Big Sexy Comic Shop

Hooray! Big Sexy Comics now has a proper storefront!

To mark the grand opening of our ye olde Big Sexy Comic Shop we're offering a crazy special!

• Buy either volume of Teuton and get a free 8"x10" coloured sketch! FREE!   
• Order both volumes and get two free colour sketches! FREE!

To take advantage of this awesome promotion just follow these ridiculous instructions:

1. Select "With Ink Sketch" for $20 when purchasing either volume of Teuton
2. Type in the promo code "GRANDOPENING" when checking out
3. Request what you want sketched in PayPal's special instructions or e-mail me: adam.gorham@live.ca

Take advantage of this special offer while it lasts, because the promotion ends March 8th! But fear not, you can come see Fred and myself at the Toronto ComiCon March 9th & 10th where we'll be debuting the long awaited reprint of Teuton: Volume 1!

Click to Big Sexy Comic Shop!

FAN EXPO 2012 Post Game Wrap-Up

The Big Sexy Comics table: where expectations meet disappointment!

  So that happened.

The past four days were a success for Fred and I on many levels. We are both really happy with how Teuton Vol.2 was received. Half of our stock was sold! My thanks and gratitude goes out to everyone who bought a copy.

There are so very many people who showed me kindness and made me feel super. Tony and Kara Moore were badass and extremely kind neighbours. Bob Layton is fucking hilarious and shared with me his brand of cynical wisdom. Convention nights are made spectacular by the company of Phil McClorey, Brian Evinou, Jeff Brown, Fred.

I'm grateful to Michael Walsh and Ed Brisson for the best stroll down Spadina Avenue in memory; to Marcus To for always making me feel welcome; to Ty Templeton and Keiren Smith for treating me like a peer; to Gibson Quarter for being Gibson-fucking-Quarter; to Kris Johnson for praise I'm working hard to be worthy of...

The list goes on. There are more people to thank and stories to tell, but it's all too much to chronicle here all at once. I'll say that I'm left with a whopping new set of memories. With past conventions I was plagued by regrets. This year my only regret is not being able to spend more time with everyone who made this year uh-mazing.

Now here's a series of convention drawings...

Thor: in ancient viking garb.

The Joker in prison for Katya.

Captain America: to whittle away the hours.

Jonah Hex: had Westerns on my mind.

Homecoming

I've been away these past two weeks. While I am preparing to write all about my experiences abroad, I'd first like to acknowledge some awesome things that happened in my absence!

The very night before I left town I was feverishly at work on the cover for Holmes Inc. #3, which was a nice return to a property I played a small role in establishing over two years ago. Most of the same people I worked with on issue one have returned for this third installment, and I really wanted to come through for them.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to colour it myself, as was my ambition. However, since I was handing it over to the very capable hands of Ty Templeton, whom I trusted implicitly to make it even better, I was I not so much surprised as I was totally blown away by his finished colours nailed what I envisioned

Thanks so very much to Ty for the opportunity and his excellent. I'd also like to thank all the cool cats and kittens from the Holmes Inc. team for their valuable input.

The book will be on sale this weekend at the Toronto Fan Expo, and you should absolutely grab a copy. I mean it. Do it.

I've also learned from reading my backlogged Twitter feed that TEUTON Vol.2 has arrived from the printers, and since I haven't received any panicked e-mails from Fred I can only assume the book is problem free! Here's a peek courtesy of Fearless Fred: http://instagram.com/p/OH5CnlqZFa/

The book will be available at Fan Expo this weekend. Come have it signed by Fred and I, get a nice ink sketch by Yours Truly, and maybe even a free smile.

My Batman print will also be on sale, so, you know. Buy one.

Big Sexy Interview With Ricky Lima / TEUTON Vol.2 News

Back on Free Comic Book Day @ Stadium Comics, Fred and I spoke with intrepid web-reporter Ricky Lima about TEUTON Vol. 2; namely how the wonderfully talented Agnes Garbowska will illustrate a back-up story for the new book! I thought this addition to the book was meant to be a surprise, but I totally forgot we spilled the beans on camera.

The story Agnes is illustrating pertains to the actual Lithuanian folklore behind some of the key players in Volume Two. Agnes' trademark style serves as a great contrast to my heavy inks, and from what I've seen of her early drafts she really drives it home. I'm truly excited!

It's surreal to see another artist render your creations and bring them to life. In a strange way, Agnes' pages substantiate the book as a real thing in my mind. As Kramer said when J. Peterman published his life stories, "I've broken through--I'm part of popular culture now!"

