San Diego Comic Con 2006

I didn't exhibit this year at Comic Con, but I did attend the show on Saturday and Sunday as a 'civilian'. Too be honest, I had a really good time. Mostly I spent the days hanging out at the tables of several friends. I just sat back while they would sell their wares, occasionally covering for them as they took a break. This year I was able to experience the show in the way I did back before 1998, in my pre-publishing days.

Kicking it with Michael Aushenker!

Of course, I would be asked by many people on why I wasn't exhibiting, or what new comic I was working on, or the most popular question, when was the movie coming out! Well, as my producer told me before I left: "If anybody asks, tell them the film will be done in August". So there you have it!

The common topic about San Diego recently is the size of the show and how it's grown monstrously in size. I remember a few years ago when the movie studios started getting in on the act, promoting their films and bringing in the talent for panels and signings. We all feared that comics would be squeezed out. Or at least the self-published variety. From what I hear from many of my associates who couldn't secure tables in the Small Press area, that may be true. But I also have to say that with the recent phenomenon of the New York publishing houses launching graphic novel imprints, and establishing a presence at Con, comics are more in demand than ever. As someone who has benifitted from a film deal himself, I can't argue the influx of the film industry into the Con. And video game manufacturers also use comics as content for their systems. And I think the amount of fans who come for all these things certainly helps the Con, but maybe, just maybe, they might get exposed to a self-published comic or two.

Hanging with Galactus!

What's I really love about the Con is the sheer variety of things you see and experience there. Panels on Golden Age artists, copyrighting your own creations, Christian comics, and the digital application of comics. You see people dressed as Mexican wrestlers, Galactus, TV characters, and the endless variations of Star Wars personalities. Vendors selling out-of-print art books, home made zines, 1970s Marvel Super-Hero Slurpee cups, and T-shirts featuring just about any character that has ever been draw, animated or appeared in a movie! There are now oppurtunites to make a pitch to a publisher for a graphic novel, submit your portfolio for consideration on a monthy title, showing your work to a video-game company or animation studio, or meeting an actor from a favorite childhood TV show. You can network, sell, buy, collect, play, masquerade, listen, participate or just plain enjoy any umpteen number of presentations, celebrities, booths, vendors, events, screenings, readings, contests, demonstrations, etc.

It really has become the nexus of all things cool! If it's comic related, nostalgic, hip and cutting edge, printed, manufactured, animated, painted, sculpted, filmed, digital, audio or whatever, there's a good chance that it came from a comic book or strip. It certainly came from someone's imagination. Created for fun, personal vision or for profit. It's all there for the right price, or just make the time to catch it.

And next year, I'll be back, behind the booth. With new Muerto comics. Another new property or two. Various bits of merchandise. And one way or another, that Muerto movie!

At attention with Rhode Montijo!

For more photos, follow this link to my Message Board

Double-Scoop-Of-Art Day

I'd like to share two pieces of artwork with you. The first one is an illustration I created last night to accompany an interview I did for an upcoming book about Latino comic book creators. Written by Professor Frederick Aldama, the book features interviews with my friends and fellow cartoonistas Carlos Saldana, Rhode Montijo, Rafael Navarro, among others. (And yes, these fellas are linked off to the right!). Slated to be published next year by the University of Texas Press, this book will, as far as I know, be the first major volume to cover the work of independent comic creators of various Latino backgrounds. I was copy-editing the interview over the weekend, and had to send off the illustration along with the edits.



I have to say it was great to be able to have a chance to look over what I said in the phone interview. I've done some interviews where I've read it after publication and thought, "OMG! Did I say that?!" Frederick was a very well informed interviewer, as his questions delved into the individual artist's cultural upbringing and influences, as well as such topics as the 'unique' distribution we have in this country regarding our comics. And yes, I looked over what I wrote about that topic and STILL sent if off!! A great feeling though to be able to actually be a visible part of that particular group within the overall comics industry.

The second artwork I want to share is this painting I'm working on.



This measures 16" x 20" and is acrylic on canvas board. I got into the habit of painting on canvas boards about 2 years ago. For quick, more simplified paintings, I like using this material. To show you a little bit of my process in creating, I took these pics. First pic is, of course, the drawing! I first designed this in my sketchbook, but it didn't take too many sketches to get the compostion. It funny, but I used blue pencil to lay it out on the canvas, then went over it with pencil! (I guess this way if I ever photocopy the painting, the blue underdrawing doesn't show up!)


