Studio Revolver is a diverse collective of artists and creative types who share studio space here in Atlanta. We've known most of them, some in passing, some more personally, for forever. They're all good people, very talented and very focused on combining their individual strengths to make the whole stronger.

Other than talent, one of the things that makes Revolver unique is how many members there are. They're nine deep, folks—nine. That's a baseball team! They can kick the asses of any other studio you know just based on numbers (kidding—JOKES).

Seriously, we were destined to chat with them at some point, and now seemed like as good a time as any for us to do it. Plus, they just moved into their spacious new spot about a year ago.

The studio roll call is as follows: Casey Edwards (artist and graphic designer), John Tyler Christopher (artist and graphic designer), Tariq Hassan (artist and graphic designer), Tom Feister (artist and inker), Kevin Stokes (artist and inker), Jason Pearson (writer and artist), Georges Jeanty (artist and illustrator), Dexter Vines (artist and inker) and Bernard "Shay" Shepard (graphic designer and inker).

In the interview, they all kinda give a brief mention as to what they do and what they've done that you might know.

**Note to listeners: Studio Revolver didn't start out as a complete Sausage Party. We know there's been at least one female member (we met her). However, this industry tends to be full of dudes, so whatareyagonnado?

We caught up with the fellas late one Friday night at their lair, which is located right in the heart of downtown Atlanta. And yes, hilarity did ensue.

Dwight and I have to thank 'em for letting us bring our new fangled set-up into their space. It was a lotta fun and we had a great time as always. Thanks, guys!

**For this episode, how could we not play snippets of Revolver by Rage Against the Machine? I mean, c'mon?

I'm thinking we first became acquainted with the name Sterling Hundley while trolling the Richard Solomon website. You know how it goes—you see something that strikes you and say—"Okay, that person's style is pretty cool."

His name came up again when we spoke to George Pratt on the show and that's when we really started our research (I make it sound much more studious than it was—really, it was just more trolling).

I'm absolutely digging Sterling's work these days and I'll tell you why. As I get older, I become more a fanboy of artists who can bridge the chasm between the natural and the abstract. Those that can weave the two approaches together seamlessly. I'm sure it's not an easy feat since so few do it well (to me) and this guy rocks at it.

As mentioned above, Hundley not only kills as an illustrator, has been published by everybody, has awards out the wazoo and just launched his first solo art exhibition, Emergent—but he shapes young minds, too.

He's a professor in the Department of Communication Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University and he's one of the core teachers involved with Illustration Academy. At the Academy, he works alongside folks like Mark English, Anita Kunz, Gary Kelley and Chris Payne. Not bad company, huh?

I won't call Sterling Hundley a wunderkind, but at the "crotchety" old age of 33, he's damn near done it all. Or has he?

Sterling's site and blog

My stalwart companion, Dwight, attended a ConceptArt Workshop back in 2005 and let's just say, he came back changed. For the better, of course. It was a totally immersive and communal experience for him, and one that really opened him up creatively.

Names like Coro Kaufman, Jon Foster, J.P. Targete and Andrew Jones got brought up a lot afterwards and I gotta admit—I kinda got changed, too.

I was brand new to concept art as a field (like many, I suppose). And even though the term itself wasn't as en vogue then as it is now, there was already a proliferation of young artists rockin' it hard.

Plus, ConceptArt.org sounded like the coolest place on the planet! Twelve million people a year visiting and sharing images with each other, in one on-line community? Who could hate that?

Okay, I'm digressing—back to Mr. Jones.

Andrew (or Android) is one of the co-founders of ConceptArt.org and its entertainment business other side, Massive Black. In the early days of his career, he worked for ILM, Black Isle Studios and Nintendo, before eventually stepping out with Jason and Coro to do their own thing. The art world has never fully recovered, by the way.

As we've mentioned before on this site, this guy does it all and well. And consistently. Concept art, illustration, fashion design, body art, teaching at workshops, live digital performances—everything.

His 1000 Portraits Project from '02 was just a motherf*cker to behold. As you followed the changes in the images, you started to see extreme changes in the artist, too—literally (it was nuts).

On Saturday, November 7th, Andrew's very first gallery show, Liminal Rez, will jump off. Push Studio in San Francisco is the place, 7PM is the time and it'll probably be bedlam. Jonsey is really popular and well, really good.

We're honored to have had this young art warrior come on and hang out with us. We've been big fans for like, five years now, so it was a long time coming.

And the devil's in the details on this one, folks, so don't sheep. Umm, sleep...sorry.

I mean, this guy has been doing it for over 25 years, right? He paints covers for The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report—you know, the big ones.

He illustrated one of Mark Twain's short stories called A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage back in 2002—that's serious stuff.

Now granted, he did work on all three of the Ice Age movies, but that was as a character designer. He wasn't writing gags or jokes.

Anyways, about a minute into our conversation with him, Peter had us cracking up big time. So much so, we had to join in (any old excuse will do, I suppose).

All kidding aside, this guy is a major talent and it was a lotta fun speaking with him. We caught up with de Sève at his home studio in Brooklyn, NY and chatted with him about the new Spectrum Exhibit that just opened there, digital prints vs. original paintings, working in animation and his two new projects.

Peter just released his first ever hardcover artbook, a monograph called A Sketchy Past - The Art of Peter de Sève. We blogged about it recently and with good reason. It's filled to the brim with resplendence and chronicles his art and career beautifully.

He also has a children's book out that he illustrated called The Duchess of Whimsy, written by his wife Randall de Sève. Randall's written two other kid's books, but this is the first time she and Peter have worked together.

We had a blast, as always, and outside of his having some fun with us too, Peter is a brilliant artist. A thinking man's artist, we like to say. And we need more of his kind out there doing it—that's for sure.

**Psst! He also has a tutorial DVD coming out through our friends at Massive Black—imagine that, gang!

Peter's Blog (that's right, blog)

Thanks for coming back for Part II of our tribute to Alex Toth. Alex was a giant in the comics and animation fields and deserves all the accolades we can give him. 

This second half features more audio from creators who either knew Alex personally or just loved his work from afar. They all speak honestly and straight from the heart, and it's really great stuff.

Also in the mix today is Toth's eldest son, Eric Toth. I contacted Eric through the TothFans.com site and he kindly agreed to join us and chat about his Dad.

Speaking of joining us, the official Roll Call for this one goes a little somethin' like this: Jim Amash, George Pratt, Michael Oeming, Toby Cypress, Steve Rude, Darwyn Cooke, Mark Chiarello and again, Alex's son Eric.

Our many, many thanks to all of these guys for participating in this tribute. It was a labor of love for us to work on and we had the best time! 

**We played lots and lots of terrific music between Parts I and II. Here are the performers and song titles in order of appearance: Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed (Alex's Theme), Glenn Miller's In the Mood, The Theme from Space Ghost, Colin Hay's I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You, Neil Young's Old Man, Dave Mason's We Just Disagree and Norah Jones' Peace. 

All of these, with the exception of the Space Ghost theme, are available for purchase on-line through Amazon and other music sites.

Hey All, Swain here. 

I'm pretty sure my first exposure to Alex Toth was during his Warren days. My father was a butcher for 35 years and worked for a grocery store chain in Chicago called Del Farms. I remember sitting in the isles at Del, on the floor, thumbing through Creepy and Eerie—and loving them. Maybe later, I picked up some Silver Age DC stuff by Alex. 

One I clearly recall was that Flash/Atom story from Action Comics where Flash gets tied down like Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels (...wow). After that, it was Hot Wheels, a 'war' story called Dirty Job and by the time I saw Death Flies the Haunted Sky, I was all in—my conversion was complete! 

Bravo for Adventure, Zorro and his animation work for TV shows like Johnny Quest and Super Friends, I didn't pick up on until way later.

In my late teens, I bought The Black Hood published by Red Circle because of their distinctive covers and guess who did them? Alex Toth. He also wrote and drew a back-up story in those books featuring this noirish character called The Fox—and it was EXCELLENT! 

Keep in mind, folks, at that point in the '80s, Alex must have been close to 60 years old. Still kicking ass like nobody's business! Quoting my friend, Mark Chiarello, Alex actually got better as he got older. He and Will Eisner both had some odd wiring in their DNAs that made them even more awesome as they aged (I know that's poor grammar, but it feels accurate). We should all hope for the same, by the way. 

When I proposed doing this tribute to Alex, Dwight and I didn't have a clue what it would turn into. Almost nobody we approached said no. Right away, it went from let's chat with a few creators—to let's do a two-parter. Apparently, I wasn't the only rude little kid sitting on the floor in the market reading comics and such. Thank God. 

The Roll Call for Part I of our celebration of the life and art of Alex Toth is as follows: John Hitchcock, Klaus Janson, Howard Chaykin, John Paul Leon, Tim Sale, Paul Pope and Rubén Procopio. All of these guys are either friends, fans or peers of Toth's—and in some cases all three. Either way, they were great for agreeing to take part in this. We thank them. 

Look for Part II of 'Bravo for Alex Toth' soon and we thank you all as well—for listening.

**Lots of people to acknowledge here, so grab a sandwich.

Mark Chiarello (O Captain), your greatness is only exceeded by your tiredness (ha)—many thanks, brother! TothFans.com for being such a great resource. Alex's son Eric for chatting with two art nerds he's never met before (Eric will be featured on Part II). Rubén Procopio for his candor, his help and his answering machine message—thank you, my friend. Paul Gravett of The Guardian (I shamelessly pillaged and personalized his Toth obit from June of 2006)—my apologies, but thank you, sir. Adrian Johnson for his enthusiasm and encouragement. And last, but most of all, my man Dwight, for supporting me on this 'vanity project'. Thanks, sibling!

Three guys, one moderator and a room full of blood thirsty fans—here's the tale of the tape! 

Matt Busch, the 'Rock Star of Illustration', has created licensed art for Star Wars, done design work for TV shows like Nash Bridges and NY Undercover, and directed films, too. He also hangs out with real live rock stars like Kid Rock and System of a Down. Okay, I'm jealous, how 'bout you?!

Jason Palmer is an illustrator of epic proportions (hey, he does illustrations for a lot of epics). He's known for his work on properties like Indiana Jones, Superman, Star Wars and Firefly. Jason also has his own line of sweet licensed merch that he sells through his website (see below). 

Randy Martinez is another cool guy and a great artist. He too rocks the Lucasfilm characters, but also keeps busy doing other stuff for Topps Trading Cards, Scholastic and Playroom Entertainment. Randy is a musician and songwriter, in addition to being an illustrator, and he does storyboards and sketchcards as well. 

Dwight sat down with these fellas at a Dragon*Con panel and got 'em to talk about everything: drawing, the business of art, their personal stories, the whole nine. A good time was had by all and we thank them immensely for their openness and candor.

Hope you enjoy! 

mattbusch.com 

jasonplamer.net

randymartinez.net

Mark Brooks gets mad fanboy love based on his dynamic charcaters and lush rendering style, kids. His resume is plastered with big selling titles (Dark Reign: Young Avengers, New X-men, Cable & Deadpool, Ultimate Spider-man). He's a comic artist and illustrator, but he also pokes his iron in a few other fires like sketchcards and the vinyl toy scene.

And just in time for Ess Dick (that's how you pronounce the acronym for San Diego Comic-Con), he and Brandstudio Press released a 48-page artbook of his stuff called Devilish. I think he and Alberto both had it available at the Con.

Mark is indeed a home town guy. He lives right here in Atlanta with his wife and son, and reps 'The A' very well. It was cool to hear him share some of his story.

Joining Brooks on the panel was another local creator, his friend, writer Paul Jenkins (Civil War: Front Line, Sentry, Mythos, Sidekick). He sat in with Mark and Dwight, and basically ended up interviewing Mark by himself. Good lookin' out, Paul.

Oh, and another thing. A raffle was held after the festivities ended by toy company, Sideshow Collectibles. The prize—a comiquette of Dagger from Cloak & Dagger that Mark himself designed exclusively for Sideshow. The winner—SOME DUDE WHO'S LAST NAME HAPPENED TO BE BROOKS.

**sniff, sniff** We smell a fix!

Anyways, big thanks to Mark, Paul, the panel attendees and Dragon*Con for the great time we had on this one.

Now, who should be next year's home town hero? Hmmm...

Mark's DeviantArt Page

Once again, my man Dwight brings something cool to the show. Nothing new, right?

About six months back, he stumbled across a soon-to-be-released movie called Surrogates and got intrigued. It was an action-thriller set in the future that dealt with robots and murder, so it was an easy sell (we're both big sci-fi heads).

After snooping a bit, he found out the film was based on a limited series comic that Top Shelf had put out in 2006. He also found out the writer of the series, Robert Venditti, was living right here in Atlanta.

Dwight shot me a link to the trailer—I kinda dug it. We both scooped up the trade, LOVED IT, and that began the hunt for Robert.

After some bush beating and a helping hand (thanks, Barron), we eventually found him and carved out a date to chat.

Our interview with Rob covers how he broke into the business working in the mailroom at Top Shelf, writing the comic and linking up with artist Brett Weldele and the wily beast that is Hollywood.

We also discuss how the idea for the story developed, the new sequel Flesh & Bone and some upcoming projects he's got simmering on the stove.

As to the film, Surrogates opens nationwide on Friday, September 25th. It stars Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames and Rosamund Pike with direction by Jonathan Mostow.

We wish Venditti, the movie and everyone involved the best with this project. The Surrogates explores some pretty provocative ideas way beyond the science fiction elements on the surface. We can't wait to see what they do with 'em on the big screen.

Rob's blog

I'm gonna refrain from referring to Jim "J.H." Williams III as J3reezy, although I did call him that once while talking to Dwight (oops). The man's artwork trancends such nonsense. Look at the design, look at the layout—look at the red! Lots of it!

But done for a reason, true believers. That's kind of Jim's thing—he's always trying to push the graphic nature in the art, while staying true to the story. Moving the narrative along, as he puts it.

We wanted to chat with him about more than just Detective Comics and Promethea, but alas, it didn't happen. Oh well, best laid plans of mice and men. Tons of process in there though and plenty on the new Absolute Promethea coming out this October.

Plus, Williams pulled back the curtain for us. Apparently, he's just as hard on himself as every other creator is (go figger). 

All in all, we got some sweet audio for you to check out. Jim gave us a bunch of his time and we 'preciate it totally. We're fans now more than ever.

Hope you dig it!

The J3 site

**On this episode, we clear up a rumor about Jim that's been going around for a while now. Always happy to embarrass ourselves in the name of truth (ha)!

We also played a snippet of Elvis Costello & The Attractions' Watching the Detective.

“If art is therapy,
if art is to inspire,
if art is a weapon,
if it is medicine used to heal soul wounds,
or if it makes one not feel alone in his or her visions,
or if it serves as transportation to a higher self,
then that is where I aspire to live everyday.”

- Rudy Gutierrez

You can't deny that some people just seem to be destined to do what it is they do. Call it providence, call it serendipity—what have you. Rudy, with all of his training and self-determination, is very much one of those people.

I (Dwight) have been a fan of his work for a long time, having been made aware of his skills as a Illustrator by a mutual friend, Jim Hamilton. Jim and I worked together years ago and he would talk about his days as an Art Director in NYC working with his talented friend, Rudy Gutierrez. So much so, it seems completely fortuitous that I finally got to meet him through this podcast!

Rudy's career and body of work commands much respect. Book covers, album covers, CD art, illustrations for periodicals and children's books. His paintings have appeared in galleries and shows, nationally and abroad. He's done 'performance art' in front of live audiences, Art on a Grand Scale and received awards from The Society of Illustrators. He's spent time as a teacher at schools like Parsons and his own Alma Mater, Pratt.

As a matter of fact, in his own brand of fortuitousness (is that a word?), he was commissioned to paint the cover to Santana's platinum selling Shaman CD, back in 2002. While the disc is only seven years old, the path to Rudy getting the opportunity to collaborate with one of his musical idols, started in his childhood (listen to the interview, you'll love the story).

The Shaman image ended up being featured not only on the CD, but later, several stories high on a billboard in Times Square. It was also displayed on a huge backdrop behind Carlos Santana himself during his performance at the '02 Super Bowl. It's one of Rudy's most noted contributions, as a painter, to the pop culture landscape.

We had the best time chatting with this man about life, love, spirit and art.

In the interview, he talks about his early days growing up in The Bronx, his first experience with art on a sidewalk scale (snicker...sorry) and working on staff in a commercial art studio before going freelance.

He also discusses the backstory behind him getting the Santana gig, his relationship with his agent, Richard Solomon and why he stays true to himself...always.

**For this episode, we played snippets of Santana's Black Magic Woman and Sideways ft. Citizen Cope, plus John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. I know, right? We have excellent taste!

Also, go here and here to buy two children's books recently illustrated by Rudy and click here to see a gallery of his amazing paintings.

Me (Swain), being the art hound that I am, I was aware of Michael long before he started appearing in the pages of DD (this is one of few times I can make that claim, so I'll revel in it). The guy has done some really great work, folks:

I've wanted to get Lark on SiDEBAR for a long time now, so this was very cool for me. Hope you dig!

