Dream Keeper Robin 3

Posted on April 24, 2018January 30, 2020 by luxshine

Since the fight with Erin, the Earth Squire, was interrupted by a Mitakan Agent, Robin, Alex and Erin venture into a different dimension to fight the new enemy. Unfortunately, Robin still has not enough information, and Gavin and Zander are MIA. Still, Robin is not going to let anyone threaten Earth, even if he still can’t get his warmace out of the medallion, or get some answers from the Alnitak’ Squires.

Black and white Comic, 32 pages. English language. Soon for sale on the e-store, but for now you can get it at Conque 2018!

You can also follow it one page a week at:

https://tapas.io/series/DreamKeeperRobin

Memory Lane: R.E.D.

Posted on December 26, 2017January 4, 2018 by luxshine

Back when I was doing fanzines in 1996, I wanted to do EVERYTHING. Like, I couldn’t choose one genre and stick to it. So, when Lyonesse (That it’s in the Old Projects tab if you’re curious) was going to end, I cranked designs for about 5 different stories, draw two pages of it, and put it up to vote among the 300/400 readers that the Anime fanzine I edited with Gabriela Maya had. (Maybe there were more readers, I’ve got to admit that I never knew exactly how many people read us. I just knew they bought the fanzine at comic book stores, and that we had subscribers from all over the country).

R.E.D. -Professional Thieves, Anonymous Society- was not one of the most popular of those ideas, but I had a soft spot for them. I’ve always loved heist stories, so… I just wanted to do one. I just never developed them further after they lost (Out of the five, they were second to last in the voting process, although it was maybe due to the fact that it was the last preview we ran), even if I loved heists, mostly due to the fact that I finally debuted professionally around then and I started doing a lot more shojo stories. (They appeared in a Conque Convention special magazine, kidnapping the organizer, and in another one for the same convention stealing everything from the booths. I wish I still had those pages to show you guys)

(Of course, while the watercolor I did was directly based in their original looks, except for Diamond whom I decided looked a lot better with darker skin, If I do go back to a heist-based idea, it would not be women in brightly colored jumpsuits. THAT particular trend should’ve stayed in the 80’s)

Spooky Empire Experience

Posted on November 14, 2017December 14, 2017 by luxshine

The Cosmic Family 2017 Halloween picture. Grandpa is still confused about all the proceedings.

On October 27 to 29 I had the chance to be with Mandi Gordon (my writer on Writer’s Block and editor for Dragon Run as well as my dear friend) in our very first american convention as sellers, Spooky Empire at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando.

We went as Kaliko Dragon, our joint effort (As hers alone is Dragon Crest, and mine… well, you’re here in Calico Chimera) and had a blast. We had Dream Keeper Robin 1 and 2, Dragon Run and the very first Writer’s Block compilation for sale, as well as a ton of brand new prints (seriously, the only “old” one was the Sugar Skull Horsemen, that is still available in Mexico through my Calico Chimera store and will be available for everywhere else soon at the Kaliko Dragon store)

Isn’t he adorable? His hoard consists of books, movies, and coffee. Lots of coffee.

Now, Spooky Empire is a convention specialized in horror. So I wasn’t quite sure of how things would work and a bit nervous. Still, Mandi didn’t need to pull me out from under the table at any time and I even go to the Celebrity autograph hall on Sunday without being poked too hard by her so that was a win against my usual anxiety. But people did like our stuff, and they were all very nice when talking to us. I saw a Ton of great cosplay, some of which I had never seen before -ok, so there was an overflow of Pennywises. That was to be expected. But they were great Pennywises. Funny thing about the Pennywises… at some point, they started to lose their balloons. So the roof of the Hyatt was filled with floating red balloons. Between that and the Freddy Krueger mannequin that I swore was moving on it’s own as every time I lifted my head was in a different position, the atmosphere was amazing (Later I found out that Mand asked the people with the mannequin to move it, just to freak me a bit. I loved that because it proved that I was right: it WAS moving)

We were joined by the amazing Amelia Poole, Harlequinarts (https://www.facebook.com/harlequinartscosplay ) as our official Janna, Horsewoman of War. And she was perfect! I am almost 90% sure she didn’t kill anyone or started some conflict at the times she didn’t have coffee, but trust me, Mandi and I could have a full spinoff Janna strip with all the hijinks going around. You can check her page for more pictures, but at the end of the post you can see some (she still won’t tell me how she got those red balloons).

