Sí Trends

Dave Gonzales owns one of the biggest and most popular franchises that hardly anyone ever talks about. Even though Charlie Brown and his Peanuts Gang has been running things for decades and Aaron McGruder's Boondocks stay in the line of fire, Gonzales' Homies lay in the cut like a cholo listening to his oldies. This year, Gonzales is celebrating 30 years of the Homies, which started out as a comic strip in the late ‘70s and grew into a franchise ranging from shirts to figurines to TV shows and now video games. Homie Rollerz, the new video game developed by Destineer for the Nintendo DS is his latest venture where they race around their hood in fly customizable cars featuring Homie favorites behind the wheel. We talked to Gonzales about the new game, the history of the Homies, and his upcoming animated TV show.

Si Trends: How did the Homies franchise start?
Dave Gonzales: Well, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and I started doing the Homies here during my last year in high school. I first started doing cartoons and caricatures of just people around me. I grew up when the lowrider movement was going strong, a lot of car shows, a lot of oldies concerts, a lot of boulevard cruising was going on here in the Bay and in L.A., so it was really big. So I drew characters and cars and started doing artwork for car shows and concerts, parties and what have you. I was using my characters in them. Eventually I wanted to make them walk and talk and give them a story so I created a comic strip. I ran it in a little publication here in San Jose. The publishers and founders of Lowrider Magazine spotted it and I did it for their magazine and it became more widely distributed. That was pretty much the birth of the Homies.

Si Trends: Have you ever got any backlash from people saying that you were supporting stereotypes of Latinos, and Mexicans in particular?
DG: Over the years we have. I still get a negative newspaper article occasionally that has that slant. I don't get emails like I would at one point earlier on. Earlier on, because it was mainly lowrider characters, I think that was an issue. Since then we've diversified the line so much, that it's really settled down. I made a conscious effort to create and promote characters on there that are reflective of, I don't know if you'd say more positive, but of what they do for a living. So I've got nurses, I've got police, I've got bakers, delivery drivers,  and blue collar people. So that criticism slowed down. I've also diversified race-wise. I still stereotype! I mean, it's stereotyping if I'm drawing a person from Jamaica with long dread locks or if I draw white or Black people, but that's just the nature of cartooning. It's a caricature.

Si Trends: Isn't there a cartoon in the works?
DG: I found the "Damn Dog" skit on YouTube that featured Homies figurines; a company contacted me and asked me if it was approved. That was the first time I'd seen that, the stop-motion. I contacted the director and we did a few projects together on LATV, and he's doing their segments that they run. But the majority now I'm doing myself, and filming myself. I don't have time to do comic strips, I don't have time to do a graphic novel, and I wish I did, so these skits are my little comic strips. I film these little animated stop-motion segments with little stories. Now I'm doing one about Mr. Raza running for president. We have a deal in place with an animation studio called Future Thought and we're producing the actual pilot of the animated TV show.

Si Trends: So how did Homie Rollerz come about?
DG: The video game is a big step for me. It's a goal we've had for years and we've had agreements with some of the largest video game companies out there. But in the end, it turned out to be Destineer that was the perfect fit because when they put it on their plate they immediately put a lot of effort, investment of time and money, creative investment, and I sat there through the creative process for hours. We were planning and discussing which characters to use, the kind of cars. I illustrated the cover and I gave them a lot of input on what would work the best, and we got what we've got. This is an exciting time.

Si Trends: How did you decide on making a racing game instead of a story-driven type of game?
DG: Obviously people know about the popularity of Mario Kart and Nintendo DS. When I first heard about it, it was a couple of years ago, and it was very popular in Japan. And as I watched the number of units bought and sold it was the way to go. It was also that a lot of fans in that certain age group had a Nintendo DS. And racing is safe. A role playing game is an expensive and elaborate game for down the road. I think we made a safe game here, a fun game. It has the flavor of the Homies world and it's kind of silly. It has the street coolness, cool cars, the characters you already know, a lot of people already have these characters in their room. We're getting a good buzz and some positive feedback.

Photos by HomiesShop LLC and www.homiesworld.com; all art by Dave Gonzales.