MattBrady
06-09-2003, 07:28 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Epic2.jpg" width="200" height="304" border="0" hspace="2" align="right">by Mike San Giacomo
If this were television this would be a “very special episode” of My Epic Journey.
No, no one is getting married, dying or having a baby.
In light of the announcement that Mitch Breitweiser will be the artist on Nowhere Man, I thought it would be smart to jump ahead and talk about the artists I have been working with on the project.
The main reason is that Epic hopefuls are putting together art teams and these guys ought to me at the top of the list. It kills me not to be able to use ‘em.
So if anyone has a really hot greenlighted project and needs an artist, read on.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/big-rig.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/big-rig_t.jpg" width="200" height="224" border="0" alt="Bigelow by Mitch" hspace="2" align="left"></a>Just don’t touch Mitch. He’s spoken for.
A comic writing buddy of mine told me the biggest problem I would encounter putting together a comic would be finding an artist.
He said that there are very few decent artists out there.
He was wrong.
Finding an artist to draw Nowhere Man turned out to be the easiest thing in the world. The tough part was selecting one to use from the good ones.
I was still working on the scripts when Marvel Marketing Director Mike Doran asked if I would be part of the Marvel press conference announcing the first amateur two books of the new Epic line.
The same day of the press conference I started getting e-mails and calls from prospective artists, known and unknown.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_ManMuncover_sample.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_ManMuncover_sample_t.jpg" width="185" height="300" border="0" alt="Muniz cover sample" hspace="2" align="right"></a>Cool, this is going to be a snap.
One of the first inquiries was from the guy I eventually chose, Mitch Breitweiser. He e-mailed some samples, which looked pretty darn good.
Then a guy from Texas named Jun Kim sent me his samples. His were good, too.
A few days later, Jim Muniz from Queens asked for a chance to show what he could do.
I sent out a script to these guys and a few others and suggested they take a page and show me what they could do.
There were three or four other folks who were interested, but I felt their styles were either too different or frankly, not up to snuff.
One of the pleasant surprises was an e-mail from Scott Morse offering to do a cover. Wow. Scott Morse of Soulwind and Volcanic Revolver liked the concept. I graciously declined because I knew there was no way in hell that my budget could afford him. My budget can barely afford me.
Mitch Breitweiser of Hoboken, N.J., had the inside track from the day he sent over the very cool Nowhere Man logo, which will be used for the series.
He’s a talented guy out to prove himself, which will not be very hard.
He’s 25, which is a little scary considering what I was doing at that age, and has drawn an issue of Agent X. He also drew a story in Noble Causes: Extended Family which is due on the stands any minute now.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/coverKIM.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/coverKIM_t.jpg" width="185" height="286" border="0" alt="Kim cover sample" hspace="2" align="left"></a>He works with Golden Goat Studios, another batch of talented people.
If I was not convinced that Mitch was the man for the job by his samples drawn from my script, his portfolio at Wizardworld East in Philly convinced me. He draws a mean Black Widow.
See for yourself at <a href="http://mitchellillustration.com/." target="_blank">http://mitchellillustration.com/.</a>
Jun Kim lives in Texas, but we won’t hold that against him.
Born in South Korea, that’s the Korea without nuclear weapons, (well, of their own, as they’re more than welcome to ours), he and his family moved to the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands when he was 11.
Despite his parents’ advice, he was determined to be an artist. He moved to Texas to attend college and now, at age 30, is marketing director for a national engineering and consulting firm.
Check out his samples elsewhere on this page or at <a href="http://createrdesign.com/comicart/" target="_blank">http://createrdesign.com/comicart/</a>
He can be reached at comicart@createrdesign.com
Jim Muniz came the closest to unseating Mitch for the art chores.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Muniz_Sam_Twitch_t.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Muniz_Sam_Twitch_t.jpg" width="185" height="286" border="0" alt="Muniz's Sam & Twitch" hspace="2" align="right"></a>Born in Miami, he moved to New York at age 5 and was taught to draw by his grandfather, Jack Kirby. Just kidding, Kirby was not his grandfather. I think it was Joe Kubert.
After a promising career is baseball with 90 mph fastball in college, his dreams of pitching for a ball team shattered when he injured his throwing arm.
He turned back to art and tried to break into the business in the bad old days of the early 1990s. He won a cover drawing contest held by Todd McFarlane drawing Sam and Twitch. God willing, it should be somewhere on this page. Jim now lives in Queens.
Jim can be reached at JMuniz610@aol.com.
