S7 EP28: COYWOLF

[00:00:01] What's up, Primos, Primas, Primas? Welcome to my, My Primos, My Primos, My Primo Podcast.

[00:00:09] My name is Freddy. My name is Kevin Garcia. My name is Elia Maria Matriz. This is Chikuma, whenever I can make it.

[00:00:15] My Primos Podcast discusses all things fandom and pop culture. From comic books, movies, to whatever obsession we have this week.

[00:00:22] But with the Latine, Latine, Latine perspective. Remember, we're all Primos. We're all Primas. We're all Primos.

[00:00:28] No matter what part of the world we're from.

[00:00:34] Yes.

[00:00:35] Que onda, Primos, Primas y Primes? Welcome to My Primos Podcast, minus our Primo Freddy.

[00:00:42] My name is Kevin Garcia, also known as KevinGarcia underscore com. And with me today is my Prima and yours, Elia Maria.

[00:00:51] Elia Maria, how are you doing today?

[00:00:53] Doing well.

[00:00:54] I love that you have your tiny hands ready. The tiny hands are always important.

[00:00:58] Yes.

[00:01:00] Those are cool.

[00:01:02] And there's another voice with us. We have the creators of Koi Woof with us.

[00:01:06] So, Gabriel, Bert, could you, Gabriel, let's start with you.

[00:01:09] Introduce yourself and let us know what you've been doing with comics.

[00:01:13] Well, absolutely. I'm Gabriel Hernandez, creator of Koi Woof, along with obviously Bert Rista, I'm sure, introduced himself.

[00:01:21] And, you know, wow. I think we've been on this journey for five years when we first started back in COVID.

[00:01:30] Was it, what are we, 2024 now?

[00:01:34] Let's go to 25.

[00:01:35] In 2020, you know, I think it was just ending, we did our first show in March in Odessa Midland.

[00:01:41] And, but before that, a couple years before that, I had the pleasure of meeting Bert Rista.

[00:01:47] I went through the trials and tribulations of finding various artists who, who I pitched the story to or could not, you know, could not configure the, the correct, concise art that I was looking for.

[00:01:58] You know, the Southwest Americana art of Garnelita Garcia-Smith, who's our main character in Koi Woof.

[00:02:06] And so I met Bert through his wife of all people at a, at a business meeting separate from the comic industry.

[00:02:15] And now I'm, I'm relatively like new to the industry.

[00:02:18] So I was more of a, you know, slash, you know, novel writer, novella, small stories, trying to get into that, writing a bunch of small stories when it originally started.

[00:02:29] And had a various amount of characters that, that brought to, you know, brought this story together, put this story together.

[00:02:39] And when I met Mr. Bert Rista, he was the right one from the, from the get go.

[00:02:46] Well, we've mentioned, we've mentioned Bert a few times now.

[00:02:49] And then let's get to Bert and we'll come back to that.

[00:02:51] Cause I want to hear more about this.

[00:02:52] Yeah.

[00:02:52] Bert, could you tell us a little bit about yourself as an artist?

[00:02:56] Yeah.

[00:02:58] I'm self-taught.

[00:02:59] I didn't go to any family schools.

[00:03:04] I started drawing when I was in high school, doing it for the Chili Quads and anything else for the Boy Scouts at the haunted houses.

[00:03:15] I was painting walls and murals.

[00:03:18] And then when I got into college, I went to a school, St. Mary's University in San Antonio and played soccer there.

[00:03:25] I was a soccer player, studied to be a teacher.

[00:03:30] And I was found, they kind of discovered my ability when I did some drawings of our mascot playing soccer.

[00:03:41] And, and somebody asked me, Hey, can you, you know, who's this guy?

[00:03:46] Can he work for the, for other departments of the school?

[00:03:49] And so it actually made up a job for me to do a spot illustration designs as a work study.

[00:03:57] That's the best way to be found as an artist.

[00:03:59] Yeah.

[00:03:59] Yeah.

[00:04:00] And so I just kind of learned on my own.

[00:04:02] I still didn't know fancy programs or anything.

[00:04:05] It's pretty much by hand.

[00:04:07] And then, um, I went into teaching and taught for a few years.

[00:04:11] Um, but when I was at the university, uh, in order to promote the mascot that I created for them,

[00:04:19] um, they, uh, I did a newspaper comic strip and that's, that's kind of how I got my start in doing comics.

[00:04:27] And at the time I was reading a lot of, uh, spawn, you know, so this was like early nineties.

[00:04:33] And so it kind of had a real spawn vibe to it.

[00:04:36] And, um, um, I, the, the, the, the school loved it though.

[00:04:43] I, I, I had a pretty good fan base.

[00:04:44] I remember being interviewed by the city and, and I got a president.

[00:04:49] I got a presidential honor award coming out of that school for that.

[00:04:52] Uh, so they still recognize me to this day as the creator of their laptop, Ratliff.

[00:04:58] And St. Mary's university.

[00:05:00] So that, that was kind of my start in, as an artist, uh, in comics, so to speak.

[00:05:06] Now, when I went into teaching, I didn't really get back to it.

[00:05:11] I kind of ignored it for several years.

[00:05:14] I, I, so I coached for a long time.

[00:05:17] And then of course I raised, started raising a family, got real into that and just didn't

[00:05:22] really draw as much.

[00:05:23] But then, um, when I started teaching ESL, uh, I remember, um, I was teaching eighth grade

[00:05:30] ESL and I had to teach a few kids who barely spoke English or some who did, but not really

[00:05:37] well, uh, Hawthorne or Robert Frost, you know, subjects like that.

[00:05:42] And how the heck I'm going to do that?

[00:05:45] Well, I'd storyboard, I'd storyboard their short stories to them.

[00:05:50] And that, it came out pretty good.

[00:05:52] And they actually understood what was going on in the story, my pictures.

[00:05:56] And I remember one of my students, uh, going, Hey mister, you draw better than these pictures

[00:06:04] here.

[00:06:04] Why don't you do this?

[00:06:05] And, and I was like, man, Israel, I don't know.

[00:06:11] I don't know why I don't.

[00:06:12] Maybe I should.

[00:06:13] You know, I, I, well, I want to pause on that.

[00:06:15] I'm glad you said that.

[00:06:16] Cause I, I'm a teacher as well.

[00:06:17] And I taught ESL for a while as well.

[00:06:19] And, and I know that they had, they also want to be to do like, like Jane Eyre and stuff.

[00:06:24] And I was like, look, I like this book.

[00:06:26] I enjoy it, but it's going to be a slog.

[00:06:29] And I had to, I ended up arguing with the, the admin to let me teach them with books

[00:06:33] that they would actually enjoy more.

[00:06:35] And they did.

[00:06:36] But I found one of the things that got them the most into it was comics because, you

[00:06:41] know, they're, they're picking up a new language, but there are pictures to go along with it.

[00:06:44] And on top of that, the comic that I had, it was one where they were instructing, they

[00:06:47] were teaching the main character.

[00:06:48] So they were learning along with her and it worked out really well.

[00:06:51] I also want to point out that you said you didn't go to a fancy school, but then said

[00:06:54] you were self taught.

[00:06:54] That's the fanciest school of all.

[00:06:57] Yep.

[00:06:59] Yeah.

[00:06:59] I mean, cause it's very self-motivated, self-driven, self-determined.

[00:07:03] Uh, I kind of learned by doing project by project.

[00:07:07] Uh, when somebody asked me to do a picture, somebody asked me to do a wall meal, someone

[00:07:11] asked me to do a website, someone would ask me to do a brochure, a map, uh, whatever,

[00:07:20] you know, a character.

[00:07:22] I just learned to do it on my own.

[00:07:24] Um, and, uh, so when I first met Gabe, I'd already done a few children's books.

[00:07:30] Uh, I did some online comics and, uh, I was doing a lot of instructional stuff for one

[00:07:37] site that was teaching languages.

