First there was Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe and William Blake. Now there's Jon Esparza.
SDSU and Southwestern College alum Esparza shares something with the literary lions. He self-published his first book in conjunction with a new program at Borders Books.
A former cartoonist and humor writer for the Southwestern College Sun, Esparza published his comics and jokes as "The One Shot Express." After years of drawing comics for his friends, Esparza is expanding his public.
Esparza said he modeled his cartoons after Gary Larson's "Farside" and Mad Magazine's John Caldwell. He said he did not have faith in his artistic abilities when he was younger, but gained confidence working at the Sun.
Esparza mostly wrote humor pieces and comics for the paper.
"Everyone aspires to be like Frank Miller ("Dark Night Returns") or Tim Sale ("Superman for All Seasons")," he said. "I could not draw as realistic as them. But I realized that I draw funny characters and just went with it."
Esparza said he longed to publish all of his comics in a collection.
"I was sitting around thinking, 'I'm 24 and I haven't accomplished anything'," he said. "I found out that Borders was offering a package for self-publishing, so I did it."
Esparza said "The One Shot Express" can be found online through websites like amazon.com.
"The great thing about Borders is that they only make copies if they get ordered," said Esparza. "You don't have to worry about making a bunch of copies and having to sell them all. Someone buys your book. They make it and charge you a publishing fee and you get a royalty check later."
Esparza warned writers to do research before jumping in.
"I guess I was the first one to publish a comic through their package," he said. "Usually you can send images that can be in your book, but I was the first to send mostly images and I ended up getting a customized package for it."
"The One Shot Express" is only the beginning for Esparza, said his friend Ricardo Medina, 32, a telemedia major.
"His simple drawings appeal to larger audiences," said Medina. "There are better things to come. This is just a testing ground for Jon. This is laying down the formula."
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