KA-BOOM! Studio

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-13T19:42:00.002-06:00

JIGSAWS

2011-08-22T20:08:00.002-05:00

These are some images that our studio members Alex Palomares and Mariana Moreno did for jigsaws that are now out for sale at Wal-Mart's Prichos shops in Mexico.

Pencils and Inks: Alex Palomares.
Color: Mariana Moreno.

Pencil, Inks and color: Mariana Moreno.

These others were done as samples for the client.

Pencils and Inks: Alex Palomares.
Color: Mariana Moreno.

Pencil, Inks and color: Mariana Moreno.

DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES

2011-08-20T14:49:00.003-05:00

This is a limited edition art print we did as a commission for our LA friend and comic book writer, Philip Victor, to promote Mexican writer, Reyna Grande's book Dancing With Butterflies.
We're all so happy she liked our work, it was really a pleasure to work with you guys!
We really recommend Reyna's books and Philip Victor's comic books for all eager readers!

Art (pencil, ink, color): Mariana Moreno.
Design: Mauricio Cosío.

PEACE MAN

2011-08-20T14:08:00.002-05:00

These are the art pages Ka-Boom! Studio did as a commission for our LA friend and writer, Philip Victor, for his comic book Peace Man, which he launched last weekend during the Free Comic Book Day at the Geeks Comics store.

Pencils and color: Mariana Moreno
Inks: Alex Palomares
Design: Mauricio Cosío

HAPPY HOLYDAYS

2010-12-18T00:06:00.003-06:00

Mike Kunkel & ¡Ka-Boom! in the PyMe Week/Mike Kunkel y ¡Ka-Boom! en la Semana PyME

2010-11-04T11:22:00.001-06:00

Conferencia: Mike Kunkel y ANIAMEAD/¡Ka-Boom! Estudio, Viernes 5 de Noviembre, 6:00 P.M. durante la Semana Nacional PyME, en el Centro Banamex. ¡Los Esperamos!

¡Ka-Boom! Estudio will attend the PyME week from November 1-5, that will be held at Centro Banamex in the Technological Innovation pavilion, at Stand 105 and 106, as a member of the National Association of the Audiovisual, Multimedia Entertainment and Digital Arts Industry. The goal is to make an industry in the comic book, animation, videogame and multimedia fields. Entrance is free, you just have to pre-register or register-in site at the entrance.

¡Ka-Boom! Estudio estará presente del 1 al 5 de Noviembre en la Semana Pyme, que se realizará en el Centro Banamex en el pabellón de Innovación Tecnológica, en el Stand 105, y 106, como miembro de la Asociación Nacional de la Industria Audovisual, Multimedia, del Entretenimiento y las Artes Digitales (ANIAMEAD). Esto con el fin de hacer una industria en el ramo de los comics, Animación, Videojuegos y Multimedia. La Entrada es gratuita, sólo tienen que preregistrarse en el sitio o registrarse en la entrada del evento.

THE REVOLUTION CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

2010-09-08T14:08:00.005-05:00

We did the artwork for an informative pamphlet of Coahuila's state Government, being supervised by the Independence Bicentennial and the Revolution Centennial Celebration Committee. (2007)

Script Adaptation: Susie Romero.
Pencils: Mariana Moreno.
Inks: Alejandro Palomares.
Color: Tonatiuh Rocha.

NAFTA TRADING COMIK BOOK

2010-09-08T13:38:00.003-05:00

These are some pages of a 16-page comic book we did two years ago as an assignment for a company dedicated to international trading. The plot tries to teach people who want to start a personal business how to become involved into international trading in a legal and safe way.

Script: Susie Romero.
Pencils and color: Mariana Moreno.
inks: Alex Palomares.

ALEBRICHES NOTEBOOKS

2010-09-08T13:16:00.004-05:00

The scholar notebook brand, Estrella®, recently launched its products with the characters we designed called Alebriches.

I think they look really great, full of color and really attractive for the young audience!

You can see their new notebook designs at their official website.

Design, Pencils, and color: Mariana Moreno
Inks: Alejandro Palomares

COQUETA & AUDAZ

2010-09-08T12:52:00.002-05:00

Last March, some of the Ka-Boomers went to León, the capital city of Guanajuato, a Mexican northern state, to give out some lectures to high school students about the comic book industry. After the lectures, they went for a walk and found out this helicopter at the "Explore Park". At its sides, it had the mascot designs I did for the shoe company "Coqueta & Audaz".

Also, they found these toys and figurines at a shoe shop nearby.

COMING SOON...

2010-03-17T00:19:00.001-06:00

WE'VE STARTED!

2010-02-08T16:38:00.002-06:00

Friends, we invite you to our new K! Web-comics website, where the members of our Studio will present to you, little by little, comic strips and complete 32-page comic books from different titles. For now, a daily strip will be uploaded, but as an inauguration, we published this week, as premiere, the first strips: "Joe's World", Hoachinton D.C., "Square Chronikles", "Palomitas Countrly", "Mayi", and for now it's "Joe's World"'s turn. The site address is: http://ka-boom.com.mx/kronikas
We expect you all!

WEBCOMICS K!

2010-02-04T18:55:00.002-06:00

Dear friends, we invite you to visit next monday our virtual drawing table opening where we'll show you comic strips of several ¡Ka-Boom! Estudio universes. There'll be a daily strip form monday through friday and little by little the titles and the delivery format will eventually grow little by little.
We have planned to upload very soon, not only the strips but also complete monthly comics, in a page-a-day format until 32 pages books are completed. These way, our cyber-readers will be able to read a page each day or wait until a monthly comic is completed to read it.
The site will be available in English and Spanish and soon hope to translate to French and Japanese. You'll be able to enjoy it for free, nevertheless, we ask all the persons who value this art form to support our Studio by making donations according to what you consider our work is worth.
On monday we'll share our webcomic adress named Square Chronikles so you all can have fun with us and to allow friends from other countries to get to know our culture and the ¡Ka-Boom! way of developing our comics.

DEVIANTART GROUP K!

2009-12-29T20:35:00.002-06:00

We'd like to invite all of our friends to visit our new DeviantArt group called "¡Ka-Boom! Estudio", where you'll be able to see all illustrations, sketches, designs and mascots created by each of our creative studio's members, all in a single place.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-12-21T16:26:00.002-06:00

VITAL QUESTION

2009-09-09T20:02:00.010-05:00

Dear friends...I wish to share with you some preoccupations we have here at the Estudio, which have forced us to look for new alternatives to continue ahead with our goals. It's for all well known that the economic situation is just terrible, and regardless we continue with our dreams of editing comics in paper, just as we're doing it with "Karmatron" (issue no.12 coming soon), we'll try more seriously with the so called web-comics, and here is when our doubts start concerning our readers and ¡Ka-Boom! Estudio's followers.

As you know, during the time we started working on comic books, the publishing house industry generated a lot of money with which everyone who dedicated ourselves professionally to comics could survive. Ever so often, comic books appeared and disappeared because there was a great demand, but above all, family-themed comic books were done. This was later forgotten and everything that had been gained just tumbled down, since there was nothing left for the children and the family, a problem which we had already talked about before. Children's comic books were not done anymore and now we're suffering the consequences...Manga is now the master and lord.

But well, we shall talk about that in some other occasion. Many old and new artists lived from doing comic books for many years, and during the 90's we started feeling some silent devastation caused by diverse circumstances, and that's how our struggle to reactivate our industry and generate job sources began. We've done many attempts which as independents they've been difficult to survive, even the simple fact of trying. Even now publishing Karmatron, we won't be able to to do much until it reaches the wished periodicity and when we have from 2 to 3 titles, for us to start as a company to really get launched economically. So, what else can we do as sequential art professionals? How can we manage to support ourselves simply just for eating? I'm saying this because we really are an endangered species, and in spite comics are raw material for film, tv, videogames, etc., everything stays inside the inkwell, the good stuff only occurs in countries where industry really exists, not in Mexico.