[00:07:39] One taught English, another site from Australia taught, uh, Japanese.

[00:07:43] And I would do, uh, sell little like one shot cells for them that kind of mix a scenario

[00:07:51] to teach a phrase in Japanese.

[00:07:54] And I did like, I don't know, uh, maybe a hundred or so for them.

[00:07:59] And that really gave me my chops in, in paneling and storytelling.

[00:08:06] Um, and, uh, I forgot what I was gonna, where I was going with that.

[00:08:11] Anyway.

[00:08:12] Well, yeah, so he's a complete star Wars geek.

[00:08:14] I can tell you that.

[00:08:15] So look behind him.

[00:08:18] Subtle hints, subtle hints.

[00:08:19] Yeah.

[00:08:20] Yeah.

[00:08:20] Well, well that brings us back to, you know, like I said, that was when you met Gabe and,

[00:08:24] and, and how this, the Koi Wolf started.

[00:08:26] So Gabe, could you, uh, describe Koi Wolf as, as a concept of the series for people that

[00:08:32] haven't seen her yet?

[00:08:33] Um, yeah.

[00:08:35] So basically we had a, uh, a little plugin.

[00:08:40] We had a review recently with Latin pop mag out of, out of UT.

[00:08:46] I'm, you're familiar with Frederick Adama.

[00:08:48] Yeah.

[00:08:48] And we got a review from Miss Mariana Rooks and, uh, wonderful, you know, uh, review.

[00:08:55] I couldn't have put it any better way than what she's, you know, read the stories.

[00:08:58] She bought the books at the Latin pop, uh, lab up in UT.

[00:09:02] And she usually ran through, I believe March sometime during spring break.

[00:09:05] Elia, we've met there.

[00:09:07] Yeah.

[00:09:07] Yeah.

[00:09:07] Of course you're so April this year.

[00:09:09] We've all met there.

[00:09:10] And, uh, I'll read, I'll read that review at the beginning of what she put and it's beautiful.

[00:09:14] So I'll plug that in for her.

[00:09:16] That's fair.

[00:09:17] I guess in her words, it's great.

[00:09:18] And I couldn't say it any better.

[00:09:20] So, uh, basically her review, start off the book is somewhere out in the wild, a beast

[00:09:26] waits.

[00:09:27] She's an intelligence, strong and fearless animal descending from stealthy coyotes and

[00:09:33] mighty wolves.

[00:09:35] She's a pack animal.

[00:09:36] She must swallow her fear, protect her pack and hunters survive.

[00:09:41] Meet the coy wolf.

[00:09:43] So that, that was very like, uh, impactful when I read that.

[00:09:46] You know what?

[00:09:46] I see why you wanted to read the review.

[00:09:49] Yeah.

[00:09:49] It's real poetic.

[00:09:50] Yeah.

[00:09:51] Yeah.

[00:09:52] That's like the, the narration to the trailer for it.

[00:09:55] Like setting that tone.

[00:09:57] Yeah.

[00:09:57] I love it.

[00:09:58] And then in art, go ahead.

[00:10:00] Oh no, go ahead.

[00:10:01] No, no, I'll go ahead.

[00:10:03] No, I just want to hear like what, cause like she's a leading lady, powerful.

[00:10:09] What, where did this concept come from?

[00:10:12] So for me, for me, I've, I've not a, you know, been into, I bought a few comics as

[00:10:18] a child.

[00:10:19] I was more of a sports guy.

[00:10:20] I played football, a lot of sports tennis.

[00:10:23] I still play today, you know, recreational, but a lot of my comic book friends were, uh,

[00:10:29] people that I, that were on the other side of the school, uh, lunch seat, you know, per

[00:10:34] se, saw them all read a lot of X-Men back in just growing up in the eighties.

[00:10:38] Right.

[00:10:40] So, you know, it had a huge impact on me and buying, you know, the comics that I used

[00:10:44] to read, uh, if I could afford them at that time, and most of the stuff I read was

[00:10:47] in the newspaper, it was free, you know, Archie comics or whatnot.

[00:10:51] So, um, when I went to my first comic book convention in Austin, this was back in, wow,

[00:10:59] probably, uh, showing my age, 2010.

[00:11:04] And Austin, I went to that one and, uh, you know, it's obviously saw a lot of DC and Marvel,

[00:11:09] uh, at the Austin comic con.

[00:11:11] And my second one was this San Antonio where I took my sons cause I really enjoyed the

[00:11:16] first one with my friends.

[00:11:18] So I took my sons and I saw a similar, you know, concept of comics, you know, DC are your

[00:11:24] Spider-Man's and your Batman's and you know, your Wolverines.

[00:11:28] And I didn't notice anything representing our culture, my Latin culture.

[00:11:31] And it kind of get, it got me a little bit, you know, I was kind of, it's like, wow,

[00:11:36] you know, this is my second one.

[00:11:38] And, uh, don't see any representation at all of, of Latin culture or us.

[00:11:43] So, uh, of course me, myself, you know, first inclination of a writer, you want to write

[00:11:48] yourself as a comic book hero.

[00:11:50] I'm the most boring guy, lame guy.

[00:11:52] I could never be a superhero.

[00:11:55] So I had to find some inspiration outside that.

[00:11:58] And unfortunately it came, it came with a little bit of tragedy in my life.

[00:12:02] Uh, my mom passed away in 2015.

[00:12:06] Uh, a mentor of mine came about a great friend of mine, uh, wrote a book about his father and,

[00:12:12] and, uh, you know, how he grieved in the process of his father passing away.

[00:12:17] So I knew then I had to start writing short stories and, uh, I started writing some stuff

[00:12:24] and writing different characters that was Latin related.

[00:12:28] And, and, uh, so kind of was able to put two and two together and try to find a superhero

[00:12:33] who we can see at, at some of these cons in the future.

[00:12:38] So that's how it started.

[00:12:40] Um, I have a few different, I had the antagonists, uh, super, uh, a couple other characters involved

[00:12:47] into the story and it was way for me to grieve and to keep my mom's spirit alive.

[00:12:51] So in essence, it's been great.

[00:12:54] I cannot, I cannot, uh, uh, profess that more.

[00:12:59] If you lose someone special in your life to, you know, write it down and it doesn't have to be a superhero story.

[00:13:05] Just, it just so happened to come out that way.

[00:13:07] And, uh, a lot of people in my life has really touched me in so many different ways.

[00:13:13] Uh, Bert and his family, but the girl herself is based off a goddaughter who's real person.

[00:13:23] And her name is, uh, Rosa Maria Smith, Garcia Smith.

[00:13:27] So, uh, she inspired me to, she inspired me as a young artist, a writer to, to write, uh, her, her story

[00:13:38] and intermix it into, you know, fantasy, Western Americana tales, folklore, Mexican folklore,

[00:13:45] and, and just utilize, um, the, the culture, Latin cultures that are underrepresented.

[00:13:51] And, uh, with Bert, when I met him is it was just perfect meeting.

[00:13:58] I think it was serendipitous for us to meet the way we did and, and to be able to process this character.

[00:14:06] Uh, I made him understand off the bat, which is, which is sometimes I think can be difficult for Latino culture to trust other Latinos, right?

[00:14:13] Sometimes we don't want to divulge so much information, kind of hold back.

[00:14:18] Yeah.

[00:14:19] And, and that was part of my culture growing up.

[00:14:21] So, I wanted to, I wanted to put that, put the, very territorial, uh, wanted to put that aside and, and, and change that culture and that mindset that it's very important that we, that we work together.

[00:14:34] And, and, and since being burnt, I think that opened the doors to a whole new realm of, of, of just different, uh, pop culture cons, you know, uh, Mexamerican, right?

[00:14:45] Yeah.

[00:14:45] The, uh, Texas, the, uh, Texas.

[00:14:49] Yeah.

[00:14:49] Yeah.

[00:14:50] The Latino Comic Con in Dallas.

