Lewiston resident Jorge Pacheco has worked for almost any comic publisher you can name. Throughout his four-decade-long career, his bread and butter has been humor comics primarily aimed at kids, but with all-ages appeal: “The Flintstones,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle” and “The Three Stooges,” to name a tiny handful.

Pacheco’s latest work fits right in. He released his first creator-owned book, “Dee-Ceased,” via New Haven Publishing, this month.

“I created the main two characters, Dee-Ceased and Mr. Marrow, while I was attending high school,” Pacheco said. “This book is 40-plus years in the making.”

Since moving to Lewiston in 2020 from Southern California, Pacheco has continued to work full time as a comic book artist, as well as doing for-hire work as a caricature artist at events and as assistant tennis coach at Lewiston High School.

“Being a freelancer means I’m always looking for work. If I’ve got one job, I want two. If I have two jobs, I want three,” he said.

Shortly after relocating, he discovered New Haven Publishing through a friend who’d just put out a book with them.

“I researched the books, comics, magazines they were publishing,” Pacheco said. “I thought to myself, ‘That is a cool publisher.’ ”

As has always been Pacheco’s approach as a freelancer, he emailed New Haven cold. The company’s response came quickly: Owner Teddie Dahlin liked his work.

“Teddie asked me if I had any characters that I had created to make a comic book,” Pacheco said. “I knew the time had finally come for Dee-Ceased to come alive on the pages of a comic book.”

Even with his years of experience, the project brought Pacheco a new challenge.

“While I had written a dozen of my own stories in comics, eight pages here, two pages there, I had never written anything as involved as a 30-page comic book,” he said.

He didn’t hold back for his first all-original work. Every page is packed with Pacheco — his love of world cultures, his welcoming attitude toward others, his passion for learning. And dinosaurs.

“Anytime I can sneak in a dinosaur, I do it,” he said with a grin.

The book is a superhero origin story for the titular Dee-Ceased, who begins simply as San Diego teenager Dee Bair. Dee loves school and her friends, tolerates her annoying brother and admires her goofy dad, whom she refers to as “The King of Quotes” for his constant peppering of conversations with wise adages from noteworthy people. Pacheco very intentionally incorporated a number of direct quotes right onto the page, along with biographical information about the person being quoted.

“To keep the story’s fluidity, I had to sneak the quotes in via Dee’s dad, Rory,” Pacheco said. “I wanted readers to learn something about great figures in history, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Vincent Van Gogh, Anne Frank and JFK, to name just a few.”

Pacheco didn’t want the reader’s learning to stop there. He looked to the cultural melting pot that had surrounded him in his native California.

“I have always been an admirer of Asian culture and its people,” he said. “I therefore made Dee of Japanese descent on her mother’s side. Her father is Irish.”

When Dee gets her superpowers, the supernatural source is related to the Native American tribes from San Diego. “And since I’d just moved to Lewiston, which is so close to another Native population, it seemed meant to be,” Pacheco said. “I wanted to include bits about these cultures to make the story educational.”

He balances the learning side of things with Dee’s lovable family, as well as a dose of heroic action once Dee gets her powers. This isn’t a typical superhero story, though.

“I’m overall a positive person, and I think comics have become way too dark,” Pacheco said. “This book is about much more than about blasting zombies and monsters. It’s about community, people of all nationalities and races, but, most of all, the love of family.”

“Dee-Ceased” is now available from most booksellers. !

Thompson, Vhs.D, holds a doctorate of cult media in pop culture from University of Maine at Castle Rock. He delivers lectures on movies and other pop culture topics under the moniker Professor VHS. Find him on Instagram as @professorvhs and find more of his work at professorvhs.substack.com.