A Journey through Art and Making Comics.
Ralph Contreras is a comic book nerd who enjoys creating art. Ralph’s artist blog, RSC Arts is where he shares his creative process, insights, inspirations, and comics
A few days ago my girlfriend was cleaning one of my old portfolio cases. I told her she could use it for a collections class she is taking this semester. As she was taking out my old work that was still in the portfolio case she noticed there were some ads I created for my old comic book shop “Modern Age Comics”. I had created them a few years back and I had totally forgotten that they were in there. They were actually pretty good and I’m kinda proud of them. So I’ve decided to post them in this blog as a walk down memory lane and to showcase some of my old comic shop work.
This black and white flyer is actually the very first flyer I created for my store. I created it in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The images are halftone dots. I have always been very fond of using halftone dots. I remember making hundreds of xerox copies of this flyer and plastering them all over town and the university which was across the street from the shop. I had a lot of fun with this flyer. I remember choosing the image of Catwoman for this flyer because she had a great pose and I choose Goku from Dragon Ball Z because he was in a very dynamic shot.
This second flyer is actually the back of a magazine named the “Green Frog”. This is from the very first issue of this NMSU student-created magazine. I was approached by the magazine’s editor-in-chief who was also the marketing director. I wanted to make this ad a little more youthful and found a great image of Marvel Girl and Spider-Man in more updated costumes. This was a full-color ad and I used a red header that complemented the red in Spider-Man’s costume. I liked the targeting image I choose with the anime character too. This was a fun ad to create.
Here’s a quick sketch I did a few days ago of one of my characters, the Grimm Creeper. He’s an assassin/hunter who primarily works for Nemcromn the main villain in a comic story I’m working on. He has hyper-quick reflexes, agility is a master of stealth, and several fighting techniques.
Me with Carlos Parra Writer/Director of Dark New World
Dark New World Zombie Movie Premiere
“Bio-terrorists unleash a devastating plague across America and the chemicals from the bomb kill millions. Days after the attacks, the recently dead begin to rise and devour human flesh. Sam and Kat seek refuge outside of the city in an abandoned house with eight others. Rations are running low and people are dying. Sam and Kat are in over their heads. Do they fight to survive out in the world against zombies or stay and fight the monsters within?”
Carlos Parra
This last weekend I took a trip down to my hometown of Las Cruces, New Mexico to watch the premiere of my friend Carlos Parra’s zombie film Dark New World which he wrote and directed. It was filmed in 16 days with a budget of $3,000 dollars. Watching the movie though, you wouldn’t know that it was done for so little. The quality of the acting and the storytelling was top-notch.
Although the premiere was actually at Allen Theaters on Friday the 13th (which by the way had 2 sold-out screenings) I went to the premiere on Saturday, March 14th at the Fountain Theater (which also had a sold-out screening). I chose to go to the screening at the Fountain Theater because there was a Q & A with Carlos and several actors from the movie.
It’s Zombie Time
I really enjoyed this movie. I’ve been a fan of zombie movies for over 20 years now. I still remember the first one I watched as a kid “Return of the Living Dead”, and of course I’m a fan of all of George A. Romero’s films. Like all good zombie films, this film doesn’t focus on the zombies but on the survivors of this Dark New World.
We see how people cope with the horrors of these monsters, but more importantly, we see how people’s true nature starts to surface. Who leads, who follows, who takes advantage of others, and who protects the weak? Carlos brings great camera shots and amazing character development though out the film. I thought some camera shots would look great in a graphic novel.
Dark New World DVD cover
What’s really cool for me is the part about how I helped contribute to it. Although I wasn’t involved in the writing or the filming of this awesome movie, I did kinda help with the idea. A few years back I use to own and run a comic book store called Modern Age Comics. I remember and a few of my customers talking about zombie movies and how we should make one. Carlos was the perfect candidate for filmmaking, he had previously filmed a short for the Governor’s Cup film competition called “Why Can’t it be Tuesday” the day in the life of a graphic designer. Some of which were actually filmed in the comic shop.
Carlos took the zombie project by the horns and wrote a great script. Unfortunately, I was in no financial means to go any further with the project. I was in the process of closing my store down. But Carlos was energized by the zombie film and took it upon himself to see it through. I’m proud to say that I was able to assist with his casting call for the film. Carlos held the initial casting call at my store location the last weekend I still held the lease. The turnout was great with about 150 people showing up for the audition that day.
It was fun to watch people I actually knew personally on the big screen. The character of Frost was played by one of my old customers Tony Baker and the role of Jinx was played by Johnny Tabor who I worked with at the Las Cruces Sun News. Both these guys are great actors and brought the level of the movie to greater heights. I still remember playings Heroclixs with Tony in the comic shop. He’s now living in California doing stand up comedy and has been in a few movies. Right on dude! The funnest part in the movie was when Carlos himself made a cameo as “George”, a zombie movie buff quoting “Night of the Living Dead“. Like writer/director M. Night Shyamalan and Quentin Tarantino, Carlos casts himself as an unforgettable extra in his own film.
There was a lot of buzz for this movie too. Carlos did a great job marketing his film with a website, a myspace profile, and flyers. He received a good amount of press too. With articles written about the movie and it’s premiere in Yahoo movies, the Las Cruces Sun News, and an online interview he gave with KRWG public radio. It’s also very cool that the film is listed in IMDb (The internet movie database).
Here is a digitally inked Pinup of an awesome penciled piece of the Fantastic Four by artist Ariel Padilla. I found the pencils on his DeviantArtpage and I knew I had to ink it. I used Adobe Illustrator so I could create a vector image. This way it can be reduced or enlarged with no pixelation of the image. This is actually my second piece digitally inked but the first I’ve done in Illustrator. My Batman 2.0 character redesign was my first digitally inked piece but for that I used Photoshop. I have used Illustrator in the past to create illustrations, logos, advertisements, and marketing but this was the first time I incorporated my graphic design skills into inking.
I have a Wacom tablet but for this digital inking, I used only my mouse and the pen tool. So basically the piece is all straight vector anchor points. This illustration took about 5 hours, which is longer than I thought it would, but it was fun and a nice practice piece. On my next Illustrator ink, I plan on using the Wacom tablet and the brush tool. Right now it is all about having fun and learning to use the tools I use in my graphic design work in my comic book artwork. My next step will be to create flats for these inks and maybe color them too.
Original Pencils of Fantastic Four by Ariel Padilla
Here is an example of some of my Sequential Thumbnails
Some Sequential Thumbnails
After drawing 24 pages of Sequential Art at last week’s 24-Hour comic, I’ve decided to post some comic page sequential thumbnails I’ve been working on. I’m planning on finishing these by next week so I can get them in 7000 BC’s String comic. It’s a zine-type comic book that has pages from local comic artists here in Santa Fe. They’re a really cool group. When I get my pages from the 24-hour comic back I’ll be posting them up here too.
This years 24 hour comic was great! I was able to create a 24-page comic in 23 hours. With the help of my wonderful girlfriend Consuelo. The best inker around! It was organized by 7000 BC and True Believers the local comic shop here in Santa Fe, NM. After 23 hours we created a fully inked comic book titled “Aliens and Heroes”. This was truly a great test of creativity. There was a great turnout here in Santa Fe. Over 25 fellow comic artists. I met a lot of cool people. After producing 24 pages in as many hours I feel a higher sense of confidence in my comic-creating ability.
