Today I bring you an interview with Rob Orpilla, commonly known as Kuro the Artist, a popular member of the Ben 10 fandom known for creating the
Ben 10 and Danny Phantom crossover comic,
5 Years Later. He also makes coloring pages, as well as merchandise with his designs on it such as t-shirts, stickers, cups and hoodies.
How did you get into Ben 10? Subsequently, how did you get into Danny Phantom?
I don't remember the first time I got into Danny Phantom, as it came out
a little earlier than Ben 10 and I was relatively young. It was
sometime during the first season as I remember a ton of the old
commercials promoting the episodes. For Ben 10, the first episode I ever
saw was
A Small Problem, where Ben gets stuck in his
Grey Matter
transformation the entire episode.
Looking back, that was one of the
weaker episodes, but even that was enough to get me hooked. To help
promote the season 2 finale
Back with A Vengeance, Cartoon Network
aired a marathon of all the episodes that aired so far, so that is how I
caught up. I saw every new episode when it aired since.
What gave you the idea of starting 5 Years Later?
Long story short, I wanted to produce a comic that had a more efficient
method of editing and illustration that my previous work, and after
drawing Danny and Ben for so long, I realized how much more there were
to the characters than their networks have allowed them to grow, so I
took it upon myself to give them justice. You can check out the full
story on my YouTube video,
39 Facts About The Danny Phantom/10 Crossover.