Artist Alley Interview with Vince Alvendia

Vince Alvendia is a San Diego Native and preparing for SDCC 2019, a veteran of the con, and an exceptional artist, Vince Alvendia’s work shows his passion for all things geeky, and his talents have also allowed him to participate in 200 days of Star Wars. He also gives us tips on where to get the best carne asada.

What are your expectations for SDCC this year?

Vince Alvendia: Hopefully, I’ll be busy! This year is super special for me, not only because it is Comic-Con’s 50th anniversary, but it is also the first time I will be tabling in Artist’s Alley (FF-12). I remember attending Comic-Con in the mid-90s as an aspiring artist and cruising artist alley imagining what it might be like to sit behind a table selling my art and doing commissions like so many of the artists I looked up to back then like Mark Silvestri, Jae Lee, Dale Keown, David Mack, just to name a few. So it’s kind of coming full circle for me. Not gonna lie, I might get a little emotional when I see my spot, it’s been a looong journey for me to get to this point.

What makes SDCC so special to Vince Alvendia?

Vince Alvendia: As a nerd/geek that grew up in the 80s and 90s, other than my immediate circle of close friends, it was a safe space for me where I truly felt I could be myself and not worry about the repercussions of not being “cool.” As an artist of color, specifically an API artist, and coming from a culture where if you weren’t a doctor or a nurse or a dentist then you were perceived as not living up to your potential, it was encouraging to see creators and artists like Stan Sakai, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio not only killing it at the top of their game but making a living out of it too! It also introduced me to the bottomless rabbit hole of anime and anime merch. I consumed so much untranslated anime material… anime fans nowadays have it so easy. Back in my day, I had to walk five miles, both ways uphill, to my friend’s house to get a bad copy of a copy of a copy of an unsubbed/undubbed VHS tape that had Macross DYRL, Megazone 2-3 part II, and Vampire Hunter D (the 1985 version) all on the same tape!

What’s your typical SDCC day like?

Vince Alvendia: As an attendee, I would strategically plan which panels I was willing to sit in line for, I’ve never camped out for Hall H though. after I’ve got my panels out of the way, I would make it down to the exhibit floor to either look for or discover merch i.e. toys, books, shirts. Occasionally I’d go for a signing if it was someone I really wanted to meet. Then I would weave up and down small press and artist alley to check out all the indies to see if any art or books would catch my eye. Our favorite person to visit is Martin Hsu who is an amazing artist and just such a wonderful human being! My friends and I first met him (back when I was newly divorced as well) many Cons ago when he had a small booth with just a few hoodies and shirts and some pins and stickers. It’s been fun watching him and his booth grow over the years to where now he has people traveling from around the globe going to Comic-Con to specifically purchase his beautiful original art and figurines. He, in turn, has seen my family grow with every visit every year to his Comic-Con booth and we absolutely consider him a friend. Martin is definitely an artist I look up to, not necessarily stylistically because his art style is so unique and gorgeous that I can only aspire to reach a smidgen of that level of competency someday, but because he is so humble and genuine and gracious to his friends and clients and people in general. Like I said, a wonderful human being.

This year, being my first year in Artist Alley, I’m hoping the days will be filled with talking to attendees, doing some commissions, selling some art, rubbing elbows- talking shop- befriending fellow artists, and getting more exposure as an artist. To be honest, if only three people made it to my table but they genuinely liked my art, I would count that as a total win.

What exclusives are you, Vince Alvendia, bringing this year?

Vince Alvendia: I’m debuting two large format prints; a 9″x19.75″ print inspired by the Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse movie (by far my favorite superhero movie EVER), and a 19.75″ x 9″ print inspired by the 80’s Thundercats cartoon. Both are print runs of just 20. I also have a limited run of 100 Stan Lee tribute enamel pins. I’ll have other prints celebrating various fandoms as well, but those are the limited edition ones that will not be reprinted or remade again.

You participated in 200 days of Star Wars, what were some of the difficulties in taking on such a huge challenge?

Vince Alvendia: I was so stoked about a new Star Wars trilogy featuring my childhood favorites- I was a bawling mess of emotion when they premiered the first trailer at Celebration and Han uttered the line, “Chewy, we’re home.” I had the bright idea to do a drawing a day for 200 days counting down to the premiere of the Force Awakens. With the vast universe of characters and settings that Star Wars has, you would think you’d have a well of ideas and concepts to pull from, right? I suffered from having no parameters and too many ideas and indecisiveness. It’s hard to focus when you can do literally anything and your brain already has an inclination to scatter and chase ideas. It’s actually pretty darn paralyzing. Half the time I’d just force myself to start roughing out shapes and then just chase the drawing it was turning into.

