If you've followed my career for a bit you probably know this already but I like a good challenge, it gives me the fuel to push myself beyond my limits;; especially when it comes to my art! The first Saturday un October the art world celebrate something called 24 Hour Comics Challenge. If you have no idea what in the World is 24 Hour Comics Day I'll let it's founder explain it to you all: 24-Hour Comics Day is an annual international celebration of comics creation. On this day, creative folks take on the 24 hour comics challenge: to create a 24 page comic book story, normally months worth of work, in 24 straight hours. Many participants gather at official event sites including comic book stores, schools, and libraries. Others take part in private gatherings, and many work on their own. Needless to say, drawing a full comic book in 24 hours straight is a heck of a challenge; that's why I'm planning a 12 Hour Comics Day. Hear me out... I've participated in the 24 Hour Comics Challenge twice already, both times I failed to finish inking and lettering the book. No shame in that, I tried my hardest and I found out an area I still need to work on; speed. But, before my first 24hr challenge I participated in a 12 Hour Comics Day which was basically a practice round before the big day a month later. It was a great experience for me (and for everyone who participated I think) because there were like 30 people inside a comic book shop and they were all there for the same reason... to have a great time! We watched movies, ate, drank, laughed; it was one of my fondest geek experiences to this day. Here are some pics from that wonderful day... I know that I'd like to try to tackle 24 Hour Comics Day again this October BUT I know I'm still not fast enough and I KNOW I don't want to doit alone. One thing I absolutely loved about Buy Indie Comics Day is that I got to meet in person and spend time with a few of the local comics creators here in my neck of the woods and in the spirit of camaraderie I'd like to extend my hand and invite each and every one of ya'll I met, and anyone out over the interwebs who wants; to join me on this 12 Hour Comics Day Challenge! A tentative date would be the first Saturday in September but I'll give you a more concrete date in the next few days. I'm thinking that instead of putting together 24 pages, the 12 Hour Comics Challenge would consist on illustrating a complete short story. It can be 4-12 pages and it can be black and white or fully colored, it's up to the creator. It's hard to find a venue for a 24hr comics challenge because... well... the establishment would have to be open 24 hours and also allow a bunch of nerds to stay in said establishment. A 12 hour challenge is far less difficult since most establishments are open more than 12 hours and it could even be at a local Starbucks or maybe a random coffee shop, I'm sure they'd appreciate the business. So let me know if you're in? If you want to join us click here: 12 HOUR COMICS DAY -MC Si has seguido mi carrera por un tiempo probablemente ya lo sabes, pero me gusta un buen desafío, me da el combustible para empujarme más allá de mis límites;; especialmente cuando se trata de mi arte! El primer sábado de octubre el mundo del arte celebra algo llamado 24 Hour Comics Challenge. Si no tienen idea de lo que en el mundo es 24 Hour Comics Day dejaré que su fundador se lo explique a todos: El 24-Hour Comics Day es una celebración internacional anual de la creación de cómics. En este día, la gente creativa se toma el desafío de los cómics de 24 horas: crear una historia de cómic de 24 páginas, normalmente meses de trabajo, en 24 horas seguidas. Muchos participantes se reúnen en sitios oficiales de eventos, incluyendo tiendas de cómics, escuelas y bibliotecas. Otros participan en reuniones privadas, y muchos trabajan por su cuenta. No hace falta decir que dibujar un cómic completo en 24 horas seguidas es un gran desafío; es por eso que estoy planeando un Día de Cómics de 12 Horas. Escúchame... Ya he participado en el 24 Hour Comics Challenge dos veces, ambas veces no terminé de entintar y escribir el libro. No es me apena eso, di todo mi esfuerzo y descubrí un área en la que todavía necesito trabajar; Velocidad. Pero, antes de mi primer desafío de 24 horas participé en un Día de Cómics de 12 Horas que era básicamente una ronda de práctica antes del gran día un mes después. Fue una gran experiencia para mí (y para todos los que participaron creo yo) porque había como 30 personas dentro de una tienda de cómics y todos estaban allí por la misma razón... pasar un buen rato! Vimos películas, comimos, bebimos, nos reímos; fue una de mis experiencias geek más amenas hasta el día de hoy. Aquí hay algunas fotos de ese maravilloso día. Sé que me gustaría tratar de completar el 24 Hour Comics Day de nuevo este Octubre, pero también sé que todavía no soy lo suficientemente rápido; y sé que no quiero hacerlo solo. Una cosa que me encantó de Buy Indie Comics Day fue reunirme en persona y pasar tiempo con algunos de los creadores de cómics locales aquí en mi ciudad y con ese mismo espíritu de camaradería me gustaría extender mi mano e invitar a todos y cada uno de ustedes que conocí, y a través de las interwebs