ALKALA™

The wait is over! Barbarian Brothers™ are proud to reveal Alkala™, the lead character in Savage Conquest™!

     Alkala™ struggles for control against an evil that has taken over his mind and body. He does not yet understand this mysterious presence within him. His tragedy has gifted him with amazing power but, in exchange makes his life a living hell. This darkness forces him to feast on the hearts of the warriors he defeats and sometimes even on the innocent.

     Alkala™ is also tormented and, confused by flashing visions of people he sees in his mind. In this story, Alkala™ will journey to find the people in his visions in hopes of finding answers. During his travels, he hopes to remember not to get too close with love interests and allies he meets along the way. If his inner darkness starves for too long, there is no telling what could happen to them.

       Alkala™ was designed on Nov 17, 2000, the same day a certain wrestling video game was released. This game allowed you to create your own characters to be played in the ring. Chris Faccone had created a large number of characters that day using this device. One of his favorite creations was a character called Conquest, a barbarian themed wrestler who quickly rose to the top and became the champion of the imaginary wrestling world he created within this video game.

      The same character was created over and, over again in every wrestling game that was released thereafter. With every new option the games presented, Conquest began developing into something greater and greater. July 30, 2011, was when Chris got the idea to start his own comic book. He started designing the villains first and had no idea who the hero was going to be. Then it hit him! He should bring some of the barbarian themed wrestlers he created in from the games and turn them into serious barbarian characters for the comic! It was perfect! Chris’s wrestling champion known as ‘Conquest the Savage Barbarian™’ would be the hero of his story! With a little wrestling attire taken away from his design, he was perfect!  A hero was born!

      Chris struggled with a name for this character once he found out that Conquest was trademarked already. For over 10 years he has known his creation as Conquest and, it seemed impossible to come up with a different name that felt right to him. So the journey began.

       Chris started calling him Kongar™ but, enjoyed the name for only so long. When he did a trademark check this title was available  but, he ran into something else that changed his mind about his lead character’s name. He discovered, Konhgar-ol Ondar. Kongar-ol is a master throat singer and a member of the Great Khural of Tuvan. Chris also found out that Kongar-ol literally translates to “loud boy”. He could not get this new meaning of the name out of his head and began thinking of other names.

      Not long after he was driving home from work on the Garden State Parkway and stopped to pay a toll. He saw a sticker on the bucket of the toll booth that said Raen™. He thought that was just some ok name for a band but a great name for a lead character for his story! From that point Kongar™ now became Raen™. That name also didn’t last long. Chris started to think that name better suited a samurai warrior then a savage barbarian. He couldn’t think of anything else for the longest time so he just stuck with it but wasn’t thrilled.

      Then one day he was chatting with his good friend, Joe Amato about old school artists they love,and Alfredo Alcala’s name came up. He was an artist who illustrated for some barbarian themed mini comics in the 80s. Chris kept pronouncing Alcala’s name wrong during their conversation and Joe corrected him. When Chris heard the right pronunciation of the name, he flipped out and said he thinks it is the most savage and powerful name for a barbarian! He also thought it would be a respectful nod to the artist who inspired him!

     Joe agreed and suggested to Chris that maybe should spell it different, for certain reasons. The idea came to switch the “c” with a “k”. Now the name even looks more barbaric! It was the greatest day for Chris , he finally found a name he loves just as much as Conquest. Conquest went from, Kongar™, to Raen™ to ending up with Alkala™. It was a journey worth traveling. Chris has also decided to keep the 2 failed names and, give them to other characters in the story. He does not like his ideas to go to waste and always tries to find some use for them.

     In the end, Chris still could not let the old name of his character, Conquest get left behind. So he decided as a nod to his own savage wrestling character of the past, he would name the book after him and call it Savage Conquest™.

Tagline created by Chris Faccone.
Painting done by Gerald Parel

©2012 Alkala and Savage Conquest are trademarks of Barbarian Brothers™ All Rights Reserved.