Poche is one of those artists who needed the world to experience a pandemic and go into lockdown to finally devote some time to experiment with creativity. So in July of 2020, amidst the world crisis and chaos, he posted his first comic strip on Instagram that would help make people smile and take their minds off reality.
"Drawing comics was always something I wanted to try and thought I would be good at. Covid really left me with plenty of time to try it out. I have been drawing all my life but comics have been a really fun thing to learn and get better at," Poche told Bored Panda.
Poche started drawing black and white comics with spooky horror characters such a skeleton, Jason Voorhees, Jigsaw, the Grim Reaper, zombies, and ghosts. Later, he started including more colors, topics, and characters that range from well-known pop culture references to 'average' everyday people. These comics are specially prescribed to people who love pop culture. You will meet characters from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Power Rangers, the Grinch, Cinderella, a number of famous horror personas, and many more that find themselves in unexpected and hilariously relatable situations. Have you ever wondered how Jason Voorhees spends Thursday the 12th, or what happens when the Grim Reaper sleeps in? Well, Poche offers his unique perspective.
"I have been drawing all my life because it is something I love doing. Making comics is a creative outlet for me," the artist said.
"Pop culture is a big part of my life. I genuinely love things like Star Wars and the Iron Giant, so drawing comics of these is a lot of fun for me. It also makes my comics a little more relatable to people with the same interests," the artist said about the pop culture references in his comics.
We asked Poche about his inspirations and ideas: "I get a lot of my ideas while hiking or walking around Austin. Having time to just think really helps. I guess I also get a lot of shower ideas, too. Pop culture is a running theme, and it helps that I think about movies a lot."
The artist said that Gabriel Picolo is one of his favorite artists because "he is fantastic at telling stories through art."
We were curious about the origins of the StrangeTrek name for the comics as it also seems to be inspired by pop culture, particularly Star Trek.
"I felt that it could apply to any sort of comic I would want to do. It goes with doing the spooky comics I did at the beginning to the ones I do now."
"My comics are really just things that I think are funny and want to draw. Luckily other people think they are funny too. My favorite subject is the things that I grew up with as a kid. Things like movies or books that are fun to parody now. When I started drawing I looked at shows like Adventure Time for inspiration." Poche says.
StrangeTrek comics' style has evolved throughout this past year from black and white to colorful, yet simple illustrations and the variety of topics became nearly unpredictable, ranging from the afterlife and fairytales to absurd reality.
"I wanted to draw in a simple fashion to emphasize the humor in my drawings. As I kept making comics I got more comfortable in my style and wanted to add color to make them more visually complex," the artist says.
Poche said that expressing his ideas with humor makes them accessible to everyone. But with almost 5k followers, it seems like it's only the beginning of the beautiful ride, so follow the artist on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with new content.
"I love making these comics and it means the world that other people want to see what I made."
And if you are interested in drawing comics yourself, Poche has golden advice: "just start, and once you start you can't stop."
If you are also a fan of pop culture and love when nostalgic characters are given a new life in comics, Bored Panda has featured more artists who express their geeky side in their artwork. Estonian artist Mart Virkus aka Arcade Rage illustrates "dumb jokes for smart people" in his dark humor comics about pop culture and video games. Brazilian artist Lucas Nascimento, better known as Dragonarte, creates comics exclusively about iconic superheroes and other pop culture characters revealing their secret off-duty everyday life and we've featured his work twice here and here. Similarly, Chilean cartoonist Karlo Ferdon is exposing the not-so-glamorous life of superheroes in his funny comics without dialogue.
A key character of early StrangeTrek comics was the Grim Reaper, who was caught up in funny situations in his daily job, from a workation on the Titanic to awkward encounters with humans. But if you want to see another unexplored and soft side of the spooky Reaper, you should check out this comic series about the Pink Reaper who is actually wholesome here, here, here, and here.