Episode #93: Making The Most Of Unexpected Publicity with Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez creator of La Borinqueña
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If you’re wondering just how much of yourself you should put into your intellectual property, you need to listen to Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez’ amazing story. You might be afraid to truly put yourself, your identity, or your story out there in your intellectual property because you worry it could hurt your chances of success, but the opposite is true, especially when you are focused on what the application will be.
Today’s episode features Edgardo’s story of how he infused his identity as a Nuyorican into the hit comic series La Borinqueña. It all started as a costume idea for the Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC, and now is not only a comic book series, but a symbol of social justice for Puerto Ricans. He self published the series, and due to its success, has raised nearly $250,000 for grassroots organizations in Puerto Rico.
This inspirational story shows that authenticity, when combined with strong values can work! It also shows how much representation matters. This is just part 1 of my interview with Edgardo. Stay tuned for part 2!
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 93.
[00:00:04] Well, Hey there toy people, Azhelle Wade here. And welcome back to another episode of the toy coach podcast, making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com.
[00:00:29] Boy, are you in for a treat today my friends? Today I am joined by at Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and he is joining me on the show today to talk about La Borinquenã and I P that he developed first as a costume at a parade then as a comic book and soon to be a toy product. Edgardo and I had such an incredible extensive conversation that this podcast episode is going to be in two parts.
[00:01:03] Now what my conversation with Edgardo really puts an emphasis on is how important it is to incorporate your personality and your passion when you are creating your IP. First and foremost, before you start thinking about the applications of it, will it be a book? Will it be a toy? Will it be a TV series? The personality and passion that you infused from your own life into the character you develop is what is really going to make it thrive and soar. And that is exactly what Edgardo did. I hope you enjoy his incredible story of finding opportunity and making himself ready for it. I am so thrilled to be bringing you this interview today with Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, creator of La Borinquenã. Let's dive in to the interview.
[00:02:03] Today I am joined by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez. Edgardo is a graphic novelist, most notably recognized as the writer and creator of the critically acclaimed and best-selling superhero series La Borinqueña. He is the recipient of the San Diego comic con 2019 Bob Clampett humanitarian award for his philanthropic efforts via the benefit anthology reconstruction, which I actually I have right here. Totally. So my boyfriend is Colombian and we'll get into this in a bit, but we saw your we saw your exhibition at a cafe Cortez or Choco bar Cortez when we went to Puerto Rico. So we'll get into that. But yeah, so we have, we have, we have a couple, we've got a couple things, couple of things here. Okay. So in Ricanstruction you see longboarding gang teaming up with wonder woman, Superman, Batman, and other DC comic heroes. I just started, I only glanced over it. I haven't gotten into it yet, but I can't wait to.
[00:03:06] Edgardo has self-published this anthology under his own studio, Somos art day, which is really cool. And to date, he has raised close to a quarter of a million dollars for grassroots organizations in Puerto Rico via the La Borinqueña grants program as the creative director and owner of Somos art day. Which is a Brooklyn based creative services studio Edgardo has worked with such notable clients as Atlantic records, Columbia university, Sony pictures, and Marvel. I mean, there's just so much here. In addition, you're the creator of arts exhibitions and that have already produced three original Marvel comic books art exhibitions and your very own exhibition of La Borinqueña for the Smithsonian museums. Like, I mean, I don't know how you'd have time to sleep.
[00:03:58] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: I don't need. I'll sleep later, but now I got work to do.
[00:04:01] Azhelle Wade: Right. While his current role isn't specific to toy products. I invited Edgardoon the show today to talk about all things involving storytelling developing an intellectual property, as well as having your company's mission rooted in a cause that's close to your heart is a really interesting topic to me. Intellectual property has become just more and more important in the toy industry. And so many of my students and listeners are interested in developing their own IP. So I know this is going to be a valuable conversation. I'm super excited to have the opportunity to dive into all of that today. So without further intro Edgardo, welcome to the show. I am so happy to have you here. Thanks for agreeing to come on.
[00:04:44] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: Thank you, Azhelle. I'm very happy to have this conversation with you. You have beautiful energy, and I love to have conversations with individuals who has as far as passionate about the work that they're doing as a. And also, and I love that you've created a space with the toy coach and it's really about sharing and it's really about building community and also about really kind of like empowering creators and, and not only those that you had these conversations with, but those that are actually watching. So, you know, thank you to you for, for creating this platform and for really creating a space that is important, you know, oftentimes these, this industry, whether it's toys or whether it's entertainment within intellectual property, you know, it's a very white male patriarchal, dominated, you know industry. So it's refreshing to see a a woman of color who was as, who was as articulate and also as educated in this field to kind of like defy these standards of what we should deem as experts. So, you know, but I've out to you.
[00:05:52] Azhelle Wade: Thank you so much. You know, I feel like the industry has been so closed off for so long, but if we can all start to get together and share ideas, we can just change the way that this industry works. And like you said, empower creators to do their own thing. So yeah, and I think you're going to help do that today too. I already sense it. So to kick things off, I talked a lot. So why don't you tell us a little bit about the history of your publishing studio? Somos art day, like what do you do today as the owner and creative director?
