First Look: Aspen's Lady Mechanika

At C2E2, we caught up with Joe Benitez to discuss his upcoming creator owned project for Aspen Comics which will hit store shelves this fall, Lady Mechanika. Now, Aspen has kindly given us a first look at some incredible concept art for the series! We also had the chance to once again catch up with Joe to talk about his new project which is drawing nearer to its release. Check out the interview and the concept art below, and let us know what you think! Do you plan on picking up Lady Mechanika?
 
Comic Vine: You have been working as an artist for Aspen for years, and now you are finally releasing your very own creator title. Has this been a long time coming, something you always wanted to do, or was there any hesitation on your part?
Joe Benitez: Been working with Aspen going on two years  now, started late 2008 early 2009 . This is actually my second venture into creator-owned territory . I did a title called Wraithborn in 2005 through Wildstorm . I have the rights back for Wraithborn  and I intend on telling  more of the story in the future.  Lady Mechanika  will be my first attempt as a writer.  As far as any hesitation that might be the only one.  I feel I can tell a story and feel I can have interesting back and forth with characters  but again I’ve always had people that were buffers when it came to that. They would tell me if something sucked or didn’t work. With Lady I have the last say on what goes so I better make it good . Aside from the writing  I’ve never had any hesitation as far as doing a creator owned book,  matter of fact  I prefer  it. I love working on titles of my own creation. Been doing it since  I started my career, I co-created Weapon Zero and Magdalena For Top Cow.  I really love the  process of creating new characters and new worlds. I love getting  bits and pieces of other things and piecing them together in a new way . I would love to spend the rest of my career  doing my own comics.
  == TEASER ==

CV: Where did you get the inspiration for Lady Mechanika? How did you come up with the concept?
JB: The Steampunk genre intrigued  me  for sometime now. Going to cons and watching all these very cool cosplayers decked out in costumes of their own making  was fascinating. The more I delved into the culture and did research the more into it I got. Being an  artist and creator there is an ocean of possibilities you can do with it. The more I thought about it the more stories would formulate in my head. All I needed was a strong character to be the focal point in my stories in  came Lady M.  I always had a female in mind as the main protagonist .
 
CV: What is the title about?
JB: Its about a private investigator in turn of the century Victorian England . She gets hired to investigate cases on the fringe of normal society. Cases others don’t want or don’t understand.  Paranormal, supernatural, anomalies. We also find out that she has no memory of her past and that’s part of the reason she is in the kind of work she

does. She's in  constant search of her origins.
 
CV: What was the experience of going from being an artist to working as both artist and writer on the title?
JB: Stressful, but enjoyable. It’s a different process . I’m used to sitting and talking to someone brainstorming then walking away and having that person type up and make sense out of all we talked about  . Now I have to go and do that myself.  Its very satisfying when the pieces start to take shape. My only hope is that I can deliver a compelling story with characters you can sympathize with and care for.
 
CV: How long is the series? Are you looking to make this into an ongoing?
JB: We are aiming for a 6 issue run but if we find an audience expect it to be an on going.