Happy Holidays Everyone

Happy Holidays from all of us here at Reluctant Zero!
We hope that all of you are enjoying this holiday season with friends and family.

We got a letter from WonderCon a few weeks ago letting us know that we had gotten into the Con for the second year in a row! We were very excited and happy to get the letter, but sadly we will not be able to attend this time around. Due to the move to Anaheim and the due date for the table payment being much too close to Christmas, it simply isn't within our budget to go. Hopefully we will see you ate APE this fall and if we are in a better place financially next year, maybe at WonderCon too!

If you haven't gotten your comic loving friends and family a gift yet don't forget that you can order the comics from us directly on the blog through PayPal!

Happy Holidays,
Angelica P.R.

Thanksgiving and Progress

Hey Everyone!!

Long time no see, how was everyone's Thanksgiving, and if you don't celebrate it, then how was your day(s) off?

We all had a great time with our prospective families and now that it's December were back on track with the comic.

Yesterday Cristian, Mario, and I met up at our local stop, The Dubliner to discuss where the story will be going in the next few issues and we have up to the story line in issue 5 done. Not too shabby for the huge lack of updates here, right? I can't tell you what the issues are about just yet, but maybe if everyone asks real nice Mario will let me reveal some clues!

We hope your December started off well and we'll see you soon!

Till Next Time,

Angelica P.R.

Fall's Going by so Fast!

Hey all, I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post!

It's been pretty slow going since APE ended, and with the holidays coming up, it's not likely to get any easier.

I do have some good news though! Mario has finished the first two pages of dialogue for issue two, and Cristian has been working on several pieces of original concept art that he will hopefully be able to sell at our next convention. And speaking of conventions I faxed our application to WonderCon in finally and now we're just waiting to see if we get in, cross your fingers for us everyone!!

We hope everyone had a great Halloween this year, we had a great time! I was a unicorn, Mario was Mario from the video game and Cristian was Harry Potter one night and Wolverine the next day. What were you??

Till Next Time,

~Angelica

Just Checking In

Hey everybody,

It's been 20 days since APE, and were just starting to really get back on track, the break was nice, but it's time to get down to business! And again, if you have something you would like to publish, please let us know, as we would love to have you under the Vagabond umbrella :)

What is everyone going to be for Halloween this year? I'm making my costume, as I've decided to be a unicorn, I don't know if the boys have any solid plans yet I guess we'll just have to wait till Halloween to see what they plan!

We'll see you again very soon~

~Angelica P.R.

50th post and the start of a new issue!

Wow, can you guys believe we're already at 50 posts on here? Thanks for sticking with us through it all, and if you're new, thanks again for joining, we really appreciate it!

Cristian and Mario had their first preliminary meet up this week to discuss issue two, and Cristian should be able to start drawing this weekend as long as the dialogue and mock-ups work themselves out. We've been selling pretty well to our friends, co-workers, and classmates, if you haven't picked up an issue yet, or if you can't buy one in person, don't worry, we have a Paypal account, just shoot us a message and we'll get back to you with an invoice.

I'll be faxing our entry to WonderCon today, wish us luck on getting in everyone!!

And if you are a writer or an artist, or both, please feel free to submit your work to us, because we would love to publish you under Vagabond Comics and help you meet other people to work with!

I hope everyone is excited for the strt of the new season of The Walking Dead, you can bet that we are!

Till next time everyone,

~Angleica

APE Photos!

Here's what the booth looked like, Keith was there on Saturday, but unfortunately had to go to his dreaded "day job" on Sunday. Cristian managed to bring our good luck charm, Yoda both days though :) What do you think of the comic cover?

Here you can see Mario schmoozin' with potential customers, and you can even see Keith there in the background!

Here's the whole group of people that we hung out with most of the weekend, minus a few other artist friends who had booths further away from ours.

And finally, here I am enjoying the issue back behind our booth, it has some great jokes and art in it!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures if you couldn't stop by and see us for real!

Till next time,

~Angelica

APE Wrap-up

So, as you all know, APE was this past weekend, and it was here that we debuted the first issue of Reluctant Zero! Though traffic throughout the con wasn't as high as it had been in past years due to several other events happening the same weekend, we still view the con and the whole weekend really, as a huge success. We traded comics with other retailers, saw old friends, and debuted our parent company, Vagabond Comics. If you are interesting in publishing your work under our umbrella let me know, we are always happy to take submissions and give feedback.

