Skull Dogs Origins
It feels a little weird, writing a blog post in retrospect. I’ve never been one to blog, myself. I tend to fall off after a while, finding I don’t feel like I have much to say. But I wanted to tell our story, even if it’s simple, even if it’s short. I want to share the Skull Dogs experience with you.
Skull Dogs Media started as a spark.
— a dream that’s been a long time coming.
Christian and Jose Location Scouting at Watt Munisotaram
I’ve always had an eclectic set of skills and passions. A jack of all trades, but never a master of the kind that make it easy to build a living.
It was born of a dream that’s been a long time coming. My whole life, I’ve had an eclectic set of skills and passions. Jack of All Trades, Master of none of the ones that make it easy to build a living off of. I’ve always been an artist, and I’ve been writing since 3rd grade, but the spark for the Media Company didn’t get lit until late high school. I wanted to make video games and began working on a project that, at the time was really nothing more than a sketch and a dream. But that was where the partnership with Jose first started. We’d already been friends at the time, I met him through our Choir Class where I introduced myself by inviting him and his brother to join my Film Club where I was making skits and shows for YouTube. That day changed both of our lives, forever.
Unfortunately, the actual video game project would end up falling through, as I graduated and went on to study game design at Savannah College of Art and Design, and it would take about 10 years before I’d reconnect with Jose again. But in that time, what started as a simple, unfinished game project, and a collection of unpublished novel and comic manuscripts, and an old disbanded Film Club waiting to be revived became a vision for a Multi-Media company that could one day support and encompass all of it.
Film Club, 2012
Jose (Left) and Christian (Right) engaged in a seated Lightsaber Duel.
For a long time, that dream remained in my head. Just a dream. A some day future. But that changed when I met with Jose again. I was nervous to see him again, after such a long time apart. After I had come home from college I isolated for a long time, focusing on my work. It was a rough time, except I didn’t even have a perception of it being rough. As an introvert, I had convinced myself that it was the way I preferred things, that I liked it that way. But it wasn’t. It took Jose to remind me of that. The moment I saw him again, it was like nothing had changed. Even though I was hesitant, we got back into step like 10 years had only been 10 days. And before long, I was confronted by my dream again.
It started in the form it often took: Film Club. In the few years I’d been back from college, while I hadn’t physically hung out with anyone, I had still reconnected with some of my other friends, most of whom had also been a part of Film Club. At one point or another, all of them had asked for the group to make a comeback, and I was inclined to agree. I wanted to revive Film Club, too, and I knew I couldn’t do it without Jose. He was my Co-host. So once we reconnected, it didn’t take long for us to get to work on scripting a revival series together. Eventually, I came around to telling him about my dream for a Media Company, and the rest is our history. It still took a long time for it to come to fruition in the way it is now, though.
Christian (Left) and Jose (Right) reprising their roles in a Happy Panda News test shoot
The Scripts for Film Club were delayed, as I had to go back to the drawing board to fix some pacing issues. I’m still making progress, but it’s taken a bit longer than I had hoped. In the meantime, a brand new generation of Beyblade launched with Beyblade X, and with it came the potential of new tournaments, especially with Takara Tomy opening up the official sport to All Ages tournaments. I’ve been an avid enjoyer of Beyblade - the anime, the toys, even the manga and games - since VForce (and retroactively the original 1st season), but I’d never played it competitively, although I’d always wanted to go to a tournament. I hadn’t known that Jose, too had been a fan of Beyblade since childhood, and had always dreamed of owning the toys.
So, I was a bit surprised when I told him about the tournament information and he immediately told me to find out more information. Unfortunately, at the time there weren’t any official Hasbro tournaments here in the US, (and even now, the official Hasbro Tournaments are counteractively locked behind an age limit, unlike their Takara Tomy counterparts.) However, through my digging, I discovered the WBO - a Fan-made Beyblade Organization through which many Beyblade Fans - of all ages - host their own tournaments worldwide. I showed Jose my findings - a small tournament at the Minneapolis Central Library called September Shakedown being hosted by MN-X’s Akuna, and Jose said “BET”.
