THE BIRTH OF THE CHOSEN ONE

When it ame to creating my main character, THE CHOSEN ONE, I wanted to do something that was real simple for viewers to understand.

I knew my character was coming from the BLACK HOLE, so I wanted to give my character that RAIDER feel with a small touch of creativity for my niece ANGEL.

If you look at my mauin character, you will see there is a hint of pink in a small bag wrapped around THE CHOSEN ONE’S neck.

Every Super Hero or Villian has a super power and down the road I will reveal the significance of the bag wrapped around THE CHOSEN ONE’S neck.

I also wanted to create a character to inspire my niece by showing her just because she’s a girl, that does not mean she can not save the UNIVERSE, because everyone has their own super powers to do whatever they want in life.

After creating my main characger, I then painted THE CHOSEN ONE on a 9″x12″ canvas with black and white acrylic paint with the RAIDER colors only using pink for THE CHOSESN ONE as needed. I also knew this was going to be my main cover piece, so I waned to show THE CHOSEN ONE ready to take on the universe. If you look at the back of THE CHOSEN ONE, you will see a “UFO” crashed with smoke coming out. I then painted an AMERICAN flag reflecting off THE CHOSEN ONE’S eyes, because THE CHOSEN ONE is on AMERICAN soil.

As for the graphics for the cover design, I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do, so once I completed the original cover painting, I drafted some examples for my mom so she could have her friend turn my paintings into a comic book style cover.

I would like to thank Angelo C Manzano for helping for helping me with the graphics used for the cover design of RAIDERS LEGACY 51. Everything was on point and came out how I invisioned the cover to be.

If you look at my RAIDERS LEGACY 51 cover design sketches, you will see how I drafted the general idea of what I wanted, with another draft of the fonts I wanted to use.

Being I could not talk to my graphic designer direct, I used some fonts I cut out of a tatoo magazine to show as an example of what I was trying to do. When you are in THE REAL BLACK HOLE, you need to use what you got.

One of the main things I wanted to hae is a TOP SECRET stamp to give the cover design a TOP SECRET document feel. I also wanted to make sure to keep the main heading as close as possible to the RAIDER colors.

When it came to finalizing the cover design, it was done over the phone.

I had called y mom one night, and she told me her friend had sent the final cover design after doing what I had requested.

So there I was on the phone with my mom, and I asked her; “so what do you think mom? How does it look?”

Keep in mind, my mom has probably never read a comic book in her life and could careless about the RAIDERS. When it comes to the RAIDERS, she’s the realistic type. When the RAIDERS go to the playoffs, then she might watch a quarter or two. But until then, it’s all hopes and dreams.

So as I was all pumped up on the other end of the phone to hear some good news, because I was expecting a big response.

My mom gave me a simple it’s o.k. I guess. My friend did what you wanted him to do.

In other words, I was going crazy on the other side of the phone because how could I approve something if I could not see it.

And then the unexpected happened!

My mom said out of nowhere, the only thing that I see that might need some fixing is the part where it says “ISSUE 1.” It could be a little bigger.

Hey, I can’t complain, at least she said something…

When your caught up in THE REAL BLACK HOLE, you learn a thing or two about appreciation and being greatful for what other people are trying to do for you, because at the end of the day, I put myself in this situation and I gort to make the best of what I got.

And to be honest, my mom’s help is perfectly fine.

I know I’m not working for MARVEL comics or sponsored by anyone at this moment, but after all the hard work I put in to get the RAIDERS LEGACY 51 cover design done, it felt really good to know I completed something with my family and friends who helped me out. Even if I did not get the chance to see the final cover design at the moment.

Two weeks later, I got some mail and my mom sent me a picture of the final cover design. When I opened up the letter my mom sent me, It reminded me of a feeling I got when I was a kid and I got my first Nintendo GAMEBOY for Christmas. It felt good to see something I had created on my own.

Overall, to get the cover design done from me sketching my idea out to painting the original cover design. It took about 6 months of hard work to get the final cover design done.

Now it’s time to put the RAIDERS LEGACY 51 ISSUE 1 together.

I hope everything I shared from my charchter sketches to how I put the cover design together inspires you to create your own character because anyone can do it.

JUST CREATE BABY!