You’ll be seeing the work of Thom Zahler of Timberlake, Ohio, on another Epic project, Crimson Dynamo as letterer.
Zahler, well, I'll let him describe himself:
"Much to the dismay of his mother, Thom Zahler decided to follow his dream of becoming a cartoonist and graphic artist. He was then sentenced to three years at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art , where he learned such important things as figure drawing and that Batman had a pet dog once named Ace the Bat-Hound, who actually wore a little mask.
After escaping New Jersey, he returned to Ohio where he took advantage of hapless men trying to show off to their girlfriends by becoming a caricaturist on the Geauga Lake midway. He now works as a freelance caricaturist in the Ohio area, performing at birthday parties, county fairs and anywhere else he thinks there may be single women.
He has also worked in various capacities in the comic book field for Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers and Claypool Comics. He currently writes and draws the Slider comic strip for the Cleveland Indians and letters for Marvel Comics and Claypool. He is the creator of the graphic novel Raider: From the Shadows, the first installment of an action-adventure-spy series. Always busy, you never know where he might turn up next."
A portfolio of comic book and other cartooning work:
<a href="http://www.thomz.com" target="_blank">http://www.thomz.com</a>
He is most proud of his recent work Raider: From the Shadows which can be previewed at <a href="http://www.raidercomic.com" target="_blank">http://www.raidercomic.com</a>
But before we go, take a look at Jim inking Mitch. I think we may have a winner. <center><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhereman_page_inked.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhereman_page_inked_t.jpg" width="185" height="294" border="0" alt="Mitch inked by Muniz" hspace="2" align="center"></a></center>
And on top of all of that, before we go part two, Mitch has also cleaned up the logo…
<center><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/noweherman-logo2.jpg" width="500" height="156" border="0" hspace="2"></center>
Next week: back on track with the Epic Journey.
Mike Sangiacomo, a freelance writer for Newsarama and other sources, was invited to share his experiences with pitching to Epic by Newsarama's editor, Matt Brady, in the interest of keeping readers well informed. Brady advises Newsarama readers that he is aware of the inherent conflict of interest presented by journalists working for a publisher they cover. Sangiacomo’s regular column Journey Into Comics has and will continue to be found in the Opinion/Editorial section of Newsarama. Brady has not, nor does he plan to pitch to Epic himself.
If this were television this would be a “very special episode” of My Epic Journey.
No, no one is getting married, dying or having a baby.
In light of the announcement that Mitch Breitweiser will be the artist on Nowhere Man, I thought it would be smart to jump ahead and talk about the artists I have been working with on the project.
The main reason is that Epic hopefuls are putting together art teams and these guys ought to me at the top of the list. It kills me not to be able to use ‘em.
So if anyone has a really hot greenlighted project and needs an artist, read on.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/big-rig.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/big-rig_t.jpg" width="200" height="224" border="0" alt="Bigelow by Mitch" hspace="2" align="left"></a>Just don’t touch Mitch. He’s spoken for.
A comic writing buddy of mine told me the biggest problem I would encounter putting together a comic would be finding an artist.
He said that there are very few decent artists out there.
He was wrong.
Finding an artist to draw Nowhere Man turned out to be the easiest thing in the world. The tough part was selecting one to use from the good ones.
I was still working on the scripts when Marvel Marketing Director Mike Doran asked if I would be part of the Marvel press conference announcing the first amateur two books of the new Epic line.
The same day of the press conference I started getting e-mails and calls from prospective artists, known and unknown.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_ManMuncover_sample.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_ManMuncover_sample_t.jpg" width="185" height="300" border="0" alt="Muniz cover sample" hspace="2" align="right"></a>Cool, this is going to be a snap.
One of the first inquiries was from the guy I eventually chose, Mitch Breitweiser. He e-mailed some samples, which looked pretty darn good.
Then a guy from Texas named Jun Kim sent me his samples. His were good, too.
A few days later, Jim Muniz from Queens asked for a chance to show what he could do.
I sent out a script to these guys and a few others and suggested they take a page and show me what they could do.
There were three or four other folks who were interested, but I felt their styles were either too different or frankly, not up to snuff.
One of the pleasant surprises was an e-mail from Scott Morse offering to do a cover. Wow. Scott Morse of Soulwind and Volcanic Revolver liked the concept. I graciously declined because I knew there was no way in hell that my budget could afford him. My budget can barely afford me.
Mitch Breitweiser of Hoboken, N.J., had the inside track from the day he sent over the very cool Nowhere Man logo, which will be used for the series.
