Welcome Back Friends and Readers! First I want to say thank you to Chris Braly for covering for me last week. Chris is the guy who makes Indie Comics Showcase look so pretty every week. So a huge thank you to him for that as well. After needing to take some time to myself, I really want to try and come back strong with these next installments. So I hope I am successful and that you all enjoy it. Thank you once again for being the best part of Indie Comics Showcase.
Now let’s dive in!!
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The Abductables
A sci-fi action comedy about what happens when aliens abduct the wrong man–and pay the price!
THE ABDUCTABLES is a 52 page one-shot comic book written by indie creator Michael Derrick and illustrated by Ibai Canales, artist of the smash hit Indiegogo campaign IRON SIGHTS! Featuring action-packed fight scenes, laugh-out-loud absurdity, and over-the-top cartoon violence rendered in glorious grayscale, THE ABDUCTABLES is everything a comic SHOULD be–in other words…FUN!
I chatted with Michael this week to discuss the project.
Check out the campaign page here!
John: Michael, welcome to and thank you for being a part of Indie Comics Showcase. Today we will be talking about your Indie Comics The Abductables. But before we start can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Michael: Greetings, Earthlings! I’m Michael Derrick, a Texan comic book writer with the grand ambition of creating as many entertaining stories as humanly possible! My current project, THE ABDUCTABLES, is the tip of the proverbial spear in that regard.
I’m still a relative newcomer to the scene. I’ve wanted to work in comics most of my life, but it wasn’t until I opened a Twitter account (@cauldroncomics) last year that things started picking up steam. I made somewhat of a name for myself drawing my own webcomics and collaborating with different artists–most notably my short horror comic I PLAYED WITH FIRE with artist J. Paul Schiek. To say that THE ABDUCTABLES is my highest profile project to date is an understatement!
John: What can you tell us about The Abductables, your science fiction, action comedy, alien invasion story about what happens when the aliens abduct the wrong person. The name sounds like it’s taking some inspiration from The Expendables. Is that the case here?
Michael: Absolutely! As you may have gleaned from the artwork, the hero of our tale is heavily influenced by the action heroes of old–Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, et al. In THE ABDUCTABLES, aliens do indeed abduct the wrong person–in this case, the wrong person being a musclebound amnesiac with a severe case of roid rage and a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality!
John: What else can you tell us about The Abductables?
Michael: It’s MARS ATTACKS! meets COMMANDO by way of a darkly humorous reversal of Ridley Scott’s ALIEN–the hostile organism running loose on the ship is the human, and the crew running for their lives, the aliens!
THE ABDUCTABLES is a sci-fi action comedy in which a musclebound amnesiac gets abducted by aliens and–upon waking up on the probing table–proceeds to treat their spaceship like the set of an ’80s action movie! Basically it’s MARS ATTACKS! meets COMMANDO, with crazy fight scenes, ridiculous sight gags, and plenty of one-liners to make Arnold Schwarzenegger proud.
John: What inspired you to create this comic?
Michael: For reasons I never quite understood, I had something of an obsession with all-things alien in my childhood. I would read UFO conspiracy books in the library, and the content of my frequent notebook doodles more often than not contained “little green men” in one form or another. THE ABDUCTABLES is a sort of tribute to the aliens I took so seriously once upon a time–by going in the opposite direction and not taking them seriously at all!
John: What or who influenced your work as a creator?
Michael: My personal creative influences are a weird mixture of ’80s British Invasion comics, ’90s Image edginess, and the manga craze of the early ’00s. As far as direct influences on THE ABDUCTABLES itself, the parallels to Ridley’s Scott’s ALIEN can’t be ignored, as we’re kind of reversing the roles here by having the human play the part of “hostile organism” running loose on a ship and killing all the members of the crew.
John: Can you tell us a bit about your creative process?
Michael: After coming up with the initial concept, I spend some time figuring out who the characters are and the what the world they inhabit is like. The ideas just build upon each other from there, and before I know it I have a story outline! Then it’s straight to script (usually).
I tend to have a “what if?” scenario pop into my head at some point (in this case, what if you woke up on an alien spaceship?) and go from there. To me, the planning stages of a project are the most fun part of the creative process–figuring out the world and the characters that inhabit it.
John: Tell me about the creative team. How did you come together on this?
Michael: THE ABDUCTABLES is a two-man operation run by myself and Ibai Canales, a Spanish artist who cut his teeth drawing Richard C. Meyer’s IRON SIGHTS comic. I’ve been a big fan of the Diversity & Comics YouTube channel since the beginning, so it was through there that I discovered Canales’s amazing artwork. When I saw he had an opening in his schedule, I took a chance and messaged him. The rest, as they say, is history!
