Pulp Arcana Studios: All Hands on Deck! An interview with "Realms of the Black Tide" creator Quaid Cundall

Welcome to Fanboy Planet! Go ahead and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do. And what exactly is Realms of the Black Tide?

I can’t tell you how honored I am to be given a chance to share about this dream my wife and I had, that has now been brought to life in action figure form!

My name is Quaid Cundall and, since boyhood, I’ve been telling stories. My parents were always one hundred percent supportive of my interests and passions. From my mom buying me my first action figure, to my dad and I playing with plastic pirate swords in the backyard. Joy and imagination were a staple in childhood and, as such, there seemed to be very few boundaries to what I could accomplish. When I was eighteen, I set out on my first dream project. A feature length Spider-Man fan film. What I made was a full trilogy of those films, which were privately shown in the local theater. The proceeds of this project were donated to the folks in my home town who needed it most.

I met my amazing wife two years ago, and we’ve since then set sail on this new adventure. Realms of the Black Tide is a high fantasy, seven inch scale, pirate action figure line developed by my wife and I and brought to life by the renowned team at Four Horsemen Studios. It features themes from almost every pirate property before it, and enhances them to a level akin to all our favorite brand IPs from the 1980’s. With expansive world building, and a plethora of characters with histories and backstories original to them, it’s built from the ground up to be an original property all on its own. With as much story and product concepts as we have developed, this world and the figures that go with it could keep collectors and fans fed for many years to come.

Why pirates? Is this something you have always been drawn to?

Pirates have absolutely always been something I was drawn to since childhood. Interestingly enough, I have wanted to be a toy maker far longer than a film director. And yet, one of the very first thoughts I had after completing my fan film trilogy was, “Why is it that Disney seems to be the only one attempting to ‘tread water’ in the pirate genre? How come

no-one else has attempted to tell a new pirate story?” I said to myself for years, If given the chance, that would be the next story I told. Here comes Realms of the Black Tide to fulfill both dreams at the same time!

Pirate toys were a huge influence growing up. With things like LEGO’s Black Seas Barracuda and Mega Bloks Pyrates line. Eventually, we’d like to feature some tributes to properties like that which shaped so many kids’ imaginations.

You recently revealed the three figures in the wave: Captain Karibdus, Captain Algol Deathmoid, and Captain Alister Mourningstar Tell us about each of these characters and what you wanted to accomplish with each of the figures.

The three pirate captains featured in our debut of wave one are the culmination of what we felt were our three strongest faction concepts we had to kick off the world with and establish the esthetic and stakes of the story at large. While the storyline will feature other characters just as pivotal as these, Mourningstar, Deathmoid, and Karibdus are what make the Tide-Realm Isles what they are, and are inherently crafted to keep the conflict explosive, dynamic and continual.  Each captain has origins and motivations, which are tied to one another, and keep the overall story arc revolving around each character’s growth while pushing them forward to become more than what they begin as.

Captain Alister Mourningstar’s name is not just a play-on word. His history is fraught with tragedy, loss and a sense of not belonging, which pushes him to retreat to the darkest corners of himself. Always longing for something more depthful than a life of piracy, but never feeling worthy of it.

Algol Deathmoid is entropy and domination incarnate. A being born after the disappearance of the gods of the Black Tide, it is his observation that everything they left in their wake has filled the Tide-Realm Isles with nothing but chaos and unrest. It is his ultimate goal to eliminate any remnants of the gods and their creation. Creating a world of perfect black nothingness. His very presence in the sea is poison to the waters and it is his influence which gives “The Black Tide” its name.

Captain Karibdus is the forgotten prince of the sea. Stripped of his memories after the final battle of the gods and imprisoned in the “Dreadtide Reef.” Once intended to be a force of purity, the influence of the reef coupled with his growing desire to see the Tide-Realm Isles purged of the growing infestation known as humanity, has led him down a dark path of complete destruction and the remaking of the world itself. It is Karibdus’ view that the Tide-Realm Isles belong to the original species “The Reef-Borne” and he intends to open “The Maw of the Abyss,”  a continent sized vortex, to drag the surface realm down to the depths and reshape the realm in his image.

Elaborated versions of their character bios and origins are currently available on Facebook and Instagram @corsaircoreations. You can join the Facebook group “Realms of the Black Tide Corsairs” to get updates on the status of the Kickstarter landing page, production updates, behind the scenes, size comparisons, and story excerpts.

Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/realmsoftheblacktide
Page – https://www.facebook.com/CorsairCreationsCo/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/corsaircreations/

So, the figures look absolutely amazing. You’ve mentioned in the reveals on social media that they are sculpted and prototyped by Four Horsemen Studios, of Mythic Legions fame. I’m a massive fan of the Horsemen and their work. Getting them for your line is incredible, and the sculpts you’ve shown so far are stunning. How did this partnership come about? Can you tell us about the process?

Getting Four Horsemen Studios involved was a dream come true, and also completely unexpected. I didn’t even know about the company until Christmas of last year, when my wife purchased the Figura Obscura Jacob Marley figure for me, and I was totally blown away. I had to learn everything I could about the line and its creators, and was stunned to discover that

they were actually still available for hire to prototype new products for other creators. Out of sheer stupid curiosity, I sent them an email around January or February and got a lengthy response from H Eric Mayse himself explaining exactly what it would take to get something like that off the ground. The scary part was…it wasn’t an impossible task. Just an expensive one.
The idea for the line didn’t even exist at those stages. It was after joining the Mythic Legions Cabal and noticing how many people were talking about how much they wished there was a line of pirate figures. Something I had observed myself and begun wishing for. That was all I needed. There was a need and I wanted to fulfill it. After several weeks of heavy conceptualization, we submitted a pitch to Cornboy and he helped us narrow down which figures to lead with out of the over forty envisioned at that time.

