Russ is an idea that I came up with, oh 10 years ago! Wow! A decade! A lot has happened in those ten years. Russ has gone through quite a transformation. Not only in appearance but also in story. The basic premise as some of you might know, is the story of a young boy who lives in an orphanage where the doctors who run it are bent on creating the perfect specimen, so they use the boys in the orphanage as their guinea pigs.
A friend of mine, David Quiles described Russ as a "sci-fi, urban tale". I like that. Why? well because it is, or at least that's how it started. The story is definitely "sci-fi" why with all those scientist running around experimenting on kids. And it was "urban" because of the style it was originally drawn in. Growing up in the late eighties to mid nineties, I was heavily influenced by hip hop and graffiti style art, so when I designed the original sketches for Russ, I threw in that hip hop-baggy-clothes style of that era. But like I said earlier, Russ has gone through quite a transformation. Today, Russ has acquired a different style. It's moved more towards manga. When I hired the current artists to take on the project late last year, I asked them to give me The Boondocks meets Dragon Ball Z as far as art style. And they answered the call!
The story is a 6-part mini series (Anibal can tell you how he feels about "6-part story archs") due out as a graphic novel in early 2010. Currently we are starting art work on the fifth book. Here's a sneak peak at the cover for issue#4. We are very excited about this project and as the release date approaches, we will have more updates. Talk to you guys soon.
Medinamus
Hey all Arroyocus here,,,just wanted to say good stuff Medinamus,,,,I like the little Russ5377 history lesson you provided. The sci-fi meets urban description,,,wow very precise. Quiles is right on the mark with that comment.
ReplyDeleteOk ok here it is I am addressing my issue with 6 issue runs,,,particularly with in the indie market. The question is why 6 ? Is it becuase there is a misplaced overly ambitious if not also naive notion that your book will get done on time and on schedule. Ok I get it if you want to do a bi-monthly series 12 months in a year an issue every 2 months blah blah blah, I can do the math and make sense of it. What does not make sense to me is actually coming out as an indie and saying,,I want my book to be a six issue run ,,,period. I am gonna make an effort to ask indie creators why they choose 6 as the magic number. The approach that clearly and decisively makes alot of sense to me , is when attempting an indie book, just tell the story ,whether you are a writer or artist in as many chapters, issues, volumes or what not as it will actually take you. Do not start off trying to fit into the mold that has been established by the big guys. In case you all have forgotten they actually have the man power, its not just one dude in his basement doing a four man job alone.Whew,,,ok got that off my chest,damn I should have made this a blog,,oh well,,,,,
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