TO: Ricky Carralero

FROM: John Ulloa

DATE: January 8, 2003

To Whom This May Concern:

First, let me start by saying that this letter is way overdue. It’s time we set the record straight regarding Armando Huerta’s claims over of Ricky Carralero’s artwork as his own.

Ricky Carralero is an amazing artist whom I have known and worked with for over ten years. I have seen him create his masterpieces with my own eyes and believed in his talent to the point that I even put a second mortgage on my parent’s home to fund the first issue of Double Impact – the comic book that made my publishing house, High Impact Studios, very successful and ranked sixth in Wizard’s List of Top Ten Comic Books.

We sacrificed a lot, worked very hard and before we knew it the demand for Ricky’s comic books went through the roof. As commonly done in the industry, my company sought out other artists to work under Ricky’s direction to meet the ever-increasing demand. This is when we came into contact with Armando Huerta.

At first, I was not impressed with Armando’s work in that it was too cartoony and needed improvement. However, Ricky saw his potential and insisted that I take him on as part of the creative development team at High Impact Studios.

Ricky spent an enormous amount of time with Armando teaching him his style of drawing women from start to finish. Armando was a quick learner and able to acquire Ricky’s style in a very short period of time.

Because of the talent under our belt, High Impact Studios set out to create a series of hard core adult comics that were designed, color guided and written by Ricky Carralero … and finished by Armando Huerta. The idea was perfect but we had one problem on our hands: With the money we were making in the “mainstream” comic book market, we could not risk tainting the Ricky Carralero brand by launching a hard core comic book under his name. This is when we made the regretful decision to give Armando Huerta full credit as the artist of these infamous books.

Armando soon developed his own fan following and enjoyed the fruits of being a brand name erotic comic book illustrator. But soon, things changed. The word got out that Ricky Carralero was really the artist behind the comic books. Armando was devastated and faded out of the erotic art scene.

Last year, Ricky pulled out of a deal with a sticker manufacturer because he felt that the company’s business dealings were not ethical. In retaliation for this financially devastating move, the owner of this company set out to destroy Ricky’s reputation and discovered that Armando Huerta — a former artist that worked underneath him — was now penniless, living in Mexico and without an art career. The opportunity was ripe and unfortunately (but understandably) Armando accepted the offer to join the effort… and is now living a much more comfortable lifestyle.

The false smear campaign that was recently launched on the Internet by these people obviously hurt Ricky… but true to his character, he chose not to fight it. Instead, he held his head up high knowing that the truth would always protect him. But unfortunately, this smear campaign has gotten way out of hand.

All I know is that Ricky Carralero is not only an incredibly talented artist, but a man of integrity. For this reason, I put my own reputation on the line to vouch for Ricky Carralero as the true artist behind the work which has made him famous.

Sincerely,

John Ulloa
Former Publisher
High Impact Studios

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