Appearing Saturday, Sunday
Theo Tso
Back in high school instead of working on his assigned class work, he was reading
his favorite comic book in his art class. He started to notice a trend, which there
were no Native Americans starring in their own books, and if they happened to be in
any book, they either portrayed as a shaman, or the goofy sidekick to round out the
main character who was white. He found that disturbing and went home and
created his own superhero, with the hopes that Native children could look up to as
their own. He created Captain Paiute: Defender of the Southwest!
He put his new creation away in his portfolio and would revisit him another time.
He used his comic book influences to help create his style and soon was sending off
sample packets but they were meet with dishearten reviews, most of them said that
his work wasn’t up to industry standards. He almost threw in the towel when a
friend had just came back from the San Diego Comic Con with a yellow flyer that he
had brought back with him. It said that the writer was looking for an artist. So with a
renewed spirit, he quickly put together a sample packet of new material and sent it
off. The following week he was offered the penciling job for a small indy book titled
Masked Men.
His work on Masked Men was the first step into the comics field. He got another
penciling job from Rob Schmidt again to draw a short story that was to be featured
in Phil Yeh’s Winged Tiger series.
After doing those titles and the work was finished, he pulled out his creation and
started to work on it. Bringing the story to life and updating the way the main
character’s regalia would look and function. With the idea of a Native American
superhero dealing with all types of Native issues not only on his reservation but also
across Indian Country.
One year at San Diego Comic Con he meets fellow Indigenous artist Arigon Starr.
Both having a passion for comics and her having her own comic, they talked about
forming a studio where all Native American storytellers could have their comics
published and sold, thus Indigenous Comics Narrative was formed.
Most recently the opportunity came to showcase Captain Paiute in INC’s first comic
titled INC Universe. With a one page of art, He was on his way to printing and what
would be Captain Paiute issue #1.
Theo was born and raised and still residing currently, on a tiny reservation in the
old part of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is an enrolled member of the Las Vegas Paiute
Tribe, and was elected and served two tribal council terms, he has also served as his
tribe’s Cultural Committee Co-Chair.
http://www.warpaintstudios.net
Twitter: @mrfreeze0072000
