TURTLE POWER!!

HEROESCON june 20 22 2008

it is confirmed, Joel Buxton ( writer/creator of Marcus Ninja ) and I will have a table at the Charlotte, North Carolina, HeroesCon. i am super excited to be promoting Awesome Marcus Ninja and my other art at my first convention with an American audience.

Joel and I are working on a short story of Marcus ninja, to be published specifically for this show. it will be available at the Toronto shows as well. it 'll be ready for summer.

if you haven't heard of this show yet, you gotta check out the guest list. this is easily one of the greatest line ups i've ever seen.


i can't wait for June, it is gonna be super-kick-ass- awesome.

i know i won't be able to meet everyone i want while will be at my table most of the show, BUT,
here's a bunch of names i am looking forward/hoping to meet.


Jeff Brown - Top Shelf
Robert Kirkman - Walking Dead
Christian Barenak - silent devil comics
Tony Harris - Ex Machina, Gaijin Studios alumni
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim
Joe Staton - Green Lantern , Guy Gardner
Savannah College of Art & Design
Adam Hughes - Gaijin Studios, cover artist extraordinaire
Jonathan Hickman - Nightly News, Pax Romana
Dean Haspiel - Billy Dogma
Cully Hamner - Gaijin Studios, artist extraordinaire
Jason Pearson - Gaijin Studios, artist extraordinaire
Brian Stelfreeze - Gaijin Studios, artist extraordinaire
Dave Johnson - 100 Bullets cover artist, Gaijin Studios alumni
Nicholas Gurewitch - Perry Bible Fellowship
Christos Gage - Wildstorm
Matt Fraction - Punisher War journal, Iron Fist, Casanova
Tommy Lee Edwards - Bulletpoints, upcoming 1985
Todd Dezago - Tellos
Evan Dorkin - Milk & Cheese, House of Fun
Brandon Peterson - Dr. Strange, Ultimate Vision, Chimera
Jimmy Palmiotti - Marvel Knights, Daredevil, Jonah Hex
Steve Niles - 30 days of night
Chris Moreno - Sidekick
Tony Moore - Fear Agent, Exterminators, Walking Dead
Jim Mahfood - Clerks, 40 oz, Grrrl Scouts
David Mack - Daredevil, Kabuki
JohnPaul Leon - Static, Earth X
Jamal Igle - Firestorm, Nightwing
Ethan Van Sciver - Green Lantern
Daniel Way - Wolverine Origins
Mark Waid - DC (lots), editor in chief of Boom Studios
Matt Wagner - Mage, Grendel
Chris Staros - Top Shelf
Andy Runton - Owly, Top Shelf
Greg Rucka - Queen & Country, Wonder Woman, 52
Alex Robinson - Box Office Poison, Tricked
Paola Rivera - Marvel, painter extraordinaire
Eric Powell - Goon
Jason Aaron - Scalped, the Otherside
Mark Brooks - Ultimate Fantastic Four
Frank Cho - Liberty Meadows, Mighty Avengers
Amanda Conner - the Pro, Jsa Classified
Guy Davis - B.P.R.D.
Julia Wertz - Fart Party

the Best

if you ask me, these are the most influential comic creators ever.

this picture of Will Eisner (March 6, 1917 - January 3, 2005) and Jack 'King' Kirby ( August 28, 1917 - February 6, 1994) continues to inspire and influence me and my art.

thanks guys.

cave

ball point pen + some photoshop, but mostly ball point pen.

comics and sketches

i just read Pax Romana #2 (of 4) by Jonathan Hickman. i am loving this book! it is so different than anything i've ever read. usually, i have to really like the art style to pick up a new read and at first, i didn't like it. but now, i love it. this is not a quick read. Pax is very wordy which usually turns me away but somehow he pulls it off. Hickman's art combined with his rad story is now one of the comics i look forward to most. i am kinda sad that this is only 4 issues.
this book: BRILLIANT.
sign me up for all things Hickman















also, before i finished up my latest Marcus Ninja strip i was listening to the Word Balloon podcast. Mr. John Siuntres was interviewing comic legend Gene Colan. it was a really great interview from 2005. the audio isn't the greatest but i found it worth a listen. Gene mentioned his stint on Namor: the Sub-Mariner and i was inspired to sketch this,

also, this i a blog i've been reading recently, http://jimsmash.blogspot.com/ .