I could only see Richard Dreyfuss from afar (he had a TON of people all the time), and didn’t have the chance to see John Cusack, Molly Ringwald or Anthony Michael Hall. Fairuza Balk looks JUST as she did in The Craft, I swear (I also saw her from a distance). On the other hand, Eileen Dietz is a great lady, really funny, and Ken Foree already had me as a fan for life, now even more so. John Kassir was really fun, and, to my eternal glee, Jamison Newlander bought Writer’s Block! That made my day. I also had the chance to say hi to Jaeden Lieberher, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor and Sophia Lillis. All of them were amazingly professional -still staying long past the time they were supposed to sign autographs in order to accommodate everyone-, and really nice.

All in all, I loved the experience and can’t wait to go back to Orlando again. Florida man stories aside, everyone was really nice and welcoming! So if you’re a fan of horror, definitively hit the May edition of Spooky. Can’t promise Kaliko Dragon and Calico Chimera will be there -as we’re totally doing Conque in Mexico- but I can assure you you will have fun.

(BTW, all the pictures taken with an obviously better camera and an obviously better photographer were taken by Mandi Gordon)

The Pennywise Parade…

And now… some fun with Janna

See you at Spooky Empire

Posted on September 19, 2017November 14, 2017 by luxshine

As I write this, I am a little nervous. See, although I have been to a whole lot of conventions in my country, and I love going as an attendee to San Diego Comic-con, I’ve never had a table at an American convention. Well, until now.

I’m very happy to tell you guys that if you happen to be in Florida from October 27 to October 29, please come to Spooky Empire, the greatest Horror-themed convention in the USA.

(no, seriously, they have the BEST guests)

http://www.spookyempire.com/

And once you’re there, please come to visit me at the Kaliko Dragon table in the Artist Alley (I will be doing an announcement about Kaliko Dragon pretty soon too). We (that’s Mandi Gordon and I) will have Writer’s Block merchandize, Dream Keeper Robin #1 and #2, Traveling Seers books 1 and 2, and a lot more! Including a set of 4 absolutely new and never seen horror-themed prints. This is a detail of the first, and I’ll show details of the others in myfacebook page and instagram, but to see the full thing (And buy it if you like it), you’ve got to be at Spooky.

See you there!

Comic-Con International: San Diego

Posted on July 28, 2017August 22, 2017 by luxshine

This is, by far, my favorite convention. Sure, it’s the only one I’ve gone to in the USA and I have never been there as a seller, but there’s some special kind of magic to Line-con (as some people call it… with good reason. This year I witnessed a Line-inception: A line to get into a line to get into a raffle to get a ticket to get into a line… to get into a line) that so far I haven’t seen anywhere else.

Sure, it has it’s bad sides (you can find those complains somewhere else in the net) but for me, the good sides overcome all. Sure, I still have to manage to get to any offsite besides the one that is on front of the Tin-fish (This year it was Midnight Texas, with an amazing haunted house set up that made me want to see the show despite not having been a big fan of True Blood), and the line to the Netflix experience makes sure I will never get that swag (I have a rule: No line longer than 15 minutes will see my feet unless the other end has Muppets), but at the same time people in San Diego are AMAZING (Shout out to the staff at Asti’s and Chocolate, as well as the USA Hostel’s great people both staff and guests) and what I could go to in the con was… well, magical.

Every year since, I think, 2011, I’ve sent a pic to the Souvenir Book. Except for 2013 where my Turtles homage didn’t get in, I’ve always been lucky to be chosen. This year was Batgirl… one day I’ll tell you about the creation of this image:

Last year I was a translator at the Conque: Walls or Bridges conference. That was great as holy shit, we had a surprise appearance by none other than Stan “The man” Lee, but I was still not really part of that panel. I was just there to parrot back words in a language everyone understood. THIS year I was the organizer and part of the conference team in the Small Press beyond the Border panel, together with Fers from Fixia Studio (Soulkeepers), Gina Chacon, Adriana de la Torre and Alejandra Zuñiga (from Studio XIII), and moderated by Martin Arceo (Santos Comics), and it was INCREDIBLE. People were very interested to hear about the challenges and problems to publish comics in Mexico, under the shadow of the huge american industry, as well as the whole way in which our industry has evolved. We started with about half the room full, finished to a full house. I still CAN’T believe it, but can’t wait to organize more round tables like this. Maybe one with an american small press publisher to compare experiences!

