Maybe you have heard of Stela, the digital comics app with series exclusive to their mobile platform. Maybe you have heard of the comics creator Sandra Lanz or even seen her most recent stellar work on the cover of “Prophet Earth War #4.” Not maybe, but definitely those two things are combining on May 17th for the release of Sandra’s new comic exclusive to Stela, “House Girls.”
Sandra with colorist Matthew Seeley and letterer Aubrey Aiese bring a sci-fi story of three scientist, a human colony on an alien planet and a mysterious entity surrounding all of it to readers this week. We were able to talk to Sandra about her new series, working on Stela, and even some other upcoming projects. Check out the interview with Sandra below and be sure to check out the first chapter of “House Girls” free on the Stela app now.
For those who might not know, what is “House Girls?”
Sandra Lanz: “House Girls” is a new sci-fi comic debuting on Stela, the digital publisher and App. It’s the story of three young scientists, living on a struggling, isolated planetary colony, and the mysterious sentient being they discover. You can read the first chapter for free on iOS today!
What excites you most about this project?
SL: I had been noodling with ideas for this setting, characters, and story for years! When Stela asked if I wanted to pitch, I finally got the opportunity to bring it all together and do it up good! It’s everything I’ve been wanting to do and see in comics, and I hope the readers will find it as cool and special as I do.
The cover spotlights 3 characters, what can you tell us about these people? Also those outfits are dope, what do you use as inspiration for costume design?
SL: These characters are women who chose to dedicate their lives to civil service in exchange for secure government housing. They are highly educated and capable ladies who are driven to find a sense of purpose in this desolate setting. It’s these qualities that lead the to investigate the mystery of the story and commit to resolving it. Their outfits are somewhat like uniforms. I went for an athletic kind of vibe, thinking it would be fitting for the hands-on work that they do.
With “House Girls” featuring on Stela did you have to alter your normal approach when it came to creating pages and layouts. What has been the biggest plus in working with releasing on Stela for you both on and off the page?
SL: Adapting the script to a strict vertical format was actually really liberating! Instead of focusing on how to guide the eye from left to right, like I would on a traditional comics page, I simply had to figure out how to draw it downwards. The entire process of working with Stela was really liberating. They gave me the opportunity to write for the first time, which has been a milestone in my career, and they were super supportive, letting me do things in my own way, every step of the way.
I love the look of the characters, environment and tech we see early in House Girls. What has your goal been with world design and look for the series? Are you drawing on a lot of other sci-fi for inspiration?
SL: I was shooting for something like turn-of-the-century, early industrial revolution technology, and a minimal, utilitarian type of society. The setting is loosely based on communist Havana, Cuba, where I grew up, so I wanted it to feel like a place where technological progress is at a total standstill. It’s secluded, low on resources, and its inhabitants, though technically proficient, don’t have much to work with. So for those reasons, I didn’t reference as much sci-fi as I normally would; I focused instead on stripping everything down to the essentials.
That drill gun has an awesome design. Are you keeping a lot of references for the more intricate pieces in the world and often very distinct to the genre? Are you actually designing and building these out on paper?
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SL: At the time when I started this I had been getting really bogged down by technical design in my other work, so I tried to approach this more organically. I drew the tech as I came to it and tried to keep references to a minimum. It’s still inspired by things I’ve seen and drawn, but it’s a more relaxed personal aesthetic.
It seems you are building some mystery right from the start of the series. For you how do you weight how to pace a story for new readers while introducing them to a new world but still holding back information for narrative purposes?
SL: I gave the reader only as much information as was necessary to follow along the story, at any given time. The more you read, the more you learn about the world and the characters in it, which in turn gives increasing heft to the stakes. I find that building up the world, slowly, over the entire course of the story, can be as engaging as the mystery or the plot points themselves.
For anyone familiar with some of your previous work and even a lot of your sketches its very sci-fi themed. What is it about this genre that interests you most as an artist and a storyteller?
SL: I love that sci-fi concerns itself with re-examining what is essential to humans and humanity. From a design standpoint it forces you to re-think the basic form of things, which can be fun. But the interesting challenge, to me, is trying to boil human nature down to basics and exploring what it might look like in a context completely different from our own.
What do you hope readers get out of/think after they read “House Girls”?
SL: I hope it’s inviting and it gets readers to try out more, harder, sci-fi!
In addition to “House Girls” you have some pretty exciting work with other publishers coming up. What can readers expect from you in the way of “House Girls” but also other projects?
SL: I’m working on a short for a “Star Trek” anthology being put out by IDW later this year, and, after that, I’ll be taking over as artist on the Image title “From Under Mountains.” I’m super excited to work with Claire Gibson, and rest assured, the world building has already begun!
