DORIS DANGER!

 

Colored by Ricky Sprague!

Chpt 32 CHPT. 33 Chpt. 34

Parachute Sequence ($7 Patrons)
THE ALPS
FELK 
LUKE LUGGASH 

With reverence and admiration for, and in loving parody of, the Atlas GIANT MONSTER comics of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Larry Lieber, whose comics you should buy!

 

Colored by Ricky Sprague!

Chpt. 32 CHPT. 33 Chpt. 34

THE ALPS
FELK 
LUKE LUGGASH 

With reverence and admiration for, and in loving parody of, the Atlas GIANT MONSTER comics of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Larry Lieber, whose comics you should buy!

Colored by Ricky Sprague!


Chpt. 32 CHPT. 33 Chpt. 34

DORIS DANGER 
FBI “G” DIVISION 
MR. PETERS  
M.L.A.  
MULL (FBI):  
TABLOIA’S OFFICES 

With reverence and admiration for, and in loving parody of, the Atlas GIANT MONSTER comics of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Larry Lieber, whose comics you should buy!

Colored by Ricky Sprague!

Chpt. 32 CHPT. 33 Chpt. 34

DORIS DANGER 
FBI “G” DIVISION 
MR. PETERS  
M.L.A.  
MULL (FBI):  
RECOGNIZING DISGUISES
TABLOIA’S OFFICES 

With reverence and admiration for, and in loving parody of, the Atlas GIANT MONSTER comics of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Larry Lieber, whose comics you should buy!

Jaime’s Twitter
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My best friend, Jaime Hernandez, makes honest,  tender, emotionally real comics with clean page layouts! He co-created Love and Rockets with his brothers – a series that defined indie comics in the ’80’s, and which you should definitely pick up at your local comics shop !

This great pin-up was published in “Tabloia #574” , “Doris Danger Seeks… Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp” , and “Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures” !

Chpt. 7   CHPT. 8  Chpt. 9
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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)

 

My best friend, Mario Hernandez, makes whacky, amusing comics!  He co-created Love and Rockets with his brothers – a series that defined indie comics in the ’80’s, and which you should definitely pick up at your local comics shop !

This great pin-up was published in “Tabloia #574” , “Doris Danger Seeks… Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp” , and “Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures” !

Chpt. 7   CHPT. 8 Chpt. 9
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My best friend, Jaime Hernandez

[NOTE: PART TWO of THREE! Part One here: Doris Danger (vol. 1, Chpt. 6), page 057 GILBERT HERNANDEZ – Commentary]

* * *

ABOVE: With my best friends, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, at San Diego Comic-Con 2008.

For this San Diego Comic-Con 2003, I continued showing my work to my favorite artists, but I stopped worrying so much about advice, and began asking if they would do a pin-up for my comics.  I had my first three Dick Ayers-inked Doris Danger pages complete to shop around.

All three Hernandez Brothers were sitting together at the Fantagraphics table. They each said, individually, they would be interested in doing a pin-up. All of them had their emails posted in their Love and Rockets books, and said to contact them that way.

I sent emails to all of them at once, and I believe Mario was quickest to get back to me. He was really friendly and fun with his correspondence, and excited to do the project from the start. It took him a few months to do the piece for me, and he even apologized for taking so long, although it was really a very reasonable time he managed to get it out. I wasn’t in a hurry, because I was planning to have it in the third issue, and I hadn’t even gotten the first issue into stores yet, and I knew I would be putting the books out quarterly.

Gilbert was much quieter with his emails, and basically just named a price, and then I didn’t hear from him for a while. In my typical paranoid fashion, I began to think that the reason I didn’t hear from him is that I accidentally mistyped his name in my email. And I really did spell his name wrong. It read “Giblert.” Then one day, a plain white envelope with my own address listed as the return address came in the mail. I opened it, and there was a Xerox copy of Klogg: The Thing from the Sink, the pin-up he had done for me. He said if I liked it, send him a check to his address, and he would send me the original. So I basically never corresponded with him. I just told him I wanted the piece, and then he did the piece, and then he sent me the piece.