i don't know where or how i came across Jim Smash! but i am really diggin' it. and he updates quite often, which not that many blogs that i read do.

and check out , the Fart Party. it's an awesome web comic by Julia Wertz. give it a try, it's hilarious.

ttyl

Bone Thugs & Harmony

the Source, issue #220, April 2008 on news stands now.




















i'm a huge Bone Thugs fan, but my best bud George Skoutakis is 'THE' Bone Thugs fan.
George is a great journalist and this past week his 2nd Bone Thug article was published in the Source Hip-Hop Magazine. this article is about Bizzy Bone, who is no longer part of the group but continues to with his solo career. i'm not just saying this because he's my friend, but this is an very very well written, professional article. on top if being well written, i know for a fact that this article is very honest. George got us all-access to meet Bone and watch the show from the side of the stage in Detroit, last May. George knows all the members and works almost as hard as the group themselves on getting the Bone Thug name back into the mainstream. if you like hip hop, or were ever a fan of Bone, then you might enjoy this.
if you click on the image it should open big enough to read the article. or you could go out a grab the issue. check it out.

great work, George.

comics

here's some stuff i read recently

Kickass#1 by Mark Millar & John Romita jr. this is about a kid in a real world setting who just decides to get a costume and become a superhero. great end to a first issue. this is gonna be another wicked ass Millar story. art by JRjr was (and always is) incredible. if you liked Wanted then you'll like this. BRILLIANT

Omega the Unknown #6 - this story is wacky and wonderful. there is nothing else like it. i cannot wait to see where all this is goin. Farel Darymples art blows me away.
BRILLIANT

DC Special: Raven #1 by Marv Wolfman & Damion Scott. this story was not particularly original or interesting. I'm not a fan of Raven's, the Titan's, or DC's Crisis continuity and you'd have to be to like this story. the story here is just another example of why i don't currently buy DC books that aren't All-Star Superman. every time i try a DC book these days i find that they are not 'New Reader Friendly' and i quickly get lost and lose interest. you may be asking, 'Shane, why did you buy this book then?' and the answer is Damion Scott. Scott is one of my all-time favorite artists. his 40 issue run on Batgirl is some of my favorite comics ever. a lot of those were action packed, little dialogue but great story, quick read comics. my own book 'the Almighty' is very influenced by Scott's Batgirl. Damion Scott draws in a very great urban, hip hop, graffiti-ish style. His chicks are cute, his villains are mean, his layouts,expressions, and storytelling are incredible. one thing that always stood out to me about Damion's art was the way he always incorporated people of all ethnicity's. not only does he make his characters and background characters multicultural, he makes them actually look, unmistakably, like the ethnicity the character is suppose to be, not just a white guy colored with brown skin.

did i like this book? YES. did i read all the dialogue? no. i skipped most of it, especially towards the end. Will i keep buying as long as Damion Scott is on art chores? damn right.

this book: PRETTYGOOD

Ultimates 3 #3 by Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira. goddammit, i had such high hopes for this book. the artwork by Joe Mad is out-of-this-world, but is it too much to ask for a half decent story to go along with it? hey Jeph Loeb, have you ever heard of the words 'imply' or 'subtle'? we get it, Hawkeye has a death wish now that his family is dead, he doesn't have to say shitty lines like, "I'm better off dead anyway." am i gonna keep buying this book? (sigh) yes, but i think i might start whiting out all the word balloons first. separate ratings for this, art: BRILLIANT, story: LAME.

Comics Now! #1. this book was put together by some of the Comic Geek Speak Podcast guys, and a bunch of their friends. this is a new comics magazine along the same lines as Wizard, but not a corporate machine. the truth is, Wizard use to be my favorite magazine. in the late 90's and early 2000's i looked forward to Wizard's monthly news as much as i did my comic books. now though, i can't read Wizard. it has become a comic book movie magazine. i love comics but i don't love comic book movies, and when i read a comic book magazine i want to read about comics. why doesn't Wizard make a separate magazine strictly for comic book movies and focus on comics in the original mag? i wanna read about indie stuff i've never heard of as well as the mainstream stuff. what little comic book articles that are in Wizard are basically rotating from DC to Marvel content, with no journalistic integrity any more. now that i've ranted about Wizard i can say that Comics Now! is a good alternative. it actually reminds me of early Wizard magazines from the 90's, that focused on up-and-comers and indie books as much as DC & Marvel books. this first issue is a little light on the content but is a very well put together, professional magazine. i am glad to support Comics Now! because we have been long overdue for a quality comic book magazine.

