Yambar & Santo Comics USA interview

Yambar & Santo Comics USA (The Fransisco Javier Barriopedro Interview. 8/22/01) Round one : Thank you for your time, your disposition, and well... Let's get it on. Q - Chris Yambar is exactly who? How can you introduce yourself to readers who do not know your work? A - I've worked for years as a Pop Art painter & am a bit of an overachiever. To date , I've created nearly 1600 pieces of work and have images in collections around the world. My background also includes wearing the hats of a commercial artist , indie-newspaper publisher ( The Activist-1980s), comic book writer & artist , & minister. Comic fans will be most familiar with my work on Mr. Beat , The Fire-Breathing Pope , Itsi Kitsi , Suicide Blonde , el Mucho Grande , and Bart Simpson Comics. To date , I've had my hands in 60+ comic projects. I'm currently involved in the launching of 6 new titles which should see the light of day next year......My love for the comic medium & involvement with the promotion of pop-idols spans my entire 40 years.....Other than that I'm a shiftless layabout. Q - Why you? What is the story behind your position as the newest Santo scribe? A - Last winter , my publisher , Richard Maurizio, called and asked if I knew anything about a masked wrestler named "SANTO". I went on & on about his legendary status as the king of Lucha-Horror Film and about his history as the most recognized masked man in the history of the sport. When he asked me if I'd like to write a comic series based on him I pretty much crapped YOUR pants! SANTO is the Rock and Roll of wrestling ! He's not some 'flavor of the month' poser who changes his mask every time some promoter thinks he needs bigger television ratings like they do here in the U.S.! SANTO is a walking , breathing icon of mythic proportions ! His legacy actually means something in the grand scheme of things ! Needless to say , I took the job ! Q - Why in the U.S., with your company? What is there to assure the readership, it will stay true to the tradition? That will surely be one of the most interesting questions to our readers... Be nasty. A - Richard was approached by SANTO'S (then) U.S. rep because of Airwave Comics understanding of licensed characters and the estate's desire to broaden the marketing of SANTO to the wrestling fans of the U.S. where Lucha Libre is gaining momentum & growing popularity....One well meaning dude approached us in San Diego and asked George (Broderick Jr.) & I what two "white" guys from Ohio & Pa were doing creating comics about a mexican wrestler like SANTO ? After laughing with him about it we simply told him , "We're just trying to produce the best damn adventure comics for the coolest damn wrestler in history that we can !!!"...Just so SANTO fans will know our hearts in the matter , we were honored to sign our first SANTO mask recently and the owner asked me if I would put on the mask to be photographed in it. I hugged him & told him that while I was tempted to, I could not because ," Only SANTO is worthy to wear the mask of SANTO." I really believe that.....When the estate approached us they said they wanted a book that portrated SANTO as a hero for "the people - the everyman". The character should have the heart of Robin Hood , the mystery of the Phantom ,and the adventure of Doc. Savage. We added the authority of Batman, the popular animated-hero art style , just a dash of tongue-in-cheek campy coolness & "Presto!": you've got the new SANTO comic book. We plan to have a lot of fun with this book and yet still honor the mythology surrounding it all. I will be sending SANTO straight to hell in the second issue to fight for the imprisoned soul of his father (who may or may not be there). That story will deal heavily with the deep spiritual side of the character & the power of the mask. He is "The Saint" isn't he ??!! ....It should also be noted that the comic will be available worldwide by subscription just as soon as we iron it all out ! Q - Are you really into wrestling? Do you know your Lucha Libre? Do you have all the films? Have you read the Santo photo-adventures by José G. Cruz.? If so... Can you top everything we have seen before? A - Although I do own a mask of my own I don't wear it when I cut the grass or cook dinner. To be perfectly honest with you , I think American wrestling is at it's all time dumbest. It has degenerated to the lowest common denominator and has become so staged and poorly booked that it is an insult to any thinking man's intelligence. It's not even fun to watch. I can remember watching studio wrestling with my Dad in the 1960s. There was no glitter or glam. Those cats were fierce ! George(the animal) & Andre(the giant) scared me . Heck , even the bloody midget wrestlers scared me. I had a whole new respect for short people after seeing them