Review Fix Exclusive: Q & A with ‘The Zurvan Club’ Creator Adolf Navarro

Review Fix chats with “The Zurvan Club” creator Adolf Navarro, who speaks about the creative-commons powered graphic novel. In this Q & A, Navarro also discusses the future of the series as well as its inspirations and creative process.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the comic?

Adolf Navarro: Well, I’m a big fan of mystery and adventure novels. At the same time, some incredible remains of ancient civilizations always puzzled me and reading about ancient myths I found an inexhaustible source of inspiration. So I try to mix all those ingredients in “The Zurvan Club” adventures.

Review Fix: What made you make the work free via Creative Commons?

Navarro: It’s an experiment that I wanted to try. The Internet has become a powerful tool to spread information around the world, so I wanted to check if a free distribution of my stories could trigger a bigger and faster diffusion of my work. If it happened, I would try to find the income via product placement and other “non invasive” ways of advertising embedded in the comic and the web.

Review Fix: How important is the art to the series?

Navarro: When you tell a tale, you aren’t just describing the facts, but also you try to transmit the feelings and the heat of every moment. In a graphic novel, the artwork is the most significant way to do that. I wanted a different and personal look for my slides and I finally got it using CGI tools. I’m still working to improve, anyway.

Review Fix: The website for the comic is great and is almost like an encyclopedia for it- what was your reason for dedicating so much time to it?

Navarro: As the entire project has been conceived to be read on computers, tablets and smartphones, the website is perfect to add a “bonus material” that complements and helps to understand some aspects of the novel. Although the events of the story are completely fictional, I try to give a “convincing” background, using real myths and scientific concepts, but it would be too thick if included in the story itself. So the website is the perfect place.

Review Fix: What, in your mind, is the coolest part of the comic?

Navarro: Definitely, the things to come. In this first episode I introduced the characters and the storyline, setting the base for a much more developed story. As you read the comic, the action moves from urban and academic circles to the expedition. They have just begun to make the first discoveries, the adventure just started.

Review Fix: What does the future hold for the series?

Navarro: My idea is to create a continuous saga, where each episode is related and follows the previous one as a part of a much bigger adventure. Our problem is that, at the moment, we are only Izara and me, (well, and Marina, also helping us from Canada), and it’s going slower than I would like because there is a lot of work involved. In any case, we have planted the seed and we are taking care of it, so I’m quite confident.

Review Fix: What do you think is holding the comic back from being as successful as you’d like it to be?

Navarro: Well, things require time to grow. But considering that… this is my first work, it has been just 4 months since its release and we are completely out of the mass media promotional channels… I’m quite proud of the goals accomplished. We have received about 18.000 visits to the website and the comic has been downloaded around the world, even in places as Nepal and Nigeria, (where I didn’t imagine to be read so quickly). We expected more collaboration from the Creative Commons staff that ignored our project except in few cases like Chile, or Costa Rica, but I agree that our weakness is the promotion of the product. We are wide open to suggestions and collaborations.

Review Fix: How do you want this series to be remembered?

Navarro: Wow. I don’t know. Right now we just started the project and we are focused in its development. If it finally becomes a big success, I will be happy if a lot of people around the world enjoy the stories of “The Zurvan Club” and remember them each one in his own way.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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