 Hey, everyone, hope 2021 has treated you well so far! It's the midway point and last time at the beginning of the year, I posted every day in January setting up goals for 2021, so I wanted to take this month to update everyone on the status of those goals. We got to make some, we missed out on others, and others got set back. Way back. That's my fault. I was in a BIG upswing up until late March, when a series of health issues became a big problem for me. First, I gave myself a concussion because I was being a big clutz at home. That slowed things down, but April everything was turned upside down, because not only did I get a very bad case of food poisoning, I also got Covid AT THE SAME TIME. Yeah, not fun. It took a long time to slowly get back up from that, and then the vaccine shots had big effects on me too, so these past three months have not been fun at all for me lol  But fear not, my friends, even though I'm still not 100%, I am fighting tooth and nail to get back on the rails! So starting tomorrow I will go more in depth on what has been a success and what has to be set back a little, but I'm not done, there's still more fight in me, and also, I'm not a one man band, bro Manuel Carmona and Francisco Rivera have been KILLING it with the samples I've seen of Project: New Wave! This isn't the flagship for nothing, everyone, if you thought issue 1 & 2 were bangers, wait'll you get a load of issue 3!
Some books made it to print on time, others will have to be postponed, while some things will have to run simultaneously, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So, stay tuned for tomorrow's blog, thank you all for reading and your patience, again, I apologize for things getting off the tracks for a while, but hopefully we'll get back on track for another adventure, let me be your guide! Stay safe, until next time. -Alvaro
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Hey, everyone, Alvaro "Lance Danger" Cortes Jr here! I just wanted to post this live stream I did a few weeks back on my FaceBook and YouTube. I talked about the differences I've seen between confidence and arrogance amongst creators. I hope you enjoy, and if you have any thoughts yourself, leave a comment, or even better, if you make a video response, put up those links! Lets all grow and get better together :-) -Alvaro
Here's what are my thoughts of Giga #1?
This book is decompressed storytelling at is finest. There's a lot of exposition and character setup, which I can understand being the first issue; but it was a bit too slow for my taste. Granted, it did introduced us to a few character that I'm sure we'll be seeing in the next few issues, it sets up the religious and social structure in this new age and still managed to leave us with many questions yet to be answered; which is what a first issue should do. Honestly, if this book didn't look as great as it does I probably wouldn't want to pick up issue #2, but the art team and the letterer outdid themselves and gave such a particular visual language to this book that, on the strength of their work alone I'll be picking the next issue and probably the next one after that. The art looks stylized, the ranges from somewhat "simple" to absolute brilliance in a matter of a few panels, the color palette feel like Mexican culture; when I saw the Gigas it reminded me of those amazing Mayan temples and Mayan culture, their architecture and their colorful clothing. The art portrays the scope and magnitude of these giant robots in such a cool manner that you can't help but love it! The main character is a Black young man with no legs who moves around in a wheelchair that is literally falling apart. This is great for many reasons, first we have a Black leading character who's extremely intelligent and is a survivor, he's also a great representation of a person with disabilities; that's a beautiful thing. There's also an interesting supporting cast and his sidekick is someone people will like as soon as they meet him/her. ;) Like I said, the story is slow; there's a lot of prep work for what's certain to come so if you're expecting to see Mazinger fighting Voltron in the first issue you're going to be disappointed; but I'm sure it's coming. All in all, on a scale from 1 - 10 I give this book a 7; I'm sure once those Gigas start beating the crap out of each other this book will become a favorite of mine. As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona
Lucy was a hero, a legend who saved an entire town from an unspeakable evil; but at a very high cost to her. Many believe she's dead, but recent events become the catalyst for her return from the dead... so to speak. The artwork on this book is absolutely stunning! Every character is so unique in their designs, the colors are so beautifully rendered that you can't help but get sucked into this World. The main character is a beautiful woman, but has a very distinct look that you don't see in comics often; which I also enjoyed. All around this book has been one of the best that I've read in a while, not necessarily because of the story, but because of the whole package. I'll definitely be looking for the rest of the series.