(I am also wearing a dress. It’s the first dress I’ve worn in about… 20 years or so)

Cosplay was great too. I love hunting Doctors (I started with Doctor Who, then expanded. If you are wearing a character with a doctorate Cosplay, I want a picture of you!), but this year I also loved getting shots of Moanas, Mauis and Ruffios (I will update the pictures as soon as I get my Ipad to cooperate!)

All in all, I can’t wait to go back… maybe this time as an exhibitor and not just as attendee!

The CONQUE Experience, 2017

Posted on May 11, 2017July 28, 2017 by luxshine

This weekend (May 4 to 7) and coinciding with the start of my site, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Conque in the beautiful city of Queretaro. As I was part of the organizing team (not a huge part, to be honest, mostly some pr with the Cosplay area), I had the chance to arrive with the Mexico City guests from Thursday the 4th to the preview Star Wars night (CONQUE is the first Mexican convention to hold a preview night). We were so tired, however, that to be honest I barely saw anything. And from Friday to Sunday? It was madness. I was sitting at the cosplay area, so I had the chance to interact with them the most. Twin Cosplay ( I didn’t take many pictures with them and I am beating myself over it); Cesar Greenhouse and Hedelex (Mitica Studio); Rosy Duran, who does an INCREDIBLE Granny Webster cosplay (seriously, I was half tempted to offer her Indiana to play Silvester for a few photos) and an even greater Stan Lee; Eva 017 Cosplay who was the queen of all the area; Edom Elohim, with his great crafts; Alex Stark and Lady Synai; Puchys love, who was an amazing sport after a small typo that identified her as “punchis”; Shirahime cosplay and Ryuta; the always wonderful Lizz Sakura and Yagosha Cosplay; Killian and Daireth –who I had not much chance to talk to- and others that right now escape my swiss cheese memory. They all made the weekend amazing. And also, my dearest Roberto Martinez, who completely made my day on Sunday by helping me at the table and with his great Palpatine.

Sales wise I didn’t have as many sales as the people in Artist Alley, but I have to admit that that was mostly on me. I was so entranced by the great cosplayers around me that I kept forgetting to do my sales speech! Even so, I am very grateful to all the people who went looking for me and helped make Dream Keeper Robin’s launch a success! I almost ran out of bookmarks, which is always a good sign! (Seriously, I have 2 Janna’s left. And am considering keeping one :P)

And of course, there was the amazing experience of meeting new people, and reconnecting with old friends. I had the chance to talk to Jorge Gutierrez, writer and director of the Book of Life; to meet Kirk R. Tatcher, creator of Dinosaurs and a big part of my childhood, and to have an amazing dinner sitting next to Agnes Garbowska from MLP and Grumpy Cat’s fame. I heard Stefan Kapicic sing Cielito Lindo, and saw Sergio Aragones again, as well as one of my personal heroes, Arthur Adams. The guys from Touch markers who were so kind and gave me a great gift, as well as promised to check why my local art store keeps not getting the full color list. And of course, all my great friends in Mexican comics such as Gnomo del Bosque, Palmira Campaña, Juanele, the always sexy Quetzal Cardenas and Fers from Soulkeepers, El Hino, Edgar Clement, Oscar Pinto, Leonardo Olea, the always incredible Humberto Ramos, Mauricio Herrera, Aurea Freniere, Ariel Orea, Lobo Cuevas, Luis Fernando –who shared the bus ride to Queretaro with me and Alfonso Norman, Guto, Alejandra Gamez, and Axur Eneas, Augusto Mora, Tania Camacho and Esteban from Jours de Papier, and so many other people that I love and I hate that right now I am forgetting.

Of course, I can’t stop thanking the REAL organizers of the Conque: Luis Gantus, Rene Franco, Hector Hernandez, Melina Gatto, and again, Humberto Ramos, as well as the great staff like Monica Valencia, Daniel Garcia, Rodrigo LeVinson, Maria Fernanda Gantus, and Salvador Canez Garza –as well as the amazing volunteers whose names I didn’t get for my eternal shame. Oh, and to the great staff at the Serafin Boutique Hotel in downtown Queretaro that made me feel as if I was home every night.

So, here are the pictures of all the event. It left me dead tired.

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