GEEKS CON reviewed (hint: Two Thumbs Up!)

GEEKS CON came and conquered, for sure!

Held at GEEKS Comics, the first-ever GEEKS Con took place on Saturday, June 14. Among the many great things I liked about doing the show was that it was about 10 minutes away from home. That comes particularly handy when I'm driving home at about 11pm, exhausted by a full day show!
 
Here's me setting up. To my left is Ted Seko, cartoonist (BILLY COLE & the SUPERMONSTERS franchise) and podcaster:

EL MUERTO comics, movie and sketch dolls taking up one whole corner. It's Signature Character Korner, Kids!



Jim Lujan not only debuted his brand-spanking new GHETTOMATION GARDEN DVD at the show, but he had time to record several interviews throughout the day, alongside the ever-loving creator of CRYING MACHO MAN, Jose Cabrera (in the baseball cap):

Raul Aguirre Jr. setting another young artist on a strict path of discipline and serious Art Fu:

 (photo courtesy Hortencia Aguirre, used with permission)

Raul's an animator, cartoonist and the host of the MAN VS. ART podcast. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it!! If you've ever talked to Mr. Aguirre, you've no doubt been swept over by his gale force windstorm of artistic knowledge, passion and inspiration. The very reason I've christened him '¡El Bombastico!'




This crackerjack of a comic book artist, Rafael Navarro, has a long history with me:

Rafael is both a Xeric Award-winning comic book artist, and an Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist. But mostly he's the guy I can sit and talk with hours about such topics as Frank Robbin's INVADERS comics, Jack Kirby's CAPTAIN AMERICA and Dick Sprang's BATMAN work. When he's not working on his Sonambulo comic book or freelance gigs, he knocks out stunning pieces like this one:

Yep, this wickedly, wonderful drawing is a pin-up of my WEAPON TEX-MEX. This guy Navarro is a real keeper, believe me!


Here's a pic of (l to r)Rafael, Michael Aushenker, me and Alex Vallejo:

Michael, no stranger to readers of this blog, is, along with Rafael, one of the guys who proceeded my first self-publishing efforts back in 1998. Mikey's the creator of EL GATO, CRIME MANGLER, as well as his current series of comics, CARTOON FLOPHOUSE. He also writes regularly for BACK ISSUE Magazine, and even writes a column for the DITKOMANIA zine (which I occasionaly provide an illustration for). Me, Raf and Mikey were 2/5ths of the 'legendary' LA indie comics group, BIG UMBRELLA! One day, the book will be written on that era (probably by me!) and by Asgard, the tale will be told. Our good friend Alex drove up from San Diego to join us for this show.

Among the other cartoonists joining us at GEEKS CON was Sherm Cohen, the very talented director/storyboard artist from such shows as SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS and  KICK BUTTOWSKI:

Even outside his table, Sherm gets mobbed by young fans!

Between all the hoopla of selling comics and meeting fans and drawing in sketchbooks, we even found time to inaugurate another artist into the Cartoonista fold! Co-founder Jim Lujan and I had discussed this some months ago, but we figured this was as good a time as any to spring this on the unsuspecting artist:

Arvie Villanueva of Agimat Entertainment, newly crowned Cartoonista. He and his lovely wife Adonna have had great success with the brand-new video game that Arvie created based on their webcomic, Shadow Candy: SUGAR RUSH. The game is available through iTunes, and I congratulate Agimat on their successful launch. No mean feat, considering how many applications are submitted to Apple every week!

Among the personal highlights I like to remember: Seeing one of the students from the 4th Grade class I spoke at a few weeks ago show up with his mom and use his own allowance money to buy a comic book from me, the fans who took home my Muerto Sketch Dolls, the friends who came by to say 'Hi', other artists like Will Caulfield (ADVENTURES OF BAT BAT) and Lalo Alcaraz (LA CUCARACHA) stopping by to show some support. 


Also, this young man, Andrew, asking for an El Muerto drawing with half his face peeled away! And he insisted on the eyeball dangling from it's socket!! Remember the good old days when kids would ask for a drawing of a cowboy or a dinosaur?!

 I have to thank all the artists who showed up and helped us pack the room with fans. Thanks to Jim Lujan for gettting the ball rolling on GEEKS CON, and of course to my pal Sal Felix, owner of the shop, for opening his store up to GEEKS CON and all the other shows we've had in his store over the last two years.

Making our comics and cartoons and art is our passion, and we'd do it anyways (or go plum loco). But to be able to have a time and a place to show it, share it and sell it...Well, that's what us artist types want! Thanks everyone who played a part in GEEKS CON!

Happy Halloween from El Muerto and CRYING MACHO MAN!

El Muerto appears in Jose Cabrera's web comic, CRYING MACHO MAN! See El Muerto get treated to a trick!

EL MUERTO to appear in CRYING MACHO MAN web comic this weekend!

El Muerto will be appearing in Jose Cabrera's CRYING MACHO MAN online strip this Friday, October 30th!

Jose's been creating his CRYING MACHO MAN for 5 years now, a satirical, irreverent look at the silly, stupid, tragic things we all go through. I've seen his art evolve over the years, and as an artist I admire the growth he exhibits as his line work becomes more fluid and elastic and his inking becomes more expressive and evocative. Certainly the man's always had a wicked sense of humor, which he applies so strongly in his strips.



He's got two book collections out now, with more on the way. For the past year now, he's been in Mexico on a Fulbright Scholarship. His Mexican adventure has been wonderfully captured by he and his wife Naomi on their blog OUR YEAR IN MEXICO. By January, Jose will be back in Los Angeles, with all new kinds of cartooning adventures awaiting him!

