My best friend, Mario Hernandez
“Chris is keeping a cool genre that is close to my heart, alive. His stuff oozes with funky humor and his own respectful homage of monsters with square toes. Brilliant!” – “BIG” MARIO HERNANDEZ
[NOTE: PART THREE of THREE! Read PART TWO on Doris Danger (vol. 1, Chpt. 6), page 058 JAIME HERNANDEZ – Commentary]
Above: My wife and one-year-old son at my Tabloia Table, at San Diego Comic-Con 2007, with our best friend, Mario Hernandez.
Ape-Con (2004) came around again — so this is six months or whatever later, and Mario and Jaime were sitting together. Jaime had a line, so I re-introduced myself to Mario, and Mario was real friendly and cool. He seemed genuinely excited to visit with me, after doing the pin-up for me. He told me I paid him better than Fantagraphics, and definitely seemed appreciative. I told him that I feel the artists who’ve given me such pleasure over the years deserve that much, at least. While I was talking to Mario, Jaime glanced over and realized who I was. I introduced myself, and he acknowledged that he hadn’t written me back yet. He said that he’s always busy, and he’d be keeping an eye on my emails in his inbox, but they would just work their way down the stack of them before he had a chance to get back to me. He said he would definitely get in touch with me if I wrote him again.
I went home from the con and wrote him again, telling him to let me know how much he’d like as payment, and when he thinks he could have a piece done.
Finally he wrote a short, concise letter saying how much he’d like, and that if I wanted to keep the piece he wanted more. But he didn’t say how much more he’d like. The amount was quite a bit, though. He ended the note with, Bet you wish now you hadn’t heard from me.
So I wrote back to find out how much extra he would want if he let me keep the piece. He had already asked for the high side of what I had paid for other artists up to that point — and he hadn’t added in his “keep the piece” fee. He didn’t write me back again, and I got more nervous the longer I waited. So I finally wrote yet again, and then again. Finally I wrote, “I am in agony. I AM IN AGONY! Write me back and tell me how much you want, and I will send you a check.”
And he finally got back to me, and I sent him a payment, and he sent me this beautiful piece. And it arrived C.O.D.!
(Photo: With my best friends, Mario and Jaime Hernandez, San Diego Comic-Con 2009)