John: What stage are you currently in with the comic? How much of it is done?
Michael: We have a bit of an upper hand compared to many Indiegogo projects, as all 52 pages of the book were penciled, inked, and grayscaled before the launch of the campaign. I’m currently working on the lettering, so once that’s complete and the digital files are prepped, it’s off the printers (assuming we reach our funding goal).
John: What or who influenced your work as a creator?
Michael: My personal creative influences are a weird mixture of ’80s British Invasion comics, ’90s Image edginess, and the manga craze of the early ’00s. As far as direct influences on THE ABDUCTABLES itself, the parallels to Ridley’s Scott’s ALIEN can’t be ignored, as we’re kind of reversing the roles here by having the human play the part of “hostile organism” running loose on a ship and killing all the members of the crew
John: How did you rope Ibai Canales into working on your project?
Michael: I think it was really a “right place, right time” situation. I was already a fan of Canales’s work–not to mention his art style really suited the subject matter in question–so when I saw he had an opening in his schedule, I took and a chance and reached out to him! It didn’t hurt that we have a similarly sick sense of humor…
John: Is there anything else you want to share with us before we sign off?
Michael: If 52 pages of over-the-top action and laugh-out-loud comedy sounds like your cup of tea, I highly encourage you to check out the ABDUCTABLES campaign page and back the book! Don’t just take my word for it–the cartoony greatness of Canales’s pages speak for itself!
As I mentioned before, my comic book career is just getting started. My hope is that THE ABDUCTABLES will be a successful debut that paves the way for many more comics from yours truly to come. I don’t consider myself some hoity-toity artiste–I’m just here to entertain people. So if 52 pages of over-the-top alien-ass-kicking action sounds entertaining to you (how could it not?!) I encourage everyone to back our Indiegogo and help make it a reality!
John: Well Michael, thank you once again for being a part of Indie Comics Showcase. We wish you the best of luck on this and all future campaigns.
Michael: Thank you, Bleeding Fool!
PISTOLERA
A Blood-Soaked Tale of Scorn and Vengeance
A pregnant Mexican teen seeks vengeance against the sheriff who raped her by learning the ways of the gun from her fugitive brother. Think “KILL BILL” meets “DESPERADO” in the sun-dried backdrop of the old wild west. Inspired by the brave women who fought in the Mexican Revolution, PISTOLERA was born. Our protagonist, VALENCIA VALDEZ, is a young teenage girl in a world of masculine, gun-slinging vaqueros, who’s dead set on settling the score with a vile Texan sheriff that took away more than just her innocence. I spoke with Gilbert Deltrez recently about this comic.
Please Visit The Campaign Site Here.
John: Gil, welcome back to and thank you for being a part of Indie Comics Showcase. The last time we featured your Indie Comic LAIR. Today we will be talking about your latest project, La Pistolera – A Blood Soaked Tale of Scorn and Vengeance, which is being done under Headshot Horror Publishing. Before we get started, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Gil: Thanks for having me, John! A little about myself? What can I say, I’m an underdog, obscure writing talent trying to pave my way into the comic book scene. As a Christian writer as well, I try to infuse some parts of my work with a spiritual message of sorts. All done organically of course to leave readers thinking about something more when they reflect upon my characters and the worlds they inhabit. I’m also the father to an amazing one year old boy, who has taught me how to be stronger than I never thought capable of, and a husband to a loving wife with amazing patience. Just yesterday she fell asleep through my first time watching Venom on Blu-ray.
John: What can you tell us about Headshot Horror?
Gil: Headshot Comics is my exclusive graphic novel imprint. Headshot Horror is a division of that, focusing on horror-centric one-shot stories. So far we successfully crowdfunded LAIR via Headshot Horror, and have plans to crowdfund PISTOLERA, as well as GROM (Galactic Rodents of Mayhem), via Headshot Comics.
John: Now let’s get down to La Pistolera, for some reason, the sort of vibe I’m getting from the campaign is one part Kill Bill and one part Desperado. Can you tell us a bit about La Pistolera and how it came to be?
John: Is la Pistolera going to be a one shot or a series?
Gil: Right now Pistolera is planned as a one-shot. If things go well, I’d be more than happy to consider keeping this as a series, but the idea is to have closure, while leaving things open to pick up at anytime.
John: Out of curiosity I was looking at your past campaigns and was wondering if you will be relaunching Under The Flesh at a later date?
