DAVE LANPHEAR TO PENCIL DEEP BLUE

[MattBrady]

Press Release

Publisher Rick Olney announced the signing of Dave Lanphear. Lanphear will pencil Deep Blue.

“It just seemed to fall into place. I'd coincidentally reached out to Rick at orcafresh to promote the new goings-on at Artmonkey Studios reported at our blog ( http://artmonkeys.blogspot.com),” Lanphear said. “Rick replied back quickly, based on his kind recollection of meeting me when he'd toured CrossGen in 2002(?), and asked if I'd be interested in attending the June Mighty Minicon. I did some legwork to round up a few other professional guests, so we were in constant touch in February. Then in March, Rick gave me a call, and asked if I'd be interested in doing some illustration.”

Lanphear, known for his lettering work for Marvel and other companies, is pumped to illustrate Deep Blue. “Illustration has always been a vital component of my lettering career. But it's been easier to find lettering work!” Dave added. “I'm not well-known for being an artist, but I have spent a long time as an illustrator and cartoonist, and have won several awards as an editorial and comic strip cartoonist. Those careers (from 1985-1990) happened before I fell into comic book lettering full-time in 1991 (which I've done for 15 years now). I'm never far from illustration, though! In 1993, I inked two Robotech mini-series while also working in-house as a staff letterer at Malibu. In 1999, I took a year side-career in storyboarding, working on PBS' Dragon Tales and a Hallmark TV Christmas Special. And again, 2000-2003 at CrossGen, I cartooned a weekly strip called "Crossing The Line" shown in Comic Shop News, which I've begun to archive in my gallery at DeviantArt (http://daveletters.deviantart.com). I spent a lot of 2004-2005 working as an inker at CrossGen, and assisting freelance for a couple of the guys there.

I made a long-term goal in 2003 that I'd rededicate myself to illustrating regularly, and I launched Artmonkeys Studios as my vehicle to achieve it. 2005 seemed like the year I'd leap into illustration and storyboarding again, but then Artmonkeys had a large upswing in lettering projects that demanded my full focus. Now that lettering has leveled off, and my lettering assistants are so capably onboard, I began planning this summer to speculate again on my illustration career.

Through 2005-2006, I'd been developing some spec comic book illustration projects with several writers (including Chuck Dixon, Mike Bullock, Wil Radcliffe, Alex Shearer, Jason Masters, and F. Scott Kesler). Spec work is daunting when there are monthly bills, but I wasn't naive enough to believe I'd find paying comic penciling work in 2006. I was betting on myself, however, that one of the developing projects would break out into a full-fledged publishing deal.

Breaking out of the pack, though, that dark horse Rick Olney contacted me about a paying illustration assignment last month. I had no idea it'd turn into an offer to pencil his book! After hearing more of the Deep Blue series, I knew it was a series I'd feel great drawing! Rick's desire to craft an all-ages adventure book matched my own personal interests in stories I want to tell, and certainly his timing seemed right, so I agreed!”

Will Dave also provide the lettering? “Definitely! 15 years as a letterer will certainly be put to the test now that I'll be composing full art pages, so I couldn't turn down the chance!”

Dave Lanphear is the CCEO (Chimp Covertly Existing Online) for 3-year old Artmonkeys Studios, works from his top-secret Artmonkeys Mobile Studio, tooling digital fonts in his foundry, lettering rafts of internationally-sold books, and crafting illustrations for pop media outlets. Intelligence has revealed Lanphear covertly reports via asynchronous orbital transmission bursts to www.ArtMonkeys.com and with his pack of rogue ArtMonkeys, are blowing the creative bubble of Pop Culture bigger and brighter for the world. Catch up with Dave’s current and upcoming projects at http://artmonkeys.blogspot.com/ .

Joining Dave Lanphear on Deep Blue is co-writers Rick and Nelson Olney and colorist Shawn Khun.

[Bill Tortolini]

This is GREAT news. Dave is a real stand up guy. I look forward to seeing his illustration work take the front stage!

