World War II was truly global; this week we go beyond the traditional WWII narrative.

It is a bit odd thinking about it now, but when I was born, World War II had ended less than 35 years prior; it was still fresh in the minds of many. We still had living veterans, and those that clearly remembered its after effects. I imagine that for this generation, the mindset of war never really ended as they also witnessed the Korean War, and had just witnessed the end of the Vietnam War.

Of course, World War II books and movies really dominated the war genre (and still do to this day). With many great examples to choose from, there is one common element. Regardless of the story or the approach, the narratives tend to focus on the US, Russia and Germany, with the U.K., Japan, Italy and Canada playing supporting roles.

When looking at these great WWII stories, I was intrigued when I came across Elisio – a true story of Brazilian World War II combat veterans. Yes, you read that right – Brazil.

When we think of Brazil, it’s easy to think of Rio de Janeiro and its party scene, political corruption and crime, and of course soccer. Brazil has had a huge impact on culture worldwide, with its soccer stars being the idols of youth around the world. But a lot of this fame seems newfound; it’s almost like the world didn’t care much about Brazil before 1950, and certainly I had never heard anything about their involvement in World War II. When I first encountered stories about the Cobras Fumantes (or, the Smoking Snakes), I thought that maybe this was some kind of parody, or clever hoax. After all, I’ve read WWII books and comic books, watched pretty much every big movie about the Second World War, and along with my dad watched hours of documentaries on the History Channel. So, why hadn’t I heard any of these stories before on what is probably the most covered, documented and historically significant war in our history?

To be honest, the firefights involving the Smoking Snakes are likely just a blip on the grand scale of things. The thought of Brazil’s Expeditionary Forces might feel more like a show of support than an actual threat to enemy combatants. After learning more about these brave soldiers, it is sad to think that there could be literally hundreds of these stories around the world – lost, even though they are tied to such a pivotal event.

Before I jump in to more details on the Smoking Snakes, I wanted to give you a bit of background on how I encountered this story and why I was immediately drawn to it. I was contacted a couple of years ago by an agent for AVEC – an amazing indie press out of Brazil. I immediately loved their catalogue, and Artur Vecchi (Chief Editor) had some great titles to show me. During his presentation, I saw a brief glimpse of a war book. I asked him to back up a few slides. He stopped at Elisio and said “No Rodolfo, you don’t want this one.”

“What do you mean? Why not? It’s gorgeous!”

“Yes, it is” he replied. But no one outside of Brazil will care. Nobody cares what we did during World War II.

Despite his warnings that the book wouldn’t sell, I insisted on seeing the complete story. The more he warned me, the more I wanted it. He insisted that I take some other titles – basically anything but Elisio. Fortunately, I stood my ground. This was something I really enjoy not only as a publisher, but as a fan: a comic book story you won’t find anywhere else. Combined with beautiful art by Renato Dalmato made this an easy choice for me.

Now that I had this beautiful book, I just had to figure out how to get it into English. It’s one thing to have a book about Brazilian WWII soldiers and hope it will sell in North America; it’s another to hope that it will sell in Portuguese! Fortunately, my lovely wife’s family were able to assist and Elisio was on its way to being ready to share with the world.

Elisio follows the story of our hero, who seems to live a life of middle class in Brazil as a solider. While at the movies with his girlfriend, he sees a news reel highlighting the Nazi threat, and Brazil’s formal declaration of war becomes apparent. Eliseu, who as a Brazilian soldier imagined himself too far removed from World World II to ever see combat, will now be sent off to war.

Similar to how many might view and even ridicule the idea of Brazilian soldiers, the Smoking Snakes find few true allies. Ostracized by the Americans, and a welcome target for the Germans, the struggle for our Brazilian soldiers is not an easy one. Along the way Eliseu engages in several firefights, finds (and loses love), and is eventually captured by enemy forces, where we might say that his real struggle begins.

The story of Eliseu is one of tragedy and trauma, but above all else, it is an important record of a lost part of our history.