The ones who know us, know about our dream and that we don't do this just for absurd nationalism. We truly believe that our country is a great talent and stories producer, and it's got potential readers, who along with these ingredients, our industry may reborn. The problem is to get enough fuel to launch, and either there's none or the ones who have it just don't want to share it. And I'd like to express and in spite of the circumstances, at least from our part, that we won't give up and we'll keep trying once and again to give out products specially for our Mexican readers and also, why not?, for people around the world so they get to know our stories.

It takes a long time and a lot of effort to do our job, which takes most of one's time. Sometimes we need our days to be of 48 hours or more. The problem is that either we work to gain money with our art or we upload it to the web so that everyone may get it for free, and literally, we wouldn't have any income source for our basic needs. To do comic books implies to really do them with the same traits as the printed ones are done, with periodicity, professionalism, dedication and high quality; it's not only to play doing comics and experiments, since to dedicate a 100% of one's life just to upload something to the web without any retribution won't create a real virtual product.

In regard to web-comics, at least in our country, one cannot live from this yet, and unfortunately, it's the path for us to follow. Even though there have been attempts, and they do have generated some money for their creators, it's still not the ideal option, but I repeat, it's the path to follow provoked by the circumstances.

We, the ¡Ka-Boomers!, have several projects to be printed on paper, but as things are going now, we believe we can upload them to the web, and later in the future publish them for the audience that still prefers printed comic books either due to their personal preference or their lack of internet, and they don't wish it. In the internet the game's rules are different even for publishing a web-comic, it has its special traits, one has advantages and disadvantages, as in everything else, but we think it is a medium to intensify the flame of fantasy and illusion to impact traditional media.

We'll soon upload our comic strips and pages site, in English and in Spanish, adding it to our virtual publishing house, K'az In Vol. This is why I'd like to ask the readers of our creative group and those who may sympathize with our cause, if they'd be willing to pay monthly whatever amount you may consider our work is worth (this, of course, is voluntary), from one peso to 25 pesos. Either way you'd be able to see them for free. This is a matter of consciousness and valorization of our work and as a support in order to continue producing our virtual comics to entertain you, and also to gather founds for us to finance our paper publications. We've reached the end of the road, where, according to circumstances, either we'll have to work for other companies, and Karmatron and the rest of the universes created by us will remain as an illusion, or...our dream may become concreted.

Karmatron's printed edition will continue to be published, since I have an agreement with the printer, we only have some delays, but we want to live our adventure with the web-comics in a serious and professional way, I repeat, not as an experiment but as a way to generate a type of continuous entertainment so that it may benefit the creators and the readers.

KA-BOOM! STUDIO AT CUANTICA MEDIA

2009-04-13T18:44:00.003-05:00

We remind you that you can listen to our Internet radio program all Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:00pm (Mexico City time), throught Cuantica Media, and during the program you can communicate with us through our instant hotmail msn: cuanticamedia@hotmail.com
In an informal way, as in a casual conversation, all Tuesdays we talk about comics, science fiction and fantasy, but above all, we talk about the way comics are done from our professional points of view and also about the troubles we must face; On Thursdays we talk about esoteric-oriented subjects (ufos, parapsychology, lost continents, philosophy, etc).
If you wish to review the programs' schedules you can also visit Cuantica Radio's blog.

K'AZ IN VOL ONLINE

2008-09-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

YEESSS!!! We've just launched our new e-comic website: K'az In Vol ("This is my Energy" in Mayan). Here we'll be publishing our comic book works along with comic strips and new upcoming projects. You can't miss it! First, every week we'll be posting two 36 paged comic books from my project "Karmatron y los Transformables" from the eighties' classic era (1986-1991). Back then, I did each issue within 7 days (4 days for inside pages, one for front and back covers and two for color) and was published weekly. Later on, we'll be uploading more and more pages from our many other titles. You can visit and read Karmatron's first issue here . It's in Spanish, but we'll soon upload it in English, French and Japanese. Stay Tuned and hope you enjoy!! I want to personally acknowledge and thank Tonatiuh Rocha, Mauricio Cosío and Eduardo Santiago for their technological and programming work for the new website, and Susy Romero for scanning all of Karmatron's issues.

KARMATRON ONLINE

2008-09-15T20:12:00.002-05:00

K'AZ IN VOL ONLINE

2008-09-15T16:34:00.001-05:00

GET PREPARED, MY FRIENDS!!!!

2008-08-28T00:36:00.003-05:00

In the course of 6 years, around the 80's, a superhero, that first fascinated children and then adults of that time, was born. Entire families sat to share the adventures of the enigmatic character that took them by the hand to planet Meru, where all heartfelt children live and dream up.

Oscar González Loyo, his creator, never imagined the strength and world he was building, Karmatron and the Transformables would leave a Silence mark within each one that had met the character...

For everyone that didn't have the chance and the space-time to live and share this adventures, now, thanks to the technology will be able to enjoy the story of this lineage of Warriors that fight for the spiritual evolution of the beings... and for a everyone's sake: The Kundalini Warriors.

The moment is close... very soon you'll be able to know in it's original essence the hero that marked an era.

WEBCOMICS K!

2008-08-12T16:12:00.009-05:00

Friends of ¡Ka-Boom! Estudio, we'll soon have a new web site where our group's members will show you several of our author comics in a web-comic format and for free, just as we did it back in 1996 with "Saskunah the Mayan"'s comic.

The Web-comic is an alternate way for us, and, as we've said thousands of times at several forums, our immediate goal is to reactivate (for us) printed comics in our country, since we're absolutely sure that printed media still has so much to give. With this, we'll have two new sites, one for comic strips only and another one for the virtual K'az In Vol.

We'll soon be giving you the site's address, where you'll be able to see our Online Comics. And to thank our Karmatron fans, we'll upload every week two episodes from Karmatron's classic series, which was published during the 80's. This will be previous to the same title's printed version, which will continue from issue no.9, where the story is new and improved, as many who have acquired the first eight issues have already proved true.

BRUCE LEE IN READERS DIGEST

2008-06-21T13:29:00.007-05:00

This Month in Reader's Digest Magazine Mexico:

Art by Horacio Sandoval & Mauricio Cosío.

COCA-COLA HAPPINES FACTORY OFFICIAL COMIC BOOK

2008-06-17T00:15:00.011-05:00

We have an interesting story about a project we made not so long ago...

In December 2007 we received a call from Z Publicidad, the Mexican Advertisement Agency for Coca-Cola. Z Publicidad, along with Z Graphics were involved in re-designing Coke's image and were, as we understand, the first Advertisement Agency in history to develop a global campaign for the brand outside of the USA which was: The Coke side of life.

We met Pablo Rovalo, Director of Z Graphics a couple of years ago (though Oscar met him when they were kids), he and his team of designers and creative people developed the Coke bottle silhouette that has traveled the world... it's amazing, just a couple of days ago I saw some photos from Tokyo with the images and campaign that was created in Mexico, and it's great to know that a campaign like this, so fresh and with such a heart-felt message about life had come from people I have worked with.

Z Publicidad was founded in the 1980's by then-DJ's Alejandro González-Iñárritu and his best college friend, Martín Hernández. And today they are established as a major player in advertisement, design and sound (which they design for movies through Z Tracks).

After that phone call, we had a meeting at Z and also found out that Pablo had left the company in the beginning of the Fall and now lives in Barcelona; so we met another part of the staff. This time they had a special project that required extra-speed: an 8 page comic book that had to be ready to print in 2 weeks, revisions and approval would come from Z, and Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta.

This would be an adaptation of an animation short developed earlier in 2007 called "The Happines Factory"... there had already been a previous short that portrayed the same universe and characters. This one looked even better.

After the briefing, we all looked at each other in that moment and knew that we were in the nick of time. This would be a project that would have to take full-time 3-4 artists for the next days. And so, came on board Susy Romero (adaptation & lettering) Mariana Moreno (pencils), Alex Palomares (inks) and Tonatiuh Rocha (color) .

