Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Bethany romera, Comics, comixology, digital comics, entertainment, Eric Koda, Jaymes Reed, Roger Cabrera, Ross Highes, Ruben Romero, The Agency

Join An International Agency Of Magic – Talking With Ruben Romero

By Jeremy Konrad

Out this week on Comixology is The Agency, a new series from Alterna Comics and Think Alike Productions. The series is about a group of mages who are a part of their own governing body, called the IAM (International Agency of Magic) who are charged with policing magic related crimes across the globe.  Throughout the first issue, we are introduced to the members of the squad, and their full power sets are on display with the cool visual style provided by artist Eric Koda. The story moves along at a brisk pace, guided by writers Ruben Romero, Bethany Romero, and Roger Cabrera.  With plenty of action, and villains that have designs that will haunt your dreams, the book shows a lot of promise for the future.

I had a little chat with one of the writers of the book, Ruben Romero.

Jeremy Konrad: Ruben, how does it feel to see this book come to fruition?

Ruben Romero: It's a feeling of sheer happiness. It was definitely a long, hard road for us to get here. Seeing The Agency on Comixology, available to all those readers makes us feel so accomplished and proud. We still have a lot of work to do though and know it's only the beginning. But, we're very happy. It feels great!

JK: Tell me a little about how you came up with the concept for The Agency.

RR: We have to thank one of our co writers Roger Cabrera for that. We knew we wanted to create a comic book, we just needed the right content. We tossed around some ideas and Roger suggested mages, a term neither Bethany nor I had heard before. Once he explained what a mage was, we started brainstorming ideas. We began making the blueprints for what eventually became The Agency and three years later, here we are!

JK: Was it always your intention to put this out on Comixology? How has working with them been?

RR: Honestly, no it wasn't at first. We naively thought we would get published relatively quickly. We had dreams of walking into a comic book store and seeing The Agency on the shelves. We did seek distribution with several publishers, and were elated when Alterna Comics gave us the opportunity to release The Agency digitally via Comixology. We have had a great experience with Comixology so far and think they are the best platform for digital comics out there right now. We are very, very lucky.

JK: The art inside the book is pretty dynamic. What made you go with Eric?

RR: Again, long hard road to finding the blessing that Eric Koda has been for The Agency. As we mentioned, The Agency has been three years in the making. We have had different artists throughout this project who were all extremely talented; just not the right fit for this story. Ultimately, Eric just nailed it. We have a specific test page we use when auditioning artists for The Agency. From the moment we saw Eric's submittal and character designs, we knew he was "the one".

JK: Is this the way you always envisioned the book to look?

RR: We always knew we wanted The Agency to look "real", or as real as a comic book can look. There was a certain grittiness to Eric's art that we felt gave it the authentic quality we were looking for. Ross Hughes' colors are the things that dreams are made of-we knew we had to have him for The Agency and always envisioned that eye catching, pops-off-the-page aspect to the colors for the book. Jaymes Reed puts the finishing touch with his refined style of lettering we couldn't be more pleased with. I think our book has definitely exceeded our expectations.

JK: Any hints on where the book is going?

RR: Like I mentioned, we have an amazing and exciting world that's ready and waiting to be explored by new readers. The journey Riley and the agents of The Agency are about to embark on is going to be something spectacular. Aside from that, all I can tell you is…. It will be magical!

JK: How long do you see the book continuing?

RR: Hopefully, for many years to come. We obviously don't want to spoil our own story, but this is definitely an on-going series.

JK: When can we expect to see more?

RR: Issue two of The Agency will be available via Comixology August 13^th. Issue Three is set to release in October.

JK: Will the team be making any appearances this year, so fans can stay updated?

RR: Think Alike Productions will be appearing at Florida Supercon in July, Tampa Bay Comic Con in August, and New York Comic Con in October. Eric Koda will be joining us at NYCC, which we're very excited about! If you're attending these cons, stop by and see us to stay updated on all things The Agency!

Check out issue #1 of The Agency right now on Comixology.

Jeremy Konrad is a freelance writer for Bleeding Cool. Follow him on Twitter @jeremyohio.

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