Be sure to join us next week as we begin to explore alternate realities that could have been.

p.s. Are you into manga? Do you love murder mysteries? Be sure to check out Bitemark here.

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Imagine being part of your team’s dream run

I grew up in a typical Mexican household that really only cared about two sports – Futbol (or soccer here in Canada) and Lucha Libre (pro wrestling). Sure, there was some F1, Boxing and American Football in there but usually that was about it. 

Fast forward to the early 90s, and like most other boys my age, we were crazy about baseball. My parents didn’t really get it, but didn’t really mind that I suddenly had a huge interest in it. I still remember a lot of the greats, and the Blue Jays winning back to back World Series. 

Fast forward 30 years later, and comic books have brought me back to baseball thanks to my friend and writer, Roberto Mercado. A fellow Lucha Libre fan and author of the Azteq series, he is a basebal fan who got to live out a childhood dream. After all, which little boy has never dreamed about being part of their favourite team’s dream run?

Roberto is a native of Puerto Rico, and if you are fortunate enough to have Puerto Ricans in your life, you know that they LOVE baseball – and I mean REALLY LOVE baseball. Puerto Rico is home to several successful MLB players including hall of famers Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar, Ivan Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez. Fast forward to today, and we have current stars such as Yadier Molina, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa. You probably know that MLB has always had a strong Puerto Rican influence, but what you may not know is that Puerto Rico actually has its own, very successful (and competitive) domestic league.

Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (previously known as Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico) is the top flight of baseball in Puerto Rico, and really a proving ground for many MLB stars. Founded in 1938, the LBPRC consists of 6 teams, and one of its most beloved are the Indios de Mayagüez. The Indios have 19 league titles to their name, along with 2 Caribbean World Series. The team enjoyed extraordinary success after winning the 1978 edition of the Caribbean World Series, which brings us to the 1987-88 season and the dream season that Roberto enjoyed.

Roberto got to live his childhood dream, basically as a child. He was lucky enough to become a batboy for the Indios, where he would get to know his idols and some future hall of famers. He held this position for years, all the while earning the trust and respect of his teammates, who would foster his lifelong love of béisbol.

Roberto was faced with a tough personal choice: pass up the chance to go to University, or give up his life as a batboy for his favourite team. The real world won out, and so Roberto let his team know that after years, this would be his final season as a batboy. Little did he know that he would receive a fantastic send off.

The season began strong, and Roberto was presented with a special prize in recognition of his service during the last regular season game – but the Indios had already clinched a play-off spot, and so the Indios would need his services a bit longer. Trying to balance his love of baseball with his personal life, the Indios kept winning, and narrowly avoided elimination in the final series, where they forced a game 7 and captured the league title.

So, after 8 years, the dream would end here, right? This dream run would continue and the Indios went on another Caribbean World Series. Unfortunately, the dream would end here, where the Indios would narrowly lose out to Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Republic.

Even if you’re not a baseball fan, what kid didn’t want to be part of their favourite team’s success? I know that being a batboy for the Indios will always be a cherished memory for my friend, and I was honoured when he chose us to help him tell this story for the first time in a comic book format.

Be sure to join us next week as we highlight a very unique story – a Brazilian WWII combat veteran.

p.s. Are you into manga? Do you love murder mysteries? Be sure to check out Episode 3 of the Bitemark Files here.

For nearly 40 years I have read & collected comic books (I’m not THAT old though, I did start reading young!). I was immediately drawn to the art, the stories and the characters. Like most kids, I began with licensed comics (a lot of Marvel’s Star line: Thundercats, Healthcliffe, stuff like that) and eventually graduated to titles like Batman, Superman and Uncanny X-Men. I would collect and read regularly for years, dedicating my free time and money to an industry I still love.

We all know that with great power comes great responsibility, so when things like going to university, getting married, the lean financial times that young couples go through, and having kids happened, it wasn’t always easy to keep up. But comic books never went away for me. They were always my go to, and something that I knew that I would enjoy reading for the rest of my life. During tough times they were a welcome distraction, and like my favourite novels, I found that I could always go back to enjoy them over and over again.