The other major factor was fatigue. Ninety percent of the time, I was drawing the pieces at the end of the day into the evening. There are a few in the middle and towards the end of the run where you can pretty much tell I was dozing off. I think the two most blatant are the rock from Alderaan and a super rough sketch of the Death Star where I literally fell asleep on my iPad.

How did you find your unique style?

Vince Alvendia: My first memories of drawing are as a little kid trying to draw Mighty Mouse. I was a big fan of the Mighty Mouse cartoon. My first memories of actually really trying to draw are as a kid in the second-grade learning how to draw He-Man from the other kid in my class who was artistically inclined. From there we tried to outdo each other and I started learning different drawing techniques initially by watching Commander Mark and Bob Ross on PBS. In the mid-’80s a show called Robotech came out and it was a life-changer. I was instantly obsessed with that show which leads me to seek out the Robotech: Art I book. A kid in my 5th-grade class was the first to own it and he xeroxed a bunch of the line art and character design pages and I spent hours copying the style of all three segments of the show. If I’m being real, at that time my favorite designs were from the Southern Cross story arc because Roman Empire-esque armor was really rad. The game-changer came when I checked out How to Draw the Marvel way from my local library. That book introduced me to basic anatomy and perspective and sequential storytelling. My heaviest stylistic influence has always been manga and anime, artists like Haruhiko Mikimoto, Ryoichi Ikegami, and Masamune Shirow. I would ape the heck out of Walt Simonson via the X-Factor: Fall of the Mutants era too, as far as American comic influences go. Later on, I would add the Disney house style as an influence because of the Little Mermaid. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was in love with Glen Keane’s designs. But the main constant influence has always been manga and anime. I used to cringe when people would describe my art style as anime because I thought it meant that I didn’t have a strong enough style to differentiate myself from the genre. Now I welcome it. If you think my stuff looks anime, that’s fine by me as long as you like it! Personally, I think my style is equal parts of all of the above with not one thing being more dominant than the other, but that’s really just me and everyone sees things from their own unique perspective right? Actually, I just had another style shift because of lessons learned and I would say my most recent stuff is noticeably different from drawings that I drew as recently as this past March. I’ve been told that I do have a signature style, but I hope that I continue to learn and evolve to become better.

Any secret San Diego spots you recommend people check out?

Vince Alvendia: Any Mexican food place that ends in a “-berto’s” is almost guaranteed to be good, especially if you want to discover carne asada, but that being said, Pokez has a good reputation for great Mexican food if you don’t want to consume anything with a face, and it’s just a stone’s throw away from the convention center in the heart of downtown San Diego.

As a native San Diego resident, how does the city change around SDCC time?

Vince Alvendia: It’s a very big deal. You know Comic-Con is in town when you start spotting Storm Troopers in Starbucks. It seriously is the biggest show in town. Once you start seeing the banners pop up in the Gaslamp, the air gets electric and you can just tell awesomeness is headed into town. Back in the ’90s when I first started attending, it was just us nerds getting excited. Now it’s the whole city.

What’s your favorite SDCC memory?

Vince Alvendia: I really don’t have just one specific favorite memory… One would be taking my kids to their first Comic-Con and seeing it through their eyes. My son met Ashely Eckstein on preview night right when Her Universe launched and she greeted him with a “how ya doin’ Sky-guy?” He practically fainted when he recognized her voice and my daughter’s jaw hit the ground. My heart pretty much melted. My wife’s first Comic-Con she was in line for her first ever signing for Tom Jane. While we were waiting and talking with some fellow fans, Tom Jane randomly walked up to us with his sunglasses on and tapped my wife on the shoulder, lifted up his sunglasses and said, “hey- who are you guys here for?” Words refused to come out of her mouth and the look on her face was priceless. To this day, he is our favorite celebrity for how kind and gracious he was to us and everyone in his line to see him.

Where can we find you after SDCC?

Vince Alvendia: Immediately after Comic-Con, I’ll probably pass out for a week or two. I drew a book with author and pop psychologist Dr. Janina Scarlet called Dark Agents, Book One: Violet and the Trial of Trauma and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It’s set to come out next march- it’s my very first comic book! I also illustrated the One-Armed Wonder short story written by Brian Marquez in the comic anthology Super-Abled Comics. I’m currently working on my own creator-owned project with my friend and accomplished writer Ryan Riddle which we plan on Kickstarting very soon. I participate in group shows around the year with La Bodega Art Gallery and Thumbprint Gallery and you can always follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to see what I’m working on and what I have coming up. My handle is @beensentoe on all my social media. You can also check in on my website www.Beensentoe.com. I post art on Instagram and Twitter is pretty much me oversharing a LOT.