
Check out the list of the graphic novelists and cartoonists interviewed on Macmillan’s blog.
RAFAEL/JORGE: Hola, David, es un placer conocerte. Gracias por contestar nuestras preguntas. (Hi, David, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for answering our questions). [Note: David is originally from Galicia, Spain; Rafael is originally from Ponce, Puerto Rico; and Jorge is of Colombian descent]

DAVID RUBIN: Paul and I had worked together in few illustrations some years ago but at this moment I couldn’t imagine that someday Paul would call me to collaborate with him in a big project as Aurora West is.
It’s a great present for an artist to draw an amazing story like this in a new and unexplored universe like Battling Boy’s world.
I wasn’t scared by this dare, quite the opposite, I was very excited as a raging bull with this! I couldn’t wait to draw this universe and those characters!
Paul gave me some art direction guidelines and a lot of retro sci-fi examples (Flash Gordon’s TV Series, some old horror and adventure films, and a lot of photographs in this classic style). There was a short but intense preproduction phase with Paul, JT, and First Second, but I felt totally free while I worked on the pages. It was a comfortable process for me and made the work so easy.

DR: Some Spanish cartoonists like Javier Olivares, Santiago Sequeiros, Max or Miguel A. Robledo have really influenced my work. But influences in my work not only came from comics; the music, the cinema, the painting and other disciplines of pop culture influence my work, too!
QUESTION 3: Growing up in Spain, did you read comic books as a kid? Were they American imports or Spanish?
DR: At the beginning – and to this day – my influences are authors like Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, Osamu Tezuka, Toriyama, Guy Peellaert, JC Forest, Blutch, José Muñoz or Teddy Kristiansen.
I have always been interested in mixing the different ways of thinking about comic art. I mean, I like to blend superheroes with manga as well as with European BD styles, all in the same package.
QUESTION 4: What are you working on next?
The English version of my graphic novel adaptation of Beowulf arrives at stores in 2015 from Image Comics.
And as for future projects . . . at the moment I’m making a new graphic novel with high content of sci-fi and scathing critique of the current political and economic system, with the Spanish writer Marcos Prior. I think that will be finished for the end of 2015. And before that, I’ll draw a four issues mini-series for Boom! Studios, an all-new completely original series.
QUESTION 5: What’s on your nightstand?

Really I’m not sure how I find time to read all of these books!

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