Rest Well, Tom Moore

News outlets report that Tom Moore, an influential comics artist known for his work in Archie, has passed in El Paso, Texas. 

Mr. Moore, who worked on Archie comics for three decades, was among the guests an "El Paso in the Comics" event I organized while I worked at UTEP. I learned about his presence in the area through an anonymous tip.

I remember him as collegial, humble, and eager to speak to any of the other comics creators and event attendees. 

While my time with him was brief, he left an impression, and I join his family and the comics community in mourning his loss. Mr. Moore was 86.

Blue Beetle & DC's New 52: Out of El Chuco and Into the World

It has been several months since DC relaunched its universe with 52 new comics titles. As we speak, several books have been cancelled and several others, less than 6 issues old, are undergoing creative changes. I've only been reading two of the new books, Swamp Thing and Blue Beetle, though I hear great things about Animal Man.

My interest in Blue Beetle stems from my fascination with Watchmen (Night Owl is the analogue for Charlton Comics' Steve Ditko-era Blue Beetle) but intensified when I came to UTEP at right around the same time as the most-recent Blue Beetle, featuring 16 year old Hispanic El Pasoan Jaime Reyes as the eponymous hero, was coming into his own. Alas, Jaime's first series was cancelled after less than 50 issues, but the character was revisited in 2011 in a new Blue Beetle series that is ongoing and not bad.

One of the things that made Jaime's first series so interesting -- and which made it a liability to DC, most likely -- was that it dealt with issues of the Borderland, immigration, and Mexican American life in the American Southwest. Jaime found himself becoming the regional hero for both El Paso and Juarez, MX. One editor has said that DC overestimated the amount of attention Americans were putting on immigration issues at the time and has stated that the first Reyes series was a "gimmick."

I don't buy it. While I do think DC tried to appeal to new, younger, browner demographics with the character, I don't think he is a gimmick, as evidenced by the fact that DC sees him as important enough to keep him around now and in how they built him up as a character on the cartoon Batman: The Brave and The Bold. They know they've created an important property.

Interesting, then, that the series' writer wants to take Jaime away from El Paso and place him in the larger, more "traditionally Euro-Anglo" world of the DCU. Frankly, I think they had to do it because keeping him in El Paso would have meant revisiting the violence in Juarez,MX. A fictional hero has no clout when he's saving lives in funny books while 8 murders a day are taking place in the real world territory he's claiming to protect. And who knows who might have protested the previous Reyes series and for what reasons.

At any rate, CBR has an interview with current Blue Beetle writer Tony Bedard in which he explains plans to move Jaime out of the Sun City and into the world at large. Read it here. Whether DC is asking him to do so to move him further away from real-world local problems and closer to global and galactic fake ones remains unknown.

Image: Are real-world issues boxing in the potential of DC's Hispanic Superhero?

We're Famous! UTEP Shows up in Love and Rockets

Angel, a character from the acclaimed Love and Rockets series, is quite the athlete. No wonder she got a full scholarship to a certain University in El Paso that hosted author Jaime Hernandez a year or so ago. For proof, see this image from the recently-released and awesome Love and Rockets New Stories #4, of which you should all go out and buy seven copies.

EPCON IS THIS WEEKEND!!!

The second-annual El Paso Comic Convention is being held in the El Paso Convention Center this weekend. I'll be moderation the panels on the first day, which will include conversations with stars of screen and TV and academic presentations by 3 UTEP graduate students, two of whom are my former or current pupils! :)

If you're in the area, stop in, spend some cash, and enjoy!! Click here for more info. Chewbacca's gonna be there! Cosplayers! Billy Dee Williams! Local talent from both sides of the border!

Minero Magazine Covers EP Comic Scene

El Paso comics creators Jaime Portillo, Julian Lawler, and Joe Lopez are profiled. And with good timing too, since El Paso Comic Con is this weekend!!!

Minero is one of UTEP's student magazines.

It's Coming...

"News @ UTEP" weekly Newsletter details ENG 3327

Click here for the scoop on my ENGLISH 3327: Jewish American Literature Through the Graphic Novel course, offered for the first time this semester at UTEP.

AP Picks up Story on Jaime Portillo's Historic GN

This weekend, The El Paso Times ran a story on Borderlands comics creator and Xeric-award winner Jaime Portillo's recent six-part series Hell Paso: The Story of Dallas Stoudenmire. Portillo is earning his Masters in History and has been putting his research skills to use through the comics format. I'm quoted in the article, as is local comics figure Julian Lawler.

Several people emailed me different links, so it it looks like the Associated Press picked up on the story, hopefully meaning it might have gotten some national attention. With such a neat comics scene in El Paso and El Paso Comics Convention coming up soon, that timing is great, and Jaime certainly deserves some recognition for his efforts to capture part of the history of this area.

What? You didn't know Dallas Stoudenmire was a real person? Time for you to visit what the kids call "The Google." ;)

Local Comics Creator Speaks to Kids, Library

Some nice photos of El Paso comics creator Julian Lawler's visit to the Anime Club at El Paso's Burgess Library. Rock on, Julian!

Jaime Portillo Debuts New Project at EPCON 2010!

Xeric Award-winning local comics writer Jaime "Jimmy" Portillo's new series, HELL PASO: THE STORY OF DALLAS STOUDENMIRE premieres this Saturday at EPCON!