We sold a fair number of comics, especially for an unknown comic, and we are already ready to start work on issue two, which should be for sale at WonderCon in spring. Cristian and Keith also got inspired to create prints to sell at the next con as well.

If you are interested in purchasing the comic, please comment here or on our Facebook Page with your Paypal address and physical address, and I will invoice you :)

All the pictures will be in the next post!

See you soon,

~Angelica P.R.

Ape is HERE!!

APE begins the day after tomorrow, so as you can all imagine, this week has been hectic to say the least. On Tuesday we received a proof of the first issue and went over some changes we needed to make to it, before okaying it for printing. We will be picking up the final copy either tonight or tomorrow, along with our business cards. If you're interested in who did our printing, they will be advertising on the back of our comic, so make sure you read through the whole thing!

This is our third convention, so we sort of know what to expect when it comes to things like setting up and whatnot, it's nice not to have to worry about the con itself, and just focus on our product. Tomorrow we'll pack up all of our stuff to take with us on Saturday and probably make ourselves something to take for lunch so we won't have to leave the booth too much.

I'm not sure if we'll be taking card, so make sure you bring some cash with you to purchase the comic! And some prints from our illustrator and our inker!

See you this weekend at booth 613!!

~Angelica P.R.

Less then 10 days till APE!!

All the pencils are done, and now it is up to Keith to ink and Mario to apply all of his dialogue to the pages, and we'll be ready to print! It's been so great to see the whole comic come together, and we are all very excited to show it to all of you and to her what you think of it. Check out the APE website for details about the Con and info on where and how to purchase your tickets!

Everyone has been working really hard this past month to get things done, and as things get down to the wire they have really gotten going. If you ever thought juggling school and work was stressful, try adding making a comic book to that mix and you'll see what we mean! Haha

Cristian's friend Ricardo is going to be doing the printing for us, we'll be posting his company's information later to give you guys a good printing resource, weather it's for comics or business cards(he's doing both of ours).

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I finally had to download Google Chrome to be able to post, so there should be no more unexpected delays.

See you all next week!

~Angelica P.R.

One Page to Go!!

One pencil to go everybody!!!

After that all Cristian needs to work on is the cover art and the rest is up to our inker Kieth to take care of.

It's really awesome to finally see the first issue finishing up, it's been quiet the journy, nine months of hard work on our end, especially Mario and Cistian, and now Keith as well. I'm very happy with the way the issue has turned out, and we can't wait to share it with all of you at APE in less then a month!!

No it's down to all the technical stuff again, printing the comic and buisness cards, and if Cristian has time, some original pieces or fan art to have at the booth as well.

Thanks for all of your support you guys, see you very soon!

~Angelica P.R.

Check Out the Tim Lincecum Facebook Page

Cristian is just about finished with all the pencils for the first issue, he's got a handful to go and then we'll just need Keith to ink them all and get them printed! We have a month to go, and we're right on schedule, things were a little hectic there for awhile, but we finally have everything on track. All we need is that dang seller's permit, which hopefully we can get within the next week.

Also, make sure you check out the Tim Lincecum page on Facebook because our inker Keith is having his artwork featured there right now, support a fellow nerd you guys and gals!

Cristian and Mario also met up again last night to talk about the comic and about WonderCon's move to Anaheim. We also gave him some more scanned pencils so he can get those to Keith. Almost done everyone!

See you next week!

~Angelica

More APE news and a posting change

So we're all back in school here at Reluctant Zero, but don't worry, production hasn't slowed in the slightest! Cristian keeps finishing pages, if fact he finished another one last night, and Mario's good friend Kieth has begun inking the finished pages. We paid for our table last week and just recived confirmation of our table number, we'll be at booth 613, so make sure you come by to pay us a visit!

And don't forget to check out our good friend and fellow nerdy creator Steph, she runs the crft company Nerd Jerk, and you can find a link to her blog in our sidebar--->

This week we need to fax in our ad information for the program book, as well as getting our seller's permit, that whole driving and parking in the financial district during a work day is not encouraging us to get this done though! haha Hopefully we'll have that sorted out by the end of the month though.

