The Launch of the Super Indian Comic Webseries
Thanks to all who have checked out the site, listened to the shows and read the very few comic panels that were up. We appreciate your time and thanks for all of the wonderful notes about “Super Indian.”
After a very long haul — Arigon Starr has finished the entire “Origins” story. It’s 22-pages strong and will be the basis of the upcoming graphic novel. “Origins” closely follows the storyline of the very first “Super Indian” radio episode, loving entitled “Commod Bod.” We’re going to have to print up a dictionary of RezSpeak at some point for those of you who don’t know what a “Commod Bod” is.
We thought we’d part the behind-the-scenes curtain and let you see a bit of what has been going on in the past year.
Ever wonder where those images are created?
Yep, the “drawing board,” which in Arigon’s case is a desk in her wacky Los Angeles art/music studio. “I am surrounded by reference books and old-time vinyl albums,” smiled Arigon. “I also have a TV in the back so I can catch my sports while I’m working. It’s time for Dodger Baseball, be right back!”
Arigon produces the art in the time-honored way — 11 x 17 bristol board, pen & ink. She scans the final artwork and then colors in Photoshop and adds the lettering in Adobe Illustrator. “Those two computer programs are workhorses and they offer a lot of flexibility,” she said. “I’m so glad I took the time to attend several comic conferences. All those panels at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco and especially the panels at San Diego’s Comic Con were worth the time and effort. I certainly didn’t spring out of the box knowing what to do,” she laughed.
Arigon has been painstakingly working on a new “Super Indian” storyline called “Hubert’s Blog.” This time, Hubert Logan, the secret alter-ego of Super Indian becomes frustrated living in his own super shadow. “So many folks are online now. I know most people’s parents have taken to Facebook and Twitter — and you know these social networks are hot on the Rez and among Urban Indians,” remarked Arigon. “I wanted to let the mainstream folks who might happen upon Super Indian know that we’re very much in the present and can log on, too!”
The plan for the new online comics is that the story will be updated once a week on Mondays beginning on April 11th. “This is a full on, 22-page story so it’s going to take some time to unfold,” spoke Starr. “However, I feel it’s going to provide a lot of entertainment, laughs and hopefully something to think about.”
Another exciting element is a brand new strip called “Kyle.” Kyle is a pampered hairless cat and the strip follows his oddball adventures. “The idea for Kyle came from a print ad about an animal shelter. Hairless cats have always been the weird side of cats — whether it’s Dr. Evil’s cat in ‘Austin Powers’ or the scheming kitty in the kid’s film ‘Cats & Dogs.’ I also think they look like Alien Grays. Never try reading and watching ‘Ancient Aliens’ at the same time. You might come up with something really strange like Kyle,” said Arigon.
This is a scan of the original ‘Kyle” drawing along with a caricature of “Ancien Aliens” expert Giorgio Tsoukalos. “I love Giorgio’s big hair and brown suits. He could be Nate Berkus’ greek cousin. AAY!”
Speaking of someone looking like somebody….those of you who have looked at the Cast List for “Super Indian” may have noticed a character named “Davis Teeter.” Davis will be featured in the “Hubert’s Blog” storyline. “The inspiration for Mr. Teeter was a comment that one of my early test readers made about the comic. My friend said that there weren’t enough sympathetic non-Indian characters. I agreed — and thought about an enthusiastic fan over at Koahnic Broadcasting,” said Arigon. Mr. Teeter is based on “Native America Calling’s” engineer Steve-O Jeter.
“When I showed him the first round of art, he went nuts! I really enjoyed his feedback because he was a real comic art afficiando and appreciated the humor,” smiled Arigon. Here’s a photo of Arigon from last year’s Res2010 in Las Vegas with Koahnic Broadcasting’s COO Susan Braine, Arigon, Jaclyn Sallee (President) and Steve Jeter.
He sure looks like a character! As you probably know, Koahnic Broadcasting operates Native Voice One radio network, who also brought you (along with the Native Radio Theater Project and Native Voices at the Autry) “Super Indian: The Radio Series” in 2007.
Lots of folks are still disovering the radio series including KOPA 93.1 FM in San Diego. The station is owned and operated by the Pala Tribe in San Diego’s North County area. The weekend of March 26 & 27 was deemed “Super Indian” weekend and they played the show multiple times over the airwaves. You can listen to “Rez Radio” online at http://www.palatribe.com/pala-radio.
Now that the comic book is finally going live, we’ll be posting a lot more. Thanks for hanging in there with us!
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