As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  For this #FridayFlashback I'm going back to the time I got the first look at my inked pages for Phazer #6 featuring Captain Action. I remember vividly how excited I was at the chance to work on a character like Captain Action and so many public domain characters like El Gato Negro, Black Terror and many others. What should've been the beginning of my career in comics quickly evaporated and I realized the grim reality for many creators in the comic book industry, and also that many people are in this business to take advantage of the people who actually do the work. A long time ago I was approached by someone and offered to work on a comic book project featuring Captain Action. For those of you who don't know who Captain Action is, he was an action figure created in 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, The Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's G.I. Joe—although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy-and-idea man, Stan Weston. National Periodical (DC Comics) licensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action in 1968, illustrated at first by Wally Wood, then by Gil Kane. The scripts were by a teenage Jim Shooter and Gil Kane. In 2008 Moonstone Books began a new series and created a new back-story for the character. Captain Action was now Miles Drake, a former Marine who discovers a cache of alien weaponry during the Vietnam War. Moonstone Books published a new Captain Action comic book from 2008 to 2010, with the initial six-issue arc written by Fabian Nicieza. A Captain Action Special was also released in 2010 as well as a two-issue miniseries teaming up Captain Action with the Phantom, written by Mike Bullock. In July 2010, Captain Action Season 2, an ongoing series written by Steven Grant, debuted that lasted 3 issues. Moonstone planned on releasing Captain Action: Classified, which would tell stories of Captain Action's earliest adventures in the 1960s, but this did not happen. In 2013 Dynamite Entertainment put out a mini-series with Captain Action called Codename: Action that included several pulp and comic book characters in an origin story for Captain Action.
 Hello everyone, Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Today on Truthful Reviews, since it's #ThrowbackThursday; we'll be taking a look at Red Knight #5. Written by Justin Cristelli and illustrated by JC Grande, Red Knight is a masked vigilante living and protecting the streets of Norfolk, Virginia. The book is in black and white interiors with a full color cover (which look great!) and is 30 pages long. The story is fun although it feels a bit wordy at times, but it never feels like you're not getting your money's worth.
There's a lot happening in this issue, a car that transforms into a robot (like the Transformers, I know), masked vigilantes, cops fighting bad guys, action, adventure, world building and an introduction to a brand new character known as Honeycut; all for only $2.99! I always try to buy every issue of this series whenever I see them. Good stuff! As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Here we go with yet another installment of Truthful Reviews! This time we're reviewing Astropunk #1. Written by Robert Farinholt and Kenneth Centers. The story is based in Mars, centered around a female protagonist trying to solve a mystery/crime and she fights some cybernetically enhanced villains; a popular trope in science fiction. It has some cool action scenes, a cloaked villain and our lead character is looking for another female but we're not going to get all the details in the first issue of course.
Paul Gori handles the art chores on this book. The cover art looks great, I didn't enjoy the interiors as much as the cover though. I felt the artist didn't quite knew if he wanted to draw manga or "American" style, so he tried some sort of an amalgamation in the vein of Joe Madureira; but it didn't connect with me. Granted, the art isn't the worst I've ever seen but it wasn't enough for me to fully enjoy the experience. The colors, done by Paula Goulart; I feel elevated the art. On a positive note, this comic feels a lot like an Ultraverse comic book from the 90's; which is a plus in my book. I don't mean to sound be rude but I won't be getting the following issues unless I find them in the discount bins. What can I say, not all of them are winners and this is just my opinion; other people might feel this is the best comic they're read. That's the beauty of comics!. I do feel that if you enjoy Aeon Flux, Barb Wire, Total Recall, Blade Runner or any of those 80's/90's sci-fi action movies there's a possibility you'll enjoy this book; it just isn't for me. P.S. If you've read it I'd love to know what you think of it. Do you agree with me? Did you love the book? Let me know in the comments. As always... keep it Truthful!  On Saturday May 8th at 8PM Manuel A. Carmona will be on the Yeah-Nah Wepa Show LIVE on Youtube talking about Buy Indie Comics Day. Make sure to set your alarms cause his is going to be a fun time talking about the origins of Buy Indie Comics Day, what's ahead for the initiative and our mission to push comics creators, indie comics creators to be exact!
The Yeah-Nah Wepa Show is hosted by Dodgy & Al Mega and they talk about any and everything in a fun weekly show you do not want to miss. If you'd like to check previous episodes of the Yeah-Nah Wepa Show! to see what they're all about visit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-RJpJvXeIJjRiL2cvAa1V_s86DOcIxNn As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Today we're reviewing one of those books that you read and immediately know you'll be following for the entire run, this book is Aftershock's Undone by Blood #1! Written by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson with art by Sami Kivela and colors by Jason Wordie, this book was great from start to finish. Fantastic world building, there are many questions yet to be answered but the World that Zac and Lonnie are creating is one I enjoyed reading about.
The art was absolutely beautiful, enough detail and grittiness to make the World these characters inhabit believable, be it present day or the old west era. The book is so well written that I couldn't tell if the story is fiction or based on historical facts, that's how you know the writers did their homework and their research into the eras they're depicting. This book will be at the top of my pile for the foresseable future! As always... keep it Truthful! |
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