Pre-Order the LOS COMEX CODEX

I'm currently taking Pre-Orders for my new book, the LOS COMEX CODEX!

The CODEX is a 138 page collection of 5 of my out-of-print comics. Measuring 8.5" x 11", this hefty volume reprints  Weapon Tex-Mex vs El Muerto, The Coma, Man-Swamp, Dead Dinosaurio and "A Day at the Beach" from MANGA MUERTO Vol 1. The covers are in color, the interior pages are b&w (some stories are toned in gray, one is drawn entirely in pencil).

The book will debut at the upcoming LATINO COMICS EXPO LA, being held August 17 & 18 at the Musuem of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA.

But, if you're not a local, or just can't wait, you can now order a copy of LOS COMEX CODEX, which will include a full-color marker sketch on the title page. Here's one with The Coma:

The drawings will be signed, and if you'd like, I can personalize it to you or someone else if you're in a gift-giving mood!

Here are some pages from the book:

 

Pre-Order price is $20.00, which includes Priority Mail via USPS. Visit my Webshop to place your order.

I also put together some Archive Editions, featuring a page of original comic book art. The pages are the actual ones I drew to create the original comic books. Most of these are 8.5"x11", but the Weapon Tex-Mex/El Muerto page is 11"x14" and the cover artwork to the COMEX CODEX is 11"x17". 

Check out my Pre-Order section over at my Los Comex Webshop for prices and the complete selection of Archive Editions. By the way, the reason I don't have any Dead Dinosaurio pages available is that most of the pages sold when I had that comic on Pre-Order last year. 

And the Manga Muerto pages? Well, that one's tougher to explain. A few years ago, I had my car stolen, and inside were the original pages to this particular story. I was sharing them with my students at one of my comic book classes the day before, and unfortunately didn't remove them from the car the following day. At least I had already scanned the pages!

Pre-Orders help me to get the book printed, so I appreciate anyone who buys a copy. All orders will begin shipping by August 22, so everyone who bought a copy will get them by the end of August. It's possible I might start shipping a few days earlier, I'll notify folks via email once the books are mailed off.

Pre-Orders for the LOS COMEX CODEX will end on Wednesday, July 31. Order through the Los Comex Webshop.

Here comes THE LOS COMEX CODEX

I'm currently in production on my first trade-paperback collection:

('Codex' is the name of the ancient manuscripts composed of sheets of hand-written content. The Aztecs and Mayans were known for their folded codices, one large continuous paper featuring their hand-drawn & colored stories and histories).

THE LOS COMEX CODEX is going to be a hefty book, at 8.5" x 11" some 130 pages or so. I'm collecting several of my titles in this volume, some of which will soon be out-of-print in their current comic book format. The stories being collected are: Weapon Tex-Mex vs El Muerto, Man-Swamp, Manga Muerto in "A Day at the Beach" (from MANGA MUERTO Vol 1), The Coma and Dead Dinosaurio.

The Codex will not only function as a collection of my work, but also marks the 15th Anniversary of Los Comex, my imprint from which I've been publishing all my comics work since I started in 1998. I'm writing a foreward to the book, featuring some recollections of the comics that inspired me as a kid, what drove me to draw and my motivations to create my own comics. Plus there'll be a brief introduction to each story, sharing some insight into the making of that particular comic. 

I'm having a great time designing the book, as it allows me play around with a lot of creative choices in terms of presentation and graphic design. That's one of the things I love about self-publishing, having the freedom to make creative decisions on the look of the whole book. The entire publication becomes a reflection of one's artistic voice, in addition to creating the story and characters.

As a kid growing up in the 70s, some of my favorite books were a series of paperbacks written by Stan Lee, writer and co-creator of the original Marvel Comics superstars like Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. I first saw ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS advertised in the comics themselves, then one day at a local store, BOOKLAND, I saw the entire series up on their wall behind the cash register. Well, with my allowance money (and extra pestering of Mom and Dad), I eventually completed my run of all four books in the series.

Each book featured Stan's recollections on the creation and development of each title. As a kid, it was fascinating to read such behind-the-scenes revelations, and I'm sure it sparked in me the idea of creating my own actual stories.

So, with the upcoming LOS COMEX CODEX, it'll be a nice nod to those early books, but also a way to introduce new readers to my work. If you already have copies of some of my floppy comics, perhaps you'd still like to have something a little heftier to put on your bookshelf alongside your Shakespeare and Stephen King novels!