it's funny, i was listening to the latest episode of Comic Geek Speak and they were talking about how they have been doing the show for 3 years now and one of the interviews that put them on the map was with Gareb Shamus (owner of Wizard). i bet when they did that interview none of the Geeks thought that 3 years later they'd be in direct competition with Shamus.

this mag: GREAT

Thor #6. i am so pleased with this book. buy it, you won't be disappointed. story is GREAT, art is GREAT.

i picked up the variant edition with an Art Adams cover.
i wanna mention that everything i see Art Adams doing these days is incredible. his covers on Incredible Hercules and Avengers Classic are so amazing. i don't want to buy either of these titles but i just might for the covers alone. Art actually makes Hercules look cool and mean. Art Adams only gets better with age. i will probably be picking up Avengers Classic #12. it reprints an old Avengers story by Lee & Kirby with a new one by new creators. not only does this book have an amazing Art Adams Mole Man / Giant Man cover, it also has a new story by Bob Burden (Flaming Carrot). sold!

2 other books that have caught my attention are


Marvel Comics Presents #9. this book has an awesome Steve McNiven cover, plus interiors by Niko Henrichon and Ed McGuiness. sold!

1985. a comic by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards. i don't know what this is about and i don't care. i've been waiting for an excuse to pick up a book by Tommy Lee Edwards for a while. add Millars name to it, sold! i'm gonna buy this and try to ignore any info on what it's about. just pick it up and probably love it. i didn't read this article but if you wanna know more you can read about it here.

Thor Sketch

this is a warm up sketch that i did over the past few days. Even though i prefer the new costume (designed by the very talented Olivier Coipel) the old one is easier to draw and i didn't need reference. i have been meaning to sketch out the new costume, and i will soon.

i like this sketch, even though Thor is not holdin his hammer like a weapon. he is kinda saying, " Check out this big hammer. "

when i look at this, i see a lot of influence from two superstar artists, John Romita jr and Ed McGuiness. both of which draw a mean Thor.

this sketch is a combination of both these artists, but not nearly as good as either of them.

Street Fighter Movie

last friday , my buddy Chank & i watched the Street Fighter movie. why? cuz he bought it for me. why? i don't know.
this movie is the most god-awful movie i've ever seen. not only is the story & dialogue terrible, it's gotta be the worst casting i've ever seen. nothing about this movie is good, the sets are goofy looking and not convincing at all, the jokes are aimed at children but at the same time Guile (Jean Claude Van Damme) has a bit of a potty mouth.
some of the scenes are pretty funny ( not on purpose) like when Ryu & Vega are about to square off in a cage match and then Guile drives a tank through the wall and says, "You are all under arrest!" and everyone just puts their hands up.
the funniest is the scene where Guile does his motivating speech to the troops.
"We can all go home. Well, i'm not going home! i'm gonna get in my boat! i'm gonna go up the river! and i'm gonna find that sonnuvabitch Bison! i'm gonna kick his ass so HARD, the next Bison wannabe is gonna feel it! Now who is going home? AND WHO IS COMING WITH ME???!!!!!!!"
you know, i don't really remember liking this movie when i was a kid.

you know how there are movies that are so bad that they're actually pretty good? this isn't one.

i use to think that Anaconda was the worst movie ever. not anymore.

colour sketches

lately , i haven't had time to colour my Awesome Marcus Ninja strips because it takes me too long to colour. i'm not a colourist, and i don't know how to colour faster than i can draw. sometimes, to get it exactly how i want it to look, it will take me longer to colour than to draw.
any way, i took 2 old sketches and tried a new way to colour, hoping it looks good enough to use, but it is a quicker method. i'm not particularly happy with how these turned out but it was an exercise that i learned a little from. i mean, they look alright. i could've cleaned 'em up a bit but that would've taken more time.
ttyl,
Shane

Funny Pic

i came across this pic the other day & i thought it was pretty funny.