[00:06:22] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: Well we've been around for about 20 years and it was honestly in the last eight years that we moved into the space of graphic, novel production. I was approached by van legendary icon Darryl McDaniels of the hip hop group run DMC. He for the fall for quite some time wanting to get into publishing, but really didn't know. So as a creative director where I was a creative in general, I knew that graphic novel production was just another project that needed to be managed in a, in a. By a visionary, such as myself. And I knew that to produce a product in a, in a, in a successful manner, I needed to surround myself with smarter people than me. So I always knew that I needed to surround myself with an incredible roster of town and that could really see these ideas to kind of fruition. So that ended up being the kind of the foundation I produced a good three volume set for four for DMC that immediately kind of like moved me into working with Tony award-winning playwright and actor, John Leguizamo. And I also produced a series of comics for him. So I started finding myself in this space.
[00:07:40] Azhelle Wade: Wait, hold on. I gotta pause. I got to pause before you had that breakout opportunity, you were just kind of going through what, what was your career?
[00:07:49] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: Oh, the creative director has been, I've only been, haven't been so prior to getting into graphic, novel production, I would say easily for like, just about 10 years. Yeah. So someone signs they has because it's my entity and it's my studio, it's the valve. We still do branding. We still do web design. We still do campaign work. Right. But we moved kind of like organically into the space of graphic, novel production. So prior to doing my work in design on with my studio, I was an educator and I was an activist. Oh, that's always a part of who I am. That was always a part of mine, the fabric of my my identity. So it was late 2015, I was following a lot of new than Puerto Rico. And at the time governor Bobby had announced that Puerto Rico had acquired an insurmountable unpayable debt of over $80 billion. A debt that I knew immediately was going to put the island into a humanitarian crisis. That was also endemic to the islands colonial state over the last 123 years with the, with the United States. So I thought to myself, that moment of having a conversation with my partner and wife Kyung and literally say, wow, man, somebody should do something about this.
[00:09:02] Like obviously not fix it, but like to talk about it. I think more people should be aware of what's happening in Puerto Rico because it feels like only people on the Onondaga what's going on. Can we go? And I also feel that it's, since it's an economy in the United States that everything that's happening in Puerto Rico should also be discussed here in the us. And, you know, and I say that it'd be cool if it was something artistic. And then I just kind of went, I guess it's going to be me right in love with this idea of what am I waiting for. But, you know, it's like that, like that old song, you know, we are the ones we've been waiting for me, it's me. It has. Ooh. But at that point, I didn't really know. I didn't know what that meant and how I was going to navigate that. But that state, that seed was kind of already planted. I kind of finished. That year working on a book for Marvel. Right. And as I was working on that book for Marvel, and it was literally like, you're playing with somebody else's toys and at the end of the play date, you leave the toys and go home.
[00:09:58] You know, I ain't got no new toys to play with. Right. But that's what it's like when you're working with other people's intellectual property that, you know, you can come up with as many fantastic advances as you want. But at the end of the day, you got to put the toys back and go home, you know? So I wrote a story with root and the thing, and that story started developing a lot of buds because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to, to do anything significant to the, to these characters that would change their Canon. But I knew that I could craft a story around them, the peripheral world around the character. So I created a whole universe of character, not a universe, but I created a whole scene and the predominant character in that book that I created with a an Afro Puerto Rican grandmother, a matriarch because I was mentored by women, my whole life, growing up with a single mother.
[00:10:49] I had a lot of my dream you know, godmothers who looked out for me and mentored me and guided me and made me and stoke make me the man that I am today. So I kind of created like this composite character inspired by all of these women. I let this woman be, be a mouthpiece to talk about colonialism, to talk about the decimation of the dyno population, indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, particularly in Puerto Rico, right? In one or two panels. But the rest of the story, you know, these Titans grew and, and, and the thing, and, and their, and their nemesis plant, man, we're in this kind of like, you know, epic battle, right. The book comes out, you know and I take a picture of myself holding a comic book. And my wife takes a picture of me in my local coffee shop.
[00:11:33] The picture goes viral, unaware to me. I was completely unaware of it. And my cousin calls me from Puerto Rico and he's like, , you're in the newspaper. I'm like, what are you talking about? And he's like, no, seriously. I know I Google it. And there was this newspaper and Puerto Rico Premera. And there's an article about. And the photo is the one that my wife took a me holding my comic book and I was like, what's going on here? So then I started getting all of these inquiries and people started wanting to interview me and people wanted to invite me and people wanted to give me a space. Some one, one institution provided me a gallery, so I could do an exhibition. So that became my last picture.
[00:12:13] Azhelle Wade: What was on the cover? Why, what was the story?
[00:12:16] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: The story was honestly, the story had nothing to do with these characters that have to do with what the story was. A Puerto Rican is writing for Marvel or Puerto Rican did that Marvel. Media and Puerto Rico were treating me as if I was Kevin FYGI. Oh my God. All I wrote was one book and then it occurred to me. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There is so much hunger for representation. There is such a need. And then I thought to myself, I thought back to that conversation that I had with Kyung and, and late 2015 about the, the debt and the governor announcing that bids that wasn't going to be paid off. And I was like, this is it. This is it. This is my moment. I got, I got to see this, you know, Carpe diem. I have to seize the day. And as all of these institutions started reaching out to me, one of them was the Puerto Rican day parade and they were like, we're going to honor. You give you a sash, put you on a float and have you March down the fifth avenue for the Puerto Rican day parade because of your work with Marvel.