We agreed to develop the project.

The next weeks were a big effort for everyone at the Studio. Perhaps the greatest challenge for us, graphically, was to achieve the likeness of the Coca-Cola bottle that the people from Atlanta were looking for, established in style guides. But it paid of.

When I delivered the finished files to Z, I was greeted by hugs and congratulations from the whole staff, thanking us for the support, the speed, and the quality of the work. "No way! Did you made this?!"... Some people at Z couldn't believe that this was Mexican-made.

... Perhaps just as some people around the globe are surely amazed by the origin and results of the 'Coke side of life campaign'.

Needless to say, Coca-Cola was also really happy with the results.

And after 2 weeks of seeing the beverage on the computer screens, artwork and e-mails... well, we HAD to toast with Coke on the success of the project that now gives us the nickname of "Advertisement's Graphic SWAT Team" (no kidding).

KARMATRON...AGAIN

2008-01-04T22:50:00.003-06:00

Greetings from Ka-boom! Studio...

After so many obstacles and false starts, we begin the year with excellent news: we now have a new ally who will support us with Karmatron's relaunch from issue number 6 and other projects from K!, At last it seems our dream is being concreted, and if everything goes right we'll be able to publish several works from our Studio, nevertheless, even-though we already count with an ally's support and soon we'll activate our publications, this won't guarantee its permanence, so taking advantage of you once again, since we have always had your unconditional support, in these moments we need more than ever all your help in order that this relaunch won't be another false start, the needed help consists on the following:

The reactivation of the ones who already have been K! Promoters.

_Pass on the news about our comic book being soon published in order to reencounter our old readers from the classic era who never knew about Karmatron's new edition, and above all, promote the comic ,under your possibilities, among those of your acquaintances who had never read our stories.

_Help the K! promoters who are close to your locations to contact more people and points of purchase.

_ Tell all your known Karmareaders and all contacted people to write us so we can update our databases since many of our friends have changed their addresses and phone numbers.

As a first stage we'll use our own K! resources to distribute the comic:

_K! promoters.

_Points of purchase with direct contact (comic book stores, bookstores and other stores).

_Subscriptions.

_Events and conferences

If anyone would like to support us by becoming a K! Promoter or K! Supervisor without taking any of your time from your normal occupations, or if you'd like to know about a determined point of purchase or K! Promoter who is located close to you, you can communicate with our Traffic Manager, Lalo Mendoza, who can advise you about anything related to comic book shipments and receptions by calling to these numbers: (+5255) 5562 58 46 / (+5255) 5572 62 45, cellphone: 04455 31 01 77 70 or you can write to him to estudio@ka-boom.com.mx with a copy to karmatron@ka-boom.com.mx

Lalo will get in touch with the already activated K! Promoters.

So now you know, we're about to publish it again from issue number 6 and we thank you all your support, since as and independent publishing house in our country, we have had to elude many obstacles and troubles, which have been almost solved.

That's why I ask you to be in constant contact with us through our e-mail or visit us at www.ka-boom.com.mx where at the "Ka-Boom! Informa" (Ka-Boom! informs you) news section we'll announce the official news about the comic's publication.

The ones who yet don't have the first five issues and the Kundalini Manual, you can get them directly with us, for that, remember you can write to Lalo Mendoza at: estudio@ka-boom.com.mx

On other side, I invite you to my Blog Emelkin where I also keep you informed about what professionally and personally happens to us.

And at Sketch Book you'll find all of my work since 1974.

And listen to our internet radio program: ¡Ka-Boom! Estudio Una explosión de la Imaginación (Ka-boom! Studio An imagination's explosion) through http://www.cuanticamedia.com all Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm. In order to communicate with each other, you can write to us through the station's instant messenger: cuanticamedia@hotmail.com

Thank you very much for all your support and we shall keep in touch, and it's so good to re-contact old friends.

Oscar González Loyo

(+5255)
55726245
55625846
04455 31 01 77 70
55629506

NEW CLIENT!

2007-10-01T23:20:00.002-05:00

Last week, Mexico's office received confirmation from Geneva, Switzerland: Our postcard got approved.

We have a new client, with whom we are glad to help Mexican children through our work: UNICEF Mexico.

On December there'll be an exclusive postcard that'll be distributed to Telcel's (one of the mayor cell phone service providers in the country) workers around the country crafted here, at ¡Ka-Boom! with art by Horacio Sandoval.

We hope that this'll be the first of many contributions to this Organization. :-)

BUBBLEGUMMERS' COSTUMED CHARACTERS

2007-08-26T19:57:00.004-05:00

Earlier on, in this blog, we have shared other adventures regarding the re-design of Bubblegummers characters', Amy, Tim and Cat. It's been quite a ride since the beginning! :-)

Today, the characters that we developed are being used in more than 70 countries in 5 continents (!).

Some months ago, the costumed characters, based on our designs, were manufactured here in Mexico and shipped to the Latin American countries where the brand has presence.

The pictures that are shown are from the final models on the day of the final ergonomic (human factors) tests.

These characters started appearing in TV morning and contest shows in Mexico, late 2006, doing publicity for the brand.

Although the making of the costumed mascots project, isn't related to us, the use of the costumes and character's etiquette and behavior were part of the character's universe and guide that we hand to the client each time we develop a project like this.

There's much magic and fantasy involved in the client's vision and desires for the brand, which is to communicate that magic and fantasy to the children. Our mission, as a professional Studio is to make the guidelines so this can translate into the realm without changing a bit from the initial concept.

CORPORATE MASCOTS

2007-08-06T21:47:00.003-05:00

This is a selection of mascots we've developed during the last few years, including work for Nestlé, Bata International, Calzado Coqueta and Granja del Tío Pepe.

Further on, we'll talk more about this projects.

Best regards!

PORTFOLIOS

2007-06-12T17:25:00.003-05:00

If you wish to see our portfolios, you can visit these blogs, which are in English and Spanish:

http://sketchbookdeogl.blogspot.com/

http://susyscripts.blogspot.com/

http://sketchebookdehoacho.blogspot.com/

http://sketchbookdemm.blogspot.com/

KA BOOM! CHARACTERS

2007-04-09T14:41:00.003-05:00

These are some K! characters, but made in my own style.

XPCTRM

Nearl of " El Canto del Dragón".

Angel of " Cazadores de zombies"

KARMATRON'S 21st. ANNIVERSARY

2007-04-08T17:43:00.002-05:00

This text was written by Oscar González Loyo, after this year Karmatron's celebration, and was published originally in his blog.

---

Yesterday was one of the most wonderful days related to Karmatron and my fans because, just as last year, some of my readers came from different parts of the country only to celebrate Karma's birthday. They came form Reynosa, Puebla, Sonora, Zacatecas, Cozumel, Manzanillo, Michoacan and, of course, from Mexico City, besides we counted with Javier Rivero's presence, our beloved friend and wonderful dubbing actor. Also, Dulce Leyva and her group "La Sociedad Mágica" (The Magical Society) joined us.

In this occasion, the celebration was different than the one last year because we did it in a more personal and home-made way. The reunion was done at the Studio, being this even more important due to the fact that that was the last Saturday we spent at that house. Tomorrow or Tuesday we will be living in a new site of operations situated just a few steps ago from the Base-Studio where everything began... our dear Alteña 1.

The celebration was great, and I, personally, as well as Susy and the rest of the K!'s, were moved by the fact of all of our dear friends coming from such far away places to celebrate a character's birthday, which, every time I get more convinced, that took a very important part in their lives because it truly takes a lot of interest to travel, I repeat, from such far away places in order to celebrate a comic cartoon character's birthday. This reunion was organized by the Karma-list members from Yahoo-Groups, and I think my son Saday, along with Carlos Bargalló, had a lot to do with it. In this event, we officially agreed that all of the people who follow our cause are real Ka-boomers! It's not necessary to be a writer or an artist, and I told them that if we could prosper, ¡Ka-Boom! Studio would be at their service unconditionally.