Clutch & Comics

Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Sun Feb 24 – checked out my favourite band CLUTCH at the Phoenix Concert Theatre. They were amazing. My problem was that there are too many great Clutch songs, so I was disappointed that they didn’t get to all my fav’s. Clutch did do some great ones, if I can remember they did,
‘Promoter of Earthbound Causes’,
‘Power Player’,
‘Burning Beard’,
‘Child of the City’,
‘the Incomparable Mr. Flannery’,
‘Electric Worry’,
‘Cypress Groove’,
and they did ‘Mob goes Wild’ in their encore, because Clutch can’t come to Toronto and not sing,“Everybody move to Canada, Smoke lots of pot, Everybody move to Canada right now Here’s how we do it,Bum rush the border guard before he and his dog ever knew it”
they are no bullshit, balls out, hard fuckin’ rockers. Good show. Good fuckin’ show. If you haven’t heard of, or checked out Clutch watch this video, and tell me they don’t rock. I dare ya.



I didn’t get to the comic shop this week. In fact, I may have to take a break from buying comics. Or, er, maybe I just won’t buy so much every week. I’m gonna have to save some cash, so maybe I won’t buy a trade every time I get a stack. I guess I should get through all the trades in my ‘to read’ pile, before I get anymore new books.
Here’s some quick thoughts on stuff I’ve read in the past couple weeks,

Amazing Spiderman #550 – another solid issue. I am very happy so far with all the Brand New Day stories. I am really diggin’ Sal Larroca’s art. I think after I’ve tried all 4 new creative teams I’m gonna switch to trades. PRETTYGOOD










Fantastic Four #554 – the first issue of Millar & Hitch’s run was excellent. I know I’m gonna love this book. So far, so good. GREAT












New Avengers #38 – guest art from Michael Gaydos was some of the best I’ve seen from him. Bendis shakes things up some more. I like it. PRETTYGOOD











Omega the Unknown # 5 (of 10) – this book continues to intrigue and amaze me. This issue also has the best cover so far. BRILLIANT
















Walking Dead # 46 – WOW! I missed issue # 45 so I was gonna try not reading this but I couldn’t help it. Glad I did. I’ll keep reading, Kirkman, you got me, you always do. BRILLIANT











X-Force #1 – the story didn’t impress me, nor did the team line up. While I like Clayton Crain’s covers and pin-ups, I couldn’t follow his interiors and that doesn’t make for a good read. no more for me. LAME













Wolverine Origins (hardcovers volumes 1-3) Nothing special here. My buddy Chank kept telling me to read these, so after they sat on my book shelf for months I gave ‘em a read so I could give them back to him. I love Steve Dillon’s panel layouts and storytelling, he is easily one of the best artists in the business, but I just don’t think his style is suited for tights and capes. I love the Preacher books to death, but there is something about Dillon’s style that doesn’t mix well with spandex. I’d much rather read his stuff on a Vertigo title. My biggest problem with Daniel Ways scripts is, now that Wolverine has his memories back, he has apparently come across every modern character in his long past, and most of the time has factored into their lives quite a bit. It gets kind of old when every woman character was like a daughter to him, and every male character Wolverine either screwed over or got screwed over by them. Apparently Wolverine helped shape the lives of Nuke ( from Frank Millers Daredevil: Born Again), Black Widow, Maverick, Heather Hudson (Alpha Flight), and Jubilee. Also, he has tumbled repeatedly with Sabretooth, Siver Samurai, Cyber, and Omega Red. Now I was just flipping though volume 4 and it looks like Wolverine has had quite a past with Captain America & Bucky too. And on the last page Deadpool shows up. Now don’t get me wrong, I know that these are recurring Wolverine characters but I would like to read some cool Wolverine origin story that maybe is just a cool story about him developing and learning to use his powers without having to cross paths with a current Marvel Universe character. Or maybe even, create a new character, eh? On that note, volume 3 did feature Wolverine’s son and he was pretty cool. I would like to just get to this Romulus character that Jeph Loeb and Daniel Way have been building up to for quite some time. I have a feeling that the writers aren’t sure what to do with Romulus yet, so we are continually being teased. At this point, I don’t care anymore and I’m glad I never spent any $$$$ on this book. LAME