Octavio Rodriguez and Jose Cabrera at the 2012 LATINO COMICS EXPO

The LATINO COMICS EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this week on May 5 & 6, 2012. 

Joining us for his first Expo is Octavio Rodriguez. Octavio is a seasoned story artist who has worked over 16 years at some of the finest animation studios including Starz, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Lucasfilm Animation. Currently, he is employed with Pixar Animation and is working on “Monsters University”. Since 2006, he has released 5 self published books including, “Cano Scribbles,” “Cano scribbles 1.5,” “The Adventures of Plat and Dave,” “The Adventures of Plat and Dave 2,”and “Ciudad”.

Returning for his second Expo is Jose Cabrera, creator of Crying Macho Man.  Along with a near decade of cartoons and collections of books, Jose has begun animating his cartoons, delving in voice over work and writing music. which he will debut at the Expo. You can check out Jose's animations at his YouTube page and his gag comics can be found at Crying Macho Man.Com .

Jose will also be one of the Expo artists showing work in the exhibit, LA RAZA COMICA: A CELEBRATION OF THE LATINO AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN THE COMIC ARTS.  The exhibit runs at the Museum from May 5-Sept. 30. Opening Night Reception is on Friday, May 4th from 7pm-9pm.  Jose will be debuting a series of paintings inspired by the LCX poster he created.

If you'd like to purchase a signed & numbered LATINO COMICS EXPO 2012 poster, please click on this link.  

Admission to the LATINO COMICS EXPO is included with your paid admission to the CARTOON ART MUSEUM. 

Anthony Oropeza, Rafael Navarro and Javier Hernandez at the 2012 LATINO COMICS EXPO

The LATINO COMICS EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this week on May 5 & 6, 2012.

Anthony Oropeza is the creator of AmigoMan, a bilingual comic book series published under his STRONG AVENUE STUDIOS brand. In addition to writing the AmigoMan comics, Anthony spends a lot of his time visiting schools and libraries and talking to students about his work, as well as inspiring them to be creative and to pursue their educations. 

  

Rafael Navarro, the Xeric-Award winning cartoonist behind SONAMBULO, is another returning creator. 

In addition to chronicling the adventures of the former masked luchador turned private detective, Rafael is a storyboard artist in the animation industry. He won  a Daytime Emmy for his work on an episode of TUTENSTEIN, and has worked on THE BATMAN, MUCHA LUCHA, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN and many others. Among his many comic credits are stories for GUMBY'S GANG Starring POKEY and BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE.

Javier Hernandez is a cartoonist/publisher, creator of EL MUERTO, THE COMA and WEAPON TEX-MEX among other titles. EL MUERTO was turned into an award winning independent film, for which Javier served as Associate Producer. He is currently working on a series of Poster Comics, which are single page comics, posted online and then produced as 11" x 17" full color prints. Along with Ricardo Padilla, Javier co-founded the Latino Comics Expo, which was launched last year at the Cartoon Art Museum.

For a larger, readable version of THE WAKE Poster Comic, click here.

Admission to the LATINO COMICS EXPO is included with your paid admission to the CARTOON ART MUSEUM. On exhibit at the Museum from May 4-Sept. 30 is LA RAZA COSMICA: A CELEBRATION OF THE LATINO AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN THE COMIC ARTS.  Opening Night Reception is on Friday, May 4th from 7pm-9pm. 
 

Gabrielle Gamboa, John Jota Leaños, Mario T. Lanao & Cristian Garcia at the 2012 LATINO COMICS EXPO

The LATINO COMICS EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this May 5 & 6, 2012.

Attending her first LATINO COMICS EXPO as an exhibitor is Bay Area artist/instructor
Gabrielle Gamboa. She started making comics in the early 1990's as a member of the Berkeley-based Puppy Toss collective, and her work has appeared in anthologies such as On Our Butts, and Scheherazade, as well as in publications such as Bust Magazine, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She is currently serializing a comic book adaptation of Nathanael West's 1933 novel Miss Lonelyhearts, which was recently reviewed on Frank Santoro's NEW TALENT SHOWCASE 5 on The Comics Journal website.

Another creator making his first appearance to the Expo is John Jota Leaños, an animator & media artist focusing on critical convergences of history, memory & decolonization. Leaños’ animation, installation and performance fuse traditional art practices and aesthetics with new technologies and contemporary interpretations. He is an Assistant Professor of Social Documentation at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the Department of Film and Digital Media. Leaños is a Creative Capital Foundation Grantee who has received the 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts, the United States Artist Fellowship (2011), San Francisco Art Commission Individual Artist Grant (2011) and the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture Artist Award (2009). His animations have screened internationally at festivals and museums including the Sundance (2010, 2006), Cannes (2007), Tehran International Animation Festival, Iran (2009), Morelia International Film Festival, México (2008), WILDsound Film Festival, Toronto (2008) and the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2010)  

 Click here to watch John's LOS ABC's animated film.

