fuckin' interview...

No quiero dejar pasar de publicar esto aqui..jaja.. lo se, despues de todo es egoteca, que no? nahh.. dejemoslo como que la guardo aqui como archivo historico del mudaismo.
JA!

Me da gueva traducirla, pero ahi ta...


EL ARSENAL??? SIMON SAYS: BUY THIS BOOK!

Scott Closter
Arcana Studios

Coming From Arcana Studios this July is the first installment of the three-issue mini-series El Arsenal: Unknown Enemy. I had a little chitchat with series creator Salvador Vázquez to get the lowdown on the world of El Arsenal. The full interview will be available within the next Arcana Studios newsletter.

Scott: The concept of El Arsenal hooked me from the moment I read the synopsis for the book. The series seems like flat out fun. Can you tell us a little about how you got the idea for the book?

Salvador: I first explored the world of El Arsenal within a screenplay I wrote for a short film that was never filmed, this was about 7 or 8 years ago. One day I was talking over beers with a couple of friends, and they asked me how I came up with stories or scenes; I explained that it all began with music. I get a song and started to visualize the characters, dialogues, situations... and voila! Next thing I know, I've got myself a story. The thing is I always needed some good rock and roll to do it. They laughed about it and told me I should write something with Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" in mind.

That was the start.

Add the Mexican town of Real de Catorce to the mix (that's the place that inspires the comic's "Palomuerto") and throw in some Sci-Fi and black humor... and we get El Arsenal.

At first I didn't give it a big Sci-Fi look, mainly because we were going to make it as a low-budget short film, so I just wrote into it some of the basic stuff that ended up in the comic.

I really love Sci Fi. I love the "hard" Sci Fi books of Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and movies, like 2001: Space Odyssey, Clockwork Orange, and obviously Star Wars. As a kid my stories and comic books where big "space operas", a Star Wars/Robotech thing. I loved the idea of other worlds, ships, lightsabers and stuff. But since I grew up reading hard Sci-Fi, I had high respect for the concept, so high that when I started doing comics again, I didn't dare to approach the genre.

I then came upon a film that mixed Sci-Fi with black humor: Alex de la Iglesia's "Accion Mutante", and suddenly I was hearing the weird keyboard sounds of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", and I pictured a western setting in Real de Catorce, with laser guns and Mercs fighting each other.

Then I saw Cockroaches.

Next thing I know, I've got the word processor open and the title "QKRCH 2015" (that's El Arsenal's original title) on the screen.

Scott: How did you get "The Arse Crew" together to take the book from a mere title on a screen to the full glory that is “El Arsenal”?

Salvador: It began when Carlos (Garcia Campillo) and I self-published a comic called "Lugo" here in Mexico. He was the writer and I was the artist. We published it through our company called Producciones El Chango, where I assumed the position of "Art Director", coordinating the artistic chores and looking for fresh talent. That's how I discovered Daniel Pérez. He was working with a studio called Neurona C. I really liked his stuff, so I called him to see if he would draw a couple of issues of "Lugo". The first issue he did ended up being the last one in the series. When "Lugo" ended, I immediately started working with Daniel on what would become El Arsenal.

Daniel knew Tatto and Homer Lumbreras, they helped him with the coloring. Edz Garza also joined the CREW early on. In fact, he wrote the very first draft of El Arsenal, adapting the screenplay into comic book form, at the time I didn't think I could do it. Edz is very talented, back then he was very young (16 years old!) Eventually I dismissed his draft and started my own. When we signed with Arcana I called him because I wanted him to be in the team. He helps me put together everything I write for the comic, serving as a copy assistant.

Scott: Can you tell us about a bit about the main characters of the series, (and how did you come up with the name Godzukee?)?

Salvador: "Simon Templas Masiosare", the protagonist's name, comes from Mexican folklore. "Simon templas" is a common saying here in Mexico used to dismiss something, like "yeah, right". "Masiosare" is a little bit of weird dark humor. In the Mexican National Anthem there is a part in the lyrics that says: "Mas si osare un extraño enemigo", which means, "If an unknown enemy dares". "Mas si osare" is written in "old" Spanish, which isn't used anymore, so when we were kids we didn't get it, and thought that "Masiosare" WAS the unknown enemy's name.

