ICYMI Art - Captain Canuck / Wolverine by Dave Ross

The Captain Canuck Facebook page has 592 "likes" as I write this, so it may actually be that a number of people have seen the picture below, however it's difficult to determine exact numbers.  I think it's gorgeous and would have for anyone interested in either (or both) characters to miss it, so I post it here.

Oddly, the good Captain's Twitter account only has a dozen followers.

I don't know the person who runs these one (I'm assuming it's the same for both).  The only details provided were "Here's a sketch by my pal Dave Ross".  Excellent job, Mr Ross, and thank you for sharing it, Facebook page administrator!

Sean Koury's Bounty Hunter

Here's a little something to look forward to in 2013.

The above is the cover to Bounty Hunter #0, as drawn by Edward Dennis.  There was some hope that it would be available for the end of 2012, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards, so presumably we'll see it in early 2013.

The information below was lifted from the Argo Comics deviantart page.  Bounty Hunter was entered in a contest to appear an Argo Comics publication and this text was included in the submission.  Argo Comics have been mentioned here before as one of their characters, Ultro, is Canadian and appears in a short story in their 3rd anthology book.

Whether Bounty Hunter is Canadian is somewhat unclear, as his base of operations is said to be New York city, however an Ontario town does find its way into his back story and sounds like his place of origin.  Check it out:

Bounty Hunter 

Real Name: Darren Walters 

Character Class: Enhanced human/cyborg 

Affiliations: Head of Capture Incorporated, ally of Team Supreme, works freelance for US government.

Bases of Operations: Capture Inc. head office in New York City; he himself is usually mobile.

First Appearance: Bounty Hunter # 0 (as yet unpublished, 2012 Capture Comics)

Powers/abilities: After the dimensional portal that separated our reality from the Otherealm tore open, destroying the small city of Kenora, Ontario in Canada, Darren Walters found himself in possession of a few new abilities. He found he had slightly enhanced intelligence, strength and agility and could now perform at peak human capacity. He also found that he could somewhat control the small dimensional portals that would constantly be popping open around the world, sucking Earth's inhabitants into them or depositing creatures from other realities onto our planet.

Creator and writer Sean Koury's blog has been added at right, and can be reached here as well.  Assuming it links correctly, Koury also has a Facebook photo album called "Bounty Hunter stuff" that you could view here.

True Patriot Christmas Card

Though I was a contributor to the True Patriot campaign earlier this year, the image below was an unexpected inbox surprise this morning.

What we have here is Dominion Jack (and his daughter), as drawn by Ron Salas.  Jack is among the characters to be featured in the True Patriot anthology.

The campaign ended some time ago, but the book can still be ordered from this page.

Arcana Studio Winter Sale!

Here's a relatively easy way to support a Canadian comics publisher.

Arcana Comics is offering 25% off of their entire store from now through January 31, 2013!

Don't miss this opportunity to stock up on the latest Arcana releases and, perhaps, give some books a try you may have missed along the way!

To enjoy the sale, head over to http://arcana.com/store.php, and start shopping! When you check-out, enter in code "ARCANAWINTER" to get 25% off of your entire order.  There's no limit to the sale, so gobble up on savings!

Arcana has a rather varied catalogue, including sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, etc.  There should be something for everyone.

My favourite part of this is that it's a WINTER sale, not a Christmas sale.  Holiday spending would have prevented me from taking advantage of this, but I should be good to make a last-minute purchase.

A character I've been eyeing for some time, and is now named as Arcana's flagship character on the Publishers page, is Kade.  From what I can gather (not having read the books yet), Kade is a demon-hunting immortal warrior who finds himself involved in various key points throughout history.

Here is the solicitation for the book at right (which I believe contains the character's earliest stories).

Kade is the enigmatic warrior who embarks on an adventure to remove the Dark Veil and the demon behind the darkness.

Kade must uncover the secrets of the Black Sun while struggling with his physical limitations and his concept of being a hero.

The Kade trade paperback collects five issues and features over 120 pages of story, as well as behind the scenes pictures, cover gallery and commentary from Sean O'Reilly. Exclusive to the trade is the never before published origin of Kade.

The Arcana store page does not always name the talent involved, for some reason, so using their ComiXology page in conjunction with it might help in that regard. Click on a series to view the various issues, then click on an issue (even if there is only one shown because you've selected a graphic novel or compilation).  The creative team is named at right.

Another option would be the The Intrinsic graphic novel, collecting the four issues of the recent mini-series.  It spotlights several characters from the Arcanaverse (Kade included) and as such makes for an interesting sampler.

Writer: Sean Patrick O'Reilly
Writer: Erik Hendrix
Writer: Casey Jones
Artist: Allan Otero
Colorist: Chandran
Letterer: Erik Hendrix
Horrors from different worlds have assembled to bring about a global threat known only as The End. A Philosopher has recognized the signs in time to gather his own forces for Good - including an ordinary, powerless young woman. Only together can they avert disaster on a biblical scale. Every last one of them... is Intrinsic. 'Intrinsic' is a company crossover event bringing together characters from hundreds of titles beneath Arcana's library. It is an event of unprecedented ambition, unlike anything that has been before.

Mind you, if you're a little gun shy about spending even that much on characters with which you are not familiar then perhaps the digital option is the better one.  The collection is available in that format for all of $4.99.

Happy winter reading!

"Mask of the Red Panda"...Comics!

Just because I've always liked that Decoder Ring Theater offered the adventures of The Red Panda (and sassy sidekick The Flying Squirrel) in formats other than comic books, doesn't mean that the news of a Red Panda comic book isn't welcomed with a fair bit of excitement over at TSOG HQ.

The following was posted on the Decoder Ring Theater Facebook page earlier today.