[00:14:52] Hector Rodriguez, uh, Frederick Adama to name a couple.

[00:14:55] And, uh, I mean, to see the, you guys doing this podcast and us being a part of it, I felt like, I felt like, you know, man, all the, you know, a good portion of my life.

[00:15:05] Where, where have y'all been?

[00:15:06] Yeah.

[00:15:07] Honestly, I, I love that.

[00:15:09] I think I had the same feeling, uh, when I moved to Austin and I started connecting with more indie creators and, and especially, you know, as I would meet other Latino, Latino creators around, around the country.

[00:15:20] I was gonna say around the state, but really everywhere.

[00:15:21] Um, there's so much, uh, inner community support that, uh, like you said, we didn't always get necessarily get growing up, but it's there now for us.

[00:15:29] Right.

[00:15:30] So, uh, we throw another out, uh, Mr. Teresa Rojas who runs the, uh,

[00:15:36] Latin Comic Con up in Modesto, California, when our first year at the, the Latino, uh, comics expo.

[00:15:43] Yeah.

[00:15:43] So y'all got, y'all gotten to go to the show?

[00:15:45] We went, yeah, we went this year.

[00:15:48] I got invited once, but they, but I only had like a couple of weeks to go and like, I didn't have time to actually get a plane ticket.

[00:15:53] That's amazing.

[00:15:54] It's my goal to go one year.

[00:15:55] It's, it's definitely groundbreaking to see our California brothers and sisters, to see how close we are and related.

[00:16:02] Uh, I was here West coast, East coast, you know, Texas separation, but to see.

[00:16:06] We're all in the thinnidad.

[00:16:07] Yeah.

[00:16:08] Hey, Bert, uh, what, uh, what were the challenges when you started approaching Coy Wolf?

[00:16:12] What were the things that you, uh, we're going to like, how did you feel about the concept and the art you're going to have to put with it?

[00:16:19] Yeah.

[00:16:20] What was the thing that booked that first date, the first booking?

[00:16:24] You're like, I definitely have to do this.

[00:16:25] What, what booked me or what booked me?

[00:16:28] What, what drew you into Coy Wolf?

[00:16:30] Uh, Gabe, of course, he's a salesman.

[00:16:35] Hey.

[00:16:36] Um, no, I, I think, you know, uh, when I met Gabe, he was so humble and we were both the same age, kind of the same generation.

[00:16:48] I love San Antonio as a San Antonio boy.

[00:16:50] I'm a Dallas boy, but I went to school in San Antonio.

[00:16:52] Mm-hmm .

[00:16:53] Always have an affinity for San Antonio people.

[00:16:56] And, um, you know, we talked about his mother and that really grabbed me.

[00:17:01] And the character of, of Rosa Marie, who I met, he's introduced me to her a few times.

[00:17:06] And, and she is very much a, like a doer.

[00:17:08] She's just a, a can do kind of person.

[00:17:10] And that's the kind of personality we want in Canalita, our character.

[00:17:15] And, um, Gabe, uh, was, um, what he had was not published.

[00:17:23] And I just wanted to help him.

[00:17:25] Um, what he had so far.

[00:17:28] And it, and I, and he had writing, like he had, I was a, I had a degree in English and I taught creative writing.

[00:17:38] I taught, you know, kids in junior high, high school English, and I analyzed literature and story and have a background and all of that.

[00:17:46] And then of course, a very deep background in comics.

[00:17:49] And the thing that, that, that he lacked was, uh, you know, constant conflict in his story.

[00:17:58] And, and he had a really well developed background of all these different characters, but how do we bring them into conflict was, was where he was, uh, struggling.

[00:18:09] And, and I wanted to help him with that.

[00:18:11] You know, I love that.

[00:18:12] I love that you bring that up.

[00:18:13] Can you guys hear me?

[00:18:14] Well, I was, I was jumping in cause we couldn't hear you for a second.

[00:18:17] Yeah.

[00:18:18] Something paused or something.

[00:18:20] Um, what, what I, what I said was he, he was struggling with creating conflict in his story.

[00:18:25] And, and so I wanted to help him with that.

[00:18:28] And I was, and I, I was in agreement with him and that there was such a starvation, not just in the comic world of representation of us, but even for Gabriel and I, Gabe and I are like second or third generation Mexican American who have been deprived of a lot of our cultures.

[00:18:49] He and I are, he and I are, are coconuts where we're, where we just, we don't know so many things.

[00:18:59] Our Spanish is horrible.

[00:19:02] Uh, you know, my parents were, were spanked and disallowed to speak Spanish when they were in

[00:19:07] school here in Dallas growing up here.

[00:19:09] Dang.

[00:19:10] When I started school, they didn't even want to teach me Spanish.

[00:19:13] They didn't want me to have problems in school.

[00:19:16] Yeah.

[00:19:17] Wanted me to not put in any type of special ed classes or certainly get in trouble.

[00:19:22] And, and so there they had these fears and they even, my mom and dad would even use Spanish to talk to each other.

[00:19:30] So that my brother and I, my brothers and I wouldn't understand.

[00:19:33] Dang.

[00:19:34] Dang.

[00:19:35] Bert, can you do me a favor?

[00:19:36] Can you stop describing my childhood?

[00:19:39] I'm sorry.

[00:19:40] I'm sorry.

[00:19:40] That's right.

[00:19:41] That's right.

[00:19:41] That's right.

[00:19:42] That's right.

[00:19:42] Yeah.

[00:19:43] They would do that to us.

[00:19:44] And, and, and I guess they also kind of assumed all they would learn Spanish as they go along.

[00:19:50] My mother was not a patient teacher, you know?

[00:19:53] Yeah.

[00:19:53] And my father, of course he worked a lot.

[00:19:55] And, and if I heard him, if I heard them speak Spanish, it was through work with other people that they worked with.

[00:20:03] And, and, and, but not, you know, my parents were both some college.

[00:20:09] But I was the first one to graduate from college in my family.

[00:20:13] And I graduated with an English degree of all things and communication and became, you know, a teacher.

[00:20:20] Um, but I didn't, I still didn't know my culture, even though I went to St. Mary's university, which is like 50% Hispanic.

[00:20:30] You know, it's actually, when you go to St. Mary's, it's, it's a culture shock.

[00:20:35] Cause you got San Antonio.

[00:20:37] Oh yeah.

[00:20:38] You got Valley kids.

[00:20:40] You got people from Mexico.

[00:20:43] And I played on the soccer team and some of my teammates were like from, from, uh, uh, Peru, you know, Peru or, or places, other, other places, you know, all over the world or, or they were Haitians.

[00:20:56] It's just like, I'm from Dallas.

[00:20:58] Yeah.

[00:20:58] Yeah.

[00:20:59] One thing I say a lot is that it wasn't until I came to Austin that I really felt like I was connecting with the culture.

[00:21:04] Um, but really kind of getting the broader scope of it too.

[00:21:08] And by the way, you said you can't San Antonio people.

[00:21:10] I lived in San Antonio for five years.

[00:21:12] Oh, of course it was the first five years.

[00:21:14] So I don't really remember much of it, but still technically counts.

[00:21:17] Yeah.

[00:21:17] Yeah, it does.

[00:21:18] Yes.

[00:21:19] I think if I, if I, I lived, I grew up in Dallas, I consider myself a D boy, a Dallas boy, very proud of it.

[00:21:25] Uh, but if I wanted to live anywhere else, it'd definitely be San Antonio.

[00:21:29] I agree.

[00:21:30] Yeah.

[00:21:30] Like I know my way around there, you know, really well.

[00:21:33] The food's better in San Antonio.

[00:21:34] That's for sure.

[00:21:35] It is.

[00:21:35] Right.

[00:21:36] I will admit that.

[00:21:37] Absolutely.

[00:21:38] Right.

[00:21:38] Yeah.

[00:21:40] Yeah.

[00:21:41] I find once you get far enough from the border, it's hard to find really good Mexican food.

