Hell Beneath You- 2021 Goals

Good evening everyone, welcome back to another blog! Today, I want to touch upon a comic mini series I'm SUPER excited about, Hell Beneath You.
This was supposed to come out for halloween of last year, but, well, the pandemic, the cries for social justice, and my day job were all at it's peak here in NYC, so I had to put this story to the side because I barely had time to even work on Warlord. 
If my main comics are a love letter to all the comics I grew up reading, Hell Beneath Us is a love letter to all the horror/terror/suspense movies I grew up watching.
My family, especially my mom, is a HUGE fan of horror movies. Even when my mom was pregnant with me, she'd go to special screening of horror movies in theaters, so I guess I literally grew up with horror movies. Halloween was a big deal in the little apartment we lived in at Williamsburg, in a very different time before all the coffee shops and artsy shops that are now all over there. Nightmare on Elm St, Halloween, CHUD, Silent Night Deadly Night, Psycho Cop, Witch Board, Hell Night, Prom Night, all the classics ranging from Stephen King classics to b-movie level movies, I watched it all and was a staple in our home. 

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Hell Beneath You is my love letter to all those movie and family moments I had growing up. I never have done a straight up horror story though some elements seep through sometimes in Warlord and eventually in Exorcist as well. I had always planned to do a horror comic, but, and I have never spoken about this, back when I was younger I actually used to go to church, and I was kind of talked out of it nicely at the time, and at that moment it made sense to me, so I shelved my horror ideas. Until a few years ago.
I was at SVA majoring in cartooning, one of my classes was with industry legend Klaus Jansen. Our last class project was illustrating a story we came up with. Since it was just something for school and just for myself, I did a small story with huge horror/suspense undertones, a small ghost story that was very personal. I was encouraged afterwards by Jansen to pursue a career in writing, and that planted the seeds for Hell Beneath You. I was hesitant at first, but when I made the first mock poster and presented them to TC president and cofounder Manuel, he was ALL IN for the comic!

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So I worked on character designs, more mock poster, and came up with issue titles. I have the basic plot done and was about to start the script writing process until everything had to come to a halt.
My goal for Hell Beneath Us is to finish the script writing process over the summer and start production on the comic over the winter, and premier it in fall of 2022. I want to take my time with this one because it's become a very close story for me, in a way it's a nod to the me years ago that was too afraid to put out this kind of story because of outside pressure and self doubts. If I want Warlord to be my lasting legacy, my crowning achievement, I want Hell Beneath You to be one of the crown jewels of my comic career, even if it doesn't become this big thing or not many people will read it, I want to selfishly put this one out for me, for my family, for those of us that ever held back from doing something but held back because of fear of what others may think, or doubted themselves for one reason or another.

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I have been very vague about the story for this comic, so, let me just give a small plot point as a gift for reading this far if you've gotten here.
The story revolves a family that after a tragedy, moves from their home to a small, sleepy, unassuming town, that is filled with secrets around every corner, and some of those secrets  turn out to be serious. Deadly serious. This is an 8 issue mini series that deals with family, loss, horror, and survival.
The one thing I'm not sure of, if this will be like Project: New Wave, as a strictly for sale comic, or as a webcomic first and then a physical comic. If you're reading this far, maybe you can give me your opinion either in the comment section here or wherever I share this on FaceBook?
In any case, thank you all SO much for reading, catch you all next blog, stay safe!
​-Alvaro

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