Graduate turning his love of science fiction into graphic novels

Andrea Motta takes mainly 1950’s science fiction tales from the public domain and repurposes them into visually stimulating graphic novels. Typically, these stories have previously had limited illustrations due to their period of publishing. This means all visuals surrounding the narratives in Andrea’s graphic remakes are interpretations of the stories from his perspective, giving the stories a whole new life.

Andrea, from Withington, has previously worked as a cartoonist and has a love for 1950’s science fiction. His business centres around combining his skillset with his interests, he said: “I especially like to remaster work from the 1950’s as that was the golden age of science fiction. There was the big race to space which ignited this imaginative genre of big robots and spaceships and advanced science.

“Also, authors at the time used their fiction to criticise growing issues at the time, like the increase of capitalism and the cold war for example, which adds multiple layers to the stories but still allows them to be fun”.

The first of Andrea’s graphic novel interpretation is based around ’The tunnel under the world’ by Fredrik Pohl, a Sc-Fi story about consumerism, advertising and robots. This story, now in the public domain, was first published in Galaxy Magazine in January 1955.

As a graduate from the University of Salford, Andrea is being supported by the purpose-built business incubator Launch@ Salford, to help develop his business. Launch@ was established in 2018 to aid students and graduates in developing and growing their business ideas. It enables users to gain access to specialist support and guidance from a team of business advisors, alongside providing them with office space and financial aid over a period of six-months.

“Initially, I really struggled with the commercial and sales components of my business model. The creative and graphic design aspects come naturally to me, but I am not much of a businessman.

“The launch team have massively helped me on that side of things, ensuring me that the business aspects are not as complicated as they first seem, and I feel more confident dealing with them thanks to launch.

 “They have helped me equip myself with the mindset, knowledge and toolset I need to create a viable business."

Andrea is set to begin crowdfunding soon to take his business to the next level. He plans on repurposing and reimagining several other science fiction stories before going on to sell physical copies at Comicon festivals across the country.

To view his work or engage with Andrea, head to his Twitter or Instagram @0Salvej