Meet the “Madre de Agua” in Exclusive Excerpt from THE LIZARD PRINCE AND OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN TALES and Check Out Details on Newly Launched Crowdfunding Campaign

From the Press Release: (August 22, 2022) C. Spike Trotman’s Iron Circus Comics is launching an independent crowdfunding campaign for The Lizard Prince and Other South American Tales, an all-new anthology and the final installment in the acclaimed Cautionary Fables series. The stunning collection is packed with nearly 200 pages of real-world fables and folktales, from comedic to curious to downright chilling, retold in the form of comics by an array of talented artists. Come with us on a journey across South America, where we’ll meet terrifying birds, fire-breathing chefs, cheeky goblins, and so so much more!

Stories include:

• “The Basnemporo Spider” by Brenda Argon, where a spider tries her very best to help.

• “The Myth of the Condor” by Diego Carvajal, a sweeping romantic fable about love in the stars.

• “The Ring” by Francis Francia, in which a new bride gets a little more than she bargained for.

• “The Muki’s Deal” by Rick Lazo, where we learn all about mining goblins and true friendship.

• “The Little Shepherd” by PD Loupee and Bruno Ortiz, where a brave little boy is able to find light even in the darkest places.

• “Yara” by nique, the journey of a young girl determined to control her own destiny.

• “Let Me Cook My Breakfast, Mr Caiman!” by Randal Ranpokoka, a hilarious tale of breakfasts, cooking fires and capybara!

• “Pineapple Wishes” by Luisa F. Rojas, in which a magical Palenquera teaches a young girl that history can come alive.

• “The Bum Who Tricked The Devil” by Rodrigo Vargas, in which—well, you guessed it!

• “The Lizard Prince” by Lore Vicente, an epic tale of magic, love, courage and reptiles!

• “A Girl and Her Bird” by Coni Yovaniniz, when the Tue-Tué bird comes calling.

The anthology is edited and organized by Alberto Rayo, Kel McDonald and Kate Ashwin and topped off with a beautiful watercolor cover by Daniela López. The Lizard Prince and Other South American Tales is the sixth and final volume of the acclaimed Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales series and the second volume of the series to be published by Iron Circus Comics; the series has previously been crowdfunded by Kel McDonald and Kate Ashwin. Iron Circus pioneered the widely-adopted bonus model that’s since completely reshaped the pay system of the small press, jump-starting the current renaissance of alt-comics anthologies.

“The Cautionary Fables and Fairytales series has been chronicling folktales from around the world for nearly a decade, hopping from Europe to Africa, over to Asia, Oceania, and finally teaming up with Iron Circus Comics to hit the coasts of America,” said editor Kel McDonald. “Our previous volume of North American tales told by Indigenous artists and writers smashed all records to become the highest funded comics anthology on Kickstarter, and now we’re fully onboard with Iron Circus’ crowdfunding, we can’t wait to see what happens next!”

For updates follow, Iron Circus Books on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. To support the campaign, head to https://ironcircus.com/product/the-lizard-prince-cfft-sa/.

About The Creators:

Diego Carvajal is an Ecuadorian emerging artist and visual communicator with work in comics, illustration and 2d animation. He likes too many nerdy things and also making comics, painting memes and watering his “Uvillas”. Known by his friends as the creator of comic/zine Choclito. You can find his work on facebook and instagram as @calaveracomix.

Rodrigo Vargas is a comic artist and writer based in Santiago, Chile. His work explores counterculture, adventures, and humor. You can read more of his work on the webcomic Walking to Do (with Coni Yovaniniz) and his latest graphic novel, The Do-Over (also with Coni Yovaniniz). He is currently wondering why bios are written in third person, but never in fourth person. One would be wise to follow him on twitter @rodrigomakesart and insta @eternadinociencia.

Coni Yovaniniz is a comic artist and Astronomy MSc based in Santiago, Chile. Previous works include the webcomics Postcards in Braille and Walking to Do (with Rodrigo Vargas). Coni and Rodrigo also made a middle-grade graphic novel called The Do-Over, which is very fun! When not making comics, they can be found drinking Earl Grey tea and fiddling with fountain pens. You can find more of Coni’s work at kurisquare.com

Lore Vicente is a Cartoonist and Illustrator from Argentina who writes, draws, and self-publishes their own comics online. They’ve been published in comic anthologies such as Welcome to Mina’s, Fantastic Frights, and Songs of the Sea. Lore is currently working on their crime thriller webcomic Towards Eden, as well as a few other unannounced fantasy comics, all of which can be own on their website: lomakescomics.com

ique (Verónica Alvarado) is a Venezuelan artist who hasn’t stopped drawing since watching a documentary at age 6 and she realised that it was an actual job adults could have. After getting a BA degree in Fine Arts she has been collaborating with different editorial projects and developing her personal work for more than 10 years. She currently lives in Montevideo, Uruguay where she works as an illustrator and creates autobiographical comics about her experience as a migrant, the many adventures of her RPG characters, and life with her partner Diego and their three cats.

