Richard: What can you tell us about the storyline?

Rick: Dreadnought: Invasion Six is a science fiction story that takes place centuries in the future. It's the 300th Anniversary of the formation of the Galactic Imperium and Lord Commodore Ranor Broxton and his wife, the Lady Alianna Broxton are selected to lead an expedition to an uncharted nebula. Ranor breaks the great news to Alianna over their weekly (as in galactic-standard weekly) chat. Alianna is especially excited because this will be their first mission together since they got married. (Ranor is continually on space missions and Alianna is always stationed on one planet or another.) So the two make plans to rendezvous at Alianna’s base on Planet Pirene. Before Ranor can join Alianna, an unidentified enemy launches a massive invasion with Alianna’s remote outpost as its first target. And things deteriorate from there...

Richard: What are the main characters Lady Alianna Broxton and Lord Commodore Ranor Broxton like?

Rick: If you are familiar with “McMillan & Wife”, that’s them in space. Intelligent, witty, funny, can finish each others sentences and fully trust each other to the bone. They are equals in all senses of the word. Each has their own team to command.

Richard: Who is Jana?

Rick: Jana is the shipboard AI unit onboard the Battle Cruiser Orius commanded by Ranor. Jana is a moniker for JNA027. Jana controls the shipboard systems including offensive and defensive armaments. She responds to commands like any other “live” crew member but also can respond and make alternative suggestions to commands. The AIs have access to the entire collection of all computerized knowledge of the Central Core at Galactic Imperium Prime. The AIs are totally emotionless; however, they can manipulate their tone and timbre to mimic emotions to get their points across more convincingly.

Richard: Is this more an action story or character driven?

Rick: Well, after the enemy mother ship comes into view, we have an intimate moment with the two protagonists, then one, two and three space stations are attacked. Before you can breathe, multiple planetary bases are wiped out. Then, we have three battle cruisers unload their weapons, only to lose and only one barely escapes. If this were a movie, this all happens in the first 20 minutes. So, I think it would be safe to say that it may be more of an action story. :) In Dreadnought: Invasion Six, the events do not reshape the characters, the events define the characters.

Richard: Would you like to see this series continue past its four issues?

Rick: The four issues that make the complete story started out as a screenplay. The screenplay is but the first of a trilogy; so there is more to come!

Richard: What do you think of Guillermo Sanna's art?

Rick: The first thought that came to my mind, I am not making this up, was that when I had the finished product (First Issue, First Printing), I thought to myself, “Wow, this looks like a real comic book.” What a bizarre thing to say, but it was like, “real”. The art, pencils and ink are done by Guillermo Sanna and it was colored by Maria Laura. It’s just out of this world! I was going to say no pun intended, but it does sound like a pun, so I’ll leave it as is. It’s just way more than I thought was possible.

Richard: What is a Blade Ship?

Rick: A blade ship has been constructed of the best hardware and software using the data of all battles previously fought. A blade ship is but one small ship that is part of the mother ship, which is composed of a network of blade ships. It’s akin to a doomsday device. The mother ships were released against enemy outposts to wreck havoc upon their command and control structure. But like any good doomsday device, it learns, records and transmits data back to a data node ship which in turn transmits any battle data to remaining mother ships to enhance their destructive power. Any new information is also transmitted to mining ships where new mother ships are constructed with even deadlier capabilities. You do not want to be, oh, the sixth in the sequence to be attacked because you basically won’t survive. Unless you are lucky, of course...

Richard: Will you be attending any conventions?

Rick: Yes, the first half year is planned out, I need to figure out what I need to do in the fall! This is so much more hectic than you can imagine! I just finished the first event at Capricon (www.capricon.org) where we had a party room. Now I don’t know if you are familiar with fan (as opposed to pro) driven sci-fi cons, but at night, it is party time, not engage-your-brain time... I figured I’d be lucky if one or two people bought a copy, but I sold almost three dozen. Plus a ton of giveaways of course! Next up is NY ComicCon in April (nycomiccon.com).