I also wanted to let you all know that I will most likely be changing the posting day from Tuesday to Wednesday because of my school schedule.

See you all next week,

~Angelica P.R.

For more frequent updates, follow us on Twitter! @Reluctant_Zero, find the link on our sidebar!

Meetings and Progress

Saturday Cristian, Mario, and I went and met up with Mario's friend Kieth who's going to be doing our inking to discuss the panels and the time frame that he has to work with. As well as answering any questions he may have about the existing panels. The meeting went really well, and he will be joining our booth at APE as well. Make sure you stop by the booth so you can meet the whole comic team, and even if you don't buy an issue, you're welcome to pester the boys about the comic book making process itself. We hope to see you there!
Cristian's been working a really fast pace, and things are looking really good, so as long as we can keep up with our time frame, everything should look great at APE!
Plus, Cristian's co-worker is going to be able to give us a deal on printing as well! Things are really working out, I can't wait to see the finished product, and to share it with all of you!

Also, for any Marvel fans following us, make sure you check out the Tokidoki x Marvel collaboration blind box vinyls, they're really awesome, we're trying to collect them all!

Till Next Time,
~Angelica P.R.

Some Good News, A Mini Update

Cristian is making good progress on this issue and he has set himself a goal to try and finish the pencils by the end of the month that way we'll have ample time to get them to our inker, Keith. Hopefully everything runs smoothly so we can be ready in time for APE in October!
Things to do:
1)Finish the pencils
2)Get the pages inked
4)Print the comic
3)Get our seller's permit

Wish all luck in getting everything ready in time!!!

See you next week,
~Angelica P.R.

I'm back! So here's some art for you!

I got back from vacation on Tuesday, I hope you all enjoyed Cristian's blog post in my absence and I apologize for being so late with the entry this week.

This week, I thought that I would give you all a peak at the other types of artwork that Cristian does, since I can't show you pictures of the comic.
These paintings are from his figure drawing class last semester, let us know what you think!
Enjoy:

I know this blog is about a comic book, but hopefully you enjoyed the paintings nonetheless!
Also, make sure you go watch The Rise of the Planet of the Apes this weekend, we saw it last night and it was actually really well done and even gave a nod or two to the previous films.

Till next time everyone,

~Angelica P.R.

Angie is on Vacation

Hello my fellow nerds and nerdettes! Angie is on vacation with her folks which equals me being sad, Cristian misses his Angie. Hence you have me doing this week's post, which equals you guys being sad. The written word is not my medium but I will do my best.

Just finished another page. YEAH! I just finished it right now, not 2 minutes ago. I'll check on it tomorrow with fresh eyes to try and catch any mistakes I may have made, I'll also want Mario and Keith to check for inconsistencies or things I can change up. Hopefully we'll have a sit down soon and go over some stuff. As of right now we seem to be on track to have the first issue finished for APE. Still not sure if we're going to make it to HyperCon. We haven't signed up yet. Which is probably my fault. I was thinking about going and selling some fan art but I'm not sure I'll have any time to create any being that I work full time now. BUT, throw out some ideas on what you'd like to see and I'll see if I can get them done on time.

Alright folks, enjoy what's left of the rest of summer.

A Busy Summer!

Cristian finished another page yesterday, WooHoo! Haha
It's so cool o get to see this whole process happen right before my eyes, from ideas, to sketches, to a finished product. The whole thing is proving to be a very interesting, educational, and exciting experiance.

The summer has been moving along so fast, it's hard to believe that we're already halfway through July! Not only has the last Harry Potter movie come out(it was awesome), but the Captin America midnight premier is tomorrow, are you going? And to top it off, Comic-Con is this weekend in San Diego, I can't wait to see everyone's pictures and hear all about it, since unfortuantly we can't attend this year.

The real cool month for us this year though is going to be October, becasue as you all know we have a booth at APE here in San Francisco and will be debuting our comic there! We are so excited, and hope you all will be ble to come. But that's not all, because the new season of one of our favorite shows, The Walking Dead comes out that month as well!

Damn, we're gonna be busy!!
Till next time,
~Angelica P.R.

