Review Fix Exclusive: Valentin Ramon Talks ‘Z’

Review Fix chats with author Valentin Ramon, who discusses his awesome wordless “Z” graphic novel.

About ‘Z’:

Z is a 96-page unique psychotronic graphic novel by Valentin Ramon co-creator of D4ve and Hot Damn (published by IDW) where he dares to write, draw and self-publish under the umbrella of West Wind Comics, Ferran Xalabarder´s imprint that brought you “Oniria” and “Born in hell”. Z is a 96 B/W pages graphic novel with a morning glory hardcover ONG (14,5 x 21 cm landscape). Z is a wordless book. No more room in the world for meaningless words. Z is a funny book. A visual dystopian metaphor inside a song without lyrics, a lonely scream on the sea of human stupidity inside a silly book. Z is a nihilistic detective of sorts. Think the Batman of the 40’s but naif. Z is a personal view about the origins of terrorism. Expect some government conspiracies, diabolic corporations, and religious blindness.”

Review Fix: What inspired this book?

Valentin Ramon: The inspiration came after a long time wondering about terrorism and human stupidity: why it happens, why is done etc. And I wanted to do something to express my feelings and ideas towards it.

And I thought a black comedy would be the best way to do it.

Review Fix: What was the research process like?

Ramon: As research…well I had tried first not to read any comic book or watch any movie about it. What I have done was to read books about the origin of terrorism and politics ( man, such a boring and hard reading)
Noah Chomsky´s books and speeches  had been a pivotal point for “Z.”

Review Fix: Was it difficult to put together?

Ramon: Yeah, really difficult. The issue wasn’t to talk about terrorism, the problem was to do it without words. I wanted people to interpret the book. I didn’t want to tell the readers how I see things: “This is with and that’s all.” I wanted the readers to take the conclusions from themselves, to let them work out the ideas by themselves.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself as a writer through this?

Ramon: That sometimes is easier to say things without words, even if is a longer and harder way. As a writer and as a person I tent to speak a lot without saying nothing valuable. With just images is much, I don’t know, pure and straight.

Review Fix: Who’s your target audience for this?

Ramon: I think for everyone that pays attention to details.

Review Fix: How is it different from other comic books in the genre?

Ramon: Firstly, It doesn’t have words hahaha. I honestly don’t know. I had tried to do something sincere, just to show my point of view about the issue to the readers.

Review Fix: What you want people to get out of this book?

Ramon: That we are all fucked up in the brain and that things are not always how they seem to be. You need to take a closer look at everything that surrounds us and take your own conclusions. Don’t let TV and politics to tell you how things are.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Ramon: It depends. If people like “Z” and the book sells wells I will love to do more books with the character.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Ramon: Hope everyone will love the book.