Indie Comics Showcase #167: Ash Airways, Captain Luv & Forsaken Gods

Welcome back to another installment of Indie Comics Showcase, the weekly blog where we signal boost a few truly independent comics that are currently crowdfunding their projects, crowdsourcing their funding in some way, or just completely self-publishing on their own. Every little bit of support for these creators matters, from a single dollar pledge to the twenty-five dollar bundle, and of course the higher tiers are usually fun too! Even if you can’t back a campaign or buy a book, you can share or tweet about these projects to your friends and followers. 

On Indie Comics Showcase, we interview the creators, show off some art, and tell you how you can check out the product for yourself. Below we have some outstanding crowdfunding campaigns this week for you to learn about, enjoy, and hopefully support by backing one or more of them! Thanks for checking these out and for being the best part of Indie Comics Showcase. Let’s jump in!

Get your copy here!

Chris Braly: Welcome to Indie Comics Showcase, Federico! What can you tell our readers about your comic Ash Airways Chronicles? 

Federico Mazzei: Sure! Ash Airways is a 130 pages’ b/w + colour graphic novel about two worlds at the end of a telephone wire. At one end there is a big call centre located somewhere in Ireland, owned by an invisible and gigantic corporation, run by a ruthless woman and operated by a bunch of nuts coming from all over the world. At the other end there’s the World as we all know it, which has its load of people with any kind of problems desperately looking for help.

CB: Where did the idea for this comic come from, led to self-publishing?

FM: The idea came after I ended up working for a call centre in Dublin. At the time, I had never worked for corporations and I did not know much about it. Three years later, the human material I’ve been in touch with and the case of ordinary madness I’ve assisted or get involved in on daily basis, pushed the story out of me. The idea of self-publishing came as the answer to the question “Who on this planet would be interested in publishing such a story?”

CB: What kind of comic readers is this suited for and who is it aimed at?

FM: This graphic novel is suitable for readers who like social satire with a pinch of grotesque. And of course to who, out there, right now, is dealing with, or working in the customer relation representative environment. They’ll for sure will feel less alone after reading Ash Airways.

CB: Tell us about your style and creative process, and how you developed them

FM: Ash Airways has a long story, as long is the list of the people that took part at the making through the years. Still, despite of this many changes and inevitable adjustments, involving everyone in the creative process for the sake of the product was always a must. The script went through uncountable process before getting turned into the final page.

CB: Talk about your creative team that contributed to this project

FM: Michele D’Aloisio was the first who joined the project. Artist, colourist, letterers in case of need and, most important of all, co-producer of the first two chapters of the saga. Pino Rigucci took care of the graphics and lettering.

The last two chapters are by the art, colours and lettering of Emilio Lecce, but they exist thanks to my two friends Zio and Saverio, who stepped in the production, helping me funding the rest of the project. Saverio also helped in the process of lay out of the pages, lettering and graphics. Tancredi Marrone and Alessandro Rizza made my English suitable for the English speakers. Nicolas Massimo is the cover artist. All of them put a lot in this project whether it was competence, commitment passion, creativity, work, time or money.

CB: What’s your production workflow like? 

FM: The Graphic novel is now complete and available for purchase on amazon and Gumroad. We’re now trying to focus on keeping the feeds alive on Facebook and Instagram, to spread the voice about the existence of Ash Airways . Sadly my workmates and I have poor or not talent at all, in that.

CB: What have you been learning from self-publishing and creating through this process?

FM: I’ve learned a lot from this experience. First of all, I’m very bad in promoting this project, as it is the rest of the people involved. I have learned also we desperately need someone in the team who could fill this gap.

CB: Are there more stories to tell beyond this book? 

FM: Well, theoretically there are many stories still to tell. There are concepts and script ready to go. Ideally even a possible sequel of Ash Airways as well, but the problem is always the same: money. Maybe if we manage to sell enough copies of this graphic novel, we might risk another reckless self-publishing operation like this one. Crowdfunding so far is not an option, we tried once and was (as crappy as we are) a disaster… again, we need to find someone with a real know-how before trying it again.

CB: What makes this comic book uncommon?

FM: We like to define Ash Airways Chronicles as an uncommon graphic novel about the common people. But it is actually a mixed breed between a one-shot graphic novel and a series of comic strips. The story does not follow a linear path but jumps back and forth through 22 short self-contained episodes, all connected one to the other by an impalpable continuity in which 16 characters will appear and disappear, endlessly rotating in the role of main character and back actor that, piece by piece, like the tiles of a mosaic, will form eventually the surreal but very real big picture

CB: Anything else you would like to share with our readers before we sign off?

FM: Well, I’d like to thank all the readers for their attention by sharing a thought. I see self-publishing as running a marathon. Make it to the end is already a victory. So, even if the graphic novel would not sell much, for me, having this story completed, in the way we made it, it is already enough to make me happy. Of course if, by any chance, Ash Airways Chronicles will end up selling a shitload of copies, that would make all of us even happier.

CB: Thanks Frederico!

Learn more about the project here!

Check out the campaign here!

Chris Braly: Tell me the pitch for Forsaken Gods!

FresherLuke: Forsaken gods is a story set in a fantasy world known as Epic earth, where centuries ago, there was a great war between the gods. Many years later, our main character Samara is trying to piece together why the war happened by excavating one of the many vaults and dungeons that the gods used to store their powerful weapons and artefacts that they made to fight the war. In so doing she inexplicably awakens the Skull Knight, and as such he is now duty bound to follow her around and do as she commands, much to her apprehension, Chapter two takes place right where chapter one ends, as Samara barely escapes the dungeon she entered, and now has to travel through the Deadly forest, which poses new challenges and dangers she must contend with.