Aaron Duran has added to his credits by writing a comic for the first time, and I and a few dozen other people celebrated that last night. The comic is La Brujeria, written by Duran, penciled by Dark Horse Comics veteran James Sinclair (paid to work on Hellboy and Star Wars comics, for just two examples), and inked and edited by Jackie-of-all-trades Jennifer Alvin. This I should be able to relate to: it's about a Portland temp who gets a job. A Portland temp who gets a job alongside a werewolf, an Elemental, and a smaller-than-expected chupacabra. (The announcement of the upcoming Issue 2 says "Ancient curses! Forgotten empires! Full health benefits!") I've been a scrambling temp, on and off, for much of my adult life, and worked some truly odd jobs in the process. I think I'm going to like this, which can take that to the nth.
I also like that I was social thanks to the comic. Duran, Sinclair and Alvin had a La Brujeria release party last night at Bridge City Comics up on N. Mississippi. I wanted to support the team and the comic, plus I'd never been to that store, so! I got there, thank goodness, and hung out for over two hours. Good crowd the whole time. Lots of them media-tied-in people who I've gotten to know and support over the past several years -- I was very relieved to see Dawn Taylor's husband Patrick for the first time since he had an annoying health crisis, and to visit with David "Bad Azz Mofo" Walker, who had an even scarier health crisis (both David and Patrick are able to joke about what happened to them; whoa) -- and others I didn't know yet but were amenable to saying "Hi!" and letting me have a Pabst.
(In fact, Michael, the guy who runs the shop, thought I'd overtipped for the beer, grabbed it back and opened it for me. "There," he said, "a little more service.")
People were enthused and engaged. They were making plans. I heard of tantalizing or at least damn amusing plans that may come to fruition, reminding me: I know neat people. Heck, I may have made a good suggestion that may push along one or two of those ideas. I'll say no more; I do worry about jinxing stuff. I can say that I bought an issue of La Brujeria #1, because I want there to be a #2 and a #3 and more beyond that. (I believe the comic will be a quarterly. Duran, Sinclair and Alvin are all busy people, and I'm sure they want to pace themselves on this.)
Aaron's done fiction before. He was the main writer of two radio dramas a couple of years ago: A.Z., about a zombie outbreak, and The Crimson Mist, about a 1940s vigilante superhero. (He made sure The Crimson Mist included such touches as Shirley Walker's energetic Batman music in the score and the Wilhelm Scream in the soundtrack.) This is his first comic. It gets him out there more, being excited about what he's doing, and I'm rooting for him and his team.
Aaron Duran's Facebook page has a photo album from Saturday night. Also on Facebook is a picture from last night that includes me! (I'm still enough of a Facebook noobie not to know whether you can see these or not, but really. They're there.)
Added: The Portland Examiner has an article about the comic and the signing.