Author Archive: Ralph Contreras

My name is Ralph Contreras, I'm a graphic designer and proud comic book nerd living in Santa Fe, NM. A Four year alumni of the 30 Character Challenge, I have aspirations of becoming a professional comic book artist. I've been reading comics for over 25 years. I owned and ran my own comic shop for 5 years. My day job is graphic design, but at night I work on sharpening my storytelling, drawing and inking skills.

I setup a personal blog www.Comic Book Graphic Design.com where I combine my comic artwork with my graphic design skills. I post all my pencils, inks and character designs on the blog. I also post great comic book resources to help other aspiring comic artists in their journey too. In past 30 Character Challenges I've made some really great online friendships with fellow creators.. I'm always interest in making new friends and contacts, so drop me a line any time. - Shazam!

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Ralph Contreras – 30 Characters

| December 1, 2010 | 3 Comments

Wow! What a great month! So many awesome new characters from all the participants. I really enjoyed seeing all the creativity every day. Thanks to Tyler for gathering us all together. You Rock dude! So I didn’t quite finish the challenge. I did come up with 30 characters, but I was only able to illustrate 12 of them. If anything I learned I need to work on my time management skills.

Entering the challenge I planned on coming up with fresh ideas every day and not having any preconceived plans to the characters before I put my pencil to the paper. But once I started with the first character I started getting ideas for other characters. Eventually I created a list of 30 characters that were not only connected to each other, but also connected to the universe of my current personal comic projects.

I’ve included my list of the 30 characters with a strike through on the ones I was able to illustrate and post. Although I wasn’t able to get them all done in time for this awesome challenge. I will finish them and post on my personal blog (ComicBookGraphicDesign.com).

30 Characters 2010 – Ralph Contreras

  • 1. Foot Soldier of the Cyber Lords (male)
  • 2. Zarruk Xeon (male)
  • 3. General Grimm (male)
  • 4. Surge Shocker (male)
  • 5. Penelope Chamber (female)
  • 6. Leon Perrie (male)
  • 7. Psycho Bringer (male)
  • 8. Susan Spektor (female)
  • 9. Legerity [Sandra Spektor, sister of Susan Spektor] (female)
  • 10. Solarus [John McCarran] (male)
  • 11. Brother Jeffrey Hamilton, Founder of the Church of Solarus (male)
  • 12.Cyberonic [Jason Tabort] (man)
  • 13. Solarus II [Benjamin McCarran, son of original Solarus] (male)
  • 14. Jeremiah Stone [Elementals; Earth] (male)
  • 15. Susanna Ridley [Elementals); Wind] (female)
  • 16. Bo Stone [Elementals; Water] (male)
  • 17. Jed Griffen  [Elementals; Fire] (male)
  • 18. Victory [uses a modified Foot Soldier energy staff] (female)
  • 19. Red Mammoth (male)
  • 20. Tiger Shadow (male)
  • 21. Crimson Sun [Cameron McCarran, son of original Solarus and brother to Solarus II] (male)
  • 22. Cakka’ria, Cyber Lord field leader (female)
  • 23. Kevin Spektor [son of Solarus II and Susan Spektor] (male)
  • 24. Azaark’con, interstellar bounty hunter (Female)
  • 25. The Shadows Man [Alec Samson] (male)
  • 26. Mighty Max [Maximilian Murphy] (male)
  • 27. Arcanzra Bliz’chat, Acarien Rebel leader (arachnoid alien male)
  • 28. Shak’urra Bliz’chat, Acarien Rebel [daughter of Arcanzra Bliz’chat] (arachnoid alien female)
  • 29. Hexson Ichubuz, Former Foot Soldier, now free (male)
  • 30. Oun Da Zerka the Cyber Lord (male)

Thanks again to Tyler James for gathering us all together, and to Daniel Govar (saulone) for the great .psd templates. As an alumni of last year’s 30 Character Challenge, I was proud to participate again this year. I’m happy to have made new friends with a bunch of great and talented artists. Anyone else that wants to connect with me, follow the links at the end of this post. See you all next year again for the 2012 Challenge! – Shazam!


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#12 Cyberonic

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#11 Brother Jeffrey Hamilton

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments


Brother Jeffrey Hamilton, Founder of the Church of Solarus

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#10 Solarus

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#9 Legerity (Sandra Spektor)

| November 29, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#8 Susan Spektor

| November 29, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#7 Psycho Bringer

| November 29, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#6 Leon Perrie

| November 29, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#5 Penelope Chamber

| November 29, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#4 Surge Shocker

| November 6, 2010 | 0 Comments

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#3 General Grimm

| November 4, 2010 | 2 Comments

#3 General Grimm
Noran Grimm grew up in a world ruled by logic, strategy and calculation. The planet Dethathoun was one of first planets to be conquered by the Cyber Lords after their own “Great War”. For generations the Dethathouns were shaped by the Cyber Lords to become their field generals. Their inherit skills in problem solving and tactical thinking made them the perfect solders and leaders.

Noran’s family were among the most decorated of the these Generals. Leading armies of Foot Solders in campaigns to conquer worlds across the galaxies. Norans father Jurvan Grimm lead the campaign that conquered the entire Acarien System. Making him the first and only Grand General of the Cyber Lord Army. Noran rose through the ranks of the military very quickly, becoming the youngest Dethathoun to become a Field General. His strategies in warfare were unmatched by his piers. Noran armies conquered or devastated hundreds of planets in the name of the Cyber Lords.

