Long ago, in the past century to be exact . Before 209 Avenue Studio, before Instant Press comics, there was M.R. Comics . This was Nino's first venture into a legitimate comic book field . Such titles as "Dar-TEX, the master of Darts , Terrible Tyrannius Ted, Super Scrociolla Frantic Man ", and the pre-cursor to Ralphy-Boy, "Cuca-Rafa" . This was a play on Ralph Ramirez's name to be tied into a cock-roach type character. Seeing that my good friend Ralph Ramirez has always been a Spider-Man fan from the time he was potty trained , I decided to create a bug superhero for him as a sort of homage to my bud . Because , I guess everyone out there knows that cock roach in Spanish is 'Cucaracha' hence, 'Cuca-Rafa.
But getting back to M.R. Comics . This was my idea to launch a comic book company / studio because I have always wanted to get into the comic biz . My friend Ralph as I said on several occasions has always loved Spider-Man comics and so I asked him in the 8th grade, right before graduating and going to High School to be my vice president and we would use the first letters of both our first names for the name of the company . M=Mesarina for me, R=Ramirez for Ralph . M.R. Comics . Ralph didn't know how to draw alot , so I told him I would draw everything and he would just ink and letter . But as time went by, I was doing everything and Ralph was running around town telling everyone that he was the V.P. of this big comic book company . We saved up some cash between us and went halves on business cards, which I designed . We ordered up like 1,000 cards and they looked cool! Ralph and I celebrated over junk food and passed out a bunch of cards to friends relatives and parents . My dad put one immediately into his wallet and told me he was proud of me . Then Ralph informed me that in all of our excitement, we forgot to put down any contact information on the business cards! DUH!
I remember the first place we tried to get work at was at a local photographers studio . He was looking for someone to paint his studio . Since it involved paint, and money, we went over there to talk to him . He said he wanted painters and not just anyone off the street . We produced our business cards to the guy to let him know we weren't just anybody's , he was dealing with M.R. Comics President and V.P. ! We handed him our cards , chest heaving out full of pride and then he bust our bubble when he took our cards and said, " There's no contact information here" So we said bye and left.
M.R. Comics survived all the way 'till after High School but we never got any paying gigs . Although several comics that I produced, ( some entirely in color) still exist and they have been preserved through the magic of lamination!
I got that done at the school library for a quarter a page . Although Ralph never did anywork or projects for M.R. Comics , I guess his guilty conscience got the better of him because he is the guy responsible for introducing me to Instant Press Comics founder and President, Rene' Castellano . After I did what could be considered the very LAST M.R. comics comic book, a book entitled " It's Ralphy Boy" Ralph went all over town showing everyone who would listen , the comic I produced.
The last stop Ralph made was at six corners at the comic book store were Rene' was working at .As Ralph tell it " I went in there and this guy started talking to me about his comic ''Dorks" , and I showed him your stuff ( Ralphy Boy) and he ( Rene' ) said this is cool , I have to meet this guy" .But that's another story all together . So in a way, Ralph reedemed himself with this one act of bragging about a comic book based on himself .
I don't have anymore M.R. Comics business cards but the last time I spoke to Ralph about M.R. comics, he told me he still has lik 400 something cards laft . Some I remember were black and white, and some were green and black . I'm going to bumm some cards off of him the next time we meet . The business cards were also our company logo . And just so you know Doc, I do know exactly were alot of those original M.R. Comics artwork is and I will try to get them to you for scanning . Well, That is all . See, I never gave up on my dream and now there are t-shirts, comics, and even a website, dedicated to my artwork. Not to mention a play that is going to be produced . Never stop dreaming .

Mr Comics: Dar-tex Master of Darts

Mr Comics:Terrible Tyrannius Ted

Mr Comic Special: Elvis

Various Artwork

Various Covers

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