[00:21:45] And it's just like, I'm, I'm in Austin and look, I love Austin, but it's hard to find really

[00:21:50] good Mexican food in Austin.

[00:21:51] Yeah.

[00:21:53] Yeah.

[00:21:54] But, but that's kind of the idea.

[00:21:55] You were trying to connect with the culture and, and bring in new characters that, that

[00:21:59] kind of spotlight that.

[00:22:01] Um, there's also a strong indigenous, uh, and, and, uh, like kind of a curandero, a little

[00:22:06] bit of vibe in Koi Wolf where there's that, that, that history there too.

[00:22:10] Um, did, was there a lot of research that went into this?

[00:22:13] Oh God.

[00:22:14] Yes.

[00:22:15] And that, that was part of, of what we wanted to do is we really wanted to, like you said,

[00:22:20] we're starving for our own heritage and culture.

[00:22:23] Yeah.

[00:22:23] Yeah.

[00:22:23] So for Gabe and I, this is an education in it.

[00:22:26] This is an exploration.

[00:22:27] Right.

[00:22:28] As much as the character.

[00:22:29] Absolutely.

[00:22:30] We're, we're feeding ourselves what we lack.

[00:22:33] Yeah.

[00:22:33] All our lives growing up.

[00:22:35] Um, exploring it.

[00:22:38] Right.

[00:22:38] Uh, we, um, I wanted Bert to get a good sense of the background and the setting of Arizona

[00:22:45] because it takes place in a border town, Legales, Arizona.

[00:22:49] Sierra Vista region, uh, south of, uh, not south, maybe more, uh, yeah, south of Tucson.

[00:22:55] And, uh, I wanted, I visited up there a few times and, uh, just fell in love with the,

[00:23:02] the native American folklore, the history of, you know, just the battles, um, the Cochise

[00:23:08] era was in that region and, uh, everything about it.

[00:23:13] Uh, the, the great gold mine, uh, silver mining rush and tombstone region area.

[00:23:19] So I was up there station.

[00:23:21] Uh, my son was stationed up there at a, a very interesting base called Forto Huichuca.

[00:23:25] It was a, uh, a former, uh, Navajo.

[00:23:29] Uh, I mean, when you go back to the history of that day, it was a cavalry base to keep,

[00:23:33] you know, Native Americans into certain reservations and whatnot.

[00:23:36] Since it's moved on and evolved into obviously what it is today.

[00:23:39] But at some point it also was actually, uh, a base that was, uh, used for World War II for Navajo language and for them to change the, the Pacific War.

[00:23:50] So a lot of rich history there, just that alone was just caught me in visiting that base at one point.

[00:23:56] And I, uh, when I met Bert, I was like, you gotta, we gotta come visit this region.

[00:24:00] And you can see the, the beautiful colors of the Western Southwestern skies.

[00:24:06] Right.

[00:24:07] Um, the weather it's, it's hot, 120 at night, maybe 40 degrees in the, I mean,

[00:24:14] everybody doing the day and 40, 40 at night.

[00:24:17] Right.

[00:24:17] So it was like freezing.

[00:24:18] You gotta wear a coat at the end of the night.

[00:24:20] Like what's going on?

[00:24:21] Every time I go through Arizona, it's insane.

[00:24:23] Yeah.

[00:24:24] The temperature changes.

[00:24:26] Bert, uh, we went out there, we, uh, storyboarded it.

[00:24:29] His, his, uh, you know, his history of, of doing comics and children's illustration books.

[00:24:35] Uh, we sat there and had a few beers and under the Arizona night sky is, is beautiful.

[00:24:41] And in a town called Bisbee, beautiful.

[00:24:43] Very romantic.

[00:24:44] Yes.

[00:24:45] Yes.

[00:24:46] Very, very, very interesting town.

[00:24:48] I mean, that's how true partnerships are formed.

[00:24:51] Yeah.

[00:24:51] We sat there and, and, uh, we just created, started writing stuff down, storyboarding

[00:24:55] the first book.

[00:24:56] And, uh, first book is cover.

[00:25:00] I think it was a, it was a masterpiece in my eyes.

[00:25:02] Uh, yeah.

[00:25:03] It was the first thing that draw me to it when I, when I picked up a copy.

[00:25:06] Uh, yeah, it is visually stunning.

[00:25:09] And the research went into that, um, by just picking up, uh, Native American books.

[00:25:14] Uh, Bert's mom, I think she had a, uh, or she did some studies in Native American ancestry.

[00:25:19] Uh, she, she, she loaned us some books that we read and, uh, we wanted to pay, uh, as much

[00:25:24] respect and true respect as we could by integrating the, uh, Navajo or the Native American ancestry

[00:25:30] into the, into the comic.

[00:25:31] Little did we know at that time how integrated, how, um, how many, uh, Hispanics or Latinos

[00:25:39] or not just Latinos or a lot of us are mixed with Native American.

[00:25:43] Oh yeah.

[00:25:44] Uh, so, so much part of our ancestry.

[00:25:46] West Texas.

[00:25:46] So we met through, through the cons throughout the years, a variety of different, uh, people

[00:25:51] that were mixed with Native American, uh, and, uh, being Latino or just American, white

[00:25:57] American, even Angles, you know, in Oklahoma.

[00:25:59] So it was just eyeopening for us and, and they all, uh, love the book so much.

[00:26:05] And of course we, we, we respect it.

[00:26:07] We've had some, a few, uh, Native Americans, uh, from Odessa that actually, um, we brought

[00:26:14] them on as, uh, you know, as, uh, someone who you can trust and, and, uh, they can read

[00:26:19] it over without disrespecting their culture.

[00:26:21] Yeah.

[00:26:22] So, uh, we met a few people up in, in Florida, which is at a con that we were there that was

[00:26:28] actually, uh, Navajo and half Latino, which is a young man that we met.

[00:26:33] And he, I gave him a couple of copies, you know, I wanted to get his, his opinion, you

[00:26:38] know, he came back, he was at a con too.

[00:26:41] I think it was at another booth at the mega con Orlando.

[00:26:44] He came back two days later and shook our hand cause you know, he's like, Hey guys, I

[00:26:49] want, you gotta know that y'all, y'all accurately, uh, um, displaying this particular culture.

[00:26:54] And we do appreciate that.

[00:26:55] And so it was good to see that, you know, that we're actually getting that we're not just,

[00:27:00] uh, any type of disrespect to the, to the cultures.

[00:27:04] Cause we are talking about Latin culture too.

[00:27:06] So it's us, our mothers, you know, we have a daughter.

[00:27:10] We talk about, uh, Latin, Latin culture.

[00:27:12] You talk about native American culture, uh, especially on the border region.

[00:27:16] These are intricately linked.

[00:27:18] Interclined.

[00:27:18] Yeah.

[00:27:18] Yeah.

[00:27:19] Yeah.

[00:27:20] We, we actually met a young woman who was, uh, her mom lived on the, on this side of Odessa,

[00:27:27] Arizona and her father lived in, in Nogales.

[00:27:30] I'm sorry, Nogales, Mexico.

[00:27:32] So she would go back and forth to see her mom and her dad cause her dad still was in Nogales.

[00:27:38] So she would, she would, she was, she told us the tale of traveling back and forth at a small, uh, Mexican, uh, restaurant we ate at.

[00:27:44] So, uh, and, and we stop and take pictures of a lot of the, uh, churches, you know, something about the mystique, right.

[00:27:52] Of the churches that are all in these small little towns.

[00:27:55] Yeah.

[00:27:56] Been there since, you know, early 1900s, you know, you know, it's kind of interesting how long they've been there.

[00:28:02] You see the architecture and how it's changed the community throughout the years.

[00:28:06] So we tend to stop at those and just sit back and just like marvel, like, wow, what would it have been?

