What is League of 40 you might ask? As a brand, it is a media and clothing brand dedicated to inspiring some good in the chaos of the world through positive, thought-provoking messages and short stories. Within the story universe, the League of 40 is a colorful cast of characters based on thieves, tricksters and antiheroes from folklore, history and myth who assemble to aid others in a chaotic world broken by a single man's wish. The world these characters inhabit came to me when I asked the question "What if Robin Hood formed his own Justice League?" and following my love of reading myths and folklore from different cultures, I challenged myself to mix every idea from those stories in my own recipe. I also wanted to create this brand as a way of offering affirmations to encourage people of any age for any situation they may be going through since I enjoy writing sci-fi/fantasy, developing quirky phrases and helping others.
The name League of 40 was inspired by the story of "Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves" from the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Because of the history of the characters who compose the in-universe League of 40, I thought the red hand with the gold outline best represented them and would be an awesome logo. The phrases "Caught red-handed" and "Five-finger discount" came to mind. I also considered the fact that tricksters are often considered the fools and losers in many stories, but I could repurpose the L-shaped fingers to mean something more for the heroes of these stories. Tricksters, rogues, fools and thieves in stories are sometimes only used for comic relief, but they are also important to many myths because often they possess secret knowledge that helps to reshape cultures, shake up the status quo, and offer new perspectives to other heroes, which is everything I hope to do with this brand.
With this new brand, I will be creating multiple children's stories and comics within my new universe (or toybox as I like to refer to it sometimes) and also produce t-shirts, hoodies and more. The Shopify store will be coming later in 2024, but the first product in this brand will be my first children's book, Wilhemina's Music Factory! This book is a remixed, narrative poem version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but I promise it is a wholly original story with only some nods to the story and films from Roald Dahl's works. The book is done and I will start sharing some pages and concept art from it on my new social channels over the coming weeks! I will also share more about the League of 40 products and my vision for it over time, so please check back soon because the best is yet to come!