Here's the first pass of paint. Sometimes I start with the figure, but this time the background just called out to be painted first. I don't why I started with the background though. Maybe it was just to see the defining shape, or maybe it was just to see what all that yellow would look like! The reason I picked the color yellow was A) I usually pick a red background when doing a color piece for El Muerto and B) since I was thinking in terms of a resurrection, Easter came into my mind and yellow just seemed appropriate!


Here's the next pass of colors. The black suit, hair, neck and white t-shirt and logo. It's always interesting to paint the mariachi suit because it's black, so I always have to decide if I want it flat black and dark gray with black shadows. The hair is usually more densely black, with some blue highlights (yes, that comes from Superman's blue-highlighted hair I dug as a kid!). What I like about the design of El Muerto is that from the back, you actually see his logo reversed out nicely against the black jacket. And the white patch of t-shirt you see below the short jacket is a nice design element, I think. I always liked that Superman had an S-symbol on the back of his cape and Spider-Man had that cool spider/ladybug design on his back.....


More blending of colors and indications for wrinkles and shadows. Adding more texture and density to create more weight and really build the figure. I don't claim to have the skill to produce photorealistic paintings, but my personal taste lies more in an expressive creation. In college, lo those many, many moons ago, my first life drawing instructor walked by my charcoal studies and told me "You've got a great expressive style, don't ever let anyone change that." I think I've pretty much let that be my mantra for the last 20 years... As an artist and a person!


I'll come back to the painting and tighten up some details, but I like creating these spontaneously to capture that particualr mood in a quick session or two. Plus, I've already started 2 more paintings in the same size and medium. We'll see those later!

Happy 4th of July!

Muerto Holiday themed Board icons

On my Message Board at El Muerto.com, I usually try to change the icon in the header everytime a holiday comes up. We just posted the 4th of July icon, the Yankee Doodle Zombie, as I like to call it!



Here you can see the 6 different icons I've used since launching the Board last July. I've missed a couple of holidays, but they'll always come back the following year, so no big loss!



Unless I really screwed up, you should recognize the icons for the 4th of July, Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas. The one on the bottom right is the standard image I use when there's no holiday around. This Muerto icon image was created in Adobe Illustrator. Basically I did a quick sketch of El Muerto in the style of the Aztec Codices. Then I recreated it using the pencil tool and dropped in a little color. I had wanted to capture the iconographic simplicity of the Codices, but also I was looking to create a design in the mold of PowerPuff Girls or Mucha Lucha.

It's easy to alter the base image, and I think they look pretty cool. The Valentine image proved so popular I slapped it on a button, and sell 'em for one $1...

SELF HELP GRAPHICS Print Sale this weekend!

Here's a last-minute warning! Self Help Graphics will be holding their annual Print Sale on Sunday, June 25 from noon-5 pm. Lotsa great art to see and buy, including my very first El Muerto Serigraph, "El Otro Lado".



I may stop by there for an hour or so, but if you want to buy limited prints and such from local Los Angeles artists, this is the place to do it!

More info here!

Happy 6-6-06, Son of Satan!

In commemoration of this demonic day, 6-6-6, let me share with you this little gem of 70s satanic chic. In my early comic book reading and collecting days, there was a title from Marvel Comics called THE SON OF SATAN! Believe it or not...!


Yes, the House of Ideas that brought us such All-American fare like Spider-Man, Captain America and The Fantastic Four decided it was time to up their game with such horror-filled superheroes like Morbius the Living Vampire, Ghost Rider and Daimon Hellstorm, the Son of Satan! Initially launched in Marvel Sptotlight, a title created to feature new characters without having to create their own seperate title, Daimon Hellstorm had a 13 (Hmm..) issue run there from October 1973 thru October 1975, before graduating to his own title. After only 8 issues though, SON OF SATAN was cancelled in February 1977...

This cover above is pencilled by the late Gil Kane and inked by Tom Palmer. And I have to say that is one fine looking illustration! Kane was such a dynamic cover artist throughout the 70s. He really knew how to deliver power and horror!