SiDEBAR has gotten to know both of these guys pretty well over the last year or so. Rico, the colorist half of the duo, wrote us a complimentary note about the podcast and he and I (Swain) have been emailing each other ever since. We finally met in person and became buds at the 2008 Heroes Con.

Chris, we later found out, is a SCAD grad and the penciler/inker of the two. The images start with him, for the most part, and Rico's the guy who comes in and swoosh—puts the icing on the cake (or hangs the fuzzy dice on the mirror of Brunner's tricked out whip, as he puts it).

If you aren't familiar with these fellas already, consider this an introduction. One you'll appreciate.

Renzi is the regular color guy on The Perhapanauts, a book by Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau, pubbed by Image. He also put it down on Killing Girl with Toby Cypress and did some hot stuff over Nathan Fox recently for WIRED magazine.

Chris drew a killerrr run on Legends of The Dark Knight that I'll swear by, right here. He also penciled an incredible short story in a one-shot issue of The Ride series called Language Barrier. If you haven't read it, go get it now.

Seriously, I'm not kidding—now! It's that good!

Ron Marz wrote it, Rico did the 'zip effects'—and it's the sh*t! So much so, that the Kids feel like they have to outdo it with their upcoming creator-owned project, Loose Ends.

Loose Ends is a crime fiction tale penned by their friend, writer and artist Jason Latour, and it takes place in none other than the Dirty South. From what I can tell, it's full of Southern slang, guns, drugs, Daisy dukes and red clay (and maybe a mullet or two).

I have an ashcan demo of the book I got from them and it looks really sweet. Ends will be out from 12 Gauge Comics some time next year.

We stole Chris and Rico away from their tables at this year's Heroes Con and chopped it up in one of the convention center rooms. It was a lotta fun, not to mention, way over due. They both have been really supportive of the show and we've been fans of their's from the gate.

Look for Loose Ends when it hits, grab anything else you can find by the 'Kids' and thank us later. We promise you will.

Their blog

We never know what our conversations on this show are gonna turn out like. Some people are talkative, some not so much. The one thing we seem to be getting here lately though is genuine—and we love it. Greg Manchess was as genuine as they come, folks.

If you're a fan of illustration, you already know his name and what his career consists of. Tons upon tons of high profile clients, book covers, posters, magazine illustrations, concept work for film, children's books, awards and a U.S. postage stamp.

He's been everywhere and done everything, yet when we talked to him, he was resolute that he's still learning. Still on his journey.

Hard work was also his mantra in the interview. Manchess isn't a big believer in gifts and 'God-given' talent. Put some blood, sweat and tears into it and then he says, you'll have something.

In the exchange, we found out a couple things about him that we didn't know.

One, he's essentially a ninja (our words, not his—and we're not kidding).

And two, he says he's just now starting to create the kind of work he always wanted to—after 30 years of doing it. That's astounding!

Dwight and I walked away from this one much fuller and richer than we were when we sat down. Greg was warm, honest and open—and kinda Zen at times, too (his words, not ours). In preparation for the interview, Dwight picked up on the Zen part and he was dead on—Greg doth wax poetic.

We had an amazing time with the man and thank him much for coming on with us. He's originally from Kentucky and listening to him talk was like enjoying some Kentucky Bourbon on a warm, summer night.

Hmm, maybe next time...

Greg's Site

**Big thanks to ConceptArt.org and Greg's agent, Richard Solomon. They, along with artist Bryan Beus, have been putting us together with some truly awesome talent. We appreciate it, guys.

Picture provided by Irene Gallo.

At the VERY end of this episode, we played a snippet of Norah Jones' Painter Song. We too think 'painting your reverie' is a worthy pursuit.

Hey all, Swain here. I met George Pratt many moon ago at a Dragon Con here in Atlanta. Probably '94 or '95.

We're kidding, we'll be serious now.

We had never heard of Sal Abbinanti before checking out one of his appearances on Comic Geek Speak a few years ago. We laughed our asses off for sure and thought, who is this guy..?! Later we found out about Atomika, Mercury Comics, Buzz and everything else.

He told us in today's interview that the first time he went on CGS to promote Atomika, he didn't like how pretentious he sounded, so he came back and kept it real. He talked about everything under the sun and just had some fun. You know, like guys do.

Well, it worked and the rest is podcast history. Sal's sense of humor is infamous! If you have sensitive ears, this ain't the one for you—trust.

All that aside, we do think he's a decent guy, and Atomika is a comic worthy of your attention. The concept is extremely interesting, the hero's design is iconic beyond words, and Sal gets the best of the best in this business to do covers for him. For this blog entry, we've featured the most recent ones by Travis Charest, Darwyn Cooke and Glenn Fabry! 

Since indie titles do have to promote, promote, promote, we caught up with Abbinanti on the 'AtomikaisinPreviewsagainsoletsgetthewordout' Tour. He's been humpin'-to-please trying to let everybody know what and where the book is, and we ain't mad at him. We wish him well.

Not much serious talk inside, folks, but hey, it is what it is. Sal kept us in literal stitches, as he has many times before on CGS, so it's all good!

Atomika at Mercury Comics

A little theme music for those that couldn't be with us.

See ya next year!

~ S & D

Doing it all is a rare trait in American comics. Doing it all and doing it well is even rarer. And that's exactly how illustrator Josh Middleton has made a name for himself.

He started his career as a young artist back in the late '90s at CrossGen, the Tampa-based comic book publisher. He and a bunch of creators signed on for what looked like a bold new direction in the making of comics—and it was.

After relocating to Florida from Pennysylvania, Josh worked on their title Meridian and fans ate it up. But it wasn't long before things went South (pun intended), and he and others decided to part ways with the maverick company.

Post CrossGen, Josh pubbed a creator-owned project called Sky Between Branches with a European company, Com.X. The preview issue of the book, got the attention of Joe Quesada at Marvel and he asked Middleton to collaborate with him on a little something called NYX.

That book was, of course, a huge hit and from there Josh worked on Superman/Shazam First Thunder over at DC. He's also done a ton of covers over the last few years for titles like New Mutants, American Virgin, Vixen and Supergirl.

As implied earlier, this guy is somewhat of a white tiger. He's one of few comic artists living here in the States who handles all the art chores himself. Every bit. You tend to see more of that sort of thing in places like Europe, so it makes him a rare breed on this soil.

In the interview, we cover some background, the 'dark days in Tampa' (HIGH-larious), many of the projects mentioned above, and just why he decided to take the reins and do it all himself.

Plus, Josh gives us the inside scoop on his recent book cover illustrations for Tor and Scholastic, and tells some funny stories about his recent experiences in Hollywood.

Middleton's Site

Once again, we here at SiDEBAR must confess to being late to the party. We really just became acquainted with Brad Holland's work in the last three years or so. Well, actually for me (Swain), that's not accurate. You see, my father had a rather sizable Playboy collection and I used to sneak them out to ogle all the interesting artwork (never cared much for the articles). Anyway...

Brad's been a 'creator of images' (that's a nice safe title) for almost four decades now and he's still going strong. In our opinion, his career and contributions to the art community are marked by several events.

One, his work for the earlier referenced Playboy Magazine. A gig he got when he was in his 20's and his big break, some would say.

Two, his terrific pieces published on the Op-Ed page of the NY Times in the mid '70s. The page's editor was the late Harrison Salisbury, a noted author himself and Pulitzer Prize winner.

And three, his tireless efforts in the area of preserving creative copyrights for intellectual properties. Brad's one of the founding members of the Illustrators Partnership of America, and he's been a vocal opponent of things like the Orphan Works Bill from day one. 

Prolific is a word often given to describe Holland's output of art over the years, but it's horribly understating. A rough tally of his body of illustrations falls somewhere in the, ohh...7000 range! That's a good 'guestimate' from the man himself and a staggering one, to say the least.

Our talk with him ended up being everything we strive for in a podcast—interesting, funny, informative, honest and insightful. If you hear Dwight and I being curiously silent during the conversation (it doesn't happen often, so cherish it), it's because we were listening.

And absorbing. And digesting.

You see, Brad's an extremely well read guy and we didn't even wanna pretend we could hang. We decided to adopt a boxer's philosophy—we stayed on our toes, but stayed out of the way! After all, it's not often that these two art nerds get to hear a fella like Brad Holland tell his story. We didn't wanna miss a thing.

His Site

A great vid about Brad

The BBALM

**Our thanks to Brad for making some time to chat with us—it was surreal (he'll get that).

Also, many thanks to Jason Manley at ConceptArt.org, Richard Solomon and Bryan Beus for their help in facilitating his appearance on the show. It was invaluable.

Picture provided by Jonathan Twingley.

Tomm is an awesome artist I discovered last year on a fill-in issue of Moon Knight. I dug his work, did some googling and found out he's been doing his thing off and on since the early '90s. Well, kill the off 'cause it's definitely on now. His art on Marvel's new Daredevil Noir mini-series will turn some heads—and with good reason.

Knowing a little about the guy's backstory makes his work all the more interesting. Tomm got into comics at the tender age of 17, worked for several major publishers, made great money, lost his way, then left the business to find it.

Along his journey, he did storyboards for commercials, animated TV shows, movies like The Mummy and The Watcher, and music videos like Aaron Carter's 'How I Beat Shaq' (sadly, we forgot to ask him about that one).

After some years away, he was lured back to his first love in 2003 by Vertigo, to work on a vampire mini-series called Blood & Water. Blood introduced comic fans to a brand new Coker. Tomm's drawing had matured and become much stronger. He was spotting blacks like crazy and his images were grittier and more realistically rendered.

He followed that series up with things like The Monolith for DC, an issue of The Ride for 12-Gauge (sweet), and covers for Exiles and Agents of Atlas over at Marvel. It was all good!

And you can put his current project, Daredevil Noir, up there as well. Written by Alexander Irvine, Noir is a DD story told 'Elseworld' style with a serious crime fiction overtone. Issue #1 is out now and I'm feelin' it big time. Go pick it up!

Now, the other thing about Tomm that I haven't mentioned is, he's a movie director. He made a feature film back in 2007 called Catacombs with his friend, screenwriter David Elliot. It stars the lovely Shannyn Sossamon and pop singer Pink, and it's a horror picture of sorts, set under the streets of Paris.

Tomm rocked it for his directorial debut and while the movie's completion had its hurdles, it's definitely worth checking out (look for the director's cut).

We cover all of the above and more in our very candid talk with this Renaissance Man. Plus, he shares lots of cool stories about comics, art, filmmaking and just...life in general. Hope you enjoy!

**A special shout of thanks to David Elliott for his unplanned appearance on this episode.

For those who're unfamiliar with his work (all two of you), this is an excellent opportunity to hear from an artist's artist. A guy who's admirers include, not only comic fans and art collectors, but his peers as well.

We start this second half off discussing his killer line of comicquettes for Sideshow Collectibles, then ease into some Star Wars talk. Adam is a huge fan of the franchise and so is Dwight. I must confess to being slightly anemic on the subject, so I kept my mouth shut!

Anyway, those two mix it up like Luke and Vadar in Empire, only no one loses an arm (ha!).

After that, we get into topics like commissions and eBay flipping, Hughes' recent work for Playboy Magazine, and of course, the infamous 'All-Star' question.

Adam was the best and we thank him much for hanging out with us. He, like many of our other guests, was awesome to put up with me and Dwight's shenanigans!

Adam falls in a long line of illustrators who create exceptionally beautiful images of the fairer sex—Gil Elvgren, George Petty, Vargas, Dave Stevens. And we put him right up there with all those folks! The grace and expression he's able to capture in the female form is masterful. Not many artists see it...the way he sees it.

Dwight and I have known Adam in passing pretty much since he moved to Atlanta from New Jersey. He was one of the early members of a local art collective, Gaijin Studios and I believe, that's where I first met him.

I was visiting Gaijin (The Honeycomb Hideout) with a buddy back in 1994 and wandered into his space as if invited in.

"Hey, who's that?"

"Umm, Power Girl."

"Wow, you draw pretty good, man!"

"Umm...thanks."

**curious look on his face**

Later, after my 'genius' moment, I went out and bought his runs on Maze Agency, JLA, Legionaires and a pant load of covers (sorry about the visual).

Dwight says his conversion took place upon seeing Hughes' short, but sweet stint on Dark Horse's Ghost series.

About ten years ago, Adam stopped doing sequentials and became a cover artist exclusively. This wasn't by choice. Many of his clients began to only comission him for cover work. We, like the rest of his fans, started feenin' for more gorgeous interiors, but happily made due with his many Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Tomb Raider covers.

Now, one of the things that makes today's interview so special is, it's Part I of a II-Parter. We had a long, fruitful conversation with the man and lots of cool stuff came out of it, so we decided to break it in half.

The other thing is—he had us in stitches! Adam has a serious wit and he's quick with it, too! I'm sure many of his fans don't get to see that side of him, so brace yourselves. We had a blast hanging out with the guy and we hope you enjoy listening in!

Just Say AH!

He's a painter with a penchant for oils and he sights some pretty heavy weight influences: Norman Rockwell, Ilya Repin, Nicolai Fechin, Dean Cornwell, James Jean. We can't argue with his taste—at all!

Francis came to our attention like so many others do. People started singing his praises and his name began popping up everywhere. We visited his site and after snooping a bit, we too, joined the chorus! This young man has skill and vision beyond his years.

In our talk with him, he discusses his old stomping grounds in Detroit, his intense love of art and Hip Hop, a superstar teacher and mentor of his, George Pratt, and recent projects he's contributed to like Totoro and Microvisions.

Graduation is in May, but before he jumps right into the professional ranks, looks like Vallejo will be studying abroad for a while—in Saint-Petersburg, Russia at the Repin Academy (wow, do your thing, sir)!

We wish Francis the absolute best over in Saint-Pete and in all of his future endeavors. He's a cool kid who's star is certainly on the rise.

**For this episode, we played snippets of the following songs: Lupe Fiasco's Superstar, Dead Prez' Hip Hop, Eminem's Stan, Kanye West's Through the Wire, Beanie Siegel's Rock the Mic and Ch-Check It Out by The Beastie Boys.

(Hold up...we ARE doing it for free!) **stops to call his agent**

Well, I'm sure if food and shelter weren't such a looming factor, DC might be able to get Dustin Nguyen to draw Batman for free. Might! The guy has such a thing for that character and we ain't mad at him—he draws the hell out of some Batman!

He's been the regular artist on Detective Comics for a year now, alongside his faithful collaborators, writer Paul Dini and inker Derek Fridolfs. Those three have been putting it down on that book from day one and I for one, dig it!

I was a Dini fan from his awesome work in animation with Bruce Timm. And Derek and Dustin have been an art team going back to their early Jet days at Wildstorm.

A quick moment to gush, if I may. Nguyen's covers for Detective, especially the super-gorgeous watercolor ones he's been doing lately, are like whoa! We have a saying here down South that I must apply—"Dude put his foot in those damn covers!" Don't worry, it's a compliment.

In our chat with him, we discuss his beginnings in Georgia, before planting roots in California, the industrial design work he did prior to getting into comics, some fun times at Wildstorm Studios, and a few titles he's worked on like Wildcats 3.0 and Manifest Eternity.

Also covered is his new Batman series—Streets of Gotham, friends and mentors like Eric Canete, Sean Murphy and Jim Lee, and a couple of personal projects he's got cookin', too.

Never a dull moment hangin' with Mr. Dustin Nguyen. He's got energy for days and I for one, am jealous!

**And post-interview congrats to Dustin for Batman: Heart of Hush hitting #2 on the NY Times Best Sellers List for graphic novels.

We talked to Bob about coming on the show when we ran into him at the NYCC and had no idea how uncensored it would get. Not that he's all about the filthy language or anything (notice I said all). But colorful adjectives aside, he was very candid and very, very open about his life and career. The guy laid it out there.

Backing things up a bit, our connection to the man, of course, goes back to his stellar runs on Iron Man in the '80s with writer David Michelinie. I read those books as a 17 year old kid and loved 'em! Iron Man had everything I wanted in a comic—over the top fight scenes, cool characters, fun stories, drama! It was just the best!

Later on, I ended up checking out his Hercules mini-series and a few of the titles he worked on over at Valiant Comics. And I must admit to being a little less familiar with the Valiant stuff, as my fascination with girls at the time began to emerge (boo-yow).

After Stan Lee, Layton's name is probably the next one to pop up if you're talking about Iron Man. He and David's contributions to the character are indelible, and their "Demon in a Bottle" storyline truly broke new ground during the Bronze Age.

We get into all that in the interview with him and thankfully, a few more goodies too! Like his early days in Indianapolis, being an apprentice to the late Wally Wood, how he and Michelinie got the job working on Iron Man, and his persona back then as a flashy dresser (dude, looked like a straight pimp!).

He also shares a few fond memories from his Valiant days, describes his departure and return to comics, and tells us about all the stuff he's got comin' up.

This one was a hoot and indeed uncensored, but in Bob's own words, "I've always tried desperately to keep one foot in the real world."

Bob's Site

An artist friend of ours once referred to Tommy Lee as "Boss Player" and I guess we can we can see why. Even though the guy is way laid back and approachable, you can just tell he's got some cool stuff goin' on behind the scenes. And he does—trust! But more on that later...