[00:13:20] And I was like, whoa, slow down, slow down. And I was like, I just wrote one book. It's not even like a series. I just wrote one, literally one comic book with my name on it. And I'm like this, so many other artists that should be getting this kind of praise. But I said, how up, how about if we may view my new Puerto Rican superhero. Right here. And they were like, we're listening. Tell us more about this water. You can still be here. So I was like, I'll get back to you. So I pulled out the paper, I'm literally sitting at the desk where I'm talking to you from, I pull out some paper and I started getting out what I want this superhero character to look like. Right. And then I start pulling up the map of Puerto Rico and I started studying the map, the topography of the map. And I started drafting some pros like, wow, what our origin story is, started talking to a group of, of friends of mine who also comic book art is showing them my sketch. They were like, well, maybe you should tweak that movie.
[00:14:19] You should tweak this. What have you did? What did you do this? So I literally created kind of like a panel of professionals. They kind of like guided me to kind of like shape what this character should look like. And then I re present this idea to the Puerto Rican day parade. And they're like, oh, This is big. We should give you a float. I was like, oh, well, I didn't know you had a float. I didn't know. So I went to your show in Puerto Rico and I read the story about how you debuted it at this parade, but I assumed you already had like this product and you were seeking out opportunities to promote it. No.
[00:14:52] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. What a great story.
[00:14:55] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: Good for the case study, unlike any in the history of popular culture, in the history of developing intellectual property, it's literally like, like the wave came. Yeah. And I had to like literally create myself a surf board while I was in the, in the midst of the wave. You know, that's like the best like metaphor analogy I could come up with and all I had at the time. And I'm going to show you the Peloton on the back of, of our, of our first issue. All I had at the time was this image, turn the bad turn. It turns into bad light. That's all we. That's all we had. You're going to give you this character is many a month before the Puerto Rican operator. I ended up being the closing act of the press conference, not to my knowledge, am I not getting this press conference? Like, Aw, man, they forgot about me. You know, I'm sitting through this long press conference. I'm like, wow. A lot of that talking about, I don't think they're going to have enough time to talk about me. And at the very end, I'm thinking that they're going to close out and be like, yo, thanks for coming out. It's been good.
[00:16:02] You know, they, they introduced me and I go to the stage that, that image that's on the back of the first dish, what's under a light blue fabric on an easel. And I go and kinda like, you know, do like a typical kind of like a, you know, like a game show reveal where, you know, I kind of grabbed those, the fabric and whip it off. And holy cow. The paparazzi, the press moment there, was unlike anything I'd ever witnessed in my personal life, that I was a part of all of these cameras come out. Everyone starts taking picture all of the focus for that afternoon of that past press conference directed itself to me and everyone wanted to talk about La Borinqueña. Everyone wanted to do to learn more about her. All. We had one image, I don't know who this is. No comic book pages, an image, a cover, mind you, right? And everybody's like, when's the book coming out? Tell us more about this character. I was being interviewed by CNN. I was on the front page of the New York times.
[00:17:12] I was in the Washington post. I was on NBC. I get a call from the Smithsonian American history museum, national museum of American there's three. And they're like, we need you to come down to Washington DC to deliver a talk to, to these doctoral students, students studying curatorial museum. So that you could talk to them about La Borinqueña. And I was like, oh, okay. And I flew down to Washington DC. I delivered a hundred graduate students. Right. And I'm talking to them about La Borinqueña. And at that point I had maybe like three pages of the comic book and I'm talking to them and I'm giving them this lecture about La Borinqueña. And I'm pulling references from mythology and pulling references from nationalism and history symbolism and all that.
[00:17:57] Azhelle Wade: So you already knew that that was going to be the direction of this comic, that she was going to teach and educate.
[00:18:02] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: So I knew that I wanted to create a project that would engage people in an honest discourse, around the decolonization of Puerto Rico to address the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. And I thought to myself the best way to do this would be through popular culture to literally create a comic book, but in a very subversive manner that it wasn't going to introduce a discourse around. Super powers and epic, you know super powerful battles. But when the microphone was going to be placed in front of me, as it were that the Puerto Rican day parade, right. I immediately started talking about what had been transpiring. I talked about the fact that our number close to 3 million have had us citizenship since 19 70 17 on the Jones act have served in the us military, but are, and continue to be treated as second class citizens because they're not allowed to vote for president.
[00:19:05] Azhelle Wade: Oh, how did people respond to that when you started saying serious?
[00:19:09] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: It's oftentimes it's, it's this belief. And I think it echoes in a, in a recent poll that the New York times did some time ago around hurricane Maria. And they literally told people and they're like, what is. And, you know, the, and the, and the question was framed that, what, what do you is, is it, is it a country? Is it its own independent nation? Is it affiliated with the United States? And the majority of the people who were polled thought that Puerto Rico was unaffiliated with the United States? You know, and, and it's, it's been in this kind of like really kind of fuzzy state. And I say fuzzy in a sense, because it's kind of like blurry. You can't really make it out because since it's a colony United States, it's a part of the United States, but then it still has a bit of its autonomy. And you personally noticed because you went to Puerto Rico and it's kind of like this weird familiarity get kind of like newness, like familiarity. Can you kind of feel like you still in the U S but then everything's in Spanish and there's a lot more cultural nuances that you don't seem in the west.
