Long time readers of Mickey News know how much we love Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. We’ve enjoyed many delicious Dole Whips while watching the singing birds and crooning flowers in this South Seas musical celebration. Today, we are thrilled to announce an all-new adventure in the “Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room” from Disney Kingdoms. This five-part comic series will debut this fall a tDisney Parks.
You may recall reading previous articles about Disney Kingdoms comics such as Figment 2 or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This new adventure will include the immersive storytelling inspired by Walt Disney Imagineering magic, and the fantastic artwork found in those previous series.
The series will be written by Jon Adams. Artwork will be penciled by Horacio Domingues with cover artwork (shown above) by Brian Kesinger.
We recently spoke with the creative team behind this new series including writer Jon Adams; Brian Crosby with Disney Kingdoms; and Walt Disney Imagineers Tom Morris, Executive Creative Director; Andy DiGenova, Associate Producer; and Josh Shipley, Creative Services Specialist.
Steven: What makes the Disney Kingdoms series unique?
Tom: “The Disney Kingdoms series gave us an opportunity to build on stories from our classic Disney Parks attractions that guests love. We’re hoping the books inspire readers to revisit favorite attractions with a new perspective. For this series, we’re taking guests to a tropical island filled with everything loved from the original attraction and introducing some new characters, stories and places to discover.”
Steven: How is the storytelling in this series different from previous series?
Jon: “The Enchanted Tiki Room is a place of legend, fantasy and mystery. I grew up watching shows where new characters were introduced each week into a familiar setting that had previously established characters. I wanted to apply that vignette storytelling concept to this new series. In each issue, new visitors will arrive by boat to an isolated island populated by singing birds, plants, and ancient Tiki gods.”
Andy: “We loved Jon’s fresh approach to storytelling. It was different than our previous [Disney Kingdoms] comics that had more linear stories.”
Brian: “There’s a sense of mystery about the island and Jon’s idea had us asking questions: Why is the island enchanted? How does it connect the people who visit the island? There will be a nice connection for guests who read all five issues in this series.”
Steven: I love collecting all things Tiki-related including artwork. What will readers see when they pick up an issue?
Josh: “The illustrations will be extremely colorful and the images will pop off the page. They will make readers feel like they are on that mysterious island. We pulled reference images from the Walt Disney Imagineering Resource Library to really connect the comic illustrations to the Disney Parks experience. We’ll also feature variant covers by other artists such as a cover with José by Walt Disney Imagineer Jason Grandt.”
Look for the Enchanted Tiki Room series this fall in select merchandise locations at Disney Parks.