He’s a talented guy out to prove himself, which will not be very hard.
He’s 25, which is a little scary considering what I was doing at that age, and has drawn an issue of Agent X. He also drew a story in Noble Causes: Extended Family which is due on the stands any minute now.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/coverKIM.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/coverKIM_t.jpg" width="185" height="286" border="0" alt="Kim cover sample" hspace="2" align="left"></a>He works with Golden Goat Studios, another batch of talented people.
If I was not convinced that Mitch was the man for the job by his samples drawn from my script, his portfolio at Wizardworld East in Philly convinced me. He draws a mean Black Widow.
See for yourself at <a href="http://mitchellillustration.com/." target="_blank">http://mitchellillustration.com/.</a>
Jun Kim lives in Texas, but we won’t hold that against him.
Born in South Korea, that’s the Korea without nuclear weapons, (well, of their own, as they’re more than welcome to ours), he and his family moved to the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands when he was 11.
Despite his parents’ advice, he was determined to be an artist. He moved to Texas to attend college and now, at age 30, is marketing director for a national engineering and consulting firm.
Check out his samples elsewhere on this page or at <a href="http://createrdesign.com/comicart/" target="_blank">http://createrdesign.com/comicart/</a>
He can be reached at comicart@createrdesign.com
Jim Muniz came the closest to unseating Mitch for the art chores.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Muniz_Sam_Twitch_t.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Muniz_Sam_Twitch_t.jpg" width="185" height="286" border="0" alt="Muniz's Sam & Twitch" hspace="2" align="right"></a>Born in Miami, he moved to New York at age 5 and was taught to draw by his grandfather, Jack Kirby. Just kidding, Kirby was not his grandfather. I think it was Joe Kubert.
After a promising career is baseball with 90 mph fastball in college, his dreams of pitching for a ball team shattered when he injured his throwing arm.
He turned back to art and tried to break into the business in the bad old days of the early 1990s. He won a cover drawing contest held by Todd McFarlane drawing Sam and Twitch. God willing, it should be somewhere on this page. Jim now lives in Queens.
Jim can be reached at JMuniz610@aol.com.
You’ll be seeing the work of Thom Zahler of Timberlake, Ohio, on another Epic project, Crimson Dynamo as letterer.
Zahler, well, I'll let him describe himself:
"Much to the dismay of his mother, Thom Zahler decided to follow his dream of becoming a cartoonist and graphic artist. He was then sentenced to three years at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art , where he learned such important things as figure drawing and that Batman had a pet dog once named Ace the Bat-Hound, who actually wore a little mask.
After escaping New Jersey, he returned to Ohio where he took advantage of hapless men trying to show off to their girlfriends by becoming a caricaturist on the Geauga Lake midway. He now works as a freelance caricaturist in the Ohio area, performing at birthday parties, county fairs and anywhere else he thinks there may be single women.
He has also worked in various capacities in the comic book field for Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers and Claypool Comics. He currently writes and draws the Slider comic strip for the Cleveland Indians and letters for Marvel Comics and Claypool. He is the creator of the graphic novel Raider: From the Shadows, the first installment of an action-adventure-spy series. Always busy, you never know where he might turn up next."
A portfolio of comic book and other cartooning work:
<a href="http://www.thomz.com" target="_blank">http://www.thomz.com</a>
He is most proud of his recent work Raider: From the Shadows which can be previewed at <a href="http://www.raidercomic.com" target="_blank">http://www.raidercomic.com</a>
But before we go, take a look at Jim inking Mitch. I think we may have a winner. <center><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhereman_page_inked.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhereman_page_inked_t.jpg" width="185" height="294" border="0" alt="Mitch inked by Muniz" hspace="2" align="center"></a></center>
And on top of all of that, before we go part two, Mitch has also cleaned up the logo…
<center><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/noweherman-logo2.jpg" width="500" height="156" border="0" hspace="2"></center>
Next week: back on track with the Epic Journey.
Mike Sangiacomo, a freelance writer for Newsarama and other sources, was invited to share his experiences with pitching to Epic by Newsarama's editor, Matt Brady, in the interest of keeping readers well informed. Brady advises Newsarama readers that he is aware of the inherent conflict of interest presented by journalists working for a publisher they cover. Sangiacomo’s regular column Journey Into Comics has and will continue to be found in the Opinion/Editorial section of Newsarama. Brady has not, nor does he plan to pitch to Epic himself.