[00:20:08] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. And I traveled there years ago. Yeah. Years ago I used to go there a lot. And then when I came there this time, I noticed that the locals are a lot more vocal about their their problems with the way that us treats Puerto Rico a lot more. Like when I used to go there, nobody would talk about it. And now they're like telling us stories, like, did you know that we create, what was it? I think it's like Tylenol. He's like, we create Tylenol. And it's actually exported from here packaged in somewhere else and then imported and we have to pay the tax on that.
[00:20:39] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: So that goes to the whole, I remember how I said earlier that this debt was endemic to the colonial state of beyond it. Right? It was in, it was in the 1970s when tax code 9 36 was introduced right to Puerto Rico. And this was a tax code that many pharmaceutical companies to complete advantage of. And they opened up shop and there was a period in Puerto Rico where the economy was processing. While the environment will being attacked and everything from bare aspirin to Tylenol to even Viagara was being produced in Puerto Rico. So by 2006, this tax code was phased out thousands of pharmaceutical companies. Started leaving Puerto Rico to go to other parts of the country and to go to other parts of the world. Okay. Right. That is for the first time created a massive brain drain on the island. People just left the island. It got to a point now where the last, the most recent census data revealed that there has been a significant drop in the Puerto Rican population by a few hundred thousand relevant. This is all relevant to the tax codes, overturning hurricane Maria, and all of this created kind of like this climate of a failed economy.
[00:21:54] Azhelle Wade: So, okay. I want to dive into a couple of the social economic issues that I did see in your book that you talked about just cause they're so good. But first I have to ask this question. You know, you, you took such a huge leap and like you said, you, you were on a wave and you rode with a wave. You built yourself a surf surf board. I don't know. It's really easy to hide from success or to hide from like public visibility. So like, what would you say to a creator that maybe is suddenly getting visibility for some reason, and they have an idea, but they're just afraid to take it on because it's a lot of responsibility. The whole world's watching. If you create something that the whole world is going to see, like what if they hate it? What if you fail? Like what, how, how, what would you say to somebody that is maybe where you were at the very beginning? And they're just trying to decide, like, should I jump or should I not?
[00:22:41] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: I mean, I think you have to jump, you have to jump cause then opportunities are going to present this self, unlike any other opportunity. You can't say, I'm gonna wait for the next one. This is not a train platform, man. There's no platform. You're like literally in the middle of it. And like I say, use my analogy. There's a wave coming. That's it. If you move out of the way, the next wave is going to wipe you out. You know what I mean? I mean, my approach was that I dove into this much research with as much passion and would as much attention to detail as I possibly could. You know, I approached the work of developing a story and producing this graphic novel that a scholar would to preparing an academic paper, to developing a curriculum, to developing a course. So there's this, I've never actually compiled a, a bibliography, but there is a bibliography to the work. And at one point, because of the buzz that the book was getting, I was developing an audience and, and one, one such Person was professor Nicholas Blinky of Columbia university, a professor of sciences.
[00:23:50] Right. And so he, he reached a lot to me and he's like, Hey, so I hear that this character of you as a Columbia university student. Oh yeah. I'm like, hold up, you actually reached out to me, but then I'm like, would you mind if I start asking you some questions and then he puts together, and this is like, you know, old school. Cause nobody even does this really anymore. He puts together an group on email, right. He's copying all these other scientists. Wow. And he creates like an advisory group of scientists for me. Wow. Seeing them scientific questions about my book. I hadn't finished the book yet. And I start asking him questions. Well, what if this, what if that, what if this, and then. Like he was like, well, you know, this is, this will fold into the the space of science and this is going to fall into the space of magic fantasy, graphic novel. So, and, and the, and the characters powers are rooted in magic, right? So he would, he, he, and, and he understood that he was like, will be science, and this is going to be a magic, you know?
[00:24:54] And so you have to jump at this opportunity and also just be incredibly open and aware. I believe in this, in, in the, in the phrase, you know people will we say it's who, you know, right. But I always say, it's who, you know, and who you are, because then you can know the right people, but the right people might be like, don't mess with that food, you know, but if you are all about something you're organized, you're, you're, you're concise, you're on point you follow through, you know, Yes that dude. Oh my gosh, you totally need to collaborate with that, dude, because he's going to take what you're working on and take it to the next level, you know? And that's what you want to be about. So when I dove into this, I dove into it. I mean, I did the funniest and most honest critique I received was from my wife.
[00:25:46] You know? Cause Kyung goes, hold up. You're not a writer. I'm like, what, what do you mean? You're not a published. Right? I was like, man I'm and I've written a few articles, but you've never written a book. Oh, was hold up, give me a chance. Don't give up yet. And then she goes, listen, we're going to do this because you want to see my business partner. So she was like, you were getting a lot of buds. She was the one who said, we need to do this. We don't do it. If we don't do it, if you don't, if we don't do this, then all this budget is for vain. And she was like, just make sure. That is not corny. She literally said it like that. Oh, damn. I want to make sure it's not corn. And so I started working on this script that I worked on this script. Right. And she goes, do you know what you need us for ration? So she packed us up and she planned the trip and we moved to Puerto Rico for about a month and a half. Wow. And that was, that also happened in 2016 while we're living in Puerto Rico, because we believe we love these immersive trips.