Saday, using his newly acquired knowledge at the Cuisine School, cooked us some delicious mushroom-stuffed snacks...some K!s and friends form "La Sociedad Mágica" joined the club, the only thing that went wrong is that they ate all of the snacks and they never reached their original destination, he he he.

After the reunion and having drawn some sketches for the guests, at night, we cut cakes and ate vanilla ice-cream to say farewell since some of them had to return to their origin places and others had personal night events.

This is how we spent our last Saturday at the Studio located at Lomas de Cristy, where we spent many wonderful years with its sad and happy moments, but we shall always remember them with love, ready to start another adventure to infinity and beyond...

KARMATRON'S NEW MERCHANDISE

2007-03-25T17:12:00.003-06:00

Over the past few hours, we've updated our virtual store with more cool ¡Ka-Boom's! merchandise, this time featuring items with Karmatron's logo on it.

Check them out! Thanks a lot for the suggestions!

BTW, also be sure to check out our virtual encyclopedia of Karmatron's Universe, the KarmaWiki project, which is just days away of turning one year old. Thanks a lot to all the librarians, fans and collaborators that keep this project growing and growing day after day. :-)

A fun way to practice your Spanish and learn more about our favorite cybernetic giant.

Best!

--
M.

BUBBLEGUMMERS IN LAS VEGAS 2

2007-03-01T18:19:00.003-06:00

Remember this post?

Well, this are some pics from the Las Vegas show featuring our artwork in Bubblegummer's booth.

The brand also used some previous work taken from the comic book artwork we made last year, with art by Mariana Moreno, inks by Alex Palomares and color by Tonatiuh Rocha.

Boy, we sure have had fun with this project!

HAPPY B-DAY, KARMATRON!

2007-02-16T12:09:00.002-06:00

21 years old today, the young lad. Keep the Fantasy going forever! Congrats from the bottom of my heart and every pore!
Illo. by Alex Palomares & me.

--
M!

BUBBLEGUMMERS IN LAS VEGAS

2007-02-04T12:47:00.004-06:00

Today marks the last day of the World Shoes Association Show. This year, Bubblegummers, was on the show too, at Mandalay Bay's Convention Center, Level 1, Booth 24177.

We already mentioned this K's! client in a previous post, which you can read by clicking here.

The special mention of the WSA event is because we worked with the brand by doing some illustrations that they used to decorate their stand.

Karin del Castillo (the USA sales representative), the person with whom we started working in the development and re-design of Amy, Tim and Cat started planning this and teamed-up with us in late December.

She briefed us about the importance of the event, showed us the new models that would be shown in the stand and the thematic orientation of the stand's decoration. There'd be 2 motifs: Space and Arcades, which are closely related to the new shoe models. Horacio came up with some cool ideas in the meeting about the space theme, and the client was hooked into it also.

Working for corporate clients requires besides taking care of the art and characters, on putting extra care and attention to their product and brand. So in short, we have to be careful to stay on-model when illustrating the shoes, based in photographs, or sometimes in prototypes that were handed.

Alex Palomares developed both illustrations. The main challenge with this was that the work would be blown up to almost 8 feet height, so having this in mind we'd have to be extra careful with the line quality in the final art.

Tonatiuh and Mariana did an excellent job by cleaning and retouching Alex's art. Mariana also was of vital importance to speed up the process by aiding us in the making of the flat colors.

The work was delivered and finally sent to the US for printing. Hope we have some pics of the show, of BG's stand and the freebies that were handed to the visitors of the show based on our character designs, to share with you next week. :-)

ABOUT THE WSA SHOW

The WSA Show is the largest and most comprehensive footwear and related accessories show in the world. Its twice-yearly show in Las Vegas pulls in more than 36,000+ participants and nearly 1,600 exhibitors who represent the cream of the footwear manufacturing industry. In short, WSA is the ultimate must-attend market for the multi-billion dollar footwear industry.

XPCTRM'S NEW MERCHANDISE

2007-02-02T16:39:00.004-06:00

Hi there, guys!
Early morning I just posted some cool new stuff at Ka-Boom! Estudio's Store, like a Xpctrm's T-Shirt, featuring art by the talented Horacio Sandoval, from the upcoming new series of the same character and name. Hope you like 'em. Feel free to browse through the store and keep suggesting new merchandise of your preference.

And, BTW, have a great weekend! :-)

FRANÇOIS BOUCQ: NOTRE AMI

2007-01-15T17:03:00.002-06:00

Among the best friends from the comic book world we are lucky to have François between them. We admire his work, because he's one of the few master comic book artists in the whole world.

François is a French artist who is best known for his work along with writer Alejandro Jodorowsky and for his stand-alone series Gerome Moucherot. François work has been published in America in several translations of his albums and through Heavy Metal magazine. In recent years, he has been trying out as an sculptor... an he is so GOOD in it, also.

We have known François since almost 10 years ago, he was even one of the special guests we had at Utopia 2003, the comic book convention we organized then, receiving the Silver Inkpen Award (La Plumilla de Plata).

Last week we were fortunate enough that the French Culture Department and the French Embassy in Mexico invited our good friend to Mexico once again so he could promote the art of the Bande Dessineé of France. We assisted last week to the opening of an exhibition of his work at the Museo de la Caricatura, in downtown Mexico City; amazed as always for his impeccable watercolors, storytelling and that extraordinary feeling and presence that is always in the eyes of the characters he draws.

Perhaps we get along so well, because he is a passionate person of what he does... DRAWING, as he says it.

Over the last weekend we had François for a special evening in the Studio, where we shared a 'Bisteciza' with him and Natalie, a Canadian ex-TV presenter who met François some years back by interviewing him.

The food came out just amazing! Delicious!

François talked with us for hours and we had the chance to speak with him about Mexico, it's culture, the way comic book will probably develop in the few years, not only in Mexico, but the world. about the artist, the way one can't complete himself but through working constantly, always developing new challenges, and always enjoying what we do.

It is the first time in all these years of relation with him that he had come to the Studio and he was pretty amazed by the way we work; the speed in which we can work and come up with new ideas, projects. Natalie, was amazed by the way the team is formed, the friendship behind the professional relation of every K! member.

It is possible that next time we see François around it will be in France.

So, we'll keep working harder to achieve that.

À bientôt!

FOR IWAO (1925-2007)

2007-01-09T14:15:00.001-06:00

Remembering Iwao Takamoto

"27TH BIENAL DE SAO PAULO" BRAZIL

2006-12-17T21:12:00.002-06:00

Yesterday marked the end of the "27th Bienal de São Paulo's" (founded in 1951) main exhibition.

This year, 119 artists from all over the world participated in it; and we were fortunate to collaborate with Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas on her installation project for the exhibition.

On September, Minerva contacted us with some ideas for the illustrations she would later use in the Bienal. they were made by Mariana Moreno.

Minerva used Mariana's work as the base of her mural-installation. Minerva's work deals with the problems facing the Amazon jungle, the advance of men and devastation that has taken place in the 20th. century. In the installation you'll find Chico Mendes (which will be featured in the cover of the January, 2007 "Seminars" book, too), the Brazilian jungle defender who was killed to stop his actions.

It's been great working with one of the 4 Mexicans that took place in the Bienal, being Minerva a resident artist of it. Also, it's been great watching how Mariana is growing professionally, doing more complex things and projects, adapting herself to new challenges.

What a ride! :-)

HOW WORK IS DONE AT K!

2006-12-10T21:10:00.002-06:00

Many of our friends ask us how work is done in Ka-Boom! Studio and how the Ka-boomers work. Well... I'll tell you in a general way. Through our website, many of those who have become our clients got to know for the first time all of our work. Also, others contact us by recommendation for editorial and publicity projects. In other occasions, they get in touch with us at conventions and events, but we also go to them to offer our service portfolio.