 
Following up on their appearance at last year's inaugural Expo, we are once again joined by writer Mario T. Lanao & artist Cristian Garcia of RELUCTANT ZERO. The long-time friends became a creative team when Mario wanted to create a comic book based on an idea he had and asked Cristian to collaborate with him. In their own words: 

It hasn't been easy to get this project off the ground, nor to keep it going, between work, school, and the pressures of everyday life, some days were more productive than others. But in the end everything came together, the first convention we ever showed at was WonderCon, and we were also able to be a part of the first ever Latino Comics Expo that year. We also exhibited our comic at the Alternative Press Expo that year as well.  Recently, we've started focusing on producing a weekly web-comic on our blog to keep interest in our team high when we are between comic releases.

Admission to the LATINO COMICS EXPO is included with your paid admission to the CARTOON ART MUSEUM. On exhibit at the Museum from May 4-Sept. 30 is LA RAZA COSMICA: A CELEBRATION OF THE LATINO AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN THE COMIC ARTS.  Opening Night Reception is on Friday, May 4th from 7pm-9pm. 

Liz Mayorga, Rodolfo Mendoza & Michael Aushenker at the 2012 LATINO COMICS EXPO

The LATINO COMICS EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this May 5 & 6, 2012.

Liz Mayorga, a cartoonist and zine publisher, will be attending her first LATINO COMICS EXPO. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She has been influenced by Mexican Cinema and Rock music. She majored in English at Berkeley and wrote a thesis on Jaime Hernandez's "Love and Rockets". But her education was incomplete until she discovered her love for zines. Liz is now a member of the SF Zine Fest community. She writes and illustrates, and is currently a student in the MFA Writing Program at CCA.  Her latest project is a zine about tattoos.  

Rodolfo Mendoza is also a first time attendee at the Latino Comics Expo this year. Here are his comments about his new books:

 My family and I are striving to one day have El Caballero Aguila (the Warrior Eagle) and El Supremo Consejo de Justicia (The Supreme Council of Justice)  be considered one of the best comic strips primarily in the Latino community. The focus of these characters is on children and youth so that they can identify with an image which makes them proud of their Mexican or Hispanic roots.  At the same time, it's a message for the community at large so that they can have a clearer understanding of who we really are and stop viewing us as weak and small people since, after all, we, too, can save the world! 

Our dream is that El Caballero Aguila would be converted into a hero, into an icon, that travels throughout childhood with elements from our own rich culture,  beautiful traditions and customs...always motivating our youth to cultivate values and characteristics such as friendship, justice, loyalty, love and fidelity and to adopt them as their own principles. It is our most fervent desire to see our children play the part of a Caballero Aguila or a Caballero Jaguar just like they would play Batman or Superman.  
We are ready to begin; we have worked hard to create a vast array of characters and a story that has a beginning and, I think, no end. For my family and for me, it is an honor and very important for us to participate in the LATINO COMICS EXPO, as it marks the beginning of our comic book journey.

Returning to the LCX is Michael Aushenker, a Pacific Palisades, CA-based writer and cartoonist.
    

 The upcoming tradepaperback collection of the EL GATO CRIME MANGLER series.

His comic books include Chipmunks & Squirrels, Silly Goose, Floop! Featuring Harry Lummel, and the El Gato, Crime Mangler series. He has also contributed comic strips to Duplex Planet (Fantagraphics) and Heavy Metal magazine, and he has written comic book scripts for Liberty Comics (Heroic Publishing) and The Simpsons (Bongo).
    

Aushenker had the good fortune of having legendary late Gumby creator Art Clokey write the foreword for his comic book Those Unstoppable Rogues. By coincidence, years later, he was hired to write Gumby’s Gang Starring Pokey (Gumby Comics), illustrated by fellow LCE cartoonist Rafael Navarro (released in 2010). He is a regular contributor to the annual Ghoula Comix anthology, and also a longtime member of the Cartoon Art Professional Society (CAPS).

Promo video of Latino Comics Expo

Watch the video here.

Video created by Isaias D. Rodriguez, a video producer, multimedia artist, and entrepreneur. Visit his art site here.

Daniel Parada and Isis Rodriguez at the 2012 LATINO COMICS EXPO

Joining us as first-time exhibitors at the Latino Comics Expo are Daniel Parada and Isis Rodriguez. The EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this May 5 & 6, 2012. 

Debuting at the Expo will be the comic book “Niñají”, created by Isis and Alfi Lopez.  Isis Rodríguez, the illustrator of “Niñají” is an award-winning cartoon artist from San Francisco California who has exhibited her art work nationally and internationally.  In 2003, she won the Individual Arts Commission Grant of San Francisco to produce her animation short, “The ReAwakening”.  In 2006, she was awarded “The Media Arts Awards” in San Jose California for best animation in which her work has been described as "the Latin Walt Disney".  Currently, she lives in San Miguel de Allende Guanajuato Mexico, where she is collaborating with Mexican writer Alfi López on the “Niñají” comic book,  a book that rescues Indigenous values. 

