1. What initially drew you to comics?
I don’t think I have a precise answer to that. It was a mixture of the art and how the characters were written that made me genuinely love comics! As a creator and a fan, I love how well combined literature and visual art can meld together to create a beautiful form of art that we call comics!
In the early 2000s, I read my first comic in a local library that my grandmother took me to. I had a few Dragon Ball mangas and Ultimate Spider-Man books I picked up. Spider-man was the first comic that felt like real people that I could relate with. When I found my first store, I was shown more stories than I thought were out there. It made me realize there are more comics out there than superhero books, and it’s become a happy addiction since then!
2. Please tell us more about Sidekick for Hire and Prolong.
Sidekick For Hire was my way of showing how much I love superhero comics while also making fun of them. It’s about a Sidekick that gets hired by millionaire vigilantes (like wannabe Batmans) but sucks at the job and gets the heroes hurt or, worse, killed! The main character, Leo Moss, is Robin if he was terrible at his job. I wanted to tell a story with some serious stakes but also a story people can laugh at!
Prolong is tonally different from anything else I’ve made. It’s a one-issue story about Death not wanting to say goodbye to someone they care about. Since it’s a bit more somber, I put the whole story for free on my website because I feel a little bad making people pay for a comic that might make them sad. It’s one of my favorite stories I’ve made, and I want to use it to get people to read more comics!
3. What do comics allow you to do as a storyteller?
I think it allows me to tell stories of different genres while messing with the medium itself. I’ve gotten to tell funny, sad, and even horror-style stories through comics. When writing it, I’m not confined by a particular act structure like movies or specific page count like novels. Sure, there are some limitations on what I can write about based on what my collaborators can/want to do, but the limits go further out than people think! There are so many possibilities that I still haven’t explored, and I’m excited to discover them for myself! Plus, comic books are just more fun, in my opinion!
4. Please tell us about your creative and collaborative process.
The creative process looks a little crazy to a non-writer. I sometimes have an idea and start writing about it that day. Other times I’ll let it stew in my brain for days or even months, just to return to it with a fresh set of eyes. As for the specific writing part, I start with an outline of the story, and then I’ll expand the outline every following stage until I have an outline for each page. Then I’ll start writing the script and rewriting it until the artists handle it. Then I’ll keep working on the dialogue here and there until it is lettered. It’s a bit maddening when you sit down and think about it. A lot of writing and rewriting goes into making comic books!
That’s why it’s great to work with other people. I usually tell my collaborators to use my script as a loose guideline. I want them to have fun while working on the comic. That includes giving them creative freedom. There’s a lot of back and forth between us so that we can tell the best story.
5. Where can we find out more about your work?
I usually post about fun comic stuff I’m working on or dumb jokes on Instagram and Twitter @YesThatKristian. You can also find me and more of my work on my website at kristianherrera.com! My messages are always open to anyone that has questions when trying to make a comic book. I want to help anyone I can because comics are amazing, and the more people that make/read them, the better the industry will be!
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