A Family Day Edition of "ICYMI art": The Family Dynamic

As is often the case, this is artwork that has been publicly available for some time but that appears to be overlooked, based on view count.

The artist is named Gabriel Guzman and you can view his portfolio here.

Stumbling into that gorgeous image coincided with the announcement through the True Patriot Twitter account that while there will not be a third edition of the book, there are plans to release a True Patriot bi-monthly series later this year. Presumably it will be published by Chapterhouse.

If you're unfamiliar with The Family Dynamic still, treat yourself to artist Tim Levins' deviantart folder specific to them, which includes work from the three-issue limited series published by DC Comics and more recent True Patriot material.

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?

Brother, can you spare $10?

Is it possible to be addicted to Indiegogo / Kickstarter campaigns?  I have spent a boatload of money in the past couple of weeks on items I won't get to enjoy for weeks and in some cases, months.

Among the perks offered by the various campaigns that have caught my attention are a couple of inexpensive ones I want to share for different reasons.

The first involves the Family Dynamic again.  If you're not familiar with them, they've been talked about here before (seek out the tag at right).  They are included in the True Patriot book, a project that was ultimately successful and which is among the treats that I look forward to enjoying early next year.

Two of the gentlemen involved with that project, J. Torres and Jack Briglio, now have a Huricane Sandy disaster relief campaign going (note the "verified non-profit" tag on the page).  Among the perks is a set of the three Family Dynamic issues released by DC Comics a couple of years back.  The books will be signed by the creators (Torres and artist Tim Levins).

Three signed comics about a Canadian super-family for $10 going to charity?  Yeah, deal.

The other perk should come as no surprise; it involves the Redorik Trade Edition box currently showing on the right side of the site.

I became interested in Redorik because, based on his profile, the character appeared to be Canadian.  Regardless of whether he is or not, his publisher most definitely is.  Crystal Fractal Comics is based out of Toronto.

CFC appears to have a very rich fantasy world mapped out.  In order to complete Redorik's story, they are offering a print version of any of their books, signed and numbered, for $10. The store page of their blog will give you the best idea of the type of stories that CFC has begun to tell.

$10 is a rather painless way to support "local" talent so I would encourage comic fans to participate in this campaign. I hope that it takes off and enables Crystal Fractal to further expand what appears to be a very interesting line of books.

The "True Patriot" Campaign is Underway!

You can click the banner above to be taken to the campaign itself, but here are the basics:

True Patriot is a comic book anthology featuring Canadian superheroes written and drawn by some of your favourite Canadian comic book creators. Most of us working on this project grew up reading Alpha Flight, Captain Canuck, or Wolverine comics and we’ve always thought that there should be more Canadian superheroes out there. So, we're putting together a 100-page, full-colour anthology for your reading pleasure (and ours)!

"We" being: Adrian Alpona (Runaways), Andy B. (Kill Shakespeare), J. Bone (Super Friends), Jack Briglio (Scooby Doo), Scott Chantler (Two Generals), Tom Fowler (Hulk: Season One), Agnes Garbowska (Girl Comics), Faith Erin Hicks (Adventure Time), Tim Levins (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes), Ramon Perez (A Tale of Sand), Ron Salas (28 Days Later), Jay Stephens (Secret Saturdays), J. Torres (Teen Titans Go), Howard Wong (After the Cape).

The return or The Family Dynamic is a pleasant surprise. Originally published, but bungled, by DC Comics in 2008, apparently J. Torres has obtained the rights to use the characters.

Torres hinted at their return a little while prior to going public with the True Patriot project.  As True Patriot was being built, the spotlight was turned over to some of the other characters and creators that will be featured so I began to wonder if one even had anything to do with the other after all.  I don't believe that Family Dynamic is even mentioned on the project's Facebook page, for example, so their inclusion in the Indoegogo page's gallery was great news.

I would love to see this become a regular event used to showcase Canadian talent.  Let's get the first one done and work from there.

The Family Dynamic

Just as I was concluding the previous (chronologically) post by stating that DC Comics did not have either a Canadian or family-based team, it struck me that I was arguably quite wrong.

In late 2008, DC announced a 6-part book called Family Dynamic. Here is the solicitation:

FAMILY DYNAMIC #1
Written by J. Torres
Art by Tim Levins & Dan Davis
Cover by Sean Galloway

Pyralis! Sirocco! Troylus! Terran! This is The Family Dynamic, defenders of Storm City who use their mystical Elemental Rings to battle the forces of evil. But what happens when members of their extended family want in on the superhero action? They say the family that plays together stays together – but does that count when they’re playing the good guys? Find out in this exciting new 6-issue miniseries by writer J. Torres (WONDER GIRL) and artist Tim Levins (BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES).

Storm City was a fictional (obviously) Canadian town so this team fit both categories.

Unfortunately, the book bombed, though reviews by those who did get it were quite good. Due to poor pre-orders, it was reduced from six issues to three and the characters have not (to my knowledge) been heard from since. Here's how Levins described the news on his deviant art account.

...but somehow I think the misclassification of The Family Dynamic as a Johnny DC book (geared mainly towards kids), along with the total lack of any promotion whatsoever from DC Comics, might have played a teeny-weeny part in our premature demise.

Yeah, just maybe.

While I love the idea of fleshing out the Force Family, given the choice I think I would prefer to see the Family Dynamic given another chance with another publisher. I'm not particularly interested in seeing the Dynamics roped into the rest of the DC Universe and therefore shoehorned into every event that ripples through its various titles.

So if the possibility of the Force Family ever being featured is extremely remote, what are the odds of ever seeing the Family Dynamic return? Let's let Torres talk about that aspect of it (from the CBR forums):

...we're trying to work something out with DC. Keep those fingers crossed. Will report when I have something to share.

And that's the last post in the thread, so you can reach the obvious conclusion.

Too bad, this has the feel of a blown opportunity by DC. Hopefully someone else sees potential here and gives it a chance (assuming DC plays along).

Edit: In response to comments on deviantart, Levins said the following:

We get the rights back after a couple years, so perhaps we'll approach other publishers then.

So maybe the possibility isn't so remote after all!