Once the project is secure in money matters as well as in agreements with certain company, agency or publishing house, we start working. We never participate in contests since it makes us work in vain. If the client hasn't seen our work in our site or hasn't realized what he can obtain from us, we just won't give him any services. Perhaps this may seem a little arrogant, but we're tired of giving free samples of our work while they don't get to anything concrete, and the work done is not paid. We accept working with the client only when we verify that the project can become true and when the client proves to be honest and professional.
On the other hand, our achievements are due to our Commercial and Business Juridical Director's work, Carlos Villagrana, who is our representative and lawyer. He sales, defends and promotes us.

When we work on a comic, Susy is the Studio's Chief Script Director. She guides the writers in everything that has to do with scripts, concepts and the characters' psychological studies, so they can accomplish a small summary about the story in order to show it to the client so he can decide which writer will stay with the project. Sometimes, we are the ones who decide directly who will write the script since it's easier to make a decision taking the styles and tendencies into account. Of course, this is all done under my father's artistic direction.

In the artistic section, in order to choose a specific style, we participate in a small internal contest. Each artist draws from two to five sketches per theme and project, and these are sent to the client. As with the scripts, sometimes we also decide who will keep that project or all of the samples the client had chosen.

Since we all love each other's work, there is no envy nor professional jealousy amongst us. Though the client chooses one specific writer or artist in several continued occasions, we all feel happy for that person because, as a group, a well done work means prestige for all of us, and we all get economically and emotionally benefited. Many have left our team precisely because of their envy, and they didn't understand that team work is better. In fact, due to the production schedules, we all have to participate in a project.

For example, several months ago, Reader's Digest hired us to draw some illustrations for them. The truth is that we didn't work for magazines due to the low prices, but by negotiating with them, now they ask us frequently to do artwork for them. Horacio, Mariana, Alex, Mau and me draw several character proposals. In this occasion, they asked us an illustration for a medical article, and today we handed them in. The following images are some of those illustrations...

The chosen ones, were Alex's and Horacio's.
For those who who still don't know, all of the illustrations that are not used are stored in our respective Gallery and Sketchbook sections of our website, and all that is published, when the client authorizes it, are uploaded to each one's trajectory sections. Now, as artists, we all wish to fulfill ourselves through our work, this motivates us to compete fairly but without the desire of winning just because of it. Besides, we all have and work alternatively our own projects, which balances our way of working.

We are all owners of Ka-Boom! and although I am the General Director, all the Argonauts are part of the company and not simple collaborators, because they've been alert and present since we started working as a group, because of that, in spite of the "failures", they all fight in ¡Ka-Boom's! favor as a priority and investment; because we know that is better to create a company of one's own than end working in solitaire as a coworker or employee and with the uncertainty of a future where one could lose their job at any moment. As a group, and as a company, the clients trust even more in the results because everything is a unity and prefer to have the services from one source than risk themselves hiring an illustrator or a writer.

Of course, there's also the other side of the coin, because many Publishers prefer not to deal with Artistic Studios, because it is harder to exploit the artist, because he's not alone. And, in the case of the rookies, it is even worst still since the negotiation rank is very reduced.
We are like the Indian nations, all the involved ones go to celebrate the deal with the white man, we go like this to the meetings since we all must know about the agreements and have an opinion according to their knowledge, we are all ¡Ka-Boom! and we decide between all. In the beginning clients didn't know what to think, but little by little we have proven the integral solutions that ¡Ka-Boom! offers them. They only had a trio of chairs before, now they select the boardroom 'cause they expect a minimum of 5 negotiators.

Now, like a sort of cooperative, being this so delicate, we are no longer accepting anyone outside of the Studio's circle, because of bad experiences we prefer that the cake slices are taken the ones that have been faithful, ethical and professional for a long time; and of course, we open the Studio's door to new members, but only after making them go through everything that a real pro should go through, and of course, the ones who don't surpass the tests, speak curses to us, which is really not important since the truly valuable for us is that many people do trust and believe in what we do, as entrepreneurs as the general audience.

CHOCOMIEL (CHOCO-HONEY)

2006-12-09T22:47:00.004-06:00

In spite of having lived so many years in the drawing business, I keep getting excited every time I see my work published in some magazine or appearing in TV or street advertisements.

Such is the case of one of my character designs which was used temporarily for a Nestlè product called "Nido Chocomiel 3+". Among all the K! artists, we did several sketches to find the perfect bee for this product. 175 designs were done so that Forum and Publicis, the agencies in charge of the brand, could choose one. Logically, the high executives from Nestlè also participated in this process.

In this occasion, one of my designs was chosen, and once we had the final character, I proceeded to draw the model sheets: expressions, attitudes, measurements, proportions, etc. I did this along with Susy, who created all of the character's universe and personality, foreseeing the Chocomiel bee's use for comics, animated features, etc. On the other hand, Tonatiuh Rocha did the color samples until everything was finally accepted.

It was a very good project for us, and the company stayed very happy with ¡Ka-Boom!; as they were so satisfied, they asked us for another character, which you will soon be able to see around.

MARIANA MORENO: K! 'S YOUNGEST ARTIST

2006-12-08T18:09:00.002-06:00

Hi, now it's my turn to post in this blog, finally! ha ha!
Well, first of all, my name is Mariana Moreno and I'm the most recent member of Ka-Boom! Studio. I've been here for only three years, but I'm seriously planning to stay here for a long time, as long as it takes to reactivate the comic industry here in Mexico.

The first convention I ever participated in as an artist was UTOPIA, where I met great personalities such as Sergio Aragonés, Stan Sakai, Dave Thorn, Carlos Meglia, François Boucq, Tony Bancroft, Mike Kunkel, Phil Yeh, Philip Victor, amongst others. It was a wonderful experience, of which I’ll tell you in other occasion.

Though I'm very young and inexperienced, I've already worked professionally for some important companies here in our country.
My first official project was the redesigning of the characters of an important shoe-making Mexican company named "Coqueta y Audaz". As Oscar already told you in the previous posts, the artists here at Ka-boom! participate in one small internal contest so the client can choose the character design he likes the most. In that occasion, my designs were chosen, so I had to do all of the layouts and model sheets. It was a little difficult for me since it was the first time I ever did model sheets, but it was fun to learn while doing it.

Now, the characters' animation appears on TV at Cartoon Network and other channels of the Mexican TV programming.

Months later, Alex's designs were chosen for the redesign of the Bubble Gummers' characters. As we didn't have much time, Alex and I teamed up to do the first comic. While I penciled it, he inked it, and later, Tonatiuh did the colored it. Susy was in charge of the script. The difficulty of this project was the fact that I had to imitate Alex's style perfectly. That's why Ka-Boom's artists are very versatile; we can draw from a serious style to a cartoon one.

I've also been doing some illustrations for Reader's Digest's Spanish language edition, "Selecciones". I've enjoyed this work because it has given me the opportunity to draw celebrities and famous people in my own style.

I also do some color work of my own. For this year’s College Football season of the “ONEFA” league here in Mexico, Alex drew some comic pages for the sports newspaper, “Esto”, so I had to color them. Though it was sepia colored, it contained lots of light-shadow work.

Then, Alex and I worked on the second number of the Bubble Gummers’ Comic. This time it was not so difficult for me since I had already memorized Alex’s style.

Two weeks ago, I just finished the last comic I’ve done until now. It was a Social comic that the Mexican Government asked us to do. It will be used to teach family values to people with scarce resources.

Right now I’m working on some small animated features for a family farm’s website. These few days I’ve been absolutely happy because animation has always been my life’s dream. I’ve been willing to animate since I was four years old, so this first artworks mean a lot to me.

I am also accomplishing some other internal projects such as Rebeca Soriano’s fantasy comic “El Canto del Dragon” (The Dragon’s Chant), Susy’s comic adaptation for Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and The Rose”, amongst other projects besides of my own, “Phylo y Sofía” (Phylo and Sophie).

