[Interview] Ian Flynn | Encyclopedias for Everyone -

The more you know!

This week at Miketendo64, we have cooked up something extra special and its all thanks to a gentleman named Ian Flynn. As a long time writer and creative consultant, Ian Flynn’s extensive career has been an impressive story in itself and we recently had the chance to talk about with him at great length. So, strap yourselves in for a five part interview series as we go over Ian Flynn’s elaborate career, covering his involvement in the cancelled ARMS graphic novels, his extensive work with Sonic the Hedgehog and so much more.

While Part 2 covered Ian Flynn’s extensive involvement with the Sonic the Hedgehog IP, covering comics, games and animation, today Part 3 is dedicated to his work with various encyclopedias:

Got to be Ian it to Flynn it:

Miketendo64: Before we dive right into the probing questions, we always like to begin by asking a couple of easier questions first. Therefore, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

Ian Flynn: I’m Ian Flynn, a freelance writer and creative consultant. I’ve worked in comics, television, streaming media, video games and other published media. Done a fair bit of ad copy too. I’m best known for my nearly twenty-year stint on Sonic the Hedgehog related media and my 55-issue run on Mega Man. I grew up in Charlotte, NC and later settled in Toronto, ON. I’ve had a variety of odd jobs over the years, but my career and passion has always been in creative writing.

Miketendo64: Having been involved in the likes of ARMS graphic novels that never came to full fruition, and a couple of Nintendo IP related books, if you had the chance to be as involved with a Nintendo IP as much as you have been involved with Sonic the Hedgehog, what would be your dream IP?

Ian Flynn: StarFox. No question, no hesitation. I would love to do a robust retelling of the story that began in StarFox 64, follow that thread through StarFox Command, and then follow Marcus’s tenure as the third McCloud. I know exactly what I’d do. I have the vision.

Encyclopedias for Everyone:

Miketendo64: In addition to the many works that are attributed to you, you also worked on the likes of SUPER MARIO BROS. ENCYCLOPEDIA (October 23rd, 2018), THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD – CREATING A CHAMPION (November 20th, 2018), and Sonic the Hedgehog: Encyclo-Speed-ia (December 2021). With SUPER MARIO BROS. ENCYCLOPEDIA and CREATING A CHAMPION, both released in 2018, how did you found the time to work on both? It must have been taxing?

Ian Flynn: Like I said earlier, freelance work is feast or famine. They happened to come along during a time I wasn’t swamped with anything else. Additionally, I was part of a larger team, so I wasn’t tackling either of them solo.

Miketendo64: Having been involved with doing the fact checking for both BROS. ENCYCLOPEDIA and CREATING A CHAMPION, can you tell us a bit more about the fact-checking process and how deep it goes?

Ian Flynn: It’s been so long I don’t fully recall, to be honest. I do remember there were a couple of instances that gave me pause because I didn’t remember them a certain way, or thought the raw translation missed some context. In those cases I researched what was being referenced and verified it as best I could.

Miketendo64: With more than 250 pages to localise for SUPER MARIO BROS. ENCYCLOPEDIA alone, roughly how long was you involved with the project?

Ian Flynn: Not terribly long. I think I got through my portion of the book within a month or two?

Miketendo64: When working on both SUPER MARIO BROS. ENCYCLOPEDIA and CREATING A CHAMPION, was there anything you learned about the Super Mario Bros. series and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that you didn’t know previously?

Ian Flynn: For Mario: in one of the New Super Mario Bros. titles, after finishing one of the Boo Houses, if you don’t grab the goal flag and wait for a bit creepy faces begin to appear. These aren’t like any of the other ghosts in the series, and it’s honestly eerie.

For Zelda: the book is full of lore you just don’t get otherwise. There was a whole section detailing how the battle for Fort Hateno went before the calamity. It was great.

Miketendo64: To go from proof-reading to writing your own works and many others, you clearly possess a wide range of writing talents. How do you find bouncing between the different trades and do you have any pearls of wisdom that can help with the fact-checking and proof-reading side of things?

Ian Flynn: I do have to make an effort to shift mental gears sometimes. How you think about the project shifts from creative to analytical.

For fact-checking: never assume you’re right. Memory is a fickle thing, and if it’s your job, then be thorough.

For proof-reading: I’m not the best to seek for advice, I’ll be honest. One trick though is to give yourself some time away from the copy, forget it, and come back to it as fresh as possible. If you get too comfortable with it you’ll glaze over the errors.

Miketendo64: Back to the Sonic the Hedgehog: Encyclo-Speed-ia, having been extensively involved in it, this time around you weren’t just fact-checking but all out researching and compiling 30 years of Sonic’s history all in one place. It must have been quite the undertaking for you. How did it compare to working on Sonic games and comics?

Ian Flynn: It was exhausting in some ways, because Sonic has such a rich library full of obscure and experimental titles. But it was also fun rediscovering details from games I hadn’t touched in a while.

Miketendo64: Could you ever see yourself working on another anniversary related encyclopaedia, such as an encyclopedia to celebrate 30 years of Pokémon if given the chance?

Ian Flynn: Absolutely. I’m almost always looking for new projects.

While we have reached the end of today’s interview, we still have two more exciting parts to go through, with tomorrow’s instalment dedicated to all things ARMS, covering Ian Flynn’s involvment with the cancelled graphic novel series and more.