So we went to September Shakedown, my very first Beyblade Tournament. I had no idea what to expect, but I knew filming the tournament would make for great content for my YouTube Channel while we worked on getting the scripts for Film Club ready for the official revival. Jose was a bit hesitant to jump into the fray without any prior experience, but I had decided that if I was going to go to a Beyblade Tournament, then I was going to compete! So I grabbed my Beys and entered the ring while Jose filmed it all. We made My First Beyblade Tournament video and our Beyblade Team: The Wild Dogs were born. Little did we know the impact we’d have on the Minnesota Beyblade scene.
We filmed our training and another tournament - Level X #2 at Level Up Games, Minneapolis (Hosted by Six5ths and Holly). And by the time we were entering our third tournament: MN-X’s Novemeber Knockout the turnout had doubled to 60 Bladers. Personally, I gave it the benefit of the doubt, Beyblade X was growing in popularity, and as more people discovered it, they were bound to discover the WBO Tournaments, too. But more than one of the Bladers there told us that they came because of our videos. And it…really meant a lot to me, to see how we had played such a direct roll in helping not only just to showcase the Minnesota Beyblade Community, but to build and expand it, too! It was just one example of the ways we could share voices and help people.
After some more time, and a few more tournaments (with videos on the way), Jose and I discussed the Media Company idea again. Between the delay of Film Club, and all the Beyblade training and tournaments we were attending, our plans and ideas for the actual Media Company had been put on the back burner. I hadn’t realized it, because I’d thought I’d been waiting on him for things to start moving forward, but it turned out Jose had been waiting for me to move forward on our plans for the company. When I realized that, I told him it was time to stop waiting.
We started brainstorming company names.
Back when we formed the Wild Dogs, that was a name I’d mostly come up with. We went through several name iterations, but Wild Dogs had been the one that just felt right for both of us. This time was a little different though, Jose wanted to figure out a different name in order to keep the Wild Dogs brand a bit separated from our Media Company brand - that was the main reason we didn’t just go with Wild Dogs Media or something, but it certainly didn’t help that many of the names on our brand list had already been taken, Wild Dogs included. Jose initially came in suggesting Mad Dogs Media, but of course that one was taken.
It turns out Dogs are a really common theme amongst Media companies lol.
While we brainstormed, it began to feel like we might not have that dog in us at all, just about every name under the sun involving dogs (yes, including Sun Dogs - Moon Dogs too, for that matter) was taken. But then I thought back to one of the ideas I’d had back when we came up with Wild Dogs. I was a bit hesitant to use it, because I feared it might seem a bit dark, or might not be the vibe since it hadn’t made it to the final name the last time it was in the running. Not only that, but I also felt that it would be right for Jose to come up with the name, since I was the one that came up with Wild Dogs, but with little to no options left, I brought forth the name Skull Dogs.
Skull Dogs Media was not taken.
It was ours.
The Skull Dogs Media Logo. Jose wanted something that looked calligraphic, so I actually made my own special brush in Adobe Photoshop and wrote this by hand. The name “Skull Dogs” itself had come about while I was brainstorming ideas for what would become Wild Dogs back in October. Although Jose is Puerto Rican — not Mexican or Central American — I was thinking of Dios de las Muertos and Sugar Skulls when I witnessed a skeleton dog costume at a store. Since then, I had Skull Dogs tucked away, and held onto it even after we settled on Wild Dogs for the Beyblade team.
Luck, happenstance, love and a dream. From Wild Dogs to Skull Dogs, that’s how we were born.
Jose (Left) and Christian (Right): Skull Dogs Fist Bump
Skull Dogs Media is more than just a media company to me. It’s the future I’ve always dreamed of, it’s my life, my home. I’ve never fit into the mold of corporate society. The desk job life just isn’t me. One thing I’ve learned as that when the rules don’t work for you, don’t work for the rules: make them yourself. Skull Dogs is my howling rebellion. Skull Dogs is my voice refusing to be tamed.
And my hope is that Skull Dogs can be a voice for others, too. For clients and businesses needing to be heard; refusing to be tamed. We fight for the underdogs, the wild dogs, and we don’t shy away from the top dogs, either.
Because your voice matters.
Keep Howling,
~ Christian
