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

We'll try and keep this one short and sweet. This is our panel audio from the New York Comic Con last month and it was all about being a pro. Lots of great back and forth from the audience, much knowledge was imparted, and of course, a few laughs were had.

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.