I first got hip to Tommy back when he and Rick Veitch did that Question series for DC in 2005. His lines had all this crazy energy and charisma to 'em. I remember looking at those bold ass gestures and thinking, "Man, this guy has no fear!" Plus, he colored the book too, which also stood out to me.

We ended up meeting him and the rest of The BLVD Studio at a Heroes Con in Charlotte the next year. All super nice guys, by the way, and all major talents in their own rights.

After The Question, Edwards worked on Bullet Points, What If, covers for Daredevil, and 1985 with writer Mark Millar. All over at Marvel. As a matter of fact, most of his mainstream comic book work since '05 has been for Marvel. Hmm...

Beyond comics, his name is also a staple in the movie world. He's contributed to the style guides on a couple of films you may have heard of: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Men in Black II, Batman Begins and Superman Returns.

Not to mention, he's doing concept art for a Hughes Brothers picture that's in production right now. Here's a teaser for you—there's an Oscar-winner in the lead role who's a huge star. Now, that's what we call makin' moves!

We cover that project, his craft, Star Wars, conventions and comic shops, and everything else we could in the time we had with TLE. Hope you enjoy this special extended episode and we'll see ya next time!

TLE's Site

**For this one, we played snippets of the following: Will Smith's "Men In Black", Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California", Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It", "Duel of Fates" from Star Wars and Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild".

My first real connection with John Paul's art was at a Heroes Con back in 2006, I think. I had, of course, seen his epic work on Marvel's Earth X series, but up until then, was more a casual fan. That weekend, we met all the guys from The BLVD Studio and Dwight picked up their three sketchbooks (all of which are great, by the way).

Later that night, we attended the Art Auction which is always one of the high points of the convention. I'm standing in front of the original art display, floored by this one killer Wolverine piece, and I can tell this guy next to me is feelin' the same way (it was the hotness).

We go back and forth for a minute, then I look up and realize the guy is Tony Harris---the artist from Ex-Machina! Tony is pretty amazing himself and apparently, a big Leon fan (later that year, JP ended up doing an Ex-Mach Halloween special). You just never know... 

The man's vitals are these: he was born in NYC, but makes his home in Miami. He started working professionally at the age of 16 doing stuff for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons magazine. He graduated from SVA with a bachelors degree in fine art. He's a member of The BLVD Studio with four other exceptional artists---Sean Chen, Bernard Chang, Trevor Goring and Tommy Lee Edwards. He created licensing artwork for the mega-hit film Batman Begins and also contributed to the Superman Returns style guide.

And he rocked it on all of the following comic titles: Tom Strong, Wintermen, Midnighter, Scalped, both Ex-Machina specials and DMZ. 

I've been a staunch JP fan ever since that time in Charlotte (isn't it obvious?). In my almost never humble opinion, you'd be hard pressed to find a bolder, more dramatic storyteller working in comics today. Leon's approach is near-cinematic, to quote a friend of mine, and I can't front---I'm lovin' every frame of it.

Oh, and he's famous on YouTube, too!    

JP's Site

We're stoked that we finally got to speak to Joao (pronounced "Joo-whoa"). He's been on our radar as someone to check for for a good minute. I know I've been visiting his site for at least eight months---long before the Fables announcement was made.

To be perfectly honest, when we talked to Jon Foster way back when, I remember Dwight and me asking him about Ruas. We were thumbing through Spectrum 14, right before Jon's interview, and got curious if he knew Joao. Jon said he didn't, but agreed that the man's work was impressive. More SiDEBAR serendipity (whoopee!).

And not to glaze over the important stuff---yes, he is the new Fables cover artist. Yes, he's awesome. And yes, YES, we got the inside scoop on the road he traveled to get to this point.

We titled this one "introducing" for a reason. Even though Joao's done a few interviews in the last year, we feel especially proud to be his first podcast. We think an art literate show, such as ours, is the best place for fans to hear this hot new artist in his own words.

As to this blog entry---sorry folks, but we're not gonna reveal one single thing about him here. WE WANT YOU TO LISTEN IN! C'mon, now...

What we will give up is that he lives in Brazil, he's 28 years old, he's an excellent choice for the Vertigo gig---and that's all!

Oh yeah, and his English is about ten times better than our Portuguese. That part, I'm sure, is no surprise (ha).

Adeus!

**Two things: We wanna thank Pamela Mullin at DC Publicity for hooking us up with Joao---she really looked out!

Also, for this episode, we played "Hush" by Jellyfish and "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Jay-Z.

Joao's Site

It's always fun when you get to holler at a personal fav. A creator who, whether they're on a huge mainstream title or a smaller, lesser known one, you'd still buy their stuff anyway. 'Cause they're just that damn good!

Well, if you haven't had the pleasure, let me introduce you to one of my favs—Mr. Ryan Sook!

Ryan is an artist who's name comes up on all his peer's Top 5 lists. And they all say the same things about him. "He's a superb draftsman", "A beautiful renderer", "Ryan Sook has talent for sheezy". Okay, I added that last one, but I swear the others are quote, unquote!

I've been on Sook's trail ever since I discovered his Seven Soldiers: Zatanna run with Grant Morrison. From there, I hunted down X-Factor, The Spectre and Hawkman, plus his covers for Friday the 13th, Birds of Prey and Countdown.

While his most recent job is a short story in Final Crisis: Resist, most of Ryan's time is spent working in DC's Licensing Branch. He helps create the images that end up on a lot of their games and merch. As a matter of fact, he told us that over the last year of doing license work, he's had the good fortunate to ink the great Jose Luiz Garcia-Lopez—another DC licensing vet! How cool is that?!

In the interview, we get into how his career began, his past on titles like Zatanna and X-Factor, his approach to creating comic covers, and dealing with "moving deadlines".

We also chat him up about his Dad who's a graphic designer, his friendship with Mike Mignola and DC Art Director Mark Chiarello, and his brand new sketchbook Preliminati.

Ryan's Site

Our featured panelists were Paolo Rivera and Eric Canete, and you know both these dudes from Marvel's Mythos, Spiderman, The End League and Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin—so don't front! They were awesome to sit in and help D and I out, and we thank them profusely.

Speaking of profuse thanks, we need to direct some of that to a few other special people:

First up, Peter Tatara and Kim Mueller of the NYCC staff. Those two folks and everyone else at the show were extraordinarily nice to us and we thank 'em for having us.

Also, big ups to Madame Xanadu artist, Amy Reeder-Hadley and Haunted Tank writer, Frank Marraffino for stopping by and saying hello. Vertigo in the house!

And without a doubt, much love to Sarah Jane Sapang and Ron Salas, artists, friends and listeners of the podcast. They too were kind enough to come through and support us.

**Pic provided by comic writer and friend, Jon Tsuei—'preciate it, "Sway"! Snippet provided by Madonna.

It was bound to happen. The film is mere days away and we decided to sit down and chop up Moore and Gibbons' landmark series in the best way we knew how—by bringin' in some help!

We took it back to Titan Games & Comics, since we had so much fun there the last time, and joining us in the 'round:

Adrian J. aka Inazuma Tiger, a friend and up-and-coming artist who frequently posts on our message board. He was with us the first time we hung out at Titans.

Christian Sager, a local comic writer we've gotten to know over the last year. Sager has two creator-owned properties he's currently launching: Border Crossings and Partial Invasive. You can take a look at the former here.

And finally, Titans Store Manager and passionate comics fan, Mike Loewnau. I've known Mike for several years and figured he'd bring up some awesome points about the series (he did). Plus, he kindly let us crash his place again, so many thanks to him!

Actually, we wanna thank all three of these fellas for jumpin' in the fray with us and offering up their opinions. They rocked it!

**For this special Watchmen episode, we played snippets of Smashing Pumpkins' The End is the Beginning is the End.

JP's name has been comin' up on this show since literally day one. He's an accomplished artist and illustrator who's resume includes companies like Wizards of the Coast, Fantasy Flight Games, Bantam, Tor and Warner Books. Dwight got a chance to meet him at the ConceptArt Workshop in San Francisco, back in '05, and became an overnight fan. When he got back, D regaled me with tales of huge 3x5 foot canvases, live painting demos and lots of oohing and aahing!

Needless to say, it was only gonna be a matter of time before we reached out to JP and extended the offer of a podcast chat—and here we are.

While he has an extensive background in illustration, book covers to be precise, Targete's current title is Art Director at Ignition Florida. His job, he tells us, is to set the look and tone of a video game, then guide the visuals through all the various stages to completion. Outside of his AD position at Ignition, JP says he still picks up freelance gigs, but laments that there's only so much time in the day to get it all done (we feel you, sir).

Also covered in our conversation is his relationship with his Dad, who's an architect, JP's days painting romance book covers (Fabio!), some stories about the life of an illustrator, and a description of the term he calls "Dark Fantasy".

Our thanks to the man for takin' a minute to hang out with us. We had an excellent time!

**Another thank you goes out to our buddy, Chuck Harper, for submitting some questions for JP through our message board. Go, Chuck!

J.P.'s Site

A month or so ago, we took a page out of the CGS playbook and set up a call-in event for listeners and forum members. It turned out awesome and we got to hear from many of the "voices" on our msg board for the very first time.

Also, a few people who regularly check out the show that we've never heard from, hit us up as well. It was the coolest!

We're gonna try and do it at least twice a year, but for this inaugural event, we wanna say thanks to everyone who gave us a shout—Mpol, lightbombmike, Jake Ekiss, MarkCalifornia, Chuck, Charlie, Steve E. Wonders, Inazuma Tiger, ChrisCandide and Musashi! 'Preciate you all much!

**For this episode, we played several snippets of music randomly and for your pleasure: "Request Line" by Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three, "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, "Pick It Up" by Poison Clan and "Hello" by Lionel Ritchie.

Also, big apologies for being so late with getting this out. Life reared its ugly head...

...then let me take a bite! That was MJ back in the day before his...umm...troubles.

The New York Comic Con was a sold out success (yeah, that's right, SOLD OUT) and Dwight and I, as your two resident art nerds, are happy to have been a part of it. We owe all of our participation to our friend, artist Paolo Rivera, and also to Peter Tatara and Kim Mueller of the NYCC staff. Everyone working for the show was awesome, gracious and helpful as all get out.

We moderated a panel called The Do's and Dont's of Being a Comics Professional which, by the way, turned out beautifully. Very well attended, lots of good information imparted and we didn't come off like complete idiots (notice I said complete).

Our panelists were, of course, Paolo and also another friend, Eric Canete, who from now on shall be referred to as "Our Hero". Our Hero stepped in at the last minute, joined Paolo as a speaker, and they both rocked the house with their insight and honesty. The crowd asked a ton of questions and those two guys did their thing. We thank them much...

To hear a quickie audio recap of the weekend's events (a B-side, if you will), click here. To check out our flickr set from the Con, click here. Otherwise, we again wanna thank the NYCC for having us and we're lookin' forward to next year—and Chi-town (ya-yuhh)!

"Change in life is inevitable. My advice to you—embrace it and move on." - R. Hardy

Man, what a statement of truth that is. For some, probably a painful one. For artist, Jason Shawn Alexander, change has served him and his art, pretty damn well.

We first became acquainted with my man's work through rather odd and circuitous means. Dwight bought the Dark Horse mini-series, The Secret, just because he dug the covers. Me, well I was a big Gotham Central fan, scooped up the two issues Jason did with Ed Brubaker, and thought, "Hmm, nice, but who's this dude?" Three months ago, a forum member named MarkCalifornia posted a link to Jason's blog on the board, raving about the teaser images from his upcoming Dead Irons book.

And most recently, I stumbled across his official website through a series of links, went nuts going through his gallery goodness, then realized he was the same guy from all of the above. We're so sharp here at the 'Bar...

The fast-forwarded version of JSA's bio goes like this: born in Iowa, raised in Tennessee and self-pubbed after high school before doing Empty Zone at Sirius Entertainment. Moved to North Carolina, hung out with George Pratt and Kent Williams, took up traditional painting and he's been extra awesome ever since! Oh yeah, and he now lives in Los Angeles.

To be serious for a minute (not Sirius), we used the word evolution in the title 'cause that's what truly transpired along Jason's journey. His growth and maturity from his younger days is absolutely undeniable and it was moving to hear him speak honestly about his desire to just be more.

Dwight and I chatted with him from his LA studio about all of the above and well, everything else in between. It's a pretty full conversation and definitely gives you some insight into the mind of one Jason Shawn Alexander.

Be warned though, once inside—there's an awful lot of single malt Scotch (ha)!

Forum member and friend, Inazuma Tiger (a.k.a. Adrian), is an Atlanta resident like us and Dwight and I hit him up to join us for a little roundtable chit-chat. He used to work for a local comic shop called The Comic Company and many of the geeks in our circle used to frequent that fine establishment. It was a fun place and Dick Schwartz, the man who owned and operated it, was a good guy. Dick has since retired, closed Comic Company, and somehow, someway we ran into Adrian several years later—on our msg board! How's that for serendipity!

So who knows? Maybe the whole comic shop connection explains why the three of us ended up meeting at Titan Games & Comics in Duluth, GA. I've been a Titan customer since I was sixteen, have a pretty good rapport with all the managers (Chuck and Mike especially) and gave 'em a call to see what the haps. Beth was there that day, said no problemo, as long as she could be out the door by 7PM. We said cool and it was on!

Our conversation took place right by the front door of the store, but surprisingly, it wasn't that noisy. Eric was there too helping Beth run things, and he and she both jump in from time to time.

We nerded out for about 90 minutes that night and had an awesome time doing it! Many thanks to Beth and Eric for graciously allowing us to hang out. Titan is great and if you're ever in their neck of the woods—spend lots of money!

You know his work and you love it! All those covers for Rush City, Batman and Scalped. His interior pages for The Losers, Faker and Green Arrow: Year One. His early stuff on Judge Dredd and Lenny Zero. You love it all and if you say you don't—it's 'cause you haven't seen 'em yet (ha)!

Jock, like a lot of European artists working in mainstream American comics, is kicking much ass and taking names. His style is so gritty and edgey, his compositions so well staged—he can't help but stand out from the crowd. You won't find too many artists today making better use of negative space than he does.

My first exposure to his art was in the Green Arrow series mentioned above, a book he did with his frequent collaborator, Andy Diggle. I must admit, after one look, I was hooked and immediately went out and grabbed, ohh...EVERYTHING ELSE HE'S DONE! And I haven't looked back!

Dwight and I caught up with the Scottish-born artist at his studio in Totnes, England and tried to get him to spill the beans about everything. Turns out, there were no beans to spill! He's just a regular guy, who's the coolest of the cool, and he's got crazy skills behind the drawing board (works for us).

In our chat, we find out how he got the nickname Jock, how he ended up as the cover artist on Jason Aaron's Scalped and some inside scoop on the progress of The Losers movie, which is in production. He also tells us about his new Hellblazer graphic novel, his taste in movies (bad '70s horror flix) and we toss in a few famous names for good measure: actor and director, Peter Berg and talented pop singer, Christina Aguilera.

OK, so maybe there were a few beans.

**For this episode, we played a snippet of Beck's "Loser" in honor of Jock and Andy's project going to the big screen.

Jock's Site

We wrote about this event back in the fall of 2008 and word has it, it was a big success. In light of that news, we thought it would be cool to have one of the founders on, Pat Wilshire, to discuss the show's inaugural year and future plans. Pat and his wife Jeannie seem to have started something really special in their hometown of Altoona, PA, and we're super excited that he took some time out to talk with us.

As we mentioned in that other blog post, IlluXCon was designed to be more of an illustration "symposium", not a convention. The goal, as Pat describes it, was to create an intimate mingling bewteen artists, students, collectors and anyone else with a desire to learn about and celebrate, art. Membership (yes, that's right) would be limited to maximize the one on one time for not only the attendees, but also for the guests. This is the kinda show where an artist who wants to hear a lecture from a peer, can get up from their table—and go hear it! Kinda neat!

Last year's guest list, well—it was a doozie! Boris Valejo, Julie Bell, Stephen Hickman, John Jude Palencar, Ian Miller, Dave Dorman, Justin Sweet, Michael Whelan and Greg Hildebrandt were some of the stellar names that were on-site that November weekend. And from what we hear, most of 'em will be returning in 2009.

In the interview with Pat, he gives us the lowdown on his background as an original art collector with The llustration Exchange, why he and Jeannie started IlluXCon, some of the challenges they had making it happen, and how bright the days ahead look like for this awesome event.

**For the first episode of the New Year, we played a snippet U2's kick ass song!

IlluXCon Site

Let's see, what can we tell you about our friend, Frank Stockton? He lives in NYC, although he was born in California. He's a recent art school grad, but already has a huge list of high-profile clients. He just moved into his new place in Greenwich Village and he's friends with the equally amazing James Jean and Jillian Tamaki. Oh yeah, and he was sick as a dog the night Obama won (you'll have to hear him tell that story).

I found Frank's site like I find many sites—trolling the Internet in the wee hours (kinda like I'm doing right now). He wrote an entry called "Growing Pains" that was linked on Drawn!, and it was all about inspiration and influences. Not just creative influences, but people who've influenced his perspective on the business of art as well (Charles Schultz, Walt Disney, Todd McFarlane). I immediately loved his work and found his words to be thoughtful and honest—so it was on! After a few polite back and forths, Frank kindly agreed to come on and chat with Dwight and I.

