In The Beginning...

Before I launched Idiot Press Comics I was involved with a local company called Grubbmaster Graphics. The publisher, David Gruba, had asked me to contribute to his zine that he was putting together called Grubbmaster Pieces. He originally saw my Dorks comics and wanted me to contribute them to the zine but in the back of my mind I didn't feel rite "giving" away my favorite characters to some stranger. Instead I did my other characters that I had just developed for a book called Razura. If I remember he was quite happy when I turned in some of the work but years later he let me know that he was hoping for Dorks (and was a bit offended that I didn't trust him, even though he was a total stranger that I met at a comic book store). The results were great in my opinion. Razura was to be showcased in the same book with another comic called Radioactive Road Kill and The Firing Squad, both created and written by David Gruba. When the sampler came out showcasing some of the work from the three books mine was the only one with real pages to show. Firing Squad had some pencil work and Radioactive Roadkill had sketches done. This was a sign of things to come in the first and only two issues of Grubbmaster Pieces. Scans by: David Gruba

You Never Know Someday...

Art Baltazar was rite back in 1995. I met Art maybe back in 1994. Not shure of the year. I know that I saw his books, The Cray-Babies in the Capital Catalog. I'm a huge fan of cartoons and things that look cartoony and Cray-Babies were rite up that alley. I met art at Chicago Con shortly after. His crew and himself were in disbelief that somebody preordered his book and sought him out at the convention. We talked alot and he was very nice. I told him about my book and how I was going to send it out to him. After completing Dorks issue 1 I sent it out to him. I remember it was quite a while afterward that he replied because somewhere in there I stopped working on issue 2. When I got the letter asking for issue 2 I was on cloud 9. His letter was very nice and professional and the pinup made me feel like one of them. I went back to drawing the Dorks books rite away as to not disappoint him. Art is as friendly as he can be and it's no wonder he's had huge success with Patrick the Wolfboy, Gorilla Gorilla (From Disney Digest) and Tiny Titans (From DC). Thanks Art for the encouragement and one of these days Dorks will be born again and on those shelves.

-Rene

The Original Dorks TP

In high school my biggest ambition was to break in to the comic book business. Most of it really started my freshman year drawing a comic called Imp. That whole thing spiraled into what is now going to be The Fighter series. The funny part is that Imp and the other characters are no longer part of that world. I think it was my sophomore year that I began working on Dorks. I did a dumb three page comic that made no sense, followed by a series of strips that introduced the Dorks gang. After that I did my first full issue (twelve pages long). I started on the second issue and quit after two pages. I redid the series with another twelve page comic that was fully inked. When I started working on the second issue I realized that the story was so far removed from what I wanted. I quit a second time. Third times the charm and a brand new twenty two page comic fully inked was born. All three of those books and the short stories and strips were collected in these two volumes from Idiot Press. I didn't produce many of them due to the major flaw of just completing the first issue and selling that product and then selling a trade with the same thing in it.

The First and Last

After years of work and preparation, I finally decided to move ahead with Idiot Press, Dorks and expanding the company. Our first show took place at Wizard World in 2000. I wanted to go out there and be with the big boys on this venture. I purchased a booth (for the same amount of money you could print 2,000 copies of a book at the time). I didn't know what to expect but I knew from past experiences what displays looked like. I borrowed a rack from my girlfriends boss at the video store. I hand made the Idiot Press sign on foam board. It was such a bad layout. Wizard World spared me the embarrassment by seating me at the corner of the show far, far to the left. We were often missed and my brother took over two hours to find me. It was an experience that I don't regret and it's just one of those things that you look back on and think how big of a noobie you were to the game. Taking a look thru my records I do believe this was also the last Idiot Press convention. Unit 1 and Blake Astro (spotted in the background of the pic) were released thru Instant Press Comics in 2002. Well, Unit 1 was. In the picture from left to rite: Rene Castellano - Publisher/ Creatore/ Writer/ Artist on Dorks, Sara Mundt - Cover colorist, Ivan Flores - Creator/ Artist Writer of Unit 1, Kevin Girard - Creator/ Writer/ Artist of Blake Astro.

A brief Introduction

Most people that will read this or see this will wonder why Idiot Press Comics. Well, as my good friend Dave Gruba did with his blog, he named it after his first venture into publishing. Idiot Press Comics represents to me the past and where I thought I was going 15 years ago (God it seems a lifetime ago). I did a small circuit myself of promoting my work after Grubbmaster Pieces was over. I worked on Dorks for some years and even did some in store signings as well as sold to the local comic book retailers. Those days were fun. The graduating point of it all was when I published a collected edition of Dorks. After that I closed the doors on Idiot Press to venture into the now ongoing company, Instant Press Comics (which I'm proud to say Dave Gruba is a part of). That's the skinny of it. I have lots of Dorks crap and stories to talk about as well as my pointless views on the now dead "indy" industry. That's all.

-Rene