Spotlight on Independent Creators Miguel Guerra & Suzy Dias

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Let’s face it; comic book conventions are nothing more than a high school yearbook come to life on a grand scale. The posing for photographs, playing dress-up, book signings, and even the after parties all bear a close experiential resemblance to our annual end of school year activities. With this analogy in mind, having spent 3 days walking the small press aisles of this year’s NYCC glad handing and making pleasant small talk; and after hours of deliberation, (little did you know we were on the yearbook committee), we’re finally prepared to name our inaugural year’s Independent Creator(s) with the Most Swagger winners.

The honors fall to a rare husband and wife collaborative team who, together, embody all the qualities found in the other creators representing the small press section of the NYCC. Despite only having the opportunity to converse with one half of the team at the Con, Miguel Guerra’s passion, boundless creativity, and hard work—along with his infective positivity—easily won the day. It also didn’t hurt that he has a great sense of humor, an expansive knowledge of history, and brain that seems to be gushing ideas into book format faster than the BP Deepwater Horizon platform leaked crude into the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Guerra who’s been published 3 times in Heavy metal had three self-published books on display and was kind enough to give me a run-down on each before I took them home dove greedily into the pages. Ladies and gentlemen we introduce the extraordinary works (and thoughts) of Miguel Guerra and Suzy Dias.

Super Corporate Heroes

Super Corporate Heroes

The first book Miguel and I talked about was the uproarious Super Corporate Heroes. A comical farce set in world where “being saved is not a right, it’s a privilege”. In the exclusive sneak peak of this series set to launch in the Spring of 2012, we encounter a reality in which superheroes cannot legally save someone until they come to an agreement on the contractual terms and decide on payment options. “$1000 gets you 5 rescues for a month, $6000 covers you for a year.” …then there’s the fine print. Super Corporate Heroes is not only laugh-out-loud funny it’s probably one of the most intelligent books you’ll read all this year—and the next. With tongues pressed firmly in cheek, Miguel and Suzy simultaneously lampoons the superhero genre while questioning the practicability of altruism (the genre’s grounding premise) in our modern over-incorporated world. Taking its rightful place in a not-very-long line of comic books that ask the question, “What would it really be like if superheroes really inhabited our world?” Super Corporate Heroes chooses a decisively different path which allows it to stand out from its more famous contemporaries. Where Alan Moore’s Marvelman, and Watchmen and the more recent Red Son by Mark Millar (really, just an amalgamation of the ideas presented in Marvelman and Watchmen) adopted cynicism as their engine of social commentary, Miguel and Suzy, in contrast, opted for the less traveled and much more risky and difficult road of satire. Which is to say Super Corporate Heroes manages to inject a healthy dose of realism and sophisticated commentary with a double shot of fun—something that’s been lacking in the superhero genre for much too long now.

Super Corporate Heroes also take jabs at two of our most popular heroes with their hilarious counterparts. First we’re introduced to Spinlar, a young, low-level, part-spider upstart who shoots webbing from his butt to the displeasure of his agent, Muerte Fuerte who’s very concerned with PR fallout. Then there’s Meerrkat, a vertically challenged, cigar-smoking, hirsute fellow who claims to be “the best at what he does.” What he does, it turns out, is collect bills for the Superheroes Inc. monopoly. That’s just for starters. In upcoming issues the creators will be tackling the very real relationship between fear and the world markets and a case of trademark infringement that comes very close to commenting on the Marvel/Stan Lee vs. Jack Kirby court case. It was after hearing Miguel’s impassioned explanation of this satirical series that throws superheroes (the epitome of selflessness) into the prevailing discussions on corporate greed that I knew I had to break out the mic and start recording.

Alric The Wild

Alric the wild

The second book we discussed was the very funny, and much lighter, Alric the Wild, based on the myth of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome who were raised by a she-wolf. With Alric, “a single babe blessed with the strength of a God” who tumbles out of horse-pulled wagon and is himself raised by a two-headed she-wolf, Miguel and Suzy chose to limit his capacity for civilty. Similar to his fellow adventurer the Monkey King (who will appear in later in the story) Alric is an innocent blessed with limit-less powers and almost no self-awareness. Described by Miguel as a “Marx Brothers, Three Stooges adventure,” spanning the ancient world of myths, his “wrecking crew of history” are developing nicely into one of the funniest comic books I’ve read since Groo the Wanderer. Think Conan the Barbarian meets Princess Mononoke, with a dash of Journey to the West, Tintin and The Jungle Book and you’d be half-way to comprehending the different influences Miguel and Suzy have consolidated in Alric the Wild. The single issue I was so lucky to get a chance to read, was a special edition printed only for the NY Comic Con. Miguel and Suzy plan to release it later as a single graphic novel adventure.

