Pre-orders for "COMICS!" now available!

My new comic book is available for Pre-orders from my webshop. Here's the full, wraparound cover:

COMICS! is a full-color book, making available for the first time in one collection my series of one-page comics (Poster Comics). That's 12, full-color comics, plus 7 pages of behind-the-scene extras, including character designs, production art and commentary on creating comics in one-page stories.

 (A sample of the Poster Comics)

 (A page from the behind-the-scenes extras)

Every copy of COMICS! that's pre-ordered will come with an original piece of art: a 5" x 5" sketch on Strathmore Bristol illustration paper, done with color markers, of one of the characters featured in stories. COMICS! is printed in a large magazine size, 8" x 10.5", comes with a cardstock cover, and features 20 pages in full color.

(Esperantos and Kaiju Kamen color sketches)

If you haven't already purchased THE LOS COMEX CODEX (my 138 page trade-paperback collection), you can order it together with COMICS! and get a package deal for both, saving you about $5 in shipping costs! Pre-order the 2 for 22 deal!

 

To Pre-order COMICS!, visit the Los Comex Webshop. Independent comics creators like myself appreciate the direct support from the readers!

Pre-orders will run until Monday, November 4!

Here comes.... the COMICS!

New book I'm working on. It collects all 12 of my Poster Comics in one volume, complete with bonus material (sketches, behind-the-scenes commentary, etc). It'll be my first full-color book, too!

More info to come. But it'll be here in time for your Holiday gift-giving needs!

My gallery of one page Poster Comics

I've just published my latest Poster Comic, "Kaiju Kamen". You can read it online at my DeviantArt page.

"Kaiju" is the Japanese word for 'monster', and is often used to refer to the giant monsters such as Godzilla, Gamera and others found in Japanese monster films. "Kamen" translates  as 'mask', so my title refers to the blue masked monster wrestling the giant octopus beast....

This is my 12th Poster Comic I've done since starting these in December 2011. Originally my goal was to do one a month, but in the later half of 2012 my workload became busier, so I suspended the project until May of this year. KAIJU KAMEN is my third one this year, and I've definitely got more planned. 

The original idea behind these 'poster comics' was to have a way to create comics featuring many of the ideas I have for new characters. A full-length comic book (30-50 pages) can take me several months to finish, and with other commitments I have during the year, it seems unlikely that I'd ever be able to get all these done as completed stories. So the relatively limited time it takes me to do one of these provides an outlet for these characters to make it into a story, however brief they are. Another reason I like doing these is that I can print them in color. Printing a one page, full color poster at 11" x 17" is cheaper than printing a full-color book, and it's way faster to color as well.

My first four, shown above, had that excitement you get with a learning curve, as they were my initial attempts. One of the critical things about these one-page comics is the planning and editing. How do you tell the story you want to tell, in a very limited amount of space, and still follow a beginning-middle-end story structure? And without drawing 30 panels per page! At least that was the challenge I made for myself.  

One page comics have a long history in the medium, so I wasn't creating anything new. What I did notice was that often, one-page comics have been used as humor stories, or as brief educational/informative devices. Also, they've been used to great effect to advertise products, such as the famous Hostess Twinkie and Cup Cake ads that appeared in comics from the 1970s and 80s.

One thing that's key to creating these is to not be too precious with the idea. Meaning that not everything I want to say about the character will be in the story, but I try to focus on showing them doing what identifies them, as far as their role as action heroes. 

For example, in the top left comic from the second batch below, the robot sentry, Andromeda X7X, is shown confronting an advance scout in a planned alien invasion. So the story specifically highlights her role as a guardian of Earth. Below that story is a biographic comic on Steve Ditko, the artist who co-created Spider-Man and continues his 60 year career even today. With the Ditko story, it was matter of identifying the key points of his career that I wanted to convey, so from there is was drawing those scenes and then scripting the narrative.

A lot of my character designs revolve around very distinctly identified characters. So if I have a caveman superhero, he's easily identified as such (the comic just below, on the left). Or the newest one, Kaiju Kamen.... A monster with a mask. I love the iconographic nature of comic book characters, so in some ways a lot of the character's identity is perceived upon initial viewing. That helps tremendously in these one-page stories. With an image that's bold and expressive, some of the 'writing' has already begun.