Luisa F. Rojas is a Colombian artist who has worked mainly in comics, character and background design for animation. She has drawn the comics Los Híbridos and Alimañas Peligrosas with Editorial Planeta (only in Colombia) and since 2018 self-published her own comic SCORSESE for Colombia and Mexico (coming soon in Spain). She has also worked designing characters for the children’s series Dos Marineros for Astrohouse and backgrounds for two short films for Humanity in Action, Two Trees in Jerusalem and My Father’s War produced by Criteria Animation. She loves cats, video games, cinema and science. You can find her on all her social networks (Twitter, Instagram and Artstation) as @reysaurus

Daniela López is a Chilean illustrator who loves dogs and nature. Artist in Dropmix music game developed by Harmonix and Hasbro, teacher in the course Storytelling through Watercolor Illustration by Domestika. She also worked on the books Where are my Friends? by Beijing RZ Books and A Little Girl in a Blurry World. You can find more of her work at Instagram @dliok

Ricardo Lazo Ruiz, or just Rick, is a Peruvian freelance comic artist and illustrator since 2016, who enjoys fantasy stories, local folklore, the history of the Incas and comics! I have four books published of the saga Wayra with the Peruvian publisher Ediciones Altazor: Wayra y el medallón del sol/Wayra and the medallion of Sun, Wayra y el caminante de Vallemuerto/Wayra and the deadvalley walker, Wayra y la ira de Wakón/Wayra and the wrath of Wakón, and last, a compilation of comic strips- Wayra ¡Divertiras!/Wayra: Funnystrips!) This saga tell us the adventures of a little Inca child who has adventures in the mystical Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire). Since I was a child I lived in a province far away from the city named Huancavelica, in the middle of the Andes. The connection with life in the mountains made me feel a lot of respect and admiration for my culture and for the worldview of the Andean people and their folklore, which has marked my path as a storyteller. And I love hamburgers and cherry soda!

PD Loupee is a prose and comic book writer based in Brazil. Their work can be found on Editora Draco’s Meu Amor é um Sobrevivente and in the upcoming Bee Infinite anthology Places We Hide In the Universe. In comics, they were featured in several successful crowdfunding campaigns, including the Prism Awards 2018 nominated Being True Anthology.

Bruno Ortiz works between the classroom and the drawing board. As a cartoonist, he took part in both national and international art festivals, winning awards in some. As an illustrator, he did covers for books, comics, and has been searching for ten years for an interface between graphic art and antiracist education.

Francis Francia is a Peruvian freelance comic artist working since 2019, he likes the animation so much and the strange urban legends of the internet. He wants to learn 3D modelling and maybe do some video games. He founded Saiko Team Comics, a group of latin comic artists, and his portfolio is artstation.com/psychopenguin

Ranpakoka is a writer and illustrator floating somewhere in Venezuela! He loves heartwarming stories, and capybaras. Formerly the quirky kid who drew during class, now illustrates editorial covers, designs characters, and everything creative projects require; but sometimes at dusk, you can hear his keyboard creating spanish stories, and dark graphic novels. You can find his work on instagram, facebook, and twitter as @ranpakoka!

Shadia Amin is a Colombian comic artist and illustrator, some of her works include Aggretsuko and Spider-Ham. She loves slice of life and fantasy webcomics, and when she’s not drawing she is playing video games or cooking! You can find her work at shadiaminart.com and on Instagram and twitter at @shadiaminart!

Brenda Roman, better known as Brendargon, is an illustrator and comic artist from Peru. She has participated in numerous publications, magazines, fanzines and blogs drawing comics, she has also done comic workshops in various countries. Her favorite themes are terror, the urban, and the female universe, which she explores in her independent publications. You can find more of her work on her networks: Instagram at @brendargonart and https://www.facebook.com/brendaromanartista.

About the Editors:

Alberto Rayo is a comic book writer and editor from Lima, Peru. He started self-publishing works at seventeen and has since formed his own comic book studio: Broken Panel Studio. He is majoring in Economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and aspires to help develop a comic book industry in his country.

Kate Ashwin has drawn and written over 1000 pages of webcomics since 2002, her most current project being the award-winning Victorian-era adventure story Widdershins (widdershinscomic.com), which is currently on its ninth Kickstarter-funded volume. Kate has also contributed to, co-edited, and provided Kickstarter support to the Cautionary Fables and Fairytales books, written a story for Dark Horse Presents, and contributed artwork to critically-acclaimed kid’s weekly comic The Phoenix.

Kel McDonald has been working in comics for over a decade—most of that time has been spent on their webcomic Sorcery 101. More recently, they have organized the Cautionary Fables and Fairytales anthology series while contributing to other anthologies like Dark Horse Presents, Smut Peddler, and Sleep of Reason. They have also worked on Buffy: The High School Years. They recently finished their creator-owned series, Misfits of Avalon, and the Eisner-nominated Stone King. They’re currently working on her self-published series, The City Between. Their work can be found at kelmcdonald.com.

About the Publisher

C. Spike Trotman was born in DC, raised in MD, and lives in IL. An artist and writer, she founded Iron Circus Comics in 2007, which has since grown to become the region’s largest comics publisher. Her notable work includes the webcomic “Templar, Arizona,” the Smut Peddler series of erotic comic anthologies, and Poorcraft, a graphic novel guide to frugal living. A Kickstarter early adopter, she pioneered the widely-adopted bonus model that’s since completely reshaped the pay system of the small press, jump-starting the current renaissance of alt-comics anthologies. Iron Circus is also the first comics publisher of note to fully incorporate crowdfunding into its business model, inventing one of the single most effective uses of new media in comics publishing today.