Story goes that Satan decided he wanted kids, so he courted a young lady and fathered tow children with her (Yes, there is also a Devil's Daughter, SATANNA!!). Daimon, of course, as an adult learns of his true nature and rebels against his father , complete in red and yellow spandex! Wouldn't be a 1970s superhero without an outrageously flamboyant costume! The whole world was in Pop Culture Hell at the time, with Satanism all over the movies, music and comics. I didn't actually buy any of those books as a kid, though. Are you kidding me? A 10 yr. old. Mexican Catholic reading a comic book about the Devil's son?! I would buy Ghost Rider (another Satanically influenced character), but Son of Satan was just asking for trouble! It wasn't only till my mid-20s that I started picking up some of the back issues. I think I may have all the issues now. And I hear that Marvel has a new mini-series coming up.

So here's a quick sketch in homage to the Mark of the Beast-Boy. The Son of Satan, the world's most unbelievable superhero!

Artist Residency: Final Day

Friday, June 2, was the final day of production. We actually finished one day ahead of schedule. So, I had saturday off (caught X-Men 3 for a second time with the nephews!)

Friday's goal was to print the black, the final color in the sequence, and sign and number all the prints! The first time we printed the black, there were numerous gaps. Meaning the black wasn't lining up in certain spots. So I had to get the black film and thicken the lines in spots. But, in the end it worked out.


Ta-dah!


As part of the printing process, Jose printed up 6 copies of a black-only edition. Kinda like those b&w variants the comic publishers put out!

And here's a comparission shot of the one print we made where I felt the skin-color was too dark for what I wanted (on the left) and the flesh tone I ended up approving (on the right).


So, by about 2 O'clock, we were done printing. All that remained was for me to sign and number. The edition has 88 pieces total, but there were several other sets created as well. There were 5 pieces in an Artist's Proof set, 5 of a Printer's Prood, 6 in a Test Proof, and 6 in the Black & White set. so in total there was about 110 pieces printed. I was, to say the least, very happy with the final print and proud to have been able to have had the oppurtunity. The gallery will sell a large part of the 88 edition to raise funds, and I'll get stack from those 88 to sell on my own. I also get the 5 Artist Proof, as well as one Test Proof and one B&W print. Jose, the Master Printer, was a sheer delight to work with. A true artist, he told me that for him to have the chance to work with so many artists over the years brings him great satisfaction. He's often been told that his name is known all over the world, as his work is hung in galleries and private collections. I was suprised to hear that he's worked with Salvador Dali! But also, for him, a real huge comic fan, it was a big thrill to have been able to convince the Self Help Graphics Board of Directors to create this latest series of prints based on comic books. My friends Carlos Saldana and Rafael Navarro are among the artists contributing to the series as well.

One other note, Jose told me that to have hired his services for this project, it would have cost me $3,200! So not only did I save a bundle of cash (I don't have!), but I had the priveledge of creating a serigraph of my comic book character for a very important and world famous gallery like Self-Help Graphics.

Artist Residency: Day 3

Okay, I know this should have been posted last night, but I got home too late! So, here's the report for Day 3.....

This is the outside of the building, just so ya know. The gallery is located on the very far left of the building. The print shop is inside the open door on the far right. the top floor is wehre the offices are held and the rooms used for classes and performances. It's in this parking lot that they hold their various print sales and events such as Dia de Los Muertos.



Thursday was a day where we had little bumps in the road. The fourth color, the tan flesh tone, first came out a little darker than I wanted. So, we had to stop the press and Jose added some white to the paint and also an agent that made the color a little more transparent, allowing a little more red tone to show through. I forgot to take a pic of the first attempt, but the one shown here is the final print of the flesh tone. I really liked how that came out.



Here's a lightening quick flash of Jose printing a pass of color. Too quick for me!



Now it was time for the black ink, the final stage in the process. And the one that proved to be a setback! Now, I have to apoligize again for not taking any pics, but I'll post some in the next blog to show what I'm talking about. It's just that sometimes in the middle of things the last thing I think about is taking a pic! The black would essentially be the outline to all the other colors. So, if the black doesn't hit just right, you'll get a lot of areas where the white paper will show through, or one of the other colors will be misaligned. That's the problem we had, so Jose stopped the printing for the day. It was decided that I would get the black film and increase the thickness on some of the lines to compensate. Then they would have to create a new screen for the black. This took several hours to accomplish, so today, friday, will be our last day to print. We're actually on schedule, as friday was orginally going to be the last day to print anyways. Saturday I'll come in and go through the prints and do any touch ups by hand if needed, as well as sign and number all the prints.