I'm on the home stretch with TEUTON Vol.2 with just a few pages left to go, then the cover, and then... I can't think that far ahead. The ending of this one packs a wallop and I'm eager for people to read it all in one go!

 

TEUTON Vol. 2, pages 67-71

The Komtur is leaving a bloody trail across the Lithuanian wilderness in his search for Perkunas' Axe. Even after the devastating ambush on the French legion, the fabled weapon eludes his grasp. As it turns out, the Axe was seized at Constantine's Crossing, a distant trading post on the borderlands (pages 54-66). Now in the hands of Maximillian, a Teutonic Knight in charge of the trading post who is unaware of the weapons heritage, it is only a matter of time before the Axe is discovered--but by whom?

Meanwhile, Perkunas is looking for answers. Hot on the heels of his battle with his godling Nephews (pages 46-51), Perkunas sees the web of conspiracy surrounding him. Now he plans to deal with those who would supplant him, starting with Velinas.

 

TEUTON Vol.2 , pages 60-61

The Komtur draws near to his prize, the Axe of Perkunas! Working in service of Maras, the Goddess of Death, he'll soon be free of her bidding once he delivers the Axe into her hands. One thing stands in his way--the French Duke Philippe!

HORROR In The WEST

Exciting news in the world of Indie comics!

A little while ago I contributed artwork to a exciting comic anthology called Horror In The West. The book has been long in the works and was created and edited by Phil McClorey. He's the writer of many cool horror shorts for his own imprint, Furious Comics. You can read my creative history with Phil here. 

I can honestly tell you the book is going to be killer. I'm super excited about it. The video lays out the skinny pretty well, but in case you couldn't commit to watching a two minute video, I'll spell it out here:

Horror In The West is cadre of frightful horror tales that take place in the old West.  The anthology is creator owned and independent, and is made by some of the baddest and raddest indie talents around: Sam Agro, Jason Copland, Dan Simon, Chris McQuaid, Brian Evinou, Jeff McComsey, Fred Kennedy, and many more!

For my own part, I was only able to contribute a pin-up, although I would have loved to spin my own yarn. Nevertheless, I did craft a story for the devilish saloon girl illustrated below. 

My initial drafts all featured the femme fatale mostly nude. For obvious reasons, Phil requested that she be clothed in the final draft. The character, whom I don't yet have a name for, was inspired by another character I once thought up. Nicknamed "The Coyote Queen", she was a desert nymph that seduced travelers with her carnal beauty and wild spirit before stealing their souls. 

I still really like that idea, but I thought it would feel out of context in the anthology. So I took the essence of this girl that only exists in my mind and gave her a distinctive Western aesthetic. Now you can have a look at my process:

 Prints of my pin-up will be offered to those who make a pledge of $35! 

They'll be signed by Yours Truly and may come with extra sketch, if that sweetens the deal!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!

 

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY IS UPON US!

 Here are my final three sketch covers that will be up for grabs today at Stadium Comics. These were certainly fun to do, but I was worried I wouldn't finish them in time as they were sprinkled atop my already heavy workload. 

I'm very excited for today. I'm waiting for my partner in crime, Fearless Fred Kennedy, to roll into town and then it's off to the races!

To all my pals at TCAF, The Comic Book Lounge, Image Collections, I say: Have an excellent day, my friends! I look forward to seeing all the awesome sketches you'll no doubt be doing today plastered on the interwebs!

To all you casual readers, the innocently curious, and the closeted  comic lover, I encourage you all to visit your nearest comic retailer and support your local artists!

So long!

Happenings

PODCAST

Yesterday I joined friends and fellow indie creators Phil McClorey and Brian Evinou for a round table discussion on the plight of the independent comic creator. Moderated by Fearless Fred Kennedy, the recorded rap session will be available on Fearless' FREDCAST! in a week or so.

Fred's podcasts are worth checking out, as they feature an amalgam of great Canadian artists and writers.

I enjoyed my time and did my very best not to mumble incoherently about Batman. Personally, I think I failed to properly relate my thoughts and experiences as a relative newcomer to the comics world. I'll write more about that some other time.


FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Saturday, May 5th is Free Comic Book Day. To mark the occasion, Stadium Comics is having a tremendous sale, a slew of fantastic guests (including myself), and of course free comics. From what I hear, Stadium Comics has the biggest FCBD event in the GTA. Read all the details here.