A Birthday and a Movie

Today is Mario's 32nd birthday everyone, so make sure to wish him well either here or on Facebook. He's had a busy and productive year staring up this comic book with Cristian, and before this year is out the 1st issue will be done.
We are going to go celebrate at Malibu Grand Prix tonight, as we already went drinking at the Dubliner on Sunday.
His nerdy gifts include 2 Star Wars shirts and a backpack shaped like a Ninja Turtle shell! If you need some nerd nerdy gift ideas for your friends and/or family I would suggest checking out a couple sites. Firstly thinkgeek.com, then teefury.com which has $10 t-shirts posted for just 24hrs everyday, and finally hottopic.com as they have a surprising amount of comic and classic TV show items.

The other important nerdy item of the week is of course that the last Harry Potter movie is finally coming out. We will be seeing it at Tanforan in San Bruno and yes, I will be dressing up(hopefully you all will too!). It's so strange to think of this series as finally coming to a close after all these years.
Thank goodness we have The Hobbit movies to look forward too, as Lord of the Rings beats Harry Potter anyway ;P

Enjoy this nerdiest of weeks friends, and maybe we'll see you at the movies!
~Angelica P.R.

Fundraising

We're still hard at work here, trying to get the comic out this fall and all that jazz. But something else has been on our minds lately too, and that thing is money.

Self-publishing a comic isn't cheap, even the black and white preview issues we did cost something, and now that we are anticipating printing out a full issue, we've been thinking a lot about ways to raise money for the comic. Cristian has sold a sculpture, and Mario might sell some of his sneakers.
Thankfully we have good friends that want to help and support us. The bartending ladies at The Dubliner Bar in West Portal here in San Francisco have offered to help us set up a fundraising event at the bar. Right now things are just in the idea stage, but make sure you keep checking back here at the blog for any news on our fundraising efforts. Hopefully we'll be able to set something up by the end of summer.

We hope everyone had a great 4th of July!
Have a great week everyone,
~Angelica P.R.

Randomness of the Week

We showed up to buy our tickets for The Return of the King last night and the tickets were all sold out! So a group of us went to our usual bar, The Dubliner, to drink and nerd out together. Mario did a bit of writing and earlier that day Cristian had finished another panel on the big paper. Things are progressing really nicely on our end of things.

Sadly, because we haven't been to a convention lately the posts here aren't always exciting. I've been thinking about some other topics to write about, nerdy summer movies, games, etc.

What would you guys be interested in reading about??

Did anyone else pick up the LOTR special edition in Blue Ray yesterday? I can't wait to watch our copy!

Have a good week everyone!
~Angelica P.R.

Logistics and Another Late Post

I suppose I should just admit at this point that until the director's cut of The Lord of the Rings films are finished showing in theaters that the weekly posts here will be late! So one more week of this and then we'll be back to normal.

Now that we are on our way to getting the comic finished, logistics is coming back to the forefront of our issues. We need to do several things by the end of the month, one of which is applying t another convention here in the bay area, called HyperCon.
Now, it is down in San Mateo and it is an anime convention primarily, but it is run by a former classmate of Cristian's from the Academy of Art, and it is fairly cheap to show there since the convention is only in it's second year. We'll keep you posted on our HyperCon plans.
We also need to fill out and turn in our seller's permit for APE, without it we won't be able to sell anything, and let's face it, we need the money!

What conventions are you guys going to this summer? ComicCon? Anime Expo? Anywhere you would like us to come and show our work?

Thanks again everyone, see you next week!
~Angelica P.R.

APE and LOTR

Another late post, I'm sorry I've been so lax in my blogging duties the past two weeks, I promise to go back to your regularly scheduled updates next week. Cristian and I went to watch the director's cut of The Fellowship of the Ring in theaters last night, which is my excuse for this late post. And if you're wondering why Mario didn't go as well, LOTR is not his cup'o'tea, he prefers The Dark Tower series by Stephan King.

Anyway, this week has been very productive. Cristian has finally finished all of the thumbnails, and is set to start making the real pages on the big paper. And yesterday he took a few shots of our friend and model Bunny Lyn to use as reference for, you guessed it, a female character for the comic book. You can check out her portfolio here: http://www.modelmayhem.com/1504507
We also received some wonderful news, WE'RE GOING TO APE!! We just got the email this week, so make sure you get October 1st and 2nd off so you can come on down to San Francisco's Alternative Press Expo and pick up a full edition of Reluctant Zero, meet the creators, and get your swag signed. We look forward to seeing you there and maybe even selling some prints for you guys.