Artist Residency: Day 2

Today we began the printing! Here's what some of my films looked like. Remember, each color of the serigraph has to be created on a seperate film. On the left is what will be the beige background. That was created with a film caleld Rubylith. You basically cut and peel away the areas you don't want printed beige (in my case). On the right is a film that was inked in black ink, with some red tape to designate the border of the panels. This will make more sense when you see the colors printed one by one..


Here's a pic of Jose, the Master Printer. He's been in screenprinting for 26 yrs. and is indeed a master. Also a very nice guy AND a huge comic book/action figure collector!! But, here he is printing the first color, blue. His screen (made up of a very fine mesh that allows the ink through) contains two images, but he only prints one at a time. The prints are in editions of 100, so he'll print all 100 sheets with blue, then wait for about 45 minutes before he runs those sheets with the next color.


He literally just pours the blue ink on the screen and runs a squeegee from top to bottom, thus printing the blue ink onto the paper.

Here's a series of shots that show the screenprinting process. First is the blue print, then the second pass with the biege ink. Notice on the second pic (beige) how the Aztec codice images are a different shade of blue. That's because Jose suggested we print the biege over the images to create a new shade. Which for the purpose of the efffect I wanted, looks great! The third shot is the red ink.





Tomorrow we'll print the brown (skin) and the final color that ties it all together, the black! Kinda feel like an expectant father as each color is printed. Cause despite all the careful planning, you always hope that everything turns out okay! This last shot is Jose running the red ink. This is a different screen, as the blue and beige plate were on another screen. Behind Jose is his son Josue, who works as his assistant. By a very odd coincidence, Josue is 21 yrs. old AND was born on...Nov. 2, Dia de Los Muertos! Is that too much?!

It's really been cool hanging out at the studio these past couple of days. Like I said, I created the art and created each layer of film, but Jose is doing the actual printing. This is the way it's done though. Unless as an artist one of your skills is screenprinting. There is a huge amount of things to know in that field, such as how ink works, making the screens, applying the right pressure on the sqeegee, etc. You definately want an experienced printer on your side!

Artist Residency: Day 1

Umm.... Well, today was my first day in the studio at Self Help Graphics. But, um,..... I didn't take any pics! Basically I spent a good part of the day finishing up some of my seperations. Fixing mistakes, adding the borders to the panels, etc. So, as I was working on some of the seperations, the assistant would be shooting some of the screens. I know this may not mean anything to some people, but tomorrow I will definatley be taking pics, as the printers will be doing most of the work and that will allow me to play Peter Parker, Freelance Photographer!

I'll share something with you about today though. SHG is located right in the heart of East LA. Before I showed up to the studio, I decided to take a drive a few blocks down to Evergreen and Ceaser Chavez. This is the block where we filmed a weeks worth of El Muerto. The cemetary that features prominently in the film (including the spot at the front gates where I filmed my scene with Wilmer!), Diego and Zak's place, the store where Diego obtains his clothes for disguise and an alley that served as a backdrop to a Muerto fight scene! It was really nice exploring those locations again. Makes me real glad to know that El Muerto has some legitimate East Los Angeles real estate in it!

My 1st Muerto serigraph

On tuesday, I'll be starting my Artist Residency at Self-Help Graphics, the renowned art gallery and studio located in East LA.
Established in 1973, SHG has become an internationally recognized leader in Latino art. I've actually exhibited there in a group cartoonist show some years ago, and I've participated as a vendor at several events, including their annual Dia de Los Muertos festival.

SHG website

I've been invited to contribute to their new collection of Serigraphs. There are about a dozen or so artists who'll be participating, with my residency beginning this week, from May 30- June 3. Basically I'll be in-studio there from 10 am-4 pm daily. I'll be working with their Master Printer Jose Apulche (a huge fan of comic books and collector of action figures, by the way!) in creating my first ever El Muerto Serigraph. A serigraph, I've discovered, is a fancy word for a screenprint. Jose and his assistant will be doing the actual printing, but I'm creating the art and have to provide the finished films. Because many people aren't familiar with screenprinting, I thought this would be a good subject for a series of posts here on my blog. I'll be taking pictures daily in the studio and share the progress here.