Featured here are two of five exclusive sketch covers I illustrated. They'll be raffled away, along with many others, to a few lucky customers who come join the fun. Have a peek at the other amazing sketch covers up for grabs here.

Not to be outdone, my good friends at The Comic Book Lounge are also celebrating FCBD with fun shenanigans of their own.

If you can't make it to Brampton, then I encourage you to visit The Toronto Cartoonists Workshop gang, as well as sexy exciting guests like Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, Mike Del Mundo, Gibson Quarter, and more!

TEUTON Vol.2, pages 58-59

Pages 58 & 59

Blood and fire fill the cold Lithuanian air as the Komtur's undead forces rush the fractured French soldiers! Does this outnumbered band of knights stand a chance?

Meanwhile, not content with watching the mayhem from afar, Ziburnis decides to enter the melee incognito by taking the garb from an unsuspecting undead warrior. What is this assassin's angle?

Stay tuned!


Process

These last few pages were some of the most fun and challenging I've yet drawn for TEUTON. Pages 58 & 59 in particular have been my Everest for the last week.

Fred wanted this segment to raise the bar for our story. One of his strengths as a writer on this book is his knowledge of medieval warfare. He carefully laid out for me what was to unfold, and while listening to him it was clear how cinematic it was in his mind. In Fred's imagination, TEUTON is the greatest swords and sorcery B-Movie ever made, and would star Karl Urban as Andrus. He even drew me maps of the bridge and the troops and wagon train to show me how the action would take place. I'm sorry I can't find it otherwise I'd post it.

Feeling the importance of this story beat, I saw it as a worthwhile challenge to up my own ante as an artist. So far in Volume 2 there's been much action and violence with Trolls and Gods, but neither of those had the scale of open war. So what you see below is a collage of roughs, thumbs, sketches, and scrapped drafts.

With almost every page in this segment I added more panels. Fred intentionally wrote fewer panels for me to be able to jam more details and action into each frame. What I found after reading the scripts and drawing my thumbs was that would require me to draw super elaborate details wideshots while trying to establish new characters. Take page 52 for example, where we establish a new setting and introduce the Komtur into the book. I was worried that not giving him a close up would be jarring when readers reach that page, so I opted for smaller panels garnishing the main establishing shots.

Another interesting challenge was researching what tools and practices back then to do things like dig a trench or make catapults from logs. I've never done any of those things before and had no frame of reference for them. So when Fred's script simply says Skeleton warriors are digging and fortifying trenches as others assemble siege weapons, I knew it was time to do some homework.

Page 54 was my next hurtle. After showing my thumbs to Fred, we discussed over the phone the idea of a blizzard suddenly moving in. The rationale being a blizzard would provide convenient cover for the Komtur's forces, as well as disorient the French wagon train when attacked. However, when I was midway into the page I felt I wasn't properly rendering the scene with my inks. The wispy, wavy lines and oblong snowflakes were a bitch to do and ultimately looked messy. I re-drafted that page several times inking it this way and that. Finally I gave all the figures heavy black and splattered the whole damned thing with white acrylic paint.

Finally, the double-page spread you see above was actually scripted as two separate pages. Below are my thumbs for both.

One thing Fred insisted was the whole thing needs to feel big. He wanted the armies to feel large and full. Rightly so. When I first flitted through the pages of the last trade, I couldn't help but see things I drew that needed beefing up. Even now I look at the Troll battle and feel a nagging itch to draw and replace things here and there. Those feelings in mind, I didn't want reflect on these particular pages later on and feel I skimped. With that I examined my thumbs for 58 & 59 and immediately said to myself, "no boxes." In our very first issue, virtually every page contained vertical boxes. While that was completely intentional, I've grown to regret my decision to do that, and I don't want to fall into that lazy trap again.

This was by far the most rewarding page to work on, although it took me longer than either Fred or myself would have liked. There are much grander battles coming, so I had to start building muscle here.


Enjoy!

TEUTON Vol.2, pages 56-57

This means war.

While crossing the bridge, the French convoy are attacked by the Komtur's forces.

With the bridge set to blazes, the French forces are severed, and now one half must scramble to get across while the other must defend themselves from the Komtur's undead army!

TEUTON Vol.2, pages 54-55

Now that the French Duke and his convoy have arrived across the bridge the Komtur's trap is sprung!

Now watch the mayhem unfold...

TEUTON Vol.2, pages 46-51

BEHOLD!

The big, bad brawl of the gods told in full!








As always, catch up on the full epic saga @ BIG SEXY COMICS!