Thanks for your support, things are really starting to come together here and we couldn't have done it without you!
~Angelica P.R.

Time Management and Inspiration

Sorry for the late post everyone, yesterday was spent cleaning and attempting to sell clothes at Crossroads in order to make some extra cash for bills/the comic. Glamorous life right?

Now back to your regularly scheduled update!
Perhaps you guys have been wondering how two guys with full time jobs and school can manage to take on a project so large and personally important. The answer is that you have to prioritize your time and micro-manage your days quiet a bit. One solution that we've found works is that we have turned our weekly bar get-together with our friends into a mini work session as well. Multi-tasking for the win!
This also illustrates one of the other most important things about being an artist, never go out without paper and a pencil. You never know where inspirations could strike you. Mario keeps a notepad in his backpack, Cristian keeps pens and pencils in his pockets and drawing pads in the car, and I am never without my camera.
Make sure you are always prepared, so that you can capture your ideas right as they come to you.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
~Angelica P.R.

What's in a Name?

So, why "Reluctant Zero"? I'm sure a few of you have been wondering about the title, or perhaps you've figured it out on your own, or perhaps you are more interested in our content then the package? In any case, today I'm going to explain where the title came from and how it relates not only to our comic, but to all nerds.

"Reluctant Zero" is essentially the way society views Memo and his friends (all nerds, really). No one sets out to be a loser, or a "zero". We are labeled these things by others who don't understand our obsessions. The funny thing is we all have our obsessions, but only some of us are considered zeros. This is one of the many themes they wish to showcase within the pages of the comicbook.

Hopefully that was interesting for you guys and gave you a little more insight into where we're coming from.

Till next time,
~ Angelica P.R.

The Start of Summer and Some Much Needed Help

The thumbnails are almost finished, and all of our finals are finally over this week. We're celebrating summer by drawing and creating, how are you guys celebrating?

We would also like to announce that we have acquired the services of both and inker and a letterer, we do all our lettering by hand, both of whom are close friends and fellow artists. This way, once Cristian finishes each panel he'll be able to hand it off, to our inker and then to the letter, hopefully increasing our production rate so we can get the comic to you guys faster!

Mario is making headway on the second issue, so we'll be able to move seamlessly into that once we finish the first one.
And we also have one perspective carrier for our comic as well, stay tuned for announcements once we get closer to go time for information on how or where to purchase the comic.

And make sure you check our twitter for fun updates about the creators and myself, as well as cool nerdy stuff, and interesting things happening here in the city.

Till next time,
~Angelica P.R.

The Story of Memo

Today I have something special for you all, which we posted on our Facebook Page last week, but haven't put up here just yet.

It's Mario's official summary of the comic book! Hopefully after reading it and watching the accompanying interviews that we have posted here, you'll all have a better sense of what our story is about and what the message of the comic is, enjoy!

"Guillermo “Memo” Morales, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, is a nerd in the truest sense of the word. By day, he works various odd jobs to make ends meet. By night, he dreams of starting a family and supporting them with a t-shirt company starring his sketches as the main design. He lives with two roommates. Stan “The Circumstance” Green is a young man obsessed with the opposite sex. He lies to no end in attaining his goal. His other roommate is Malik Strong, a brilliant man who is slowly and surely withdrawing from society. Memo’s love interest is Isla Song, the very personification of beauty, brains, and brawn.
Memo lives the life of a poor man. He wears the same clothes from high school and often eats the cheapest thing he can find. His furniture is from thrift shops. He walks everywhere and avoids transportation in order to save money. He is a simple man with simple interests. However, deep within lies the heart of a warrior. Often times, his art reflects the power developed by the many years of ridicule from supposed “cool people”. This all reinforces the theme of the story : Nerds posses an internal strength that shines in times of crisis."
-Mario T. Lanao

The thumbnails for the first issue are almost done as well, soon Cristian will be able to start putting them down on the comic book paper and since the weather outside is awful this week, it's only more incentive to stay inside and draw!