It’s been all thanks to Ka-Boom!, its members and my family. It’s an honor for me to work along side with such talented and experienced people such as the Ka-Boomers.

Thank you all for giving me this great opportunity, and I hope we can share lots of experiences with our international friends.

WORKING WITH VON GLITSCHKA

2006-12-08T17:13:00.002-06:00

Many years ago, I came across the work of an Oregon-based designer by the name of Von Glitschka through The Iconfactory and other websites.

Since the first moment, I was hooked into his wacky illustration style. Googling some research on him, I found out that he was also really professional... his work and website we're always inspirations for me; about the way one should relate with the clients, about design methodologies, service, etc.

Some months ago, Von started creating self-owned websites everywhere with design and illustration as his central subject. He is a defender of creatorship (is there such a word?) on Bad Design Kills. An suddenly... I was REALLY hooked into his updates and news. I was a Von-addict! He created a website that serves as an extension to his college illustration classes at illustrationclass.com

What really amazed me is that Von shared all his knowledge and working process with everyone. It is rare nowadays to watch someone as fearless as him, 'cause everyone is afraid of sharing their secrets. And as Yoda-wisdom tells: "Fear is the path to the Dark side...".
Now, then... I thought I was a Freehand wizard, 'till I watched tutorial after tutorial how he quirked his vectors and made all this things I have never experimented with. And man, was it fun to make fun of Tonatiuh, who is a long time Illustrator user (and also Von admirer) showing him what Von had did that week that Illustrator couldn't... ha ha ha... until Von switched to Illustrator, becoming even part of an Adobe CS2 campaign. :-P

Von Glitschka is not just a simple designer, he is an "Illustrative Designer", the guy is an amazing mix of computer science and handmade art. Always thinking that the important, crucial and essential part of design takes place outside of the box. Von is correct, the computer is just a tool that allows us to translate our vision to it, not vice versa. If a designer depends on the computer effects to make something work out, that designer won't be more than tomorrow's old news.

I decided to write this post, to share something really special for me by being part of this crazy creative team in ¡Ka-Boom!, the fact that in the course of my life I've had the chance (and luck) to meet many of my heroes, who in many cases are comic book or animation artists. It is a great sensation to think that I have met my childhood heroes like Stan Lee and many other comic book artists.

I met Oscar many years after being a die-hard fan of Karmatron. I have worked in K! full-time for a couple of years now, and there's virtually not a single day that I don't think how fortunate I am to work with one of my childhood heroes, who is now my best friend, my brother, my teacher and fellow artist.

I've had the chance to get a major influence on the work of Phil Yeh, also, a California-based comic book artist after meeting him through Oscar.

I've met and interviewed Robert Rodriguez, one of my favorite film directors. Last summer I met John Lasseter... my God! I was sooo nervous! It was like meeting the succeeder of Walt Disney!

And some weeks ago I got in touch with Von Glitschka who started making tutorial Spanish translations at illustrationclass.com but I noticed that Babel Fish was not accurate enough for design terminology; so I offered to help Von out with this from now on.

It is strange to be friends with someone who is really far away from you, whom you have never met in person. E-lationtips they call it. He he he...

Nevertheless its such a great thing to be in touch with one of my favorite illustrator/designers, being able to help him out with educating a medium that needs this kind of advices...

We have also put Von in touch with Sergio Aragonés so he can be interviewed in Von's Podcast. And in the near future we'll be contributing for an illustration class tutorial ourselves! I look forward to contribute and team-up with him in other projects! It's been a blast!

Our first "joint venture" aired today on illustrationclass.com and is about a project Von has developed for the last year: Keyboard Characters, which are these way cool illustrations that you can place in the last row of your keyboard... they will watch you over while you work, blog and go through your e-mail.

Get this limited edition while it lasts!
And if you're a designer, illustrator or just one creative-craving soul get over to illustrationclass.com to get covered in the stuff that real design is made of!

ARTISTS' DISDAIN

2006-12-06T23:18:00.002-06:00

As a curious and sad fact, some publishing companies at our country didn't, and don't want to give any credits to writers and artists at their publications because no importance is given to them and their rights are just trampled. In my case, when I worked at Editorial Vid for some of The Flinstones' comics in 1991, besides being cheap when paying for each page (for our international friends, here in Mexico, companies pay from 10 to 20 dollars for each page), they definitely didn't want to put on my credits in the comic, so since I'm very stubborn, I always left some sign or clue in order to confirm that I had drawn those comics. In the example above, I drew Jiva, one of my characters from Karmatron's universe.

BUBBLEGUMMERS

2006-12-06T22:56:00.004-06:00

A short time ago, we did the layouts for some POP material that Bata asked us to do. For those who still don't know, Ka-Boom! redesigned the Bubble Gummers' brand characters which are used not only in Mexico, but in Latin America, USA, Canada, Europe and Asia. Specifically, Alejandro Palomares redesigned them and did the layouts, while Mariana Moreno, basing herself on Alex's model sheets, penciled the original pages for the publicity comic, which was used to give more strength to the shoes' brand.

The last time we visited the Bubble Gummers' office, they showed us some of the applications given to Alex's and Mariana's characters.

SIMPSONS COMICS AND K!

2006-12-06T14:13:00.002-06:00

The fact of taking part as an artist on the comic of one of the most famous animated series of all times, "The Simpsons", has given me, and all of the Ka-boomers lots of satisfactions.

The first one was assisting to the Will Eisner Award ceremony for the best of american comic at the San Diego Comic Con. That year was very important for me because I won this coveted award for my participation in the special edition of Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #5 along with Sergio Aragones, Jill Thompson, Steve Streere Jr., Scott Shaw! and Doug TeNapel.

The ceremony was very emotive, and Will Eisner himself congratulated me for the award because He knew my work since 1987. On the other hand, Sergio Aragonés was very proud and happy due to the fact, as many already know, that he helped me enter the world of american comic since the late 80's.

I felt a great excitement when I walked to the front to receive the award, and I saw many of my idols applauding and congratulating me for it. The truth is that it was an experience that will stay deep in my heart because it was an honor and a privilege to be next to such great comic personalities that night.

The second satisfaction is the fact that Horacio Sandoval (who later on also collaborated with "The Simpsons" ) and I were called to the Bongo Comics' stand to autograph and draw some character sketches of the yellow family for the fans. It was a great experience to alternate with other Simpsons artists and specially with Bill Morrison, who literally was our immediate chief.

Two of our greatest anecdotes were that two of our idols approached to Horacio and me and asked us for our autographs and sketches, actually, when we saw them, we were the ones who asked them for their autographs. We exchanged signatures. As I am a Star Trek fan, I got really excited when Will Wheaton told me he was a fan of my artwork on The Simpsons.

Horacio, on the other hand, almost fainted when Gene Simmons from KISS asked him a sketch of Bart, just look at his face! Excuse him! It's just that he grew up along with this Rock group, and that experience meant a lot to him, as for me was to meet an actor involved in that Sci-Fi series that changed my childhood.

The third satisfaction was that at the conference that all of the Bongo Comics Staff gave at the Comic Con 2001, Ka-Boom! Studio was introduced. Humorously, Terry Delegane said that the people at Bongo were the american Ka-boomers because the way we act was very similar to theirs: in spite of being a publishing company, they were all very united as one big family and they always helped each other.

Also, in two occasions (2000/2001), the Ka-boomers were invited to the Bongo Comics Group headquarters at Hollywood, California.

Matt Groening, Terry Delegane, Bill Morrison, Nathan Kane, Art Villanueva and the rest of the staff that make the Simpsons' comics and animation kindly attended us, and we spent a great time with them. Matt himself gave us a tour, guided us and introduced to us all of the company departments. He also showed us all of the top secret merchandise which was just to be released. It was an enriching experience that none of the Ka-boomers will ever forget.

