In Juarez, Mexico (a sister city to El Paso, Texas) over 400 women have been murdered since 1993, many of whom have been brutally raped and mutilated with not one solid lead as to who is doing this by the slow moving Mexican authorities. And while these horrific events have spawned its tiny share of media interest and even a couple of low budget films, native El Pasoan and writer, Jaime “Jimmy” Portillo didn’t think it was enough. “While I was traveling around the country there were many people who I spoke with who had absolutely no idea of those tragic murders that have been taking place right on the United States/Mexican border”, laments Portillo. “I felt I had to do my small part and in my own way to shed some light on what was happening to my neighboring city.” And the result is Gabriel, a 118 page graphic novel which may not solve any of the murders, but does bring its own flavor to these events with a supernatural twist. “The twist is that it’s a vampire committing all these murders and that’s why no one has been brought to justice”, states Portillo. And while some may find the subject matter controversial, no one can deny the powerful tale that Portillo weaves. Dan Grendell of Comicpants.com states that Gabriel is “… a grim, dirty story about grim, nasty people, and I dug it.” And Ain’t it cool news raves, “Gabriel is an engaging and harrowing journey. This is a very strong debut for Mr. Portillo.”

SPOTLIGHT: Jimmy, tell us a little bit about yourself.
JIMMY PORTILLO: Well, I really wouldn't know what to say about myself. I'm currently living in AZ with my fiancée who’s in the Army. But I'll be going back to El Paso pretty soon. Pretty boring, huh?

So you're an El Paso native?
Yes, sir! Born and raised. Even though lots of people hate it, I love it.

People hate that you were born here or do they just hate El Paso in general?
Lots of El Pasoans just hate El Paso, hence the term ‘Hell Paso’.

And you actually wrote and produced a graphic novel based on actual events taking place along the El Paso/ Juarez area. Tell us about it.
My graphic novel is titled, Gabriel, and it's a vampire tale. It's about the murders of women in Juarez. The only thing is that I added a twist to it. That twist that it's a vampire committing all these murders.

Yes. The city of Juarez, Mexico is infamous for the hundreds of women murdered there every year. What kind of research did you do before taking on the task of telling this story?
Not much to be honest. I just remember reading the newspaper and watching the news about all these deaths. It all stuck to my head. I did watch a documentary produced by Lourdes Portillo, I believe. (No relation that I know of). But that was pretty much it. Everything stuck to my head, and that's when I came up with the idea of writing a horror story about this. I also came up with the idea of writing this because there were many people that I met who did not know what was going on in Juarez.

How many pages did you intend Gabriel to be and how many pages did it end up becoming?
First off, this was supposed to be a novel. I think I got up to chapter 8. But I kept getting mental blocks. After I had this long span of not writing a thing that's when I had the idea to make it into a [graphic novel]. Besides, it was always pictured in my head and I've always loved comic books. I thought it was going to be maybe thirty [pages in length]. Fifty [pages at] the most. But it turned out to be a 118 page, black and white, graphic novel.

Wow! That is quite a feat for it being your first time doing something like this. Now, tells us about graphics in the book. It's not really your artwork per se, but it is digitally manipulated photos, am I correct?
Yes. Being that I'm not much of an artist, I came up with the idea of taking pics of the scenes. I asked my brother what he thought of it, and he told me to go for it. My fiancée Maribel also supported me. So I went ahead and took pics of the scenes with the help of my friends and relatives. From there, I converted them to black and white, and put it all together. When I wasn't taking pics, it was Robert, Maribel, or my nephew Michael taking some pics. I really couldn't have done this book if no one helped me out. So a lot of credit goes to everyone who appears in my book.

So what your saying is you had all your friends and family play the part of the different characters in the book? Wow. How long did the whole process take from plotting and scripting to final lettered product?
Hmm… Back when I was in Arlington, VA in 2006, I started putting down some scenes on paper, and what pics I had to take. When I went to El Paso later that month, I got to work. I had to ask everyone for their help and they did. I pretty much took most of the pics in a two week span. I then went back to Arlington, where I started converting all the pics. It was rough due to my computer being slow. I put everything in a PowerPoint presentation, and I thought I was through. I was wrong. I printed out those pages, scanned them, and had to redo the pages in certain files and dpi's. It took roughly six months to finish. I then sent it out to Ka-Blam [an online digital printing service] to get it printed, and I guess they forgot my files or something. They finally got it printed much later, and I still found a load of mistakes, such as spelling errors. So I had to take care of that and submit those files again. It took me literally a year to get it done right. I think I got the final draft in December or January.

I read the book and judging from how everything came out it was well worth the effort. Have you had any negative comments since the book is based on such a "hot button" issue?
First, the book kicked my butt, but it sure was worth it. While I was waiting to get my book printed by Ka-Blam, I sent a rough draft to the Xeric Foundation, which was founded by Peter A. Laird, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and to my surprise, I got the grant. Not bad for someone who just worked on his first comic book. I really am proud of my book. I think it's a great horror story, and it just goes to show if you work really hard, good things will happen. As far as negative comments, not yet. But I'm pretty sure they'll come later. I know there might be people out there who will think that I'm taking advantage of a terrible situation, but I'm not. Like I said earlier, this story came to my head when people kept telling me they didn't know of the situation in Juarez. I just wanted to tell the world what was going on. But I do admit, I've always been interested in writing. Vampires, horror movies, super heroes, comics, Star Wars, and other things have always have always intrigued me. I always thought it would be cool to write a story that everyone would like.

Who have your influences been within the comic book medium or otherwise?
I've always been a huge X-men fan. The first issue I bought was 204 or 205, the one where the Freedom Force defeated the X-Men. I was just amazed that the "bad guys" won. So I guess you can say Chris Claremont [long running X-Men writer]. But I'll be honest, when I was younger, I really didn't pay attention to who was writing or drawing the book. I was just into the stories. My book is somewhat of a personal tribute to [filmmaker] George Romero and [comic talent] James O'Barr. [Romero’s] Night of the Living Dead has always been a favorite of mine, and James O'Barr just blew me away with [his graphic novel] The Crow. And of course, I can't leave out George Lucas. His Star Wars universe is just inspiring.

Where can we get a hold of Gabriel? Is it already on sale?
You can find it on Indyplanet.com. If someone isn't sure that they want to buy my book, they can go visit: myspace.com/gabrielgraphicnovel. I have two exclusive trailers on my book and a few preview pages. I hope that will turn them to my book.

And there will be an 8 page Gabriel story in an upcoming issue of the Project4 Anthology FusionX that you can't find anywhere else, correct?
Correct. It's a tie in and these pages are not included In GABRIEL. If you're not sure about getting GABRIEL, buy the Fusion X issue, and you can get a glimpse of my story. And to make it even better, you have a few more short stories written by other Project 4 Studio members which are pretty cool. So the buyer gets a great deal.

Brilliant! Okay, last question. Who would win in a battle to the death, Gabriel the Vampire or Marvel Comics' Blade the Vampire Hunter?
If they met? If Gabriel was drunk, Blade. If Gabriel was sober, Gabriel. But I'm being biased. I love Blade and the movies. At least [the first two]. But we won't have to worry about that battle. And more thing, I loved Texas Chainsaw Massacre I and II. I forgot to mention that. "The saw is family!!"