I Dig A Pony

Let's talk comics for a second, shall we?

I've noticed that I haven't given a shout out to any of the swell comic titles I've been enjoying for quite some time. I've cut down on the number of books I follow but here's a quick list of some of them I've been diggin':

The Perhapanuats - by Todd Dezago, Craig Rousseau and Rico Renzi
I've dug this title since the first Dark Horse mini series from a few years ago. The book got a second mini series arc at DH before it went into limbo for a while. But good news was announced recently that it found a home at Image Comics and will be an ongoing series! The first issue of the ongoing title is out at your comic shops right now and it is excellent! And it has a Art Adams cover variant, too!!

Walking Dead - Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard
Another book I've been following since it's inception. Always entertaining. And moving at a mind numbing speed. No one is safe in this book.

Robotika - Alex Sheikman
I love love love Alex's book. The second Robotika series is named "For a Few Rubles More" and the first issue was full of amazing art. Alex is really pushing his layouts and pacing in some way innovative ways. The book has hit a production bump (no fault of Alex) but the second book should be coming out very soon!

Dynamo 5 - Jay Faerber and Mahmud A. Asrar
I don't usually read superhero related comics these days (a few of you know my stance on that), but Dynamo 5 seems to make all the right moves to keep me interested. It helps that I really love Asrar's art.... but major props to Faerber, too, he's got something good here.

Therefore Repent! - Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam
"a post-Rapture graphic novel" is how the book is described on its' cover. Having almost zero connection to religion in my personal history, I admit that parts of this book went directly over my head... but I caught more than enough to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Plus, the art by Sam is top notch.

5 - Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa
I picked this up at SDCC last year and was blown away by the beautiful art. The stories are short but entertaining. This book is one of the books POSTCARDS is up against in the 2008 Best Anthology category in this year's Eisner Awards.

Midnight Creeper

click to see larger

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of Digital Webbing, a.k.a. the House That Ed Built. So, when I saw that Mr Dukeshire was looking for people to advertise in the back pages of one of DW's flagship books, Fist Of Justice, I decided to throw away my usual inability to promote myself and whipped up a decidedly creepy ad(above) for this very blog that you are currently reading! The ad will run in the second and third issues of Fist of Justice, so head out to your local retailer (or online retailer) and order up a copy!

It's guaranteed to be a collector's item!

Ain't It Fun

Click to see it larger.

Doing a small 2 pager for a fellow Canadian, a writer named Dino Caruso. Here is a page of sketches that I did to work out a few of the panels. It's a fun little tale that is set in a pizzeria.

America, F**k Yeah!

I just read this at Newsarama:

September will see an Absolute Edition of Frank Miller’s Ronin, which was originally published from 1983-1984. The timing places the six issue miniseries after Miller’s initial run on Daredevil (but before “Born Again”) and before The Dark Knight. The story spans centuries, starting in feudal Japan where a young ronin sought to avenge his former master who was slain by a demon. The ronin was successful, but was trapped in a curse the demon uttered with its dying breath that linked the two. Centuries later, in a New York overrun by the bio-engineered Aquarius Complex, a boy begins to have dreams about an ancient ronin warrior, and the complex is invaded by an unstoppable terror – the two enemies live again.

F**k Yeah!!!!!

I'd Rather Go Blind

There are probably only 2 or 3 superhero characters that I would ever see myself drawing for any prolonged amount of time. Daredevil is definitely one of those 2 or 3.

Kick Out The Jams

Here's a warm up drawing I did for a new short story I'll be illustrating for an anthology called Trickster. I'm not sure if I can talk about it yet but it's going to be a really interesting book.

More info coming soon!

Amazona

I love Amazon.ca!

I'd been searching for a few Star Wars books at conventions and bookstores for over a year and, low and behold, there they were on Amazon. In new condition. Below the original cost! You can't beat that!

These books are the Dark Horse reprint trades of all the old Marvel comic issues. I used to have most of these books when they originally came out but I seemed to have misplaced them during the course of moving around all these years. Reading them again is a blast. Although, I remember liking the art of the early issues more. The art gets much better when Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer take over the drawing/inking duties around issue #49.

Come Talk To Me

Recently, I had the honour of being interviewed by Bernie Gonzalez of IndiePulp.com. I had a great time answering Bernie's questions, as most of them made me do a lot of thinking about stuff I rarely put into words, like how did my "style" come about and why do I draw comics. Sometimes I surprised myself with my responses. Here's a taste:

BG: Would you say that most of your artwork is comic artwork? If so, then do you think of yourself as a "serious" artist?

JC: Yeah, almost all my work is traditional sequential comic book work. I definitely consider myself a "serious" artist. And why wouldn't I? Because comics are considered a "Low Art" form? I don't believe in the notions of "High Art" and "Low Art". That offensive distinction was created by institutional art critics and historians to bring an air of validity to the art forms that they had a stake in, namely painting and sculpture. Comics are just as valid and important. In terms of "Art", I'd put Frank Miller's Sin City on equal footing with Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Seriously.

