Most comic books I have written for Area 51 are set in the fiction universe of Planeta Inquietante, which is a parody and homage at the same time to the Ancient Astronauts theory. It was made popular by Erich Von Däniken in the seventies.
Planeta Inquietante began as a script for a short movie than became a blog where the main character, Patrick Von Steiner, a follower of Däniken's theories, narrated his adventures. Comic books felt like a natural medium as the Ancient Astronaut was a huge influence in author like Jack Kirby; just you check his Eternals or his Fourth World. Besides I love the medium.
I also write about sci-fi movies and shows, a thematic very dear to Planeta Inquietante and Mister Steiner, who sees pop culture as a great tool to uncover the Truth, free from the censorship of the evil Academy.
Our team is composed of José Ramírez (editor of the magazine, letterer and cowriter of the story Two Planets on Danger), Gustavo Rubio, Ángel Bernuy, Jen del Pozo and Conrado Martín (the artists) and me as writer.
Our workflow is pretty straightforward. I write the script and hand it to the artist via e-mail or dropbox, then I get the designs, storyboards and pages the same way. Finally we send the story to the magazine, where the texts, credits and page numbers are added.
I think we are living in a nice time for comic books where they are getting more and more attention, but I wonder if publishers know how to use that attention to get more readers.
Also I think that a printed comic book and a webcomic are compatible and could cross promote. The way we read them is different, the size of the screen, the touch, they are different experiences and that should be taken into account when publishing them. Ideally, a digital comic book should me more than just the PDF you send to the printer and use the possibilities from the devices.
I admire Gustavo Rubio, he is an artist from Argentina I have had the pleasure to work... and I am looking forward to more collaborations. Also Mike Deodato Jr is a great Brazilian artist who has worked for DC Comics and Marvel, one of the many who became famous in the 90's and who is still around doing great runs in series like Avengers or Amazing Spider-Man..
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