Earth 2100 is finally here! Tonight at 9pm EST on ABC, Earth 2100, the two hour epic news event will broadcast. What I've seen of this is breathtaking and I would encourage all of you to see it.
Earth 2100
Over the last few months I've had the privilege of working with the post-production team at GuerrillaFx to create animated Graphic Novel elements for a very special television project called Earth 2100 for ABC News. Illustrations by yours truly as well as those of my studiomate, George O'Connor and Deep6ers, Tim Hamilton and Leland Purvis were all used to create these animations. This two hour television event uses these illustrated segments to put a human face to the predictions made by experts about the changes to our civilization and our planet over the course of this century.
Click the image above to see a news piece about the Earth 2100. The special airs June 2nd at 9pm on ABC.
Seth Kushner's Graphic Novelists: Day 49
Thursday evening I had the pleasure of being one of the subjects for Seth Kushner's Graphic Novelists series of photographs. Seth is the amazing photographer for the book, The Brooklynites, and has photographed numerous luminaries and celebrities for an extensive list of publications. His resume is impressive as are his gorgeous photos. It's been a real privilege to work with him and the above photo from our shoot is now up on his blog. While you are there, please take a look at any number of the other eyepopping photographs available there or on his site.
Act-i-vate at Bergen St. Comics for Free Comic Book Day
Save the date! This May 2nd, Act-i-vate, the premiere webcomics collective will be holding an event at Bergen Street Comics! Here's the info:
Radar Episode One: Next Door Neighbor
As some of you may remember, I had the good fortune of having a story included in the Next Door Neighbor series of webcomics at SMITH magazine. Well, the good folks at Radar did a small, 3 minute documentary about Next Door Neighbor and the whole comics scene happening at Deep6 and XOXOs. Yours truly played the crazy and for my efforts, I get a little love from the camera. Click the link above to watch the episode.
Many thanks to Alex, Lance and the rest of the crew at www.radar.workbookproject.com for their hard work and talent in putting together this piece that makes all of us look so good.
Act-i-vate: PC Magazine's Top Ten Unsung Webcomics
PC magazine has posted a piece about the top ten webcomics most deserving of more recognition and the whole Act-i-vate collective was included! Eric Griffith had this to say:
Is it fair to include an entire collective of comics? When you can't pick just one, I think so. ACT-I-VATE now numbers 42 stories, written and drawn by a number of independent comic book creators, including names like Molly Crabapple, Dean Haspiel, and Dan Goldman. The stories range from a treatise on super-heroics (The Transmigration of ULTRA-Lad!), to psychedelic romance ( Kelly), to the silent film pastiche (Vulcan & Vishnu), and other oddities. If there's a downside, it's that the artists aren't always on a timetable, so many of the best stories have yet to reach a resolution. (Art from Adrew Dimitt's Drockleberry.)
To read the entire article click here.
Hijinx Sphinx Con Sketch
Here's a little sketch of ULTRA-lad vanquished-villain, The Hijinx Sphinx. Joshua Frankel for whom I did this sketch, was kind enough to scan it and send it along. As far as convention sketches go, I'm pretty happy with this one. Thanks, Joshua!
San Diego Comic-con 2008: A Brief Summary
So right off the top, I didn't win the Eisner, folks. The award for Best Digital Comic went to Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon. I'm totally fine with this because, as many have already told me, it's still an honor to have been nominated. It sure has been a great ride since the nominations were announced and I am pleased with how well things have developed.
San Diego Comic-con 2008 was largely about networking for me. I met a ton of people and had a great time socializing and taking in the sights. One major highlight would have to be meeting Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man fame. Shannon joined "The Transmigration of ULTRA-lad!" group on Facebook and when I passed by his booth, I thought it would be nice to give him a postcard and thank him for his support. Little did I know how well we would hit it off! Shannon was so generous in offering his advice and assistance with publishers. Thanks to him, I will be pursuing other avenues I might not have otherwise considered. He even gave me a free Too Much Coffee Man T-shirt! WOW! This is but one of many great experiences this weekend.
While visiting my good friend, Scott Shaw!, I met Hugh Brown. It turns out that Hugh Brown was the art director for Rhino Records' brilliant box set, "Weird Tales of the Ramones". We spent some time talking about the many cool comics contained within this package before he told me about another project. Hugh is compiling a book of spoofs of famous paintings, sculptures and photographs united by their inclusion of a chainsaw! I was so glad to have pointed him to a Neil Jenney painting titled, "Sawn and Saw". Who knows, maybe I have helped with this fun book idea in some way? Wouldn't that be cool!?
I'd also like to thank some other friends who I was able to see again: Chris, Elizabeth and Oscar Wisnia, Chip Mosher and the Boom! gang, Scott Shaw!, Captain Asskick and Ducky, Gina Gagliano, Randy, Cory, James and Joe and the rest of the Oni crew, Scott Chantler, Brian Hurtt, Jeff Lemire, Johnny Ryan, Dan Bigelow, Cecil Castelluci, Matt Silady, Antony Johnston, and Christopher Mitten. Thanks everybody!