Coming soon to a digital comic store near you! "Mask of the Red Panda", a 3-issue mini-series of pulse-pounding pulp perfection featuring the Terrific Twosome of Toronto! Written by Gregg Taylor, Art by Dean Kotz, published by Monkeybrain Comics. Here's your very first sneak peek!

Coolness. If you're unfamiliar with Kotz, you can sample his work on deviantart and his blog.  As for Monkeybrain Comics, their website is here and their books can be purchased from comiXology.

Rebel Comics

I have been working sporadically on a Publishers page (see above right) intended to direct something of a spotlight towards based-in-Canada comic creators, provide at-a-glance information about their product(s) and the means by which to acquire them.

In doing so, I have come across Rebel Comics out of Cochrane, Alberta.  Of the five publishers on the page as I write this, two are from that province.  When Rebel is ready to be added to the mix, and taking Two Gargoyles into account (despite my inability to actually sample their product), that is four indy publishers in three different towns within the province.  Wild Rose country appears to be well-represented!

I mention Rebel's "readiness" because at the moment, their comics are not available.  I contacted them through their website and received a reply to the effect that digital versions of their books are currently a work in progress.

That's good to hear because they seem to have some interesting story ideas and visuals.  Check those out here, as well as the promotional piece for one of their series below.

A 2-part ICYMI Art post

It's no secret that I love me some Heroes of the North. It is actually because I look forward to their product so much that I actually ignore the material that is offered for free on their website.  I want my books "unspoiled" and in print form when it hits shelves.

As a result of avoiding previews and such then, I don't know for certain what the image of The Canadian below is from.  I follow colourist Keiren Smith on deviantart and was made aware of it by an automated notice that she had posted new artwork.  It's for a story called "Timeout" but I'm uncertain as to whether it will be included in the upcoming anthology (Heroes of the North: CODA) or a future one.

As pointed out on Mrs Smith's page: Pencils by Gibson Quarter, Inks by Guillermo Ortego, colours by Kieren Smith.

The second part of this "in case you missed it" art post is, in my opinion of course, a terrific version of Alpha Flight's Snowbird.

I first spotted it on a tumblr search.  The artist is Yu Lyn Chen and this artwork was actually posted on her tumblr account about a year ago.

Check out her archive page for all sorts of other examples of her work.  I find she's just fantastic. I have never commissioned art before, but Chen makes it very tempting.  I can imagine she'd put together a quality Aurora (classic edition) in black and white.  Hmmmm...

CRYSTAL FRACTAL COMICS LOOKS TO FANS TO COMPLETE COMIC TITLE

The following is a recent press release from Crystal Fractal Comics.  They are putting an awful lot of effort in this Redorik campaign, to which I've contributed, so don't be surprised to see more information up about them added here in the coming days.  Click on the logo below to reach their website.

Crystal Fractal Comics has begun a crowdfunding effort in hopes of completing its Redorik comic book series as a 96-page graphic novel.

“With several of the smaller distributors that used to support indie books shutting down over the last few years, crowdfunding has become one of the few mechanisms to get a project funded and completed,” said Derrek Lennox, Publisher and Founder of Crystal Fractal Comics.

Crowdfunding is a means through which fans of any creative property can contribute funds to creators towards the completion of creative projects. Crystal Fractal Comics has taken a step in this direction, turning to Indiegogo in hopes of completing Redorik, a story about a young man named Justin Henderson who begins to develop strange, mystical powers.

A star member of his high school’s swim team, Justin begins to have strange nightmares narrated by a dark voice, a voice he begins to hear when he’s awake. Living in a greyed world, Justin is destined to face greater challenges with each step he takes as his assumed role as a superhero forces him to chart the course of his own morality, torn between his ethics and the dark voices deep inside him.

“Think of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Punisher, etc. They justify their reasoning and actions, perhaps under the guise of being a hero. We’ll be seeing first hand, this aspect through Justin becoming what he thinks is a superhero,” said Redorik writer Howard Wong, who’s best known for his work on Image Comics’ After the Cape series. “Deep down there is a lot happening behind the mask, but they use all of it to be the hero….But what Justin thinks is himself convincing him that he’s doing the right thing, is anything but. If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?”

Crystal Fractal Comics is a Toronto-based comic book publishing company specializing in original comic book stories set within a mystical universe. The company has published several titles, including its Legends… series of First Nations stories.

For more information, media requests:

Derrek Lennox, Founder/Publisher
Crystal Fractal Comics
416-802-2526
dslennox@crystalfractals.com                                            

Andrew Ardizzi, Senior Editor
Crystal Fractal Comics
647-990-2959
aardizzi@crystalfractals.com

Blackbird and Little Wing!

I arrived home from work yesterday to discover that the perk I'd "bought" during an indiegogo campaign run but J. Torres and Jack Briglio had arrived. No better way to start the weekend!

This one was the 3-part Family Dynamic mini-series published (half-heartedly, mind you) by DC Comics in 2008.  All three books came to me signed by Torres and artist Tim Levins, as advertised.

I won't dwell much on the "immediate" Dynamic Family because, well, I have before. But because the same four characters (mom, dad and the two sons) were displayed on promotional/preview material, I hadn't stopped to consider the possibility of an "extended" family.  It is revealed early on there are additional clan members fighting crime in Storm City, and that previous generations have done so as well.

Here's a look at a couple of the other characters sharing the Dynamic Universe.

I don't know the extent to which The Family Dynamic will appear in the upcoming True Patriot anthology.  The book will be 100 pages long, but will include several stories.  On the average, they should each be about 15-16 pages in length.  So there may not be a lot of room for Blackbird and Little Wing, but my limited exposure to them in this mini-series makes me hopeful that there'll be more opportunities to read about their adventures in the future.  True Patriot, volume 2, perhaps?