In 2013 I was feeling a bit directionless, and knew that I wanted to keep reading comics but I was exhausted by getting the same things repeatedly from the big 2. I wanted new stories, new experiences, for people who loved comics but knew that sometimes they could be a bit different.

So, I did something that I really didn’t want to do – sell my Walking Dead collection (insert crying emoji here) and used the funds to hire a graphic designer to create our logo, and invested in bringing some titles from South Korea and translating them into English for the very first time. These books were gorgeous, but as an inexperienced publisher I really didn’t have the knowledge to sell these books.

When I launched, I thought “how hard can publishing comic books be?”. It turns out, really hard. And expesnive. But it is so very rewarding. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with talented people who I can call friends, and to give back to something I love. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give back as much as comic books have given me, but dammit, I’m going to try.

So I’ve given you the how, but what about the why? Really, I lvoe comics because they are accessible to anyone who is open minded to them. They create fantastic worlds, and when done right, great characters that we can identify with and that become real to us. It’s easy for non-fans to look at comic books and say that they are immature, or not real stories, or trash, but for those that are willing and open-minded, they are art.

Hopefully, we’ve been able to give even a sliver of this feeling back to our readers, and we’re going to keep trying with every new release.

– Rodolfo, still that Lucha Comics guy.

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I ended up getting placed with Lucha Comics, and honestly could not have asked for a better business to work with. Rodolfo and I have discovered that we share a lot of common interests, especially in comic book movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (highly anticipating this April’s release of Avengers: Endgame, but in the meantime check out Rodolfo’s post on his Avengers: Endgame theory!).

I love all the amazing art I’ve been able to witness. I grew up taking visual arts lessons and even worked as a caricature artist at Canada’s Wonderland, so I have a special appreciation for cartoon art, and I was amazed at how advanced digital art has come and how good the comic book artists really are. I’ve also been able to help a lot with the operations of Lucha Comics, helping preview manuscript submissions, seeing if the format, font, art style, and story are fitting for publication. Because of my interests in marketing, I’ve helped research demographics of a target market for a project Rodolfo wanted to pursue and some digital distribution channels. I’ve also been able to draft some social media posts on Plannable for Lucha Comics social media accounts.

Pictured above: Some of my cartooning caricatures I’ve drawn at my job

In this internship, I’ve really been able to get a good grasp of how the comic book publishing industry works, and preview some amazing works of art. I can’t wait for the rest of the year, especially since I’m about to help out with some of the formatting of the comic books as well. I hope the rest of my internship will goes as well as it has gone so far. Even after my internship concludes, I hope to remain in contact with Rodolfo, and I can’t wait to see where Lucha Comics goes in the future!

-Grace

Macbeth: The Red King is not a re-telling of the Shakespeare classic, but rather a new history of the famous Scottish king. This book is not only for comic fans, but can be a great tool to help educators and students create a visual introduction to some of the greatest literature in our history.

The name Macbeth has been cursed for hundreds of years, but history points toward another story, of Macbeth the hero – The Red King.

Macbeth: the Red King tells an entirely new story of the real-life Scottish monarch, revealing a benevolent ruler who seized on his legitimate claim to the throne. Drawing from historical sources, this engaging graphic novel by Shaun Manning and Anna Wieszczyk is visually stunning companion to Shakespeare’s legendary drama. See Macbeth vanquish the incompetent Duncan, nurture a difficult relationship with his stepson Lulach, and make pilgrimage to Rome while his noble wife minds the restless kingdom — and witness his last stand against the insurgent prince Malcolm.

Order your print copy now:

Or read this book digitally now:

***Update: If you are reading this, you may not now about our latest kickstarter project, which you can view here – Macbeth: The Red King***Late last year, we took a big leap and launched our first crowdfunding campaign via kickstarter. It was perhaps the most stressful experience I’ve had in the 2 years that Lucha Comics has existed, but it was definitely one of the most satisfying as well. From a slow start, to getting into Bleeding Cool, and (just barely) crossing the finish line, I figured I was long overdue in reflecting on what I believe was our largest accomplishment to date.

