Lucha Quest is Live

Good news and bad news, folks.  Bad news, as always, comes first, which is that the Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a Lucha Quest website failed.

The good news is that I decided, "Screw it, I'm buying a website."  So I found a cheaper site than I had originally intended, bought one, and now Lucha Quest has gone live.

Also, quick note, luchaquest.com will not take you to my comic.  Within a month of purchasing the domain name, someone apparently bought luchachest.com and that takes you to the very, very sparse website for a Mexican taco stand, one which amazingly, has nothing to do with luchadors, quests, or luchadors on a quest.  The place is called Taco Memo.  I don't know what they're doing with the website luchaquest.com, but for whatever reason they decided to buy it and left me without it.  So I just got luchaquest.net, which is just as fine, but this is the reason why, in case you were wondering.

So, enjoy, and welcome to http://luchaquest.net

Special Message for the Chive

Click here to visit the Lucha Quest Kickstarter page.  Please.

T-shirt designs

On the Kickstarter page I mentioned Lucha Quest t-shirts as one of the rewards, so I figured I'd post the designs here as well.  There are five, one for each of the main characters.

For Tacto, the leader and general tough guy, his design was designed like a lucha libre match poster.

For Sol, the mysterious loner, I patterned her after the poster for the Good the Bad and the Ugly.  Her's will be very tall on the shirt, stretching from just about as high to as low along the side of the shirt as the printer will allow.

Pescado, the rainforest prince, I decided to go with an art deco, Alphonso Mucha inspired look.  

Maize, the young peppy girl luchadora, is done in the style of the Life is Good shirts.

And Vellon, the huge (but super nice) teknico was made to look like an old timey comic cover.

Kickstarter Fund is Live

Most of you who might be reading this probably linked here from the Kickstarter page, but in case you hand't heard, the Kickstarter fund for Lucha Quest is live.  If you want to help bring this comic to life, please donate or share the link with anyone interested.  Every little bit helps, and I thank you very, very much.

Pages

Been a while since I posted anything, but that's because I've been busy working on this:

I've got the first two pages done, and here they are, albeit minus dialogue (I'll be saving that for when it's posted in full on the actual site.)

The first page is a basic introduction to the mythology, and I attempted to draw it in the style of Mayan heiroglyphics (I was specifically inspired by the finds at San Bartolo).  This won't be the style of the entire comic, obviously, but it may be an occasionally recurring motif.

Lines first.

And now in color.

You may notice the dark lines on the line copy.  My process is to draw it in pencil, scan it, and enhance the lines.  I do a little clean up and then remove all white, making it an outline over a transparency.  Then I color behind the outline.

Now page 2, which introduces the primary art style for the comic (and the first of our luchadores).

The last panel on page 2 (with the fight breaking out, and some other background things) is not part of the narrative, it's just a way for me to flesh out the background.  In the final copy, it's blurred, I just figured I'd show you guys a fully detailed version here.  And, for anyone familiar with the website The Chive, that is a "Keep Calm and Chive On" luchador there.  Just for fun.

Hope you enjoy.

Title Cards and Banners

Been working on some title cards, title fonts, and banners.

Let's start with the general, all purpose logo.

Just for fun, it's patterned after the Mayan calendar carvings.

Here's the title letters alone.

A large scale banner.

And a smaller, imbeddable one.  Seriously, click it, it comes back here.  Just copy and paste and it anywhere.  You know, in case you want to post this anywhere and get people to come check it out.

Técnicos vs. Rudos

One particular point I feel the need to explain is the basic difference between good guys and bad guys in general within this world.  In real life Lucha Libre, wrestlers are divided into two groups, the técnicos and the rudos.  

Técnicos are the good guys, and are marked by their adherence to the rules, by fighting fair, and by their complex, spectacular moves.  Technically impressive moves are their defining characteristic, their name even translating directly to "technician".  Rudos, on the other hand (literally translating "rude ones") are marked by their brawling, scrapping styles of fighting, less spectacular but more quick and brutal.  They often resort to underhanded tactics, being sneaky and cunning rather than overwhelmingly skillful.  In general, these are the good guys vs. bad guys, and becoming bad or good means changing your fighting style also.  

Now, in real life, the marked distinction between fighting style and inherent heroism or villainy is possible because there's isn't anything outside of the ring at stake; this is essentially a sporting event, and good guy vs. bad guy within that context isn't the same as good guy vs. bad guy within the context of a fictional adventure and world.  Therefore, there will be a bit less of a straight, clear line between good guy and bad guy within the world of Lucha Quest.  

One particular way you can expect this to come up is between Tacto and Vellon.  Tacto is a world hardened, rough and tumble character, and while he is distinctly good, he's the closest to the border of the group, and also has the most amount of Rudo within his fighting style.  As a personal philosophy, he believes that there isn't a difference in inherent goodness within the fighting style chosen by a luchador.  Vellon is the opposite.  Vellon will essentially be the best luchador ever (in theory and philosophy, at least), and he firmly believes that choosing the fighting style of a rudo means you are an inherently bad person (specifically, selfish and unprincipled and undisciplined), while choosing the style of a técnico means you are a good person (patient, self controlled, and wise).  This difference of opinion will feature heavily when dealing with these two characters together in particular.