See you all next week!
~ Angelica P.R.

Latino Comics Expo 2011

As you all know, we attended the first ever Latino Comics Expo this weekend right here in San Francisco at the Cartoon Art Museum, and we had a blast!

The first day it was just Mario and myself manning our makeshift table at the front along with our friend Ed who is working on his own graphic novel because Cristian wasn't able to get the day off. I manned the booth most of the day while Mario networked and attended panels. I did get to attend the "History of Latino Comics" panel, which was really interesting since I am both a history major and a fan of comics.

Sunday was a blast though, we had a table in the main room and the whole team was there promoting and networking like crazy.

Cristian and Mario got some great publicity and signed quiet a few posters, including someone's guitar!

They also participated in a panel about self-publishing comic books along with some other comic book artists, Jaime Crespo, Rafael Navarro, and Javier Hernadez. The panel was about an hour long and went really well, hopefully we can get the video up and running soon.
Hooray for Reluctant Zero's first panel!We all had a wonderful time socializing and meeting other Latino artists and spreading the word about Reluctant Zero to an audience which doesn't often get as much notoriety as it should. We can't wait for the next Latino Comics Expo!

~Angelica P.R.

Supper Club Dinner for the Latino Comics Expo

All of us here at Reluctant Zero attended a "kick-off" party for the Latino Comics Expo at the Supper Club here in San Francisco on Harrison St. The venue was really cool, and I really liked the design, with a loft area in the main dance room, and all the disco balls over the main bar as well. The seating in the main room was very strange, so I didn't sit down, who knows where those beds have been! haha
The entertainment was pretty cool, one woman did aerial acrobatics on a rope and another group did Latin drumming, accompanied by dancing.
It was a little hard to network due to the setting, but it was a fun experience nonetheless, besides, who doesn't love dancing?

Of course we did have to leave early, because we went to watch the midnight premier of Thor, which turned out being really good! Though the Japanese character seemed a bit out of place among the Gods, and Natalie Portman's acting was a little off.
What did you all think of it??

Goodnight from Reluctant Zero!

~Angelica P.R.

May is Gonna be a Busy Month

It's May, so you know what that means...Cinco de Mayo and the end of the semester are almost here!

Unfortunately the fact that the semester is winding down means that all of us here at Reluctant Zero have a lot of papers to write and tests to study for, but as soon as it's done you can count on us being way more productive.

As for Cinco de Mayo, we will be attending a party hosted by the Latino Comics Expo at the Supper Club here in San Francisco. It's supposed to be a bit of a meet and greet and networking opportunity, so we're all pretty excited. The venue seems very interesting, it has beds instead chairs or couches and live entertainment, we'll post some photos of it so you guys can get an idea of what it's like there.

We'll have to leave the party early though, because the midnight premier of Thor is that night as well, and being true comic book lovers, you know we can't miss that right?

As you all know we're going to be attending the Latino Comics Expo at the Cartoon Art Museum this Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. And on Saturday, Mario and myself will be speaking at a panel at 2:30, talking about what it's like attempting to break into the comic book industry. If you have any questions, that would be a great place to ask them, hopefully we'll see you all there! We'll also be handing out more preview issues, so if you didn't get one at WonderCon, stop by and grab one this weekend!

See you all this weekend!

~Angelica

Facebook and Twitter

If you all take a quick glance to your right, you'll see our new widget listing all the place you can find us while you are out and about on the Internet, including our newly created Facebook and Twitter pages. We really appreciate all the support you guys have all shown us thus far and we hope you'll continue to support us by following or liking us on all of our various sites.

Thanks again everyone!

~Angelica P.R.

Links and Other News

Go check out the website for the Latino Comics Expo and take a look at all the other artists that are going to be there and check out the website for the Cartoon Art Museum, they have some pretty cool exhibits that you can check out when you stop by to see us.

http://www.latinocomicsexpo.com/

http://cartoonart.org/

We only need two more people to like our Facebook page in order to get our own url so make sure you like us over there, increased traffic equals increased motivation! We'll have a Facebook button up here on the site so you can access it easier, also that is a really easy way to contact us and you're more then welcome to add the boys as friends as well.