Gil: Most definitely. I have some unfinished business with my first ever successfully crowdfunded issue with UTF. Pistolera colorist JL Giles did the art and colors for UTF, and we will reunite again to close out UTF.
John: What have some of your influences been over the years and how have they affected your work?
Gil: Movies, video games, and comics have been major influences for my work. Specifically for Pistolera, Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino, and Red Dead Redemption games have left indelible marks on my creative psyche.
John: Share some of you creative process with us.
Gil: Sometimes it starts with an idea. A logline. A scene. Or perhaps just a title. Then from there the world-building begins. With Pistolera, it’s strong. Gritty. Racism underlies some of the subject matter to a degree. I did research on the Mexican-American war. The Mexican revolution. The female soldiers who fought alongside men to try and thwart a dictatorship surging in Mexico in the 1900’s. Once the research is done, character creation gets fine-tuned and then materialized. I hand-write all my scripts before typing them out. And then the hunt for an artist begins. We work some pages, and pitch to backers via crowdfunding.
John: What are your hopes for the return of Las Pistolera and 2019?
Gil: After this Kickstarter, Pistolera will shift to IGG. I would love to see Pistolera in other mediums, and I’ll be looking to push that once I have a tangible copy in my hand to promote further. Also hoping to crowdfund and complete two other books in addition to Pistolera this year. Hoping we can get there.
John: Is there anything else you want to share with us before we sign off?
Gil: Thank you for the time, and for anyone reading this, and who resonates with my ideas and vision as a storyteller, or can see the potential behind Pistolera, or myself as a creator, please consider backing our books! I create them for you!
John: Well Gil, thank you once again for being a part of Indie Comics Showcase. We wish you the best of luck on this and all future campaigns.
Gil: I appreciate you, John. Thank you for featuring me on the Indie Comic Showcase!
Please Visit The Kickstarter Campaign Page Here.
Alterna Comics
A Needed Expansion
Alterna Comics is gearing up for something big and it starts by increasing the size of their storage space.
Thanks to a strong response from readers and supportive retailers, 2018 was the biggest year in Alterna Comics history. Now they have some BIG plans for the years ahead and the first part of those plans includes moving to a state of the art storage center and increasing the size of their space to a so they can safely and easily warehouse more books and shipping materials — and have the room they need to continue to grow. I had a discussion with publisher Peter Simeti about the campaign.
Please Visit The Campaign Site Here.
Peter: Thanks! I’m glad that so many people have not only been supporting this campaign, but have been supporting Alterna for a long while now It means a lot.
John: Can you tell us a bit about what the ultimate goal of the campaign and expansion is?
Peter: We’ve been growing for a while now over the course of the past 2 to 3 years and this campaign is going to allow us to immediately be able to house larger print runs and start taking the first steps towards hiring part-time help for order fulfillment and eventually the distribution of many different indie comics — not just Alterna’s.
John: Peter, what can you tell our readers about yourself?
Peter: For the past 13 years, I’ve been the sole operator and publisher of Alterna Comics, a company I founded back in 2006. In the past 2 years we’ve been bringing back newsprint single issues that are fun and affordable with an average cover price of $1.50 a piece.
John: What have some of your influences been over the years, and how have they affected your work?
Peter: As a publisher and business owner, I’m influenced by many different entrepreneurs both in and out of comics. When I started out in the industry, I was heavily inspired by some of my favorite creators: Art Adams, Jim Lee, Alex Ross, George Lopez, Dwayne McDuffie, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Chris Claremont, Stan Lee, Chuck Dixon, Kevin Eastman — the list goes on and on. Nowadays, I’m more inspired the creators and readers at Alterna.
John: Peter, you’ve worked as a writer, editor, penciler, inker, cover artist, can you tell us how you got started in comics?
Peter: I got my first start doing colors and inks on various indie projects. Letters too. Eventually I made my own book and then things kind of took off from there and I started Alterna.
John: What are your hopes for Alterna Comics and for 2019?
Peter: I’m looking forward to seeing us continue to grow. 2018 was our best year ever and at this point, 2019 is set to completely eclipse 2018. The readers and retailers that support Alterna are definitely to thank for that.
John: Do you have any words of encouragement or advice for anyone trying to get into comics?
Peter: It’s going to take years and thousands of hours of work to get to where you want to be. Put in the time, put in the work, and be patient with yourself.
John: Is there anything else you want to share with us before we sign off?
Peter: Support your local comic shop and spread the word about the comics and creators that you love!
Support indie comics and please follow me on the Indie Comics Showcase Twitter account @Indie_Comics!
