Cover Story.

The first image is the cover to Wrestler Zero #1 and the second is the initial concept sketch. Generally, there are three types of comic book covers; one is inspired by a scene within the story, another is the "pin up" cover and yet another is what I call "the symbolic cover". The latter option often incorporates a variety of images from the story as well as elements of the first two cover types. I chose a symbolic cover. As you can see, I made a lot of changes from concept to execution. For example, in the sketch there isn't any action on the cover aside from the fist thrusting out of the grave. I wanted Wrestler Zero to be in a more dynamic pose and I hit upon the idea of him smashing his way (symbolically of course) out of a skull. Since I rely on the contrast between light and shadow pretty heavily it helped me avoid overlapping black on black areas.

I draw directly on the board using H, HB and F pencils. The cover was inked with a Faber Castell Pitt Pen, a Faber Castell Pitt Pen "S" and some Hunt 102 crow quill and a touch of Micron Pigma pen in the 001 size. I usually buy pads of Bristol paper and cut my own boards but recently I've been using a batch of pre cut/ruled boards I picked up at a steep discount. The lettering in the comic and covers was done by hand directly on the board.

A tale of two pages.

If I were to change every panel I'm unhappy with I'd never get past panel one. Every panel, even the ones I decide to not use, is an education for me. However, there are those times when I can't let something stand and I have to re-do it. Case in point: the top page was the first version of the final page of Wrestler Zero#1, the second is the version that will see print. Both pages are depicting the same idea but I was not satisfied with the first version. The most herculean rendering in the world will not save a poorly composed page or panel. It's akin to wallpapering a crooked house. In the first version Wrestler Zero is too small and too stiffly posed. The hands of the creature in the foreground are weak looking and the background, while adequately conveying some sense of depth, has too many black on black areas. All of this is the result of not spending enough time doing preliminary layouts and a failure to compose the picture elements well.

The second version is an improvement although not without it's flaws. In this version Wrestler Zero is larger with his torso masses moving in opposition to each other. He's not as stiff as he was in the first version of this page. The hands in the foreground are also larger and not as evenly posed against each other as in the first version. Also, there is more sense of depth and no problems of overlapping black areas. In retrospect I would've liked to have had Wrestler Zero with a wider stance and with more room between his legs. These are valuable lessons for me. For those of you who may be wondering: the figures, buildings, floor and lettering were done with a Faber-Castell Pitt Pen. The sky was rendered with a black China marker and the glass and fine line work was done with a Micron pen.

If you were to ask me which aspect of my artwork I felt needed improvement I'd unhesitatingly say : "All of it".

Some new things.

I didn't want to post anything to start 2010 unless it was new material. I'm happy to report that WRESTLER ZERO is finished and will see print very soon. Once I go to print I'll let you know how you can get your hands on a FREE copy of WRESTLER ZERO #1.

I'll continue to post sketches and deleted pages on this blog. The next WRESTLER ZERO story will be shorter because I want to publish more frequently. I'm a single dad and I work a full time job so the shorter page count will help me with that goal.

Some of you may have noticed that I've deleted all of the posts that dealt with political issues exclusively. From time to time I'll post a comment on a currently extant social and/or political topic but I want this blog to focus on my artwork and my efforts to grow as an artist. My political views have evolved a great deal over the last year. The most important lesson for me is that a person should always think for himself. There is no shortage of political opinion and to the extent that you agree with it should be a reflection of what you believe intrinsically. Listen to yourself first. Make up your own mind but give opposing viewpoints a fair chance to be heard instead of allowing people you agree with to define dissenting views and their advocates for you.

To paraphrase Rod Serling: "...somewhere between anarchy and apathy lies the thinking man..."

Something old.

A lot of professional artists seem to be embarassed by their early published work. Although I can understand the desire to be judged by your most current work, why be embarassed at what came before?

If you're giving your artwork your best effort you have no reason to be embarassed. With that in mind I present the following two pages. I found these on an unmarked disk but I thought I'd share them with you:

I wrote/drew these pages a little over three years ago. I'd approach them differently now but the basic ideas are still sound. In the first page I'd definitely make Wrestler Zero's figure more supple and in the second I'd make it clearer that the wrestling ring is in a cemetery and needless to say the artwork would be better.

But there's no shame in the game here. At the time this was the best I could do. Study the work of your favorite artists and you'll see an evolution from their beginnings to the point where you first encountered their work.

Dark times need bright heroes.

