PR: Right out of the gate I got a 2000AD/MegaCity One vibe from Samara and The Rangers of Centaria. Was this an artistic choice by Barras, or did you have a retro-future vision in mind?
DL: I had a retro future vision in mind, originally. Prior to Dell joining the team, I had some concept artwork created by artist Rowel Roque where we sat down and hashed out each character based on my original sketches from several years prior. When Dell joined, he added a bit of that 80’s cartoon feel to the characters. Dell has a background in animation, having worked on several cartoons through the 80’s and 90s.
PR: What genre would you define the book as? Super hero? Weird science?
DL: I would define the book as leaning more towards science fiction than super hero.
PR: Tell us about your past collaborations with Barras, and how you developed Samara and the Rangers of Centaria.
DL: Samara and the Rangers of Centaria is my first collaboration with Dell Barras. About mid-way through the Samara book, we released a preview edition. With Halloween approaching, we decided to put Samara on the backburner to work on a horror one-shot called, Weston’s Revenge.
Developing Samara and the Rangers initially came from my love of 1980’s cartoons. I really wanted to have a group of unique characters that I could put on these crazy missions. A lot of my initial thoughts never came to be, as with the fruition with many projects, but meeting Dell was really the icing on the cake and he brought the visual aspect I was really looking for.
PR: How many issues are planned for the series? Do you plan to do monthly releases?
DL: So far I’m planning on a three or four issue mini series for the first volume. I’m also tossing around the idea of crossing over these characters with another character called Caspian Porter. I’ve always been wanting to have this big universe of characters that would have regular cross overs.
PR: I spot Iron Man and Hulk posters in the background of your bio photograph at SnowyWorks. Were Marvel comics key in Samara’s inspiration? What are the comics that inspired you to become a writer?
DL: Although I grew up with much love for Marvel and DC characters, they didn’t really have an impact on what I do currently. My inspiration for becoming a writer stems from growing up in the 90’s. In my hometown, we had a comic book store called, Hall of Heroes. The store owner also had an indie publishing company (also called Hall of Heroes). They published a lot of black and white books and launched the careers of a lot of people. This has always stuck around with me as I got older and was something I’ve always wanted to do. Around seven years ago, I finally had the means to hop into comics, that’s when I launched SnowyWorks.
PR: There are concepts for many characters, including robots, at the back of the preview issue. Will the series be told solely from Samara’s perspective or will we get vantage of the Centarian’s plight as well?
DL: The story will always be from Samara’s point of view. When issue 1 is fully complete you’ll get a sense for where the story is heading, and in future issues we’ll get to understand a bit more of the Centarians.
PR: Will the regular series be colour or black and white?
DL: The regular series will be full color. Bea Navarro will be applying the interior colors for us.
PR: Are all the pages in the preview issue finalized, or are you still looking to make some changes?
DL: We are still looking to make a few changes. Mostly refining the lettering and of course applying colors.
PR: Where can people find more of your work, and when can we expect Samara and The Rangers of Centaria to release?
My website will have the most up to date information about all SnowyWorks projects. Joining my newsletter will also have the most recent information.
A lot of my initial thoughts never came to be, as with the fruition with many projects, but meeting Dell was really the icing on the cake and he brought the visual aspect I was really looking for.
You can read the preview issue of Samara and the Rangers of Centaria here. You can follow SnowyWorks via their FaceBook feed and website.