[00:28:12] What would it, what I love about some of those small towns is you'll see churches, like you said, that are, that are only, only, I say a hundred years old,

[00:28:19] but they will have a lot of elements of the colonial era, uh, architecture because it's just such a big part of the, of the culture.

[00:28:28] So historical markers.

[00:28:29] So we, you know, we take in a lot of that and, uh, you have to have it to, uh, in order to.

[00:28:34] I know for my art, I, I really needed it.

[00:28:37] When he took me out there, it changed my, my style, my color palette, everything immediately.

[00:28:45] Because I mean, from Dallas, it's just flat land, right?

[00:28:48] Yeah.

[00:28:48] That's all we're looking at.

[00:28:49] Yeah.

[00:28:50] You go out there.

[00:28:51] I'm from the Valley.

[00:28:51] It's literally just flat.

[00:28:53] Yeah.

[00:28:53] But you go there and it's just nothing but rough terrain.

[00:28:59] No Gallas, the neighborhoods are built on hills and, and so it definitely changed my, you know, my art style and some of the things you might see in my background.

[00:29:10] Yeah.

[00:29:11] The houses are very close to together, you know, like the roofs, you can almost jump from one roof to the next.

[00:29:17] So I think that helped us out, put some of the concept of our character and, and, and not just issues, but future issues too.

[00:29:24] That when we have the fighting scenes, attacking scenes, they have different, obviously roofs and, you know, they have the old, uh, cobblestone, perhaps the, uh, the different roofs, you know, it's, it's very interesting how they have it kind of, uh,

[00:29:40] the French colonial, perhaps the old school, uh, roofs they have.

[00:29:44] And of course the, of course the sheet metal roofs, you know, which are, they're all there.

[00:29:49] So it's, it's, it's, it's very interesting.

[00:29:52] Hey, let me ask you guys, you talked about, uh, Florida and you talked about, of course, uh, Modesto, California.

[00:29:57] Um, what has your experience been like at conventions as somebody who's tabling?

[00:30:02] I know, uh, Bert, we just saw you recently at, uh, Mexamerican, right?

[00:30:05] So, so what has it been like, uh, tabling at these things and meeting other creators?

[00:30:11] Every event is a different experience, uh, because we're learning to present ourselves, uh, every time, uh, whether it's the conditions of the show, uh, the, the size of our table, how much room we have, whatever new material we brought with us that we want to try out.

[00:30:30] So if we're always doing something different, almost to the point where it's like, man, we need to get into some kind of groove and, and get our game, you know, in some kind of order.

[00:30:42] But, but I think we're growing and we're getting a little bit better.

[00:30:45] Um, the, um, the shows that, that, uh, we did the other day at Mexamerican, I tried to caricature while I was there.

[00:30:57] I saw you doing that. Yeah. And, and Gabe was really gracious about it. You know, he's like, okay, you know, cause he wants me to make money. He wants me to do a little well, to do well.

[00:31:07] And how dare, right. How dare you? Right. And I did do pretty well, but we were in each other's way, you know, like that there wasn't, there's just not enough room.

[00:31:19] Um, well, we should have gotten two tables maybe or something and be right next to each other. Yeah. If I'm going to do that.

[00:31:25] Um, because if I have people sitting there and I'm trying to draw and then we've got the comic book and some art back there. Yeah.

[00:31:32] There's just not room for people to come in freely and talk to Gabe while I have two people in front of, in front of all of that drawing and all that. But yeah, no, Hey, we, we learned.

[00:31:44] Yeah. We figured out. I think, I think the best part is meeting creators like you guys and y'all's own books. Uh, for me, it's just getting to meet the, to meet the room and, uh, seeing creators alike, indie creators like you guys.

[00:31:56] And, uh, this community, it's, it's unbelievable. It's, it's, it's great. It's amazing. And, uh, so yeah, that's every time we see you guys, we feel, we feel part of something because you make us feel that way.

[00:32:12] And I think that's really what it's all about. Like, like, yeah, I, I need to, to be better and find more ways of how I can help you guys.

[00:32:22] And so when I'm at these shows, my input on what you're doing or advice or example of what I'm tried or shows that I think, you know, you should go check out is the best way I can help my community and help you guys, um, with, with your journey.

[00:32:43] And, and, and then listening to your stories as y'all practice telling me or explaining what your art's all about. Um, and we share those things and, and, you know, we just, I don't know, maybe we're all growing together, but I really want to be able to help, you know, younger artists coming up, um, give them inspiration or advice on a career in art.

[00:33:10] Uh, I've been, uh, in, uh, doing graphic design and illustration as a freelancer for, for many years now.

[00:33:20] And I've been able to, uh, provide for my family through that, which not a lot of artists have that privilege. I've been privileged to be able to do that, to do what I like doing and still, you know, pay bills and put food on the table.

[00:33:37] It's a struggle all the time. And, and sometimes it's feast and famine. Um, but, um, in order to do it, you know, you have to learn how to conduct your business in a certain way.

[00:33:51] Yeah. I like that you put that, that, you know, helping the younger generation and also, you know, like you said, other creators as Freddie would say, who's not here. We're all primos.

[00:33:59] Uh, Gabe, how about you? Have you had any really great experiences at conventions?

[00:34:05] Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, no, first one, I don't know, man, first one hit me hard. I think it was, uh, the first convention in 2020.

[00:34:14] I want to say it was March. Uh, no, no, I'll take it back. It was probably October, wasn't it?

[00:34:19] Yeah. I was going to say, cause March is when everything shut down. I, I, I know that cause I had, I had eight conventions lined up and all of them for the next like three, four months.

[00:34:27] It was the first one that opened up. It was, uh, Midland Odessa, the Odessa Permian Comic Con, our first one.

[00:34:34] Permian. Permian Comic. We have one book.

[00:34:36] Oh, very amazing, yeah.

[00:34:37] Me and Bert. And, uh, you know, I was like, oh man, I'm so excited. You know, uh, never sat behind this side of the booth.

[00:34:43] I'll get, there's my little light bulb that went off, you know, 10 some odd years ago.

[00:34:48] I'm on the other side with, you know, with a great cover and a darn good story and a great artist.

[00:34:55] And, uh, we were behind that book. And, uh, I think, um, for me, the first time being at that show, we met a, uh, a Native American family, uh, half Latino, half Native American.

[00:35:07] They were patchy Rodriguez family and everyone was wearing a mask and really couldn't see their face.

[00:35:12] And, uh, but turns out that most of the people we were speaking to at that, no matter what race, there were some type of indigenous background, which is super cool, which is eye-opening and very enlightening to see West Texas, you know, having the Native Americans there that we've always read in Texas history books.

[00:35:31] And here they are like, whoa, like, well, whatever happened to all the other Texas Indians? Why is it always just this area? But anyway.

[00:35:40] Yeah. It's almost as if there was a group that kind of ran all of them out.

[00:35:44] Yeah.

[00:35:45] Some kind of law enforcement group that still exists today.

[00:35:49] Anyway.

[00:35:50] It's another research story down the road. Yes, you're right. There is such thing.

[00:35:54] And, uh, so this family came up to me and they were pointing at the big wolf, uh, that we had as a poster and they were, uh, I think it was, one was a college student, high school, um, middle school, and then even a little elementary, maybe even one that was three, four years old.

[00:36:11] And they just caught me off guard.

[00:36:13] And it was the end of the day on a Sunday.

[00:36:16] We practically almost sold out of everything if we didn't.

[00:36:19] Um, and that was, we're exhausted.

[00:36:21] Two day Comic-Con.

[00:36:22] I've talked so much.

[00:36:23] It was, I was dead.

[00:36:25] And I, I asked him, I was like, cause he wasn't saying anything.

[00:36:29] I was spilling the whole story.

[00:36:32] And I turned, I looked up at him.

[00:36:34] I said, are y'all Native American?

[00:36:35] You know, and they just nodded.

[00:36:38] And I was like, wow, can I see all his faces?

[00:36:40] If you don't mind.