For a publisher that was strictly digital to do an initial run of 350 copies of a full length graphic novel wasn’t easy, but thanks to some great people we made it. So, I would like to share the top 10 things that our campaign taught me.

1. Not all crowdfunding platforms are created equal.

One of the first things I encountered was trying to decide if I would choose Indiegogo or kickstarter. It took a lot of research, and really trying to find a platform that best matched what I wanted to accomplish. I also researched other comic book projects, read blogs from other successful crowdfunders, and looked at how many friends I had on each. In the end, kickstarter beat Rocket Hub and other sites handily, but narrowily came out on top over Indiegogo.

2. Flexible funding may not be as great as it sounds.

Now that I had a platform, I really had to consider how I would fund my project: flexible funding (keep whatever you raise) or go the all or nothing route. In the end, I decided that I wanted to fund an entire project, and that I wanted my supporters to know that I was fully committed. All or nothing it was, and yes I almost regretted it – but now I don’t think I would ever do a flexible campaign.

3. Calculating your goal should be a well thought out exercise.

You really need to be careful here since you can’t adjust your campaign once it is live. I cannot stress enough how much thought and planning should go into this. Do not rush this part, because a) you don’t want to set a goal so high that you can’t possibly hit it or b) you may be stuck trying to deliver on something that you can’t afford, even if you fund to 100% or even 125%! Let’s start with point a):

Be optimistic, but realistic. It is far better to set an attainable goal and blow it out of the water then set something massive and barely make it or fall short. It looks far better to fund a $2,500 to 100% than fund a $25,000 project to 75%. Do not set yourself up for failure: if you ever want to do another kickstarter, you want your supporters to see that you are building on success and offering something that you can deliver on. Now, let’s tackle point b).

Once you know what you need to do and what you can reasonably raise, do not just ballpark your budget. Do some research, look at similar projects, and understand what you are promising to deliver. Many crowdfunding campaigns have pissed off some loyal people because they were unable to deliver. Sure, some of these might have been pure scams, but for the most part I feel that these failures to deliver were a result of poor research and planning. Here are a few tips that worked for my comic book project, The Kursk by Sasha Janowicz:

• Have firm quotes for your book from at least reputable suppliers, and use the highest one as your goal
• Factor in 10% for crowdfunding and payment processing fees
• Have a contingency of at least 10%
• Factor in the costs (if any) of not receiving your funds for 30-45 days from project close
• And the one that almost got me: shipping

Shipping was a real killer here, because (unbeknownst to me) shipping costs are calculated towards your goal. Here is an example:

I set a goal of $3,000. My early bird reward was $10 + shipping. For this example we will assume someone ordering a reward in Canada at a rate of $5, so their total pledge would be $15. This means that their entire pledge (including the shipping fee) counts towards your goal. My project was broken down as follows:

$2,700 printing + contingency costs
$270 kickstarter fees
$250 Approximate shipping costs

Giving a total of $3,270. Since this was my first kickstarter, I wrongly assumed that shipping was extra and above and beyond the amount that I needed. Fortunately, my contingency covered my shipping costs, and in the future I will be sure to calculate this amount better.

I know this might sound confusing, or not a big deal, but for a small publisher that swore up and down to his partner that there was no way the kickstarter could possibly cost us anything out of pocket, it was a real concern. Basically, you need to guesstimate how many backers you will get, what your shipping costs will be, and add that to your goal. If this or any other point here still sounds confusing, please, please, please feel free to get in touch and I would be glad to elaborate.

4. Make the length of your campaign just right.

This was a bit tricky. Too short and you can fail; too long and people may lose interest and just not care. Personally, I like a 30 day campaign, regardless of the amount trying to be raised. If your goal seems huge, you likely don’t have a timing issue, you probably have a cost or you set a goal-so-massive-there-is-no-way-in-hell-that-you-are-going-to-hit-it-even-if-everyone-you-now-kicks-in-$10 issue.