Look for Portillo on Channel 7 today on the afternoon show with Stephanie Valle.

Read his interview in What's Up magazine too!

What I love about Jaime's innovative work is that he is using the comics medium to preserve local Borderland folklore. He ads his own spin to each myth, of course, which connects his efforts with the tradition of storytelling and adding and subtracting to folk legends, and he's not afraid to slide in some social commentary, which ties him to other comics creators in the region as well.

I've always had a soft spot for local color literature and for folklore, so Jaime Portillo's stuff is just the right Hell-fire hot cup of tea for me!

First-Ever EPCON This Weekend!!!

My friend Julian Lawler has been working his arse off to make this weekend's EPCON event a success. He's been all over the place advertising this inaugural Comic Con for the Sun City, which will feature pretty much all of El Paso and Juarez's comics community and many, many other gamer-, cosplay-, fantasy-., sci-fi-, horror-related organizations.




I'll be moderating some panel discussions on Saturday and can't wait to see the crowd and all the creators.



Come see Julian Lawler and his Broken Tree Comics line of books and creators; 656 and Adversary Comix; Jimmy Portillo of Jimmy Daze Comics; Brett Booth, Jaime Carrillo, Martin Montiel, Eric Basaldua, and guest of honor Joe Benitez!

And, as the saying goes, SO! MUCH! MORE!

It's history in the making, so if you're in the area, please stop by EPCON and join the party!


From the El Paso Times:



Make plans
What: El Paso Comic Con.
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Where: Wyndham Airport Inn, 2027 Airway.
How much: $15 for one day, $25 for both days, at the door. $5 discount for active-duty military; free for children 10 and younger.
Sponsors: The event is organized by El Paso's Broken Tree Comics with sponsorship help from Bersal's Chop of Horrors, Beanie Planet, Agent of Chaos Productions and HappiRobot.
Information: www.ep-con.com.Schedule highlights
Saturday: Panel discussions, artist talks and question-and-answer sessions moderated by UTEP professor James Bucky Carter.
Sunday: Yu-Gi-Oh card game tournaments.
Both days: Belly dance troupes; vintage horror movie screenings; appearances by the 501st Legion, a costumed "Star Wars" troupe; costume contests; bands each evening at the hotel.
What else: Club 101, 1148 Airway, will host the official after-party at 8 p.m. Saturday on its second floor.

Live Action Blue Beetle Under Development!

Uber-cool article about everyone's favorite super-powered El Paso High School student, Jaime Reyes, aka the Blue Beetle, getting the small screen treatment!!!

Will the show be set in El Paso???

Trailer/Review for _Infestacion: The Mythology_

I hate zombies like Indiana Jones hates snakes. They're just not my thing. Marvel zombies, Kirkman zombies. Zombie movies with Woody Harrelson or cheeky Brits. Doesn't matter. I hate'em.

However, I do respect that the zombie mythos has had a resurrection in popularity over the last ten years or so, and I also acknowledge that often zombie-related media projects are laced with allegory. This is certainly the case with the graphic novel Infestacion: The Mythology, by 656 Comics, which features insidious ticks infecting living beings, killing them, and then reanimating them into flesh-eating undead.

Worse yet, these undead are Mexican undead, and they're "dead set" on crossing the American border! It's Lou Dobbs' Halloween nightmare come to life as citizens of Ciudad Juarez try to escape dangerous living/undying conditions by fleeing to El Paso, a city in a nation that may or may not see them as worthwhile living beings even if they're not infected.

While some of the nuances of its allegory may be lost to those who do not reside in the Borderland, what makes Infestacion: The Mythology scary, and thereby an intriguing read, is the same thing that makes all great zombie thrillers scary: the fact that with some minor tweaks to the plot here and some slight alterations of the setting there, what is a work of regional horror fiction about the walking dead reveals sometimes unpleasant global truths about the walking living.

Infestacion: The Mythology is available now via 656 Comics. Here's a trailer (for mature audiences) to further whet your appetite:

EL Paso Press' Graphic Novel Getting some YALSA 2009 Love

Cinco Puntos' first graphic novel, Pitch Black (which I've reviewed somewhere around here), is on the 2009 List of Great Graphic Novels For Teens. That list is created by The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which has been leading the way in graphic novel advocacy since the early 00's. It even made the "Top 10," which isn't bad since over 50 titles were honored.

Congrats to El Paso's own Cinco Puntos and to Pitch Black authors Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton!!

Halloween Shout-Outs!

Chris McCay, a longtime friend of mine from my days as editor-in-chief of OutcastStudios.com and their journalism efforts via Comicbookinsider.com and the Outsider Views section of the main site (check them out at the wayback machine at archive.org someday), has published another comic just in time for Halloween.

Offspring is described as a story featuring "a child abandoned who returns home to a world of shadows and blood just in time for a war with her father's greatest nemesis! Will she accept the power that courses through her veins and stand against the creature that attempted to slay her as an infant?" Hey, the title has product tags such as "werewolf," "vampire," and "zombie." What else can you want for late October comics reading?

Learn more here.

Also, if you're in El Paso this Halloween, check out the signing for local studios' graphic novel, Infestacion: The Mythology.