Previously, in progress.

Hello everyone. I hope 2012 was a good year for you all. May 2013 find you happy, healthy and prosperous.  As you can see I'm inking my way through this page using a Utrecht #4 brush, Hunt 102 pen and Micron .001 and "S" markers.  I'm using Liquitex Black Ink because it's easy on my brushes and pen nibs.  Onwards and upwards...

Previously; revisited.

I wasn't satisfied with my first pass at this page, (which is under the entry "Previously") so I took another approach. There are still some work to be done here but the composition is where I want it and the figures look a bit more dynamic. The large disembodied head is a Gil Kane-ism and one he used quite often and always effectively.

Origins

The first comic book I ever read was the 21st issue of Iron Man. It was written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by George Tuska. It changed my life. From that point forward I devoured every comic book, sci-fi/fantasy movie and TV series I could get my young hands on. Shortly after turning nine my mother and I moved to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Luckily for me there were translated DC and Marvel comic books everywhere and my favorite shows were subtitled. There was something else too.  My mother's uncle had a large comic book collection which he generously allowed me to read and it was in that stack of translated comic books that I first encountered El Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata(the silver masked man). I'd never seen a comic book that looked like this:

This isn't from that first El Santo comic I saw; I don't recall exactly which issue it was but this sample is precisely the way these comic books looked. Sepia toned inks combined with photos and line art with backgrounds being either photos and/or line art.  My young mind was blown as it had been when I first saw that 21st issue of Iron Man. I soon discovered that El Santo, along with Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras were real wrestlers from Mexico and not only did they wrestle but they starred in movies and in comic books!  These masked luchadores became idols of mine. A few years later I moved back to Brooklyn and gradually lost touch with the world of El Santo and the other heroes.  For a time they would be supplanted by other comic book and movie idols and then practically forgotten. Many years later I picked up an issue of FilmFax that had an article on the movies of El Santo and Blue Demon written by Scott Rhodes.  Suddenly my love for these real yet unreal masked men came roaring back from where it had lain dormant for so long.  By that time there was a booming market for the buying and selling of VHS tapes( something that didn't exist when I was a boy and teenager) and I began to build a small but growing collection of these great MexiLuchaMovies.  Those old comics are harder and much more expensive to find but I've managed to find a few that were reasonably priced.  These comics and movies form the basis for "Wrestler Zero" which is both my original creation and tribute to these larger than life yet real masked wrestlers. 

Previously...

Hello everyone. I'm starting the third issue of Wrestler Zero with a recap of events from my recently published second issue called "Wrestler Zero Must Die".  I'm opening the in the works issue with a recap for three important and inter-related reasons: it's good storytelling which is the goal of comic book creation, it provides an "action opener" and it allows me to provide myself and the readers a fresh look at previous events. Because I self publish a mini-comic I don't have widespread distribution other than my convincing store managers to stock the book in their small press/mini comics section. So recapping previous stories is important for new and returning readers.  On the technical side of things I did my poor man's impression of Reed Crandall style pen and ink in the second panel using crow quill and my trusty Micron and Pitt pens and a bit of brush.

The hour of the wolf

As I prepare for the next issue of Wrestler Zero I like to do a lot of sketches. I have so much to learn I only hope I have the time to learn it well. This image was produced on 8 1/2 by 11 cardstock paper ( regular copy paper would curl up from all the inking) and was inked exclusively with Pitt Pens and brush. The white lines coming from the moon were done with a gel pen.  On to the next one...

Con Job

I was in Artist's Alley at the RI Comic Con this past weekend and I had a great time. I met quite a few cool people, received a thorough and inspiring critque from Walt Simonson and sold quite a few issues of Wrestler Zero and pin ups. I did inked sketches for the people who purchased a comic and pin up. The above is a sample of the inked sketches I did.  The entire experience of writing/drawing Wrestler Zero and the Con was an education in and of itself.  A big "thanks" to everyone who was at the show.

Lucha after dark.

If you've ever seen a MexiLucha film (masked Mexican wrestler film) you'll see that the ring announcer addresses an arena full of rabid Lucha fans without using a microphone and I homaged that here. Also, I wanted the look of the old black and white night time scenes from those movies.