'Steel Siege' Interview: Eric Vargas' Battlefield of Deadly Machines!
Sep 05, 2023
Interview by Nicki Faust
A war-torn world. Mechs on a rampage to annihilate. The only hope for peace are a bitter ex-soldier and a diplomat. A battlefield of deadly machines in their way. This is Steel Siege from Battle Quest Comics.
Behold the artwork of artist Eric Vargas while we find out more about him and Steel Siege...
PREVIEWSworld: What’s your name and your role at Battle Quest Comics?
Eric Vargas: Hi, my name’s Eric L. Vargas, Steel Siege artist for Battle Quest Comics.
PREVIEWSworld: In your own words, how would you describe your job at BQC?
Eric Vargas: I was contracted to do storyboards and pencils for a future volume of No’madd. Also, for Steel Siege, pencils, inks, character/mecha designs, world-building, storyboarding, and cover colors. I reinterpret scripts into storyboards and storyboards into final pencils and inks once all the design work is done.
PREVIEWSworld: What are your favorite pages you’ve worked on at BQC so far?
Eric Vargas: My favorite pages I’ve worked on from issues 1, 2, and 3 of Steel Siege are each pretty different. The spread in issue one where the Vulture skewers the two rooks with its pile bunker. In Issue 2, the spread with the fish eye low angle, where the Slabs have triggered the ambush. I also have a soft spot for the sequence afterward where the Vulture swings between the Slab’s legs into a building up an elevator shaft and leaps to the next building all while dodging deadly beams cutting through the structure. Issue 3 is a short scene between the main characters where there is some quiet comradery and vulnerability before the final battle. Glad I could squeeze it in.
PREVIEWSworld: What’s your favorite comic or graphic novel?
Eric Vargas: Hrrm, Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro, Ghost In The Shell by Masamune Shirow, To Your Eternity by Yoshitoki Oima, and Berserk by Kentaro Miura may take the cake for me.
PREVIEWSworld: When did you decide you wanted to become a comic creator?
Eric Vargas: Been an anime nerd since one of my Dad’s work friends showed me Robotech and Macross at age 7 or 8, something like that. My Dad was into Marvel and DC, so I got into Cable and Deadpool as a kid, as well as the X-Men ‘cause of the cartoon and that amazing opening tune, a bit after my run-in with Macross. But my love of comics as a medium didn’t fully blossom until another of my Dad’s work friends let me borrow their copies of Battle Angel Alita as a teenager, reading the odd issue of the Patlabor comics, and once I got ahold of Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell, forget about it. I was all in. As to actually making the leap to drawing comics, that came after college. I got my first gig from someone approaching me at my table at a convention in Spokane as I was doing commissions and fanart up to that point, learned some hard lessons on the way, and now here I am.
PREVIEWSworld: What’s a funny or inspiring moment you’ve experienced in the world of comics?
Eric Vargas: Funny? I guess having someone in the industry tell me I was “the most stubborn person” they’d ever met. I remember laughing quite a bit despite it not being used as a compliment.
For more from Eric Vargas, check out his Portfolio, Instagram, and Twitter.
Steel Siege is available now at your local comic shop. Reserve your copy with PREVIEWSworld Pullbox.
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Nicki Faust's heart is as cold as concrete in the Chicago winter. When not writing for PREVIEWSworld, Nicki is busy playing Limbo on Twitch, writing about the great robot uprising on Medium, and completing the untitled follow-up to the 2012 best-seller, Sue Storm: A Nude Photobook.
