Hey, everyone! Last year we had a lot of fun with #thanksindie where we would talk about our fave indie titles. This year however we wanted to spice things up a little.
This here series of blogs are called #GiftIndie where we discuss indie comics that would make great gifts to your comic collecting friend or family, or for people that are curious about getting into comics but don't know where to start!
I'm starting off with a comic I discovered in NYCC 2019- Resident Alien. I had not heard of this comic before, and my friends and I went to the ScyFy Resident Alien panel because my girlfriend is a HUGE Firefly fan, and Alan Tudyk was going to speak at the panel since he's the protagonist.
It was during this panel that they mention that it was based of a comic book, and they did a special screening of the pilot episode with some of the SFX still a little crude. And I was fascinated by the story of this alien that got stranded and became a small town doctor that gets excited over solving a murder mystery.
So after the panel I went to different vendors and discovered the first story was in trade already, so I got it, and it is such a greatly written book and a beautifully illustrated book as well.
Written by Peter Hogan with art by Steve Parkhouse, the comic itself is not as over the top the live action series can be, it's actually very mellow in a way. You get to really care for the characters and the world they live in, and also get lost in the mysteries that start unravelling as different cases happen.
If you or someone you know love sci-fi stories and noir-ish, hardboiled crime stories, this is a pretty solid read, or if you're a fan of the show and want to check out the original, there are 3 trades out already and I believe a 4th one will come out soon which is the series finale. 
Trade 1- amzn.to/3FXphDv
​Trade 2- amzn.to/3HZqA6E
​Trade 3- amzn.to/3xvMz05
​Thank you all for reading, there will be more indie suggestions and interviews, so keep a look out!
​-Alvaro

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Quick update on this one-shot, The Mysterious Exorcist: Funeral.
This is the second solo webcomic for Exorcist, the first being the popular "Good Night, San Juan!". This one had JUST started when I got covid.
Due to the overwhelming backlog created by my health issues, I have to announce that Exorcist will have to be put on hiatus until I complete production on Clown: Rogue Assassin.
Yes, Exorcist technically is the shorter story of the two, but, Clown has been postponed so much throughout the years, that I owe it to myself, and of course, owe it to the readers to finish this story first.
So once I get that final page done on Clown, I will resume work on Exorcist, after that we'll see about further Exorcist stories. I actually have a few stories under my belt, and I would LOVE to do an anthology one day with various writers/artists doing their take on the character.
Not a great update to make right now, personally frustrating actually, but hopefully as I recover I'll finish Clown sooner rather than later and I'll be able to tackle this story again. Thank you all so much for reading, catch you next blog!
-Alvaro "Lance Danger" Cortes Jr

Good afternoon, peeps! I'm here with another brief update, let's talk Clown.
Alfred Gomez' Clown, Rogue Assassin is a webcomic that has really suffered due to health and time issues. And personally it's frustrating because I am SO close to being halfway through this mini series.
This is the webcomic I can't wait for all of you to read in it's entirety, and the plan right now is to update it alongside the Warlord webcomic.
As with Warlord, the main question is what the updating schedule would be like. One possibility is to update Warlord once a week and Clown 3 times a week, or vice versa, or maybe even have BOTH update once a week.
One way or the other, I want to have this story done at the latest in early 2022. The upside is that the scripts have been done since forever, and the thumbnails too, it's a matter of carving out time actually produce the pages.
But I WILL finish this! And I hope you all enjoy it, it's one of my favorite stories I've written and I hope the story will be worth it as a side story to both Warlord and Funnybone. Thank you all for reading, catch you next blog!
-Alvaro "Lance Danger" Cortes Jr 

Hello again, everyone! Today lets talk about Never Mind.
Season 1 TC Edition had run into some problems, ranging from the start of the pandemic, protests, and just general confusion and chaos. It was eventually able to finish a little later than I wanted it to, but it ended with great feedback and acceptance, and introduced a whole new audience to the oddness that is my little auto-bio strips.
Of course Never Mind was always going to go on break after the first season, it's tradition that after 12 strips the comic goes on a small hiatus. In the meantime The Canon Girl would go up and once that ended, season 2 TC Edition of Never Mind would start. And then I got covid.
That set things WAY behind as I am still recovering from it (even though I do not have it anymore and I am fully vaccinated, my breathing and lungs are still taking a huge beating). So, what to do?
Well, I uploaded the cover for season 2, and I decided that both The Canon Girl Season 1 TC Edition will be running alongside Never Mind Season 2 TC Edition on Sundays.
Once both runs end around the same time, Never Mind will enter the planned hiatus until season 2 of The Canon Girl ends hopefully in a timely manner.
Never Mind is also going to expand beyond FaceBook and The Duck Webcomics, and of course, here at TC.com, theres also a Never Mind Twitter and InstaGram where season 1 will be uploaded weekly as well. Not to mention there are YouTube Videos planned as well in a Sketchbook Story Time kind of format, more info on that soon. In the meantime, thank all SO much for your support and patience, I hope you all enjoy season 2, this season actually has some of the more popular strips of the time it was originally updated, so I can't wait to revisit and redo those strips. Stay cool, catch you all next time!
-Alvaro "Lance Danger" Cortes Jr

Hey, everyone, as promised, here is the start of the midway 2021 updates!
First off, the Warlord updates. After getting covid and a series of injuries since then, health is really what's slowed down production on this and everything, really. But the beat marches on!
There are pages that are currently being worked on for the remainder of chapter 27, I am debating if I should update once a week for the time being while I get my wind back, I still won't know until I see how my body reacts to being able to work out again, since my Dr gave me the green-light to work out again.
So essentially, as my health goes, the projects go. I am raring to get back to updating regularly, especially since chapter 27 is a pivotal chapter despite it's low key appearance, because it is the unofficial bridge that goes into the final chapters of book 2, Armageddon Days Part 2!
The cover art and title page art for chapter 28 is actually pretty much done in advance, and I can't wait for you all to see it, it's the most EPIC cover I've EVER done!
That's all for this update, thank you all for reading and for your patience while I get patched up, I will make the return worth your while!
​-Alvaro "Lance Danger" Cortes Jr

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 

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!

   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! 

   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.