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While down at the San Diego Comic-Con I ran across the booth of one Jose Cabrera who was on hand to represent his fantastic web comic Crying Macho Man. The comic is awesome and Mr. Cabrera was gracious enough to answer a few questions regarding the online comics business. All you aspiring artists and writers out there had best take notes, because a lot of times, info like this comes at a price.

CraveOnline:  What got you started working in the comics’ scene?

Jose Cabrera: I started my professional comic venture with a semi-autobiographical comic called "JOSE: Life According to Jose Cabrera." But it became tedious and boring to put my life down on paper week after week and I didn’t make a dime. So I began a series of absurd comic strips called Crying Macho Man that I had actually started 15 years ago called "The Adventures of Abusive Step Father," where I would take clip art and add my own dialogue (tons of cartoonists are doing it today). But this time around I decided to draw the cartoons rather than use clip art. So I'd say CMM has been festering in my brain for 15 years, but technically it's been around for 3 years.

CraveOnline:  What were some of your favorite comics growing up?

Jose Cabrera: Some of my favorite comics were the usual; Spider-Man X-Men, but I also picked up ROM (remember him) and the Micronauts. But my fave was MAD and Cracked. Couldn’t live without them. My guilty pleasure was Archie (shhhhhh) Also loved R. Crumb.

CraveOnline:  Can you tell us a little bit (or maybe a lot of bit) about your book?

Jose Cabrera: Ah! Crying Macho Man has been an evolution of absurd, humorous insights into our crazy mad mad world. It’s similar to Mad in the sense that it spoofs contemporary pop culture. People ask me who is the Crying Macho Man in my cartoons but he has never made an appearance, kind of like Alfred E. Newman. He is the face of the franchise. I was talking with a good friend of mine and fellow humorist/cartoonist Michael Aushenker (El Gato: Crime Mangler) and he said he felt Crying Macho Man had the ability to go anywhere from week to week. There is so much freedom not being tied down to one comic character or story line. CMM fits my personality like a glove.