beating the hell out of each other in the ring ! The thing I admire most about Lucha Libre Wrestling is it's deep history and outward link to it's original roots. The mystery & excitement is still intact & the fast paced action and timing is over the top. To me , it seems much purer. I'm much more fascinated with Lucha ....I have about a dozen SANTO movies on video and have some classic matches with the son, but I'm always looking for more! Some are great while others are....well , at least SANTO got paid to show up. Like anyone with a long career, there are highs & lows. SANTO is never boring but some of the scripts ...y'know !....I'm currently on the lookout for copies of the original SANTO comics but they are very hard to find. If anyone has any they'd like to send my way I'd try to make it worth their while ! I really like the Cruz paintings the best....I'm not in competition with history so the idea of trying to "top" what has come before in SANTO comics hasn't crossed my mind. As a writer ,my goal is to try and top myself and do so before a live firing squad of readers who are willing to go along with the ride. I'm not writing the Bible here. I'm just trying to live the life to it's fullest , dig ?! Q - Who or what is to say that Santo will not loose his personality and characteristics, when he is being written by you. Are you going to "adapt" him --a common occurance-- to the U.S. criteria, having the certainty that there is where you'll have your biggest market? Or will you let it be as Mexican, yet Universal, as possible without slipping into preconceptions, misnomers and clichés about the Mexican and Lucha Libre cultures? A - Who can say when the next plane will crash or the exact moment any of us will grab our chest and hit the pavement ? Who can say ? All I can tell you is that every super hero in modern comics is hung up on some darker anti-hero trip that requires the reader to make allowances for self-centered behavior and an egocentric worldview. Our goal at Airwave is to help comics return to a standard of pure-heroics where the hero is true to ideals of self sacrifice and true humanitarian acts that can be viewed with awe and admiration. That was one of the reasons why I loved the 1960s Spider-man comics so much. It cost him something on a personal level every time he swung off into battle. The reader knew this and loved him for that reason. That's a quality I see in the Santo films over and over again. He's fighting for the regular folks like you and me , not so he can put another head on his wall. He's a man's man (and quite a ladies man too !) As far as SANTO becoming anything other than what he is let's just say that "SANTO is a famous Mexican masked wrestler who has his daring life of out-of-the-ring adventure scripted by a team of wonderful American creators who are helping bring entertainment to an entire planet and hopefully to a new generation of Lucha Libre fans & comic readers." Case closed on that one. The legend of SANTO is bigger than any geographical border. Q - How much Lucha Libre do you, and your editor and artists actually know? Who are they? What's their story? We are going to see ring fights, aren't we? Are we going to see classic moves, realistically depicted, correctly named and executed? Santo was a wrestler! We want to see him on and over the ropes! A - The other "TEAM SANTO" guys who are making the book happen are George Broderick Jr. & Ken Wheaton. George has been in comics for about 15 years & has been involved with nearly every aspect of the business. He's written for such high profile projects as Lost in Space and Quantum Leap and has a ton of his own characters who have seen print in comics including : Courageous Man , Stardust & Thor , Fearless Frog , and his popular on-line strip ,Chase Villains. He is also the publishing editor of Comic Library International and the artist for el Mucho Grade & Suicide Blonde. Without a doubt he's one of the hardest working men in comics! Ken Wheaton is the tenderfoot of the bunch and has done some creating and publishing of his own with Funny Book Institute & his title: Burger Bomb. He's got a tremendous energy and a real enthusiasm for the project. I feel very confident with these fellas....The comic will show scenes and moments in the ring (complete with classic SANTO holds) but it is primarily an adventure comic that will take SANTO far beyond the ring to exotic locations and dangerous situations. He can't help but use his ring skills because that is who he is, but he's not going to try to fight an army of flesh-eating zombies by putting each one in the camel clutch either. That would be stupid ! Ha ! Now , Vampire Women : that's a different opportunity altogether !.......SANTO will be up to his neck in trouble but don't expect him to go 3 falls! Atomic weapons & Hi-Tech gadgets....Yep! Q - What would you say to assure the Mexican Santo followers, to take away some of the "resentment" and disbelief about this project, and to actually make them try the book? A - I think I've said enough about that already , but,OK. Everywhere we've gone we've made new friends over this project. That's the thing about SANTO , he seems to bring out the best in people. It's awesome to us to have so many people expressing so much support for what we are doing. We feel that energy and thank you for your kind words and warm hugs & handshakes ! All of us are glad to have that kind of power in our corner.....Some people might not like where we're going with this comic and that's the way it is. You can't please everyone ....but we're sure going to try ! Long live the MAN IN THE SILVER MASK ! (End of Part One) Round Two: Q - One of the things that struck me most about you, is your overall lucidity and honesty, above and beyond your being happy at being the newest Santo scribe. This most be crucial to the project... What, do you believe, are the most important elements for you all as a creative unit? A - First of all we're all good friends and enjoy each others company. We've all worked together on numerous projects in the past and somehow managed not to kill each other so that's a good sign. There's a tight fit here . We work together as 4 parts of a single machine. The end result is the goal. If everyone does their job then we've got something to be proud of. If not...Then we blame our publisher , Richard (Maurizio) ! Ha!...It's a creative family unit and it's working ! Q - Your life has been an interesting one. It must have showed you a thing or two. As far as a professional goes, what is your perception of how the industry is coping and how much does it values the work of its creators? A - I published a comic a few years ago called "COMICS ARE DEAD !" that summed up my feelings about American comics. A lot of industry folks have told me that it stood in the gap for them too. In the 1990s the industry here became more interested in quantity than in quality. They sold themselves out by sacrificing the crafts of good storytelling and solid art form for flash and a false investors market. The price guides here still lie about the value of comics. You can't tell me that ANY IMAGE comic is worth more than $5. Every comic store in America has long box upon long box of this stuff . It was all over ordered. The only thing that will make these books worth anything is a good burning or a few hundred trips to the recycler. I'm not going after IMAGE alone here. All the major companies played into this problem. MARVEL sold their soul to the devil and actually tried to strong arm the industry with blatant economic threats to direct market retailers. Why retailers didn't fight back with a full-on boycott is beyond my understanding. At least DC was interesting to read and newsworthy during that period. They weren't completely short sighted with their properties. I still think that people who locked into the independent comic scene got the best of that decade. They had notoriously low print runs of 3000 or less , introduced many of the upcoming talents in today's industry , & contain some of the most rereadable , original material and memorable character concepts in 20 years. To get back to your original question , I think I do see a trend toward returning to traditional and higher creative standards within the industry . I hope people never forget how close we came to bankrupting ourselves and destroying the art form here in America. Q - Tell us about your up and coming projects with Airwave or elsewhere. A - So far the only concrete title I'm working on for Airwave Comics is SANTO. There's another high profile title in the works there but I'm sworn to silence until the final paperwork is inked. All of my MR. BEAT comics are being collected in softbound format via Comic Library International. The second vol. of THE COMPLETE MR. BEAT just came out and a third vol. is due out in Jan/Feb. of 2002. It should contain a CD of live and studio music inspired by the character. CLI just released a collected vol. of my FIRE-BREATHING POPE comics too. In each issue of the quarterly CLI self-titled anthology George & I have our sci-fi SUICIDE BLONDE storyline and our Lucha Libre parody character: el MUCHO GRANDE-WRESTLER FOR HIRE. We're getting a lot of feedback on those two characters! I just finished a 64 page script for a SPACE FLEA FIELD GUIDE & a 32 page collection of dark humor called SPELLS with Levi Krause which we hope to see in print asap! I've got a whole bunch of stuff ready to see the light of day in BART SIMPSON COMICS too. ....I've got a few other titles I'm pitching for but they are all in various stages of development. Q - What books do you read? How do you prepare to write a story? Are