[00:26:53] We don't like doing like a week or two weeks. And you do an immersive trip that we stay in neighborhood. You stay with family, we stay in Airbnb homes, right? Yeah. And we do this immersive trip and I started engaging with locals in a way that I'd never before, like almost like an investigative journalist work. And I would talk to goodness from from a waiter to a towel folder, to a grocery store manager to a shorter. To a cashier. I was talking to everybody just to get the post. Cause I, I had, at that point I was like, okay, I'm going to create a story where my protagonist is going to be a new Yorker, a Puerto Rican heritage, but she's going to move to Puerto Rico. And the whole store is going to take place in Puerto Rico. It's not going to, there'll be some dips between Puerto Rico and New York city, but the bulk of the story is going to be important for recall. And I wanted to get an authentic voice for that. And so after that month that we were there, a lot of the story just kept coming to me naturally. We will one day on an a, in an excursion through the rainforest and drinking and her origin story came to me. I don't know if you read the first.
[00:28:05] Azhelle Wade: No, I just got it yesterday.
[00:28:07] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: So her, I'm not going to, I don't want to give it away, but her origin story, how she actually acquires a power, came to me as I'm hiking through the rain forest or cascading behind me or the rivers trickling with. I could see us all kind of like navigating through these like rocks and water and it's magically came to me and it all just kind of like crystallized. And I had that and that day rushed to the to, to a table and just started writing on my laptop. I recall while we were on a trip while we were on that trip, this is Sonia museum reaches out to me and they said Hey, we want you to create an original story for this exhibition that we're putting together. And I was like, wait, what? So I told Kyung, I got to stop working on the first issue. I got to work on this book for the Smithsonian because they just, you know, gave us a grant and they want us to be a part of this exhibition. Now, what was trippy about that is that, you know, it was, it was a funny, they're like 21 Smithsonian museums.
[00:29:12] And I learned that the 21 different Smithsonian museum than the one that had invited me to give that talk over the summer of 2016 with the national museum of American history in the. What the, what the representative of the Asian Pacific American sensor, which is another one of the 20 there's so many museums they would have when they reached out to me while we were in Puerto Rico and they were like, we have a grant we're going to give you, we want you to be a part of the exhibition. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not Asian. You know? And they're like, we know, but the mission needs to be more inclusive. And if it's going to be more inclusive, we want to invite you to be a part of it. And I was like, wow, this is perfect because I actually have an Asian character and this is like the perfect place to give her some shine.
[00:29:53] And we do. I remember pulling out a piece of paper dividing in and, and, and like literally folding it up to recreate like a mock script, like a mock book. And I'm writing an outline on this page, this space, this space. And I'm having a conversation with my aunt and Kian. And I tell them, I don't want us to pavilion from my book. I don't want us to prevent it. I really feel that. Belittled what's really happening in, in Puerto Rico. And this is a really good opportunity. And in and in, so I was like, it needs something bigger than a super villain. And in says, well look, but I always dealing with natural disasters. What if it's something like that? And so she says, what if the hurricane, the hurricane they're going to deal with? And then I, and I'm working on the story for the Smithsonian. And I said, that's too big. That's too big for that story. But I liked that I'm going to make, I'm going to put that on the side for now.
[00:30:45] And I started doing some more research and I discovered the work of Dr. Jose Maline. Yeah. A scientist who for many years had been holding various of science disposed symposiums in Puerto Rico about climate change and climate action. And so one of the things that he were saying is that Puerto Rico will be hit by one of two major natural disasters. It'll be a hurricane, unlike anything we've seen in over a century or, and, or a series of earthquakes that will leave the iron in Shabbos, unlike anything we've ever seen. You know, he was literally like kinda the chicken, little of the science world. Right. Cause he's kind of like predicting it, but he's not getting the platform. Right. But I discovered his work and I was just like, wow. Huh. So I thought to myself from a storytelling perspective that like, well, I don't know how to wrap a story around an earthquakes, but hurricane is kind of like really powerful and I can even tie that into her origin story. Right. So for the Smithsonian book, I focused on a story around toxicity in Puerto Rico, there a US-based company that is literally using Southern part of Puerto Rico, town of Venezuela as a landfill for toxic ashes.
[00:31:53] Right. But that became the, the emphasis of that story that I produced for the Smithsonian museum November comes along IDB. And in this pop-up exhibition in Chinatowns Knicks, in New York city and Lala Lou, our Asian Latina character makes her debut alongside La Borinqueña. A month after that we published La Borinqueña number one. And I include the, the Smithsonian comic book in that first issue under a special kind of like agreement that I made with the Smithsonian. And I was like, that was I'm so freaking bold. I remember doing that contract of the Smithsonian. They were like, well, this is the work for hire. We want it. And I was like, no, like peep, but everybody's producing art that we're going to own. I'm like, I mean, but that's just everything, everything in the museum produces we own. I was like, not this more like, and they were like, but the show's coming up. I was like, I know. So what are you going to do? I was like, not give you my IP. Oh my God. Okay. Okay. We'll make a special provision. And so they, they let me amend the contract and I amended it and I retained honest ownership of my IP.