First up, a look at my artwork:

They wanted to have a comic book look for this current collection of serigraphs and provided us with a general broad theme
to work in. Terrorism/Immigration was what they gave us, so I took an allegorical slant on 'crossing over' and applied it to El Muerto. Basically him crossing back over to El Otro Lado ('the other side', coincidentally what they call in Mexico the land north of the border). This was just a sketch that I colored in Photoshop to give them an idea what I was doing. The sheet size will be 20" x 24", with an image size of 16" x 20". With a maximum allotment of 5-6 colors, I designed my piece with 5 colors, with the white paper providing the 6th.

Here is a shot of the final drawing in blue pencil, and below that the final penciled version. The lines are kept very clean, as I will have to trace over those in ink on mylar.



Below is the final art with a sheet of mylar taped to it. I'll be inking on the mylar, creating each layer of color on seperate sheets. I've added registration marks to the edges, which will allow me to line up each sheet to one another.


Pic on the left is the mylar over the pencilled art, the shot to the right is shows the beginning stages of inking directly onto the mylar. This will comprise the 'black plate'. .


Starting tomorrow I'll be in the studio. I'm planning on updating this blog nightly with a progress of the days production (so let's cross our fingers!) . This should give you and idea of the screenprinting process, and provide us a first look at my premier El Muerto Serigraph!

El Muerto teaser trailer!

Check it out here!

El Muerto has been screening at Cannes to enthusiastic response! Details will come later, but for now you can check out the teaser trailer we debuted at last year's Comic Con International in San Diego!

The Wildest Super-Hero Ever!

Back in 1977, I bought this comic book at my local 7-11:



The cover immemdiatley caught my 11 yr. old eyes. The title, the red/black and white color scheme, the heroic figure bursting out the cover, the montage of death-defying images, the ominous blurb about "From the shadow of the grave...". And most of all, the bombshell announcement screaming along the top proclaiming the Human Fly to be REAL!!

According to the editorial by the book's writer, Bill Mantlo, the Human Fly was indeed a real-life costumed stuntman. Marvel had been contacted by the Fly to create a comic book in his name. The origin of the comic character told of a car accident that had left it's victim crippled. But through sheer determination to conquer his living-death, the man walked again and dedicated his life to inspiring others to overcome their own handicaps. He became the Human Fly! That seemed perfectly logical to me, then and now!

One of the most prolific comic creators at the time, Bill Mantlo, wrote all 19 issues before the book was cancelled. Probably due to lack of sales (dammit!). Several artists worked on the book, including Frank Robbins and Lee Elias. Mantlo, revered among a large group of us aging comic geeks, gave the Human Fly a strong sense of justice and determination. Every issue the Fly would be performing a stunt in a different city, usually for charity of course! Some crime would always be committed near the event so the Fly would naturally get involved and kick some butt! That series remains one of my absolute favorite comic runs of all time. To me, that proves the power of the magic of comics on a young kid, least in the 'olden days'.



As a kid, I would start looking through the papers daily, searching for articles about the Fly's appearances. I would watch the sports broadcasts for any mention of the Fly's death-defying stunts. Me, who normally couldn't be bothered with sports, spending time to track down the Fly! But, I never did find any mention of the Fly.....

But thanks to the most modern techological advances known to man, the other day I found a few rare pics of the Human Fly! The one, true REAL Super-Hero!





There's only a few scraps of info about the Human Fly that I've turned up on the net. His real name is Rick Rojatt, a Canadian. But other than that, no one seems to be able to claim what eventually happened to him.



Well, I'll just say that as a kid, the Human Fly left a big impression on me. Not only do I think he was one of the coolest looking characters around, but he showed me that one can fight their way back from the most crushing defeat and reach for the gold! He made me believe a man can FLY!!

Comic book autopsy, or How to Draw Comics the Los Comex Way!

Lotsa people, including me, like to see behind-the-scenes of the creative process. So, I though I'd share with you how I construct my comic book pages. This is a sequence from my new El Muerto comic book, DEAD & CONFUSED, which will be released at San Diego Comic Con this July. At this past April's APE in San Francisco, I published a 20 page Preview book, from which these pages are included.

The first pics we have here are the actually completed four pages I'll be using for demonstration. They're pages 8-11, which actually concludes Chapter 1 in the book. If you wanna read what they're saying, you can click on this link for availability on possibly ordering one of the copies.