Comics have unique relationship to their reader. A certain amount of collaboration occurs between the creator and the viewer in that the story is read at whatever pace the reader chooses. As the storyteller, I'm providing the roadmap, but the reader brings their own understanding to the experience, perhaps filling in the thin space between the panels with their own mental imagery. So whether it's a 12 panel story or a 48 page comic, I still provide the reader with a reading experience, and hopefully it's a worthwhile one. 

My plans for this Poster Comic series include another round of stories featuring additional new characters as well as a variety of non-fiction stories. A historic political/celebrity event, an adaptation of a public-domain movie, and a couple of biographic pieces (similar to the Ditko comic). Eventually I'd like to collect them all in a book of some type. Perhaps a full-blown 11" x 17" collection? We'll see....

You can read all these Poster Comics online over at my gallery on DeviantArt. Just click the one you want to read and it'll open up to a much larger size. Enjoy!

Wondercon 2012 recap

Wondercon, held this past weekend in Anaheim, CA, was a 3 day weekend of seemingly non-stop action! 

I hadn't exhibited at Wondercon in about 10 years or so. But since they relocated this year to Anaheim from San Francisco, I thought I'd best give it a try. And I'm glad I did. There was no shortage of memorable moments during the show, and that always makes these events worthwhile. I was splitting the table with friend and fellow comics creator Ted Seko, so that in itself made the weekend worthwhile as well.

 Since I've started self-publishing in 1998, I must have done at least 75-100 conventions, store signings, book fairs, festivals, etc. But each time I have to give some thought and planning to how to lay out my table. So for the first time, I brought along a comic box (on the left) and filled it with my my entire catalog of comic books (save the one that's currently out-of-print). This was also the first time I debuted my Poster Comics, so a plastic 'milk crate' was the best way to display those.


The good thing about doing a local show is being able to go home after the first day and bring back either more product or display fixtures. I was thinking of retiring my ancient EL MUERTO banner, but there was plenty of room behind me, so I brought it and hung it up. Which was good, because I think it really helped get more attention in the isle I was in.

One thing about our location that I wasn't too thrilled about in the beginning was to our left was this massive, monolith:

This wall, surely the tallest wall I have ever seen, was one side of a bathroom planted right on the floor of the convention hall (because putting the bathroom along the side of the hall would have been too much extra work!). Anyway, that wall was one of the reasons I brought the banner the second day. May as well make the best visual impression you can given the circumstances. Thanks to STEAMCROW artist/co-owner Daniel Davis for mentioning that bit of advice to me on Friday...

WONDERCON is a pretty big show, so there were lots of vendors and lots of attendees. On Friday, the traffic in the Small Press area was light, but Saturday picked up tremendously, and in fact that was our best day. Sunday, while not as busy perhaps, still had plenty of buyers stopping by our table and picking up our goods.

It's always good to see so many artists setting up at a show to sell their work. There's always way space occupied by retail vendors and larger comics publishers, but it's the Artist Alley and Small Press area that gets me excited about the art of comics. I don't look at any of these artists as competitors, but rather I look at how do I keep my work in the public's eye, and how good of a job am I doing in being an effective exhibitor. There's only so much you can 'pitch',  people either respond to the work or they don't.


Couple of things that stand out to me about this weekend: As the years go on, I hear from more people who've seen the EL MUERTO movie, which sometimes helps sell some DVDs. That just shows the constant and pervasive power of movies and television.


I was visited by a writer who moderated a panel I was on at the LA Latino Film Festival back in 2004, and another guy who interviewed me on JoBlo.Com back in 2005. A former student of one of my comic book workshops, from some 9 years ago, stopped by as well. He's in his early 20s now, which really shows me how much time has passed.

Also, two former employees from a comic store I used to shop at, (and later do signings at) back in the late 90s/early 2000s came by the table. A young lady whose doing her doctorate on comics made into films picked up some of my books, and I let her know she could contact me later if she had any questions I could help her with. Plus the usual mix of new readers ("Where do you suggest I start?") and old fans ("What do you have that's new?").