[00:32:58] I said, you can have the hard copy, hard, hard copies of the comic book, you know, we'll, you can pay for the printing of the books and you can keep those times. But I own it. I own the story. So I get to reprint the story and I'm under reprinted in my first book and I get to do what I want because it's my IP. You're not going to own my IP. You know, I had a vision of like the end of the, the, of Raiders of the lost art, but it was just going to take my story, put it in a box and put it in a warehouse and see it again. Right. I was like, that's not going to happen. So the book comes out and I decided to take Kim's idea of a hurricane to end up the, the, the, the first district, sorry, big sport. But it was critical to the storytelling of this character trajectory trajectory, because that Laurie ends up being the story that carries me into 2017. I remember having a conversation with my mom and brother, and he was like, how are you going to maintain the height? How are you going to maintain this hive?
[00:33:53] You gotta, you gotta, you gotta figure out how to do this. And my friend, Sean Martin Rowe, who the prolific writer and illustrator for, for DC and other imprints, he was like, he was like, You got to publish a bunch of books. You got to book, you got to keep making more books to me. I was like, yo, everyone slowed down. I don't want to have the resources. I'm not Marvel. I'm not going to be popping out a book every month. That's impossible. I don't have that kind of money. Right. I don't know this book and I'm going to ride it for as long as I can ride it. I never expected the way to continually ride me. Right. So this wave lasted in, into fall of 2017. And hurricane Maria actually hits what media outlets to me. Wow. And they're like, yo, you've already done something on Puerto Rico because you're going to talk about the hurricane. And I'm like, it already is like, what, how did you know? I'm like, I mean, how did I know? I listened to scientists, scientists have been telling us about this for years.
[00:34:51] Scientists have been warning us about climate change for years. What are you, how do I know why don't, how. How don't, you know, talking about this applied novelists have to take these scientific studies and facts and, and, and publish it in a fantasy based narrative for people that need attention, but it is, and it works right. So that, that fall after hurricane Maria, I'm in a, in a state of crisis, just like the millions of what a Puerto Rican. Now there have 3 million living on the island, but a 6 million of us living across the United States and the 6 million of us that have relationship with non Puerto Rican's. You know, my, my, my wife and partner is Korean American right there, middle of the Puerto Rican, like that they're environmental families. And, and so what does that mean? That means that who was affected by hurricane Maria, not just the 6 million or the 3 million, 9 million between the island and the U S the millions of others that interact with them. Right. I'm I'm in a position where like, I haven't heard from my family, we live in an era where if I text you Azhelle, and you don't write me back, why didn't you write me back? Or your.
[00:36:06] Azhelle Wade: You have it on her watch. So you're like, yeah, they should be running you back. They have the seat on their watch.
[00:36:11] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: And then nothing happens. I'm like, whoa, you know, so imagine 3 million people not writing you back. They're gone. We're like, whoa, wait a minute. How was this possible? The power outages last as long as eight, 11 months. So I met New York comic con and I didn't want to be there real talk. I did not want to be a newer comic. I'm like, oh my God, this is, this is corny. I'm not going to have a comic book about, you know, about a Puerto Rican superhero in the middle of the real humanitarian crisis. Like hurricane Maria. I set up my table. I'm pushing through hundreds of people to get to my table. And I complained to one of the event volunteers. I'm like, why, why does so many people between me and my table? What's going on here? And dude looks at me like, they're waiting for you. Oh my gosh, I knew you were going there. And I looked at all these people, hundreds of people in line, they're like waving and I'm like, oh shoot. And his feet were as frenzy. I set up my table for the next four days of the near Comicon.
[00:37:14] I created a space that wasn't about exchanging fantastic stories. It wasn't about, you know, sharing ideas about characters and their adventures. No came a space of healing place of human sharing. Tears were shed. My tears were shed. People will worry. But for some reason, this, this character provided people a space to feel honest at a at an event that was all about exploring and celebrating popular culture. And the, and the very essence of escapism, right. And one of the people online, and when you're in this industry of comics, you know, everyone who is whether you're acquainted with them or not, is it ends in any industry and, and in the toy industry, you probably know, oh, that's the CEO of hat or that's a developer or product developer over at Mattel. Right? Well, for us, I was like, I knew who to publish the publisher of DC comics was, and he was on my line. the deal. And he's on my line and he's rocking a Puerto Rico baseball league hat. And I was like, wait a minute, his fiance, I've heard she's, she's always a Puerto Rican.
[00:38:25] Azhelle Wade: Wait, where are we editing into the story of how Ricanstruction came to be such a cute name?
[00:38:32] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: I recognized them. And I'm like, yo, come to the front of the line and, and do it as like, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. I'm like, yeah, you waited 45 minutes. He waited 45 minutes to get to the front of line, gets. He came to the front of the line. Now, mind you, this is almost a year after the first issue. They view more than a year after all the hype about what Engenia started. Right? So we, all I had at that table, what I had at that table was one book. This one, this is the only book I had and I had some pinups, but that's it. I didn't have like a whole library of books, like one of this book. And he's flipping through a damn video. Co-publisher DC comics flipping through my book. It's holding like the paper touching it. And he looks up, looks at the book, looks up, looks at the book, made this. And again, I made this just like you did everything. You did everything yourself. Like the printing was again, I did everything in the, my studio and he was like, this is really good. This is really well made. And I'm like, shoot, this is the publisher of DC.
