Writes the Des Moines Register, "They came up with teenage takes on heroes like Captain America and villains like Dr. Doom, but ultimately the pitch was rejected. Hester and Kuhn were left with strong lasting impressions of their teenage version of the Fing Fang Foom, re-imagined as an 8-foot tall humanoid dragon and a teenage version of The Thing from Fantastic Four. 'I thought about how horrible things are for Ben Grimm (The Thing) as an adult, being orange and having rocky skin, and then tried to imagine what it would be like to have that happen to you at 14,' Hester said. 'It would be unbearable.'"
Of Firebreather, based on the 2003 Image comic of the same name, the piece added, "Duncan Rosenblatt is a lot like your average teenager. He's living in a single-parent home, he's got weird skin problems and he's having problems adjusting to his new school. Of course, his new gym teacher is actually his undercover government handler, his skin is orange and turning slightly scaly and his absentee dad, Belloc, is a Godzilla-sized king of all monsters who hopes Duncan will enter the family trade."
"The whole idea is Duncan is an allegory for being a teenager," Hester said during a phone interview. "He feels like an alien in his own body, and most teenagers going through puberty have the same feeling. It's exciting to feel more powerful, but it's also embarrassing and awkward. He's trapped between these two worlds, human and monster and two estranged parents. His broken home is a really broken home; his parents couldn't possibly be more estranged."
Firebreather airs on Cartoon Network on November 24th. Fore more of this interview, follow the link.
