Meet the crew...

Well the blog is starting to generate more traffic and on the recommendation of my main man Charlito (host of the wonderful Indy Spinner Rack) I have decided to introduce the team behind Heroes Rebored.

Born in the mystical land of Bronx, New York City. David was rocketed at a young age to the enchanted island of Puerto Rico.


Growing up David discovered his mutant power of being a American Comic Geek. Always dreaming of using his powers for good. David eventually met Charlie Mangual who introduced him to the world of indy comic books. For 5 years now David Arroyo has been a mainstay in the local Puertorican comic comunity. Self Publishing his mini comics like “Reality on the Rocks” and...er, other works. His latest is the much anticipated “Heroes Rebored” a superhero comedy for the everyman.


Recently an intrepid photographer managed to snag a picture of this reclusive beast as he saw the latest comics at his local comic shop. Unfortunately the photographer was never seen again after he mistakenly grabbed the last issue of Optic Nerve. Carlos “Charlie” Mangual was born in the wilderness of Tampa Florida but was mystically transported to the enchanted island of Puerto Rico by the accidental opening of the forbidden text of the Darkhold. Where he was raised on a consistent diet of pop rocks and peanut butter (don’t ask). Self Educated, Charlie has become a legend in the past 10 years of the local Puertorican comic’s community. The first Puertorican to self publish a mini comic that was a romantic comedy. Recently Charlie has relocated the wilderness known as Tampa Florida where he meditates and practices on his art, increasing his power day by day until one day he takes over the world! Bwahahahaha!

Evolution of the characters....

For Heroes Rebored I really wanted to design the characters before I even approached a artist for illustration. I had some problems in the past with a previous artist who wasn’t happy with me being vague...to be honest I was lazy. This time around I made sure I provided as many details as possible. Sometimes I went overboard in my script.



For example this is the illustration I did for Dynamic Dan. The one that looks like a 7 year old's drawing is mine. The other was drawn by Michelle Segui a very dear friend of mine.




This is what Charlie came back with, He will be wearing pants! I think he took the wrestling look a little too far but I still like the look, especially the colors. We had danced around the issue of colors, I had mentioned purple but Charlie added the gloves.



For the Imagineer, since I wanted to be creative but it just wasn't working. I even asked Michelle to help me out. The only concrete idea I had was that the colors were going to be blue and silver.





But then I remembered that Tom (who the character is based on) has already drawn himself as a superhero for a dream sequence. So I took the design and ran with it.



This was the final result, I told Charlie to ad a the cape in the future because I want to have that iconic look. But Charlie added the gold to the costume which really went well with it. Tom liked the result but he said he looks more like Peter North.

For Johnny Rocket I kept having this picture a specific helmet in my mind, but I couldnt quite get it across. Thankfully Michelle helped me out. But I was very specific with the belt, I really wanted that corny looking timer dial that you see on the old ovens.




Charlie really improved the chest symbol, it looks so 1950's. He also made the rocket pack more compact.














For Scorp it was a blatant rip off of the creature from the black lagoon. I added the Bermuda shorts since Scorp is based on a friend who always wears these corny shirts.
Of course he has to have a trident, come on it's a must!





This is the image that I sent Charlie in order to get my point across, I think its from the guy who drew Danger Girl. Not quite sure...

















The final result was pretty neat, we will have to loose the gloves though. Charlie and I thought it would be something new, but it just didn't work. I guess it will be just flippers.




With Rubberbando, I really just wanted the annoying kid character. He is based on Tom's nephew who is probably the biggest Beland fan of all time, for Halloween he stapled photocopies of his work to and old t-shirt, and he said that he was the comic. Yeah I cant even come close to calling myself a fan after that...




See I know its very to close to what I drew but, Charlie really outdid himself with this one. I love the face, especially the hair. He just made him look like an annoying kid. Perfect!







And here are the bad guys! Gladiator was pretty bland. Mostly it was just armor, I mean he’s a gladiator. I didn’t want to do anything different, I wanted to keep him a classic, i miss those old Marvel villains that really looked like their name! I mean Frog Man looks like a frog, and The Human Fly looks like a fucking fly! Its not like now a days where its all abstract or they look nothing like their alias.

For Glue Gun Harry I wanted him to be the most pathetic looking villain of all time. I dont think hes won the prize (Mysterio still holds the tittle) but I think he might at least be rookie of the year.



Charlie really wanted the Gladiator to look like a reject from the Rob Liefeld days of Image. He really has a boner for ripping on Liefeld, since for a number of years in Puerto Rico you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a Liefeld fan (this was in the 90's). And any self respecting artist will rag on Liefeld. But Gladiator represents the corny Image comics bad guys with a Marvel twist.


Charlie and I were goofing around for the look of Glue Gun Harry, I was still pretty ticked off at George Lucas for wasting my time and money with the Star Wars prequels so he wound up as Harry. This was my form of revenge.






I liked the chest symbol Charlie came up with, it looks like a stain but it really is his chest symbol...

Well these are the characters that appear in the first issue. As you can see some of the final designs were the same as the beginning and some went a completely different way.

First look at Heroes Rebored....

Charlie just sent me the rough pencils for the first issue of Heroes Rebored. He has really come a long way. He still needs to ad some backgrounds, and there are some minor details that he will be altering. But im pretty happy with the result, now if only he could produce these pages on a shedule, so far he says it will be done by March.

Equipment...

Okay I downloaded Audacity, the guys at the CBGS said it was the best for rookies, although i am considering just saying screwing it and picking up, Garage Band since my hero Lene Taylor uses it.

I also picked up a headset which records pretty well. Comp USA didnt have much in variety when it came to microphones, still i am content with it and the splitter that will allow me to use more microphones.

For phone interviews, i downloaded skype but i think that might have been a mistake, I forgot that Charlie doesnt have an internet connection at home and aparently you can only connect with other skype users, i honestly thought that you would be able to talk to anyone on any phone. If anyone can suggest a replacement i would be very gratefull.

To record the calls i downloaded total recorder. Apparently it will record any sound in my computer, when i get set up i will have more info on that.

Seems like everyone is into MAC's am I the only person who still uses a PC? Maybe i should save up and jump on the MAC waggon.

Welcome!

This is my new blog, my old one is over at livejournal. Im hopping to use this as the future website for my podcast once i get up and running.