Someone in boxing class asked me if my friend was coming to class. She’s seen his story in Metro and attended the previous class mentioned in the last blog. She was hoping he was okay and I wanted to reassure her that he was okay so I said, “He’s stronger than you think he is. He’s from Gilroy. He grew up around coyotes and played with them.” And I said all these with a straight face and no one thought to question… “coyotes?” Because the whole thing is just so bizarre, so complicated and it’s… real!
How did these people know Chris? He was stabbed in the face by 2 people, one, a stocky robust man, and another, a woman, in downtown San Jose who thought he was filming them while playing the phenomenon of the moment with more users than either Instagram or Facebook, PokemonGo! To iterate, when someone is stabbed, you're thinking chest, back, but the face?!? That in itself trumps growing up with coyotes and playing with them as a child. Media playing upon media, it’s like a neurotic writer’s fantasies in overdrive.
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| Front Page story on PokemonGo! controversy |
http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2016/08/10/pokemon-go-takes-over-silicon-valley-but-sparks-controversy/
Not only is it real. It happened to my closest friend who happens to be an actor/comicbook artist/wrestler/social media aficionado working with a comic book artist, me, who happens to also be a financial analyst/songwriter/animator/postal worker/averse to social media and now a blogger with more views than people who actually do this for a living. Life is so much more interesting than fiction.
Do you realize how insane this is? No one wanted us in their conventions, they snuffed our tires out with nails and knives,
and when we were allowed at their cons, stuck us behind 20 foot curtains so that no one would see where we were— because we sell out on all our products, sometimes having to sell coffee stained prints and books because my cousin spilled Starbucks coffee on our tables.
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| Chris Perguidi in one of his alter egos at Bakersfield Con, 2011. |
And now people are asking if we'll be attending Cons anytime soon. I don’t know. Maybe when cons start giving a little respect to actual artists who draw their own art, sell and bring in business and not some glorified tracers stealing other artists’ work.
Our products aren’t ready yet! We didn’t expect this! Had I known, if some guardian angel or an angel from hell told me you’re friend will be stabbed in the face on July 27th after your birthday and a media storm will occur, I would’ve been “Are you crazy!?!” I would’ve been is he all right? Yes, coz he grew up around coyotes and played with them as a child.
I forgot where I heard this from, either from one of my classes at SJSU or my own readings or my own theory, but the sooner you can get up from a dire or traumatic situation, a place where you’re idle and unproductive, the faster you can get to your goal. Must have been some ‘critical path’ class in operation management.
We went straight to work. We continued to work on Erika America, a super hero with an American Indian heritage,
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| Chris Perguidi's Erika America with Allan Angel. Layouts by Chris Perguidi, finishes by Allan Angel. |
…S…, a superhuman agent of the government,
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| ...S... featuring the artwork of Allan Angel and Chris Perguidi |
Baby Warriors, 3 baby sisters gifted by Zeus with powers to end injustice on earth and beyond,
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| Baby Warriors double issue #2 Drawn by Allan Angel, Colors Chris Perguidi |
and Superhood, a project with Age Scott.
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| From Superhood 2 page 18 & 19. Drawn by Allan Angel, me. Age Scott writer. |
It must have been painful to do this while still recovering from 15 stitches in your face but it would have been more painful for Chris to lie there, feeling sorry for himself when so many are suffering from diseases for which there is no cure.
He spent the days talking to the media while working on comic books for Integrity Comics.
Hell, I worked the next day after my father died, while tears flowed from eyes with my boss constantly in my face yelling about finishing the next batch of business cards that had to be printed that day!
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| Wolverine and Pikachu by Chris Perguidi |
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| Artwork by Chris Perguidi |
We worked nonstop communicating on Facebook, Twitter, emails and texts. If Chris was having one of his flashbacks, I told him to shake it off, we have a job to do. After awhile, I got a little tired having slept only 5 hours a day since the stabbing, the rest researching, drawing, writing, and finding ways to make something out of this damn thing that happened to Chris.
The hectic schedule was a bit overwhelming for my eyes, so I went fishing in Santa Cruz with my friend Bob.
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| This is me with some squid sculpture made of metal. The few times I could actually look at the camera without the burning pain in my head from looking at either the computer screen or drawing table. |
I’ll never go fishing again! Why not just buy the fish?!? I almost had a heatstroke. When I came back, I went instinctively to writing articles and promos for our comic book projects, while Chris was doing interviews.
http://showbizwatch.com/interviews/interview-with-an-artist-and-wrestler-chris-perguidi/
In the pursuit of turning such a horrific event into a positive, I began to question my own judgment. Is it right to take advantage of a situation or are we even taking advantage of the situation? It is a strange and very complicated circumstance we are in, an unchartered territory. Chris has always been my moral compass. I think in some ways we are both each other’s moral compass. When we passed by a very tragic, intense car accident on the way to Gilroy back from some Convention and whatnot, I wanted to take pictures of it and he told me it was exploitive and I began to see my own shortcomings and err in judgment. I was wondering if the same thing was happening now. Am I, are we exploiting this tragic turn of events?
I think it’s more a question of survival. You can either act the victim or become a hero. And so a hero must rise.
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| Ad for ...S... |
Whatever this is that happened to Chris because it’s becoming less the tragedy it once was, because we’re turning it just as the super heroes we admire would do, we are doing it for a reason. We are going to save the comic book industry! Whether it be Topher Thomas or Chris Wolfe. Chris Perguidi: The Man, The Myth, The Legend must rise. A new hero must rise!
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| Trina and Chris as their alter egos. |
#amazing !
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