(Editor’s note: “Presidio” is an exclusive NewsTaco Latino superhero web comic.)
By Guy Nuesca, NewsTaco
Click on each thumbnail to enlarge.
To learn about Presidio’s genesis, the artist and why NewsTaco is publishing a web comic, read and listen to the interviews we published in anticipation of Presidio’s launch.
Guy Nuesca started reading and drawing comic books at the tender age of 3 and never looked back since. Published numerous comic book titles and series ranging from super heroes, to dinosaurs, to mystery and even science fiction. He has also worked on movies, feature length animated films, video games, graphic novels, novels, magazines, album covers, webdesign, and did a little dabbling in graphic design as well.”
We thought it was time for a home grown Latino superhero. Not a Latino version of an established character; not an alternate universe conjured to make room for “Latinoman.” No, we felt it was well past the time for an unapologetic Latino superhero. That’s the reason for “Presidio.”
Truth be told, though, this was equal parts luck and circumstance as it was need and timing. I met Presidio’s creator, comic book artist Guy Nuesca, at a coffee shop. I had gone there to work (my office walls were closing in on me) and he was set-up with all his drawing tools and pad splayed across a table. I had to ask who he was an what he was doing. We had a quick chat and that was that.
In the weeks after that I ran into Guy at other coffee shops (apparently we both have an addiction/affinity for those places) around town, and I came to know that this was his marketing technique – set-up shop in a public place and attract people to approach him and ask questions. So we got to talking and I thought it would be cool to somehow incorporate his work in NewsTaco. Months later the idea to start a Latino superhero web comic on our site started to gel.
Presidio is entirely Guy’s brainchild.
When I approached him with the idea of a Latino superhero he jumped. “I’ve got one!” he said. “He’s a Latino super genius professor who lives in San Antonio and invented this cold-fusion armor suit that he uses to fight injustice!” Whoa, I thought, perfect… Slowly we’ve been working to make it happen.
The idea is to counter negative Latino stereotypes in an unexpected way. It’s still organic and unapologetic, which are NewsTaco guiding principles, but we come at the stereotypes in a completely different and cool way. We published part of an interview with Guy yesterday. Here’s the second part of that interview:
How did you get started in comic book art?
How long have you been doing this?
What can NewsTaco readers expect from the Presidio?
An essential part of Presidio is to mirror actual events and news in the plot. Also, to have the readers suggest story lines.
Look for the debut of Presidio later today on NewsTaco!
This is something we at NewsTaco have been working on for months, and although at first glance it doesn’t fit with the news, information and analysis content that you’ve come to know and expect from us, there are definite reasons for our publishing a Latino superhero series.
The first has to do with a trend we’ve all intuited but that was brought to stark life by a poll commissioned by the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The poll, done by our content partners Latino Decisions, found that there are rampant negative stereotypes about Latinos among many people in the US. Here is part of that poll’s findings:
…there is a common misperception that Latinos and undocumented immigrants are one in the same, with 17% of survey respondents actually believing that the majority of U.S. Latinos are undocumented.
Add to that the negative perception that many American’s have of the undocumented and the picture we all knew existed begins to come into focus. Our intent at NewsTaco has been to portray Latinos and Latino issues in a realistic and unapologetic manner, produced by Latinos from a Latino point of view.
We do it with essays, polls, articles, columns, pictures, videos, art, and we’ve entered into partnerships with Latino writers and websites who are like minded. In this there is a special distinction: we don’t aggregate content, we curate information about the U.S. Latino community.
So put that all together and a comic strip about a Latino superhero seemed like a natural next step.
We’re excited! The NewsTaco team has been working on this for several months, making sure that the experience for the NewsTaco community will be the best of all possible experiences, we feel we owe that to you. So special thanks to our web magicians Joe Ruiz and Erik Reyna who tinkered and plied and tweaked code and brought out their bag of tehno-spells to make it happen.
We launch tomorrow, so look for it. But today we want to give you a preview of our comic strip “Presidio,” in the words of Presidio’s creator, comic book artist Guy Nuesca. We’ll have more about Guy and his art tomorrow as well.
Who is Presidio?
The first episode of the comic strip introduces us to Presidio, tell us about it?
Why do a comic strip like Presidio now?
Presidio is from South Texas, but he travels the world so there will be opportunities for him to encounter foes and have adventures all over the world.
Watch for the debut of PRESIDIO tomorrow, here at NewsTaco!
September 19, 2012 
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By Guy Nuesca, NewsTaco