In the interview, he talks about his background, attending Art Center in Passadena, comic books, his competitive nature, sex museums (yeah, you heard me), the election results and the eternal debate: art vs. commerce.

And just to set the record straight, to us, he's the one and only Frank Stockton. It seems he comes from a long line of Stocktons and one of them wrote the famous short story, "The Lady, or the Tiger?". Go figger!

**For this episode with Frank, we played snippets of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" and "I Wanna Sex You Up" by the aptly named, Color Me Badd.

Welcome back for Part II with writer and illustrator Mark Schultz—the man from PA!

This time Mark, Dwight and I are joined in the interview by our friend and forum member, Atomic 99...sort of. We posted a note on the SiDEBAR msg board about Mark's upcoming appearance, and 99 dropped a bunch of hot questions for him. So today, in spirit, he holds down the forth mic!

Topics covered in this second half are: black & white vs. color, writing prose for Flash: Stop Motion, rewriting scripts for Lucasfilm, art agents or the lack thereof, web presence (...or the lack thereof), "Hey guys, I can't hear you anymore!", Storms at Sea, Various Drawings #4 and small towns in rural Pennsylvania.

There's more than that in this here podcast, but you'll have to tune in to hear it!

Our sincerest thanks to Mark for chatting with us so long and being so gracious. Also, it would behoove you to pick up Storms and VD #4 when they come out—Mr. Schultz NEVER disappoints!

**For this episode, we played a snippet of Jamie Cullum's All at Sea, and for two reasons: in honor of Mark's new project and us still being all over the place!

The tagline for this episode isn't just a bunch of innocent hyperbole. We started off with some very creator-appropriate questions for our interview with writer and artist Mark Schultz—and ended up throwing 'em out the window! Once we got on the phone with him, the three of us connected, the "Conversation Muse" took over, and let's just say we happily followed its lead!

Don't get us wrong, there's tons of insight in there about the man. His opinions on music, art, comics, storytelling, capitolism, life—they're all present. We just didn't take the road most traveled to get to them. Call it, the scenic route—how 'bout that?

In all seriousness, Mark does confirm much of what you've probably heard about him. He's a brilliant and astute creator, talented beyond belief, a gentleman, and a genuinely fun guy to chat with. We ended up keeping things very informal and down-to-earth, and that we think, makes it all the more revealing.

Two of Mr. Schultz's current projects did however get official coverage in the upcoming Part II. The first being his soon-to-be released illustrated novella, Storms at Sea. The second, another Various Drawings book. This one will be number four in the series (yes!) and both will be pubbed by his longtime publisher and friend, John Flesk.

Below is an image from Storms and at a glance, it looks a little like Key Largo, with a healthy dose of sci-fi thrown in for good measure. Not sure if that's what it is, but either way, we wait impatently for it.

**As implied above, this is only Part I with Mark, so look for Part II in a few days.

I first started trading emails with Mark Behm (pronounced like "beam") after seeing his artbook, Nightwork, advertised on the Brandstudio Press website. The excerpts from it were amazing, so I started looking around for an official site on the artist. Lo and behold, there was one—and a blog!

I visited a few times and eventually sent a note, which is how Mark and I became Internet-acquainted. The funny thing was, he mentioned in one of our exchanges that he was already a listener to SiDEBAR, and really enjoyed the show. Needless to say, I was thrown—that doesn't happen often! Sitting in a basement, speaking into a microphone to somebody on the telephone...well. After a while, you start feeling like you're the only one who knows you're doing it!

Anyway, back to our guest. As I said earlier, Mark's an amazing artist and versatile as all get out. His blog is rife with gorgeous painted images, character designs, 3D stuff and some kick-ass life drawing studies. He feels like he's interested in a few too many things, but Dwight and I, of course, love the variety! You get to see something different every time you drop by his site.

Behm just recently left his gig at Dreamworks and made the switch to Valve, a video game company out of Washington state. But if you're curious about his filmwork past, he was a part of the creative teams that brought you Madagascar 2, Shrek the Third, Robots and The Ant Bully. In the interview, he pulls back the curtain on Mad 2 and gives us a little peek into the challenges of working on a huge, animation project.

We also talk a good bit about his dad who was an artist as well, growing up loving Star Wars, DrawerGeeks! and how you've got to make time to do your own stuff—even if it's at night.

Check Mark out at his sketchblog and pick up a copy of Nightwork too!

Nathan Massengill is a friend of ours and it's been a long time coming getting him on the show.  We met him at the first Atlanta Comics Expo back in 2007, and consider ourselves fortunate to have done so.  The three of us struck up a conversation at an ACE after party and I think we were all shocked—it wasn't the same old party chit-chat!  Nathan dropped some serious knowledge on Dwight and I that evening and I guess we haven't stopped talking since.

While he's an excellent all-around artist and painter (folks, he can paint), Nathan's professional weapons of choice are usually pen and brush. Inking, I'm sure, allows him the time to be on many more projects than full art chores ever would.  You can witness his mighty brushwork on a ton of titles too: Wonder Girl, Indiana Jones, Marvel Adventures, Batman, Deadpool, Tellos, Vampirella Strikes...

And let us not forget, NAM (his nickname) recently joined the art team that brings you JSA every month—pencils by Dale Eaglesham and covers by Alex Ross!

For the interview, we convened at Casa de Massengill, grabbed some chips and dip, looked at some original artwork and just had a good time.  The conversation includes a lot of Nathan's musings on the comics industry as a whole, the craft of inking and what he thinks is the future for his chosen profession.  We also chat him up about his background, his time as a student at the Joe Kubert School of Art and his interactions with legendary names like Joe Kubert and Neal Adams.

People, believe us when we say, the title of this episode is no joke.  The talented Mr. Massengill is an extremely observant guy and he has a real gift for communicating.  Click here to read his FAQs on inking (awesome!) and click below to hear the man himself speak.

**The Robin & Crew image was drawn by the late Mike Wieringo and inked by Nathan.  The annataZ piece however...is all Nathan. He sent it out as his X-mas card last year (ho, ho, ho)!

NAM's Place

Of course, it's not literally shrinking (is it?).  But the idea being younger readers and just plain old new readers are needed to breathe some life into "this thing of ours".  The median age for the average person reading comics keeps going up and getting more decrepit—and that ain't good!  In order for things to stay interesting and relevant, we need new eyeballs and fresh ideas. Not the same gimmicks and events.

What can the publishers do? What can fans do? What can anyone do to address the problem?  This subject has, of course, been discussed in other places, by people more informed than we are, but we thought we'd weigh in on it too.  You won't find any real answers here (whaaat?), but it sure as hell was fun to chat about!

**For this episode, we played a snippet of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "My Friends"—because that's what you are (smile).

As an actor, Phil is versatile. He can do dramatic things like Law & Order and CSI, but still show great comedic timing for Seinfeld and Wanda at Large. He's quick to flex his geek muscles for stuff like Star Trek: Voyager and of course, Smallville. Plus, he's one hell of a voice actor on cartoons like The Secret Saturdays, Legion of Super Heroes and The PJs!

So, when I met him on the floor of Dragon Con, our hometown convention, I didn't know what to expect. What I got in those ten minutes we chatted though, was a little of everything mentioned above. He was warm, approachable, funny, genuine—and a real fan too! Naturally, I asked him about coming on SiDEBAR, he said "absolutely, I'd love to", and told me how to get in touch with his agent. I was on the phone with said agent two days later and here we are.

Our conversation with Morris covered much about his career, including noted roles as attorney Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld and J'onn J'onzz a.k.a. the Martian Manhunter on Smallville (that's the correct spelling of J'onn's name, by the way). We also talked about his voice acting work, his enormous comic collection (100,000 of 'em—who knew?) and some family stuff. Phil's sister Iona Morris is a terrific actor and so was his dad, the late Greg Morris. Greg set the bar way high as Barney Collier on the original Mission Impossible TV show and was one of the first black male leads on prime time.

Going back to Phil's versatility, he's also writing a book about African-American images in the Action/Adventure genres entitled BAW-BAM (Black Action Woman-Black Action Man). And he'll be appearing on-line in a hilarious new web series starring the Sklar Brothers called Back on Topps. Go here to laugh your butt off at the pilot!

Our thanks to the actor for coming on the show and sharing with us. As geeks, we definitely look forward to more of his appearances on Smallville and just plain old more! Hey Phil...much respect.

**For this episode, we played a snippet of Sly & The Family Stone's "Family Affair"—'cause it is!

OK, don't let this guy fool you. Yes, he's talented. Yes, he's a kick-ass concept artist. And yes, he's quite humble about all of those things. But he's tellin' tales out of school when he says he's not funny—that's a lie! In his bio, he confesses to having done stand-up before and we're not surprised. He was a hoot and we had the best time with him! Alright, on to more serious matters...

Cloverfield and the upcoming Avatar, Watchmen, Star Trek, Tron and Piranha 3-D all have one thing in common—concept designer and artist, Neville Page. Neville is another in a long line of talented folks my bud Dwight keeps finding and bringing to the SiDEBAR mics. And I'm not mad at him for doing so! Most people don't know who the designers are on films (or anything else for that matter) because designers almost never get the spotlight. Almost. Today, that's gonna change, especially for one Mr. Page.

I won't spoil much here about his background 'cause frankly, it's too interesting. You definitely need to listen to the show though to get the fullness therein (trust!). Let's just say his life as a regular guy—was hardly regular! He was born in Great Britain, grew up in Chicago, moved to California as a teen, and spent a few years pursuing a whole other career in the entertainment biz (OK, I can't hold back...go here).

After a few years of waiting tables, Neville realized this other career pursuit wasn't working out and enrolled at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. It was there he met his best friend and future business partner, Scott Robertson. They struck a bond and after graduation, started a consultancy firm together. They also started teaching at Art Center and both still do to this day.

Our interview with this guy is full of laughs and mad cool stories. I mean, stuff like being in the Swiss Riviera and discovering a school for girls right down the road. Getting off the phone with James Cameron while driving to a meeting in Hollywood about Cloverfield. Names like J. J. Abrams, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana and Ralph McQuarrie popping up everywhere. And let's not forget the lovely Zoe Saldana (...sorry, I couldn't resist).

We wanna thank Neville for bringing not only his perspective and insights to the show, but also his good humor. He was awesome!

**The title of this interview is a reference to all those pesky Non-Disclosure Agreements (bah!). And in honor of Neville's R&B past, we played some of DeBarge's "I Like It".

Love is a great word to apply to our conversation with Cathy and Arnie Fenner, the dynamic duo that brings you Spectrum. Here's why. We love Spectrum. Cathy and Arnie love doing the series. We loved talking to them about doing it. They, we're quite sure, love each other! We could go on and on with this brilliance, but the real point to be made is—they love art. A lot. And their passion and commitment to it will once again be shared with all in the latest installment of Spectrum—15!

When the Fenners first got the idea to do the book back in the early '90s, there wasn't a very high esteem for fantastic art and illustration. One might even say a fantasy artist was the bastard child of the art family. And that's a real shame. Think about how much great art in the past was never given its due because some snooty art director or editor didn't like fairies and magic. Oh well, it's clear lots of people like 'em now (see: Harry Potter, see: Lord of the Rings, see: Pirates of the Caribbean, see...).

Over the years, the Spectrum books have gotten bigger, the categories more varied and the content more spectacular! I think it's fair to say Spectrum is "the" place to showcase your work if you wanna be amongst the best. And the cool part about that is, anyone can get in. Well...provided the jury selects you. But the goal of the series is to feature the work first, not your resume. Be ye novice or seasoned pro, everyone can submit. Of course, the cream will always rise to the top, as they say.

In our conversation with 'em, we also touch on the Fenners background and some of their other ventures. They've put together books on some of the greatest artists of our time—Frank Frazetta, Robert McGinnis, Jeff Jones, Jon Foster. The work in progress we're waiting impatiently for is Brush with Passion, a tome dedicated to the life and work of the late Dave Stevens. I believe this one was started before Dave died and I'm sure it'll be a poignant punctuation on his stellar career. What an awesome artist...

To quote a good friend of ours, "Cathy and Arnie are some of my favorite peeps". Dwight and I couldn't agree more. They were warm, friendly, informative, funny and excited. Excited about art and illustration and all of the wonder there in. We count ourselves fortunate to have had them on the show, and also, to have them as new friends.

Thanks, folks—here's to next year and 16!

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/

The title of this interview is a reference to the man's first appearance on the show last year—an episode we lost! The audio crashed, the back-up was never found, it was ugly... But hey, today we've been given a second chance at greatness and greatness we deliver!

Ragnar is not only one of our favorite creators, he's also one of our favorite people. A wonderfully knowledgeable guy, a student of his craft, a committed family man and often seen wearing...what? The colors in his palette! Do tell! Plus, he's just a super nice guy. His response to the aforementioned lost episode was, "No worries, I understand completely" (and just so you know, we were worried as hell).

To us, as long as Steranko and Prince aren't in the room, he's the coolest guy around with one name. We met him in person for the first time at this year's ACE and for the convention, he brought with him a mucho smaller version of his Comic-Con set-up. It was all really quite neat. Books, prints, mugs, chimps, skate decks—again, just neat stuff. He sat in on about three panels that weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed his presence as a guest.

Now, the work. Ragnar's done tons of work in animation, but will tell you himself that a good bit of it, you may never see. His clients over the years have included companies like Warner Bros, Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. However, with the nature of animation and the film business in general, projects often start off one way and end up somewhere else by the time they finally come out. And that's especially true for Development, which is the area he's contributed to the most.

What you can see though and plenty of it, are his own creations! Books like Chromaphile, Vernaculis, Kings of the Road and the newly released Symptomatica! All of them fantastic and all get the high SiDEBAR Seal-of-Approval (which means dick, but go buy 'em anyway, they're hot)!

Our conversation stays pretty loose with Ragnar since we all sorta know each other, but we do get to some key items. Big City being one, Symptomatica being another, and the latters being his upcoming all-ages book and where he got his name. Beyond that, the rest is just filler—but it's some damn good filler (ha)!

**For this episode, we played a snippet of Dead Kennedys "California Uber Alles" in honor of Dwight's timely reference.

http://www.littlecartoons.com/

http://symptomatica.blogspot.com/

Artist. Writer. Illustrator. Painter. Legend.

All of these in their own way describe Bernie Wrightson and his esteem amongst fandom and the art community at large. Not many artists have had the kind of impact and influence that he's had over the last 35 years. Friends of his like Mike Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith or Jeff Jones can maybe relate, but that's probably about it.

Bernie was in our fair city recently as a guest of Dragon Con and spent his Labor Day weekend greeting fans, selling prints, signing things, and being an all-around wonderful guest. For me, even though he was super kind and gracious, it was still a little hard to not be intimidated. I started to think about, ohh...Swamp Thing and those incredible House of Mystery covers. Or The Studio and dare I say it—Frankenstein! I mean, c'mon...this was the first guy to draw Batman with the long ears, for Pete's sake! That's enough to bring the nervous fanboy out of anyone...

Mrs. Wrightson (Liz we were told to call her) was our facilitator with the man and she too was just as nice as could be. Trust when I say, Bernie had droves of people lining up at his tables, but Liz still managed to carve out some time for the three of us to sit down. And for that, Dwight and I are grateful.

Our chat was relatively short (for us, that is), but chocked full of interesting stories and tidbits. We realize Bernie gets asked to do things all the time and tried to honor the few minutes we had to spend with him. After all, he's given us so much over the years through his fantastic art and stories. And you know what? He's still givin'. 

Thanks, Bernie!

http://www.wrightsonart.com/

Labor Day came and went, and once again Dragon Con held the biggest party downtown Atlanta has ever seen. Just like in previous years, it left in its wake a great time had by all 35,000 attendees and some awesome convention audio for us (yaaay)!

Dwight and I did panel moderating at the big show and we're stoked to be able to bring one of 'em to you now. It's all about traditional painters and features some really cool guys. Here's the Tale of the Tape:

JEFF PRESTON - Illustrator, designer, educator and banjo player. The subject matter in Jeff's commercial work has often been an eclectic mix of classic horror, fantasy and religious imagery. At his busiest, he's painted over 300 illustrations in a single year, many of those for Christian groups. Preston's a proud member of The Society of Illustrators and his painting of Uncle Creepy, a character made famous by Warren Publishing in the mid '60s, will be showcased in the new Spectrum 15—due out in October.

BRIAN STELFREEZE- Painter, illustrator, comic artist and wearer of hats. Brian makes his home right here in Atlanta where he co-founded his base, Gaijin Studios. Shadow of the Bat, Domino, Fallen Angel and many a 12 Gauge comic have been adorned with his images, and he too is a molder of young minds. He teaches a workshop in watercolor painting in conjunction with a life drawing class Gaijin offers every Tuesday and Thursday night. Brian is also the art director for the aforementioned 12 Gauge Comics.