The real life distinction will serve as a general basis, though explorations of the boundaries and exceptions will be looked into.  We'll see plenty of técnico vs. rudo action, and true to real life, we will explore what it's like when a tag team is composed of a técnico and a rudo at the same time.  We'll also see what can make a person truly bad or truly good, regardless of what style they fight with.

Hope this clears up a little about Lucha Libre, to anyone previously unfamiliar.

Our Heroes, Ladies and Gentlemen

I think we've waited long enough to find out the heroes of this story.  Below are the five main characters of this team, and a little bit you might want to know about them.

This is Tacto, the de facto leader of the group.  He never really wanted to join or form a group, but the five of them meet, and they're all heading to the same place, so they end up working together to get there.  Tacto is brash, rough and cocky.  He tries to cultivate a mysterious loner vibe, but fails.  Don't let that fool you, however, as he is still a great luchador.  He seeks the ultimate move so that he can be the greatest.

This is la Hija de la Sol, or Sol for short.  She's from a desert village which has been taken over by a horde of bandits.  She's tough, pragmatic, and wise.  She has a quiet, serious demeanor.  She seeks the ultimate move to free her village.

This is Pescado, a prince from a river village deep in the rainforest.  La Reina de los Rios (who I showed you earlier) is his mother, though the rest of the team doesn't find this out for a while.  He's grown up in the shadow of his mother, a powerful luchadora, and while he loves and respects her, feels he needs to make a name for himself where people won't think of him just as her son.  He seeks the ultimate move to open a mystical seal on a cave that contains his family's inheritance.

This is Maiz.  She is sweet, fun, and cheerful.  Her father too is a great luchador, and she seeks to make a name for herself too, but for a different reason.  Her father will only let her marry the man of her choosing if she can prove herself capable of fighting on her own; therefore she must defeat her father in the ring to prove this.  She seeks the ultimate move to free her destiny.

This is El Vellon.  He is a kind, sweet young man, from a mountain village to the north.  He is the most inherently good of the team, and strongly believes that the way of the technico is the way of a truly good and moral person (which contrasts with Tacto's belief that your fighting style has nothing to do with your morality).  He seeks the ultimate move in order to perform it for an old man in his village, who is cursed to live forever until he witnesses the ultimate move in the flesh.  

The Quest

If this is a luchaquest, there's got to be a quest going on, after all.  So what exactly is it our intrepid heroes are after?

Well, the five person team of good guys (who you'll be seeing more of very soon) have teamed up on a quest for the ultimate move.  Legend has it there exists a special, spectacular move that only one person in the world may know (aside from its two keepers, the mythical Hombres Dorados).  Each of the five team members seeks to know the move for a very personal reason (which you'll learn as I introduce them to you), so to better their chances of succeeding, they team up so that at least one of them will have the move (and that the rest will then have an ally who knows it).  The quest will take them on an ancient journey across a wide range of landscapes and locations, introducing them to the colorful cast of characters along the way.  And there's no telling who, or what, may also be after the knowledge of the ultimate move.

On that subject, here's some more luchadors our team will encounter along the way.

Character designs, colored

Here's the previous three characters, this time colored.

A little note on the outfit designs: some of the characters you meet in LuchaQuest will be a form of royalty, whether they're literal royalty, a king or queen of a village or people, or sometimes just possessing of a form of authority.  In either case, these figures are designated by their outfits; for men, they wear a wrestler's championship belt (often with their logo, or some personal designation, on it), for women, a derby hat.  Seen here is Reina de los Rios, the leader of a river village that resides in the jungle; El Hombre Fuerte, the strongest man in the world; King Platano and Queen Pina, the king and queen of an island nation.  These are all essentially royal figures.  They are not the main characters, but will be figures met along the way. As you'll find out when the main characters come on display, Reina de los Rios and El Hombre Fuerte will be of particular importance.

Also worth noting, the skirts on the women present.  This is taken from real life luchadoras, specifically the cholita variety of Bolivia, who wear derby hats and big fluffy skirts in the ring.  Not all the female wrestlers in the series will be cholitas (neither of the two female leads are) but these two are.

Welcome to LuchaQuest!

This is the temporary blog location of all things LuchaQuest.  I am currently working on getting this web comic going, so let me lay out the plan so far.

Step one was creating this blog spot to keep anyone interested informed as to the progress, and maybe get a few more people psyched along the way.

Step two will be getting full designs for characters (as well as other concept art for locations, items, page layouts, etc), and get them posted here.

Step three, once enough concept art is up, I'll be starting a Kickstarter fund to get the whole thing started.

Step four I'll be securing a domain name and begin posting the ongoing adventures on a regular basis.

So keep paying attention to this location for more information, and progress reports as we go along.  Hope you enjoy the ride.

PS.  Just to get things started, here's some line art for some side character luchadors encountered by our main heroes on their quest.  Click to see a larger picture.