Paul Ziomek and Octavio Ramos will launch Cuentos Infernales a new comic book later this month. Plans will include local opportunities for signed copies, including ChamberFest on June 6. Courtesy/Evelyn Ziomek
By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Los Alamos
Octavio Ramos is a proud first generation American with a passion for folklore which has always played a role in his life. Now that he has retired from LANL, he is telling stories full time. He and his partner in storytelling, Paul Ziomek, have a new project combining their creativity in new comic book, Cuentos Infernales (“Infernal Tales”), Frightening Folklore from Latin America.
This the first in a series of comic books that will culminate into one large graphic novel. The comic is a collection of short stories, all of which inspired by folklore taken from the American Southwest, Central and South America, and Europe (particularly Spain and Portugal). The genre is horror, but the emphasis is on telling stories with a moral.
Ramos is of Mexican and Spanish descent, and from the time he was born he spent part of every summer in Saucillo, Chihuaua, Mexico. “Some of my fondest memories as a kid involved sitting outside my grandmother’s small grocery store. As was a custom back then, relatives and friends would drop by to discuss the latest news, happenings, and gossip,” Ramos said. “I would sit among the adults, enjoying what they had to say. Sometimes, however, what they said gave me nightmares.”
Later in life, he was inspired first to write down these stories in longform. As he wrote the tales, he began to explore the folklore of other countries. Then came Paul Ziomek, a very talented illustrator raised in Chicago and ended up in Los Alamos, graduating in 1998. Ziomek has worked as a freelancer for various organizations and currently works as a visual designer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the two met and started to create illustrated stories.
One day, they hit upon a great idea: They would collaborate in telling these stories in illustrated panels, in a way capturing the oral tradition that seemed to capture them best (the stories done this way still had that “oral” vibe that made them come to life).
The gentleman found it a work of passion. That magic happened to them time and time again as they journeyed through one story and on to another. Initially, they started creating short stories about vampires and other horror topics. It then came to Ramos that they should instead focus on Hispanic folklore with horror themes. They both liked the idea and here they are awaiting the fruits of their labor.
“This is the first big collaboration I’ve done with a writer when I previously wrote my own material or collaborated with other artists,” Ziomek said. “It was energizing to work with Octavio, and I believe we exchange that energy in our back-and-forth process.” Ziomek starts by reading Octavio’s script and meeting with him about the characters, settings, and mood of the story. The art starts with very simple sketches of each page with rough art and lettering.
“Then I proceed to layout pages of the narration and dialogue onto a more refined pencil sketch,” Ziomek said. “At this point, I share this with Octavio to discuss and suggestions or changes either of us have at that point. Finally, the pencil sketches are carefully drawn and shaded with digital tools for a finished comic.”
It all came together when the two met and realized their shared love of 70s horror comics, heavy metal, and storytelling. Together they realized a collection like this on Latin American folklore would be perfect for a graphic novel. Their new fresh, authentic take on these stories will debut from 11 a.m.–6 p.m., May 21 at Scum Pit Comics in Albuquerque.
They will have signed copies available for $5 each. Locally, they can be found at 6 p.m., Friday, June 5 at Samizdat in Los Alamos.