JOE JUSKO - Painter, illustrator and former NY cop (listen to the podcast, he'll tell you). Joe is a New York City native and sold his first cover painting to Heavy Metal Magazine at the tender age of 17. His spectacular run as the cover artist for The Savage Sword of Conan is well chronicled and he's worked for almost every major publisher of comics, fantasy and science fiction. Joe's the winner of many awards including the Wizard Fan Award, the Golden Lion and the Chesley. He too is a member of The Society of Illustrators.

MARK TEXIERA - Painter, illustrator, comic artist and not a wearer of shoes..! Known to many as Tex, Mark is also a New Yorker and attended the famous Art & Design High School, and eventually SVA. He worked for Neal Adams' Continuity Associates during the '80s handling art chores on the book Megalith and doing commercial assignments for companies like Salem and Marlboro. Tex's own clients over the years have included New York Magazine, Scholastic Books, Def Jam Records, Marvel, DC and Wizards of the Coast.

Well, that's about it, folks, pound for pound a terrific group of panelists! Our thanks to Dragon Con for having us and to the guests and attendees for hangin' out. 'Twas much fun and we hope you too enjoy!

If you've never seen The Death of Captain Marvel, go get a copy. If you've never read an Adam Warlock story, go read one. And if you've never heard of Vanth Dreadstar...well, you're about to!

All three are great and all are the handiwork of one Jim Starlin, a writer and artist who's career goes back to the late '70s and is still going strong. Jim's been called the guy who put the space in space opera and with good reason—he does it and does it very well, thank you (see: Rann-Thanagar Holy War currently from DC)!

Starlin came into popularity back in the day while drawing Captain Marvel for Marvel Comics. He eventually ended up writing the book as well, including Mar-vel's death in 1982. Also to his credit, he reinterpreted a rather undefined Lee/Kirby charcater named Warlock (formally "Him"), created Vanth Dreadstar and the Metamorphosis Odyssey for Epic and explained to the world how the hell Nick Fury stays so young looking after all these years!

If you go to Jim's Wikipedia page , it also mentions things like Batman A Death in the Family which featured the demise of the second Robin, Death of the New Gods, all the Infinity books and tons more.

Dwight and I have always loved his work and consider Starlin to be one of the preeminent writer/artists of his generation. During the '80s, he and guys like Howard Chaykin, Mike Grell and Matt Wagner rocked at both disciplines and it made for some fun and smart comics.

In our conversation, we get into as many nooks and crannies as time will allow. We cover how he started writing comics in the first place, the creation of Thanos and Mongol, his view of the industry after 30 years and a few more goodies.

http://www.starlin.com/

OK, how's that for a rallying call?

Bobby Chiu (pronounced "Choo") has been referred to as the new Walt Disney by some and that may not be much of an exaggeration. He's full of...well, imagination, has vision for days and does seem to embody Walt's whole philosophy of moving forward. In just a short few years, he's graduated from the ranks of hired artist, and gone on to CEO and Educator. And he's still a pretty young dude (whoa)!

Dwight was an admirer of Chiu's work from afar, while I had only seen a few things here and there. That is, until we ran into Bobby and artist Kei Acedera at this year's Heroes Con in Charlotte. They had an exhibitor booth set up for Imaginism Studios, their home base, and had mad lines all weekend. A listener and friend of the show named Chuck Harper prompted me to go by and check 'em out, and I was blown away! All their books and prints featured these really cool and interesting looking characters—it was all that!

Later that night, at the hotel bar, Bobby came over to Dwight, myself, Chuck and his buddy Beau, and chatted with us for like two hours—solid! Didn't really know us from Adam, but felt our enthusiasm and joined in with his own. The next day, I went back by their booth to thank him and he and Kei kindly gave me a copy of their sketchbook, Water Worlds.

As people go, Bob is the exact right mix of talent and complete lack of pretension. He's as regular a guy as you'll find, but obviously has an immense gift.

Speaking of gifts! His gift recently put him on a fantastic Hollywood project with a very famous director, and he talks about it early in the interview. We also get into Schoolism, the whole subway sketching phenomenon and some of his philosophies about drawing and life.

So relax, breathe deep, exhale yourself some Chiuism—and be prepared to be converted!

http://www.imaginismstudios.com/

Of course, this is going up a little late, but hey, we tried. Actually, there was a freak accident with some mylar bags we won't go into here...

Dragon Con is indeed the big show for the Southeast and truth be told, it's the second largest pop culture convention in the country. The craziness goes down every year on Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, GA and draws in about 30,000 frenzied fans of all kinds. Comics, fantasy, sci-fi, Star Wars, Star Trek, actors, animation, anime, games, toys, costumes, clothing, pop art, vinyl—you name it, it's there!

Thom Trainor is our good buddy and he's the Comics Director for the show. We thought it'd be cool to bring him on and chat up this year's D*C, and maybe talk a bit about 2009 as well. Our conversation with him ended up being a short one, but I think we covered a lot of the bases and got a few laughs out of it too.

One aside, Thom couldn't mention during the interview some of the names lined up for next year, but we can give you a few of 'em now—Mike Mignola, Darwyn Cooke, Humberto Ramos and Dan Brereton! Pretty sweet!

http://www.dragoncon.org/

Andrew Robinson creates great art. Period. We've known it for a while now and we think you should, too. Just take a look at his beautiful covers for Starman and Hawkman, or check out the cowboy-noir storytelling in his own book, Dusty Star. Clearly greatness abounds in the guy's work.

The question that's always boggled my mind though (and I'm an easy boggler)—is why can't I see more? I love everything he puts out, but I'm greedy. Why can't I get a monthly book and covers? Hell, some trading cards and a yearly art book?! Hmm...

In our interview with Andrew, we get a clue as to why he doesn't always do more. Or at least, a partial clue. It's not because he doesn't want to, that would be silly. And it's not because he's slow, although he openly admits to having missed a deadline or two. I won't divulge the clue here, but you'll know it when you hear it. And the worst part about it for me was, after hearing it—I was frustrated more! In a perfect world, all my favorite creators, like Robinson, would be left alone to do what they do best...create. And they'd be well paid for doing so (ahh, what a world that would be—naivete, I love you)!

In the last 15 years, my man Andrew has worked for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, Upper Deck, Wizards of the Coast and more. He created Dusty Star (his baby), started a fine art career out in California and recently took the leap into music. That's right, he's written some lyrics for a band project called Space Junkies (Hey, Suki).

I kinda hesitate to use the word phenom (although I just did), but the guy draws like Bridgeman, paints like Loomis, tells stories like De Palma and always leaves you wanting more. And more is what I want—dammit!

I kid. From where I sit, you don't have to look far to see the greatness in Andrew Robinson's work. Just open your eyes, it's right there.

http://www.nextexitproductions.net/index.html

http://www.nextexitcomics.blogspot.com/

We started to title this "Keeping Up with the Jones", but thought better of it...

Back in 1988, artist Kelley Jones got people's attention when he started doing Deadman stories in Action Comics Weekly. The way he interpreted the character was completely different from how he'd been done in the past. It was quite odd at the time.

Up until then, Neal Adams' version was considered the most popular, but even Neal's was still fairly conventional. Kelley took Deadman and drew him all skeletal and emaciated—turned in on himself, he likes to call it. It was a brave experiment that absolutely worked. Fans (and editors) began clamouring for more as they realized they had something and someone, special on their hands.

Jones went on to shake things up on Neil Gaiman's Sandman, another Deadman project with Mike Baron ("Love After Death") and many a Batman graphic novel with his long-time collaborator Doug Moench. Oh yeah, and let's not forget the man's three year stint doing the monthly Batman series with Moench and inker John Beatty (over 36 issues in a row, I believe).

In our talk with Lil' Kel, we cover all of the above, his passion for the comics medium, some talented friends like Sam Keith, Marshall Rogers and Steve Niles, and of course his recent return to Batman with Niles on Gotham After Midnight.

Before we go though, allow Dwight and I to end things with something cryptic. There's a special reunion that takes place on this one, but you'll have to tune in to find out what that is! It's worth it, we promise. Embarrassing as hell, but worth it!

**For this episode, we played a snippet of Peter Gabriel's Red Rain in honor of Kelley's first Batman project with Doug.

Some people are born to do it all. Or at least it seems that way! They can do so many things well, it comes off more like destiny than determination. Artist and illustrator Stephan Martiniere is certainly perceived to be one of those people. In his 25 year career, he's had his hand in nearly everything—animation, illustration, comics, TV, film and he's currently the Creative Visual Director for Midway Games Chicago. So you can add video games to his resume too (yeah, yeah, I know that's not exactly everything, but it's damn close).

Our introduction to this uber-talent's work came through very familiar channels. We're Spectrum guys and Stephan's work has been featured in the anthology several years in a row now. All of it awesome and most of it from his book covers for Tor Books (good lookin' out, Ms. Gallo). When you see the man's images, brace yourself, because you'll lose your mind—seriously! His dazzling city and spacescapes, and his far off worlds are so fantastic yet so familiar all at the same time. It may indeed be science fiction, but man, does it feel real to geeks like us!

Speaking of real, the accolades he's received from industry peers is absolutely real. Spectrum, Hugo, Thea, Chesley and many others have all honored Martiniere over the years with awards for his artistic excellence. They all know he's the mack man. And we do too, for that matter! That's why we shot him an email asking him to slum a bit by coming on the show for an interview. He accepted the invitation saying something about "never having done a podcast before and it might be fun." [Note to audience: We have no proof, but we suspect ours may be his last podcast—so listen in while you can!]

The conversation with him covers much, but just like the intro to this text, not everything. Dwight and I thought we had the best chance of not embarrassing ourselves by keeping it simple. So we got some stories from Stephan's art school days, a little concept design and illustration talk in there, nerded out on video games for a minute, and ended it with the good stuff. What is the good stuff, you ask? Hmm..? Well, you'll have to tune in and find out, now won't you?

**For this episode with the gentleman artist, we played a snippet of Sting's Send Your Love. The lyric about sending your love into the distant dawn just seemed so appropriate. [Also, as is my luck (Swain), I was very sick while recording this and you can hear me gently hacking in the background—my apologies!]

http://www.martiniere.com/

One of the people we looked forward to meeting and talking with at this year's Heroes Con was artist Guy Davis. Guy has been on our radar since the early 90's when he was penciling Vertigo's Sandman Mystery Theatre, and continues to be with his work on BPRD for Dark Horse. We can't help it—we tend to like guys (pun intended) who handle darker subject matters well, and he definitely does.

With a style that focuses on storytelling, mood and feel, Guy's able to convey a lot in his stories with his deceptively simple line work. To quote his friend George Pratt, "Everyone he applies his pen to breathes, and the hardness of life shows on their faces and in the slump of their shoulders. They're real people". We couldn't agree more.

Guy has been holding it down on BPRD for a few years now with the book's creator, Mike Mignola and writer John Arcudi. And hey, you have to give him credit—any artist with the guts (or balls) to jump on a bunch of characters designed by Mignola himself, must have the goods. Mike is renowned for his graphic style and beautifully bizarre images, and Davis picks up the ball running every month and scores—big time!

Hailing from the great state of Michigan, we talk a little about his roots with Arrow Comics, Caliber Comics and his first creator-owned book Baker Street, co-written with Gary Reed. We also get into his collaboration with Matt Wagner on Sandman Mystery Theatre, his current BPRD arc "The Warning", and a hint about the next installment in Guy's own book, The Marquis from Oni Press. As a matter of fact, there may be some Marquis news announced at San Diego, but don't tell anyone we told you.

Our thanks to Guy for chatting with us and being....well, such a good guy (pun intended...again!).

**For this epsiode, we played a snippet of Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street for obvious reasons.

http://www.guydavisartworks.com/

When we started SiDEBAR back in 2007, it was just me and Dwight sitting around talking...together...no guests. Somewhere along the way we got some convention interviews, then a couple of really great local artists and friends came on with us, Dexter Vines and Brian Stelfreeze. We've known both of 'em a good while and they were mad cool to holler at us.

Finally, we ended up on the doorstep of one Mr. Shane Glines, another awfully nice and talented individual. He was our very first phone interview and we've pretty much been on the phone ever since.

Well, as life often dictates, there are times when you need to go back to basics. Back to the neighborhood. We've always wanted the show to be a clubhouse for us and listeners and guests to hang out and talk comics, art, TV, movies, big boy books, whatever. So here we go...

This was a conversation we recorded at Dwight's crib and it begins with some painter talk, goes into a short commentary on the new Hulk movie and Wanted (Dwight had just seen both—on the same day), and kinda ends up with me trashing the last three Star Wars movies. As you'll hear, I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan in the world and he absolutely is. It's all fairly innocent and hopefully entertaining, so try not to be bored to tears (I said try).

And fear not, 'Nation—more interviews to come!

**On this episode, we played snippets of two songs: The Producers' Back to Basics and I Against I by Massive Attack ft. Mos Def.

Since his first appearance in Tales of Suspense back in 1963, Iron Man has always been a big fan favorite. His initial success was always credited to the creative team that originally launched him—Stan Lee, Don Heck and Larry Lieber. With the recent release of the hit Marvel Studios motion picture, we think a few more names will forever be attached to this character—director Jon Favreau, actor Robert Downey, Jr, and talented artist and designer Adi Granov.

Once Adi got his hands on ol' Shellhead, the look of the hero and the sales of his comics were never the same—in the best way! Adi's redesigns made Iron Man's armor sleek, functional, tech-savvy and just plain kick-ass! So much so, that Jon Favreau eventually brought him on with the design team for the film, to make Iron Man really come off for the big screen (thank you, Jon!).

We became fans of Granov's art like the rest of the...well, fanboys. In 2004, as a cover artist, he put his special magic on many a Marvel character and fandom lost its mind! Nova, She-Hulk, FF, New Avengers, Inhumans and the Silver Surfer were just a few of the titles that year to recieve "Granovision". In '05, his covers and interiors for the Extremis series with collaborator Warren Ellis were a slam dunk. We thought "Hey, this guy is bringing the funk!" 

We chatted with the Bosnian-born artist at his home in the U.K. and got the skinny on his background working for Nintendo, his adventures at the 2007 Comic Con and being a big fish in the gargantuan pond of Hollywood.

**In the interview, Adi mentions meeting the great special effects wizard, Stan Winston, who passed away after this was recorded. We too are big fans of Stan's work and are saddened by his passing. He was a real pioneer and visionary, and he will be missed.

http://www.adigranov.net/news.php

There's an old saying about youth being wasted on the young that's so true, it's scary. Just ask artist, Eric Canete, he'll tell you. The reference to rebirth in the title of his interview should give you a clue as to where he's been, and also—where he's going.

Eric got his professional start working in animation when he was just a 17 year old kid, not even out of high school yet. He did "ghost work" for a guy on shows like X-Men and EXO Squad, and eventually got a regular in-house gig on Phantom 2040. When 2040 ended, he got an offer from Peter Chung in San Fransisco to come up and work on a little show called Aeon Flux. You may have heard of it...

While he was fortunate enough to get started young, Canete says his early days were not without their stumbling blocks. The Cliff Notes version of his past could go like this: he worked in animation for a while, left under pretty bad circumstances for his first love—comics, had a good time in comics, but really wasn't prepared for that world either, and finally got back to animation with hopes of rebuilding his reputation. And rebuild it he did!

Since 2002, E's done storyboards, backgrounds and designs for shows like He-Man, Justice League, Teen Titans, The Batman and Legion of Super-Heroes. His full-time day job is with Cartoon Network on the re-launched Ben 10 and he still does the occasional awesome comic book job at night. Check out his Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin series for Marvel with those funky, art deco covers (the hotness!). And after Comic Con, be on the lookout for Eric's upcoming run on The End League for Dark Horse with writer Rick Remender (more hotness!).

This L.A. native's story is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. One, he went back and repaired bridges that he himself burned. Not everyone does that. And two, he's had the support of many a superstar mentor and cheerleader along the way. Names like Peter Chung, Dustin Nguyen, Bruce Timm, Dave Johnson, Mark Chiarello, Skottie Young and Glen Murakami popped up often during the conversation.

In addition to all of the above, Dwight and I also get some insights into Eric's approach to storytelling, the origin behind his blog Discard, and the 4-1-1 on how he started doing those glorious 90 minute sketches of his.

Here's to a cool interview with an even cooler person—thanks, E!

http://kahnehteh.blogspot.com/

Greetings, mystery lovers, and welcome back for Act II with writer and artist, Matt Wagner!

As the curtain goes up, we find our hero, Matt, still in a perilous stand-off with The Diabolical Siblings! Watch and listen, as he's coerced into confess his love of pulp and traditional flavor, his lack of love for too much continuity and a few secrets from his Sandman Mystery Theatre days.

"Herr Wagner, vee haff vays off makink you taaalk!"

He also lays out for the villianous duo the tale of Comico's demise and how it ended up affecting his ownership of Grendel. Plus a funny, but touching story about collaborating with one of his heroes—the late, great Harvey Kurtzman.

OK, that was cheesy enough, but all in good fun. Many thanks to Matt for coming on with us today and being such a cool guest!

Take a bow, Matt!

http://www.mattwagnercomics.com/

We've had a lot of guests on this show over these last 18 months and they've all been pretty great. Every once in a while though, it's a real treat for us to chat with one who has undeniable gravitas. With a career spanning over 25 years in the comics biz, Matt Wagner joined us on the esteemed SiDEBAR microphones and brought just that!