And you can also RSVP to the Latino Comics Expo event page on there as well, after all, we did.

And you can look forward to some new things at the booth in two weeks as well!

See you soon guys!

~Angelica P.R.

A Meeting and a Facebook Page

This week we met with Ricardo Padilla, one of the organizers of the Latino Comics Expo, to take a look at our work, hear our pitch, discuss where our table will be, and the possibility of even doing a panel one day. The meeting went great and we are very excited to meet and network with other artists with similar backgrounds at the con.

We also just started a facebook page for the comic, once we get 25 people to like it, I'll be able to link it here, so go search for it of Facebook! It will pop up under pages and is listed as a book, this way, no matter what social networking site you use you'll be able to keep up with us.
I'll update again when we get the link, which will probably be sometime within the next two days.

~Angelica P.R.

Latino Comics Expo

It looks like we're going to be showing up at a Con a little sooner then we thought!
We've been invited to show our work at the first ever Latino Comics Expo, taking place right here in San Francisco at the Cartoon Art Museum on Saturday May 7th and Sunday May 8th.

Check out their website for more information!
http://cartoonart.org/2011/03/the-first-annual-latino-comics-expo/
Hopefully we'll get to see you there, especially if you weren't able to make it to Wondercon.

~Angelica P.R.

Workin' Away

The rush from WonderCon is starting to abide, but our momentem hasn't!
APE released it's exhibitor applications on the 8th, so we're hoping to have that done by Friday so we have a better chance of getting a good spot there.
It can be hard to coordinate things at times because both Mario and Cristian work, and all three of us are going to school part or full-time, but we're making it all work.

Don't forget about us just because our next Con isn't for a few months!
Cause we haven't forgotten about you or the comic, so stay tuned for next week!

~Angelica P.R.

WonderCon 2011 Photo Post

You've all had a chance to read about how our WonderCon went, now you can take a peak at how things actually looked! From the booth and the boys, to the fans and interviews, it was a crazy fun weekend packed with all sorts of intrigues, take a look below!

This is what the booth looked like on Thursday before set-up.

And here's what it looked like Friday morning before the chaos of the Con began.

We had a really good response from everyone, as you can see here.

As you already know, we were also interviewed by Twit.tv, this is what it looked like:And this:

And finally, all three of us right before closing up shop on Sunday!

Thanks for looking everyone, we hope you enjoyed the photos, and our interview if you weren't able to attend the Con itself. Let us know what you think!

~Angelica P.R.

WonderCon Interview on twit.com

Hey everybody, our live web interview is up on twit.com now, so head over, check it out and let us know what you think! Listen to the creators explain what the comic is about in their own words and find out why they are putting it together here:

http://twit.tv/specials71

We appear just after the hour mark, so if you're only interested in our interview you can just jump ahead, if you want to check out what WonderCon looked like this year, then definetly check out the whole video.

Thanks for looking everyone, and let us know what you think!
~Angelica P.R.

WonderCon Re-Cap

Well everyone, we did it, WonderCon is finally over and it was a huge success for us here at Reluctant Zero. We passed out all of our free preview issues and stickers, and had a great amount of interest in both Mario's writing samples and Cristian's art portfolios. And we were even interviewed for a live webcast on Saturday, which we will be posting a link to as soon as it is sent to us!

We met some wonderful artists, made some really great friends, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire Con. We were even in the same row as Elvira and got a chance to meet Robert Kirkman, the writer of The Walking Dead, as well as getting the oppertunity to purchase the X-Men/SF Giants variant cover!

All in all this WonderCon was a huge success and we look forward to attending several more cons this year and hopefully you will see us again at WonderCon next year. Don't take your eyes off us anytime soon, because things are moving quickly!
Look forward to pictures from the Con later in the week and too more updates on our progress.

And don't forget to add our new website to your favorites, http://reluctantzero.com/

See you soon,
~ Angelica P.R.

Less then one week till WonderCon!

Well everyone, we're in the home stretch here, WonderCon opens on Friday and everything is just about ready for you guys to see!
We will be at booth SP-58 all day, everyday, and make sure you stop by early to snag some swag before we run out of anything!
Thanks for all your support along the way, we hope you enjoy the preview and we look forward to your feedback.

