Caleb Mendes has been drawing stories since he was 12 or 13 years old, but it wasn’t until he paired with his friend Joey Pineda that he became more official.
They have been at it since 2019. Previously, Mendes worked as a cashier at McAlister’s, at The HIVE Comics, and now for Coca-Cola as a merchandiser, a combination of selling and stocking shelves.
Born and raised in Odessa, Mendes was homeschooled and went straight into the workforce. He has three sisters.
Mendes has worked on “Cubicle Warz,” about a “regular office guy who starts a new job, but maybe daydreams just a little too much,” and a book called “Trouble’s Back,” which he edits and creates covers for.
Pineda is the creator/writer for the series “Trouble’s Back” and “Cubicle Warz.”
Pineda said Mendes began as a fan of his first comic book, “Trouble’s Back No. 1,” when he worked at The HIVE.
“I was amazed at how knowledgeable he was with everything comic-related. I was very flattered that someone so knowledgeable thought my book was great, even though it was just my first one,” Pineda said.
He brought Mendes on board as an editor for “Trouble’s Back” issues 2 and 3 and he will be through the rest of the series through issue 6. Mendes also is the comic cover artist.
For Cubicle Warz, Pineda said Mendes is chief editor and comic book artist for the interior pages and covers. He and Michael Fox had the idea to have two different art styles in this series to enhance the reading experience. Mendes took the role of doing all the dream-like art sequences.
“From meet-and-greet in-store signings in comic shops to comic cons, me and Caleb spread the word of our creations and work together while also trying to showcase his talents as a writer, artist and teacher. Caleb may say I inspired him in a lot of ways, but it is him that inspired and motivated me to keep creating always and never be scared to learn new things,” Pineda said.
He added that he is a writer first, so the art/drawing side is something he’s practicing to improve on.
“I’ve taken some comic drawing classes that Caleb used to teach at The Hive Comics. Even then, I always felt he was the best one to teach out of the different artists that have taught there,” Pineda said. “I am an independent comic creator that started my publishing company, Troublesome Comics, a few years ago. Even though it’s not something I do as my full-time job, with great people like Caleb … maybe one day I will be able to,” Pineda said.
Pineda is an accountant by day.
Mendes got into comics through his dad, who is a huge Superman fan.
“When I was a kid, my dad had this statue of a comic book character named Spawn and there was one day that I had gone to Dollar Tree and they had little grab bags of comic books. … I had gotten one and I opened it up and one of those books just so happened to be that Spawn character right there in that book. It was so cool for me to see my dad’s statue in a comic book, and I just religiously read that book and traced every picture of it that I could,” Mendes said.
“That’s kind of how I got started. Drawing is just copying comics that I was reading at the time and just reading as much as I could,” he added.
Mendes mostly works with Pineda, but he has worked with other local writers.
“He and I have done one official book, just because the writing process is a little slow right now. But I’ve done plenty of covers and other things for other creators here locally,” he added.
Mendes said there is a whole community of comic book creators — writers and artists.
“It’s not very big. We all kind of know each other,” he added.
Both Mendes and Pineda say their favorite character is Batman. But Mendes said he enjoys a nice slice-of-life drama or psychological horror. He loves a good hero comic, but said the formula can be repetitive sometimes.
The Spawn comic he picked up as a kid was a crossover event between Batman and Spawn.
“I really liked the way his cape looked. I thought it looked cool and so I really liked drawing that and to this day I still really like drawing Batman’s cape,” Mendes said.
When he starts drawing, he uses a mechanical pencil, keeps an eraser nearby and a blank sheet of paper.
“That’s usually just how I start. If the drawing is good enough, in my personal opinion, then I’ll use pens and inks to go over my pencil lines to make it look a little bit more official and defined,” Mendes said.
He and Pineda went to comic cons in Odessa, San Angelo, Killeen and one in Katy.
Mendes said it’s challenging to make a living as a comic book artist.
“It’s very difficult, especially for small, local creators and independent artists that aren’t fully published to make a living doing that. It’s not impossible, but it is also not very easy. I’m not making a living off doing it right now. It’s mostly just for passion,” he added.
Mendes and Pineda usually work via text, or they meet.
“We’re very close friends, so any idea that he has, he’ll just send me a text and we’ll go back and forth. If we’re officially working on a book, he’ll write a script. I also work as his editor for his scripts, too. I’ll edit it, tell him and then we’ll draw it out and … work from there going back and forth,” Mendes said.
Mendes also is teaching a comic book drawing class at Odessa College as part of their continuing education program.
“I was very fortunate. This was actually something that should have happened in late 2019, but after COVID … it fell through the cracks. I was fortunate enough to reconnect with the people who … wanted me for the job,” Mendes said.
It officially started this year. The smallest class had three people and the largest had 10.
“So far, the first eight weeks we had a decent number of people and then the second eight weeks it slowed down just a bit, which is I think completely fine. I don’t know what the next upcoming eight weeks (will bring). Hopefully, we get more interest in it. I think that there’s a lot of interest in it, especially with the local comic con scene that happens here. We just got to talk to and get to the right people,” Mendes said.
He added that he is used to teaching small and large groups.
“I have a history with teaching Brazilian jujitsu and martial arts. So really, I think the smaller groups are a bit more intimate, whereas the larger groups I can’t be as personal … I can work in either one really,” Mendes said.
Mendes noted that teaching is a passion of his.
“I’ve always loved teaching things that I learned. I guess (it’s) because I love learning. But I’m just so passionate about art and teaching it to other people, especially those who are equally as passionate. It’s very fulfilling for me. My first ever art class that I ever taught was here at The HIVE. The owner James had asked if I wanted to teach a drawing class just randomly one day and I showed up on a Saturday. We had a Whiteboard and easel right there. I sat down with maybe eight to 10 people and just taught them how to draw,” he added.