One of the things that absolutely captured my imagination is that you have such a rich world and deep background lore for the figures. Tell us a little about the story and why did you feel story and narrative were so important to the line?

The storyline is a HUGE component to the toy-line and one that my wife and I have crafted meticulously. While the narrative is integral, it’s also not required reading in order to get into the theme. It’s our opinion that the figures do and will speak for themselves. Allowing for the same world building, blank canvas, sandbox play that toys are made for. Captain Mourningstar doesn’t have to be to you who we say he is. BUT…his story is pretty cool, and you should check it out anyway. Screenplay writing and cinematic visuals are part of my background and something we wanted to integrate into the presentation of the lines narrative. What made us most respond to the themes like Masters of the Universe, G.I Joe, Transformers, Spawn, Marvel comics, Ect?… It was those rich universes where you could tell the creators had absolutely fallen in love with the world they’d written, and wanted to spend as much time in it as possible.

We want fans to be able to get LOST in the Tide-Realm Isles and pursue crafting their own adventures with these characters far beyond even where our own storyline takes us. While the toy line is open ended, the canon storyline is a complete narrative with progressing story arcs and unexpected twists and turns leading us to some of the most immersive plot points, which will only be explored if the line takes off and the Kickstarter is successful.

The line’s basic premise is this:

For a millennia “The Black Tide” has been a swirling vortex with no direction, as the gods of the ocean have waged war upon themselves. Hur-Kane, Osseus, and Staurozoa could find no stillpoint between them. 

One desiring endless horizons and eternal conquest, the other craving nothing but chaos and destruction, and the third desiring balance and renewal. 

The very sea itself could not hold their sheer power. These tumultuous and endless battles raged by the three gods stirred up “The Dark Tides.” Resulting in the creation of “The Tide-Realm Isles,” and those who inhabit them. 

A disastrous final confrontation between the gods resulted in their disappearance; Leaving the Men and Monsters of this world to fend for themselves.  

 Now there are stirrings in the deep, rumors have spread of those who desire the same raw power the gods held, and they wish to shape The Realm-Tides to their own liking. Only one race of being will be left standing after the battle of the Black Tides!

Build your Crew! Because here there be Pirates!

You are bringing the figures to Kickstarter. Can you tell us a little about the Kickstarter process and when the Kickstarter is going live?

When it comes to the process of launching a Kickstarter, it is one that is multilayered and a balancing act of making sure you have as much information as possible for fans to absorb, in order to make the decision if they’d like to support the project, while not bogging them down with logistics and legal jargon to ensure the campaign is a fun one. We have a great team behind us at Four Horsemen Studios, who will make gathering all that necessary information easy. It will just take some time.

We want to ensure these figures are as affordable as possible, while also maintaining a realistic funding goal to ensure such a small company like ours can meet the challenges we have ahead of us. If the Kickstarter is successful or, better yet, more than successful, FHS will be handling the entirety of production and overseeing bringing the fully realized captains to articulated plastic form. We are in consistent communication with them, and are actively gathering the information necessary to launch the Kickstarter landing page. We will make certain everyone knows exactly when the Kickstarter launch date is once we have that information.

What are your plans for the future of Realms of the Black Tide?

Our plans for “Realms of the Black Tide” are ambitious to say the least. While I can’t go into a lot of specifics, I can say that the “Build your crew” tag line is meant to be literal and one that will shape future waves. Each faction (of which there are more planned than the three currently revealed) is meant to have six members at minimum with their own backstories and unique sculpts and accessories. Starting from the ground up like we are, some of these more ambitious characters are expensive to prototype, and even more expensive to produce. As we get closer to LegionsCon 2025, where the paintmasters will be on display for public viewing, there will be teasers dropping of what some of those characters might be. Those are concepts only and are not part of this Kickstarter BUT…the success of our three captains is what may pave the way for wave two.

What is one thing you would most like people to know about Realms of the Black Tide?

What I’d really love the community to know about Realms of the Black Tide is this: This is something I’ve dreamt of all my life. It’s all those hours of playing with my Toy Biz Spider-Man and my Spy Changers Optimus Prime that gave me the dream to contribute to a world that’s given me so much joy. I want to share that with others, and leave something for people to cherish for years to come and tell new stories with.

This Kickstarter campaign will maintain complete transparency throughout the entirety of its launch and after. And, starting off on that same foot, I want to express that my wife and I have put almost everything we have into this line. Without her, this would not be a reality. Her support of who I am and building a life where we’re able to thrive because we’re living our dream has been integral. While giving the community the pirate toyline of their dreams, the community would be giving a newly wedded couple the resources to follow their dreams, keep building upon them, and start building a life based on adventure and fun!

Quaid, thank you so much for coming here to Fanboy Planet and sharing this journey with us.

It’s an absolute honor to be a part of Fanboy Planet today and I hope to be able to continue talking about pirates more in the future!