See you soon!

~Angelica P.R.

WonderCon and Reading

Hey there everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I unexpectedly had to go to my parents house out by Davis, CA, so I wasn't able to get around to it.

But back to what you all are really after, WonderCon updates. It's getting close to the big day, and we here at Reluctant Zero are definitely feeling the time crunch, but everything is starting to come together, despite the craziness. You can look forward to not only seeing the preview live at WonderCon, but some other secret goodies as well, so make sure you come by to have a look and pick up some freebies! Plus you'll get a chance to ask Mario and Cristian any questions you may have about the comic itself or the process of producing and printing an independent comic.

We here at Reluctant Zero also wanted to share a website with you, our lovely readers, which supports reading the written word. A lot of comics these days are put out on the web, and now you can read books and zines digitally too. And while we see the connivance in this, we decided to make our comic a print one, because there's nothing quite like holding a new comic in your hands at your favorite comic book shop or the newest book in your favorite series the day it comes out. So we here at Reluctant Zero would like to share our pledge to read the printed word with the button featured below, if you simply click on it, it will take you to the website where you can choose a button to place on your page as well.


Have a good week everyone, and remember, only TEN DAYS till WonderCon!

~Angelica, P.R.

Meet the Geeks

Mario, a native of San Francisco, was born "in the year of our lord nineteen hundred seventy nine"(H. Thompson). At the tender age of three months, he was whisked away from the shores of the shores of the Bay Area and spent the next four years & change in the third world paradise known as Managua, Nicaragua. He also spent a year in Lima, Peru before returning to the City. The next few years were spent in several institutions, including Long Fellow Elementary, Epiphany School, Archbishop Riordan High School, Academy of Art University, and City College of San Francisco. Mario currently lives in the Lakeview district of San Francisco and is pursuing a career as a writer. When asked to name a few artistic influences, Mario was quoted as saying: "Fuck, that shit'll take forever. Ask me later man".


Cristian grew up in the foggy city of San Francisco watching and loving Disney cartoons, particularly The Three Caballeros, Disney's the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, The Lonesome Ghosts, and many more. He always loved the idea of drawing and creating characters and stories, but he never had the guts to even start drawing 'til middle school. He stopped drawing in High School, until he finally took another drawing class in his senior year, rekindling his passion for the art. He ended up graduating from the Academy of Art University with a Bachelors in Illustration in 2007.
His favorite Illustrators include: Brian Froud, Justin Sweet, Peter de Seve, Claire Wendling, Craig Mullins, Carlos Huantes, and many more.
His favorite comic artist include: John Romita Jr., and Ariel Olivette.


Angelica is a History major at San Francisco State University focusing on "modern" European history. She hopes to get a Masters in Library Studies and work in an Archive someday. She is also a follower of lolita fashion, and an avid reader. She has ridden horses her whole life, never skips a chance to go to a museum, and have a lust for travel. Angelica believes that butter makes everything better and that meat and bread are the two most important food groups.


That's us! Tune in next week to see what we have in store for you!

~Angelica, P.R.

WonderCon News

Hey everyone, I know we have been very lax about keeping this blog updated up until this point, but from here on out you can expect weekly updates from me, Angelica, the new PR person for our comic/company because Reluctant Zero is going to WonderCon!

We received our acceptance letter a few weeks ago and have been working very, very hard to make sure everything will be perfect for the Con. Everything that we will be putting out at our booth will be FREE, that's right folks, FREE swag at the Reluctant Zero table all weekend, so make sure you stop by to say hi and pick up a preview comic and whatever else you might be interested in.

Remember WonderCon is April 1-3, 2011 located in the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, don't miss Reluctant Zero's print debut!

~Angelica, P.R.

p.s.
You can expect an official introduction post for the three of us coming later this week.

Back!

Hey folks, I've been busy with work during the Holiday season, which was freaking nuts. And though I've worked very hard and put so much time and effort into it, I have nothing but a near empty back account to show for it. C'est la vie.

Enough of slave labor and more about creating. We're now currently working on the second half of the first issue. Just finished working on some thumb nails, just need to go over them with Mario before I start laying them down on the 'big boy' comic paper. I'll most definitely be posting regularly from now on. Take it easy my fellow nerdites!