Where do you really start with a guy like Matt? Mage, Grendel, Batman, The Demon, Sandman Mystery Theatre—it's all good. Let's just say we jumped in at the deep end with the guy and did our best to keep heads above water.

He's the quintessential writer and artist in our opinion, from the very beginning, establishing himself with creator-owned projects (he's not new to this, boys and girls). His start with Comico is well chronicled, so we won't go into it here. His present and his past work with DC are also equally well known. Currently, he has two irons in the fire—Zorro for Dynamite Comics, in stores now, and Vertigo's upcoming Madame Xanadu, due out June 25th. Plus, he's in the midst of a Grendel run for Dark Horse, that started late last year to commemorate the character's own 25th anniversary (damn Matt, slow down!).

As mentioned above, Wagner is a man of many talents and he rocks at all of 'em. As a writer, it's terrific seeing him collaborate with great artists like Francesco Francavilla on Zorro and Amy Hadley on Madame Xanadu. As both the artist and writer, it's even more exciting watching him get back to Grendel and Hunter Rose after a 10 year hiatus from the series.

We had a great time talking with Matt and he was nice enough to put up with our nonsense. Do yourselves a favor and check out his many projects wherever you can find 'em—they really are all good. And look for his appearance at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, June 20-22. The Con has a terrific guest list this year and by far, he's one of their heavy hitters!

**This is only Part I with Matt and for it, we played a snippet of Santana's incendiary Black Magic Woman. In honor of Matt's new...umm, madame.

http://www.mattwagnercomics.com/

Back in April, we were joined on the show by exciting, young newcomer to mainstream comics, artist Amy Reeder Hadley. She's collaborating with critically acclaimed writer and artist himself, Matt Wagner, on Vertigo's upcoming Madame Xanadu re-launch. This native Coloradoan graciously took some time out one sunny afternoon to chat with us.

Amy got her professional start in comics by winning Tokyopop's "Rising Stars in Manga" competition in 2002. Shortly thereafter, she wrote and drew an OEL manga series for them called Fool's Gold. Gold is the story of an artsy high school student named Penny and her social revolution against jerky boys and conformity.

Hadley's editor on the book, Brandon Montclare, eventually left Tokyopop and took a job up at DC working with Bob Schreck. When Scheck moved over to Vertigo and the Madame Xanadu opportunity arose, Brandon reached out to his former T'pop creator. The rest is...well, you know.

Our conversation with Amy covers much of the above and a whole lot more, so do check it out. She's a super person with a very different story to tell.

Oh yeah, and she can SING too!

Madame Xanadu hits stores June 25th.

**For this episode, we played a small portion of Ryan Adams' Amy for obvious reasons.

http://www.tentopet.com/

We're back and this is Part II with our buddy, comic artist, Skottie Young. Still awesome, still unrestrained and still all over the place, this conversation was a blast (...sorry)! We hope you have as much fun listening in as we did running our mouths—enjoy!

** For Part II with Skottie, we played a snippet of David Ryan Harris' Change 'cause it is good for you.

http://skottieyoung.blogspot.com/

Let me start by saying Dwight and I have friends, we have buddies and we have acquaintances in this here industry. But there are some people who, over the last year, have become much more like family to us. Mr. Skottie Young is one of them.

And he's not just family, we're also big fans of the guy's work too. He's an incredible artist with an edgy and raw style, and he wraps it up nicely in this great design sense. Allow me to steal a quote about him that I read on-line once. The blogger said "Skottie's work, like that of Katie Cook's, impresses me because of the obvious fun that he has while drawing. It's in everything he does". I tend to agree. I don't get the feeling he labors over his artwork like so much "render porn", but instead, tries to have a good time with it. Go look at his run on New X-Men or any of his covers—you'll see it.

And quite honestly, I thought dude's covers were crazy good before I even knew who he was. Being a fan of other podcasts, when he joined my beloved Around Comics as a regular, I was like "Who the..?" Then I checked out his site and was like "Oh." Then when I saw he was responsible for the Cable & Deadpool covers I'd been secretly digging, I was like "Oh, damn!"

We met Skottie exactly a year ago at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC. We gave him a business card on a humbug, told him how much we liked AC and asked him to check out our podcast. He was polite and gracious enough, and that was that. After the Con, I emailed him and asked him again to listen in when he had time—he finally did. Since then, he's sent us a dozen or so very nice notes about our show, telling us how much he likes it and offering his help in any way. There's usually cursing involved too, but we got used to that...

Oh yeah, and he told everybody he knew to check us out! We got more emails and comments than a little bit from people who said Skottie Young told them about SiDEBAR. And that crossed the line for Dwight and I. We couldn't go back to just friends or acquaintances or even fellow podcasters with the guy at that point. For us, it's been family and brothers ever since—and that's the way we'll keep it.

**This is only Part I with Skottie 2 Hottie, and for it, we played a snippet of Public Enemy's Brothers Gonna Work It Out.

http://skottieyoung.blogspot.com/

The Method Man graphic novel come out July 23rd from Grand Central Publishing and for our friend, artist Sanford Greene, it marks the next step in the evolution of his career. Fresh off of DC's Wonder Girl mini-series, he sat down with us and talked about his latest effort and the whole experience of working on it.

We met Sanford at last year's Dragon Con and after grabbing a copy of his beautiful sketchbook, Deadlines 2, we knew we wanted to have him on the show. His covers and interiors on Batman Strikes for the Johnny DC imprint were awesome and we started checking for Wonder Girl as soon as we heard he was the penciler.

Being influenced by guys in and out of comics, Greene's style definitely showcases his love of animation. He recently had the pleasure of finding out that animators Bruce Timm and James Tucker, of Batman and Justice League fame, are both fans of his work too. 

The front end of our conversation details the funny series of events that lead to Sanford collaborating with hip-hop superstar, Method Man and writer, David Atchison on this new project. Later, we cover some of his background growing up in Charleston, SC, a few valuable lessons he's learned along the way and a hint at what his future holds.

**On this episode of the show, we played Jah Freedom's Give Up 'cause Sanford has his own theme music—just like Shaft!

http://www.sanfordgreene.com/

Dark Horse Comics is set to release Indiana Jones and The Tomb of the Gods in late June, one month after The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes to theaters. Writer Rob Williams and artist Steve Scott were chosen as the creative team for Dark Horse's first handling of the new license—and it looks like they've chosen well!

We've known Steve Scott for about a year now since the very first Atlanta Comics Expo back in 2007. After meeting him at the Con, we went back and took a look at some of his terrific past work. His skillful hand can be seen on books like Razor, New Warriors, Shadowpact, Creeper and Legends of the Dark Knight. Plus, currently on Marvel Adventures, episodes of the hit TV show, Smallville and of course, the upcoming Indy series.

Chatting with Steve in passing, two things stand out about him—he prides himself on good storytelling and he works harder than your average to meet all of his deadlines. Sometimes surviving on only three hours of sleep or staying up for 48 hours straight. Or even buying coffee by the keg (OK, we're exaggerating on that last part, but you get it).

At any rate, there's a reason why Steve's pal, inker Nathan Massengill, refers to him as the night walker and the day walker. We're just happy the guy had an hour to spare to talk with us period.

Our conversation with Scott covers his early days growing up in Gulf Port and Biloxi, Mississippi, his first exposure to comics, breaking into the biz by way of firefighting, and his exodus and return to comics after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. He also tells us about he and his wife Sharon's adventures on The Dr. Phil Show (yes, that Dr. Phil) and how he's recently gotten to know comics great, Gene Colan.

Steve's a true Southern gentleman and a heck of an artist, and it was a pleasure speaking with him.

Indiana Jones and The Tomb of the Gods hits comic shops everywhere June 25th—go check him out!

http://stevescott.deviantart.com/

http://acosmicodyssey.com/

Marko Djurdjevic finally visited the esteemed SiDEBAR mics and it was all that with leftovers. Of course, like anything else worth having, it was not without a cost. Let us back up...

When we started this show over a year ago, the very first podcast we made, praised and extolled the virtues of The Dreaded Marko (mispronouncing his last name, of course). We also used one of his X-Men First Class covers for the blog entry featuring his daring redesigns. I've (Swain) been enamored with the guy's style since he started doing covers exclusively for Marvel. Dwight's been a fan since he met him at the Concept Art Workshop in San Francisco back in 2005—wearing a beautiful hand-painted Elektra jacket, no less.

The super abbreviated version of Marko's path is this: he was born in Germany, started drawing, got work at 17, posted on Concept Art.Org in his early twenties, and took the world by storm minutes later. With a few...umm, embellishments on our part, that pretty much sums it up.

Check out the guy's handiwork and you'll be convinced like we were. X-Men First Class, Daredevil, Blade, Super Villain Team-Up, Marvel Illustrated, Wolverine Origins, Thunderbolts, Mystic Arcana, What If—the list literally goes on and on. Plus, tons of design stuff on Concept Art and they're all badass and all immaculately rendered by Mr. Djurdjevic. This man is the truth and YOU know it.

He recently made the excursion into doing interior pencils for the new Thor series written by J. Michael Straczynski and the book is a solid hit. He was filling in for the talented Olivier Coipel and just knocked it out.

OK, back to the cost. We tried several times in the past to reach the man, but to no avail. And all jokes aside, it wasn't him, it was us, going through the wrong channels (duuhh). Finally, after getting the accurate contact info straight from the source at the NY Comic Con (all thanks to the FANTASTICALLY TALENTED AND GRACIOUS, PAOLO RIVERA—PAINTER EXTRAORDINAIRE HIMSELF), we made it happen. 

Throw in three calling cards, six redials and bad sound coming out of Dwight's microphone, and you've got yourself one nice little Marko Djurdjevic interview. And we loved every minute of it!

**For this episode with Marko, we played a small portion of Depeche Mode's I Feel You, because we do!

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved." - Helen Keller

These are inspiring words from the great Helen Keller. We thought they rang especially true in the wake of our conversation with artist and art visionary, Jason Manley. His journey has not been without its obstacles, but talent, perseverance and the help and support of his friends has brought him far. And he's gonna go much farther.

We first heard about Jason like everyone else did, through his affiliation with Concept Art.Org and Massive Black. He's not only a co-founder of both companies, but also serves as their President.

Concept Art was started six years ago by Manley and two of his friends, artists Andrew Jones and Coro Kaufman. The three of them met and became buddies in their early twenties and kept in touch via the Internet. Creatively, there was a mutual respect and the interest to work and learn together—that's really how the ball got rolling. Jason got the idea of setting up a site where they could all share their projects and ideas, meet new artists, exchange information and the thing just took off from there. To date, there are 110,000 plus artists signed on as members of the CA community, posting over 1,000,000 images.

As time went on, acclaimed film artists, Chris Hatala and Pete Konig joined the group and they formed their second company, Massive Black Inc.  After spending time learning from each other and sharing previous art school and industry production experiences, they agreed that working together professionally, under their own banner, was their next step. A couple of partners came and went and the team eventually settled in nicely with the addition of Executive Producer, Melissa Lee and 3D Director, Dan Staton. 

Started on a meager $6000 budget, Massive Black is now one of the highest profile art studios in the entertainment industry—doing work for advertising, games, toys, comics, TV and film. It offers a full line of services to its clients: green light pitch development, concept design, storyboards, illustration, rigging, animation, textures, 3D modeling, product co-development and IP creation. Since the company's inception, they've completed over 175 projects for over 125 major companies working in the field—including 18 of the top 20 video game publishers. The MB teams are located in San Francisco, Shanghai and Bangkok.

While Concept Art.Org is a non-profit educational institution serving the international community and local students at the Concept Art Atelier, Massive Black is certainly its professional and practical other side. The two companies are essentially independent, yet supportive brothers when it comes to the world of art.

We caught up with Jason in Austin, TX right in the middle of a big move and talked about all of the above and a lot more. We also get into the terrific workshops they started doing around the world and some future plans for both companies.

Oh yeah, and Jason's over the whole "not doing art" thing, so watch out!

http://www.conceptart.org/

http://massiveblack.com/

The road to our conversation with the uber-talented James Jean was indeed a long one, but it was worth the wait. We contacted him some time ago through his site, http://www.jamesjean.com/, and got a polite response back that while he was interested in chatting, he was simply too busy. However...he would be in Atlanta in February visiting the Savannah College of Art and Design, and maybe we could do some podcasting then. Sounded like a plan!

We stayed on top of it for a couple of months, got his cell number before he left Cali (Thanks, Gary) and showed up Thursday night for the start of SCAD-Atlanta's Comics & Illustration Forum. That evening, James and artists Yuko Shimizu, Andrew Robinson and Eric Canete sat in the round with about 150 people and shared their stories and professional insights. Dwight and I had a great time and afterwards, much schmoozing was had.

The next day at noon, we met up with the man at SCAD and had a wonderful talk about his career and background, his time as a student at SVA, Fables and of course, art. We also touched on his participation in the West coast art event, Baby Tattooville and his upcoming 2009 gallery show in NYC.

And yes, James does love art. And art history. And jazz. And pizza too (he eventually got sustenance from Rick Lovell, one of the event's organizers).

The interview ran just under an hour and we couldn't have been happier with the outcome. Many thanks to SCAD for bringing these amazing artists to our city—it was terrific meeting them all. And a special shout of thanks to the "fairly reclusive Mr. Jean" for squeezing us into his hectic schedule—it was like that.

**This episode of the show features a snippet of CocoRosie's Rainbowarrior in honor of life in the Brew.

http://www.processrecess.com/

This is the last of our ACE panel audio and it's entitled, The Wonder of It All, unleashing imagination with a personal touch. It was all about expressing something different by reaching down inside yourself and these three panelists are certainly qualified to speak on that subject.

First up is Mike Kunkel, an artist, writer and animator who's done work for companies like Sony, Disney, Universal and Pixar. Mike also runs his own company, The Astonish Factory, where he produces all ages books like The Land of Sokmunster and his Eisner award-winning Herobear and the Kid. Herobear is the story of a boy named Tyler and his pet polar bear, and the lessons they learn on their journey together.

Kunkel's been a champion of kid-friendly reading for some time now and he's well known for his mantra, "Remember your childhood...and pass it on".

Next in line is Andy Runton. Andy is an Atlanta native and the writer and artist behind his own award-winning creation, Owly. Owly tells the tale of a lonely, yet friendly little owl who many say could be Runton's alter-ego. Published by Top Shelf, Owly won an Ignatz award in 2006 for Best New Series and an Eisner for Best Publication for a Younger Audience. Double honors and well deserved!

Andy works full-time on his graphic novels and every year he produces a new chapter in this wonderful little bird's adventures.

Then there's our good friend, artist, writer and character designer, Ragnar. Brandon Ragnar Johnson has an extensive background in animation like Mike and he too has some great all ages books you can find through Baby Tattoo Publishing. Got Your Nose and Izzy's Very Important Job are two special projects he created and dedicated to two of his children (a third is in the works now for his youngest son).

Back in '06, Ragnar wrote and drew a love letter to his time of traveling abroad called Kings of the Road. Celebrating if you will, hobo culture, Kings is a beautifully crafted book for older audiences.

The discussion in this one is pretty open and honest, and offers some real encouragement to creators who may be thinking of telling their story. And like all the other panels at ACE, it was a lotta fun for us to be a part of. Our thanks once again to the guests, attendees and promoters of the Atlanta Comics Expo for putting up with us—we had a blast, you guys!

http://www.theastonishfactory.com/ 

http://www.andyrunton.com/

http://www.littlecartoons.com/

What's up and welcome back for more with artist and illustrator, Celia Calle. This is Part II of a lengthy, but hilarious talk we had with her and it's chocked full of artsy goodness!

In the conversation, Celia covers: going from fashion to illustration, life drawing class, being cruel to your schoolmates, ADs vs. Editors, Will Dennis and the SDCC, AMERICAN VIRGIN AND THOSE AWESOME COVERS, her opinion of the series in general, criticism of her palette, people jacking her images, more Wuthering Heights, "Why is there no book of your art available..?!", kissing Storm Troopers, why Darth Vader is hot (...he is?), the NYCC and more.

Again, it was awesome having Miss Calle on the show and we can't wait to do it again—hope you dig it too!

**On this episode, we played a snippet of The Kills' What New York Used to Be 'cause it's in heavy rotation in the Circle.

http://celiacalle.com/

http://cofcircles.blogspot.com/

Have you ever met someone who was exactly what you thought they'd be, only better? Well, that's just where we found ourselves on the roller coaster ride that was our interview with illustrator, Celia Calle.

For months, we've been blown away by her American Virgin covers for Vertigo and her unique and individual style. We think comics is always best served by creative people bringing other elements into the medium and stirring up the mix. Celia does that ten fold!

For those of you just being introduced to her work through AV...trust, she's really a big deal in the commercial art world with clients like ESPN Magazine, Calvin Klein, Nike and Gautier. Of course, you'd never know that by talking to her, she's much too chill a person to brag. Minutes into our conversation, we were smitten by her down-to-earth charm and humor, and she was our new best friend. Celia's personality is a lot like her art—playful, energetic and well, kinda sexy. But with that, she's also warm, thoughtful and has a real sincerity that comes from the heart. She's the best of many worlds, we suppose.

