LET’S TALK KOMIKS: Dr. Carlo Jose San Juan spreads his IMMORTAL WINGS

Well known from his comics Callous and M.O.U.S.E., we managed to ask Dr. Carlo San Juan about his latest project with Rod Espinosa – Immortal Wings, that will be arriving this week. We got to converse about his experience working with Rod and how they got into Antarctic Press.

This is Let’s Talk Komiks.

FLIPGEEKS: Can you describe to us what Immortal Wings is?
DR. CARLO SAN JUAN: Immortal Wings is a four-issue mini-series published by Antarctic Press. I’m the writer and co-creator while Rod Espinosa is my fellow series creator and handles all the visual stuff.

It is mostly set in the Cosmic Frontier, the outskirts of the Galaxy and features a nameless bounty hunter and her agent, a cybernetic space dragon. I would consider it sci-fi/fantasy fare.

It all starts off when the militaristic governing body of the galaxy, the Galactic Shogunate, foresees a potential threat to their order and hires the bounty hunter to eliminate it. And that’s where the fun begins!

You mentioned somewhere in the internet that Immortal Wings being published by Antarctic Press, may we know more on how the deal happened and how collaborating with Rod Espinosa began?
For the last couple of years, by pure chance, Rod and I would sit next to each other in several consecutive comic conventions and events. It’s quite a thing considering seating is usually randomized in these events. So we got talking about comics, obviously, and our conversation came around to Immortal Wings, a story I had been writing for several years.

Visually, I had done a concept pin-up art for the fantasy art anthology, Melon, by the folks at Happy Lockjaw and showed it to him. He seemed interested in the premise as we both had a love for the fantasy genre and I brought up a potential collaboration. We met a few times outside of comic events to talk it over and how we were going to have it published. I mentioned a few small press companies I could pitch it to and also considered publishing it independently. Of course, I brought up the possibility of Antarctic Press publishing it so we sent a pitch there too. They got interested and things took off from there.

But prior to that, Immortal Wings was a tale I wanted to pitch to Heavy Metal magazine in the late 90’s. So there was a certain look I wanted to have and Rod’s style certainly fit the bill.

Antarctic Press has submission instructions on their website but other than that, Rod’s best advice to me was that there was nothing like a completed project to pitch. So we finished the first issue and sent it to them.

As you’ve mentioned, Immortal Wings is 4-issue mini-series, was that a personal preference or do you have plans on expanding the story after the first 4 issues?
Originally, I had wanted it to be a continuing series but I’d like to see how people react to the premise first. So the challenge I had was to make a concise yet entertaining story in this new world that is Immortal Wings in four issues.

As it currently is, I had a lot of fun writing it and seeing the world I wrote through Rod’s mind’s eye was a fascinating experience. And that’s the real benefit I got from this. I wrote Immortal Wings purely for fun and to see it completed was already a fulfilling experience and to have it get this far is just a huge, huge bonus. I can’t wait for people to read it.

Being the writer for Immortal Wings, can you share the creative process behind writing the story, as well as how you and Rod did the collaboration? As advice for local comic book writers and artists.
I’ve had some experience as a writer in my other collaboration, M.O.U.S.E., with another amazing artist, Pilar Esber. I basically write in script format, using a free program called Celtx. I input in text describing everything in each panel and the dialogue within them. I leave it up to the artist to interpret my writing in their own vision. Very rarely do I ask for revisions. Only if there are inconsistencies or if there is a misunderstanding.

Working with Rod is a blast. He’s a real professional and we had a lot of fun working on the comic. He relished working on designs for my written characters and the various machinery. He had a lot on his plate too since he’s a full-time comic artist so he was pretty busy. But he’s a machine and his productivity is astounding!

We had no communication problems. We were on the same page from the get-go.

I did learn a lot, now that you mention it. He’s very skilled when it comes to what he does and how he uses all the tools he has in his disposal is amazing. But to me, ultimately it was his professionalism when it came to working on comics that was a lesson in itself. In a sense it validated my own approach.

I can only recall one instance of miscommunication, and it was for the better. How we imagined a certain group of characters in the story was completely different but in the end I liked his version more. It was pretty brilliant on his end.

Basing on your recent experiences, what is the difference between having your work published in print internationally with having your work seen internationally through the internet?
I can’t really say yet since the launch is still a few days away. But so far the biggest differences are in the management. Online I literally do everything while with Antarctic Press, they do all the legwork on the publishing, distribution, and marketing side of things.  Everything beyond the actual comic production is taken care of. On the other hand, online, once you’re done producing a comic you can publish and distribute it right away if you wish with the potential of instant feedback and the possibility of editing it for the better if needed.

Immortal Wings #1 by Carlo San Juan and Rod Espinosa from Antarctic Press will be at your nearest local comic book stores on January 27th.