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)

More Canadian Superheroes!

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a Canadian.  It’s something I was born with, I’m not bragging or anything…

And as a result of all that Canadian blood in my veins, and stuff, y’all know that I’m the writer for a new mini-series from Moonstone Books featuring Johnny Canuck and the heroes of the NORTHERN GUARD, all based on the Canadian Golden Age comic book heroes….

Ty Templeton, David Cutler, KT Smith, covers Jason Edmiston

but did y’all know that my wife, the lovely and talented KT SMITH, is the letterer  for ANOTHER Canadian superhero series, an online extravaganza called HEROES OF THE NORTH? And they JUST put up the latest issue of the online comic and the latest episode of the online live-action series.

written by Michel Brouillette & Yann Brouillette/ art by Marcus MASMan Smith/ letters by KT Smith

You heard me right, snow-heroes…HOTN has downloadable comics, live action webisodes, and more, and it’s great fun.  Click here to bathe in the rich, bacony goodness of heroism amidst the tundra fur trappers. (Click HERE to join their Facebook Fan Page)

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your comic book moment of zen:

Fan Expo Canada 2010–Friday August 27

Ty is in post-con mode–tired, exhausted, fatigued…but with lots of work that he couldn’t do over the last three days. So, as he catches up with deadlines on oh-so-many exciting projects, he’s asked me to quickly “throw something on the blog”.

So, to be frank, I posted something to my own blog…but I’ll try my best here. Nothing fancy–a few pics, and maybe a comment or two!

Friday–

Ty at TCW booth (photo Rachael Wells)

I was home with the younger kids while Ty and the teenager were free and easy, men about town, wandering the Convention Centre, checking it out. Okay, in reality, the boy hung out at Dad’s place in Artists’ Alley, or he wandered around looking for loot (I think his favourite moment was the three? six minutes? of Halo Reach demo after the hour wait in line). Dad was off at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop booth chatting with students past, present, and potentially future.

Members of the Fit-to-Print course were on a schedule, for the weekend, to do signings at the booth; talk to people about the Holmes Inc. comic and course, and about TCW itself. For some of them, it was their first time at a comic convention on the other side of the table.

Kathleen Gallagher/writer and Eden Bachelder/artist for "Night Clubbing" from Holmes Inc. (Photo Rachael Wells)

Some members of Holmes Inc. actually had tables as well. I spotted Christopher Yao there with a table for his own work (with maybe one of the best names for a company going, Yaoza Graphics). And I spoke briefly with Adam Gorham who was hanging out with Big Sexy Comics, for which he draws Teuton.

Christopher Yao at his booth

Gibson Quarter sketching

In Artists Alley, Ty was seated beside Gibson Quarter who drew Flight Plan for

Gibson Quarter sketching in Artists’ Alley

Holmes Inc.  On Gibson’s other side was the one and only Leonard Kirk, who is teaching a course with TCW this fall.  To the right of Ty was seated David J. Cutler who is the penciller for Northern Guard, the Johnny Canuck mini-series Ty wrote for Moonstone Books (due out beginning in Novermber). By luck (or intentionally?) on David’s other side was Jason Edmiston, who is the incredible artist behind the cover for Hoverboy #1, and the same upcoming Northern Guard mini-series (as well as many, many other projects…check out his gallery of work).

Leoanrd Kirk wondering why the heck I was taking a picture of him.

So, Ty came back pretty happy to have been able to spend time with his students, to show off the finished Holmes Inc. comic, and to see everyone in Artists’ Alley.

And I totally forgot (’cause, you know that whole “I wasn’t there” thing)–Ty did a mini version of a Comic Book Bootcamp lecture. Was thrilled with it–said it was one of the biggest groupws he’d had for one, and thought everyone was very receptive to it.

Keiren

Holy COW! One Hundred Thousand?!?

Rich Chocolately Goodness

I’ve been VERY bad about blogging the last week or so.  It’s entirely because I’ve been VERY busy, drawing some covers, writing some scripts and working on some interior pages…the last two weeks, everything I owe publishers is late, and I’m working 15 hour days, which means, dear, dear readers I’ve had to slack off on this VERY fun, but VERY unpaid blog.  Don’t worry, that will all settle out in a few days, with luck.

But in the meantime, I’m beyond thrilled to announce that it seems the blog is working.  I started sporadically blogging after the start in Septeber, and with more regularity and intention in January, and started the Saturday Webcomic in March, and you guys seem to have shown up to read ’em.  Two days ago I discovered that this blog passed the one hundred thousand mark in readers, and that tickles the hell out of me.

Now, obviously, I’m aware it’s not 100,000 individual readers, I know the difference between a visit and a unique visitor.  Our UNIQUE numbers are down in the twenty thousand range, which means folks are coming back after they’ve been here once or twice.

So thanks for showing up.  Sorry it’s been a little sparse the last few days.  I’ll be back to regular blogging by the start of next week, and on Saturday, you ALWAYS  get the webcomic, even if I have to stay awake for 48 hours in a row.

And since I’m here, and since I’m the only one who has a copy of this cover with THIS logo, I’m showing off one of the many projects that are taking me away from this blog.

Hands up if you know who Johnny Canuck is...

It’s been announced on Moonstone Books at this point, but not around here, so I gets to announce.  The ALL-NEW Johnny Canuck comic book is coming out this November.   Moonstone is reviving the CANADIAN super-heroes from the Golden Age, and I’m writing and editing the project and another fellow Canadian (DAVID J. CUTLER) is drawing it.   David is a graduate of some of the comic book courses I teach, and WOW, are you going to be impressed with his work when you see it this fall!  He’s going to be BIG!  Big, I tell you!  (I’d like to pretend I taught him everything he knows, but he was already disturbingly skilled when I met him…)

For those who don’t live in Canada and aren’t in the know, we had our own comic industry in the forties, during the war paper shortages, featuring such characters as Johnny Canuck, Nelvana, Freelance and others.  The art and writing in the “Canadian Whites” (so named because there was no interior colours, just black and white) was fairly spectacular, and the characters created are uniformly entertaining, and as a proud Canadian, I’m delighted to be involved in bringing ’em back to a modern audience.

Moonstone’s Joe Gentile has been very supportive of the project, but was concerned that American audiences will have never heard of Johnny Canuck and his pals, and asked me to change the logo and name of the series to work for a buyer who never heard of the Canadian Whites.  I utterly see his point, but this patriotic Canadian is so in love with the Johnny Canuck character that I can’t help but show off THIS version of the cover (painted by the amazing Jason Edmiston) with the original logo.

I’ll show off the new logo and title tomorrow, along with a REALLY fun story of the gig I got last week that may well be the happiest job offer I have ever received….(how’s THAT for a teaser?!?)

Again, thanks for showing up and making the hit counter rock 100,000 hits in the last few months.  It’s very gratifying to know you like me as LEAST as much as Sally Field.  (Wow, is that a dated reference!)

Ty the Guy

UPDATE: in the Comments, Scott Dutton has been kind enough to direct us to his site where he’s giving some Canadian Whites away for FREE! FREE I tell you!