BALDO comic strip creators back on PCBR to talk MUERTO crossover

Writer Hector has previously appeared on PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO, as has BALDO artist Carlos Castellanos.

El Muerto to appear in BALDO newspaper strip!

Well, the word is out! EL MUERTO will be appearing in the newspaper strip BALDO the week of Halloween, culminating in the color Sunday section, on the Day of the Dead! Without question, this has got to be one of the top opportunities I've had with the EL MUERTO character.

BALDO is created by writer Hector Cantú and artist Carlos Castellanos. Their strip began 8 years ago and is seen in over 200 newspapers, and is also printed in Spanish in some markets. I met Carlos and Hector back in March 2007 at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, where we guests of the festivals. I was there for the World Premiere of the EL MUERTO film, and Hector and Carlos were screening episodes of their BALDO Animated Series. We met up again in November of '07 as guests of Wizard World Texas.

BALDO has had two previous crossovers with other comic book characters, once with Richard Dominguez's EL GATO NEGRO and another with Lela Lee's "ANGRY LITTLE GIRLS!". When I last saw Hector and Carlos at Wizard World Texas, I asked them when was El Muerto going to appear in BALDO.... They told me to hit them up with a story. So earlier this year I hit them up with the story! I ran a plot by them, one that revolved around the Halloween/Dia de Los Muertos weekend (Yeah, that timing was a pretty smart move, I will admit!). We tinkered with the storyline, and then scheduled it for production. I won't detail the storyline at this point, but working with the BADLO creators was a unique and welcome challenge. I will tell you that I have contributed to the artwork, but more to be revealed later. The part that was most challenging was thinking in terms of the particular format of the daily newspaper strip. You have about 3 or 4 panels for the daily, and each segment has to stand alone, yet tie into the next days strip! And of course the Sunday strip has it's own challenges. Not every paper necessarily carries the Daily and the Sunday, so there are interesting challenges there as well.

But what is the payoff? I get to work with some talented newspaper strip cartoonists in a new medium for me, and EL MUERTO makes his debut in that venerable American classic institution, the Sunday color funnies! That's such a wonderful opportunity, and one of those 'once-in-a-lifetime' gigs. Kinda like getting a movie made out of your comic book.... :)

El Muerto's appearance will run in the storyline from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, which is the same date as Dia de Los Muertos. If you read my previous post, you know that I will be in San Francisco that weekend at the Alternative Press Expo comic convention, debuting
the latest issue of EL MUERTO and commemorating my 10th Anniversary appearance at APE, which is where I debuted EL MUERTO back in 1998. So El Muerto appears simultaneously in a comic book and a newpaper strip that weekend... That is pretty beyond anything I would have dreamt years ago!

Check your local paper to see if it carries BALDO, if not, send a very polite (yet forceful!) plea to see if they can get the strip. And check out the official BALDO website for prevous episodes and information on the series.

And now to write something I've always wanted to say (and in the strict literal sense!):

See you in the funny papers!

EL MUERTO: DEAD & CONFUSED has arrived!!!

THEY'RE HERE!!! My brand-new EL MUERTO comic book, DEAD & CONFUSED, arrived from the printers on Saturday! This is the first time I'm using a POD (Print On
Demand) service, so I was a little weary at first. After asking several friends for recommendations (thanks Jason, Mort and Colin) I chose to go with Ka-Blam. They delivered a couple of days ahead of their promised ship date, and the books look sharp!

This issue finds El Muerto landing in the arms of Modragon's Festival of Freaks, in Baja California. And it's more ominous than it sounds.... Also included in this issue is a mini Galeria del Muerto with pin-ups from Kevin Cross and Jim Lujan. The painted back cover is by Michael Aushenker (his El Muerto painting previously showed up on the
EL MUERTO DVD in the Guest Artist Gallery on the Special Features!).

The comic will debut at the 2008 APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco the weekend of Nov. 1 and 2. November 2, by the way, is Dia de Los Muertos, the Mexican cultural celebration that is the basis of the El Muerto story. And this APE marks my consecutive 10th appearance at the show and in fact is the 10th Anniversary of the debut of the comic book. It was back in Feb., 1998 in San Jose (where APE was originally held) that I debuted EL MUERTO, so the fact that this year's APE has moved to November (it's normally held in the Spring) tells me that the gods are smiling favorably on me and El Muerto!

If you want to order you copy of the book right now, you can get a copy in one of two ways:

-Via the web: Paypal me the amount of $5.95 ($3.95 for the book and $2.00 to cover P&H) and I'll send you a copy.

