James Leary & Mitch Byrd @ IndieGoGo

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent,

Mitch Byrd is one of my favorite artists. We worked together for many issues of my comic book, Dinosaurs For Hire and he also illustrated a comic I edited, Planet of the Apes: Sins of the Father, that was written by a friend of mine, Mike Valerio.

Later on, he moved over to DC and worked with Beau Smith on the very manly Green Lantern spin-off, Guy Gardner: Warrior series.

Now, in conjuction with writer and actor James Leary (he played Clem on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mitch is working on a new title called James Leary’s House Of Screams.

James and Mitch, along with cover artist Steve Scott, are working through IndieGoGo  to try to raise the necessary money to make it all happen.

Take a look and see if you’d like to help. I love Mitch’s work (I was a fan long before we worked together) and I can’t wait to see his new work in print. So go make it happen.

[Artwork: James Leary's House Of Screams #1, cover pencils by Steve Scott, © Alarm Comics]

Helping Japan

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

The images and news reports coming out of Japan are absolutely heartbreaking.

If you’re an artist and would like to do something to help out, Wednesday’s Heroes has a way to contribute.

Craig at the site has started an art auction and he’s looking for donations from folks who want to participate. Details at the link. The Fraim Brothers, Mitch Byrd, Gene Colan, and Robert Pope already have stuff up with more to come.

Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has a number of related links to other ways you can help, along with announcements related to those affected by the crisis.

Robot 6 also has a nice round-up of helpful links.

Japan was a big help to the US following Hurricane Katrina and the US comics industry is very closely aligned with the Japanese manga industry, so if you can please lend a hand.

[Artwork: News photo of Sendai]

Barry Blair and Aircel Comics

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,

Barry Blair passed away earlier this week. A very talented writer-and-artist, he was one of the founders of Aircel Comics with the backing of Ken Campbell. The imprint got its name from Campbell’s refrigeration company. Barry had a house stockpiled with a number of artists eager to create comics and they were all put to work churning out books for Aircel with titles like Elflord, Samurai and Warlock 5.

For a couple of years their books were very successful and featured work by Blair, Pat McEown, Dale Keown, Dave Cooper, Jim Somerville, Guang Yap and others during the black and white boom of the mid-1980s. When the market soured, Campbell was eager to shed the imprint. Rather than shut it down, he made a deal with Malibu Comics President Scott Rosenberg to take it over. Malibu was the parent company to Eternity Comics.

As part of the deal, Malibu would run the imprint and Barry would provide 4 books a month - a new book every Tuesday either by him or his studiomates or in some form of collaboration. In addition, Malibu would also sponsor Barry’s green card - he wanted to move out of Canada to New York City and found a place in the shadow of the United Nations building. For a couple of years, Malibu published a wide variety of Aircel books - Barry’s own adventure books, Dave Cooper’s wild parodies, and even a Jim Somerville zombie book.

Click to continue reading Barry Blair and Aircel Comics

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