DEAD & CONFUSED Preview comic

So, those are the final pages, with the lettering and word balloons created in Adobe Illustrator. To show you how I arrived at that final stage, let me walk you through my working method.

Here are the rough drafts for pages 8-11:


Just so you know, I don't work from a script, or even an outline! I just have the story beats stored in my head, kinda like a reel of film I've played over and over in my mind. I basically just sit down and on page one start drawing out the story. Mostly I'm concentrating on making sure the story reads visually, moving the characters from one scene through another, composing each panel to tell the story as best I can. I'll usually be running the dialogue in my head as I draw each panel. Of course I never end up writing the exact words when I start typesetting the copy, but as I look over the finished art I can make the best decision on what to write.

Basically what the four pages here had to show was this (and this is what I told myself as I had the blank pages in front of me): Diego is taken to his trailer at the circus, exchanging some words with his benefactor, Mr. Lopez. Diego then washes and reveals his true face, pondering in his head what has happened to him. He climbs in bed, talking to God and simaltaneously reciting his rosary. Lots of talk throughout the night about questioning the probability of God and aztec gods co-existing together. In the morning a knock at the door announces a young girl, Carolina, inviting him for breakfast. Diego applies his cover-up make up to meet the circus folk, and discovers what the young girl looks like.

The rough drafts are drawn on plain 8.5" x 11" typing paper, using a 2HB Dixon Ticondera pencil, nothing fancy at all. Then I redraw the pages on the full-sized (11" x 17") Bristol board. I'll use a Sanford Non-Photo Blue pencil to lightly lay out out each panel, then go back in with the 2HB pencil with to tighten up the drawings. I've been using the Blue Line Pro boards, as they already have the pre-printed border margins. I don't know what the long-term archival quality of these products ultimately is, but it saves me some time by not having to trim down Bristol board as well as drawing in my own margins. I know some comic artists will do pretty tight layouts, then use a lightbox to trace them onto the Bristol board. I prefer to just redraw directly on the board, and hopefully create a more dynamic page the second time out.

Here are the pencilled layouts on the Bristol board:


There are several panels that have some initial inking on page 8, but for the most part these are what my peniclled pages look like. If you compare these pages to the rough drafts, you'll see some minor changes that were made in transition. For example, in the rough draft, take a look at the last panel on page 9 and the first panel on page 10. Compare it to the same panels in the pencilled version. I decided to have Diego sitting on the bed (1st panel, pg. 10) in order to show that some time had elapsed from when he started the rosary. Before, those two panels could have appeared to have happened in immediate sequence, cutting down the amount of time that occured between the gutter (the space between one panel and another). I changed his pose to show that he would have moved from that laying position. This was done to show more time between the panels, creating the impression that this scene may have went on all night, as a zombie wouldn't really need to sleep. Also, on page 8, panel 8, I originally was going to show a worm's eye view of the bed he was laying on. But in the final pencilled version I chose to do an extreme close-up of his right eye, as I thought that would be a more emphatic shot. You could go through and see how many of the panels in the pencilled stage have slight differences in the angles I ended up using. Or sometimes the perspective can be distorted to create a mood. Those are all the little things one has to consider in composing the panels. What works better dramatically for each panel? How can I design a compostion to convey a particular emotional response?

The third stage, the inking, of course provides the chance to really bring each panel to the life.


Here of course is when I provide all the definition and clarity to the artwork. In the 'old days', this was necessary because the cameras would have dificulty in capturing all the pencil linework. Nowadays it is entirely possible to scan and output directly from the pencils. Or even 'ink' the pencil with a paint program. I just love the craftmanship and art of inking with a brush. I certainly want to develop my computer skills to learn how to ink on the computer, but creating the inked finals by hand provides me with lots of artistic challenges and I also find it relaxing in a way. For this book I have been inking primarily with a #000 Cornell brush. I'll ink all the figures on the page first, then go back in various stages and fill in the blacks and ink the backgrounds. I don't use a ruler for the straight edges when inking. When pencilling I'll use a ruler, but I'll freehand it with the brush and ink. The majority of the pages were inked with Higgins Waterproof. But a friend of mine gave me a bottle of Dr. Martin's Black Star for my birthday so I tried that on his recommendation. The ink certainly laid down nicely.