As a finishing golden touch, Matt gave each of the Ka-boomers some phosphorescent toys of Bender from Futurama and a set from this series, which still wasn't on sale at the moment.

Yes..there's no doubt about it, "The Simpsons" are a very important part of our lives as proffesional artists of the comic industry.

INTERNAL K! WORKSHOPS

2006-12-06T14:00:00.002-06:00

As part of our Studio's internal activities, we take part in special workshops for Ka-boomers only, because they're dedicated to the company's optimal internal functioning. The workshops can be done any day of the week, but we usually take them on the mornings of saturdays and sundays.

This is all done not for bluff, but for being in constant investigation and study since we have to be constantly up to date in all of our profession's areas. Even the ones who don't write or draw take the workshops because in K! absolutely everyone must know a little or a lot about scripts, drawing, color, design, law, web pages, marketing, public and business relations, distribution, editorial merchandise traffic, television, radio and all other subjects we develop. Also, the ones who speak perfectly English teach the others. On the other hand, we talk and discuss about all of what we watch on TV, internet forums and special events to which we assist in order to draw conclusions about our industry and surroundings.
In this way, whenever someone is missing, anyone can take the other person's place and fulfill their responsibilities.

Even Kripto is already ahead of us in his English classes, hahaha!

K! MEET & GREETS

2006-12-04T12:19:00.002-06:00

Within ¡Ka-Boom! Estudio's activities are conferences to inform students and teachers from different schools in the city about the comic book medium, how is it made and its problems.
Certain times, some student groups come to our Studio to watch in first person how our comics are made, and also the making of an entertainment or advertising mascot.

We have warm gatherings with them, and what we enjoy the most is the parent's interest for their son's own interests concerning Fantasy and Sci-Fi, it makes them remember their own childhood, and therefore, they have a first hand account on what makes this medium so appealing; this info could be definitive to give support to their children if they are interested in following steps into the 9th. Art.

In K!, we are really into this kind of gatherings, because it is essential for us that the parents understand this art form and don't stigmatize comic books as cheap literature. The more info parents have, and the more they are informed about their cultural importance, there'll be less members of the terrific anti-childhood organization, CBDP: "Comic Book Destroying Parents", more parents will enjoy the fantasy with their children, and better yet, they'll remember happy instants of their past that they have forget because of bitter daily experiences as adults.

CLASSIC KARMATRON 1986-1991

2006-12-03T19:39:00.002-06:00

In the Eighties, the making of a complete Karmatron episode was made in a week, I improvised the script, because I've always liked that technique; though I had all the general history in my mind, in the moment of doing the artwork I invented the situations. I drew and letered without any assistance.

My aunt, Maria Esther Loyo Roa and my mother Hilda Loyo de González did the color guide on vellum, with the old technique of colored pencils, in those days computers were not used, and this method was known as color separation, or in spanish, 'tapado de color'.

On the other hand, because of the weekly periodicity, 4 days were used to make the 32 art pages + covers, and 2 days for color; the course of the whole process was artistically directed by my father, Oscar González Guerrero.

The cover was made in a couple of hours (with art markers), early in the morning the day of the deadline, because on the fourth day of the art process I started working on the next issue so I could go ahead from my schedule and have an issue stock. Although during the 6 years that the classic edition was printed I always kept myself within two advanced future issues. For that reason it was complicated to get sick, the printer and the distribution waited for an specific delivery date or much money was lost in all the areas. It was fun to keep this working rhytm and a major challenge. There were 2 times when I got ill and had to have a surgery, and I called my friend from college (ENAP) and also comic colleague, Alfonso Sánchez to help me ou. He made two issues, and then my readers demanded that if another artist was to make the title they would cease to buy it. I took this very seriously and whenever I got sick I used the resource of repeting scenes in certain points in the story so I could have time and recover, with less pressure and being able to rest calmly during these periods.

The autohir made projects within ¡Ka-Boom! are written and drawn by the same person. As much there can be teams of writer-artist-colorist because we enjoy being able to be one man bands, being able to bond with each stage of the process is a delight as an author. You give 100% to your characters because, in a way, they become your sons. When we take part in projects where there are no artistic or spiritual goals, but marketing ones, more people take part in the process to take advantage of a production chain; though we prefer to follow the old mexican artist's old school that worked in a weekly (in the beginning they did daily comics, it was madness!) basis non-stop for many years. Your drawing ability was amazingly exercised over with all that workload, me and Horacio could experience the last years of this practice.

Those were the times!

KA-BOOMERS!

2006-11-29T13:45:00.004-06:00

Ka-Boom! is conformed by several comic book artists: pencillers, writers, colorists, graphic designers, animators, letterers… specialists in the areas of sci-fi and fantasy, dedicated to family subjects and why not, also subjects for teenagers and adults but with the highest quality in its total production.

One of the most important points that we K’s! take into account, is the direct contact we have with our fans, this broadens our vision of the subjects the audience likes or dislikes, because we owe ourselves to them.

As a display of our Studio’s quality; some of its members have collaborated and still collaborate in some Publishing Houses from the United States such as: Bongo Comics, DC Comics, Warner Bros., Right Stuf, Inc., etc.

We have been part of Televisa’s team of Production for Special Projects, making animations for Sesame Street Latin America: directing, designing, creating the ideas and supervising total production of the product.

We have focused our work to the task of promoting the culture of quality comic book by participating as lecturers in Grade Schools, High Schools, Universities and international and national Conventions.

K! MEMBERS

OSCAR GONZÁLEZ LOYO Chief Executive Officer (Artist, writer and colorist).

SUSANA L. ROMERO MEDINA Assistant Director of Editorial Assistance and Scripts ( Writer, bla bla bla girl-I and colorist).

REBECA SORIANO CASTAÑEDA Personal Assistant (Writer and maniatic).

MAURICIO MARTÍNEZ COSÍO Script Assistant Director and Production Director (Writer, designer, translator, mad, web master and colorist).

OSCAR GONZÁLEZ GUERRERO Artistic Director (Artist, talkative and witty,writer and colorist).

HORACIO SANDOVAL PÉRAZ Artistic Assistant (Artist, writer, clown and colorist).

TONATIUH ROCHA MIRANDA Design Production Director (Artist, grinch, colorist and designer).

ALEJANDRO PALOMARES GONZÁLEZ Design Assistant Director (Artist, autistic and colorist).

MARIANA MORENO AYALA Writer, genius girl and artist.

CARLOS VILLAGRANA ROMERO Legal Director and bad guy.

EDGAR ESTRELLA Distribution Director and member of the mafia of distribution in México.

EDUARDO MENDOZA Reader services, smurf and mailing.

ANGEL SADAY GONZÁLEZ ROMERO Pet of Ka-Boom! and Chef.

K! CONTRIBUTORS: HILDA LOYO DE GONZÁLEZ, AARON SORIANO , OSCAR AND MA. LUISA MENDIOLA, CUAUTLI ARAU, JOSÉ ARMANDO DOMÍNGUEZ MARTÍNEZ, JUAN JOSÉ ABREGO, DAVID ORTEGA, GIL ISLAS PÉREZ, EVA ROLDÁN, GUILLERMO JAVIER GARCÍA CERÓN, SALVADOR CABADA, GREGORIO ESPADAS, CARLOS AND LEOPOLDO OROZCO, GERARDO AND MANOLO HERNÁNDEZ MÁRQUEZ, CRÓX PÉREZ MORALES, ALEJANDRO CANDELAS, AND ALL THE FANS AND K! PROMOTERS IN THE WORLD.

THE MEMORY OF A SILENT INSTANT

2006-11-29T13:15:00.002-06:00

Have you ever thought…? Or rather… don’t you remember everything that mesmerized you for seconds during your childhood and now as adults you enjoy for some periods, making your mechanical and routine adult life lighter? Something in the
distance of times surely touched you and somehow you use that “something” to act in the present. In Ka-Boom! We name that element “The memory of a silent instant”, an instant that when activated can evoke very positive reactions in people. Evenhough we speak from an entertainment medium point of view, such as a comic, a cartoon or a book can be; it can also encompass real life situations that go unnoticed for mostly everyone.