-Snail Mail me a check or money order the amount of $5.95 ($3.95 for the book and $2.00 to cover P&H) and I'll send you a copy. Javier Hernandez, PO Box 718, Whittier CA, 90608-0718

If you would like the book signed or personalized to you, please let me know. And no extra charge! I'll probably have to wait until after I get back from APE to update my website's store, but in the meantime feel free to order through here!

Live Art gig at Pasadena Central Library- pix!

Friday night's Live Art performance at the Pasadena Central Library was a fun experience for all involved! The Cartoonistas art group was invited to attend the Library's festivities for the city-wide Pasadena Art Night, an evening when many of the city's art and cultural institutions offer late night performances, exhibits and events for the community.



The participating Cartoonistas for the evening were Grasiela Rodriguez, Will Caulfield, Ted Seko, co-founders Jim Lujan and Javier (me) Hernandez!. Nick Smith, our contact at the Library, set us up in one of the actual rooms in the Library containing book collections! This Library is probably 100 years old, so we were a little nervous at first setting up our wooden easel/planks and using colored chalk! But we used some tarps and Nick just let us do our magic, trusting us to take care of everything. Which we did of course.


Will (left), Ted (middle) and me waiting for the muse....


Jim Lujan planning his latest posterboard epic!



Jim actually drew a face on every last one of them little heads in the audience!


Grasiela, besides really enjoying what she does, connects very well with the live audiences at these events.


Ted drawing a Spider-Man page...just inches away from books on science, nature and history! Trippy....


Back in 1989, Will hired me to work with him in Production Art. Some years later, he left when he and his wife had a baby. I took over as Art Director, then hired him to work under me when he got back into the work force! Nice to be working alongside him as a Cartoonista, almost 20 years later.


Lately I've gotten a fixation (Nixation?) on drawing Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States. Not because I think Watergate was a great move, but me and the Nix share the same High School, Whittier High. He spent his youth in Whittier, attended Whittier College, and even had his first law office there. So, a salute to Whittier's First Son!

Speaking of 70s icons, a favorite comic book of mine is DEVIL DINOSAUR by Jack Kirby. Basically it's about a (Moon-)Boy and his (Devil) Dinosaur, and their adventures back in 1,000,000 B.C.! So naturally, I hadda draw a pic of pre-history's Dynamic Duo:


I'm sure I pretty much drew this for my own amusement, as DEVIL DINOSAUR hasn't had a comic book series for 30 years, has no cartoon series or movie deal in the works (in other words: no public recognition). However, as I was finishing the drawing, a little girl walked into the room with her mother and started asking about the drawing. Turns out she has a friend who 'loves drawing dinosaurs', and the boy's father is a paleontologist. This little girl was a real cute, talkative spirit, kinda like a Dakota Fanning/Drew Barrymore type. She was asking why the dinosaur was red ("He was burned by some bad cave-people") and also asked how old was 'the little boy' was ("His name is Moon-Boy and I think he's about 9 or 10"). Later in the evening, the little girl and her mother came back into our room and she asked about my drawing. I told her that I had finished working on it and asked her if she would like it. She was extremely happy to have it, so now she's the proud owner of a DEVIL DINOSAUR drawing!

That was probably the highlight of the evening for me, to be honest. Sure, I had a great time creating some artwork and interacting with people, I sold some comics and DVDs, and the Cartoonistas were able to secure another gig with the Library for another event. But introducing that little girl to an old 1970s Jack Kirby creation, well, what can you say? As MARVEL and DC stumble around like a pair of drunken elephants trying to spoon feed kids dumbed-down versions of there now-adult-only superheroes, here's me, not affiliated in any way financial with the Kirby Estate or Marvel, promoting an all-ages comic created by the art form's greatest innovator, 'King' Kirby.


It would be cool to think that the little girl and her mother went home and maybe looked online for some cheap DEVIL DINOSAUR comics...

Late in the evening, Ted wanted to try a little game. He would pencil an image, and I would finish it off with color (I'd do the same for him). I accepted the challenge and ended up coloring and inking a DEATHLOK THE DEMOLISHER drawing. It was really weird inking those trademark floating faces Ted has been drawing for years and years....



Of course, on the plus side, I had Ted finish up and color a DEMOLTION DOVE I started!


For more pix, check out the official CARTOONISTAS website!

Cartoonistas Live Art in Pasadena for ART NIGHT!