[00:36:40] They took their mask off and then I could see the indigenous, you know, family that they had a beautiful family.

[00:36:47] And, uh, their parents came over and they, you know, we gave them some, some free stuff.

[00:36:53] It humbled me.

[00:36:54] It was very humbling to, to actually meet, uh, a family that they really loved the book from the, yeah.

[00:37:01] Their reaction.

[00:37:02] Reaction was, was priceless.

[00:37:05] Was priceless.

[00:37:05] And it was like, wow.

[00:37:07] They were so excited about it.

[00:37:09] Yeah.

[00:37:09] So that was, that was, I think for, for me, the, Bert, the reason why we, we went to Midland first.

[00:37:15] I think we were meant to be there at that time, at that place.

[00:37:19] It's very, it's super cool.

[00:38:07] Big question I want to ask you guys is what is coming next for Coywolf?

[00:38:11] How many issues do you have right now?

[00:38:14] We have four.

[00:38:15] Four.

[00:38:16] Okay.

[00:38:16] I think I have two.

[00:38:17] Yeah, you have two.

[00:38:18] So I need, I need to catch up.

[00:38:20] Um, so you have four and, uh, what's, what's coming next?

[00:38:23] The fifth one.

[00:38:25] We're working on it.

[00:38:25] No, what I mean is like, like, do you have like a schedule set up?

[00:38:29] Do you know, like when you want to come out or do you, are you going to do like a crowdfunding

[00:38:32] campaign or what do you have coming up?

[00:38:34] Well, what we're going to do is, is we're going to just finish book five and, and six,

[00:38:42] and that'll end this arc, the story arc.

[00:38:45] And then we're going to take a look at all of them.

[00:38:49] I want to, we want to revise.

[00:38:52] We want to, cause you know, we just did, we didn't.

[00:38:55] We know what we were doing.

[00:38:56] We did.

[00:38:58] And we can see now, as we look back, the little, uh, the little holes, the little disconnects,

[00:39:06] um, even in whether it's in the art, whether it's in the writing, um, and just overall,

[00:39:13] just the, the, the branding across it too.

[00:39:16] I want to solidify that and make it a lot more consistent throughout all the books.

[00:39:20] And what we really want to do once we have all those books done is, is go ahead and do,

[00:39:26] that's when we'll start doing actual Kickstarter book one.

[00:39:32] For the collection.

[00:39:33] To re-release the whole collection, but on a grander scale.

[00:39:38] Second edition.

[00:39:40] Yeah.

[00:39:40] Now that we have a following, we, I think we feel confident enough at that point.

[00:39:46] I know by book six, if we don't have it already that we can bring, you know, how, when you

[00:39:51] do a Kickstarter, you got to bring your own party.

[00:39:53] You know, you got to have a little bit of a following already.

[00:39:56] I think we'll feel confident enough to at least be, do a nice little humble first Kickstarter

[00:40:02] that, you know, I, I feel confident would be successful.

[00:40:07] Um, and just asking just to help us do a re, a larger, you know, reprint of book one, um,

[00:40:15] that's revised off, maybe offers a few more, you know, pages or things inside of it.

[00:40:20] Uh, and then of course be able to offer our readers, you know, maybe, you know, like, uh,

[00:40:27] original drawings or stickers or just, you know, you know how Kickstarter goes.

[00:40:32] You know, I, I do know how Kickstarters go now.

[00:40:35] Here.

[00:40:35] Yeah, yeah.

[00:40:36] Yeah.

[00:40:37] Cause I was going to say, I know that you, that you guys recently got copies of, uh, of,

[00:40:41] a particular Kickstarter and world's war comics, but speaking, but, but I want to change

[00:40:48] gears for a quick second because, you know, we're talking about, uh, celebrating each other

[00:40:52] and helping each other out.

[00:40:53] And then you talk about looking forward to your first Kickstarter.

[00:40:55] And on that note, I want to just really quick point out, speaking of first Kickstarters,

[00:41:00] Elia, how are you doing so far?

[00:41:02] I was, I was picking it up right now and I was looking at it.

[00:41:03] You're at what?

[00:41:04] Uh, 60% already.

[00:41:07] Damn.

[00:41:07] Wow.

[00:41:08] Um, uh, so if you guys aren't familiar, Elia, uh, the spicy illustrations has been doing

[00:41:14] her first Kickstarter, which, uh, you don't mind, could you remind us about that again

[00:41:18] real quick?

[00:41:19] Yeah.

[00:41:19] Plug, plug.

[00:41:22] Yeah, no, I'm, uh, it's going to be, uh, it's a comic duo.

[00:41:25] Um, and it's two different comic books, 30 comic, 30 plus comics each, um, that are gag

[00:41:33] comics based off of two separate years of being tober challenges where I did a comic per prompt

[00:41:39] and made silly comics with it.

[00:41:42] And the first book got released during the pandemic.

[00:41:44] Uh, and I want to give it a second run.

[00:41:46] The second issue, uh, never got a print.

[00:41:49] So I'm debuting it with this Kickstarter and hopefully getting them both out in print.

[00:41:54] Nice.

[00:41:55] That's what we're all about.

[00:41:56] Supporting our artists.

[00:41:57] What's it called?

[00:41:58] I'm trying to wrap my brain, my noodle around what you said.

[00:42:00] What's it called?

[00:42:00] What's it called?

[00:42:01] Uh, I have an inkling volumes one and two.

[00:42:04] I have an inkling.

[00:42:05] So you were able to kind of create story off of the inktober prompt?

[00:42:11] Uh, not so much a story.

[00:42:13] Uh, they were kind of like gag a day comics.

[00:42:15] So like, uh, each day I would try to, I would try to come up with a decent enough joke, uh,

[00:42:20] to make just a quick little four panel comic.

[00:42:23] Okay.

[00:42:24] So like a serial strip.

[00:42:26] Yeah.

[00:42:27] Okay.

[00:42:27] Yeah.

[00:42:28] I dig that.

[00:42:28] Okay.

[00:42:29] Okay.

[00:42:29] It was fun.

[00:42:30] It was super fun.

[00:42:31] Yeah.

[00:42:31] Honestly, I think the idea is bananas, but I like it.

[00:42:35] Hey, it's very appealing.

[00:42:37] That's respect.

[00:42:39] Man, you challenge yourself.

[00:42:40] I'm sure.

[00:42:41] What about you, Kevin?

[00:42:42] I always see challenges like that and I'm like, what if?

[00:42:45] Kevin, don't you and, uh, Frederick Adama or have something out that came out?

[00:42:50] Yeah, well, yeah, he and I are both part of, uh, the Chispa comics, uh, which is with

[00:42:54] the, with the, uh, the 13 origins.

[00:42:56] Uh, his book was number two, I think.

[00:42:59] My book is number 13, which comes out in, in sometime in the next month.

[00:43:03] So we'll see how that goes.

[00:43:05] I'm getting pretty excited about that.

[00:43:06] It's going to be, uh, Coneja, 13 origins, Coneja, which is, yeah.

[00:43:10] So I've been, I've been excited about that for a while.

[00:43:13] Um, and, and actually, you know, hearing about you guys with your, looking forward to your

[00:43:16] first Kickstarter and Elia in your first Kickstarter and me having done my most recent one, I'm

[00:43:22] actually getting pretty excited about it.

[00:43:23] And I'm thinking about doing a second issue of worlds where comics through Kickstarter as

[00:43:28] well, uh, in seeing if I can get that funded that way.

[00:43:31] Cause I, at first I didn't think it would, there'd be much of a market for a second issue

[00:43:36] cause I know first issues or something, but, uh, you know, it seems like might not be a

[00:43:41] bad idea.

[00:43:41] I like it.

[00:43:42] I like it.

[00:43:43] Yeah.

[00:43:44] Do it.

[00:43:44] I can't believe.

[00:43:45] I got a question.

[00:43:46] Go ahead.

[00:43:46] Yeah.