Sketches and drawings and doodles

Sometimes I'll share some artwork I've created over at my Facebook page, or via Twitter. I also post lots of artwork on my page at DeviantArt. But I should remember to also share it here, for those of you who may not come across those other pages.


So here are several pages from my sketchbook. These were done within the last 2 weeks or so....

Etrigan the Demon, created by Jack Kirby in the early 1970s. © DC Comics

Devilman, created by Japanese comics creator Go Nagai, early 1970s. (What is it with demons and the early 1970s?). © Go Nagai and Dynamic Productions.

A character I'm currently working on as a Poster Comic. Miss Maude!


Here's a pair of doodles I did this morning. I call these doodles because I drew them without penciling them first. I just got my pen marker and started drawing, not worrying about making mistakes, or trying to draw correct anatomy or proper perspective. Just draw, and splash on some color with my Tombow markers....

Miss Maude and Weapon Tex-Mex © Javier Hernandez

The Coma © Javier Hernandez

Weapon Tex-Mex vs El Muerto: Creating the Story

Sorry for the long delay, but here's Part 2 in my series chronicling the behind-the-scenes process of my upcoming comic book, WEAPON TEX-MEX Vs. EL MUERTO: THE BATTLE OF SANTA MUERTE!!

 (A sketch for an upcoming promotional piece of art)

The reason I haven't been posting for the last 3 weeks was that I've actually been busy drawing the actual comic book. As of today, I can say I've penciled and inked the entire story. Of course, I need to go back and finish details on most of the pages, a few panels here and there. The way I worked was to sweep through the 18 pages, making sure all the figures were inked, and most of the backgrounds. What I need to go back and finish are mostly drawings of cars and interiors of buildings. As those will take a little more time (such as the perspective involved with some of the shots) I didn't want to 'slow' down my inking pace. 


In the first part of this series (scroll down this blog or click here to read it) I talked about what inspired me to create a Tex-Mex Versus Muerto story. Here I'm going to talk about how I put the story together.

Once I came up with the idea of having my two characters duke it out in a comic book, the first thing I did was come up with a sketch, something I thought could be used as a cover. Well, the second I finished the sketch, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this had to be the final cover. There was something about the outrageousness and sheer audacity of the image that made me both laugh out loud and tingle with that excitement you sometimes get as an artist when you've 'stumbled' across a gold nugget in your own mind. Often in these type of superhero crossover battles (again, see the images from the previous blog post) there's a strong desire, at least for the cover image, to make sure each hero has equal standing with the other, where one character isn't getting the upper-hand on the other. 

Well, these are both my characters, so I didn't have to worry about offending anyone. And since Tex-Mex is a rip-snorting, hulking brute of a man, why the heck wouldn't he be plowing the 5' 10", 160 lb El Muerto through a concrete wall?! Plus I like the fact that even though El Muerto is my signature character, with much wider recognition (the dude's got a movie made about him, for cripes sake!), he's on the receiving end of a good ol' Texan butt-whippin'!


This isn't actually the first time Muerto and Tex-Mex have been seen on the same cover. That milestone happened on my last book, COMIC POP, (with me thrown on there to further increase sales) :

 

They didn't actually appear in a story together, that comic was a collection of reprints featuring individual stories with them as well as some other rarities. But the idea putting them together really appealed to me.

 

My plan for the Versus story was that I wanted to make it a short story, primarily for the fact that the two previous Weapon Tex-Mex comics were short tales, really short. The first was 3 pages, the second a whopping 4. Since this is technically a Tex-Mex story, I wanted to keep to the shortened story format. Originally I thought I could do this story in about 8-10 pages. Eventually it clocked in at 18 pages, but it's the only way to have told the particular tale I came up with.

 

When I sat down to thumbnail the story, I didn't really have a definite idea where I was going, or at least how I was going to get there exactly. Just so you know, I don't actually write scripts for myself, I literally have to see the story in visual form, that's my 'script'. I prefer to deliver the story from my mind to the paper with the actual images of the story, unraveling the narrative through images, panel by panel, page by page. I knew the main story points I had to hit, but when I sketched out the first pages of thumbnails, it was almost like watching the story unfold right before my very eyes.