The interview was a blast to take part in and I managed to give Bernie so much information that the interview will be broken up over the course of a couple days.
You can read the first part of the interview here.

I Want a New Drug

Last week was a wash for any sketching on the picket line. So, instead, I've been doing a bit of warmup drawing at home.

Warmup drawing? For exactly what, I don't know. But I am finishing up the inks for my latest project, which means I'm going to be starting something new in the next little while. I might as well get ready for it....

Life In The Fast Lane

I'm back from the San Diego Comic Con, tired but ready to get back to work on some pages.

The trip was pretty good. I met some great artists and writers and even got to do some signing (see image to the left) for people who bought the freshly printed anthology, POSTCARDS. I signed so many books that I was getting good at doing the little drawing of myself. Many thanks to Jason Rodriguez for giving me the chance to experience life in the fast lane!

I didn't do any pitching at the show. KILL ALL MONSTERS! is in the process of getting the first 5 pages coloured and as much as I like my black and white pages, it's going to be the colour pages that sell this book to a publisher. So it just didn't seem like the right timing for me to show it around to publishers. I did show the whole uncoloured book to a few artist friends who seemed to like what they saw.

I bought tons of comics. I drank tons of Stone's Smoked Porter. I met Frank Miller and got to tell him that "Ronin" was the book that made me want to draw comics. But, best of all, I saw some old friends and made some new ones.

Special thanks goes out to writer, editor and SDCC roommate, James Powell, who helped make what could have been a stressful 4 day event into a rewarding and fun filled social extravaganza. Even if he was constantly pointing out that I say "eh?" after every 4th sentence. Oh, well. At least I didn't say "hoser", eh?

Gratitude

Well, I now know that at least one person actually read a copy of Empty Chamber #2!

Greg Burgas, over at CBR's Comics Should Be Good, said...

The promise of the first issue - weird espionage conspiracy thriller - is largely fulfilled in the second issue, and although this isn’t a perfect comic book, it has a lot to recommend it. Copland’s art works well for a thriller, and when he’s called upon to draw something majestic - a “helicarrier,” for instance (and yes, a character makes a Nick Fury joke) - he’s up to the task. Lewis’ story, which relies on some hoary clichés from the genre - the aggrieved general, the misdirection, the traitor on the inside - is still sharp enough to bring it up a notch to an interesting comic.

You can read the whole review here, and while you're there, why not give the other reviews a read, too!

Ruff Stuff

Here's a little robot vs. monster action to make the day just a little better. The page shown above is from Kill All Monsters!

Hello Again

It looks like the interview A. David and I took part in, for the second issue of Empty Chamber, has finally hit the Newsarama site!
It starts:

Debuting with #1 in October of last year, Empty Chamber is an espionage series by writer A. David Lewis and artist Jason Copland, published by independent publisher Silent Devil.

Just to refresh – the solicitation for issue #1 read:

Boston is quiet, the University is deserted, and Matt, alone for the winter, is a nobody. But he quickly becomes the government's most wanted, a beautiful mercenary's top priority, and a renegade general's prime target when the knowledge he possesses might thwart American genocide.

Issue #2 hits in a couple of weeks, and we had a chance to chat for a bit with the two creators to get the skinny on how this story came to life and more.....

Read more here

I know all 4 of you reading this are going to run right over there and leave a glowing remark about how great I am...... right?

Kiss Me You Fool

I think it might be one of the nicest panels I've ever drawn.
(click image to see it larger)

This post's title comes from The Northern Pikes album, "Snow In June".

Good Canadian pop/rock. Although, "Secrets of the Alibi", the album before this one, was their best.

DYI

Josh and Kody are making a fantastic comic. Click the image below and learn all about it.
PUNKS: The Comic needs your support. Just print off this card, fill it out and take it to your favorite comic retailer thus insuring they will recieve a copy for you. If your comic retailer doesn't order you a copy, it's time to get a new comic retailer.

Lotta Love

It's been a while since I've talked about comics (other than ones I'm featured in). Shame on me!

I'm still buying my comics through the online service of DCBS... which means that I don't usually get the "current" comics until about a 4-5 weeks after they've been released. And, with all the work I've been doing, I haven't had the time to sit down and read a bulk of the stuff I do get, so "The Pile" is getting pretty high. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to make comics AND read them. Yeah, I know... boo-hoo, eh?

Anyways, here are some of the comics/graphic novels that NEVER go on "The Pile".

The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky and Kent Williams
Robotika - Alex Sheikman
The Exterminators - Simon Oliver and Tony Moore
Fear Agent - Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opena
Walking Dead - Robert Kirkam and Charlie Adlard
The Perhapanuats - Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau
Criminal - Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Digital Webbing Presents - various

I love these books. A lot.