End of Year News Round-Up
COMIC TIME rounds up the offbeat and the unusual; the kind of news and happenings that you never even knew you couldn't peruse elsewhere until now...
KONSTANTIN KOMARDIN the award-winning Russian sequential artist, graphic artist and animator has been visiting the United States of America attending conventions in recent years. His appearances have provided a rare opportunity to see his original artwork, watch screenings of animated short films and commission art.
Konstantin was born in Ekaterinburg, where he fell in love with sequential art as a child, and went on to attend the Academy of Book Design. He has worked with numerous publishing houses on book covers and interior illustrations, while also working with anthology magazines in the role of graphic artist.
Some of his published work can be found in the bande dessinee magazines Veles, Hacker, Max Cooler, Moulin Rouge, and Timof (that featured his story Siberian Dreams) and such comics as Agent Z, Sit-o-city, Gate of Alice, and Mechanics of Senses. Other works include the Russian/Polish project City Stories. Konstantin was awarded the Grand Prize for The Site of Polis at the Moscow Comics Festival in 2003.
A talented illustrator for print, Konstantin is also an award-winning animator having produced concept designs for Elka, Man With the Wind in his Head (featured at the Suzdal Film Festival in 2008) Tram, Spindel (honoured at the Moscow Short Film Festival in 2010), and The Man in Penze Nez that was screened at both the Suzdal Film Festival and the Moscow International Film Festival in 2010.
For more about Konstantin Komardin visit the Eva Ink Artist Group.
DON HECK: A Work of Art was a 192 page full colour hard cover book about the original artist of Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye,and key early Avengers issues for Marvel Comics back in the swinging sixties; written by John Coates and published by TwoMorrows.
Sometimes maligned, but equally praised as an artist, the book documents how Don Heck joined Atlas/Marvel Comics in 1954, and along with industry giants Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Maneely, and Dick Ayers, became an integral player in The Marvel Age of Comics, drawing The X-Men, Spider-Man, Nick Fury—Agent of SHIELD, Daredevil, The Defenders, Ghost Rider, and most of Marvel's other major characters. Coates also discusses how Heck became regular artist on top-tier 1970s DC Comics titles such as Teen Titans, The Flash, Justice League of America, Wonder Woman, as well as putting in time at Dell, Gold Key, and as a ghost artist on Lee Falk’s The Phantom newspaper strip.
In addition to personal recollections from Heck’s surviving family, long-time friends, and comics industry legends, the narrative of the book is formed from two lengthy interviews with the artist himself (one rarely-seen, and another unpublished until now) pieced together. There are full colour examples of artwork and a special chapter where the author debunks a longstanding myth that putting Don as artist on a comic meant the sales would drop; complete with actual sales figures to prove the point. Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee provides the foreword, and writer Beau Smith pens the afterword.
TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow championed this project for several years; perhaps as a form of penance for his youthful ignorance, commenting, "As a kid, I was one of the fans who jumped on the popular bandwagon of considering Don Heck to be one of the worst artists in comics. Thankfully, I've matured since then, and have come to realise how wrong I was. So I challenge readers to give this book a try - you can't help but come away with a new appreciation for this underrated artist. And wait'll you marvel at his amazing storytelling ability, especially when he was allowed to ink his own work." DON HECK: A Work of Art is available both in print and as a digital edition.
DARK DREAMS: The Art of James O'Barrwas a gallery exhibtion featuring the art of the creator of The Crow, took place within the Mosely Gallery at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA.
The opening event also featured a film screening of The Crow, followed by a question and answer session with O'Barr for his only appearance at the gallery. The art show itself featured 30 original pieces of art, and the closing event was a Halloween costume party.
HELLBOUND MEDIA released the third in their popular Shock Value series of horror anthologies, featuring a cover by Anna Pennlund.
Written by Hellbound Media founders Matt Warner and Mark Adams, with an additional story by guest writer Jamie Lambert it also featured the anthology’s first prose story, written by Chrissey Harrison.
Adams commented that the strips, “Look at the dark side of human nature, exploring both the supernatural and the evil found in human nature itself”.
Other first included the publishers’ mascot Elle Bound making her first comic appearance in an adventure titled The Deadstar Diamond and the return of foul-mouthed Dublin vampire hunter Dawn Keenan in Sunday Drive.
Shock Value can be purchased direct from Hellbound Media and UK comic shows.