Toronto Comicon In Review

For me personally, the Toronto Comicon was easily one of the better shows in my past couple years of experience. No hiccups, no bad traffic, no forgetting things at home, no last minute dashes to DeSerres on Spadina Avenue.

Our Big Sexy Comics table, A-94, was a stones throw away from the legendary George Perez. Even from a distance he is visibly one of the kindliest men I've ever seen.

Across from us sat an impeccably wonderful collection of folks that included Gibson Quarter, David Cutler, Keiren Smith, Ty Templeton (constantly surrounded by a corona of adoring fans as always), and Leonard Kirk.

Good company was in no short supply. I had a blast palling around with writer Phil McClorey and artist Brian Evniou. I also had the great pleasure of chatting with Phil Jimenez, who is as skilled as he is charming. My good friends Doug and Steph returned from PEI and paid me a very warm visit.

The highlight by far was seeing my daughter Rosalind Belle strut down the aisle in her Batman t-shirt. She was awe-struck by the sights and sounds. Just recently we watched The Empire Strikes Back together, so at the age of 2 she is already Star Wars crazed. Seeing the very impressive R2-D2, the Stormtroopers, and Darth Vader left her jazzed. Sitting with me at my table she played pretend lightsabers and belted out an inventive rendition of the Empire theme music. Suck on that, John Williams.

The show was otherwise successful. We sold some books and met great people. Big thanks to my table-mates Fred, Jeff, and Andre.

Yes, I do have Batman prints left. I've been contacted by several curious people who couldn't make it to the show. There are 38 left to be precise. However, as I stated over the weekend, I will not be selling them at future conventions. They will be available to purchase @ my Etsy store, or you may contact me to buy from me personally: adam.gorham@live.ca

TORONTO COMICON!

One more sleep until the Toronto Comicon, boys and girls!


I'll be there with Fearless Fred, Andre Fernandes (artist of Big Sexy Comics' HELOS), and Jeff Brown (writer of Flag of Tears and editor of Dorkshelf.com). Stop by and give us love and money!

We will of course be selling copies of TEUTON Vol.1 for $10 each!

Pick up a commission from Andre or myself!

I'll be selling a limited print run (50 signed and numbered) of my Dark Knight Rises illustration! Get 'em before they're gone!

Toronto Comicon

I'll be attending the Toronto Comicon this weekend (March 10th & 11th) at the Metro-Toronto Convention Center!

With me as always will be Fearless Fred, writer/creator of TEUTON!

Come see us and the rest of the Big Sexy Comics team! There'll be comics and sketches and oodles of fun to be had!

TEUTON vol.2, pages 44-45

Continuing from where we left off, our heroes are met by a band of Teutonic Knights...



Their leader, a scarred and hardened looking captain named Ritt (whom I don't believe is explicitly named in this scene. A note to Fred...), proclaims the woods are rampant with unspeakable dangers. This after stumbling upon a massacre of forest trolls. Thank you, captain obvious.

These two pages close the whole encounter with the trolls. Stayed tuned for Perkunas' earth-shattering meeting with his brother, Bangputys!

VICTORY!

The 3rd annual Everything To Do With Fred Show kicked off last night at The Sound Academy.

Boy, was it rad. That's saying a lot coming from me, because I spent the week prior panicking it was going to be terribly awkward selling and signing comics at a rock show. I mean, who would care when the likes of Monster Truck and USS were taking the stage? Wrong. Everyone who stopped by the table was extremely nice/drunk and super supportive.

In fact, now I get to eat my words because we totally sold all our stock!

A big, big thanks to all the fine people @ Stadium Comics for facilitating the good times. Thanks to everyone who dropped by. A special thanks goes out to the lovely Andrea, who brought a parched nerd some water.

And of course to Fred: Thanks for a great night! Also, I spent the cash from our sales on over-priced hot dogs out front--I'm sorry!

UPDATED: TEUTON vol.2, pages 37-41!

Update: Originally I wanted this post to include page 41, which caps off this action beat nicely. I just took a little longer laying that page out because, well, I'm still learning. Enjoy!

The battle rages on...






In other news...

I'll be attending the Toronto Comicon (March 10-11) with Fearless Fred and the ever-growing Big Sexy Comics team.

Mark it down, babies!


PS.

The official Big Sexy Comics website is undergoing some much needed maintenance. Right now, you can read all of Teuton Vol.1 and the first 21 pages of Volume 2 at higher resolutions!

Exciting, no?

Follow the link, faithful reader, to satisfy your medieval cravings!...