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Chido Comics and Masked Republic issued the following:
It may not be common for fans of lucha libre to know the great artists of Mexico, but for every rule, there is an exception, and Miguel Valverde is just that. A muralist with more than thirty works made in universities, convention centers, museums, cultural centers, private venues and municipal palaces, his “A Dos de Tres Caidas Sin Limite del Tiempo” mural stretches the hallways of Arena Mexico, the country’s most famous lucha libre venue. The incredible work of art and detail is over 800 square feet, running more than 100 feet wide and 8 feet tall. Some of his other massive works include “Sees of the Cosmos” for the World Museum in Vienna, which stands nearly 30 feet tall, and his twin murals “Pilares de la Vida” which each stand over 36 feet tall inside a Chihuahua, Mexico hospital.
For his special variant cover of The Masked Republic Luchaverse: Solar & Super Astro – Los Cadetes del Espacio, Valverde was given a much smaller canvas on which to work. Instead of feet, he would be working with inches – 10.125″ x 6.625″ to be exact.
“We have worked hard to create a wide array of variant covers for our Luchaverse releases,” Editor in Chief and Publisher of Chido Comics, Ivan Plaza, said. “Each variant artist throughout the series has been selected to represent both a wide breadth of talents and the global reach of lucha libre. Our covers have featured artists from Spain, Argentina, Italy, the United States and of course, Mexico.”
“I was first introduced to the work of Miguel Valverde because of his epic installation inside of Arena Mexico,” said Luchaverse co-creator and Executive Producer Kevin Kleinrock. “From there I started to explore his other works and I had a chance to meet him in person when his lucha libre themed exhibit ‘Mascara contra Caballera’ came to San Francisco earlier this year. Wanting to bring unique visions and methods to our variant covers, I knew that it may be unusual to ask him to create a small piece for a cover, but I hoped his obvious love of the sport would help convince him. While his schedule has been crazy, traveling between Mexico and Europe on major installations, thankfully his passion drove him to want to make time to create a cover in between murals.”
Said Valverde, “I am honored to be asked to create a cover for Masked Republic and Chido Comic’s Luchaverse: Solar and Super Astro. I am very passionate about the art and design of lucha libre, and creating a comic book cover is something I have not done before. What Masked Republic and Chido Comics are doing by taking the concept of lucha libre to the next level and creating superheroes and great stories around legendary luchadores like Solar and Super Astro is amazing. The representation of Mexican heroes is greatly needed in all forms of art and entertainment, so I am excited to see how this representation can influence our world. Que viva la lucha libre!!”
Available now for pre-order at TheLuchaverse.com Luchaverse Solar & Super Astro #1
Regular cover by Alessandro Micelli and Leo Colapietro
Cover B Variant (Limited to 500 Copies) by Rene Cordova and Dan Olvera
Cover C Variant (Limited to 350 Copies) by Miguel Valverde
SOLAR & SUPER ASTRO: Los Cadetes del Espacio #1
(W) Marco Lopez, Ivan Plaza
(A) Alessandro Micelli, Bryan Magnaye
(CA) Alessandro Micelli, Leo Colapietro
(L) Micah Myers
“At the triumph of a centuries old galactic war, all that was left of the warriors were Solar and Super Astro. They headed off into space to never to be heard from again…or so they thought. After a millennia of intergalactic travels, their ship crashed on Earth. Their powers had vanished and they settled into their new mortal lives. Now, years later, a message from the deepest corner of the universe has interrupted their ordinary lives. A recent accident has released an immense destructive power back into the world, a power that they thought was lost forever. What epic adventure awaits them? Who’s attempting to contact them and how can they save not just our planet, but the universe itself?”
About The Luchaverse
The Masked Republic Luchaverse is the first ever shared comic book universe featuring globally recognized stars of lucha libre in an epic new story world. Individual series, each with their own genre and art teams, provide a vast and content rich world while impending crossover events will create a shared universe among these luchadores creating a world closer to Marvel or DC’s cinematic universes than lucha libre has ever seen before.
Initial materials for The Luchaverse read “A dormant and mysterious power that long ago held the fate of our planet Earth has now been released. Our legends will be put to the test, as Chido Comics and Masked Republic bring back the glory and tradition of famous lucha libre stars in comic books taking on epic and unprecedented events based in our real world mixed with adventure, fantasy and science fiction!”
Launching this past July at San Diego Comic Con to both fan and critical acclaim, the first Luchaverse bool stars the most iconic luchador on the planet, former WWE World Champion Rey Mysterio. Rolling Stone featured the title in its “25 Best Things We Saw at San Diego Comic Con 2018” story while both wrestling industry and mainstream publications including Publishers Weekly and License Global were excited by the book. The second title, released earlier this month at Expo Lucha, in Las Vegas, features the two most seen luchadores in the world today, The Lucha Brothers, Penta Zero M and Rey Fenix who appear weekly on 2 different national broadcasts in Mexico (Lucha Libre AAA and CMLL) and 4 in the United States (CMLL, Lucha Underground, Impact Wrestling, Major League Wrestling) as well as on these programs’ global distribution networks.
About Masked Republic
Masked Republic, a privately held company, is the first multi-platform content development, production and distribution, live event, merchandising and media organization uniquely focused on expanding the emerging growth market of lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) beyond the borders of Mexico. The company’s core businesses include representation of dozens of the biggest stars in the industry for wrestling and non-wrestling related appearances and licensing, worldwide merchandising, live event production and management, production and distribution of content across multiple platforms including television, home entertainment, pay-per-view, digital media, traditional publishing and film. The company is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with offices in San Francisco, Mexico City, London and Tokyo.
About Chido Comics
Founded in 2016, Chido Comics is an independent publishing company which focus is to create and publish a wide variety of licensed & creator-owned Graphic Novels and Comic Books across all age groups and demographics. Our goal is to publish stories by up-and-coming, talented and diverse creative teams along with art and stories that can capture and reflect the diversity in our world.
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