5. You need some kind of video if this is your first campaign.

An image really isn’t enough. You need a cool video that not only describes your project, but also allows you to connect with the audience. It should be visual, but really get to the heart of why you are doing this and why you need help from backers. This also becomes something that is easy to share across social media. It doesn’t need to be Academy Award winning, but try and make something nice (even if you are terrible on camera like me as you can see below). Having a Mac (or a friend with one) certainly helps! Which leads me away from the technical points and towards the qualitative stuff that really made a difference…

6. People aren’t buying your book

Ok, so maybe a few are, but generally people weren’t buying my book, they were buying the chance to support me because they really believed in Lucha Comics. While this changed the marketing message, it really made the whole process more rewarding – someone actually cared about our brand.

7. Now isn’t the time to be shy.

I hate to feel like I am bugging anyone, but with a short time frame to raise funds, you really need to promote the hell out of yourself. This is not the time to be shy; reach out to all facebook friends and followers, twitter, followers, friends, family etc. I would say that 75% of my time went to outreach, which is far different from blind promotion. Ask people to share your campaign with others without asking them to feel obligated to contribute. It’s a win-win for everyone. By the time I was done my campaign, everyone knew that I was a comic book publisher, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

8. You need to get in touch with influencers.

Fortunately Lucha has a track record in the digital space, so I was able to reach out to people at ComiXology, and my friend Ian Yarrington of ComicBooked.com to let them know what was going on. Taking my own advice from my point above, I went even further and decided to E-Mail Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool, and guess what? They agreed to carry our story. These little bits help to give you credibility, and it is a nice confidence booster when someone agrees to help promote you when there are so many great projects out there to talk about.

9. Kickstarters can draw in new fans.

People that had never read a comic book or graphic novel before decided to put down some money for The Kursk because they saw it on kickstarter. I was really amazed at the first time readers, and the kind of attention that kickstarter can get you. Overall it was great to see readers that were not only new to Lucha, but also to the comic book industry.

10. Your fans are awesome people and they want you to succeed.

As invested as I was in my project, the fans really made it special. I was overwhelmed by the support we received, and how they wanted to get involved. Your fans are great, so make sure that you treat them well post-project. If someone puts down a pledge for your book, remember that they really want to see it happen.

This is probably one of the longest blogs I have ever written, and it could have easily been twice as long. If this came off like me bragging at all then I apologize because that was never my intent; I just wanted to reflect on a great experience that was only made possible by some great people who decided to take a gamble and show their support for us. Hopefully, this article can help someone else to experience the same.

What can we do to ensure that Humanity not only survives, but wins and thrives?

Marwan ElNashar brings his Action/Fantasy tale to Lucha Comics. Incredible artwork and an ageless story bring together a team of interfaith heroes that must put aside their differences because they are the only ones that can save our planet.

Volume 1: The Devil’s War
A Pharonic Queen that helped Moses during the Exodus, A Rabbi that aided Jesus, and a Roman commander that saves Mohamed, find a way to unite in the spiritual dimension of Jannahim. They must set aside their differences to prevent Satan from recruiting the Third Horsemen of the Apocalypse and edging ever closer to completing his army of darkness!

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in a concealed realm.”

Lucha Comics is thrilled to partner with MARZ publishing to bring this story to our readers. Expect it very soon on Google Play, Amazon Kindle, Comics+, and ComiXology!

Jory Abbott was inspired to tell this story through the artwork of Jeff Harvey as he felt that he was at a bit of a low point, a darker place. This led to an origin story that might be a bit darker than what most Comic Book readers are used to. Jory and Jeff have really poured themselves into this book, with characters that are a reflection of reality. There will always be things that go bump in the night. The genesis project created two people who could bump a little bit harder.

Get Faded Memories #2 on:

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