Few realize Syfy comic book character’s links to El Paso

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Matthew Rothblatt waited for what seemed like an eternity for the first printed copies of the first comic book he created to arrive and when Spiralmind finally did, he asked his wife to get a camera and record the moment as he cut open the box. “I still remember putting the box on the table, and making my wife take pictures because I knew I’d want to go back to that moment,” said Phi3 Comics co-owner Rothblatt ,43. “I remember opening the box and they were stacked in there in all this shredded paper and had a band around them. Related: Spiralmind Comic Delivers in English and Spanish

Seven years later, Rothblatt and co-owner Ben Perez are still producing comics and working on getting their character, Spiralmind, recognized around the world. Spiralmind battles evil characters using mental powers that can manipulate reality across dimensions.

(Courtesy of Jaime Portillo)

The borderland becomes comic book fantasy as gunslingers and vampires stalk the high desert

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EL PASO – The blazing sun was so hot here Saturday that the mean old Texas gunslinger Dallas Stoudenmire could have strutted right out of pages of the western comic book Hell Paso into the desert morning in a barrage of gunfire. But the scoundrel stayed pressed into the pages of the colorful comic written by Jaime Portillo, which tells the adventures of the Old West marshal who lived in El Paso in 1891. Instead of outlaws and gunslingers the streets of Hell Paso teemed with comic book enthusiast anxious to meet their favorite comic book celebrities. The El Paso Comic Convention helped network local artists to the national comic book community. Such was the case for Portillo, author of other comic books such as Gabriel (2004), The Railroad Killer (2009).