In my last post I talked about my preference for heroes that are "men of good will who serve justice". That last quote is from the movie whose poster you see above: "Santo vs las mujeres vampiro" (Santo vs the vampire women). You may be familiar with this movie in it's English dubbed version:" Samson vs the vampire women". Aside from the dubbing the two films are identical. But even if you don't speak Spanish you can quite easily follow the plot of the movie because good storytelling communicates it's message across linguistic barriers.

I've chosen this movie for two reasons: it's a sentimental favorite of mine and more importantly it illustrates the concept of the hero as "the man of good will who serves justice".

The movie opens with a hideous vampire woman, Tundra, emerging from her coffin (above) followed by several more withered vampiric females emerging from their caskets. The coffin containing Zorina, the queen of the vampire women remains closed. Tundra summons their demonic master, seen only by his shadow but clearly Satan, and in short order Tundra and a trio of male vampire slaves are restored to their youthful appearance. Their beauty is viewed only as a weapon by which they can seduce unwary mortals.

Tundra (seen above) is aware that a successor for the still dormant queen of the vampire women, Zorina, must be found soon. According to an unnamed prophecy a beautiful young woman with a peculiar birthmark is fated to be the new queen of the vampire women. We cut to a young woman named Diana who is haunted by a sense of impending doom. And with good reason as she's being observed by Tundra. Diana's father is Professor Orlof. The professor knows the truth and decides to call Santo for help.

At the moment El Santo is not in his well equipped lab but in the arena wrestling in a tag team match. This is a subtle but effective bit of storytelling. In less than two minutes we learn that the film's hero is smart, tough and honorable. In the meantime Tundra kills a couple leaving a club and uses their blood to restore the rest of the vampire women and their queen Zorina to "life".

Aware that her reign as vampire queen is only a few nights away Zorina orders that her successor Diana be brought before her. Tundra goes to Professor Orlof's home and unsuccessfully tries to hypnotize him into turning Diana over to her. Tundra flees into the night. Moments later El Santo shows up in response to Orlof's earlier call. Here we learn that according to ancient scrolls being decoded by Orlof, modern man's moral turpitude and abuse of nature's powers has paved the way for the return of monsters. Professor Orlor and Santo discuss the prophecy about Diana's destiny as the new queen of the vampire women. However Orlof has also uncovered in the scrolls tales of a previous champion of justice who would have a descendant: El Santo. Warned that the forces of evil are arrayed against him El Santo nonetheless is committed to carrying on the work of his ancestors.

Tundra and the trio of male vampires try to kidnap Diana but are stopped by El Santo. The vampires escape and Zorina declares: "the silver masked man must die". One of the male vampires kills and then impersonates Santo's next opponent; The Black Mask. He almost kills Santo during their match but is instead unmasked. Despite being shot by the police he changes into a bat and escapes into the night. The vampires manage to kidnap Diana and Santo sets off in pursuit in his convertible sportscar. He catches up to one of the male vampires near a church but the vampire bursts into flame under the shadow of the cross. Orlof has dechiphered the scrolls and relays to Santo the location of the vampire women's hideout. Santo enters their lair and is captured.

The vampire women have everything they want: Diana and El Santo. Tundra orders Santo's unmasking but the sun begins to rise. Tundra bursts into flames. Santo breaks free and fights the remaining two male vampires long enough for them to succumb to sunlight. Torch in hand Santo enters the vampire women's crypt and sets each one on fire. He grabs Diana and they leave the castle while the screams of the burning vampire women reverberate. Santo returns Diana to her father Professor Orlof and her fiance and drives off in his sportscar. Orlof, Diana and her fiance are left to wonder who this man is. Professor Orlof declares that: " ...in this time where the evil of men seeks it's own destruction, her will always be in the service of good and justice". In the English translation it's given as " ...a man of good will who serves justice".

I realize that today's audience for heroic fiction may find this type of movie to be simplistic, corny or old fashioned. Some people won't be able to get past the low budget or the fact that the hero of the movie is a wrestler who never removes his mask. The vampire women are all beautiful, especially Tundra and the queen Zorina, yet there is no cheap titillation on display. Their allure speaks for itself which is how it should be.