The Cartoonistas strike again! This time we're doing Live Art during the ART NIGHT at the PASADENA CENTRAL LIBRARY in Pasadena, CA! We'll be creating our micro-masterpieces between 6pm-10pm, Friday Oct. 10. This is our second Live Art gig within a week...and this was a last minute addition, believe it or not. Same crew will be there that was at the Nuvein Gala (see post below!), so if you're in the area and missed us last saturday, here's your second chance. We'd love to see you!

First CARTOONISTA Live Art event pix now posted!

Geez, the CARTOONISTAS Live Art show was this past Saturday at the Nuvein 3rd Annual Gala...and I haven't had time to blog about it!!

Luckily, my fellow co-founder Jim Lujan has posted pics and video of the event! Please check out the official CARTOONISTAS site for the scoop! Personally, I had a great time there. Creating our artwork, and selling it, was quite satisfying. We donated all of the proceeds to the Nuvein Foundation to add to their scholarship program for local students.

I have to admit, also, that I enjoy doing any type of public event in regards to promoting my work or meeting new people. I love the art behind what I do, but also, I happily enjoy the marketing of oneself as an artist, especially since I've been a DIY type for years now. Also, it was really nice to be there as a member of this wonderful group of artists and friends, The Cartoonistas!

Here's a video clip shot that night that I have to share. It's some footage of me drawing an EL MUERTO piece (yeah, I knocked out a Spider-Man earlier, but I had to do the signature character!). What I like about this is that it's the only video footage I know where I'm drawing El Muerto, and you can clearly see how I lay out the drawing. But what I also like about it is that my friend Jim Lujan is in the background creating his own piece. I like the relatively relaxed nature of the shot, we're not talking or mugging for the camera (feats we're both experts at!) but we're really just lost in the art at the moment. One of the things Jim wanted us to focus on as Cartoonistas was Live Art, and there we are creating some.



Thanks to Ted Lujan for the excellent footage! And thanks Jim and all the other Cartoonistas.....

Interview with Jason Mosley on PCBR

About 2 months ago I was a guest on Mosley's TALK OBJECTIVISM radio show, basically talking about comic artist Steve Ditko. TALK OBJECTIVISM is a show that discusses the philosophy of Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism. Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man, is a long-time Objectivist, so one day after I discovered his talk show, I emailed Mosley and asked him if he was aware of Steve Ditko. Next thing I know, I'm on the show talking about Steve Ditko! Which was a pleasure to do, no doubt about it.

Then I was invited back the following week to moderate a discussion between Blake Bell, author of the recent book STRANGE AND STRANGER:THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO and Mort Todd, a cartoonist and former Editor-In-Chief of CRACKED magazine, whose worked with Ditko since the 1980s. As a long-time Ditko fan, I was more than happy to have a chance to actually lead a discussion about one of my favorite creators of all time. This was literally one of those great opportunities that's come my way simply as a result of me becoming an independent comic creator, I firmly believe that. By taking the steps to create my own comics, and thus becoming active in my little corner of the comics world, I have met all kinds of people and have had numerous avenues in which to celebrate my love of comics.

So I told Jason that I would like to reciprocate the chance he gave me on his show and extended him an invitation to appear on mine. When I found out that he writes his own on-line comic strip, I figured that was his way 'in'! Plus I want to hear about his own reactions to reading the Blake Bell book, as he wasn't aware of Ditko until I had emailed him about Ditko. Also, I think it will be interesting to talk about Mosley's blog, MR. BACON PANTS and his TALK OBJECTIVISM talk show. While these may not be comics related, they are creative endeavors, and he's a big proponent about individual rights and identity, so that fits in line with the majority of my guests.

Please listen to the interview either live or once it's available for downloading.

A REAL American Hero: DEMOLITION DOVE

A new promo piece for DEMOLITION DOVE! Obviously inspired by one of the great toy lines from the 80s....I'll post more about this in the next day or so, I have some background material I want to share. But I'll leave off with this little definition from Answers.Com:

adj.

1. Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.
2. Rebelling against the leadership of a political party.

Chris Wisnia on PCBR this Tuesday

My guest on Tuesday, Sept. 30 will be cartoonist CHRIS WISNIA. Chris is someone I've run into numerous times over the years at conventions, and this man's work is pretty dang funny. Please tune in and join us for the interview!

CARTOONISTAS Live Art Bootcamp!!

On Sunday, several of us Cartoonistas were at Co-Founder JIM LUJAN's home training in his no-hold-barred Live Art Bootcamp!

