A Never-Ending Adventure: A Quest of An Aspiring Creator Searching for An Idea

A Never-Ending Adventure: A Quest of An Aspiring Creator Searching for An Idea

Oscar Osorio is a comic book author from Peru who stepped away from the corporate lifestyle to fuel their creativity after they found their love for comics. This has led to the one-shot issue of A Never-Ending Adventure. This comic has been the fruition of Osorio’s life-changing decision to step away from the life of an economist to fully pursue their passion which is the next step after having created a comic last year to launch their Substack.

A Never-Ending Adventure’s description reads:

A Never-Ending Adventure is a one-shot story of Mark Bear, a young Latino struggling to keep his head straight. A former corporate worker turned comic book writer, Mark needs to think of a winning idea to make a living from his passion. But his mental health is struggling. While going on adventures to his past and foreign lands, will he be able to write a comic book by the last page?

We had the opportunity to speak with Osorio to learn more about this story and their inspiration as they go on this adventure that they created to embody the feelings they have felt taking such a big leap of faith to pursue what they love.

What about comics made you decide to change careers and become a comic book writer? What comics inspired you to start writing?

I fell in love with comics in 2010 when a local newspaper published them in Peru. Since then, I’ve attended conventions, read many books, written articles, reviews, and opinions about comics, watched movies and series about these characters, and seen people fall in love with them. In a way, I always knew that my endgame was to become a comic book writer.

I love creating stories, expressing them through words and panels, and having my words come to life into beautiful art. The mix between words and art is fascinating. I’ve loved this medium for many years, and my passion has grown stronger.

Regarding inspiration, more than comics, there were 2 Brians: Brian Michael Bendis was the first creator I read, and his superhero stuff at 2010s Marvel is the reason I’m here right now. It was world-changing for a young me. The next, a few years later, was Brian K. Vaughan. Thanks to him, I discovered indie comics and that you can create worlds and characters and depict grounded emotions in a comic book. They were the spark for my dream of becoming a writer.

Later inspirations on how to write and the craft itself are Scott Snyder, Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, and Chip Zdarsky. Last year’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood was super inspiring too.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced becoming a new comic book writer? What has been the most fulfilling?

This is an excellent question because it’s the main topic of my upcoming comic book, A Never-Ending Adventure – live on Zoop right now: the challenges and happy moments in taking this step. So, the main challenge is the negative stuff that arose when I changed careers, as I burned out at my previous corporate work and felt that working on my passion would magically fix me (silly me, I know). The new fears and anxiety of turning my passion into my profession are equally draining, if not more.

Nevertheless, I’m living my lifelong dream, so that’s definitely good. And I trust the process will take me to my goal of living from comics. If you don’t enjoy the process and only want the result, you don’t truly love what you do; you want the goal. I’m happy to say that I enjoy the process, even if it’s challenging AF.

Also, it’s been fulfilling knowing that my time learning about comics by reading, attending virtual classes, and watching creator interviews has paid off, and that, in combination with my team and time management skills from my previous job, has put me in an exciting position as I attempt to self-publish my first book.

In A Never-Ending Adventure, we follow protagonist Mark Bear on a quest. Can you tell us a bit more about his story?

Sure! As I mentioned, Mark Bear is facing the same journey I encountered a few months ago. He changed careers and now has to live from his passion. Will he accomplish it? That’s the main question.

This book explores mental health and life-changing decisions, showing the good and the bad of making impactful moves in your life. There’s another aspect to it, as I wanted to honor what made me fall in love with comics all those years ago: the fun and goofiness of an action and adventure comic. So, this is a story where the protagonist needs to complete a quest full of bad guys, travel, and fighting. But on a deeper level, it’s a journey through what makes us human, facing your fears and proving your worth to yourself.

I want to highlight that, to show the protagonist’s struggles with – undiagnosed- ADHD, there are side stories that will change the art style in the book to show how Mark disperses from thought to thought. Therefore, the book will feature four international artists: Vinicius Carreiro from Brazil, Terri Susca from Italy, Amalas Rosa from Germany, and Mary Landro from Canada.

You say this story will speak to young Latinos, what are you hoping they or anyone reading this story will take from it?

One of my goals with A Never-Ending Adventure was to discuss mental health from a Latino perspective. I want to inspire Latino men to share their feelings and stories and let go of the old beliefs that men should not show vulnerability. Also, I’m hoping that people struggling to make big decisions will treat this book as an inspiring (or a cautionary) tale in the sense that I’ve tried to share the ups and downs of the experience.

I believe in writing what you would want to find on the shelves, and I wrote this book thinking in me from 6 months or a year ago. I believe this book would’ve helped and entertained me simultaneously, so hopefully, it does that to others.

Do you have any other comic projects coming up? 

Yes! I’m on it for the long run, so I have projects lined up for the year’s second half. I’ll announce something in July and have more stories to tell. This book is my presentation letter; it’s very personal and has my print all over it. The next ones will show how far I can get. I’ve big plans for comics, and I want to continue.

A Never-Ending Adventure is live on Zoop right now and you can get your copy of this inspiring journey by visiting the project page.