There were of course other friends and acquaintances I saw as well, but the ones I mentioned stand out because it really underscores to me how long I've been doing 'this'... Making my own comics and all the other experiences that have come with it. The movie, the teaching, the signings.... Man, it's been a great 14 years so far.

I did get a chance to walk around the convention hall and visit some of my friends, such as Neil Segura and Ray Mendivil, creators of FOREVER FRESHMEN:

 John Narcomey of DRAW HARD STUDIOS in talks with an armored Batman fellow:

Back at my table, more of my friends stopped by to say 'Hello'. Here's the Queen of Hearts herself, the lovely Jenny Dos Santos:

My old pal Dean LeCrone , cartoonist, filmmaker, All-American Yancy Streeter, was walking the floor presenting some of us with his 2012 DOC SMITH YEAR OF DISASTER CALENDER. Dean's one cool dude, always has a positive attitude and twinkle in his eye. And another friend of mine, the exceptional Ms. Bernyce Talley, also came around at the same time to add some class and charm to my table, and to bust my chops (always a pleasure, believe me!):

Ted and I handled the weekend pretty good, I'd say. But there were times when the long days and slow patches would get to us!  But then, a new wave of folks would stop by the table and liven things up. Here's Ted doing some free sketches for some appreciative kids:

All weekend long, Ted was producing some great little drawings using a $1 box of crayons! Most of these went to fans at no cost, and I even snagged a couple, the Man-Thing and Robin:

I had my marker brushes with me, so once in a while I'd do a sketch myself. Here's one of my character The Wake:

I even asked Ted if he'd like to make jam piece. I drew another of my characters, The Coma, and Ted really blew it out of the water with his crayon coloring! Photoshop? Bah, big deal!:

I only bought one comic that whole weekend. I walked by a booth called 'HIPPY COMIX' and knew I had to stop and look. I immediately started looking for back issues of Gilbert Shelton's WONDER WART-HOG and found this little gem for $10:

Hey, I might be at the convention to showcase my own work, but as a fan, there's so much to see and buy at every show that sometimes I gotta indulge myself! 


Evenings of the convention were dedicated to dinner with friends, both local and out of town. That's one of the great reasons I love these conventions, meeting up with friends you don't get a chance to see normally. Sure, as I mentioned, the days are very long, and you're working every minute, either talking to endless streams of people, or fixing up your table, or wandering around the hall meeting friends and such. After dinner, it's a drive home, fall asleep, then get up for another 8, 9, 10 hour shift.

But at it's best, I get to make my comics, set up at a show, meet lots of interesting people, sell my goods, make some money, and generally have a great time, filled with some rich memories and experiences. Makes it all worthwhile.

Back at WONDERCON this weekend!

WONDERCON is being held this year in Anaheim (after 24 years in the Bay Area) and I'll be exhibiting the full 3 days.

This Friday thru Sunday, find me in the Small Press area at table #33, which I'll be sharing with long-time friend & fellow DIY comics creator, Ted Seko. We'll have these signs behind us, so you better not miss our table!

When I started my self-publishing career back in 1998, I attended WONDERCON for a couple of years when it was held in Oakland. Eventually it moved to San Francisco, and I've only been to it once in that city about two years ago, as a visitor. But with their temporary move down here in Southern California this year, I didn't want to pass up on the opportunity to do a 'local' show, particularly one as big as WONDERCON.

I'm going to officially debut my Poster Comics as, well...posters! I've been releasing these online as webcomics since December, but now they'll be available as 11" x 17" prints, on glossy cardstock. I have a special Poster Pack featuring all 4 Poster Comics plus a free 4" x 6" postcard print of THE SPIDER-CALACA.

That's four glossy, full color posters, featuring my newest characters such as THE WAKE, THE WANDERING JEW & CATHOLIC BOY and THE SPIDER-CALACA!

I'll also have all my other comics that are currently in print, including WEAPON TEX-MEX Vs EL MUERTO and THE COMA, copies of the EL MUERTO DVD, buttons and anything else I can find! Also, I'll have a few sketchdolls available.... 

 Undercover spycam footage of the THE WAKE sketchdoll!


Get your WONDERCON tickets here, and stop by Small Press #33. Hope to see you there!