As is our way, we went off the rails a bit just having some fun (there's maybe 25 minutes of hardcore art talk in the whole interview). But fear not, true believers, you can always go to CC's site and blog for the full skinny on this NY girl and what she's up to. Plus, this is only Part I of our talk with her, so hey—stay tuned!

**Celia's interview features a small portion of Portishead's Strangers 'cause that's how we started out. Now, it's friends.

http://www.celiacalle.com/

http://cofcircles.blogspot.com/

Hey All, welcome back for Part V of our ACE panel audio, this time featuring writer, artist, animator and storyteller, Mike Kunkel. Mike's well known for his Eisner award-winning creation, Herobear and the Kid, but what you may not know is he's also the publisher for Herobear as well. 

His company, The Astonish Factory, was established in 1999 to serve as an umbrella for all of his projects. No matter what the medium—comics, books, toys, TV or film, Astonish will usher those properties into the marketplace. That way Mike can stay hands on with every aspect of the process and nothing gets lost in translation.

In the panel, Kunkel discusses his beginnings in the creator-owned world and some of the challenges of self-publishing. He also shares his thoughts on juggling business and family, and the joys of creating for yourself.

This was a short one, but there were lots of great questions from the attendees and a wealth of information dropped by Mike, too. And our thanks to him for holding it down all by himself. Two of the other panelists got the convention flu and couldn't be there, so Mike braved it alone. We were well served!

http://www.theastonishfactory.com/

The World Wide Web has become an integral part of our daily lives. In many ways, it challenges the standards of what art and commerce were and forces us all to recognize the profound effect of what is and what's coming. A shift is occurring where the creative playing field is being leveled and everyone must log on to be a player or get left behind. 

Gina Biggs of the Strawberry Comics line and Greg Carter of UpDown Studios have taken up the challenge of web comics and understand the rules of surviving and thriving in this new frontier. They both attended the Atlanta Comics Expo in February and I (Dwight) had the pleasure of moderating a panel with them on this very subject.  

Gina spoke to us about her successful endeavors with the all-female comics group, Strawberry Comics. Her current works include Erstwhile, an adaptation of "hidden gems" from the writings of The Brothers Grimm and Red String, a coming-of-age story about a teenager named Mirahu Ogawa. 

Greg discussed his own UpDown Studios, an on-line collective of creators and artists who work in different media types and formats. UpDown's members not only represent comics, but photography, painting and fine arts. The studio also serves as a publishing imprint for the group on titles like Abandon: Borrowed Tale and Tombstone Sword Slinger.

In the panel, both these trailblazers cover much about their own projects and their growing industry. Included are some of the ins and outs on promoting and marketing, how to keep expenses down, effective site designs and some costly mistakes new web creators can avoid.

http://www.strawberrycomics.com/

http://www.updownstudio.com/

Hey 'Nation, sorry for the brief absence and yes, that's a not so veiled reference to Marvin the Martian. We had a computer snafu on our end and it's put us a tad behind (technology is a mofo and all). Anyway, worry not 'cause we've got some exciting chit-chat a-coming. There's more panel audio from the Atlanta Comics Expo, a conversation with illustrator and American Virgin cover artist, Celia Calle and a few surprises. So stay tuned, keep your ears on—and thanks for listening..!

As we continue to bring you more ACE panel audio, let's pause here for this impromptu talk we had with artist and convention guest, Phil Noto.

Phil's only been in comics a short time really, but he's attracted a legion of fans with his sexy, vintage spy girls and classic approach. He has his contemporary influences like J. Scott Campbell and Adam Hughes, but most of the illustrators Noto digs worked in the 50's and 60's. Guys like Robert McGinnis, Coby Whitmore and the great Bob Peak are all inspirations to this Florida native. 

As an ex-Disney clean up artist, Phil brings that experience, plus his appreciation for golden and silver age illustration to all of his comics work. Check out his skills on Birds of Prey, Beautiful Killer, Danger Girl and Scarlett: Declassified, and you'll see what we mean. 

In this quick sit-down, we discuss his schooling at Ringling and his past with Disney, his style and growth as a storyteller, plus the unusual way he got into comics. We also touch on Phil's first book of art, Jet Seven, his friendship with Howard Chaykin, being Mr. 4400 and his new Image project, The Infinite Horizon with writer, Gerry Duggan. Our thanks to him for stealing a few minutes away from the show to chat with us.

**And for those who haven't heard yet, Jet Seven is officially sold out!

http://www.notoart.com/

There's more where this came from! Today, we present another panel recorded back in February at ACE, the Atlanta Comics Expo. This one's called Character Design and it's full of info and insights on the subject from our four great panelists!

First up is Sanford Greene, penciler for DC’s Wonder Girl mini-series and the new Method Man/Wu Tang graphic novel. Sanford's done designs for companies like Sony Animation, Hasbro, SEGA and Nickelodeon, and was a member of the collective known as Artxilla Studios.

Then there's Stephanie Gladden, a wonderful character artist and designer who currently works for Cartoon Network. She's drawn tons of licensed characters like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ren & Stimpy and The Simpsons, but you may know her as the creator of Hopster's Tracks for Bongo Comics.

Next is Ragnar, a designer and illustrator who's done development work for people like Disney, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros. Ragnar directed a five minute short film for Disney based on one of his own all-ages books, Got Your Nose.

And finally, Derek Yaniger, an artist with a delightfully retro style who's done work for Marvel Comics and Cartoon Network and event shows like Tiki Oasis and The Wild Weekend. You can also see his art featured in magazines like Atomic Barracuda and Car Kulture Deluxe. 

This was an eclectic blend of backgrounds and perspectives and I really appreciate everyone's candor. The discussion includes topics like working on established characters vs. working in development, trying to stay on model, pleasing a client (or not!) and responding to the Bat-Phone. I had a blast moderating this panel, folks and this time I even remembered to introduce everyone (yaay)!

http://www.sanfordgreene.com/

http://www.stephaniegladden.com/

http://www.littlecartoons.com/

http://www.derekart.com/

The Atlanta Comics Expo rolled through in early February and Dwight and I had the pleasure of moderating some panels for the show. This is the first of several portions of ACE audio we'll be posting over the next week..and it's a good one! We call it Digital Visions and it focused on digital tools, the interface and how today's artists use them.

Our panelists were Ragnar, a California based artist and illustrator with a background in character design and animation. Ragnar has a tremendous following for his beautiful prints and art books, and his work's been featured in the prestigious pages of Spectrum. Then, there's Tony Shasteen, a talented illustrator with a commercial background, but who many comics fans know from 12 Gauge's, Occult Crimes Task Force. Tony's had work in Spectrum as well and he's a new member of Gaijin Studios. Next is Brian Stelfreeze, an artist and painter you know from his terrific covers for Shadow of the Bat and Fallen Angel through DC Comics. Brian is the art director for 12 Gauge and a founding member of Gaijin. And last up is Jim Burns, the creator behind books like Detached and Daemon Process and a comic artist who works completely in the digital realm. Jim does a weekly web and newspaper comic called Grumbles and also does work for local publisher, Terminus Media.

All the guys were candid, insightful and full of opinions, and the panel was a lot of fun to be a part of. My thanks to ACE for having me (Swain) and to the great panelists for participating.

**This episode features a small snippet of Roger & Zapp's Computer Love 'cause it's all about the digital love, baby. And a shout out to John Burns for supplying the group image!

http://www.littlecartoons.com/

http://www.theillustrator.com/

http://www.gaijinstudios.com/

http://www.jamesburnsdesign.com/comics/index.html

A shapeshifter, for those who don't know, is a being who can change its form and shape at will. And that's why we call Cree Summer a voiceshifter. Not only is she great in front of the camera, she's also an incredible voice actor who's considered one of the best working in animation today. With appearances on shows like Inspector Gadget, Care Bears, Animaniacs, Mortal Kombat, Batman Beyond, Justice League, The Proud Family, Pinky and the Brain, Clifford The Big Red Dog, Rugrats, Danny Phantom, Ben 10 and Class of 3000, Summer clearly knows her stuff.

Many only remember her as the free spirited Freddie from NBC's A Different World, but this lady has quietly kept very busy since that time. She's a gifted singer-songwriter and her 1999 Work Records release, Street Faerie, introduced the world to Cree, the musician. In our talk, we cover all of the above, plus her love of comics, poetry, her sisterhood of the seas, The Pirates and a whole lot more.  This was an easy one, folks, as we felt right at home talking to this down-to-earth, but very talented performer. 

Speaking of uber-talented, we have to give a special shout of thanks to our best friend in the world, Mr. Phil LaMarr for hooking us up with Honey Brown. And likewise to her manager, Larry "One B" Robins for helping out with the details - thanks, guys! 

**This episode features three snippets of Cree Summer's music from Street Faerie: Revelation Sunshine, Mean Sleep and Miss Moon. Also, Aretha Franklin's version of the A Different World theme.

I (Swain) stumbled upon Juan's art by accident while surfing and was knocked out by his version of The Flash. I forwarded a few things to Dwight and he was struck too. Soon we found Superman, some X-men 198 stuff, then we went to Deviant Art and got blown away! He had an entire gallery on DA that went from animation to underground to classic superheroes to just about whatever.

Doe agreed to come on with us after hearing we'd talked to one of his favorite people, DC Editorial Art Director, Mark Chiarello (who also happens to be one of our favorite people). We covered a lot in the conversation including his one-shot Fantastic Four story called Isla De La Muerte, a peek into his background and why he loves not having an identity. So, ladies and gents, do yourselves a favor...meet Juan Doe...sort of.

**This episode of the show features a snippet of Mos Def's Ghetto Rock in honor of keeping your paint hand strong!

We met an old friend of Scott Morse's recently who called him prolific and we couldn't agree more. Scott is an outstanding artist with a brilliant sense of design and never seems to run out of ideas. He's like the Ryan Adams of the art world--he puts out a half a dozen projects a year all while holding down a full-time job at Pixar. Impressive!

We first became aware of Scott through his one-shot, Batman: Room Full of Strangers and Plastic Man run for DC, then we quickly went nuts. Soulwind, Volcanic Revolver, The Barefoot Serpent, Spaghetti Western, the Elektra mini-series and his recent tome of "fast art", Scrap Mettle are all terrific. In 2008, he offers three new Magic Pickle books, a bio book featuring a certain tiger and another Ancient Book too, this time it's Sex & Science.

Our chat with Morse runs the gamut from his recent trip to Italy, growing up in California and going to CalArts, working in animation and just how he gets it all done. Plus, some family talk, a few tips on dealing with publishers and a little bit about his favorite uncle. It was a lot of fun chopping it up with Scott, he's an amazing talent who never stops and he's also a really good guy. Check him out everywhere!

http://scottmorse.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Pickle-Planet-Grapes/dp/0439879965/ref=pd_sim_dbs_b_img_2/103-6141880-9280629

Jon Foster joined the show for an interview in December of last year and we're proud to present Part II of that conversation.

He and Dwight delve into their mutual experiences from the Concept Art Workshop in '05, Jon talks about teaching and being a late bloomer, and how maturity plays a large part in an artist's development. Then we shift gears into some personal stuff like dads vs. sons, fixing things and being the man, and couples working together. Finally, we end on Jon's comic book work, some geeky Star Wars and art questions, plus the back story behind his wonderful book of art, Revolution. Enjoy!

http://www.jonfoster.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Art-Jon-Foster/dp/1599290030

**A special thanks to Tim Underwood and the Fenners for helping us find the elusive Mr. Foster.

If there were ever a church or religion established for illustration, Jon Foster would definitely be an apostle. He would bring the message of the heroic to the masses, push the believers to embrace the creatively divine and do so with a spirit of unrepentant zeal. If you could combine the rich, boldness of N.C. Wyeth with the energy and imagination of Frank Frazetta, you'd have Jon…maybe. Even that description of his art falls a little short to us. Let's just say he's one of the finest working in his field and is highly respected by his peers.  

After a month or so of serious stalking (our dedication knows no boundaries), we finally got in contact with him and Foster agreed to come on the show. Our conversation is, at times, all over the place, but we think it stands as a wonderful and intimate glimpse of the artist and the man. Rarely do you find his kind of talent matched with his kind of humility, but then again, Jon is rare. 

This is Part I of an interview that took place in late December of '07 and Jon was our last guest of the year. It was the best Christmas present ever…thanks, Jon!

http://www.jonfoster.com/ 

Larry Stroman's recent pencil job on What If X-men: Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire marks his return to mainstream comics after a 10 year absence. Everyone remembers the artist from his great work on books like Alien Legion, X-Factor and of course, his creator-owned Tribe through Image Comics.

Shortly after the amazing success of Tribe #1, selling over 1,000,000 copies, Larry and his writing partner Todd Johnson, left Image and continued to publish the book through other venues. There were follow ups to Tribe's debut and a few free lance jobs here and there, but eventually, Stroman left comics altogether. Now that he's back, we tracked him down through Marvel editor, Justin Gabrie and invited him on to share a little bit of HISstory.

In our talk, Larry recalls his early interests in art, breaking into comics with some help from Howard Chaykin, X-Factor and the creation and future of Tribe. We also find out what he's been up to these last 10 years and what's next for him.

**This episode features a small portion of John Sebastian's Welcome Back in honor of the Tribe guy.

Welcome back for Part II of our conversation with All-Star Superman artist, Frank Quitely. Today, we discuss influences on Frank's artwork like Mort Drucker, Katsuhiro Otomo and Moebius, why he prefers imagination over photo reference and how he deals with criticism about his books being late.

Plus, his cover art for Vertigo's American Virgin and Bite Club, and celebrating a Big One in January. Very interesting stuff!

Let's address a few rumors about the man, shall we? Some say his real name isn't Frank Quitely, that's just a pen name. True. Some say one of his favorite writers is his longtime collaborator, Grant Morrison...that's true too. And some say he might be the best artist working in American comics today. Well, if that one isn't true now, keep watching, because he's well on his way!

Since hitting the scene in the mid 90's, Frank Quitely's been doing stellar work on titles like JLA: Earth 2, New X-Men, We3 and of course, All-Star Superman. With a style that's clearly adored by many a fanboy, he's amassed a large and dedicated following and deservedly so. Dynamic figures, sprawling landscapes and sharply detailed backgrounds are all staples of Frank's beautiful handiwork. He's the kinda guy that not only makes it look good, but makes it look easy too.

Just before Christmas, he came on the show to talk about all things All-Star and what's next for him after his run on the series ends. We also chatted a bit about scripts and storytelling ideas, Quitely's "fashion sense" on the book and his popular, but somewhat controversial time on The Authority with writer Mark Millar. This is Part I of II with FQ!

Style can often be a bad word when applied to art because many people choose it over the substance of good drawing. So, when a guy like Kevin Nowlan comes along with this wonderfully natural approach to rendering, mood and style, he's a breath of fresh air. Kevin started out in the early 80's drawing for fanzines like The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes, then quickly graduated to mainstream comic work for Marvel. It wasn't long before he was in demand not only as a penciler, but even more so as an inker and a finisher (see: The Outsiders Annual, Superman Aliens and Strange Tales). And it's Nowlan's fresh and distinctive way with a brush that's kept him the busiest over these many years. During the holidays, we got a chance to talk with him about his diverse career and his reputation as "The Finisher". Our conversation includes his current run of covers for Metamorpho Year One, his friend Terry Austin's helping hand (and million dollar misstep...ouch!), inking the legendary Gil Kane and his character designs for the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. Kevin's a super nice guy and we're grateful he took some time out to speak with us!

http://members.cox.net/nowlanink/63.html

**Our good friend Eric Nolan-Weathington did a great book on Kevin's art for TwoMorrows Publishing, go check it out!

http://twomorrows.com/

DC Editor Bob Schreck has lived about five lifetimes and seems to have a few more to go. He's a lot like The Highlander in that he just might be immortal and there's definitely only one! We became acquainted with Bob earlier this year at the first Atlanta Comics Expo and found him to be a terrific guy, a great storyteller and someone with a true heart for the comics biz. Joining us from his desk at DC, Schreck caught us up on the All-Star line and some of his other projects including a new Madame Xanadu book through Vertigo. This one will feature the writing of the great Matt Wagner and art by talented newcomer Amy Hadley. Bob also reflects a bit on the year coming to a close, wading through the Vertigo waters and on his past with Creation Cons, Comico and of course Oni Press. Plus, a funny story about him "meeting" Frank Miller at a NY convention and why he fights the good fight for creators like Kevin Smith, Scott Morse and Paul Pope. Oh yeah, and Pellucidar!

**This episode features several snippets of music: Jethro Tull's Aqualung, Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale, Science Fiction/ Double Feature from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and U2's Vertigo. And we have to give props to Schreck's Assistant Editor Brandon Montclare for suggesting the Amy Hadley hotness for Madame X...turn it up loud, Captain!