Several of the Cartoonistas will be participating in the Nuvein Foundation's 3rd Annual Gala on Saturday, Oct 4, in El Monte, CA. We'll be providing an evening of Live Art. And since some of us (me included) never actually performed Live Art, we figured Jimmy outta whip us into shape!

Obviously, every time I've drawn over the last umpteen decades (!) has been 'live art'. But I wanted to get a feel for drawing on a large sheet, in a limited time, and being as spontaneous as possible. We have two shifts for our performance, and limited time, so practicing some speed drawings can't hurt. I decided to start the evening off with my little baby, the Man-Swamp!



I wasn't too happy with it, as it looked too empty and skimpy. But, never fear, here comes Jim Lujan and his Magic Chalk! Man-Swamp and Jimmy...two great tastes that go great together!


Ted surveying his artwork with the eyes of a stern critic!



A Halloween art jam started by Grasiela Rodriguez. Didn't take long for the rest of us to jump on that like flies on....ice cream??!




Grasiela taking a break to shoot the breeze with Renato Aguirre.

Renato is my fellow producer on Planet Comic Book Radio, and is also a Board Member of the Nuvein Foundation. Nuvein is a literacy and arts advocacy group in the San Gabriel Valley, and provides support to PCBR. I've been on the Marketing Committee of Nuvein since December of last year, and in fact was just nominated to join the Board! A great honor, of course, but can someone please clone me?!

I busted out this piece in a flash of inspiration. Going back to my Undead Mariachi roots!



Jim's done live art before (sharing stages with James Kolchaka, Lea Hernandez and James O'Barr) so he was in his element here. Actually, his art style lends itself to live art. He rips through a drawing (finished a mini comic recently over two lunch breaks!!) and creates it with real live, kinetic energy. One of the reasons he told me he wanted to start the Cartoonistas group was to build a following as a Live Art group here in the San Gabriel Valley. I'm glad that we're about to perform our first Live Art event as a group, and we've already lined up another gig at a local library in at the end of October.

Check out Jim's precise composition here:



Followed by that dramatic, apocalyptic stage lighting he's known for!! Take that, CLOVERFIELD!!



Amongst all the great art and the fun, geek talk, we stuffed our faces with Pizza and soda pop, candy and chips, and a couple of toasts of the bubbly! That's what I call boot camp!



Check out Jim's pix at the CARTOONISTAS site!

cartoonist/instructor/podcaster JERZY DROZD on my radio show Tuesday

Podcasting and TV interview updates

My interview with artist RHODE MONTIJO is now available at the PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO site. I've known Rhode for as 11 years, having met him at a comic book convention a year before I first published EL MUERTO. In that time, we have both been great supporters of one another's work, and I consider him one of my best friends. His amazing creativity has been wonderful to watch over the years, crossing over from comics, web cartoons and now children's books.



He's always up for adventure and lives life to the fullest. Once, when we were working on the post-production for the EL MUERTO movie, he happened to have been in the Burbank area and joined us for some audio looping! I can't tell for sure that his background voice work made it onto the final recording, but at least his EL MUERTO painting made it to the Guest Artist gallery on the EL MUERTO DVD. Check out the interview, and get a portrait of an artist who puts all his passion into his art, and a healthy sense of optimism.



In other podcasting news, the second episode of my other show, the bi-weekly JAVILAND, is now available for download. In this episode, the topic was 'Creating Comic Book Characters', and the discussion focused on what we create first: The character or the story. I was joined by three other cartoonists and we had a good, varied discussion on the topic. That's the objective of JAVILAND: to discuss with other creators topics relating to the creation and publishing of our own comic books.

And the final 'media alerts' I have for this entry is the news that the cable access tv interview me and my fellow CARTOONISTAS filmed a few weeks back is now available to watch! It's posted on the CARTOONISTAS site here. Now back to work...!

Get ready for my upcoming mini-comic...The MAN-SWAMP!!!

Okay, I have a new EL MUERTO comic coming out in November. I'm also premiering my new character, DEMOLITION DOVE in early 2009 under the XOMIX COMIX imprint.

But I also have another new/long-lost character I'm debuting in a mini-comic book in January. Kevin Cross, a cartoonist from Portland, has started a Mini Comics Dumptruck club. He's got about 19 artists signed up already! Each artist has until January to make a 12-24 page Mini (a 4.25" x 5.5" comic). So I thought I would use a character I created a few years back, The Man-Swamp! He first appeared in an 'ad' in KING SIZE EL MUERTO #1 (2002):



Man-Swamp started out as a gag idea, more or less. An homage to the legendary swamp monsters in film and comics. Just a way to fill up a page in KING SIZE EL MUERTO #1 , really. But over the years I kept going back to the idea. In 2004, I was teaching a Comic Book Workshop, and as an instructional aid, I had the students contribute to the plot of a comic and aid in the comic book storytelling. I would set up the scene and ask the students to come up with a ideas for the narrative. A couple of the girls came up with the idea of 'Ducky'!