There's a funny story behind every name in this characters series. Godzukee comes from Godzuki, the son of Godzilla in those 80's cartoons. I named the character after him, first because of the character's size: he is big and tough, like a monster. I didn't know if there would be a trademark problem, so I wrote it with a double "e". I also named him Godzukee because of something in his back-story: Godzukee is the love child of two Mexican guerrilla fighters. His father was a real loser, and his mother was a real piece of work. She was a leader and a fierce fighter that had a "battle cry" that sounded
just like the sound Godzilla made in the movies, so they started calling her Godzilla. So naturally her son became Godzukee.

"Zazil" is named after a good friend of mine. I think it is a name or Mayan origin, but I don't really for sure. But I think it sounds cool.

The list goes on. I even named some characters after soccer players, or just used weird words with double meanings. For me a lot of the fun of writing a story is coming up with the characters and their stories up to the point of the actual events.

What I can say about the cast is that they've all got skeletons in their closets. When I create a character I like to give them their own stories. Some of the stories have even intertwined in the past. For example, Simon and Godzukee have met many times before their encounter in "El Arsenal: Unknown Enemy", and I'll probably get to that in
another miniseries. El Toque is another character with a huge back-story, one that pretty much justifies the chaotic world in which El Arsenal is set.

Scott: Can you tell us what type of fan would enjoy reading El Arsenal?

Salvador: Everyone who loves action movies and dark comedies. I'm a film buff who just loves Hong Kong action cinema, not to mention it's American "translators", like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, etc.

Scott: You've published another series in Mexico called Lugo, is this your first series published in the US?

Salvador: Yes, this is our first series published in the US. "Lugo" came close to being published by an independent publisher in the US, but it went out of business just before we closed the deal so it never happened. "Lugo" was published here in Mexico on our own Producciones El Chango label, along with Cygnus Comics. The book did very well. All the artists that worked on it eventually made it to the US industry: Carlo Barberi, Francisco Ruiz-Velazco, Raul Treviño and now Daniel Perez.

That's something I'm really proud of.

Scott: What differences (if any) have you noticed between the comic industry in Mexico and North America?

Salvador: First off, there is no comic industry at all. Or none as you know it. There are "funnybooks" here and there. The best selling are "pocket" sized, with stories of Lucha Libre (wrestling), soft porn, soap opera type stories, etc. There are some reprints of US superhero comics and manga, but original creator-owned stuff is just published in very low print runs and not widely distributed. There is no direct market, not many comic shops and the distribution system makes it difficult for an independent comic to survive for long. There is a lot of talent but not a lot of work. Everyone has to work on advertising or other fields to survive.

There are a lot of people with a lot of talent that are doing high quality work. In my hometown of Monterrey there are a bunch of artists and creators doing work for the US industry, like Studio F, which is (in my opinion) one of the best coloring studios in the business. We have a huge talent pool here, just waiting for the chance to break in.

Scott: Could you tell us how you got together with Arcana Studio?

Salvador: That's a funny story. As I said before, we’ve been working on this
project for over five years. The comic itself has had various incarnations. Daniel penciled and colored the first issue two times before the final version that will see the light through Arcana. At first we thought of self-publishing the comic as a graphic novel, and then show it around to see if someone wanted the full project. But it just didn't seem right, so we started over from scratch again and again. Last year we had the story and the designs that you see right now, we showed it around the San Diego con a couple of times, got
some good comments, but nothing else. We still thought we could make it better, so we kept on working on it.

Alfonso Ruiz, a good friend from the old "Lugo" days, asked to see the work we were doing. I sent him some pages, he really liked what he saw and asked if he could show them to his editor. I said yes. That same day, Sean O'Reilly contacted me via IM and by nightfall I had the contract in my inbox. One month later we signed on and officially started working with Arcana on bringing this book to the racks.

El Arsenal has become like a "life-project" for both Daniel and me. It has endured through some rough times, and really grown up with our friendship. I think the fun we’re having in doing it shows in the final product. And that’s the whole enchilada.

Scott: Gracias, Salvador. We’re all looking forward to some butt-kicking action this July. El Arsenal #1, published by Arcana Studio, is listed in the May 2005 Previews (Order code MAY052494) for shipping in July.

For more information of El Arsenal, visit the El Arsenal mini site at http://www.arcanastudio.com/elarsenal/ and the official site at http://www.elarsenal.com/

rock on!