ABOVE: At my Tabloia booth, at San Diego Comic-Con 2008, with my best friend, Jaime Hernandez.

So at this stage I had two out of three Hernandez monster pin-ups, and Jaime had yet to write me back. So I emailed Gilbert and Mario, and asked them to be sure and tell Jaime what a nice guy I was. Mario warned me that Jaime doesn’t even return his (Mario’s) emails — his own brother. He’s just reclusive, and hard to get in touch with. And still no word from Jaime.

Read PART THREE here: Doris Danger (vol. 1, Chpt. 6), page 059 MARIO HERNANDEZ – Commentary

My best friend, GILBERT HERNANDEZ

“GIANT MONSTERS HAVE BEEN IN MY GIANT IMAGINATION ALL MY GIANT LIFE. I WISH I COULD HAVE MORE OF THEM IN MY PRESENT GIANT LIFE, AND THIS IS THE PLACE TO FILL THAT GIANT NEED!” – GILBERT HERNANDEZ

(Gilbert sent me his quote of endorsement in all caps)

[NOTE: PART ONE of THREE! As you’ll see if you click through the following pages, I chose to publish these beautiful pieces by the Hernandez Brothers in THIS order – Gilbert, Jaime, Mario.  But I received them in THIS order: Mario, Gilbert, Jaime.  Rather than try to make narrative sense of these two disparate orders with these commentary pages, I will share the story in the chronological order it happened, with part one here on “Gilbert’s” page, even though all three artists may be discussed, or alternatively, the artist whose pin-up I am “commentating” on may not be mentioned.]

(Photo: With my best friends, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, San Diego Comic-Con 2006.)

Below are a couple notes from my diaries, edited for clarity and transitions, covering San Diego Comic-Con 2002, and my first meeting of the Hernandez Brothers.

San Diego Comic-Con 2002

I wasn’t interested in doing portfolio reviews again this year. I decided, I’m going to get advice from artists. From people who draw for a living. And then I won’t have to wait in line for over an hour (which is what I was doing in portfolio reviews the years before). I can just walk up to the artists and show them my stuff. And I’ll be able to take their advice more seriously, because they don’t have any motive to do anything except just tell me what they think.

I wasn’t looking for work. I was just looking to meet some people whose art I admired, and get their takes on my artwork. Because if I like their art, they should have the best advice for what to do with my own work to make it good. And in addition, then I could meet and spend some time with all these artists I admired!

Even so, I still got different advice from everybody. And for a while I would just try and sort out what advice was helpful to me, and then try and make my art better.

* * *

All three Hernandez brothers were in artists alley, sitting together. The first day, Gilbert wasn’t there, and I had really enjoyed his “Grip” for Vertigo. Jaime was friendly, but quiet and didn’t really have any advice to offer about my work. Mario seemed friendlier and more outgoing.

Next day, I found Gilbert, but Mario and Jaime weren’t there. Gilbert looked at my stuff and recommended I put more space around the voice bubbles. He said things are too cramped otherwise, and it’s amazing how much less professional bubbles look when they’re cramped. To show me an example, he pointed out some of his “Grip” pages, and realized they looked pretty cramped, and didn’t think they were a good example.

* * *

(ABOVE: My sleeping son and I, with our best friends, Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez, at San Diego Comic-Con 2007.)

Please read the next installment of this progression from meeting and getting to know the Hernandez Brothers to getting pin-ups from them, on page 058 JAIME HERNANDEZ – Commentary

 

Gilbert’s Facebook
Twitter
blog

My best friend, Gilbert Hernandez, makes intelligent, fun, powerful, bizarre comics! He co-created Love and Rockets with his brothers – a series that defined indie comics in the ’80’s, and which you should definitely pick up at your local comics shop !

This great pin-up was published in “Tabloia #574” , “Doris Danger Seeks… Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp” , and “Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures” !

Chpt. 7   CHPT. 8  Chpt. 9
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