AfterShock Comics have announced “Spectro,” a sci-fi horror one-shot featuring four stories by writer/artist Juan Doe (“Dark Ark,” “Bad Reception”). Each of the book’s segments will respectively explore the questions, “What is at stake when sentient technology manipulates a man with projections of his desired self?,” “What are the consequences of excommunicating a member of the ‘nine’ planets?,” “What is discovered when an explorer travels to Mars to ascend the tallest mountain in the solar system?,” and “what happens when a scientist aboard the International Space Station is confronted with the most horrifying aspects of humankind?”
Doe commented, “I’m a big fan of sci-fi / horror anthologies. So shows like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Creepshow, Tales from the Darkside and many others were very influential. I also had a plethora of stories I wanted to tell and an anthology was a great device to discover different worlds and themes in a collective fashion. With the name ‘Spectro,’ I also wanted to evoke the vintage science fiction pulps I was a fan of, especially ‘Weird Science’ from EC comics. This book is an homage to that cosmic horror ethos.”
For more from Doe, head below for a full Q&A, as well as a look at the incentive cover (also by Doe), and a preview of the first story, ‘The Scale.’ “Spectro” goes on sale May 18, 2022, and will retail at 48 pages for $7.99.
JUAN DOE ON WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT AND WHY HE IS EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT:
“SPECTRO is my spin on the horror anthology. Like all horror stories, it plays with primal human fears and with this book I focused on some specific themes that I wanted to inspect. The fear of social failure and its consequences. The fear of not being recognized, appreciated or seen. The fear of success, of giving in to your ego. The fear of hope, of believing in something good that may never come. All these stories fall into a sort of cosmic karma category and I was very excited to explore that under this banner. SPECTRO as a title or theme is a reference to spectrography, to the breakdown of the spectrum of light and I liked the idea of a spectrum of stories both visible and invisible that could be explored.”
JUAN DOE ON HIS INSPIRATIONS BEHIND CREATING THE BOOK:
“I’m a big fan of sci-fi / horror anthologies. So shows like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Creepshow, Tales from the Darkside and many others were very influential. I also had a plethora of stories I wanted to tell and an anthology was a great device to discover different worlds and themes in a collective fashion. With the name SPECTRO, I also wanted to evoke the vintage science fiction pulps I was a fan of, especially WEIRD SCIENCE from EC comics. This book is an homage to that cosmic horror ethos.”
JUAN DOE ON HIS APPROACH TO THE ART:
“Like most of my art duties in comics, it begins with the scripts and the way the story unfolds plays a big part in the style of art. For SPECTRO, I knew that each story would have its own distinctive color palette but I never know what any project will look like until I’m in the middle of it and that’s an exciting place to be as a creator. The results are always a surprise and if people have a great reaction to the art in conjunction with the story, then that’s the best success you could ask for.”
JUAN DOE ON HANDLING ALL CREATIVE DUTIES ON THE BOOK, THE CHALLENGES OF DOING THAT AND HOW HE OVERCOMES THEM:
“I’d say the biggest challenge with this book was just creating and envisioning 4 distinct universes and characters that would be experiencing their own narratives but would feel like all the stories were tangentially connected. It took a while but figuring out how these stories will play out is one of the best parts of this challenge and once you figure out your sensibilities as a storyteller then that challenge becomes about execution and that’s always the fun part.”