[00:43:47] How does a young, uh, budding artist like myself, uh, get a chance to do a cover for

[00:43:54] Chispa?

[00:43:56] You know, that's actually the thing we have.

[00:43:58] Chispa comics is right now printed through, uh, Scout comics.

[00:44:01] Uh, and they are actually supported by a, uh, media company called Mucho Mas Media.

[00:44:06] Uh, but the, the people running it, uh, are really the editors are, uh, David Bowles and

[00:44:12] Hector Rodriguez.

[00:44:13] David Bowles being the professor out of South Texas has also written a ton of award-winning

[00:44:16] books and, uh, and Hector Rodriguez, the creator of El Paso Hero and also a, uh, a teacher

[00:44:22] like myself and like yourself.

[00:44:24] Uh, so those guys have been putting their feelers out, trying to get more and more Latino, Latina,

[00:44:30] Latine creators, uh, to become part of their upcoming projects.

[00:44:33] Like 13 Origins, for example, focused on Mexican Americans.

[00:44:36] And the next one they're talking about doing one maybe with other parts of Central and

[00:44:40] South America.

[00:44:41] And then they've got other products that just span Latinidad.

[00:44:44] So they're constantly looking for more creators.

[00:44:47] So I think that's a great idea.

[00:44:50] Nice.

[00:44:52] That's one thing I love about this is it's, it's again, it's all about supporting each

[00:44:55] other.

[00:44:56] Um, you know, I first met you guys, I want to say at BIPOC Pop, it might've been at the

[00:44:59] Mix American, but, but I really, I love the concept of, of, you know, Latino, Latino

[00:45:04] creators supporting each other and their projects.

[00:45:08] Um, I always tell the story cause I always think it's kind of funny is that I have some,

[00:45:11] some white friends that were like, well, we don't want to go to Mex American cause we

[00:45:14] don't want to invade your space.

[00:45:15] We're like, we want your money, please come.

[00:45:19] And the thing is, is that like, that's basically what we're doing is we're helping each other

[00:45:23] get our names out there, get our, get our, our projects out there and get them supported.

[00:45:27] Um, and that's why it was so important to have you guys on here.

[00:45:32] Um, if people want to find out more about, uh, Koi Wolf online, um, where can they find

[00:45:39] you guys?

[00:45:40] Uh, so all social media formats is Koi Wolf comic.

[00:45:44] So you'll see Instagram, Facebook, and then the website itself, Koi Wolf comic and, uh,

[00:45:50] Arista illustrations for Bert, you know, based on how he puts out a lot of his original art.

[00:45:56] And then of course, a lot of Koi Wolf stuff on there too.

[00:46:00] So, oh yeah, we have, uh, you know, Instagram.

[00:46:03] I'm just Bert Arista, Robert Arista.

[00:46:07] And then, um, I have a website.

[00:46:09] I have a website that's called Bert Arista creative.com and you might see some Koi Wolf stuff

[00:46:15] on there, but as well, all my other, um, types of art I do.

[00:46:21] You know, I always feel like you guys are playing Koi when it comes to this stuff.

[00:46:24] Just being very, very, very soft.

[00:46:26] Koi, it's funny.

[00:46:27] Did you shh?

[00:46:29] It's Koi Wolf comic.com.

[00:46:31] There's a dot com, Koi Wolf comic.com.

[00:46:33] We're very humble.

[00:46:35] We're very humble.

[00:46:35] Uh, we have a lot of fun with this story.

[00:46:37] I think, uh, we, we were storeboarding earlier today and, and, uh, talking about what Mexican

[00:46:44] folklore creatures are going to come out.

[00:46:46] Cause we're definitely doing that more with book five and six.

[00:46:49] Any spoilers?

[00:46:51] Uh, yeah, we can throw some spoilers out there.

[00:46:53] Um, what, what do you recommend Bert?

[00:46:57] I mean, you know, admittedly, I mean, when, when, uh, Kevin is saying you guys are being

[00:47:02] very coy.

[00:47:02] But I guess admittedly, it's still very much, we're kind of, maybe my wife would definitely

[00:47:08] say, so we're in a hobby phase.

[00:47:11] You know, it's still very much a hobby for, for Gabe and I.

[00:47:15] But I'm telling, I'm telling you when we get book five and six done, we're pretty, I pretty

[00:47:22] much have, you know, all my, uh, my paneling or my, uh, thumbnails, uh, worked out.

[00:47:28] Um, that's, that's when we'll hit it hard and actually approach it like a business and

[00:47:34] say, okay, this is, you know, we're gonna start keeping books actually being a little

[00:47:39] more, um, less coy, less, less independent.

[00:47:43] That's it.

[00:47:45] Try to get a little more, maybe, uh, maybe, uh, Scout Comics will, uh, submit to Kevin

[00:47:50] put a good word in for us, but we don't, we know Hector a little bit, but you know.

[00:47:55] I mean, it's, that's the thing, which it, when it comes to that kind of stuff, I mean,

[00:47:59] I don't want to say networking, but it's more of like, like making friends.

[00:48:01] There's so many people in, in, it's weird to call it indie because like, like you said,

[00:48:07] it's a hobby phase, but no, it's still an industry.

[00:48:09] It's the indie comics industry.

[00:48:11] And we, we are making connections from within it.

[00:48:14] Um, you know, I, some people will say like, oh wait, like your day job's teacher.

[00:48:17] And I'm like, yeah, but I, I, I do that because I enjoy it, but I also get to do comics for

[00:48:23] fun.

[00:48:23] You know, like it's not, not paying the bills.

[00:48:26] You know what I mean?

[00:48:26] On purpose.

[00:48:27] I think, I think we see that a lot in the industry.

[00:48:29] It's, it's pretty tough.

[00:48:30] You know, uh, but I, I'm, I'm an account executive of UPS and I've been doing that for

[00:48:35] 15 years now and, um, you know, the cost of, uh, everything goes up and I haven't seen

[00:48:42] the cost of comic books.

[00:48:43] They, they stay still, you know, the same.

[00:48:46] I'm like, man, how does anyone make money off $2 and 50 cents off a book?

[00:48:50] You know, unfortunately, I don't independent guys.

[00:48:52] There's no way we could survive on that.

[00:48:54] Exactly.

[00:48:55] That's why there's a lot of the independent books go for five and $10.

[00:48:57] We, yeah, we, and we know we have to put a good story out with great art, great storytelling

[00:49:04] because, because we, we, we're going to ask for more and you'll get a lot more.

[00:49:08] And I do like the independent side of it because our, our, our, our Coy Wolf PAC members get

[00:49:14] to hear the story from us directly.

[00:49:17] You know, PAC members get to hear from us and our passion, our passion and storytelling.

[00:49:23] And, and, uh, they see it.

[00:49:25] I think, I think, um, a lot of times they, they pop, they may purchase the book because

[00:49:30] they got to meet us and we're both there, you know?

[00:49:33] So that's important.

[00:49:34] They get the live, the live action, you know?

[00:49:37] You know what?

[00:49:38] Wait, hold on.

[00:49:38] I was going to say that really, that does make a difference.

[00:49:40] I agree, but weird personal thing.

[00:49:42] Whenever my friends have helped run the booth for me, they always sell more comics than

[00:49:46] when I'm there.

[00:49:47] And I think it's because they're more willing to like, just like, you need to get this book.

[00:49:51] And I'm like, well, if you want to, you know, I'm the same way.

[00:49:57] I mean, I guess.

[00:49:59] Like, well, if you really want it, I guess I'll sell it to you.

[00:50:01] All right.

[00:50:03] And sometimes I sell more when they do that.

[00:50:06] Yeah.

[00:50:07] That's what I'm saying.

[00:50:08] Sometimes it just takes the right person to just be the barker and be like, yeah, yeah,

[00:50:11] come get that stuff.

[00:50:11] And when I, when I'm, when I'm at somebody else's table, I'm constantly doing that.