que quiera; a unirse a mí en este desafío del 12 Hour Comics Day! La fecha sera el primer Sábado de Septiembre de 2019. Estoy pensando que en lugar de juntar 24 páginas, el Desafío del 12 Hour Comics Day consistiría en ilustrar una historia corta completa. Puede ser de 4-12 páginas y puede ser blanco y negro o a color, todo dependería del del creador. Es difícil encontrar un lugar para un 24 Hour Comics Day porque... bueno... el establecimiento tendría que estar abierto 24 horas y también permitir que un montón de nerds se queden en dicho establecimiento. Un desafío de 12 horas es mucho menos difícil ya que la mayoría de los establecimientos están abiertos más de 12 horas, e incluso podría ser en un Starbucks o tal vez un coffee shop pequeño; estoy seguro de que apreciarían el negocio. ¿Entonces... quien se apunta? Si van a participar dele click aquí: 12 HOUR COMICS DAY -MC
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It's progress report time so I'm happy to announce that Project: New Wave #2 is fully inked, scanned and ready to be colored by Frank Rivera! The story was written by Alvaro Cortez Jr. with me handling the art. This story will delve deeper into the dynamic of the team, their upbringing on a military base and we'll be able to understand why some of the characters behave the way they do. It'll (hopefully) give you a better understanding of who our heroes are and where they stand. The story is twenty (20) pages long and we're expecting to put it out either late 2019 or early 2020 exclusively through Truthful Comics. Stay tuned for more details on the release date and the extra material we're putting together exclusively with issue #2. -MC Es el tiempo del informe de progreso, así que estoy feliz de anunciar que Project: New Wave #2 está completamente entintado, escaneado y listo para ser coloreado por Frank Rivera! La historia fue escrita por Alvaro Cortez Jr. conmigo manejando el arte. Esta historia profundizará en la dinámica del equipo, su educación en una base militar y podremos entender por qué algunos de los personajes se comportan de la manera en que lo hacen. (esperemos) te dará una mejor comprensión de quiénes son nuestros héroes y dónde están. La historia tiene veinte (20) páginas y esperamos sacarla a cabo a finales de 2019 o principios de 2020 exclusivamente a través de Truthful Comics. Manténgase atento para obtener más detalles sobre la fecha de lanzamiento y el material adicional que estamos armando exclusivamente con el número #2. -MC In August 3, 2006, I took a chance and uploaded the very first cover of the Fred Peterson: The Mighty Warlord webcomic onto a site I had recently discovered named Drunk Duck Webcomics. I had been uploading TMW on the the main forums originated in Puerto Rico, Comix PR and Paquines Son Comics. Warlord was a pretty good hit in those forums, but sometimes it could be a bit messy the whole uploading the images on to photobucket and then post it on the forums. Commenting was also a bit of a mess, forums really aren't that great to be posting webcomics. Then I saw that there were sites dedicated to webcomics and a more smooth commenting system. I didn't have my own website nor domain, so when I saw Drunk Duck, I decided to start uploading there, thinking that even if I don't get many views or comments at all, at least it's a good place to archive my pages in the event any of the forums fold. To my surprise, I actually had like maybe 100 views after uploading the first cover (image above). After 2 more pages, I got comments. And then repeat readers. Then new readers. And before I know it, it was a top 500 webcomic, then top 200, and then a consistent top 100 comic. It even cracked the top 20 within the next few years. This little webcomic that started in these forums suddenly went to a platform that had more eyes on them and soon there were readers from as far as the UK and Japan. That. Is. Crazy. It also opened new opportunities for me. I wrote a couple of short stories for NovusGenesis. That led to writing Project: New Wave for TC cofounder Manuel Carmona. Warlord briefly was under the umbrella of Don Algaro, Artificium, Astral 22, Studio 22, before all those folded and then found a permanent home at Truthful Comics. I also wrote for Silver Island Studios, which I still do today as well, writing short stories for Blindsight and Dragonfang, and then the origin issues of El Matatan and Blindsight. All this stemming from a comic I created in 8th grade. It wasn't without hassle and challenges, though. In 2009-2010 I had a lot of hardware failures that kept messing with the updating. Then the Platinum Studios/Drunk Duck debacle happened. On top of that, there was also the HUGE server crash that crippled Drunk Duck for a while, as well as the big two PR forums closing down. Once everything started getting back to normal on Drunk Duck, I was involved in a car accident that put me on the shelf for about 6 months. I had a pretty bad concussion, at first doctors said I was never going to be the same again. I was seeing double for about 2 months with a crippling headache. Then, against doctors orders, I said screw that, and laying down on my bed or on the sofa, I willed myself to draw again. I slowly