Friday, July 2, 2010

Welcome to the NEW Temple

We've got some new featured and TONS of exciting news with the NEW Temple of Cartoon Mojo. But first...

Why is it important to get involved with the Temple? NETWORKING and EMPLOYMENT! Darnell Johnson landed himself a concept art job when the company saw his work on this blog. He was also recently hired by Marvel Comics to do a special project. All this right before he graduated. Congrats, Darnell! The Temple is a great place to help with networking to land that first job. So if you're a SCAD-Atlanta SEQA student, it's a no-brainer. Get involved with sketch challenges and send us work and news to post. You never know who is going to see it.

Darnell wasn't the only student to recently be hired by Axel Alonso at Marvel Comics. Irene Strychalski and Dominike Stanton were also nabbed for a special project. Congratulations, guys! All of this was due to the three of them taking part in the SCAD-Atlanta SEQA Writers' Forum last May. Getting involved with your department events pays off. Stay tuned for more news on their Marvel project.

Faculty member Nolan Woodard was also hired by Marvel to color the upcoming "Lady Deadpool" #1. This follows professor Shawn Crystal's long run on "Deadpool" books for the past year. Marvel sees what we're doing at SCAD-Atlanta's SEQA Department and is liking it. How many professors practice what they preach? All of SCAD-Atlanta's and the comic industry recognizes it.

Marvel isn't the only company hiring SCAD-Atlanta SEQA students. Oni Press, who publish professor Chris Schweizer's Crogan graphic novels, hired Remington Veteto to pencil and ink a multiple issue run on "Wasteland" starting with #29 and Erin Gladstone, Cara McGee, alum Justin Wagner, Falynn Koch, and Jackie Lewis to pencil and ink stories for "JAM! Tales from the World of Roller Derby" which came out last week. Cara is also currently working on a graphic novel for Oni called "Confessions of a Virgin Sacrifice". Jackie also illustrated a book called "Play Ball". How did this happen? They all got involved in the SCAD-Atlanta SEQA Publishers' Forum last winter. Yet another reason to get involved with events.

As for the NEW features:

The new header is by Irene Strychalski. We had quite a few submissions but she really captivated the concept and humor of our department. Nice job, Irene.

MEMBERS - An updated list of our faculty, students, and alum. In order to become a member you must be a SCAD-Atlanta SEQA student, alumni, faculty, or staff. If you have a blog or website or LJ or Deviant Art account devoted to your artwork, please email templeofcartoonmojo@gmail.com the link so it can be added to this list.

CALENDAR - As of right now it contains just a link to ConventionScene.com where you can see the schedule for all upcoming comic conventions in the world. We'll be adding SCAD-Atlanta events and schedules in the coming month. Fall quarter will see a BIG update in this section.

SHOWCASE - Just like our physical showcase boards outside of room 347 in Building 1600 on SCAD-Atlanta's campus, we now have an online version. This same showcase can be viewed as a slideshow in the sidebar. If you are a SCAD-Atlanta SEQA student, alumni, faculty, or staff and have amazing (student) work you'd like to share, please email your work as a JPG, GIF, or PNG to templeofcartoonmojo@gmail.com so it can be added to the Showcase.

WEBCOMICS - We now feature a collection of links to student run webcomics. If you are a SCAD-Atlanta SEQA student, alumni, faculty, or staff and have a webcomic you'd like to share, please email the link and a banner (200x75 pixels) to templeofcartoonmojo@gmail.com so it can be added to this list.

SKETCH CHALLENGES - This is a HUGE collection of all open sketch challenges and submissions for each one. Now you can easily view challenges you can take and see what's been done in the past. As before, you can vote on next week's challenge in the sidebar where the current theme will also be posted. Sketch challenges are not limited in any way except that they must focus on the theme. When you complete your sketch, email templeofcartoonmojo@gmail.com a 72dpi image (JPG, GIF, or PNG). If you have a suggestion for a theme, send it in an email to the same address to add it to the vote.

SPOTLIGHT - We'll be featuring a new Spotlight each quarter now. There is actually a backlog of deserving students. Our next one is Dominike Stanton who is now alum but still more than worth promoting. Check back tomorrow for his Spotlight Q&A. His work is already featured as a slideshow in the sidebar.

FORUM - The Temple now has a Google Group. It's a place where students can post news, work, tips, tricks, and get critiques from their peers. In order to take part, email templeofcartoonmojo@gmail.com so you can be added as a member. We're also looking for student and alum moderators. Let us know if you're interested.

TEMPLE GOSSIP - At the very bottom of the page is a Chatbox. It's there for anyone and everyone to chat and share ideas. Have fun with it.

It's now summer quarter so we hope everyone is having a great break or enjoying their summer classes. Enjoy the new Temple and have fun with the upcoming sketch challenges!

2 comments:

Irene Strychalski said...

Shweeeeet!!! XD
Thanks for revamping the site, Nolan! It really works much better. And congrats to everybody who got hired for something!

Darnell said...

Thank you! I want to say congrats to everyone!!Dominike, the man is a beast! Loving the work Sr. and congrats on the spotlight. Irene is also a beast I don’t know how you do it. The header looks good. Nolan, great professor, tough at times but that what I needed. Congrats on landing a colorist position with marvel. Shawn, The best for last but not the least! Congrats on your work with Deadpool!

I remember when I first started out in Sequential after changing majors. Was a little unsure what I got into, but soon found out it was the right choice. I learned a lot from Shawn. Thank!

So I guess what I'm trying to say is learn all you can from Shawn and Nolan. SCAD Atl department is where it’s at! Hold it down!