Arts and alternate publishing that title with the Kung Fu magazine. Included in the new format and content changes (more color pages were being added to the mostly B&W magazine - plus we were experimenting with Center Pull-Out Posters) was my pitch for a single “back-page” comic.
“We could answer reader questions. You know, for the kids.”
It turned out the comic was a hit and readers jumped at the opportunity to write in about it. The influx of reader mail surprised and delighted decision makers who asked that the character from the comic be used to encourage subscriptions. Soon after, an additional page would be allocated specifically for reader replies. It would take some time & planning to produce a single episode in reply to a question so that additional page was immediately put to use answering additional questions and gradually evolving into a sort of martial advice column and platform for random musings. That additional page would give way to comics every so often, sometimes an episode would grow to take up a third page. The comic’s ongoing success would lead to a variety of initiatives, which included apparel, in-person appearances and even a ten page special with pull-out center-poster. The comic continued to be printed in the pages of Kung Fu Qigong until the October 2000 issue.
“Tiger’s Tale began at Kung Fu Tai Chi prior to my watch. By 1999, when I went full-time there, Patrick’s comic had already been going for three years. Subsequently, I had the unique opportunity to watch it grow over the years.
Having a comic in a martial arts magazine might seem incongruous, but there were many others. The martial arts economy is driven largely by kids, so every martial arts magazine attempted to add comics to their pages at some point. All the major newsstand martial arts mags tried. Black Belt and Inside Kung-Fu both ran comics for a short stint. There were even magazines specifically designed to target kids that contained comics. They all failed, usually within a few issues. Tiger’s Tale remains the longest running comic strip ever published in a newsstand martial arts magazine. That’s another point of pride for Kung Fu Tai Chi.
I think Tiger’s Tale survived because Patrick had no motive beyond expressing his art. He wasn’t trying to sell something (despite me nagging him to do so from that over-the-shoulder backseat position), nor did he have an agenda. The comics within the other martial arts magazines felt contrived, designed to fill a perceived market. Patrick drew from the heart. He wasn’t trying to talk down to kids or sling glitter nunchucks. He was just telling a story that infused details and observations from his unique position at Kung Fu Tai Chi into Tiger’s Tale.”
–– Gene Ching, publisher of Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine & KungFuMagazine.com
The Comic
The pitch for what would become Tiger’s Tale was a simple twist on Rupert Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Rather than a single baby raised by the creatures of the jungle, it would be twins; one representing Yin, the other Yang. Together they would wander into a martial arts scenario to explain or explore that episode’s topic. In this way episodes spanned from the founding of Shaolin temple to witnessing history’s first recorded act of Seppuku. Their origin read like this –
“Amidst a time of heroes and sages, twin brothers were born with a unique destiny. Orphaned while still infants their destiny would have gone unrealized had it not been for the wisdom of one lone tigress. Raising them both as a part of her own litter, they quickly grew both wise and strong. With the entire jungle as their teacher they learned many things. Secrets from around the world were whispered by winds and rivers, every animal called them friend. Time pasted and as boys grew to men they left the jungle and ventured out to bring this knowledge to the world.”
While our publisher of that time - Gigi Oh (now Publisher Emeritus) grew up reading wuxia, editorial was still relatively unfamiliar with American comics. As a safety measure I was assigned a freelance writer to work with. The comic was assigned a writer who’d regularly contributed historic pieces and purported to be a historian and assisted on the scripting for those early text-heavy episodes.
Unlike the typical comic which was traditionally illustrated a single page at a time, Tiger’s Tale was illustrated panel-by-panel. Individual drawings done in ink on paper would be digitized then assembled on the magazine page using layout software. The early episodes strived to accomplish three goals; answer a reader’s question, be amusing and focus on a theme selected to support other content choices in the magazine. When a master of monkey style Kung Fu was featured on the magazine’s cover that Tiger’s Tale episode would cover the style’s creation myth. As the series evolved this approach gradually allowed for more digital effects to be incorporated into the art. It wasn’t long before the volume of reader questions earned a dedicated letters page. This left more room in the comic for depicting martial arts myth and lore through more subtle world-building and storytelling.
By the end of the comic’s second year, ongoing interest led to a multi-page special. The story would have 10 pages and a pull-out-center-poster. This comic-special would be included in the December 1997 issue of World of Martial Arts. That issue almost featured the comic on its cover, the publishers had previously experimented with illustrated covers and would do so again, but this cover was used to feature the (then) new Mortal Kombat 2. In support of the publisher’s first foray into mainstream media the Tiger’s Tale special focus on Kung Fu’s most iconic animals; the Tiger and the Dragon.
Perhaps it was access to all the Mortal Kombat media assets that inspired the choice of Dragon, maybe it was luck. Decades later there is a new Mortal Kombat 2 movie coming to theaters and a new art book published Mortal Kombat Flawless Victory: A Visual History of the Iconic Series. It's a sumptuous celebration of that iconic video game’s 36 year history. I can say this with certainty as the lucky recipient of a review copy. But maybe there’s some Dragon field luck at play here as that ten page story which appeared alongside the Mortal Kombat feature laid out the theme and storyline for what would become A Tiger’s Tale volume 1 (2022) and volume 2 (2024).
