FAN EXPO CANADA 2011 begins today!!

Toronto Convention Centre, South Building, 4pm. Check the website for all the details…

The Toronto Cartoonists Workshop booth will be in the lobby by the escalators leading to the convention area. Copies of Holmes Incorporated #2  will be for sale, and HI2 creators will be at the booth throughout the weekend, available for signings, sketches and questions. Ty will be there on Sunday (time tba).

Art: Leonard Kirk. Colours: K. T. Smith

Ty will be sitting at P-O57A (look for UBISOFT…then look past Artists’ Alley to the wall, and there he’ll be).

From 5-6pm today, Ty and Rob Pincombe will be running the workshop, “MAKE YOUR OWN DARN COMIC! ASSEMBLING THE HOLMES INC. PROJECT” with other members of the HI2 creative team. In Room 717.

The convention ends at 9pm today–but there’s lots more to come all weekend long!

See you there,

Keiren

Just a few of the comics Ty Templeton has work in...

Holmes #2 is HERE! YAY!

It’s the home stretch, and we’re down to less than a hundred hours before you can have and read your OWN copy of Holmes Incorporated #2!  It’s coming out soon as a digital download, and actual paper and print copies will be arriving at our office to see, touch and hold on Friday, available as a mail order, or off the shelves in select comic stores in the Toronto Area.

Pencils and Inks, the lovely and talented Leonard Kirk, and coloured by the talented and lovely K.T. Smith.

So all this week, we’re handing out free previews of every story appearing in the second issue to whet the appetite of even the most jaded comic fan.  And yes, I know this is San Diego week, and I’m terribly sorry to be taking so much attention away from the goings on down there in California, but if we turn out to be more popular and talked about than some silly old convention, it’s not my fault they couldn’t keep up with us.

Yes, that’s the rotting corpse of the Great Detective.  We like to offend as many as possible on the very first page.  Script by future master, James Cooper, art by future superstar, Daniel Wong.

Next up, a delightful entry from Dino Caruso and Pierce Derochers-O’Sullivan, two towering talents with perhaps the coolest names in comics.

Poor little dead sea monster From Canada – You can find out what  happens in the full story on Friday!  Next, sway to the delicious rhythms of the dance, as we move to steamy South America with too-skilled-to-be-newcomers, Christopher Yao and Darius Fox.  (Okay, those are some kick-ass cool names too.)

Down boys, Sherlock’s great granddaughter is still a teenager.

Uh-oh.  Nefarious hands are reaching for our “Watson”.  That can’t be good, but it CAN be read and enjoyed on Friday.  I don’t believe in the soft sell, do I?

Our last preview pages for today (plenty more coming in the next few days though), comes your way, courtesy of the mind-bogglingly well-named Rain Infinity.  (Yup, his real name!).  Dig that crazy-good artwork, and wait til you read the rest of his story!  Wait, he’s a writer AND an artist, and he’s already great at both?

If you like the look of “Poker-Face”, you’re going to LOVE his bodyguard!

I haven’t even begun to show off the talent that’s contributing this giant sized issue of Holmes Incorporated, but I’ll continue doing so over the next few days.  The digital download will be FREE, just as it is with Holmes Incorporated #1–keep an eye on the Holmes Incorporated website to find out when it becomes available. You’ve got no darned excuse for not checking out the next generation of super-star writers and artists as they crash this party we call the comics industry.

See you tomorrow with more goodies and previews.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Holmes Incorporated Moment, courtesy of the magnificently named Gibson Quarter (who ain’t no slouch when it comes to artwork!  Coloured by my other half of the sky, Keiren  Smith).

Don’t forget, you can digitally download the first issue already at GRAPHICLY, and it’s also free, because we love you guys and want you to read this stuff.

And check out the Holmes Incorporated Blog, where the contributors and their editor give you the DVD extras, with layouts, scripts, and behind the scenes goodies.

And of course, the fount of all this fun, the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop is always looking for new converts to the madness.  If you live in Ontario, drop by and learn yerself how to make funnybooks.

(for bios/contact info/deviantART sites etc of all of our creators, check out the Holmes Incorporated website.)

 

The Sherlock Holmes family all goes to bed, and I say thank you.

Back from the final meeting of the Holmes Incorporated Team last night, where we all got to see the cover for the first time, and we sent the book in for lettering, final production, and printing.  All done.   So I get to show off a bit more of it here on my blog, and also link you to the Holmes Comic blog for more info about it all.

First off, here’s the just-got-finished cover by Leonard Kirk, coloured by KT Smith (aka Keiren Smith–kts).

Leonard has a frightfully busy schedule at Marvel Comics, but managed to squeeze in a perfect shot of our sword-and-gun-fighting family of sleuths for our latest cover.  And KT Smith’s schedule was no less busy, I promise, when she knocked those colours out of the park for us.  BIG thanks all around.

Now it feels like a real comic book.

Something else that makes it feel like a REAL comic book:

A panel by Danny Setna from Kathleen Gallagher's western tale of the Holmes Family. EAT up that detail work, fun-seekers!

And this:

A pin-up by Christopher Yao for our sword swinging teenaged version of Sherlock Holmes the Third. You can call her Trey. And yes, she's in the a different coloured-suit, but that's getting fixed in production...

And that’s not all the fun that was had at the latest get-together of the creative team…

Our final meeting was filmed for an upcoming episode of The Electric Playground, which is doing a segment on Holmes Inc. and the group responsible.  Our host for the segment, Shaun Hatton, interviewed a handful of the creators for their first even TV interviews, and shot the bunch of us as a full tribe as we gathered round the artwork and said praising things about each other in general.

none of these attractive people is me, but the one on the right is Shaun Hatton.

And finally, a big thanks to Rob Pincombe, who has done so much heavy lifting on getting this issue ready to go that it defies belief.   As our assistant editor, AS WELL AS as a surprise penciler, and writer, collaborator with my son, and co-ordinator of the Holmes Blog, he easily put more man-hours and creativity into this project than any three other contributors combined!  It’s as much his baby as anyone’s and may he now take an internet bow!

Rob Pincombe and a school chum. Rob is one of those multi-talented people that would annoy you for all his abilities, if only he wasn't friendly and likable.

So lovely evening all about and good work shown around, and apparently hours of enjoyable drinking in the pub across the street right after I left.

Go HERE to visit the Holmes Incorporated homeblog, and read tons of lively behind the scenes bits about the making of this comic.

See you around here with more Bun Toons, and some fun silliness when I get a chance to breathe.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your putting Sherlock Holmes To Bed Bonus Moment:

Nah, I’m kidding, here’s the REAL putting Sherlock To Bed bonus moment:

It's the one you demanded anyway.

Holmes Inc. Pin Up

woo hoo. Really. woo hoo.

Ty asked me to post this–because he forgot that I’m crazy, artistic and singularly unable to do a thorough tooting of my own horn. So, I’m posting this sheepishly, with an “aw shucks” and an urge to point out every single thing that I think is wrong with this. Except–LOOK AT THAT ART!

That, my friends, is Mr. Daniel Wong, and he is but one of the many talented Fit-to-Printers taking part in Holmes Incorporated #2. This is his pinup contribution to the Holmes Inc. website…and it’s a doozy. Lovely fun to colour over.

So, check out the site and click around to see more…(some of the creators have links; there are more to come. But click through and see more of what these guys are capable of!).

And keep your eyes on this spot to find out when this collection of talent and creativity hits the newstands and digital universe.

Keiren