Planetary Guardian Enamel Pin Set

This Backerkit aims to fund a series of enamel pin set inspired by my webcomic's Planetary Guardian masks. The goal for this funding is to give them a nice extra touch: GLOW IN THE DARK! Where the eyes, symbols, and other extras glow when exposed to darkness, similar to the aforementioned characters' visual quirk.

The Planetary Guardians are 6 characters from the webcomic, Cosmic Fish, tasked to, as the name implies, protect the planet they inhabit, and coexist with humans and other living beings. Ironically, the narrative follows the monsters' point of view who are considered enemies for breaking the laws of nature, thus making the planetary guardians a kind of antagonistic force in the story. (It's a little more nuanced, but don't worry!)

The 3-volume comic is a story of monster children trying to find their place in a universe that has rejected them. A world where its guardians attempt to maintain the status quo by keeping monsters isolated in forests and caves, letting the problem "fix" itself. We follow the story of Acantha, a monster, and the guardian, Bells, and how both begin to uncover a deeper understanding of their expected roles, heal from their pasts, and attempt to build a future.

Humans worship and revere the guardians as saints or even as gods, founding towns and cities with designated guardians as their "patron saints", and some even aiming to become a lesser-ranking guardian themselves. In the climax of the main story, the setting is during a festival honoring the town's founder, where all the humans wear masks based on the guardians themselves. As characters wander the city, several shops fill the walls with these masks while citizens dress up in festive attire.

The webcomic and its aesthetic is inspired by Puerto Rico culture and setting. The monsters are based on cryptids and animals (chupacabra, cuco, gallo de pelea, etc), the setting is similar to a mix of several decades of Puerto Rico (with some liberties), and the guardians are based on masks and (oftentimes) romanticized objects in our culture.

Two of the guardians (Fanud and Ciante) are based on the Vejigante creatures found in two festivals:

Fanud, the guardian of the earth, is inspired by the summer Festival de Santiago Apostol in Loíza (leaning more to its African roots where the masks are made of coconuts and wood). Fanud's body shape is also inspired by a mountain Cemí (Zemi), an ancestor spirit found in several Antillean Indigenous art (oftentimes called Taíno).

Ciante, the guardian of the sky and climate, is inspired by El Carnaval de Vejigantes in Ponce around late winter/early spring (more tied to its Spanish roots where the masks are made of papermaché and have a more dragon-like appearance).

The other two guardians, Bells/Raju (the story's deuteragonist and guardian of young souls) and Syias (guardian of the dead) do have a bit of a jester-like appearance, but have a very subtle inspiration in terms of the symbols in their bodies. Their stomachs have the symbol of the ojo capá, a repeated found in Antillean art. Although its meaning is heavily debated, the story follows the bellybutton interpretation that represents life, whereas missing a navel is the lack of it.

And finally, Dehra, the guardian of nature, and Meynia, the guardian of water, are pretty self-explanatory. With Dehra's ears and tail are inspired by the tropical heliconia plant, and Meynia has aquatic attributes, pretty self-explanatory. The pin design for Meynia, however, has one of the symbols that may represent an aquatic whirlpool, a potential entrance to the land of the dead found in petroglyphs.

Aside from being an artist, I study anthropology and history as a hobby and have taken several courses and conferences from the University of Puerto Rico. Although I was born, raised, and still living in Puerto Rico, I still do my best to handle my own culture as respectfully as possible, understanding that revisionism has played a huge part in our understanding of our own roots. At the end of each volume of the comic, I explain and elaborate these inspirations a little further. Despite all that, the comic uses the culture and setting as the building blocks for its themes more than a 1-to-1 interpretation.

Some pledges will also include a free enamel pin of Bells being comforted and surrounded by acanthus plants, symbolizing the way both characters help each other throughout the story. This is a sunset item.

I'm an award-winning Puerto Rican self-taught artist, writer, editor, and cultural consultant. I've worked on Cosmic Fish since I started my career, but I also have worked on several projects including: La Borinqueña by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, Eisner-Winning Ricanstruction by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez (in collaboration with DC Comics), as an artist for the Eisner-Winning Anthology Series, Puerto Rican Strong. I also worked as an artist for Catrina's Caravan (el Alacrán) by Chispa Comics, as well as other award-winning indy comics.

I freelance as a storyboard artist where I've worked for local ads, a few documentaries (San Jerónimo: Una Lucha Atravéz del Tiempo (in which I was a solo animator on the project) as well as San Juan: detrás de las murallas), some unreleased movies, and video segments for live musical performances including the Bad Bunny performance in Coachella 2023.

In 2024-2025, I worked as an Art Director, storyboard and layout artist, background and character designer, and animator for one of Puerto Rico's first fully-animated musical series, Rockolandia. In late 2025, it was nominated for 7 Suncoast Emmys, winning 4 categories, including best Art Direction.

Best of all, I'm a TTRPG nerd who cooks and gardens in their (little) free time. As mentioned prior, I've self-funded all of my personal projects in a similar manner to backerkit, but have only kept it locally (separate issues fund the larger book prints, for example).