The character of El Santo is presented in very broad strokes: a wrestler by occupation, a hero by nature. When he's not in action he's not onscreen. The hero doesn't exist until there's a conflict between good and evil. In the Mexican Masked Wrestler film genre there is no hand wringing, uncertainty or doubt on the hero's part. These characters operate with complete moral certainty. The notion of moral certitude is crucial to the hero and his motives. A society that either by choice or through conditioning abdicates it's ability to make moral distinctions is on a path to destruction. When you equate goodness with evil you leave nothing to believe in. Why is it that vampires, creatures who live on human blood and suffering, are now presented as heroes? Why did the producers of "Superman Returns" choose to portray the quintessential comic book hero as an uncertain, morally compromised man? Why did the producers of the GI Joe movie not present a "real American hero"? And finally why is Captain America "dead"? Where are the heroes who operate from a plane of moral certainty?

There are those who will argue that the "simplistic" heroes of yesteryear are outdated. The argument is that today's audience wants "characterization" "depth" and "edginess". You can have all of that without diluting the moral certainty and purity that is an essential part of a hero. We're living in dark times. Cultural relativism, moral relativism, Liberalism and Islamic terrorism are the latter day horsemen of the apocolypse. If we slowly surrender our ability to make moral distinctions between good and evil, if we say that all ideas, beliefs and cultures are completely equal, if we say that the state, not the individual, is the producer of the good then how can we possibly hope to recognize and prevail against those villains who operate on a twisted plane of certitude? We need those simple heroes with their certitude and selfless commitment to the good fight more than ever. It may be fiction but it speaks truths about us.

My kind of hero.

It's not enough to create a visual and a name and call it a "character". Character is the sum of personality and motivation. When I created Wrestler Zero I had to ask myself what kind of character was he going to be. Was he going to an angry and cynical person? Would he be motivated by revenge? Or would he be an optimistic character motivated by a desire to serve a greater good? Would Wrestler Zero be a hero because of some intrinsic quality or would his heroism grow of out his circumstances? What is my kind of hero? I had to look back before I could go forward with this question. I started reading comics when I was five years old. Iron Man, Batman, Superman and Spider Man were my favorites during those days. At the age of nine my mom and I moved to Puerto Rico. Comic books were widely read and available there. It was during my time in Puerto Rico that I discovered the three heroes who would become my all time favorites and in large part the inspiration for Wrestler Zero.

From left to right: Blue Demon and El Santo. And below is Mil Mascaras:

All three of these men are Mexican masked wrestlers who enjoyed immense popularity in Puerto Rico. Santo and Blue Demon starred in their own comic books, a sepia toned mix of photos and hand drawn backgrounds. All three wrestlers starred in their own films as well. In their movies they were pro wrestlers who also fought monsters, aliens, mad scientists and organized crime. To the the ten year old boy I was then, and to the one who still is very much alive in me now, these men were superheroes who were real in a way Superman and Batman could never be. In their comics and in the movies their characterization was very surface level, they were simply "men of good will who serve justice". They eschewed recognition and rewards, the good fight was it's own reward. Perhaps in the eyes of today's supposedly more sophisticated comic book reader these heroes are simplistic and dull, their motives pollyannish. But I disagree. The more complexity you try to superimpose on simple heroic characters the more you dilute their purity. Simple doesn't mean devoid of meaning. Simple means that it speaks to the reader because it's understood intrinsically. The world of comic books, novels and film is wide enough to accomodate all of the heroic archetypes. There's something out there for every taste which is as it should be. But my kind of hero is the man of good will who serves justice.

Confidence game.

Here's a small image from the current Wrester Zero story. I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that I'm producing an epic of some sort. I'm more than halfway done but I don't think it'll be more than 20 pages in length. I'm a single father and I work a full time blue collar job. I don't want to just throw something out there for the sake of saying I've published. I want the finished product to be the best I'm currently capable of producing. I've had to learn two important lessons recently: confidence and letting go of the perfectionistic mindset that leads to procrastination and ultimately anger and frustration. My art school is 365 days, 24/7. If you ask me what aspect of my work needs improvement I'd say "all of it". But for too many years I made the mistake of comparing my work to that of my idols and of course my work always comes up short to say the least. Couple that with a perfectionistic mindset and it's a recipe for paralyzing bouts of procrastination born out of a fear of failure and of not living up to the standards set by my idols. Somewhere along the line I seriously ran off the rails. As Matt Wagner so wisely wrote in Mage: "the past is there to inspire you, not contain you". I will always consider myself a student no matter how much progress I make. But I had to learn that enjoyment is also a part of artistic growth and that perfection has no place in my life. I will never be the biggest fan of my own artwork but I won't be the severe, harsh and unforgiving self critic that I've been all these years either.