Samurai Elf-issue01 cover

Samurai Elf

Samurai Elf, the third book Miguel had on display, is set in a war-ravaged world called Tyr populated by elves, dwarves, trolls and all the other races from the high-fantasy canon. Having just emerged from its last global war a new leader driven to save the world through subjugation, begins introducing new technology, including an advanced cybernetic military force, into this otherwise agrarian realm. It’s a rather unique and thoroughly successful mix of fantasy and science fiction which Miguel and Suzy achieve without sacrificing the tenets of either genre. The protagonist of the story is Ardan, the last of the elves who has been hidden away but suddenly finds himself at the center of vast geopolitical affairs he’s wholly unprepared to deal with. He’s also what’s known as “the spark,” the most recent of a long line of mythical heroes that embody and must learn to wield great power. As Miguel explains; Samurai Elf is more of a teen fantasy about warfare and technology borne out of thoughts of the Mongols in relation to the idea that the civilization that has the best technology tends to be the most dominant. My mom being a survivor of the Spanish Civil War, I wanted to tackle the idea of the poetry of war. Essentially, it’s a story of loss of innocence. The reverse of the farm boy who becomes the ‘golden hero’ and rises to the occasion without having to deal with the stresses of war.”

Samurai Elf

The result is a highly entertaining tale of the grand-epic variety with deep historical notations, and thoroughly developed myths and belief systems in a fully realized world that’s as dangerous as it is charming. While comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien’s obsessive classics The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy should not be made lightly, Miguel and Suzy’s obsessive attention to details and effective incorporation of philosophy, mythology and religion puts Samurai Elf in the discussion. On the art front, Miguel’s detailed illustrations retain a cartoon-like expressiveness perfectly suited for a script that moves effortlessly from shocking scenes of violence to comical irreverence. With Samurai Elf, the husband and wife duo have created a world that holds a lasting magical fascination that’s difficult to explicate—it just has that rare special “something”, that “spark” perhaps, that appears but once in long while. We highly recommend this very original, surprisingly seductive series find its way on your bookshelves soon. Originally planned to run 7 volumes, Miguel and Suzy revised it down to 5 volume to pack more adventure into each 200+ page book. Currently at 2 finished volumes, Samurai Elf books 1 and 2 are available on Amazon.com, in comic book stores, and will be available on the creators’ website/store soon.

Miguel couldn’t have been more eloquent in our exchanges. Yet, after reading these equally successful but very different books, I felt the need to know more about the unique working relationship Miguel and Suzy shared that allowed them to so effortlessly bridge genres, and produce brilliant adult satire and a myth and history packed all ages book simultaneously. For this I engaged Miguel’s better half, Suzy:

A few questions for Suzy

Comic Book Snob: So I found myself becoming interested in the husband/wife collaborating–something you don’t see very often in the comics industry. I wanted ask you about the dynamics of the creative process? How’s the workload shared, how are creative decisions made?
Suzy: I like to characterize our relationship by saying if we never dated, we’d still grab a beer and hang out. We were old souls that got married straight after university and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Now on to the subject at hand. As writing partners, we struck gold. We naturally balance each other out. Our creative decisions usually consist of – ‘That’s a great idea!’ and ‘Let’s do this one first since the story has legs’.

As for the process, I’m thinking about this for the first time so forgive my wordiness. Normally, Miguel comes up with the idea for a comic. I’m often the initial person for scripts or children’s books. If Miguel shares a new idea he’s excited about, sparks instantly go off in my head. I ask a myriad of questions to see where he’d like the story to go. He’s used to my endless curiosity and tries answer everything on the fly. It’s all very spontaneous. Once I see how far he’s thought it through, I add my ideas to the mix and we flush out the story. Our only rule is that no matter how outrageous an idea is, it must have a solid and consistent plot or no one will buy the premise. I think that’s why there’s never any conflict. It’s all about the story – there’s no ego involved. If something helps forward the plot we keep it. If it throws off the rhythm or adds too many new subplots, we drop it.

Another key element is character development. As soon as Miguel finishes his character sketches, they’re imbued with such a strong personality that it’s easy for me to develop them. I’m good at amplifying the emotion in a scene (humor, conflict, fear, etc.) and making the characters likable or not. I guess I add the emotional center [she writes after asking Miguel if that sounds accurate].

Once everything is worked out, I write the script (multiple times) and later do the lettering. Miguel gets the lion’s share of the work – pencils, inks and colors.

I also wanted to ask what came first—the creative relationship or the romantic? And how does such a close relationship impact the work?
Romantic relationship and then writing partners. We have a mutualistic relationship. The strengths of one balance out the weaknesses in the other. This is true for life and work. We’ve been together for so long that it makes writing together easy.

So there you have it. These two are clearly operating on a higher wave-length than the rest of us and it’s all for the best. The industry needs broad-thinking creators like these to come along and shake things up now and then. Miguel, Suzy, your Swagger trophy is in the mail.