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.

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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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