recovered and started feeling more myself again and I got back on Warlord. I resumed work updating on Warlord, and to my surprise, it was doing better than ever. The views skyrocketed into the thousands and cracked the top 20 again. It got a couple of reviews and a spotlight on a webcomic centric website, as well as online news pages retweeted Warlord various times. And then I burned out. I was so laser focused on coming back physically, that I left behind and underestimated the toll of the mental and emotional toll it would take. I would only do about 1 update every other month. I was tired. I was emotionally tired. In the middle of all this, Manuel Carmona decides to make an actual website for TC. The TC website came about and I started blogging again, something I had not done in years. Then I moved all the archives of Warlord (and my other webcomics) to this here site, and it actually led to other readers checking it out. After much deliberating and thought, I eventually decided to move back to my birthplace, New York. The big move and transition was a tough one. After slowly starting to update again, the move really slowed my updating again to updating every other month. Then I started working and going to school again. Slowly, but surely, I started uploading for frequently again. Drunk Duck changed their name to simply The Duck and was having a sort of rebirth at the same time Warlord did too. Since uploading consistently again, Warlord for the first time ever cracked the Top 10 at The Duck, got more reviews, and was nominated for the first time for Best Super Hero Comic for the Drunk Duck Awards. I was planning on doing a recoloring/relettering job to be able to do a print version of Warlord, but some mayor events happened again. A couple of floods by a broken pipe destroyed many of the original pages. Hurricane Maria struck PR, the eye passed by my hometown. My mother lost her house. All of the original pages of 90% of the webcomic were in my old room. Gone. After a lot of thought again, I decided I would just redraw the whole thing again, from scratch. I've been working hard to redo this series for a printed edition because the webimages are so low resolution, the printed edition would look WAY too bad. So, I have been working on the webcomic and the print version at the same time. Meanwhile, coinciding with the 13th anniversary, Warlord just finished chapter number 25, and chapter 26 just started, bringing me closer to the goal of reaching 35, which is the number of issues the longest running PR comic, Turey El Taino, had. Turey was one of the first PR comics that I loved and respected. Turey to me is what Cerebus is to Todd McFarlane and Spawn. The goal, the standard to reach. So, what now? Well, there's going to be Warlord for a good while, still. Aside from The Duck and the TC site, I have a Patreon where I do a lot of free behind the scenes stuff. There's also the FaceBook page, InstaGram, linkedin, Twitter, etc. Fred Peterson: The Mighty Warlord has been with me through the up and downs, through incredible journeys. And it makes me so happy and humbled that many of you have been with me on this long journey. And for that, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all. I will do my best to do the best work I can, please look forward to what Warlord and Truthful Comics has in store for you! I love social media for the same reason I hate it sometimes, you can reach and be reached by an infinity of people, some of whom you may end up calling friends; some of them not so much. A few weeks ago I received a friend request from someone who lives relatively close to me and seemed to be interested in the same geeky things I'm into, so I accepted the request. As it turns out this gentleman is the host of a geek related podcast called Do you Speak Geek? “Do You Speak Geek?” is a platform designed to bring the latest and most exciting content from the geek/nerd realm. Covering topics such as comics, TV shows, movies, books, technology, gaming and any other topics of interest from a fan’s perspective. If you're looking for something to listen to on your way to/from work, something to listen to at work or maybe while your kid is at Tae Kwon Do class; give it a listen and I promise you'll get a nerdy kick out of it... I know I did!
To Listen Do You Speak Geek? Go To: Do You Speak Geek? Published by Carmelo Chimera
Here's how retailers can make Buy Indie Comics Day a great event at their stores in 3 easy steps! If you're a retailer, be sure to name us as a Co-Host of your event so we can spread the word. If you know a retailer, TAG THEM!!! And don't forget to subscribe at www.buyindiecomicsday.com to stay up to date on the next big industry event! Published by Carmelo Chimera
Here's an easy 3 step guide showing comic book creators how they can make Buy Indie Comics Day a great event to grow their audiences. If you're a comic creator, be sure to use the official hashtags #BuyIndieComicsDay or #BICD so we can spread the word on your work, event, project; etc. If you know a creator, TAG THEM!!! Oh and don't forget to subscribe at www.buyindiecomicsday.com to stay up to date on the next big industry event! |
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