To be honest, I haven't given too much thought to the tools I've used on my comics. Yeah, I'll pick stuff that works, but for each book I've done I have used different brands of tools. One of the things that stuck with me from Robert Rodriguez's book REBEL WITHOUT A CREW, was a line he said in regards to attending film school and having to learn all the techniques and equipment choices: "The audience doesn't give a #%&* what type of F-stop you used on your camera". My chief concern up to this point has been to create a finished story in print. How I got there, in terms of tools and such, has been a secondary consideration. Also, a friend of mine told me that he feels that the final, published product is the 'real' work. Not a page that may be hung in a gallery or sold to a collector. I always thought that there was some truth to that statement.

In the inking stage I have to compose my scenes using only black and white, creating shadows, patterns and textures to build the world the characters exist in. I love coloring my own work. But to work with no tones whatsover, either gray washes or Zip-a-tone or even the computer, is challenging and so rewarding. I look at cartoonists like Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, or Steve Ditko's b&w work, and see the limitless and imaginative ways one can create complete and powerful imagery using only the placement of black ink on white paper.

You can see in the pages I inked that further details were added, like props in the backgrounds and textures for the various surfaces. Also, I added details such as posters, signage and other things that either help define a scene or add some history and detail to a particular room or location. Sometimes I'll decide on 'product placement', such as a CD or brand of clothes that I like or just created on the spot. It's a serious and critical job inking the pencils, but also it can be fun seeing the character's world come alive.

The last stage would be taking it to the computer and actually writing the script, which for me is also when I'm doing the actual lettering.


Because my scanner's image area is about 8.5" x 11", I'll have to scan each page in two sections. I'll digitally reattach them in Photoshop. My scan size is 300 dpi, and I'll save each file as a tiff, which I'll then import into Illustrator. Luckily for me, I've been working as a production artist in screenprinting for about 15 years, so I've got plenty of experience in working on layouts and such, as well as preparing a file for the printing press.

Like I mentioned, I don't have a script for each story I do. It's after I scan each page and bring it into Illustrator that I have to 'write' the story. I'll literally zoom into a panel and start typesetting the dialouge. I'll first type the copy, then create the word balloons, often altering where the lines are broken up to fit into the space. It's interesting how I edit what I write. Sometimes I'll have to shorten what's been written for space limitations. But I feel that 99% of the time it actually helps. Less is more, when possible. Sometimes I'll drop a word balloon altogether, if I find that the scene doesn't really need the expostion. In comics, we have the ol' thought balloon to help convey the character's internal monologue. I think that's a great tool. But I also believe that the character's 'body language' can often sell the scene. That's the beauty and magic of comics, the complete balance of words and pictures.

As shown with this page, there was a concious effort to create a symetrical 9-panel grid. I know I've been discussing individual panels so far, but each panel is part of a whole page. (In turn, each page is part of a whole comic.) I knew there wasn't going to be much dialogue on this page, so I really wanted to convey a sense of sequential actions, evenly represented by panels the same size and shape. There's a Jim Steranko Nick Fury comic I read as a kid that had a couple of pages of symetrically designed panels with no dialogue, just one continuous action. I'll often play with that type of compsition, as it creates an interesting looking page.

Storytelling in comics, I believe, is intuitive. I could write down a description of a two page sequence, and come up with 5 different ways to draw that page. Or have 5 other artists create 50 different versions of those two pages. In the end it comes down to how you told the story, given the techniques you used, and how people respond to the finished product. I'm totally open to try various methods of creating my comics, but I think that the way I'm working now is the best way for me. I've worked on stories where I wrote a story for another artist, as well as create the art based on someone else's script. There was another time when I did really rough layouts, and then a friend of mine did the finished art and inking, after which I wrote the script. I would be curious to ink over someone else's pencilled pages, just to try it.

I remember as a kid reading about how Stan Lee would just give his artists a one-page outline (or sometimes just a verbal plot) and wait to get the pages back, filling in the dialogue as he went along. Of course that would create some issues with what the artists was intending, but overall I thought that was such an interesting way to write. Kind of like filling in a crossword puzzle. So, that's basically the way I'm creating the El Muerto comics. I'm giving myself a verbal outline, then I draw the whole story, with the dialogue to be filled in as the art dictates.