In the meantime, let's all enjoy the upcoming El Muerto appearance this coming Friday. Jose and I talked about working together on a project, so I thought that handing him my little dead boy for a day would be fun. Basically, he came up with the gag, ran the rough draft by me, and then inked the final piece. Because this is CRYING MACHO MAN, don't expect one of my angst-filled, Mexican telenovela melodramas/haunted hero routines! No way, Jose! This is Crying Dead Man courtesy of the pulse-pounding Mr. Cabrera! I couldn't be happier with this appearance, and thanks to Jose for letting me be a part of his strip.

Last year, you may recall, El Muerto appeared for a 5-part appearance in the nationally syndicated newspaper strip, BALDO. That also ran over the Halloween/Day of the Dead weekend, and I'm glad to once again have El Muerto appear in another strip over the same weekend. Maybe I can make this a tradition. Any other web or syndicated cartoonists wanna have El Muerto guest-star in your strip next Halloween/Day of the Dead?

Jose Cabrera and a WizardWorld LA wrap-up tonite!

My guest on my radio show tonite is Jose Cabrera, creator of the CRYING MACHO MAN online comic! Me and Jose shared a table at Wizard World LA this past weekend so we'll share our stories about that. AND: find out about my brand new comic creation, DEMOLITION DOVE!!!

San Diego Comic Con report! Pt. 2

Continuing my coverage of San Diego Comic Con 2007 ( Pt. 1 can be found here )...

Friday night's EL MUERTO screening may have been the big highlight of the weekend, but it was by no means the only fun to be had. Saturday was a day filled with catching up with more friends and really just enjoying the show from the point of view of a fan, not just an associate producer of a comic book movie.

Speaking of promoting movies, I think the 'buzz booth' of this years Con was the Weinstein Company's stunt to promote GRINDHOUSE. Here's a one-legged model dressed up as Cherry Darling! Now that's exploitation!!


Not to be outdown, I was lucky enough to stroll pass this lovely lady. Miss Jessica Rabbit. Remember, she's not bad, she's just drawn that way!


My friend Will Caulfield and his son Nicholas came down to the show on saturday.

I've known Will some 22 years. He's a trusted friend and he actually gave me my start in a graphics art career. I was in college at the time, not really sure what direction I had wanted to pursue as far as art. He hired me to work part-time at the screenprinting shop where he worked at (he was the Art Director) and eventually I moved to full time. All the skills I learned their absolutely helped me later when I began to publish my own comic book. It was at that job where I actually first learned about computer graphic design. Some years later Will and his wife had their son, and Will left his position to raise Nicholas at home. I assumed the position of Art Director and a few years later, when we experienced a growth period, I was able to hire him back! So we have a long history of working side by side as well as becoming each other's boss over the years! A few years ago Will decided to create his own comic book ( THE ADVENTURES OF BAT BAT ) and he's attended a few shows with me as an exhibitor. He told me that I and my friends had inspired him with our own creations. And he tells me that his son Nicholas wants to create his own comic book! The two of them are hoping to attend Comic Con next year as exhibitors. That's a heck of a lot of circles being completed!

Another good friend of mine exhibiting this year was Jason Martin. His full-color independent comic book series SUPER REAL has recieved a lot of favorable notices. Jason's probably the saviest guy I know, as far as us self-publishing cartoonists, who uses the internet to his full advantage as far as advertising and networking. He'll use a nice signature banner on various message boards he visits, for example, in order to drive traffic to his site. He and I met a few years ago in the Small Press area at Comic Con and hit it off really good. He's actually contributed to the El Muerto DVD release, but I'll have to talk about that in another post!

By the way, Jason's got a very good blog where he in fact has his own Comic Con report with lots and lots of cool pics of the various booths and fans in costumes. Check it out right here!

Comic conventions are about two things when you're self-publishing: Selling comics and befriending other cartoonists! Here's Jose Cabrera, creator of the online strip CRYING MACHO MAN, and his lovely wife Naomi.

I met them about a year ago at APE (Alternative Press Expo in San Fransisco). They live in LA but so far we haven't had a chance to get together locally! We always hook up at some show or another. You'd be surprised how often that happens! Jose recently published a tradepaperback collection of his strip and asked me to write him a blurb, which is on the back of the book. He's got the blurb on his website if you want to read it. And while you're there, check out his comics and order his book!

Speaking of being all macho and stuff...here's me and my girlfriend Bernyce. Often we wandered the floor together, but sometimes we'd go our own ways. There's only so much old-school, geeky superhero nonsense she can take! Although, she does have her own brand of comic book nuttiness she enjoys. We actually do have a lot of the same tastes in comics and art, but we also have enough differences to keep the two of us out of each others hair once in a while!


Wandering the floor of the convention is always interesting because you never know what neat little book you're going to find or who you're going to run into. One such encounter was bumping into cartoonist and radio host, Lalo Alcaraz. His strip LA CUCARACHA is nationally syndicated and he's been a strong supporter of my work over the years and a good friend. He was on a couple of panels invovling cartoon strips this past weekend.


If friday's highlight was the movie screening, then saturday's highlight was the annual Mexican dinner in Old Town San Diego me and my friend Michael Aushenker started several years ago. To this day, believe it or not, I never remember the name of the restaraunt nor can I ever give anyone decent directions on how to get there! But every year we gather a bunch of friends and fellow cartoonists and take the trolley down to Old Town and enjoy a feast of good food and strawberry margaritas.


Me and my co-Mayor of Margaritaville, Michael Aushenker!


That Old Town dinner is always a great way to cap off a busy day at the Con. Regardless if I'm exhibiting there or just enjoying the Con as a guest, I hope this annual tradition continues for a very long time.

My next and final post about Comic Con 2007 will cover my sunday at the show. See you then......