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Urban is cool, so Homies are hot

By Robert Taylor
Knight Ridder Newspapers

EDDIE LEDESMA / CONTRA COSTA TIMES David Gonzales of Richmond, Calif., is the artist behind Homie and Mijos collectible characters. "All my success depends on how much I write and draw," he says.

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The 43-year-old artist-turned-mass-merchandiser keeps a vending machine close at hand in his Emeryville, Calif., studio. "This is where it all started," Gonzales says. "The Homies just ripped through the machines."

He is quiet, serious, and seems a little dazed by the success of the characters he began drawing when he was a kid.

"I hope people recognize us as an artist-driven, grass-roots business, not a big company trying to tap into the Latino market," Gonzales explains. "It wasn't meant to be a big business. I just followed where it led me."

In the studio, Gonzales and two artists working at computer terminals are surrounded by such items as battery-powered customized cars with "real hoppin' action"; tiny, grimacing figures pumping iron in the best-selling "Homies' Health Club" toy set; and a Homie Halloween costume.

Also on the shelves are the "Mijos," Gonzales' kinder, gentler line for younger kids. The first series of 6-inch action figures is now in stores such as Wal-Mart, with more to come from the manufacturer Toy Play. The characters will also show up on sneakers, skateboards and in a series of paperback books coming in the fall from Scholastic.

The word Mijos is short for the Spanish mis hijos, "my children." The characters include a girl and two boys based on Gonzales' own children, now ages 16 to 21, and he has created stories for them all about life in the East Bay's "Oaktown," modeled on Oakland.

But the Mijos also represent the bigger picture of mass marketing in America.

"The Hispanic community is the fastest-growing demographic in the United States," notes Jonathan Breiter, vice president of Toy Play's parent company, the New York-based Betesh group. Yet the Mijos — whom Gonzales has created to include Latino, Anglo, Indian and Korean characters — should appeal to a wide range of youngsters, Breiter believes.

"Kids love urban, because urban is cool," he says.

Apparently urban is hot as well as cool: Breiter expects the expanded line of the Mijos action figures, along with their line of little clothes, to generate several million dollars in sales by the end of next year.
 
The older, more edgy Homies have changed as well, and the 150-plus characters now include Officer Placa, a policeman; Peloquero, a gay barber; and El Padrecito, inspired by Gonzales' brother Masseo Gonzales, a priest in San Pablo, Calif.

These products — and don't forget the line of kids clothes due at J.C. Penney — really did begin in central Richmond, Calif., more than 30 years ago with a kid who loved to draw.

"All the sons were athletic," recalls Masseo Gonzales about growing up in a family of five brothers and three sisters. "But David stayed indoors more than we did. He was focused, even possessed, by drawing."

As he got older, David began drawing fantasy scenes and cartoons. He had the opportunity to attend De Anza High School in the Richmond hills, where he studied with Morris Benezra, "a great art teacher," whose son, Neil Benezra, is now director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

When he was 17, Gonzales published his first drawings in a small, low-rider-car magazine. At the end of high school — and "thanks to Mr. Benezra," he says — he received a scholarship to the College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland. There he studied commercial art, focusing on cartooning, caricaturing, life drawing and mural painting.

Then he enrolled at San Jose State University to study graphic design. It was there that he met the guys who would be models for the first Homies.

The Homies' commercial life began with images Gonzales drew and printed on T-shirts. "I hung them to dry on clotheslines strung across the garage, then went out and sold them at flea markets."

The characters may have been downsized — first as stickers, then as 13/4-inch-tall figures that fit into vending machines — but their impact was enormous.

And the Mijos, which might be the Homies' kids playing in a neighborhood park, could give Gonzales a major presence in the cultural mainstream, from collectible figures to dolls to books to a potential comic strip and animated television show.

"When I was growing up, all I wanted to be was a comic-strip artist," Gonzales says. He's always been a fan of Charles Schulz, and imagines something like "Peanuts," only different. King Features Syndicate has accepted "Mijos" for development; Gonzales is writing all the strips and drawing some of them.

Gonzales says he misses painting and the simplicity of drawing in his studio. He's more likely to spend the day on the phone checking on distribution deals in Canada and Australia. But he says he has to think of the future: "All my success depends on how much I write and draw."