UFOs and adolescence: Taki Soma talks ‘Alienated’ at SDCC 2025

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, AIPT had the honor of sitting down with Taki Soma, creator of the Comixology series Alienated. During the enthusiastic chat, Soma revealed the inspiration behind the science fiction miniseries’ touching themes and even shared some delightful behind-the-scenes stories. It’s a snapshot of why Alienated is truly out of this world.

On The Complexities of Adolescence

AIPT: First off, I read the most recent issue of Alienated and I really enjoyed it. For readers who aren’t as familiar with the series, can you tell us a little bit about the story?

Taki Soma: Sure, the series is, well, one day, the world wakes up to alien invasion. A whole bunch of aliens show up all over Earth, and they’re all dead. But of course, one survived. And the story is about that surviving alien, and the family that finds him and nurtures him and protects him from the rest of the world.

AIPT: I love that the fourth issue began at a Comic-Con-like event and opened with people who had valid convention complaints. Did San-Diego Comic-Con inspire that scene in at all?

TS: So that’s actually based on the. Like, UFO conventions we’ve attended and stuff like that. It’s called Contact in the Desert, which is a literal alien convention, and at night we would like launch the stars and look for something in the in the sky, stuff like that. So I kind of drew inspiration from that.

AIPT: I remember the kids and well, not kids, the 18 year olds, gave me a flashback of my childhood with my strict parents who expected the world of me. Did you draw that from your own childhood?

TS: No. Not even a little bit. Yeah, these kids are not, like, how, I grew up at all. My parents were not like them at all. They didn’t expect anything from me. But I drew inspiration from kids that I do know. Like, my friends, children and stuff like that.

I also kind of drew from just remembering being a kid and having that discovery of life and trying to figure out who you are. How you’re supposed to act in life and ultimately learning that, as a child, you don’t have a lot of choices. Even though everybody’s telling you, you got to make a choice and you have to be an adult and whatever. But they don’t actually have choices and that’s why I chose them as part of the narrative.

I chose an the elderly man, as well, because elderly men, actually the elderly, period, are in the same boat. They don’t have a lot of choices either. Everybody’s like, well, do you want to go to a retirement home? Do you want to go to a nursing home? Those aren’t real choices.

AIPT: Yeah I definitely remember feeling that way. While I was reading the issue I thought “did she look into my past?”

TS: I did, actually [laughs]. Yeah, I interviewed your mom.

AIPT: Oh no! I’m sorry you had to go through that! Is there a reason why that one specific alien survived when the others didn’t?

TS: It’ll be revealed later. But there is a reason why and how he survived.

The Creative Process Behind Alienated

AIPT: So moving over to the art of Alienated. When it comes to comic book art are you super involved or do you just let the artist do their own thing?

TS: Both. I’ve known the artist, John Bria, for 20 years. So I trust him as an artist because I’ve known him so long, and I’ve watched him work, and I know he’s a prolific artist, and I could rely on him. So when even like when when we’re trying to figure out like the character design, I gave him as little description as possible, because I wanted to see what he was going to come up with instead of me trying to manipulate what the characters really look like.

I had a certain vision in mind of, like, what Lily and Winter and TJ looked like. But I just gave him, like, their ages and what they were like. And what he came up with was nothing like what I picture. And it was the most delightful thing ever. Like, I was so attached and now I can’t picture them any other way. It’s absolutely the best surprise.

So, in a way, I have some say, but I usually don’t have any corrections for them. I think I had corrections for him only because I wrote a couple of double spreads, which I then later found out that that doesn’t really work really well with the format. So I have to ask him to break them into pages. And that’s the only changes that I’ve asked for.

AIPT: What was your favorite part about writing Alienated, and what was the most challenging?

TS: OK. So little story. I finished, I just finished issue #5. And I’m so proud. I’m like, ‘Man, I landed that cliffhanger. I can’t wait. I’m gonna finish this up so well. Six is gonna just finish so tight. I’m gonna answer all the questions that, you know, the readers made up.’ And I was so proud of myself. But then something told me to, like, look at my contract for some reason. I don’t know what compelled me, but I looked at it, and it said, it’s a five-issue series.

AIPT: Oh no!

TS: No one has ever said Alienated was a six-issue series. Ever. When we signed it, and my lawyer looked at it, we all talked about how it was a five-issue series. No one never said six issues. I don’t know where the six issues idea came from, but I was writing for six the whole time. So I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what am I gonna do?’

Then I’m like, OK, well, I’m gonna email Jeff and tell him what happened and then, you know, I like, maybe I’ll have a rewrite the rest of what John has drawn. Or, I’m going to ask him for extra issue. Whatever happens, I got to figure this out. I called John, and I’m like, ‘Can you put pencils down? Cause I might have to rewrite everything and all this stuff.’ Luckily, they’re like, yeah, six is fine. Yeah, it’s fine. It’s not that much more.

AIPT: OK, last question: What message do you want fans to take away from your series overall?

TS: I want them to feel warm and fuzzy at the end. Yeah, I want this to be like a good experience. Hopefully I deliver it. 

Alienated #4 is available for purchase right now. Issue #5 drops Tuesday, August 5.