[00:39:31] Kind of like saying that about my work. I didn't want to point anyone in any industry in any industry. Let's be real. Right. We'll be like, this is my shot. I'm going to pitch my best Batman story does ever been told or.
[00:39:45] Azhelle Wade: It's playing in the background.
[00:39:48] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: And that's not, that's not where my mind was at that moment. I tell them she would've been like, this is our what was on the floor somewhere with the boy, you know, she go, I go, what are we going to do for Puerto Rico?
[00:40:03] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's great.
[00:40:04] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: That's kind of taken aback by that. Like, well, what were you thinking? And I was like, well, I think that the DC universe should be accompanied by lab winning ganja in a book. And I think that she should bring them to Puerto Rico. And in this book we should talk about what's really happening in Puerto Rico. And, you know, I think that. Book should be kind of like, you know, a charity book and that it could be, it should raise money and the money should go to, to help help the island. Did you spill it all off the dome when you came up with that phrase about it? And as soon as he walked away? Well, before he walked away, he was like, you know what, here's my card. Here's my email. Send me an email and we'll talk about it. Right? So as he walked away, within seconds of him walking away, I already had the title, Ricanstruction, reminiscing and rebuilding Puerto Rico. It just, it just flowed it literally just flowed out my mouth. Right. And I'm at comic con. So I have comic book creators to the left, to the right, to the front, to the back of me.
[00:41:00] I hit the ground, literally hit the ground running Bilson Kevin's rec pock, Tony, Daniel, all of these comic book, artists, Dennis Cohen, one of the co-creators of the milestone, the universe, all of these comic book artists. And I'm like, give them my pitch. I'm like, are you down? They go bet. I'm down. Why everyone knew about hurricane Maria? And they were like, I'm down, I'm down. I'm going to be a part of it. I want to be a part of this. Right. Everyone is down everyone. I write the, I write, I thought my correspondence with DC comics within four days, four days, I enter into a historic agreement with them. They give me full access to their entire catalog of intellectual property. They gave me full access to their entire roster of talent. That's exclusively contracted to them with the, with the condition that they pretty much say, like if the writer and artists want to work with you and they're exclusive to us, then you have permission to work with them. Right. As long as it doesn't interfere with their deadlines and their schedule, and I go into production.
[00:41:58] Now, the other thing that's crazy about that is prior to the comic con, the beginning of 2017, around January, I'd been diagnosed with cancer.
[00:42:11] Azhelle Wade: You are not a cancer survivor.
[00:42:13] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: I went through a whole year waiting for what the procedures. And what the treatment was going to be. I didn't start my chemo until August of 2017. I went through, I went through chemo from August through December. I was immunocompromised. I wanted to go to Puerto Rico. I had a few opportunities. My brother at the time was working with the red cross. I of my, my, my, one of my mentors was working with a nonprofit that literally brought her to Puerto Rico. I couldn't travel to Puerto Rico because I was immunocompromised. My doctor was like, don't you even think about it? You know, something happens to you. You're putting away resources from other people who desperately need it. And I'm like, no, I'm not going to do anything that crazy. I pushed through my my chemotherapy over the next few months and dive head first into this, this, this, this, this continuing wave that's carrying me. And that's, that becomes what is what is reconstruction? And I go into full production of the book.
[00:43:11] Azhelle Wade: You did this while you were overcoming cancer? I can't.
[00:43:14] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: Yep. And I ride this out early January, I finished my first round of chemo and I was having a meeting with my doctor waiting to find out when I was going to either ride, start out my second or third round, because it was an experiment to medicine. And they were saying like, you could either do radiation therapy or you can try this new form of chemo call or talk to them about and I would like, I don't know what, that, I don't even know how to spell that word, so why not? You know? And, and they were like, you know, we, it may be one, maybe even three sessions. If it doesn't work, we'll probably still have to give you the radiation treatment. And they were like, I was like, okay, cool. So I did my first round and I was done by Christmas time. And then my first appointment was like, the first week of January saw the doctor and the doctor did the full body scan and she goes, okay, so you got, I'm like good for what, what did that mean? I said, no, no, you're you're cured. And she was very stoic. So you're good. I was like, what? And I'm like, God, I can't believe it.
[00:44:20] Azhelle Wade: You do everything fast. Huh? You really just like to roll you just like to roll up.
[00:44:24] Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez: And we went backwards to the book, this book, and the book originally was going to be a hundred pages long that it was going to be on just 25 pages long, then 150 pages on. Then I would like, I think it's going to be about 200 pages because more and more and more people are coming out of the woodwork. They want to be a part of this book, these writing on this book. And one of the biggest comic book artists was Frank Miller and Frank Miller was like, I want to be a part of the book. I was like, well, you got to stop the train for Frank Miller because this is busy. The legend kind of stopped the train. And so I'm working on this book and my my contact at the New York times this like what have you got working on? And I was like, well, and I tell them about this. I was like, oh my gosh, can we get any specific?
[00:45:08] I'm like, hell yeah, New York times running the exclusive. Of 2018 that this book is about to drop, right? And as soon as they announced that it goes viral and a series of pickup stories happen. And if you don't know, or we don't know what pickup stories mean, pick up stories is when another media news outlet writes an article based on another article, based on another article, it's kind of kinda like, you know a ripple effect. And so the book automatically goes to number one and amazon.com. Oh, wow. And for your orders before moms straight pre it goes, it goes number one for March. Number one for April, the book drops in me still. Number one, the books or the book already came out. It's true. It's deal. Number one for four months straight, it becomes the number one best seller.
