Interview with Maritza Campos of Power Nap

Power Nap is a hilarious science fiction webcomic about the breakdown of social norms, the daily grind of work and the power of dreams. Maritza Campos is the writer of the webcomic who works alongside the series artist Bachan. Together the two have formed a beautiful, dark and hysterical tale of imagination gone awry. The story follows an overworked man named Drew who signs up for dream experiments at a shady corporate office where he’s employed. I talked with Maritza about the comic’s story, her inspirations and her weirdest dream.

Ryan: Power Nap is such an insanely inventive comic. How did the story come about?

Maritza: Back in 2005 or so I started reading about Modafinil and other drugs especially developed for the military. Apparently this and other drugs can make people stay awake for several days in a row, while staying alert and at the top of your game. I started thinking what would happen if such a drug was developed that could substitute sleep completely, and if the use became norm for the civilian population. Humans would suddenly have a third of their life available to do whatever they wanted, and I started to imagine it could be as big a game changer as electricity and the light bulb.

Ryan: What are some of your biggest inspirations for the comic?

Maritza: My own dreams! And real life. People are sleeping less and less and working more and more. But we don’t have Z-sups yet, which is a problem. Visually speaking, Bachan has his own sources of inspiration, ranging from other comics to movies to video games.

WARNING: COMIC SPOILER AHEAD-

Ryan: Noob and Drew are together! Have you been planning that for some time?

Maritza: From the beginning! A lot of the things that happen in the comic are already planned. I hinted it back in Chapter 4, when Cornelius talks to Drew but believes he’s just talking to Drew’s dream avatar. That is, Noob.

Ryan: What is one of the strangest dreams you’ve ever had?

Maritza: From a Facebook annotation on February, 2014:

I woke up this morning, took a quick look at the clock, it was 8:46. Shrugged and went back to sleep and I had a dream where I was in a beach and there was a storm. Due to the storm a nearby nuclear plant exploded and somehow everybody inside froze to death. I had to go in to retrieve a device to go back in time and avert the disaster. I walked by a room where a fish tank exploded and the water was frozen and the sharks ate the scientists. I had to pry open a frozen double door with a crowbar I found after I specifically searched for something like that in several rooms. At the end of the labyrinth, I found the device and set it to “BACK”. Nothing happened. Still in the plant and wondering what to do, I woke up again and looked at the clock. 8:46.

Ryan: Are you working on any other projects right now?

Maritza: Working on a new webcomic called Tiny Anomaly. It’s about catholic school girls, nuns, and mass hysteria.

Ryan: Anything you’d like to say to your fans?

Maritza: Thank you so much for reading! Hopefully you’ll stick around to the very end.

You can find Power Nap at the series’ site.