Boys will be boys and girls will be brothers, or at least that's the way Wendy & Lisa see it! These two musicians, re-dubbed The Girl Bros, have been making it funky since their early 80's roots playing with pop music icon Prince. After years of collaborating as the guitarist and keyboardist in his band The Revolution, they left Prince’s camp in 1986 and began establishing their own path. With four great albums to their credit, the third being the glorious Eroica, they put being artists on hold and focused on composing for TV and film. Movies like Dangerous Minds, Soulfood and Something New have all benefited from their touch, plus shows like Crossing Jordan, Carnivale and Brothers and Sisters. But it's NBC's surprise hit Heroes that has everyone buzzing. Heroes is fantastic in and of it's self and it's made all the better by Wendy & Lisa's terrific music. We had a wonderful talk with them in between sessions for the show and they brought us up to speed on this season, the writer's strike and the possible future of Bionic Woman too. We also get into a little of their past with Prince, their early days as recording artists, Seal and their love for comic books and b-movies. It was truly a blast—thanks, grrls!

http://www.wendyandlisa.com/

**This episode features several snippets of music Wendy & Lisa either wrote and/or performed on. All of their CDs can be purchased on-line and we highly recommend our favs, Eroica and The Girl Bros.

Welcome back for Part II with director and producer Robert Meyer Burnett. Rob gives his opinion on the upcoming Speed Racer movie from the Wachowski Bros, the new Watchmen script and a riotous round of Either-Or/Gage Your Geek (not sure what we're calling it yet). THIS EPISODE IS VERY OFF COLOR AND VERY BLUE, so please be advised. It was the tail end of a three hour talk that basically descended into an R-rated geek free-for-all. "I've got a bad feeling about this..."

http://www.ludovicotechnique.com/

**Part II with Rob contains a snippet of Prince's Partyman because we just let go and had fun. Also, big thanks to Mary Forrest for the use of her pics.

This is Rob. Actually, this is a picture of Rob looking like the suave, ultra cool, L.A. kinda guy he is. You may know Rob from Free Enterprise, the geeky romantic comedy he co-wrote and directed back in 1998. Or from the many movies he's done DVD production work for like The Usual Suspects, X-Men II or Superman Returns. Or maybe even from the comic books he publishes through his company Ludovico Technique. But forget all that stuff for now. From this day forward, remember him from this picture. Looking like the suave, ultra cool, L.A. kinda guy he is. One evening in late September, we got the chance to chat with Rob from his editing bay and it was stellar. It was a short talk (3 hours!) and here are some of the highlights from Part I: CG water, Shoot 'Em Up, Larry Cohen and blaxploitation movies, The Exterminator, lessons from The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, The Warriors, New Jack City, the 80's and the video revolution, Barry Lyndon, PRINCE, Clarence Williams III, mutual hatred of Red Dragon, music licensing, Rob's tactic, I Claudius, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, what is a dooku?, Superman Returns, the new Free Enterprise, Living in Infamy and Cody Banks.

http://www.ludovicotechnique.com/

**This episode features a snippet of Prince's DMSR and that sound you hear in the background is us killing water bugs in my basement…sorry!

There are myths and there are legends…and then, there is Paolo Rivera! Okay, that may be a bit too Stan Lee for anybody's taste, but apropos for a guy retelling Stan's origins. For the last two years, Paolo's been putting it down as the artist on Marvel's Mythos series with Atlanta based writer Paul Jenkins. All the books in the series are gorgeous and fully painted and so far we've seen X-men, Hulk, Ghost Rider and Spiderman. The latest installment with The Fantastic Four just hit the streets a couple of weeks ago. Rivera is an exciting young artist who resides in Brooklyn, NY and is a graduate of the prestigious RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). We recently ran him down and had a chat about being a contract artist for Marvel, meeting Alex Ross as a kid, the ramp up to Mythos Captain America and hitting the convention and lecture circuits.

http://www.paolorivera.com/

http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/

Jason Pearson really has been here for years and for good reasons. He's got a dynamic style that jumps off the page, a sharp eye for street level details and he draws hot, curvy chicks with big guns (umm…weapons). His big break in comics came in 1992 with Legion of Super Heroes just before he joined Gaijin Studios. In '96, his creator-owned series Body Bags hit the stands from Dark Horse and was a sleeper hit. However, during the book's climb to success, Pearson had some personal set backs that threw off his follow up to Bags. And even though he's worked consistently in comics since then, many thought he'd left the biz 'cause Body Bags was on such a long hiatus. Well now, after almost 10 years, Mack and Panda have returned wreaking havoc on all who deserve it (and a few who don't!). We caught up with Jason in between his many deadlines and talked about Alabama and 12 Gauge, changes within the industry, being 'Page-A-Day J' and how life is what happens to you when you're busy making comic books.

http://www.12gaugecomics.com/body-bags.html

**Two things: This episode features a snippet of LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out and also…check out J's head for numbers. The guy remembers things to the year and almost to the month!

Mark Chiarello's been one of our favorite guys for a very long time. Outside of being a kick ass artist and painter, he's also the Art Director up at DC, he launches and edits unique and adventurous projects and still finds time to write books that promote the medium (see: The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics with Todd Klein). After his name came up glowingly on several other shows, we decided to track Mark down and invite him on for a chat. In the conversation, Chiarello discusses going from artist to AD, his great books Solo and Batman: Black & White, discovering Darwyn Cooke and why he has the best job ever…most of the time.

**Dwight got stuck in traffic and joined this interview a bit late. Apparently, the highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive (that's a little Jersey reference for Mark).

We're back with the second half of our conversation with artist and illustrator, Dave Johnson. In the discussion, we cover Dave's first time meeting the great Jim Steranko, the best San Diego Comic Con of his life and working for Stan Lee Media and Bruce Timm. Plus, we're blessed with a few minutes of passion from The Potentate himself.

http://www.devilpig.com/

**Part II with Dave features a small portion of Brand New Immortals' Kalifornia in honor of the young man going west—and loving it.

And so it is! We first got acquainted with Dave Johnson back in the early 90's right after he'd broken into comics and joined Gaijin Studios. He was working on Super Patriot at the time, soon moved to Rome, GA (…on purpose!) and then eventually to Los Angeles to work in animation. Since then, he's been on a lot of amazing projects like Batman Beyond, JLA, Ben 10 and Legion of Super Heroes. Plus, he's the only cover artist for the Eisner award winning 100 Bullets series for Vertigo. As a creator and an artist, Dave's a super talented guy, but he's also a funny guy with an irreverent sense of humor...so, umm…be warned.

http://www.devilpig.com/

**This is Part I with Dave and it features a snippet of Van Halen's Running with the Devil 'cause the devil really did go down to Georgia.

Solid acting chops—you got it! Great comedic timing—covered! Versatile voice acting—no problem! Phil LaMarr has been doing his thing as a successful working actor for well over 20 years. His resume is chocked full of some wonderfully funny TV and film moments and he's shared the stage, camera and microphone with many other fine actors. MADtv, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Murphy Brown, Spiderman 2, Barbershop (the TV series), Samurai Jack, Metal Gear Solid, The Animatrix, Futurama, Justice League, Kim Possible, Family Guy…stop me when you’re convinced. This L.A. native has done a lot in his career and in a relatively short period of time. We had the pleasure of talking with Phil about his background in improv, his sketch comedy work on MADtv, his roles in Free Enterprise and Pulp Fiction, and his undeniable skills as an accomplished voice actor.

**Our thanks to Ms. Patty Woo for her help in making this interview possible.

It's Part II of our conversation with artist Ben Templesmith only this time…it's not about art! The tail end of our interview unraveled into a round of pop culture quickies based on celebrity encounters of the Aussie kind. This is a short one, but it was a lot of fun and many varied opinions were shared…so check yourself.

http://www.templesmith.com/faze3/

**This episode also features a snippet of Outkast's Skew It on the Bar-B in honor of Ben who definitely keeps it jumpin'.

Ben Templesmith's art creeps us out, but we kinda like it. You'll be hard pressed to find an artist today with a more interesting and expressive style than his--especially doing the scary! He's a talented import from Perth, Australia and he's frightened the American comics scene to life in just a few short years. Templesmith let us pick his brain (…sorry) about his work on 30 Days of Night, Fell, his own Wormwood: Gentlemen Corpse and why he leaves movie making to guys like David Slade. This is Part I of a great chat we had with him and we had a blast…cheers, Ben!

http://www.templesmith.com/faze3/

We won't attempt to cover his resume here because we don't have enough space. Just know that this man has done great things, he's an art legend and a modern master of illustration. He's our good friend, Drew Struzan and he was kind enough to spend some time with us.

http://www.drewstruzan.com/

**Two things: This episode features a snippet of Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better and it's very accurately applied. Also, I (Swain) was pretty sick while recording this and you don't even have to listen closely to hear me gently hacking in the background.

It's always fun to talk to an artist's artist and that's what Shane Glines is. Ask any of his peers and they'll rave about the terrific work he did with Bruce Timm at Warner Bros. and what an amazing gift he has. Sexy cartoon girls, crazy villains, stylish layouts, sexy cartoon girls...sorry, I'm being redundant. Anyway, we reached out to Shane through his labor of love, Cartoon Retro, a site he started three years ago to showcase and preserve, if you will, the artists and animation of a gone era. In our talk, we get into Shane's first animation gig at Spumco, the clubhouse spirit shared by the creators on the Batman, Superman and JLA TV shows, UFO and a little bit of mind over what matters. It was great chatting with him and we hope to do it again real soon...thanks, Shane!

http://www.cartoonretro.com/

http://www.lulu.com/content/298507

It's Part II and the conclusion of our interview with artist and painter, Brian Stelfreeze. On this episode, Brian shares his thoughts on digital original art, his 50 plus Shadow of the Bat covers, the untold back story behind Blanc Noir and the benefits of studio life and having very talented friends.

**Again, the beeping you'll hear during the interview is people going in and out of the studio.

http://www.gaijinstudios.com/

Brian Stelfreeze is known for being many things: a great artist, a skillful painter, a graphic storyteller...and a wearer of some pretty cool hats! But the hat he wears most often with fledgling artists is that of teacher. Watch him at a convention or during down time at Gaijin, the studio he co-founded in 1991 and you'll see it. Droves of young novices line up at shows, portfolios in hand, for critiques and helpful tips and Brian is always the willing and patient sensei. We met with him on the first day of summer at Gaijin and Stelfreeze talked about going Whole Hog, art directing for 12 Gauge, experimentation and the idea of paying it forward.

**The beeping you'll hear during the interview is Brian's studio mates, Cully and Karl and the FedEx guy going in and out of the building.

http://www.gaijinstudios.com/

It's a three way split from Charlotte, NC and everybody's a winner! Our 2007 Heroes Recap ends on a high note with up-and-coming artist and character designer, Sean (Cheeks) Galloway. Cheeks talks about working on Hellboy: Sword of Storms and let's us know just what it takes to make it in animation. Then, we grab five with amazing good girl artist and painter, Joe Pekar. Joe shares a little about his background in video game design, his new book Strawberry and his love for drawing all things female. And finally, an interesting conversation with cartoonist, Kyle Baker. Somewhat fresh into his new partnership with Image, Kyle explains his move away from self-publishing, using his name as a brand and why after all these years...he too kinda hates Saturn.

http://gotcheeks.blogspot.com/

http://www.joepekar.com/

http://www.kylebaker.com/ 

Since its formation in 1991, Gaijin Studios has held a reputation for bringing some of the most exciting art and artists to the forefront of the comics scene. It was only a matter of time before someone had sense enough to chronicle its inception, members, impact and importance. Eric Nolen-Weathington of TwoMorrows publishing moderated a reunion panel with the guys at the 2007 Heroes Con and he's putting together a book on this very subject. Six former and present day members of Gaijin sat down with a room full of fans in Charlotte to share their stories and talk about the view from the outside. We present to you, uncut and for your listening pleasure, Adam Hughes, Cully Hamner, Karl Story, Brian Stelfreeze, Jason Pearson and Georges Jeanty.

**Our thanks to the Gaijin guys, Eric and especially Shelton Drum at Heroes for making this reunion happen.**

http://www.gaijinstudios.com/

http://twomorrows.com/

http://www.heroesonline.com/index2.htm

http://www.justsayah.com/

http://www.kabalounge.com/

Everybody wants to be LIKE MIKE! True words indeed for a certain legendary basketball player and even truer words for a comics legend. Michael Golden has influenced a generation of artists since he burst onto the scene in the late 70's. His dynamic style and unique vision for the medium were like no one that had come before him and brought him a legion of fans. Golden attended the 2007 Heroes Con to meet and greet admirers of his work, do some sketching and promote several of his new projects including two new art books, EXCESS: The Art of Michael Golden and Modern Masters #12. We grabbed 10 minutes...well, really 20...okay, hell...40 minutes with Mike to talk about Micronauts, painting, cover art and why he's not really an artist (oh yeah, and some music too).

** A very special thanks to Renee Witterstaetter, Michael's rep, for putting us on with him.**

http://www.evainkpublishing.com/

http://www.heroesonline.com/con-update.htm

It's more fun with Dick and Bob as we present Part III of our ACE Wrap-Up audio. Dick Giordano and Bob Schreck participated in a panel at the Atlanta Comics Expo called Legends of the DC Universe to talk about editing then and now. This half of their conversation covers Dick's days with Charlton Comics, the origins of Watchmen, high points and the politics of just getting it done. It's an intimate sit down with two very fascinating gentlemen--hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

http://www.atlantacomicsexpo.org/index.php

Welcome to Part II of our on-the-floor interviews from the Atlanta Comics Expo! First up is artist and publisher Alberto Ruiz of Brandstudio Press. Full of passion, candor and humor, Alberto shares his insights and perspective on art and the freedom of self-publishing. Next is David Mack, writer and artist on Kabuki and the soon-to-be-released Daredevil: End of Days. David talks about his work as a collaborator on this new DD project and his friendship with comic legend Jim Steranko. And last, but not least is a special Then and Now panel with former DC Editor-in-Chief Dick Giordano and current DC Group Editor Bob Schreck. Captured in the round with no mics, this segment is a great peak into the stories behind the stories. Hope you enjoy it and look for Part III of the Wrap-Up in a few days!

 **A very special thanks to Thom Trainor and Billy Messina of ACE for the use of the panel audio with Dick Giordano and Bob Schrek. I had a great time moderating and Dwight and I both enjoyed being a part of it. Thanks again, fellas!**

http://brandstudio.com/

http://www.davidmack.net/

http://www.dickgiordano.com/

Everyone has a side of themselves that they suppress a little at work, but this has been nearly impossible for Rob Jenners of Atlanta's 99X. In the eight months he's been a part of The New Morning X, he's gotten his geek on many times on air and we immediately recognized him as kindred brother. Jenners was cool enough to sit down with us one afternoon and talk about his love of comic book characters and their movies, the TV show Heroes, The Simpsons, Star Wars and the radio biz too. Outside of being smart, funny and genuine, he was also a really nice guy. Thanks for the chat, Rob!

The New Morning X is Sean, Leslie and Jenners and it's on weekdays from 5:30am-10am on WNNX 99.7. Check 'em out.

http://www.99x.com/

(Unfortunately, Dwight couldn't be here for this interview. He was on assignment doing correspondence at the Spiderman 3 premier in Melnibone.)

Someone once said real talent makes room for you and brings you before great men. Well, fan favorite inker Dexter Vines' talent has done that and more! With over 12 years in the business working on titles like Superman/Batman, JLA Classified, Wolverine and Uncanny X-Men, Dexter's built an impressive resume as a working pro and dynamic artist. A longtime buddy and friend of the show, he sat down with us late one night at his lair, Studio Revolver and talked shop. From his early interests in drawing to assisting comic artist Joe Phillips; through CrossGen and Marvel's wildly successful event book Civil War, Mr. Vines fills in all the gaps. Hang out with your boys for an hour of insight and humor in this no holds barred conversation with one of the industry's most respected creators. And don't miss our brief excursion into the seedy underbelly of society...that is CAR PORN!

Special thanks to Dex's studio mate, artist Tom Feister, who pops in and drops his own brand of levity on our talk.

We present Part I of our on-the-floor interviews from the first annual Atlanta Comics Expo. From Ape Entertainment's The Black Coat series and the soon to be released Left On Mission from Boom! Studios, artist and illustrator Francesco Francavilla. The guy behind Cholly and Flytrap, The Art of the Barbarian and all those fantastic zombies covers, master painter Arthur Suydam. And the talented trio that brings you Occult Crimes Taskforce from 12 Gauge Comics, writer David Atchison, writer/actress Rosario Dawson ( Sin City and Clerks 2) and artist Tony Shasteen. Hope you enjoy these and look for Part II of the Wrap-Up in a week or so! 

http://www.the-black-coat.com/

http://www.boom-studios.com/leftonmission/LOM/index.html

http://www.francescofrancavilla.com/

http://arthursuydam.com/

http://www.12gaugecomics.com/oct.html

Minutes after seeing the big screen adaptation of 300, we sit down in front of the esteemed SiDEBAR mics and chop it up. This is a special b-side edition of the show.

http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

On this episode, the lyrics of the old jazz standard ring true...these are some of our favorite things! Something old, something new, something art and something music are the areas covered as we attempt to wax poetic on what we're checking for. Swain declares it The Year of the Bru while Dwight is caught up in the Virgin invasion. Plus, an unfortunate massive attack on one sensitive singer-songwriter.