Interview with Ken Garing, Creator of Image’s Planetoid

If you don’t know, Ken broke into comics this year with his miniseries Planetoid from Image Comics. The series follows a smuggler Silas as he’s stranded on a planetoid when his spaceship crashes and how he now must survive in this strange place. If you’re interested in hearing more from Ken, he can be found on Twitter, DeviantArt, Tumblr and his site.

Leo: Pretend we’ve never heard of Planetoid. What’s your elevator pitch?

Ken Garing: I’m not too good at pitching the series… I just hope people see some preview images online and check it out.

L: How did Planetoid come to be?

KG: When I decided that I wanted to try to do a mini-series (as opposed to the short stories I was doing), Planetoid somehow seemed like the right story to go with. I got positive feedback at conventions but never got anywhere when I tried to follow up afterwards. So, I published Planetoid #1 myself through Graphicly and it generated some buzz and was soon picked up by Image.

 L: Why a sci-fi comic rather than a typical “tights and capes” story, or another genre?

KG: I guess it just depends on the type of story one wants to tell. I think science-fiction has always appealed to me because it allows the creator to explore interesting ideas, often with real world implications.

L: What sort of projects do you have planned beyond Planetoid? Any that tie into Planetoid, or completely unrelated things?

KG: I’ve got a short story collection that I would like to have published. I also plan on doing more Planetoid books. I’ve got some other non-Planetoid projects planned for 2013 that I can’t quite talk about yet.

L: How did you get into comics? Were you a fan growing up, or did it happen later in life?

KG: I’ve wanted to be a professional comic book artist/writer since I was really young. I read comics as a kid and started drawing my own comics some time in the second grade. I tried to self-publish and distribute some underground stuff after college but nobody was interested. Planetoid is my first published work.

L: What sort of lessons about comics and publishing did you learn with Planetoid?

KG: Over the years I’ve learned that if you want to get good at making comics you need to be your own harshest critic and your own biggest fan at the same time. It can be tricky. But if you’re honest with yourself and you really drill down and work hard, you can get published.

 

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