Courtships and Controversies
One of the surest signs of Tiger’s Tale’s ongoing success came in the form of interest from legendary character actor James Hong. This was a time before Avatar: The Last Airbender or Jackie Chan Adventures had reached American audiences. James believed in the comic’s potential, and we explored the possibility of his inclusion as a character in an animated adaptation. This resulted in a classic comic-book style non-sequitur right in the midst of a more action oriented plot driven episode.
The shifting demands of the newsstands had the comic drop from print magazines. The adaptation process would become so entangled that no work would be published or produced for nearly a decade. An animated adaptation would not go into production, but 23 years later an animated book trailer would be created. It was a modest investment born from the success of the 2022 graphic novel A Tiger’s Tale in support of the release of its sequel A Tiger’s Tale volume two (where some of the story elements from the episode above find resolution).
A decade in developmental limbo was only the longest lasting of the challenges Tiger’s Tale would face during publication history. One controversy was dogged early in the comic’s history when the aforementioned co-writer was dropped from the comic. It would later be discovered that this writer’s credentials were actually fraudulent, but the comic’s popularity shielded it from cancellation. This revelation occurred during the height of the comic’s popularity; those early contributions were a distant memory and that writer has since paid their debts to society.
Gallery Show Series
The abrupt cancellation of Tiger’s Tale left its story unfinished. Work on the concept did not stop despite there being no platform for it. It was during that time of hiatus that the opportunity arose to illustrate the award winning children’s picture book Little Monk And The Mantis. That project opened doors, including a gallery show exhibition and some local notoriety.
The success of that show opened the way for others and the standing invitation at one gallery in particular offered a unique format for continuing the story of Tiger’s Tale. Rather than printed on a page or animated for a screen, the story would be depicted across art gallery walls. Parts would be collected into short-run high-end booklets to accompany the show. In this way work on Tiger’s Tale would progress.
Another detail that sets Tiger’s Tale apart; to date, no other graphic novel had its artwork displayed across multiple gallery exhibits before actual publication. All art was digitized before being offered for sale and in one instance artwork from Tiger’s Tale was recreated specifically for display in a gallery show. Imagery from a climactic scene in the graphic novel was painted onto a skateboard deck and included in the group show for the Olive Hyde Art Guild of Fremont California “Decked Out: Rolling On,” a Skateboard Deck Art and Photography Show showcasing the blending of artistry and sport through deck design. The event was curated by Bay Area artist Matt Richie (Matt136).
Finishing the Graphic Novel
A first draft of the graphic novel was completed in 2018. This version of Tiger’s Tale was a single volume which incorporated the art and story vignettes from the comic series with completely new art, lettering and digital FX; all in black, white and gray. A year before, in 2017 Tiger’s Tale: A Silent Meditation was printed; a short run of the unlettered graphic novel. It was sent out as an enticement for advanced readers. The lettered version would be followed and receive feedback from a select list of advance readers.
Publishing changed significantly in the time since the project had begun. A year’s worth of very polite rejection letters let me know that agents and publishers did not quite see this project as I saw it. So, I would have to change my vision for the project. That began with a revised title; A Tiger’s Tale would become a multi-volume graphic novel series. Artwork was remastered, colored and its story would be revised to better suit the format of a graphic novel rather than a collection of meandering episodes.
A Tiger’s Tale volume 1 launched on Kickstarter.com on the eve of the Lunar New Year of the Water Tiger 4720 - March 1st, 2022. The campaign would fund overnight. In June of that same year 100% Comics would announce it had selected this graphic novel as the recipient of the 2nd annual MAKE MORE COMICS arts grant. People seemed to like it.
The Kickstarter campaign for volume two would launch the following year. The completed volume 2 of A Tiger’s Tale would be released in 2024. Only a small number of each volume remain in print and can still be purchased via the online shop at ATiger’sTale.com - and if you’d like to read the first 20 pages of volume 1 FOR FREE; you can just click here.
Celebrating 30 Years
To celebrate this comic’s 30 year anniversary the Sun Gallery in Hayward California is making this project a showcase in their 35th Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibition. The exhibition runs from March 13 through May 23, 2026, with reception and book signing will be held on March 21, 2026 from 12:00-3:00pm PST. Not only will this be the only place anyone can buy a copy of the graphic novel in-person, copies of my other children’s books and comic anthologies will be available. Including the few remaining copies of issue #1 of the newest comic set in the Tiger’s Tale Universe – UNDEAD KUNGFU GHOST KILLER.
Author:
Patrick Lugo is a freelance author, illustrator & comic creator who consults on comic Crowdfunding campaigns when not running one of his own. His acclaimed graphic novel series A Tiger’s Tale vols. 1 & 2 is available for purchase online at ATiger’sTale.com.
THREADS:
https://forum.kungfumagazine.com/t/a-tigers-tale-by-patrick-lugo/60350