 

Here are the first three pages of my thumbnails (these are drawn on plain 8.5" x 11" sheets of white paper).  Page 1, first panel was going to have the title and credits, then followed by the first two panels, setting up the opening:

 

Page 2, a meeting between Tex-Mex and someone looking to hire a zombie hunter:

 

As you can see on Page 3, I stopped drawing when I got to the bottom of the page:

The reason I stopped was I realized that I was eating up 3 pages already, and I was hoping to tell this story in under 10 pages! So I knew right away I had to find a quicker way to start the story. I eventually got rid of the guy hiring Tex-Mex, or at least substituted another character for his role, and reworked the opening into a tighter narrative. So these pages go into the 'deleted scenes' folder...

 

Getting the tone of the story was something I always had to keep in mind as well. Tex-Mex is more of a satirical, humorous character, and his two previous stories reflect that, while El Muerto is much more along the lines of a tragic, cursed-hero figure. I don't want to give too much away here in regards to the final project, but I just crafted the story with the idea that these two have to meet in a story, and they have to be who they are, and the narrative has to tell their story. Obviously what they have in common is that I've drawn them before in their own stories, and even though they have their own distinct voices, I'm the one doing the 'talking'. So I think the way I confronted this issue was to simply just write them together in a story, keeping their unique identities intact, and make the story work. 

Another reason I wanted to bring these two characters together was I plan to debut this comic at the inaugural Latino Comics Expo, being held in San Francisco at the Cartoon Art Museum on May 7 & 8.  It seemed like such a natural idea to have a comic featuring Weapon Tex-Mex and El Muerto at such an event. In fact, I'm also aiming to produce a special limited edition of the comic exclusively for this event, with an entirely different cover and some extra added bonus item. More on that later...

In my next post for this series, I'll share some of the actual inked pages and how I approached that stage of production.

GEEKS CON, June 19, in Whittier!

Saturday, June 19 will be the debut the first-ever GEEKS CON, a mini-comic book convention being held inside GEEKS Comics!

GEEKS CON is FREE to attend, and will be held inside GEEKS Comics, the friendly, neighborhood, upscale comic shop in Uptown Whittier. The show runs from 12 noon-10pm, perhaps making it one of the longest, single day comic conventions around!

Uptown Whittier has plenty of restaurants and shops, and even a movie theater just down the street from GEEKS. So come on out and build a whole day around GEEKS CON.





There will be over 20 creators exhibiting at GEEKS CON, believe it or not. Independent artists who work in various mediums, such as comic books, animation, video games, fine art, web comics and probably a few others as well! For a complete list of participating artists, check out the GEEKS CON Facebook page.


I'll be bringing, besides my usual catalog of goodness, a brand-new button featuring my comic book mascot, FLOPPY the COMIC:

Copies of my brand-new WANTED:TEX-MEX mini-comic, created for my recent trip to the Phoenix Comic Con:

My current sketchbook, featuring over 40 pages of art from my sketchbooks:

And...some new items from my newest entrepreneurial, artistic endeavor. Check back later next week on this blog for pics on these one-of-a-kind items!


Geeks Comics is located at:
6747 Greenleaf Ave, Suite A
Whittier, CA 90601
Ph.: 562.696.9393


GEEKS CON is Saturday, June 19 from 12 noon- 10 pm!!

New WEAPON TEX-MEX comic for Phoenix Comic Con!

This coming Memorial Day Weekend, I'll be exhibiting at the Phoenix Comic Con. It's my first-ever show in Arizona, and as I've heard good things about this Con from some DIY comics creator friends of mine, I thought I'd take the plunge and head to Phoenix.

It's always exciting to get in front of a new audience, and I'll also be able to meet some friends of mine from Tuscon, the tag-team comic duo of Dave Baker and Eric M. Esquivel of Modern Mythology Press. Besides bringing along my comics and DVD, I'll also have some prints and original art with me. And, as a special exclusive to Arizona, I have a brand-new mini-comic I've just put together, WANTED: WEAPON TEX-MEX!

Weapon Tex-Mex actually appeared in the first comic story I ever had published. I was asked to contribute to an anthology called HOT MEXICAN LOVE COMICS, so I came up with this character to use in an anti-anti-immigration story, back in 1997. Seeing how the political climate is swirling around a new immigration firestorm from Arizona, I thought it would be most appropriate to reprint my original story, along with a new Weapon Tex-Mex story, and take it to the Phoenix Con. Actually it's the first new Tex-Mex comic in 13 years, so this is an interesting little collection. You get the first as well as the most recent story in the character's history.


I'll be at Phoenix Comic from Friday, May 28 - Sunday, May 30 at table T78. Los Comex is hitting Phoenix, baby! Planting the El Muerto flag in a new state, and ready to make some new fans.