there other comic books artists and magazines that you like? Are you familiar with other authors´ bodies of work? Tell about what YOU like... A - I don't like to read fiction at all , except for comics and I'm very picky with those. I'm pretty bored with superheroes in general unless a writer is really trying to take them into new territory. My favorite period for superhero comics are the 1960s MARVEL zone: The first 120 issues of SPIDER-MAN; the first 100 issues of FANTASTIC FOUR. I love old DELL & HARVEY kids comics ! They make me laugh and are just fun to read. The older the better ! I read a lot of books on history , pop culture & theology. Biographies and autobiographies really get me going ! I love to find out how other people thought and get 'the story behind the story'. Without a doubt , my favorite book is the BIBLE. Everything you need to live is right there! No kidding. Q - How do you conceive your stories? How do you plan you issues? How long does it take you? A - Ideas come to me very quickly. I've never had a problem with that area. My mind is a pretty busy street. If I don't put my ideas into their proper files and put them back when I'm done I can get pretty overloaded . When I get an idea for a story that I think should get birthed I make sure it has a solid beginning , middle, and end. An idea alone does not a story make. I go to the Library and research. I put a lot of thought into layout and pacing and script everything on notebook paper before I attempt a final draft. I also think about the artist I'm working with (unless it's me). Sometimes thinking about the artist and what he can or can't do helps me to move into certain pockets of thought and expression that I might not consider if I was working with someone different. I try to write in different styles for different genres. Each theme has a certain signature style to it and makes its own demands. I like to work with artists who have a strong signature style...ones that look at things from a unique vantage point and who can troubleshoot when I put their skills to the test. The result is only as good as the collaboration. My stories are expressions of my celebration of life. I'm only interested in working with friends. I've worked on hundreds of pages with people whom I love and respect. In the end I hope that will stand not only as a testimony of good art and creative storytelling but of good collective worship as well. Q - Taking into consideration the approach you are having to the Santo character, what other influences will we see on the book? What thinkers? What trends? What social phenomena will find it way to your pages? A - SANTO has a built in 'hands on' mentality. It is a very physical book but a very smart book as well. There will be times when there is nothing SANTO can do to bring down the foes around him. That is when he reaches deep into himself and calls on the inner powers of his identity as THE SAINT. There is a very supernatural side to SANTO that is every bit as important as his outward physical attributes and natural fighting skills. We're putting a spotlight on his global appeal by setting him up as a universal man of adventure. Through it all we plan to keep SANTO accessible to the average citizen through his SANTO AGENCY. He'll never forget to remain a hero to the children. When SANTO is too busy to get down to a childs eye level I'll retire from writing the series. SANTO is not only the hero's hero , he's the hero of the people. Q - And, finally, describe a usual day in the life of Chris Yambar. What makes you tick? Got any pets? Favorite hangouts? Are you interested in coming down to Mexico, some day? A - Coffee and study first. Then comes a look at my checklist for the day followed by a volley of phone calls and email to make sure all my people are ok , up & running. I play with my cats. Write for 3 to 4 hours. Read for a few hours. Catch a movie. I like to visit the art museum and check out galleries. Do my ebay buying & selling. Spend time with my beautiful wife. Cook dinner. Write a few more hours if I can. Some days I just say "to hell with it all " and go wild with my painting. I teach a few nights a week and love to thrift and antique shop. I find I'm developing quite a fetish for old Tiki mugs .... Travel to Mexico ?! That seems pretty certain in 2002. If the people of Mexico, or any other country for that matter, invite me to come to them I will be there. It would be an honor!.......What makes me tick ? The fact that each day is a chance for new adventure and holds a free prize inside it somewhere. It's my job to make sure I find it ! Q - Any closing statements? A - We're all going through life once. Let somebody know you love them. Then wreck the place ! Q - Thank you, Chris, for your time. Once again, godspeed... (End Of Part 2) Click below to go back to