Alfi López, the writer, is a native of Guanajuato Mexico who comes from a family of historians and poets. He studied the culinary arts at  “Il Instituto Lorenzo de Medici” in Florence Italy and worked at some of Europe's most famous restaurants, from "Agua al Due"   and "Cafe Pacifico" where Prince Willem Alexander of Holland used to eat. Currently he lives in San Miguel de Allende Guanajuato, working as a chef consultant while "cooking up" stories for “Niñají” comic book. Visit "Niñají" on Facebook.

Daniel brings to the Expo his debut comic book, "Zotz: Serpent and Shield".  He shares with us the following:

I began drawing at the age of 3 and continued my visual arts studies at San Francisco's School of the Arts. At age 18, I moved to New York to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts. After two years I dropped out and returned to San Francisco, where I began researching Mesoamerican cultures and compiling the conceptual drawings for my first self-published comic - Zotz: Serpent and Shield. 

If I could describe my comic in a few words, it is an adventure/fantasy epic, set in an alternate history version of 16th century Mesoamerica. Issue #1 introduces readers to Pakal and Kaan (their names mean Serpent and Shield in various Mayan languages), two twelve year-old twins, whose idyllic village lives are torn asunder by war.  Issue #2 (which I am currently working on), immediately picks up where Issue #1 left off, and sees the boys mature in a time of war.

Visit Daniel's website to see more of his comic. 

Grasiela Rodriguez and Jaime Crespo at the 2012 Latino Comics Expo

The LATINO COMICS EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this May 5 & 6, 2012. Among our returning creators from last year's Expo will be Jaime Crespo and Grasiela Rodriguez.

Grasiela Rodriguez is a graphic artist, illustrator, writer, fine artist, and independent animator based out of the Los Angeles/Inland Empire area, and is the founder of Not Your Friend Comic Books, creating comic book art about people and places in Pomona, CA. Her characters emanate innocence with a hint of hard earned wisdom. Drawing from life experiences, people and their romantic feelings are a central theme throughout her work. This year she brings her new graphic novel project to Latino Comics Expo, "SPADRA:  Ghostly Appropriations Of A Town That Time

Forgot".  

Her paintings/illustrations are currently represented by EVE Gallery in Pomona, CA. Her self publishing company, fine art, events, commissions, blogs, and all other multimedia can be seen and acquired at her website www.projectunit83.com, where she can be contacted directly. 

Also joining us again this year is Bay Area cartoonist, Jaime Crespo: 

 

Born about a zillion years ago in the region of the world now referred to as California, Jaime Crespo has been writing, drawing, and publishing comics for over thirty years. Okay, he’s been drawing and writing them for a heck of a lot longer than that and he has also had a number of publishers, editors, and the like but never really enjoyed answering to “the man.”

 

So, in the punk rock DIY spirit, Mr. Crespo continues to appear in loads of self-published comic books as well as others anthologies, weekly newspapers, magazines, art magazines, art shows (group and solo) and a whole slew of stuff you’ve probably never heard of and he continues to do so to this very moment, unabated in spite of his age, ailing health, and tenuous grasp on reality.

 

Crystal Gonzalez and Adriana Garcia Cabrera at the 2012 LCX

The LATINO COMICS EXPO returns to the world-famous CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco this May 5 & 6, 2012. Among the attending creators will be Crystal Gonzalez and Adriana Garcia Cabrera.


An exhibitor at last year's inaugural  Expo, Crystal Gonzalez  has been painting and drawing professionally for more than 10yrs and recently self-published the first issue to her graphic novel entitled “In The Dark”, which is a humorous and satirical story that looks at religions and customs through the eyes of the demons in Hell. Her projects in production include completing issue two of her graphic novel, gallery paintings that explore and comment on modern society and its cultural mores, and animation-based installations including a series of animated shorts based on "In The Dark". 

 

You can see more of her comic book, "IN THE DARK",  here, and visit her online artist gallery here.

Attending her first LCX is Adriana Garcia Cabrera, who will be representing DELILIA IMAGES, publishers of AZTEC OF THE CITY. Originally created by Fernando Rodriquez in 1993, under the self-published imprint, EL SALTO COMICS, AZTEC OF THE CITY makes it's return in an all-new series.      

              

Of the new direction, writer and creator Fernando Rodriguez says of his artistic collaborator, Ernie Polo of Mountain View, CA, "Ernie has done a tremendous job on both the new cover and story,'' says Fernando. "Aztec of the City is now a college level reading story whose focus is to share with everyone the culture and histories of the Mexican-American heroes they depict. We also introduce in this new comic book, the story of the Super Chicano. A struggling out of work Latino who dons the Mexican flag as a cape in his crime-fighting adventures.''

For FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, which falls on May 5, DELILIA IMAGES will also be making available a limited number of free copies of Rodriguez's special edition ADELITA, the story of the Mexican Revolutionary female hero of 1920. The book also features TALES OF AZTLAN, featuring THE LEGEND OF LA LLORONA. Visit AZTEC OF THE CITY on Facebook.