:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sfr.s3.amazonaws.com/public/FV37ZUN32BG2PJNR6IHW25FS5E)
Local artist Stephanie Alia has been more of a visual arts/photography kind of creator, but as the writer of a new comic book, Alcheringa, she’s breaking free of creative constraints to provide a new take on the age-old story of light vs. dark. Along with a stellar team of local artists and musicians, Alia’s got big plans for the future. For now, with the zero edition (available at Big Adventure Comics and alcheringathecomic.com), they’ve taken their first steps into a potentially enduring story.
Can you give us a brief idea of the story?
Alcheringa, which is this Australian/Aboriginal term that means "dream time," is about a troubled young girl who has unusual dreams and later finds out there are these guardians and deities that inhabit people's dreams. There's a battle going on between light and dark, but there's supposed to be this balance between them, and the dark breaks the deal and starts to attack the dream worlds and other realities.
Sounds like the story itself is dreamlike?
You're going to wonder if she's crazy or if it's really happening. Right now, I haven't even answered that question myself, and I'm treating it all as if it's real. I've been thinking about this idea for 10 years, and it's still evolving. And since a lot of it is dreaming, we aren't really limited in terms of what we can do or draw. It's pretty wild.
Will you be supporting and adding to the story?
With our team of people, we've just been doing our own thing and doing it on our own, and we wanted to do this differently. We have a soundtrack that accompanies the story; we're hoping to put out an app that will be a part of it and make Alcheringa a little more interactive. I'd love to just keep making comics; it's something I always wanted to do, but I was just too shy artistically, and finally I said, "I have tons of ideas, and I daydream all the time!"
Santa Fe Reporter