El Bigote: 13 Dead Federales...

Aaaaaand here is the finished cover for El Bigote: 13 Dead Federales. Shaky Kane is responsible for the pencils and inks, Matt Soffe the colors, Bolt-01 the logos and Owen Watts the Tequila Bottle logo. Artist El Chivo, of course, is handling the interior art.

For more information about El Bigote, please visit the El Bigote facebook page (you can view the page even if you don't have a facebook account or contact us at elbigotequillpower@gmail.com.

Shaky Kane's Cover Art for El Bigote: 13 Dead Federales...

While giving away free copies of El Bigote: A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning, I received a surprise email from none other than Shaky Kane requesting a comic. Thankfully, he liked the comic enough to really get behind the project and help out - with the cover for issue 2, El Bigote: 13 Dead Federales!

Here is that fantastic cover, with colors by Matt Soffe. For more information about El Bigote, please check out the comic's facebook page or message me at elbigotequillpower@gmail.com.

Tequila-Drenched Samples...

Here are a few samples from El Bigote: A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning. Many more can be found at the El Bigote Facebook Page (which can be viewed even if you don't have a facebook account).

Tekilla Comix is giving away 200 free printed copies of A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning (but they are going fast), as well as free PDFs. Please contact us via the facebook page or at elbigotequillpower@gmail.com if you're interested in checking out the comic.

Free Copies of El Bigote.

El Bigote: A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning has been printed! To celebrate, we're giving away 200 free hardcopies of the comic - if you're interested, please email me at elbigotequillpower@gmail.com. For more information about the El Bigote, visit the El Bigote facebook page.

A Color-Drenched Cover.

And here is El Bigote, for the first time drenched in ghoulish color (courtesy of Matthew Soffe). How can someone possibly see this on the comics rack and pass A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning up?

The Final Pinup.

El Bigote letterer Bolt-01 is no slouch when it comes to the art-quills - here's his pinup of a somewhat melancholy El Bigote, which will appear on the back interior cover of 'A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning'.

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Although Bolt's official position on the El Bigote team is that of "letterer", he deserves as much (or more) credit for the comic as anyone else - myself and artist El Chivo included. Without his wealth of industry knowledge (he manages and edits four titles of his own, under the FutureQuake banner), Chi and I would probably be creating El Bigote solely 'for fun'; Bolt was the first person to give the project a real vote of confidence, and has since gone on to act as advisor and editor, design all the logos and interior blurb pages and assist in preparing the comic for print (news on that veeerrry soon).

To put it poetically, Bolt is to the El Bigote team what the Undead Ostrich is to El Bigote (ha ha).

Cheers, Bolt!

A Sneak Peek at El Bigote - in Color!

Not too long ago, I posted the inks and tones for the 'A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning' cover here. Now, have a glimpse of El Bigote - in glorious color!

Matt Soffe talks a bit about coloring the cover on his blog:

"One of several projects I'm juggling at the moment, here is a teaser of the cover art for the forthcoming independent comic 'El Bigote', which is written and drawn by my good friends Matt McLaughlin & El Chivo respectively. El Bigote takes place in the mexican afterlife, and from what I've seen so far features all manner of insane characters, shoot-outs and shenanigans.

El Chivo pencilled this magnificent wraparound cover and I was asked to ink the sucker. Now, inking other people's work is not something I have a lot of experience with, so that in itself was reason enough to say yes. Add in the fact that El Chivo's art is pretty flippin' dynamic and full of humour and menace, plus Matt's a great up-and-coming writer with a gift for memorable characters and I was sold.On top of inks, I'm now part-way through colouring the cover, and have also agreed to take on the mantle of ongoing inker for the next batch of actual comic pages. It never hurts to broaden your arsenal does it? (is that even a phrase?)"

A Tequila-Drenched Cover (Inks and Tones)

Here's a sneak peek at the cover for El Bigote: A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning! Artist El Chivo penciled the scene, and Matt Soffe applied the inks and tones - and is busy at work adding colors. We're almost there...

Latest El Bigote News and Notes...

Above: El Bigote Rides Out by artist Christopher Geary.

A quick update on all things El Bigote:

The script for the second issue of El Bigote, 'La Noche De Los Muertoads', is now in artist El Chivo's hands, and he plans to start penciling it soon. Artist Christopher Geary has begun work of 'La Terror Del Sessquatch', and artist Stewart Davies is busy on the first episode of a short spinoff series entitled 'Exorcismo', which will feature the skull-faced baddie of 'A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning'.

The reason for there being so many scripts in production all at once? El Bigote is soon going to go live as a webcomic!

From the start the plan has been to produce El Bigote adventures even while searching for a distributor, making limited print runs available for any fans we happen to (somehow) pick up along the way. And by limited, I mean limited - as in 200 copies per issue. Any more than that just wouldn't be possible on our budget (we are starving artists, you know), and we'd be limited to publishing two or three issues a year; "distribution" would consist mainly of flogging comics at conventions across the country. With no money for advertising, a limited press run, and an uneven release schedule El Bigote wouldn't stand much of a chance to gain a readership.

But a webcomic will allow us to reach a potentially wider audience(fear not you long box puritans, those limited press runs are still going to happen).

And since we won't be hampered by print costs, El Bigote will be fully colored (though the printed version will be B&W). Colorist (and fantastic artist, letterer, bloke, and so forth) Owen Watts will be joining the El Bigote team to help us out with that!

Lastly, the biggest news is that 'A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning' is closer to being unveiled! ...but a separate post on that, later.

Behold a Pale Ostrich!

'I got hellfires a'burnin' inside me. Hellfires thet scorch flesh an' char bones. Hellfires thet blacken souls...'

2000AD art droid Grant Perkins - of whose absolutely bonkers style I'm a big big fan - drew the above pinup of Undead Quillslinger El Bigote and his faithful Ostrich. It'll appear in the A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning collection, and is set to be the cover of issue 4.

Be sure to visit Mr. Perkin's website...here!

A Skull-Faced Gunfighter with Burning Eyes.

'Tonight I played cards with a disgraced priest. We wagered confessions...'

Artist Stewart Davies drew the above pinup of El Bigote's skull-faced nemesis. It'll appear in the A Tequila-Drenched Reckoning collection, and will be the cover of a future collection...