Black was born when I was thirteen years old. I'd dream with a superhero inspired by the Tim Burton's Batman and Carl Macek's Robotech (the mixture is strange but I was a child). But over the years the concept did change and it did discover in me the love to write histories. In 1997 the concept did changes to current version and continues today.
The essence of the comic also changes. In the first I'd only want to draw a modern superhero and I dream to publish in USA. But over the years change this way and now I write over the living of a Chilean teenagers and the mistakes of the youth. In Black these characters live, love, fear, cry and grow. For me, characters of Black are my children, and I think that when I write comics and I think that they feel the readers. And I think that is the reason of their success.
I admire many artists. First, the chileans: Themo Lobos (Ogú and Mampato), Mario igor (Sigfrifo, Mizomba the Untouchable) and Genzoman (Ilustrator). I included Lucho Olivera (Gilgamesh the Inmortal), Ruben Meriggi (Wolf, Crazy Jack), Ariel Olivetti (Cazador), Mandrafina (Savaresse), Toppi (Thalerg), Nik (Gaturro) and Quino (Mafalda).
I am a bit reserved about the future of the distribution of comics, because I am no expert on the subject. But I can give a personal opinion about Chile. Chile still depends of paper. The digital comic progresses, but I do not know the future of it. I know in the USA today the digital dot is the favorite, but Chile still buys printed comics books. Here downloading illegal editions of the fans and then buy the same comic but printed. An editorial in Chile that is publishing Marvel and DC titles has shown. Chile loves the printed comic books.
The printed matter is the real support to comic books but has a cost publish. In Chile there are not many comic book publishers and the Chilean authors use the autofinancing to publish their works independently (I am one of them). The positive side in all this is that with the printed publication will have a faster response from the reader and having your comic and immediately contact the author and the comic is provided to buyer friends. Thus produces a secure distribution network.
The digital format is good to the distribution and it's free publishing. Only needs scanner or inlink, a graphic program and an Internet connection and done. But as I said limits are slow Internet in Chile and it's difficult to work with platforms like HTML5 (Wix, for example) and should work with platforms like Blogger or Wordpress. The rest is advertising on social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The upside of this is that work expands to the world faster than print and other countries know of our works.
Anyway, I plan to publish Black in USA. So, this year the English version of the comic will be published to expand so the first step is coming soon.
In these three years of publication there are many anecdotes. The Black's fans have an important place in the collection. They comment and give ideas for the series. For example the problem with the girls. Readers love or hate the protagonist girls (Claudia or Ines) and discuss their interactions or Eric who should stay with him or find another girl who loves him. It is very funny and comforting. Also fans help me with specific things. For example, a fan helps me with scientific information to be used in Black. So from this season that information that appears in comic books.
In the Chilean comics conventions who I did go are repeats the facts I said before: Fans comment and give ideas for the series and they feel good to hear that. It is very important to listen to readers. They are the life of a collection because they read and decide if your work lives or dies.
And yes, the characters are based in real persons. Eric I am in the High School. Alberto, the Boogie Man is based in my friend of High School, Alfredo Santana. Victor is a former bad boy who told me: "Teddyyyyyy...". Claudia is another case. She is based on several girls that I liked in the past. But, Ines is based in a part of me (the Christian side) and Winora Ryder in Lucas, the movie.
In Black works two persons: my fiancee Loredanne and me. I write, draw, ink and apply the screen patterns and Loredanne is the editor in chief.
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