Northern Guard #2 is headed for the stores!

…with another LOVELY Jason Edmiston cover.  It’s due out this Wednesday, so far as I can tell, but I’m never in the loop on these things.  The issue has made it’s way into the hands of a few reviewers already. They have their say here and here.  (Go ahead and click, they’re good reviews or I wouldn’t have linked to ’em.)

If #2 is not in your comic stores this week, holler and shout and cause a ruckus, without doing any bodily harm, and get them to order an issue #2 (and back issues of #1 while you’re making the fuss).     Our little hockey-playing band of super-heroes could use the extra noise, and the artwork by David J. Cutler (as well as the colouring by K.T. Smith!) is thrice worth getting before it’s all turned into a common trade paperback and EVERYONE has one.  You DO want to be first on your block to discover Cutler and Smith before they become the standard bearers of 21st comic art, don’t you?

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, you Canadian Comic Book Moment of the Day:

Little known fact: Northern Guard is not, in fact, the first super-hero comic book set in Canada.

Canadian Superheroes cont’d

Ty did a post on Johnny Canuck and Heroes of the North yesterday, focussed on little ol’ me, because we were talking about the work I’d done on the weekend. But there are quite a few other people involved in these projects, so I’m going to post ’em here so you can take a look at their work:

Northern Guard/Moonstone Books

David Cutler, artist

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Jason Edmiston, cover artist

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Heroes of the North

Marcus MASman Smith/artist

(Check out MAS’s colouring–there are other examples on his site. I have to turn from lettering to colouring some pages and I’m having some serious artistic insecurities after working on MAS’s pages)

(not a relative btw–I didn’t get the lettering gig through nepotism! At least I don’t think he is, hard to tell with us Smiths)

Will add more links as I find them…

Keiren

Ty tells me that I’m not supposed to post anything without adding a Comic Book Moment of Zen. I’ve got nothing “comic book” that fits so I’m going to post Keiren’s Moment of Zen…a Canadian Superhero! (he’s Canadian, and he’s a superhero–it fits)

A Suggestion not a Challenge…

So back in October, Ty wrote a blog entry about the Phantom card he’d drawn for a Moonstone card series…kinda went like this:

“Here’s an “Artist’s Sketch Card” I drew for the upcoming Moonstone card series.   This isn’t art meant to be reduced onto a card and printed many times…this is a teeny weeny itty drawing on a blank card.  The dimensions are two and a half inches by three and a half inches.  And here’s what’s wrong with me…when I look at it, I think I could have gotten more detail into the face if I’d had a smaller ink brush and better glasses.

Let us all say it together:  Oy!

Anyway…this original is going to be a surprise for someone buying some of the upcoming Moonstone Card series.  So, check your packs for this Phantom sketch card, and don’t be too disappointed when it’s in black and white, cause it’s an original.”

and then Ty wrote:

“AND DON’T SELL IT ON EBAY WHEN YOU GET IT, ya ratbags!

Ah…they probably will.

Ty the Guy”

So this was the card in question:

and here was my response to Ty’s comment

“(heh…Ty’s cynicism comes from the number of times after conventions, he’s gone ego-googling to see if anyone has said anything about the workshops he does at cons, and he discovers that someone, sometimes someones, is eBaying one of Ty’s free convention sketches–even one Ty has personalized in his signing.  Ty is completely resistant to the idea of charging for convention sketches–he even lectures his bootcampers about this ideal, feeling this is something he owes to his fans.  But the eBay listings make him pretty cranky.)”

and here is, yes you guessed it:  the eBay listing for the card.

Ty shows up

(I’ve been too busy to post anything so I shoved Ty into my chair, faced him towards the monitor and keyboard, took the pencil out of his hand, and left him here…)

Here’s an “Artist’s Sketch Card” I drew for the upcoming Moonstone card series.   This isn’t art meant to be reduced onto a card and printed many times…this is a teeny weeny itty drawing on a blank card.  The dimensions are two and a half inches by three and a half inches.  And here’s what’s wrong with me…when I look at it, I think I could have gotten more detail into the face if I’d had a smaller ink brush and better glasses.

Let us all say it together:  Oy!

Anyway…this original is going to be a surprise for someone buying some of the upcoming Moonstone Card series.  So, check your packs for this Phantom sketch card, and don’t be too disappointed when it’s in black and white, cause it’s an original.

AND DON’T SELL IT ON EBAY WHEN YOU GET IT, ya ratbags!

Ah…they probably will.

Ty the Guy

(heh…Ty’s cynicism comes from the number of times after conventions, he’s gone ego-googling to see if anyone has said anything about the workshops he does at cons, and he discovers that someone, sometimes someones, is eBaying one of Ty’s free convention sketches–even one Ty has personalized in his signing.  Ty is completely resistant to the idea of charging for convention sketches–he even lectures his bootcampers about this ideal, feeling this is something he owes to his fans.  But the eBay listings make him pretty cranky.)

Piles of Paper

Ty is going through piles of pages, sorting through his career.  Quite the retrospective.  He’s trying to decide what stuff to scan for this site.

Every now and then, one of us will check eBay to see if any of Ty’s stuff is on.  Sometimes, we’ll see a bunch of pages Ty’s inked over a particular penciller.  About eighteen months ago, someone was trying to sell a bunch of Jim Mooney pages, as Jim needed the money for medical/living expenses (he died early last year). Ty had inked Jim on Superboy pages.

It took Ty aback a moment as he tried to remember the issues:  as I’ve mentioned before, with such a wide and varied career it can be hard for Ty to remember what work he’s done, let alone who he’s inked over, or who has inked him. It can be easier to remember the big ones (Ty inked Curt Swan), and/or a tragic story (Ty drew two issues of Batman Adventures, when Mike Parobeck was unable to finish them not long before his death).  Sometimes, Ty will talk to a penciller or inker, through email or facebook, and will be confused when the other artist refers to their mutual work.  This sends Ty off through his pile of pages (or off to the Grand Comic Book Database!).

And, of course, even though Ty has been doing a lot of work on his own in recent years (pencilling and inking Simpsons’ stories which he has written), he’s still busy collaborating.  He was immensely pleased to work with Stephen Molnar on Revolution on the Planet of the Apes, and on Hoverboy, having first seen Stephen’s work in a portfolio review at a local convention.  And the artist for Moonstone’s upcoming Johnny Canuck and the Guardians of the North is David J. Cutler.  David was in Ty’s classes when Ty taught at Max the Mutt Animation School in Toronto.

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A page from Superboy #6 (1990) Jim Mooney pencils, Ty Templeton inks