Last months winner of the  Zuda contest was a comic called Earthbuilders, a science fiction tale that takes place in “an age where space has been conquered, one planet at a time.” Consistently since it’s creation, Zuda has provided us with month-after-month of great webcomics and Earthbuilders is a another example of how Zuda has been successful in creating a unique community webcomic of creators. I’ve been following some of the creators from Earthbuilders after they participates in past competitions and this time around they’ve provided us with some early concept art for their winning entry as well as given us their insight into how they got started in the comic business and what they think about life on other planets.

First off, congratulations on your win this month. Zuda’s competition seems to get tougher every month so my hat goes off to you guys as you’ve seemed to pull off a win in what was a really close competition. To begin, can you tell us how the Earthbuilders project got started, what the story is about and how your team got together?

Axel: Maybe Llarena or Abraham have a better recollection of this, but as I remember, we had been developing this story in “slimline” format since a year, a year and a half ago, or so… we had it laying for a while until we decided to take it the Zuda route. Felipe came to the save when it became apparent that I’d never finish coloring the sample.

Abraham: The first draft was about a terraformer (Irina) and her robot. It started about 6 years ago. The first treatment is still present in EARTHBUILDERS and because of this I can’t provide details, they’d be spoilers.

I met R G Llarena in the early 90’s when he started to make comics in our city. Felipe Sobreiro, Llarena and I concurred in a comic forum since about 1999, and after that I met Axel in DeviantArt a few years later and despite we know each other since then; this is my first joint venture with them all as a team.

Can you tell us a little about yourselves like where you are from, what your role was in Earthbuilders, how long you’ve been making comics and what some of your influences are?

Abraham: I’m from Tampico, Mexico. I provided the “spinal chord” story and discussed with Llarena several treatments over that. Before writing comic, I started writing fantasy prose, and because of that my influences came from the Golden Age Sci-Fi, The Lovecraft Circle and the folklore.

Axel Medellin: Penciller and inker. I’m from Guadalajara, Mexico… I studied industrial design, but after graduation I decided I liked drawing best… I’ve been making comics since I remember, but my first professional story (in the international market that is) was a short one with script by Alexandro Jodorowsky for Metal Hurlant.

These past couple of years there have been several projects appearing in Heavy Metal (with Llarena), Zenescope and Boom! Studios. I have too many influences to count, but I’d say my main art heroes are Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, Frank Cho, John Buscema and Frank Frazetta.

RG Llarena: Writer. Mexican living in Tampico. In Earthbuilders I’m doing the script, based on Abraham’s plot. I’ve been writing comics for about 14 years. Did the self-publishing route for some years and them decided to freelance though from time to time I still walk the “do it yourself” path. In the American market I’ve been published in Heavy Metal Magazine and Popgun (Image). I think my main influences come precisely from, Heavy Metal Magazine as well as British comic book writers and the Cyberpunk writers of the eighties.

Felipe Sobreiro: I’m the colorist and letterer. I’ve been doing comics for a few years now, not only as a colorist but also as an artist (I drew a short story called “The New Adventures of Sigmund Freud” that was featured in the British anthology COMMERCIAL SUICIDE and that proved to be my most popular work to date, somebody scanned it and it spread throughout the net like crazy). I drew some stories for sites like Opi8.com and Nextcomics.com, some magazines and anthologies, and more seriously I took the task of coloring and was published in Image’s Popgun, Heavy Metal and BOOM! Studios’ CTHULHU and ZOMBIE TALES.

If I am correct, some of your team members competed on Zuda before. What did you do different this time around? What lessons did you learn from the last competition that were applied to Earthbuilders?

Axel: Last time I was contending with “Laura’s Bazaar”. I had the curious cosmic coincidence of getting married and on my honeymoon the exact month of the competition, so I barely could participate in the boards or promote the comic. So I learned not marrying each time I try to compete at Zuda.

Llarena: This time I knew what places to go and ask for votes, when to do press releases or where to contact friendly journalists. Also, last time I learned that without being pushy you have to remind people to vote.

Sobreiro: the other time around I already had done the best work possible, but now I knew that despite the quality and the hours dedicated to the pages, you needed to pace yourself through the month in order to keep gathering votes and promoting, and for instance didn’t waste time putting banners in sites that hadn’t proved worthy the last time around and things like that.

Now that you’ve won and you can sleep again, what advice would you give other creators who are thinking of submitting a comic to Zuda?

Axel: Rent your bed, you won’t need it. Use that facebook list Cash favors.

Abraham: Promote everyday. Always keep the fairplay spirit. Never give up.

Llarena: Think about new ways of promoting your comic, try to reach audiences that somewhat are not sought by other competitors.

Sobreiro: don’t be lazy when doing the submission for Zuda, be professional if you want to be taken seriously and don’t make people waste their time reading your comic if it isn’t as good as you can do it. That way you’ll get votes naturally, and the promotion you do will only help you along.

Earthbuilders takes place in the distant future “where space has been conquered, one planet at a time”, as you put it in your synopsis on Zuda. Do you believe in life on other planets and that humanity will be able to reach that point of technological mastery?

Axel: I like the Carl Sagan’s point of view: if we are alone, what a waste of space. We are living a pretty wild decade, I strongly believe that after we survive this present turmoil, there’s hardly anyway to go but up to the space. We’ll see…

Abraham: Life in another planets or moons? Definitely But maybe we’re expecting to find life in Earth terms and not life (or intelligence) in terms very different to ours. There is a great novel (“The Starmaker”) about these issues, give it a try!

If mankind will reach that point, well… we’re changing our planet’s shape and climate one way or another, very fast! I’m pretty sure we can reach the stars and make them our home, if we learn a lot and become wise enough.

Llarena: I would like to think that we’re not alone in the universe. Without revealing anything here I can safely say that these issues would be touched as Earthbuilders develops. Abraham likes to tackle these kind of themes in his stories, I’m much more concerned (as evidenced by the short stories written by me that Heavy Metal has been publishing) with things such as “otherness”, “true understanding”, “embracing differences” and some of these themes might also find their way into Earthbuilders.

Sobreiro: I don’t think life in other planets is a matter of belief, I do HOPE there is, the probability’s on their side. I don’t think they’re those gray little hominids that like to abduct weirdos in the countryside and probe their nether regions, though. About humanity conquering space, I’m not so sure. I mean, I think Earth’s resources will be depleted before we get to the technological point where it’d be feasible to transport thousands (not to mention millions or billions) out of here, sadly!

Earthbuilders Concept Art