We’ll have a small press both and I’ll have two Dreadnought Girls there with me. Next, it’s Wizard World in Chicago (www.wizardworld.com/chicago.html) where I will have four or more Dreadnought girls and three Dreadnought guys at the booth! Then, we are off to Convergence Science Fiction Convention in July (www.convergence-con.org). It’s their 10 year anniversary and they have almost all of their past guests making an appearance, and the Dreadnought crew will be there on Friday and Saturday with six Dreadnought girls and four guys. It will be one big huge massive event! And the last thing we have planned is the San Diego ComicCon (comic-con.org) in July.

The SDCC is sold out years in advance. Small Press just can’t buy a booth there, they pick the people that can attend the show! This is a first time comic for me and to be picked to attend out of the gate is huge! So see us there. It’s not even a both, it’s a table, so there will be 2 Dreadnought girls an me there, but it will be a load of fun! Can’t promise anything yet, but I might just be able to squeeze an early run of the fourth and final comic of the saga and if I do, it will be available at San Diego!

Richard: Have you worked on any other comics, if so which ones?

Rick: No I have not worked on any other comic.

Richard: What does the future hold for you career-wise?

Rick: As previously mentioned, the comic book grew out of a screenplay. Dreadnought: Invasion Six will make a fantastic live action “tent pole” movie! So I am pursuing that. I also got an animator working with me and we are producing 2 minute episodes in Flash for the mobile market. Then it will be plopped on the Internet, on Revver and YouTube. One of the funny (as in funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha) is that none of these media outlets conflict with each other so you can pursue all of them simultaneously without cannibalization.

Richard: What comics did you read as a child and do you read now?

Rick: I was into science fiction from the get go. I was born in Japan so I saw all of the Godzilla movies first run (except the first one, that was before I was born). And Gamera. Mothra, etc. etc. Ultraman. King Gidora. Oh, and the anime - Maha Go (Speed Racer), Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Tetsugin 28go (Gigantor) and more. I went to an American school so I missed out on learning how to read and write but I would flip through manga like every week. We’d go on base (US Naval Bases in Yokosuka and Yokohama) and get American comics. But you know, for a quarter, you can get manga that was one inch thick or a US comic that was a sixteenth of an inc thick, well, the manga won out a lot. Plus, for younger ages, the monthly manga came packed with toys, puzzles, cutouts, etc so that was always an afternoon worth of fun. Back to US comics. My brother read all of the US superhero comics, I never got into them. I did the Richie Rich, and the Archie comics. My brother and I both did Mad magazine and Cracked magazine. Spy vs Spy was my favorite.

Richard: Which comic professionals do you admire?

Rick: I don’t know if admire is the correct word. Amazed would be more in order for Osamu Tezuka, the creator of many many anime and manga but especially know for “Tetsuwan Atom” or “Astro Boy” in the US. I was in Japan a few years ago and watched an autobiography on him on TV in Japanese. (I speak Japanese.) Two publishers were hounding him for two separate manga and both wanted him to do theirs first. He knew that as soon as there was even a small amount of work completed, they were going to publish it to put one over the other publisher. So he told them that he will produce one page for each of them every day. (Every day!)

Satisfied, both publishers left. Little did they know what was about to happen! He gave them one page a day per publisher as promised, but he drew them in random sequence straight out of his head and he did it in such a way that there was no way for either publisher to publish the story until he gave them the first page... last! From memory! Amazing.

Richard: How can someone contact you?

Rick: The best way is to e-mail me. I travel all over and I am in a lot (shockingly, a lot) of dead cell areas. Please put a descriptive non-spam sound subject line and you can email me at rick@dreadnoughtseries.com . Thanks!

Richard: Any final words of advice?

Rick: Figure out what you want to do with your life and go for whatever you want to do! Once you get your brain organized, don’t wait, execute now! The Internet is a great place to meet your yet-to-be colleagues and you can work on it together! Do not work with your friends, you will regret everything on more levels than you thought possible! One more: In the old days, if you wanted a singer for your garage band, you posted an index card at Guitar Center and hoped you got anyone at all, like “Must be breathing.”

Now, you can post on Craig’s List and you’ll have to hold an audition! So, don’t wait till tomorrow, do it now!