Panel appearance at a film festival at Cal State LA, May 6

I'll be on a panel this weekend in Los Angeles. The FESTIVAL OF THE U.S. LATINO EXPERIENCE IN FILM & ART will be held at Cal State Los Angeles from May 5-6. The panel I'm on is called "Horror, Latinos, Superheroes, Oh My!". I'll be joined by El Muerto producer Larry Rattner, and the panel runs from 3-4:30 pm.

REEL RASQUACHE FESTIVAL website

Well, in the meantime, here's a little peek at the page I'm currently working on. It's from the upcoming EL MUERTO: DEAD & CONFUSED comic! For those of you who picked up the limited Preview Edition, I'll explain what it is I'm working on, cause if you look at the page on my drawing table and compare it to page 19 in the Preview book.....

New interview with KAOS2000 webzine

Just got the link to an interview I conducted a few weeks ago at the APE in San Francisco. Phil Anderson, the interviewer, and I had met through my friend Rafael Navarro. Phil's a complete character! Very colorful and outspoken and funny as all heck.

In fact, he interviewed me sunday evening as I was breaking down my display table. He even mentions me being out of breath in the interview! The whole interview was conducted as I'm boxing up my books and rolling up my banner. Phil (and his partner) helped me pack as he asked his questions! Too funny! Also, Rhode Montijo, bless his soul, was carrying some of my stuff as we walked back to my van, with me answering questions the whole time!

It was the most unusual circumstances for an interview I've done so far. And Phil had really good questions. The usual comics/movie stuff, but also some questions on cultural identity and the current immigration topic.

Please click here

My KAOS2000 interview

APE Con aftermath and Afterlife adventures of the Aztec Zombie!

Hmm....It's been a few weeks since my last Javzilla entry. I feel like a real Blogger now! But, here we are, on Easter Eve.

Speaking of resurrections, I debuted the latest El Muerto story last week at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. El Muerto: Dead & Confused premiered in a special preview edition. I made a run of 50 signed and numbered books, printed in a sharp little 8.5" x 7" format. Basically sheets of 8.5" x 14" paper photocopied, folded and stapled (the stapling took place during the first hour or so of the show!).



The image for the front cover of this edition is actually just a grayscale version of the color image for the final edition. Here's what the color one looks like. The text will probably be changed slightly for the final print. The coloring was done by Bernyce Talley, a comic book illustrator finishing up college and prepping several new comics projects.



This was the first time I got back to creating a new El Muerto comic since we finished filming the movie last year. It was real interesting getting back to writing and drawing. Even though I was one of the fimmakers on the production, the storytelling was in the hands of our writer/director, Brian Cox. I was just happy to have a front row seat to all the magic, to be honest! Certainly I shared my opinions of the various drafts, and had other contributions to the production. But I enjoyed the experience of seeing all the talented artists work on bringing the Muerto story to film.

When I heard Frank Miller share his experience on the SIN CITY DVD commentary, I was very fascinated by his comment that he learned a lot about some of his characters from the actors who portrayed them in the film. He said that when he worked on his next Sin City comic, he would no doubt be influenced to some degree.

In my case, as I worked on DEAD & CONFUSED. my approach was more of returning to the comic page with newfound knowledge. My director was always concerned with nailing down the story, and creating characters with motivations and realtionships to one another. As I worked on the comic, I was conscience of his approach and worked at applying those rules to my own storytelling. When I read interviews of comic creators writing and drawing 'wide screen action and drama', I think they're missing the point. A comic doesn't have to aspire to give the same feeling you get from a film, at least not the visual aspect. It's always got to be the story, and about the characters. The uniqueness of the storytelling found in comics is amazing, I always thought. Each panel has to be composed on it's own, but at the same time, it interacts with the panel following it. And then one page has to lead into the next page. All the while allowing the dialogue to weave through each panel from character to character. And sometimes knowing when the art alone can carry the story forward.



Will Eisner, the master of comics storytelling, used to describe his process of creating akin to a theatre production. He would have to move his 'actors' on and off the stage, assign the correct wardrobe for each character and light each scene with it's own look. I approached the creation of each of my characters (and the new book has a pretty good sized cast, more than half of them are new characters) as if I was a Mexican puppeteer. One of those guys who puts on shows with hand puppets and a small stage made out of a wooden box. I would have to get inside each of my characters, perform their dialogue, then switch over to another character and find a new voice.