Joe Benitez Tunes Up Lady Mechanika

Get in on the best-selling steampunk sensation from the very beginning with Lady Mechanika, now back in the spotlight from Benitez Productions! Enter a Victorian world featuring a young woman with mechanical limbs, and no memory of how she got them! Joe Benitez is fired up as a new publisher, and gives us the latest scoop on how Lady Mechanika is back for the attack!

Lady Mechanika #0 & #1 Collected Edition (DEC141159) is in stores February 4th.

For a PREVIEWS Prevue click here!

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PREVIEWSworld: Joe tell us what's going on with your company, and the resurrection of Lady Mechanika.

Joe Benitez: We are a brand new publishing company, and our first book will debut in February. The title, however, is not new:  we will be taking over the publication of the steampunk book, Lady Mechanika, which is a creator-owned comic that I previously published through Aspen Comics.  

Lady Mechanika sold phenomenally well in 2010-2011 (it was the #1 best-selling small-press comic in 2011, according to Diamond sales charts), but publication stopped when Aspen and I decided to part ways. During the hiatus, I've been gathering resources and planning ahead for the Lady's return.  Now, we are finally ready to continue publishing.

We are planning on having a new Lady Mechanika product on the shelves every month.  Issues #4 (DEC141157) and #5, which conclude the previously published storyline, are scheduled for release in February and March, respectively. Then in April, we will launch the second Lady Mechanika mini-series, The Tablet of Destinies. The art for the first three issues of Destinies has already been completed, and we are hard at work on the fourth, as well as developing subsequent stories. We hope that this head start will allow us to produce a monthly book without sacrificing quality. Quality remains our top priority.

I am a comic book artist who has previously worked for Image/Top Cow (Magdalena, Darkness, Weapon Zero), DC (Titans, Supergirl, Detective Comics, and my other creator-owned property, Wraithborn), Aspen (Soulfire, Executive Assistant: Iris), and Dynamite (various cover art). My company, Benitez Productions, is based in Los Angeles, and we'll be attending most of the So-Cal cons like SDCC and Wondercon, plus various other conventions across the country.

PREVIEWSworld: Can you tell us why Lady Mechanika is just now coming back to comic shops? And for new readers, what can you tell us about the premise of Lady Mechanika?

Joe Benitez: We are very excited to finally be publishing Lady Mechanika again. Many readers have been waiting a long time for this book to return, and I wish I could've achieved this a lot sooner, but I wanted to do it properly. For those who haven't picked up this book before, we are also offering two giant-sized reprints that collect the previous issues (#0-#1, and #2-#3).

Lady Mechanika is a steampunk book, which is a genre that combines the elegance of the Victorian Era with sci-fi gadgetry. This combination seems to appeal to both genders.  I've had several fans tell me about how they successfully introduced the book to a spouse or significant other who previously had no interest in comics.  The story is about a woman in Victorian England who somehow has mechanical limbs, and she herself doesn't know how that happened or why, and she's desperately searching for answers.  I think it's the outward strength of the character combined with a hidden vulnerability that connects with and engages the readers.

PREVIEWSworld: What websites are the best for learning about your company or talking with your staff?

Joe Benitez: www.joebenitez.com or Lady Mechanika's Facebook page www.facebook.com/LadyMechanika.