The Cyber Lords greed for power once again pitted them against each other and began an interstellar war. They fight for solar system territories. Like the War that destroyed their home world, they were now destroying the cosmos. As a result of the interstellar war, their resources were being depleted to quickly. Noran Grimm was sent to a remote planet named Earth with a battalion of Foot Soldiers to secure the planets rich resources. The last communique received from Grimm was a warning that the planet had defenders. With the war devastating the Cyber Lords armies no attempt has been made to find General Grimm.

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#2 Zarruk Xeon

| November 3, 2010 | 0 Comments

#2 Zarruk Xeon Last Survivor of Tanigor

Zarruk Xeon is the last survivor of the planet Tanigor. A world much like the earth in size and population. Tamigor was protected by a group of super heroes. Zarruk was among the most recognized and respected among them.

The planet was devastated by a Cyber Lord and his army of Foot Soldiers. Looking to expand his growing interstellar empire, this Cyber Lord invaded Tamigor. But this world was heavily populated with super beings who fought back. The battle rocked the entire planet. With heavy casualties on both sides. The planets heroes couldn’t withstand the Foot Soldiers larger numbers, up to billions. The world was eventually completely destroyed, with all life extinguished.

All life except Zarruk Xeon. It wasn’t his super strength, durability or flight that saved him. It was his ability to absorb energies. The energy staffs of the Foot Soldiers actually made him stronger. But not strong enough to save his world, his wife or his children. Zarruk Xeon is now stranded on a dead planet. Searching through the rubble for a way off it. His only driving force is to avenge all he has lost by the hands of the Cyber Lords.

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#1 Foot Soldier of the Cyber Lords

| November 2, 2010 | 8 Comments

#1 Foot Soldier of the Cyber Lords

The Cyber Lords are a technological advanced species that destroyed their home planet in a “The Great War”. During the war they would take inhabitants from other planets to be their Foot Soldiers. Using wormhole technology allowed them to travel through time and space to gather their armies.

They would modify their new soldiers by wiping their minds and reprogramming them. These new mindless beings would be outfitted with specialized cybernetic enhancements. Giving them great speed, strength and agility. Their main weapon on the battle fields was an energy staff capable of leveling buildings. In the height of the war each Cyber Lord had billions of Foot Solders.

Seeing their world destroyed by the war the surviving Cyber Lords made a truce. They agreed to leave the planet and use their wormhole technology to travel the universe and start their own individual societies. Using their vast armies of Foot Soldiers the Cyber Lords traveled the cosmos and began conquering worlds.

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30 Character Challenger: Ralph Contreras

| October 28, 2010 | 2 Comments

SHAZAM! My name is Ralph Contreras, I’m an alumni from last year’s 30 Character Challenge. It’s super great to see so many creative people getting involved this year. I had a blast last year. So there was no question I’d accept the challenge this year too. This time around I have a better idea what to expect. I’m just going to let my imagination go wild, no planning or restrictions when it comes to the characters. I will approach the actual artistic process differently though. Last year I only did penciled work. This year I’m planning on inking them as well. I’ve recently started inking my own work (and totally enjoying it!). So I’m very excited to strengthen this skill with this challenge.

I’m a proud self proclaimed major comic book nerd. On one random weekend in the summer of ’84 my aunt gave me a stack of comic books. She was doing some spring cleaning and was tossing her husband’s comics. (bad for him, good for me). She thought I would like them (she was right!); a new world of of great stories with amazing art took hold of my imagination. From that day on comic books have been a major part of my life in one way or another. I was your typical comic fanboy (collector) throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Buying every issue I could find. Reading and memorizing all the rich character histories. I always loved to draw the characters I was reading about too. I’d fill notepads with drawing of all the amazing characters I was reading about. My real first dive into to character design was when I was playing the Marvel Comics Universe role playing game. I’d write up a description and draw the character, like the way I saw in the Marvel comics Handbook. There was “Mister Gloves”, “The Duplicator” and so many others. This is when I discovered I wanted to someday create my own comics.

Fast forward a few years, I graduated from college with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts, emphasis in Graphic Design. Ready to conquer the world I looked for work for about a year, but couldn’t find anything. So what’s a comic nerd to do? I opened my own comic book store. (It was Awesome!) I was surrounded by comics for five years, meeting fellow fans and great local comic artists. After closing the doors to my shop, I jumped into the world of graphic design. I was moving from to city to city doing that. It was during this time I started drawing again and creating my own comic characters.

For the past 2 years I’ve been focusing on creating my own comic. I’ve been working on sharpening my storytelling, drawing and inking skills. I setup a personal blog www.ComicBookGraphicDesign.com, where I combine my comic artwork with my graphic design skills. I post all my sketches, character designs and fanboy adventures. I’ve created several Free comic book resources there to help other aspiring comic artists in this journey too. I’ve recently set up www.NewMexicoComics.com, a comic creators community to help connect writers and artist in New Mexico. Always the comic nerd I’ve also created a Marvel comic news fan site, www.TheHeroicAge.com.

Plans for the future, I”ll be focusing on my comic projects in 2011. A quarterly comic “Hero Guard”, and a weekly webcomic “Amazing Hero Adventures”. Maybe some characters coming out of the this challenge will make it into one of these comics. I’m excited to be involved in the 30 character challenge again and I’m ready to start creating!

Let’s be friends: Connect with me on my Blog and other sites!