Ken Garing took some time from his busy schedule to answer several questions giving us some insight on the how’s and whys of his comic Planetoid!

I thank him for that and I really appreciate it! 

How hard was it to do a comic book solely on your own?

It’s hard in the sense that it’s a lot of work. The actual making of the comic is mostly enjoyable, but there just a lot to keep track of. You have to be your own project manager and keep tabs on a lot of loose ends.

Making a comic from story to the lettering is something we usually see in European comic creators, so I have to ask who and what are your major influences story and art wise?

There are many influences. For Planetoid I looked at a lot of Italian comics, work by Serpieri, Liberatore, and Sergio Toppi. Also, Japanese artists like Otomo and Nihei. In terms of the story, Frank Herbert’s Dune was very influential.

Planetoid in its story has some strong moral issues about life and society how much was it a comic where you wanted to make a statement or just a story that you’ve been wanting to say?

There were certain themes regarding power, exploitation, community, etc that I wanted to explore from the outset but I’m reluctant to verbalize them in any detail. The story, imagery, and everything else was borne of those central themes.

Planetoid ends with issue 5, is it possible that we are going to see any future stories based in this universe and the current cast of characters?

Yes. There are two more arcs planned as well as some one-shots that will flesh out the back stories of some of the characters.

Any chance of seeing Planetoid in a collected edition soon?

I believe the collected trade paperback will be available in July.

Lastly would you like to tell us about any project you currently working on and if it’s about Planetoid?

The publisher of my next project will make an announcement at C2E2 in Chicago next week. It’s not Planetoid related.

Thank you for your time Ken! 

originally posted on eCharta