[00:50:14] When I'm at my own table, I'm like.

[00:50:17] Yeah.

[00:50:18] Yeah.

[00:50:18] I like it.

[00:50:20] Well, we talked about that.

[00:50:22] Do you guys have any upcoming conventions that you're going to be at?

[00:50:25] Yeah.

[00:50:27] Or I could do that.

[00:50:28] Just, yeah.

[00:50:30] Well, I'm doing a Metroplex collectors and toy show over in Arlington.

[00:50:38] Okay.

[00:50:39] And that's close to like the 23rd Saturday.

[00:50:44] All right.

[00:50:45] Coming up pretty soon.

[00:50:47] That is, what was the name of that little recreation center or it's called the.

[00:50:57] I just know it's the Metroplex toy show, toy comic show.

[00:51:03] Metroplex toy comic show.

[00:51:05] Yeah.

[00:51:06] It's on social media.

[00:51:07] Yeah.

[00:51:07] Name Leonard McCord.

[00:51:09] He's the, the organizer of it.

[00:51:11] He's the, he'd done, he's done all kinds of toy collector shows.

[00:51:18] And yeah, he, he always invites me to whatever show he goes to.

[00:51:22] He goes, Hey Bert, I'm doing this.

[00:51:23] He's organizing it or not.

[00:51:25] Yeah.

[00:51:25] We'll get out.

[00:51:26] We'll get out and do some toy shows too.

[00:51:28] But you know, my wife gets kind of angry when I bring back more toys.

[00:51:33] That's what we said.

[00:51:35] It's a double-edged sword commission.

[00:51:36] Oh, look what I got, you know.

[00:51:39] Yeah.

[00:51:39] Running out of room over here.

[00:51:41] But you know.

[00:51:44] I'll eat a lot of tacos.

[00:51:46] All's good.

[00:51:47] All right.

[00:51:48] Well, we, we talked about where to find a coy wolf online.

[00:51:51] Elia, could you tell us where to find you online and also what we should be looking for on Kickstarter?

[00:51:56] Yeah.

[00:51:57] Yeah.

[00:51:57] You can find me spiced eliastrations on everything except Twitter because Elon Musk took all my characters away.

[00:52:03] It's just eliastrations on there.

[00:52:05] Yeah.

[00:52:06] I probably won't be using it anymore.

[00:52:08] Yeah, I've already jumped ship.

[00:52:09] Yeah.

[00:52:10] So, but yeah, I'm online.

[00:52:13] My website has changed, but it's undergoing different stuff.

[00:52:18] But I am on Kickstarter.

[00:52:19] I have an inkling.

[00:52:20] We still got two more weeks to go.

[00:52:22] We're at the 60% mark, hoping to reach our goal so we can print some comic books.

[00:52:26] And I actually found that if you just type in Elia Maria as one word in Kickstarter, it goes straight to you.

[00:52:30] So that works out really well.

[00:52:31] I'm writing that down and you'll see a support from us right off the bat.

[00:52:37] Elia Maria.

[00:52:39] And then I have an inkling.

[00:52:40] I love it.

[00:52:41] Yay.

[00:52:42] Thank you.

[00:52:43] Yeah.

[00:52:43] I'm really excited.

[00:52:44] And then just be on the lookout on my socials.

[00:52:46] Princesa Tacos coming in 2025.

[00:52:50] Awesome.

[00:52:51] Elia, I think you can also maybe do another Moonlight career as an advisor or maybe like how to set up for these podcasts.

[00:53:02] Because you look great.

[00:53:05] Like you're set up perfect.

[00:53:08] Your life is amazing.

[00:53:10] Your background is cool.

[00:53:11] But look at all us guys.

[00:53:13] Look at the way we look.

[00:53:14] And that's her art on that glowing guy back there too.

[00:53:17] Yeah.

[00:53:18] Look, our lighting is horrible.

[00:53:19] I'm like.

[00:53:20] No.

[00:53:21] It's all good.

[00:53:22] Elia, have you.

[00:53:22] Because of my live stream.

[00:53:24] I was going to say.

[00:53:24] Dang it.

[00:53:25] You beat me to it.

[00:53:25] I was about to say, Elia, have you considered doing any live streams?

[00:53:28] Have you considered that?

[00:53:30] Yeah.

[00:53:30] Who's the creepy guy in the back?

[00:53:32] That's what I'm trying to figure out.

[00:53:34] Oh, that's Pitbull.

[00:53:35] Mr. Worldwide.

[00:53:36] Oh, Mr. Worldwide.

[00:53:39] I love it.

[00:53:40] I always love when somebody notices him.

[00:53:43] Yeah.

[00:53:43] There's the little hands.

[00:53:44] There is the little hands.

[00:53:45] Yeah, there's the little hands.

[00:53:45] There's a little hand clap.

[00:53:46] No, you have little hands.

[00:53:47] Oh, my little hands.

[00:53:48] Yeah, there's the little hands.

[00:53:49] There we go.

[00:53:49] My little hands are on the shelf right now.

[00:53:50] Some of us.

[00:53:53] We always got to be ready when it comes to this.

[00:53:55] Is this something that they've been doing new?

[00:53:58] It's kind of like, hey.

[00:54:01] Well, I don't know.

[00:54:01] You know one thing that people pick on me for is whenever somebody takes my photo, I always

[00:54:04] kind of do some forced perspective with my hands.

[00:54:07] I got you doing that in my blog for Mexamerican.

[00:54:12] Well, on that note, my name is Kevin Garcia, and you can find me at kevingarcia.com, and

[00:54:19] I'm on most socials at kevingarcia underscore com.

[00:54:21] I actually abandoned Twitter a long time ago because I never really enjoyed using it, but

[00:54:26] I am dipping my toes into blue sky.

[00:54:29] They won't let me use characters, so it's not underscore there.

[00:54:32] It's just Kevin Garcia.

[00:54:33] Yeah, so trying that out.

[00:54:36] It seems a lot of people are trying out blue sky lately, so I'm checking that out to see

[00:54:38] what that environment's like for creators.

[00:54:42] But on that note, this is My Primo's Podcast.

[00:54:44] You can find us at myprimoespodcast.com, and of course, on all of the socials at My Primo's

[00:54:49] Podcast because we're all primos, and we all want to podcast.

[00:54:55] Everybody.

[00:54:55] Every single one of us.

[00:54:58] Thank you all for coming, and remember, wherever you are, you're a primo too.

[00:55:03] And we out!

[00:55:04] Thank you.

[00:55:05] Thank you for watching this week's My Primo's Podcast.

[00:55:09] My Primo's Podcast is produced by Zikume and My Primo's Media.

[00:55:16] Big shout out to our guest, Coy Wolf Comic.

[00:55:20] Check out their work at Coy Wolf Comic.

[00:55:23] Amazing book.

[00:55:24] Great guest.

[00:55:25] Great writer.

[00:55:26] Great artist.

[00:55:26] Check them out.

[00:55:27] I want to thank the host this week, El Maria Madrid.

[00:55:34] Check her out at...

[00:55:36] Check her out at...

[00:55:37] And of course, Mr. Kevin Garcia.

[00:55:41] At KevinGarcia underscore com.

[00:55:47] Huge, huge thank you to Sin Color.

[00:55:55] Providing the music for the show all season long.

[00:55:58] Check them out at...

[00:56:08] And Primo's, remember, we have our final episode coming up next week.

[00:56:12] Can't believe we've reached this far already.

[00:56:16] But remember, Primo's, check out the show at My Primo's Podcast.

[00:56:19] And also, media.

[00:56:21] And don't forget, I have an eight-link.

[00:56:23] Elia's Kickstarter is still live.

[00:56:25] Go help get this made, Primo's.

[00:56:28] Let's make it happen for her.

[00:56:30] And remember, no matter where you're from, we're all Primo's.

[00:56:34] Check in on each other.

[00:56:36] Take care of each other.

[00:56:37] Adios.