I drew the pages during two class sessions, using the same markers as the students, so as to encourage them in finishing their comics. So this is the first appearance of Man-Swamp in a comic, I guess! But when I was invited to join the Mini Comics Dumptruck, I immediately thought of bringing back Bog Breath back for a proper comic book story. I've actually fleshed out a more involved back story for the character, so the Man-Swamp mini comic will actually be more than just a gag story. But of course, with a name like he's got, this is still a freaky, whacked-out idea!

Here's a sketch I did a week or so back. Once I get started on the actual mini (sometime in December), I'll post some more updates.

MAN-SWAMP ™and © 2008 Javier Hernandez. All Rights Reserved.

Rhode Montijo today on PCBR!

EL MUERTO:DEAD & CONFUSED off to the printers!

There's a new EL MUERTO comic book on the way!



I just sent the files off to the printers over the weekend. It's the first time I'm using a POD (Print On Demand) service, so it'll be interesting to see how the whole experience plays out! This book will debut at the Alternative Press Expo this coming November 1 and 2 in San Francisco. This marks my 10th straight year as an exhibitor at APE, and in fact I debuted El Muerto at APE back in 1998, so this is a real special celebration for me.

November 2nd is also the date that Dia de Los Muertos falls on every year, so this special celebration becomes an extra special celebration! (Dia de Los Muertos is the Mexican holiday that celebrates the life of our departed family and friends, and is of course the inspiration for elements of my comic book). Also, there will be some news to share with you of another Day of the Dead weekend event for El Muerto, one that will mark a new great milestone for my character. I'll share the news here as soon as I can (you know, need to coordinate with the other parties involved...)

In the meantime, here's a couple more pages from DEAD AND CONFUSED. I'll be writing here about some more behind-the-scenes insight into this book, with a few more images to share. El Muerto is back!

Listen to the premiere JAVILAND podcast

Last night's debut podcast was as much fun as I hoped it would be. I had 5 other cartoonists joining me on the phone, so we covered a good variety of topics (well, all comic-related, of course!).

Check out the JAVILAND Blog for the show notes and the actual podcast!

JAVILAND debuts live today at 6pm (PT)

My new interactive podcast debuts tonight at 6pm (PT)! For info on how to catch it, and even join the live interactive chatroom, click here!

Cartoonistas on the Telly!

Yesterday, (Saturday,August 23) me and some of the Cartoonistas taped on interview for a local cable access show. The Nuvein Foundaation, the non-profit organization that promotes Literature and the Arts in the San Gabriel Valley, hosts an occasional show called NUVEIN PRESENTS. Well, this time around they wanted to feature the Cartoonistas in one of their interviews, so the call went out and 'Bamf', there we were!


(l to r) Will Caulfield, Jim Lujan, Grasiela Rodriguez, Michael Aushenker, and me, Javier


One thing about the Cartoonistas: You put a blank drawing surface in front of 'em and they attack it like flies on....um...fly food?


Grasiela and me before the grueling interview!


Prepping for the interview on the Nuvein Presents studio. Um, why is Jim Lujan taking a call on his camera?!


Our host for the show was Renato Aguirre. Renato is my fellow Producer on PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO and actually does the editing and write-up for each episode. He's also one of the Board Members of Nuvein. He had a fun time interviewing the whole bunch of us.


After the interview, we headed over to a Tommy's Burger stand and did the other thing the Cartoonistas are heralded for: Eatin'! This turned into a Micro-Con when Jimmy Lujan asked us all for copies of our work! Why support your fellow artists by purchasing their work when you can hit 'em up for free copies at lunch?! Real classy there, Mr. Co-Founder!!

One of the things we do as Cartoonistas, besides holding eating jams and promoting ourselves non-stop, is having intelligent conversations about the art and philosophy of comics: Here Jim Lujan weighs the merits of who swims better: Aquaman or Michael Phelps!

I'll post on here once the episode is put on the web. Many thanks to the Nuvein Foundation for having us on their tv show and for all the great support they've shown the Cartoonistas from the beginning. And thanks to Will, Michael, Grasiela and Jim for
the great time!