BEST OF LUCK DAVE!

Bill

[orcafresh]

Wow, thanks for the coverage Newsarama!

This is really indeed a great day for Dave Lanphear and his family, as his earlier email this morning suggests:

Hi, all --

I'm e-mailing you to notify you to check our blog "Life, Love & Art in the Time of Artmonkeys" regularly, starting now. That's the hotlink underlined up there, and the full address is in my signature below. If the hotlink doesn't work, just paste the full address below into your browser and hit "Go".

http://artmonkeys.blogspot.com/

Say prayers for us! It's almost 5:30 am, and Natalie's contractions are about 2-3 minutes apart. She was dilated to 6 when checked an hour ago. Our 2nd baby is on its way!!

Impending congrats to Natalie & Dave!

[Damian]

pardon my ignorance, but what's deep blue about? i'm pretty sure i've seen it before, but my memory isn't working to well this morning.
anyway, congrats to mr. lanphear and his wife.

[orcafresh]

Originally posted by Damian
pardon my ignorance, but what's deep blue about? i'm pretty sure i've seen it before, but my memory isn't working to well this morning.
anyway, congrats to mr. lanphear and his wife.

Damien, the story synopsis is as follows:

Ever wonder what your life would be like if it
abruptly changed and you found a travel network that
cast you into different adventures withonly one
connecting thing that hadn't changed?

"Deep Blue" is an adventure drama series that
centers on the disappearance of two youngsters in the deep ocean -- and tracks their lives as they discover a
variety of characters on an Earth they no longer recognize. They are: Jessie Partlow, the young 14 year old daughter of an oceanographer who discovers the secret of the world; along with Gage Jessip, 16 year old adventure seeker, on his first ocean cruise trip to spend a summer with his older brother, Taylor.

Both try to keep things under wraps; making heads or
tails of their situation, but fear and mystery ensnare a
spectrum of people, including naval officers in the
South Antarctic Sea, a family in White Lake, New
York, scientists from the Oceanographic Institute at Woods
Hole in Massachusetts, and divers in the Florida
Everglades region. At times, things are never what
they seem, as they find beautiful -- but deadly
surprises as readers discover what might be lurking
and connected to the Earth's waterways.

Damien, we had just this same response yesterday from a local press reporter. This is what my son had to tell the reporter. "'Deep Blue' is reading and viewing entertainment for all ages in the tradition of 'E.T.' and 'Close Encounters,' and it will have action, suspense, thrills and heart as footprints lead our two young adventurers from the believeable into the fantastic." added 15 year old co-creator and writer, Nelson Olney, as he went on to explain that his dad has always encouraged him to be imaginative.

"What better way to honor that encouragement?" he
replied.

So that's it. I don't know what you might've been thinking of, but DEEP BLUE has never seen print elsewhere before.
Thanks for your question.

[Damian]

you know what it was, i was thinking of blue monday by Chynna Clugston-Major.
the logos are quite a bit similar, fontwise.
i like the water effects you have on yours though.
sounds like a cool story. could you e-mail me when it's out?

duff@eyetrauma.net

[orcafresh]

I sure will!

And for the happy news on Dave & Natalie Lanphear's newest addition go read Dave's blog at:

http://artmonkeys.blogspot.com/

Keaton Clyde Lanphear was born at 9:54 am this day!
He's 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and he's 20.5 inches long. There are pictures and he's adorable!

Congrats from all of us here at TightLip Entertainment to the proud parents!

[Mike S Miller]

Congrats on many fronts, Dave!

[WilRadcliffe]

I can't think of any guy in comics who deserves this kind of professional and personal good fortune more than Dave.

Congrats, you li'l Art Monkey, you!

[khuxford]

Man...this is all so sad, in retrospect...'cept for the announcement of the baby.

Shame on Rick Olney for taking David away from projects that COULD have become paying gigs to promise him pay that he'd never wind up seeing.