As an example of this dreaming blindness we can name the great amount of people who left the theater in the middle of “The Lord of the Rings” movie; since they didn’t understand the subject, or since their buttocks got numb because of the length of the film, or so they say. On the other hand; the comics, movies and cartoons fans… who turn into “specialists” and start being so mechanically critical with those things they are followers of, that they lose the flavor of enjoyment of something acceptable just because it doesn´t fulfill their expectations. Not because the material is bad, but because of the lack of the “silent instant” we referred to above. As yet another example we can take a look at the Star Wars fans who hated Episode I. “The memory of a silent instant” is like the memory of Peter Pan’s ship we all saw in some moment in our life.
All this existential gibberish is because within our projects we have varied subjects and for all audiences, humor, fantasy, adventures, sci-fi… for boys and girls 4 to 108 years old.
The creative spark which motivates the Ka-Boomers! is dreaming. Never stop dreaming. To keep that child spirit, which many colleagues try to get rid of at any cost, because they think that being adults it is not transcendental to elevate their perspective towards the very young audience, please note that I am saying elevate it and not lower it.
In our works we try somehow, that at least one reader catches that “Silent Instant” that in the future will help to return a smile to an old person who walks down the street in the middle of the smog and traffic noise.

We want to share and return the gift our childhood heroes made us: understand the huge power of dreaming…

Thank's for all!

MEANING AND OBJECTIVES

2006-11-29T12:11:00.003-06:00

As many of you know, the onomatopoeia is a basic element in comics, representing sounds in a graphic way to give ambience and flavor to the story, replacing the real sound. In 1994, searching for some name that could identify and represent what we are as a Creative Team in a single word; we chose among many others, the onomatopoeia, KA-BOOM! Universal expression that means: “Explosion”, as our identity color.
KA-BOOM! is conformed by an amalgam of diverse artists, creative people of inexhaustible inspiration who express a great variety of styles and ideas, demonstrating with it a whole “Imagination Explosion”: slogan of our Studio.
Popularly, our friends call us “Los ¡Ka-Boones! (The Ka-Boomers)” or “The ones from studio K!”

As a curious fact, the letter “K” has been very important in the story of our Group. Many of the words we use begin with this letter, a detail that you will see as you read through our different sections.

Among our goals we can find: help (adding our little sand grain) to create a comic book industry in Mexico, introducing new formats and ideas which fulfill the essential requirements to provide a quality that can make us competitive worldwide. Create forums to display the fresh ideas of new values and also the ones from proven artists. To introduce to the new Mexican audience the comic as an art form; leaving behind the disposable comic book concept. The mystic of Ka-boom studio! is that its members need to be professional, up to date and well informed. That they work with a very serious discipline and above it all; that they have a sense of ethics and partnership beyond that which almost every professional of our medium is bound to have.

It is also within our priorities to promote the children and young adult comic. Genres that are undervalued by many of the colleagues who only direct their work towards the comic they call “adult”, “author-made” and “artistic”. In Ka-.Boom! we think that the subjects for children can also be author-made and enjoy of a possibly even superior artistic quality. If we don’t make comics for the new generations and show them this art, in the future, we will be contributing to the disappearance of this genre’s reader, a situation that has already started in a worldwide level. The people who read comics during the 1970’s an 1980’s, now adults, have forgotten Peter Pan’s ship and look at their surroundings according to their age. A very normal situation from a reader’s point of view, but the point of view changes as a creative and a comic maker. Because the author must think about what every kind of reader likes and be up to date not just in the technological novelties and trends, but also in the feelings and fantasies of the new generations, who even though are more sophisticated, keep containing the same spiritual and child essence that many fight to leave behind. Maybe because of the above, Ka-Boom! Studio is more specialized in subjects for children, and its comics are directed to a familiar, not very complex and tricky audience.

Another Ka-Boom! Studio characteristic is that many of its members can, besides working in their own books, work with popular and famous characters maintaining their essence, as if they had been their creators when writing and drawing them. This is not an easy to find ability even in artists considered as geniuses and of a high level. Because of this, not everyone dares to work with already created characters. Nevertheless, as an artist, one has to be capable of solving graphic problems according to the challenges that show up in your professional life. That’s why K! Studio will continue participating in Mexican and international companies’ projects which want to work with their own subjects and characters.

We also have within our goals promoting the creation of advertising as well as entertainment mascots, with a design that can be transcendental and functional, as well as scripts and illustrations for all kinds of printed media such as: stamp albums, trading cards, coloring books, jigsaw puzzles, posters, role playing games, text books, brochures, and enterprises’ informative publications. We also create concepts and image designs for TV production and 2D animation, storyboards, layouts, character, scenery and costume design.

For more information: www.ka-boom.com.mx

ORIGIN OF K!

2006-11-29T11:47:00.003-06:00

¡Ka-Boom! Estudio was born in 1994 out of the necessity to professionalize the activities of our creative group in the comic, the illustration, the animation and the graphic design media, directing this last one to the field of fantasy and science-fiction.
Our artistic group has been in the comic book field for many years, promoting and being an artistic vein from which some of the medium’s great professionals have been born. In fact, the real activities of the Studio began since 1974, although we were not as organized as we are now in those years. Going back into the past, along with my father, Oscar González Guerrero, I shared with the artists and painters of his time the secrets that were revealed during the Bohemian afternoons in the cafeterias and restaurants that the cartoonist old guard frequented.

Following his example, I shared not only with the artists of my generation, but with all my readers, the drawing tips that somehow could help to establish the basis to everyone with that hidden ability and that somehow were looking for professional guidance. For this, as many know, I used my Karmatrón y los Transformables comic book as a spokesman and as a mass medium. And so we carried on till I met Susy Romero. In her, I found an ability that is rare among women in the medium; her professional participation and ethics; her psychological knowledge of the audience we dedicate our work to and her attitude before the medium and for the medium, all of the above make of her an essential person to our Company. Her support, in spite of turbulent times, has been unconditional and this is something that can rate our Group, as you’ll see ahead.

When Susy joined the cause, she started giving script tips and to refine the ideas of new values. It is like this that in 1994 we started giving shape to our Studio. Readers who wished to work professionally in this art form started to come: artists, scriptwriters, colorists, designers, illustrators, programmers, etc.
In the present moment, many of our former readers are members of Ka-Boom! studio, during all these years they have followed our career supporting it, as I said before, unconditionally. It is thanks to them that there’s still a flame ignited as a last breath for our industry to spring up again with new determination and in a new concept: as an art.
K! has matured and has consolidated in regard to its members and professionalism, since that time they have been depurating in a natural way: people with other expectations have walked past our Group and have left since they did not share the same philosophy and could not endure our way and rhythm of work. The ones who have stayed are just the ones whom the blows and sorrows have not dented their ideals and on the contrary, have tempered their spirit by fighting for a common cause and whom I call: Argonauts, this has allowed us to grow in every aspect, materializing what once started as a dream.

SALUDOS DESDE MÉXICO

2006-11-29T11:26:00.006-06:00

Hello! Im Oscar Gonzalez Loyo, Mexican Comic Book Artist and General Director of Ka-Boom! Studio (integrated for writers and artists of comics and animation -Sesame Street of Latinamerica). My popular Mexican comic is "Karmatron, but in the States (Sergio Aragones Introduce me in USA). I colaborate with pencils in Simpsons Comics for Bongo (1998-2000) (The Treehouse of terror #5, Eisner Award, and others), in the past (1989-96) I draw Looney Tunes for DC, Covers for videotapes for Astroboy, Kimba and Gigantor for Right Stuf, Inc. and the New Speed Racer for Now Comics. Many Mexican Artist who colaborated in this moment in the States, began to work in our Studio.