Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dr. oblivion, eric m esquivel, jeff pina

Dr. Oblivion's Guide To Secret Identities

I'm Jeff Pina and I make Comic Books.

I started in high school making mini-comics after my buddy gave me a copy of "Scud: The Disposable Assassin #4" and I found out that people printed comics on their own: Self-Publishing (or more commonly know as "What check will bounce first?")

"Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Teenage Dating" happened as an experiment. I wanted to quit messing around and make comics and make them for a living. I had ideas in my head, but none of them felt like I could use them for an initial mini.

The idea for Dr. Oblivion started when I had taken my (much younger) sister-in-law to an arcade and she was getting stares from guys WAY too old to be staring at her and thought "If I was Doctor Doom, and I had a daughter, I would blast these guys up against a wall!" When we got back home, I scribbled out his design, outline for the issues and first draft of issue #1.

Dr. Oblivion was born. I decided to do a three issue mini-series: "Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Teenage Dating". I kept the cast small and the premise simple: A super-villain's daughter falls in love with the town's teenage superhero.

The cast fell into place after that. Dr. Oblivion, or Rod Rodriguez, A single father, who's loving wife was killed by falling debris, uses his genius to create a technology-based villain persona, Dr. Oblivion, to take over the world and rid it of super-heroes and idiots. Callie, his daughter, is a genius herself (and is, in fact, smarter than her dad). Derrick, AKA The Mongoose, is Callie's love interest and the bane to Dr. Oblivion's life.

After the first three issue mini-series were done, I was going to move onto other self-published projects (and I did, with "Imaginatives", "Drunk-Robot", "Pirate (heart) Ninja", "Monkey In Space" and "SuperPawn" through Big Dog Ink!)… but I had a lot of folks asking where the next issue was… except there WAS no planned next issue. 

So I did another one shot to test the waters, "Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Prom" where he chaperons the prom… hilarity ensues. No, really, a heart-driven robot shows up to wreak the prom. The response was great and I continued on using the "Hellboy format" of one-shots and mini-series so I could work on other projects in-between issues. I grew up when comics that had stories six issues long were considered a "Saga" and not graphic novel filler. I also love done-in-one comics, which I think is a lost art itself.

However there's one thing that helps Dr. Oblivion in reaching people, and that's the fact that it's an all-ages book, without the stigma of being a kids book. I write every script as if I'm writing for my 13 year old niece AND her parents. I skip the swearing, innuendo, gore and nudity and go straight for fun.

"Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Weekend Vacations" followed shortly and I made his second mini, "Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Secret Identities" where a super-hero named Mr. Virtuous comes to Dr. Oblivion with a bargain he can't refuse in exchange for helping him create an identity from himself. Mr. Virtuous' team (who lets him do all the work while they soak up the spotlight) doesn't like this very much and heads to Dr. Oblivion's hometown. There's also a one-shot of Mr. Virtuous I'm currently working on with Eric M. Esquivel, so Dr. Oblivion's world is constantly expanding.

"Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Extras" is a collection of short stories I did over the years for sample ashcans and I'm currently working on "Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Family Reunions" for a November release.

I love working on Dr. Oblivion, because he's rude, mean, insensitive and an idiot and he's just a blast to write and draw. There's lots of plans ahead for Dr. Oblivion and his family, but you can read issue #1 of "Dr. Oblivion's to Teenage Dating" at my website, www.sideways8studios.com and if you'd like any physical copies, you can contact me through my fan page on Facebook (just search for Sideways 8 Studios)!

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