[00:46:01] We did not. We, I had a hunch. It was going to do well. I D I, I'm not going to be like, oh my God. I'm like, I'm like, and I remember talking to young about the cover and I'm like, so who are we going to put on the cover? You know, me? I'm a kid. I'm a nerd. I'm I don't want to put that justice league on the whole cover, like slowly roll. We're not going to put the whole justice. We've got to cover that. And people get to think that this is a justice league combination. That was like, all right. So can we pull it? And then I'm like stopping away. And they're like, and they come now like, well, how about this many? How about this many character? And then they go one, you get one character on the cover. Where that, when he came out, I was like, oh man, I told you on this account, who do we put on the cover without wouldn't gain?
[00:46:45] Yeah. And she goes, seriously, wonder woman, Superman movie was whacked. And what the woman is like, it's like, there's too many men on the cover of the comic books. Anyway, let's put wonder woman next to it. I wasn't getting. She ends up on the cover of the book, but I wouldn't gain your dancing, Bomba, holding the flag, flying over forest. Yeah. Well, that's what I know she's doing. No, but I'm the creator. Right. And then, you know, and and they're flying above the, at the rainforest that inspired me to write the, the origin story for this book, but then I'm slick, you know, me already I'm slick. Right. So I'm like, okay. So I'm only allowed to have one character on the, on the front cover. Right? So y'all, didn't say anything about the bathtub. Oh, what am I good acquaintances? The artists can Lashley, he blesses us with this beautiful image of Superman and I wouldn't get ya, you know? And what's dope about this. A lot of people don't know is that when I was designing, I wouldn't get any as costume. I was inspired by Superman's costume because I love.
[00:47:55] His costume gave me more of a canvas to, to illustrate with you. Only thing you see on Superman is constant Lord's hands. And from his neck up the rest of the hospital, the rest is canvas. So when I was designing on what he gave me, I was like, I want as much canvas as possible to design a costume. And also she's not over sexualized. I mean, she's sexy, but she's just not naked. So it's like, I don't want the thing is like, she, she she's Latina and she's she's of African descent. So she's going to have a body that reflects that. And when it's like said the very strong athletic body and it's like, and it's like you know, what is it? I did a binder or a sports body. That's how I visualize her. When she's wearing her costume from the throne on women, you can literally see every curve, a natural curve. Nobody wears, nobody looks like that in real life that they have like a painted on outfit. Oh. So, so the book comes out, the book becomes a number one best. And I'm too young comes up with this fantastic idea.
[00:48:55] She was like, you know, Puerto Rico. And the time the book was still documenting what was really happening still in Puerto Rico. The first story in reconstruction, 144 days in the dark, right? That story was so relevant because the book came out in Maine and there were still people living in a blackout without power in Puerto Rico. I made it to Puerto Rico to they view my book at the Puerto Rico Comic-Con and it was the most overwhelming response at an event that I've ever had in my career over and over. I had a line hundreds of people every day, the line never stopped. And over and over again, people coming to the table and they would tell me gracias por poner Puerto Rico en alto thank you for elevating Puerto Rico. Right? And it just overwhelmed me because this is what the work was always about. You know, it was about taking this character, taking this narrative and bringing this discourse about the Island's condition, the humanitarian crisis, mine just before hurricane Maria. A lot of people that are learning about La Borinqueña think that La Borinqueña happened after hurricane Maria.
[00:50:03] Azhelle Wade: I didn't even realize that the first. Because I'm seeing it after I'm seeing it already knowing.
[00:50:08] Well toy people there. You have it. That was part one of my interview with Edgardo. Now part two is actually going to be coming out friday. So don't miss it. You're not going to have to wait a whole week to get the rest of this story. We're going to drop that episode on Friday, but until then, until we meet again on Friday, I really want you to walk away with this, this major message from today's episode. There is a difference between developing your characters story and value system and developing the use of your character or the application of your character. The differences are developing the mission and the core values are they focused on education or social political change? And the application refers to, are they gonna be a comic book, character? Are they going to be a toy? Is it going to be a TV show? Now what Edgardo taught us today? That is so, so clear. Is that having deep value system in place allows your IP, the opportunity to grow into something so much larger than just the surface level story.
[00:51:28] La Borinqueña, started as a costume at a parade, evolved to a comic book character, and is now a became of social justice, a social justice icon for Puerto Rican people. And that could not have happened without Edgardo infusing personality and passion into that IP, his personal passion. For Puerto Rico for the environment, he really cared and brought that, use that care to bring this character to life. And because of that, his IP is not only affecting his company, but it's affecting his position in the world. The way the world is seeing him, he is being seen as a social activity. So I really want you to walk away from this episode. That it's okay to hyper-focus on the story and the value and the why behind your IP, over the application of it before you start getting obsessed with, if it will be a product or if it will be a TV show or some sort of media, because focusing on the application of your IP too soon could actually limit your story. But focusing on your story will create limitless opportunities for application. As always, thank you so much for spending time with me today. I know there are a ton of podcasts out there. So until Friday, I'll see you later toy people.
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