Axel Alonso, Marvel EIC, May 3rd

Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief at Marvel Comics, will be doing a Q&A in room 347 on Friday, May 3rd, from 5-6:30pm! Come with questions! Don't have any? Think of some! This is a rare opportunity to talk to one of the biggest movers-and-shakers in the entire comic industry! Get your wisdom on!

This event is open only to SCAD students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

SEQA-Atlanta Alum do "DEADPOOL FAMILY"

Three of our best and brightest at SEQA-Atlanta have a Marvel comic coming out this week called "Deadpool Family"! Between C.B. Celbulski and Axel Alonso's various trips to SCAD-Atlanta they both saw potential in these students (now alum) and hired them to work on "Deadpool Family" last year. We've been privileged to have these students at SCAD-Atlanta and now the world gets to bask in their work too. On top of the great writer line-up mentioned below, the entire book is also colored by the amazing John Rauch. Here's the cover, by Jason Pearson, to look for on the shelves. Pick yourself up a copy!



First up in the issue is Dominike Stanton. He penciled Cullen Bunn's story focusing around Deadpool Kid and Deadpool Dog. Domo got lucky and also was able to draw a giant robot and lightsabers for Deadpool Kid!





Next is Mark HK Choi's Lady Deadpool and Zombie Deadpool story penciled and inked by Irene Strychalski. This one is not for the faint of heart. Lady Deadpool and Zombie Deadpool share a little too much with their therapist.




And finally, Darnell Johnson's Deadpool Dog story written by James Asmus. This is a sort of palette cleanser for the book as Deadpool Dog tries to eat Antman and hilarity ensues.




We could not be more proud of these blooming artists and fully expect this is just the beginning for them. Go out and get their first published work through Marvel this week in "Deadpool Family"!

Deadpool Family #1

"Deadpool Family" has been announced! The entire book was drawn by three of our SEQA Atlanta students: Darnell Johnson, Dominike Stanton, and Irene Strychalski!!!!

Shawn Crystal's ESPN Marvel Illu

Our fearless leader at SEQA-Atlanta, Professor Shawn Crystal, was one of the lucky comic artists who got to work with Marvel on the ESPN Marvel NBA Preview issue. His regular colorist on "Deadpool", the amazing John Rauch, backed him up with some gorgeous color. Check out more here. This issue is out at stands now so make sure you grab a copy!

Spotlight: Dominike Stanton

Our latest spotlight has been recently hired by Marvel Comics. He is one of the most talented students to come through our department in every way. Dominike "Domo" Stanton has a solid grasp on design, layout, storytelling, penciling, inking, coloring, you name it. He is the renaissance man of comics. Domo is also a stand-up, solid, responsible, funny, and fun guy too. He is the total package. Oni Press has also recognized this and hired him to pencil, ink, and color a story for "Resurrection" #4. Expect to see wonderful things from this young man and remember his name: Dominike Stanton!

Q. Where are you from and what originally got you interested in sequential art?
A. I was born in Baltimore, raised in Forestville, Maryland. I actually learned how to read through comics. From what my parents tell me, I was always interested in the pictures, but as I got older, became more involved in the stories.

Q. What books (comic or otherwise) do you regularly read and why?
A. I used to read a lot of Marvel Comics titles like X-men and Spiderman. Though we don’t gain superpowers in the real world, the outer conflicts and inner struggles of many of their characters made them so much more relatable than what other comic publishers were putting out at the time. Now I’m kind of all over the place with, not only fictional books with interesting stories, but real life people who didn’t wear a cape to necessarily be called a hero. Whether they are biographies from some of my life heroes like Malcolm X, Tony Royster Sr., and Tupac Shakur, or non-stop action from comics like Tekkonkinkreet, Ultimate Spiderman, and Vagabond, all of these subject give just enough substance to entertain and inspired me to keep growing into a better person, artist, and storyteller.

Q. Who are your major influences?
A. As a beginning/rising artist, and even now still, I was always extremely interested in artists with more cartoony/expressionistic styles like Humberto Ramos, Chris Bachalo, and Skottie Young. Not to mention the amazing animation styles of Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar. Though these guys played a huge role in my development as a cartoonist. As I continue to grow, I find myself pulling influence from some of my closest friends and mentors. I don’t want to list names because I don’t want to leave anybody out, but the biggest two I can name without a doubt are Jerry Gaylord and Shawn Crystal. Jerry is also a rising Pro comic/caricature artist who co-founded the studio, Identity Comics, based in the DC-Metropolitan area. We all know the Rising Deadpool superstar himself, Shawn Crystal. Both these guys took me under their wings and definitely played an enormous part in creating the artist I am today.

Q. Do you have a specific process in your work and, if so, what is it?
A. After I receive an assignment, or written script, the first thing I always do are thumbnails. This part of the process takes me the longest, but is the most important. It’s where I figure out the layout of my page, spot my blacks, and lets me set the overall pacing of the page without having to do too much drawing. From there, if I have a panel with intense perspective, I scale the thumbnail up to an 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper, where I rule out my perspective grid and work it out. Then, I blow it up to 11x17, where I light box a quick doodle of my thumbs onto Bristol board, and work from there.

Q. What tools do you prefer to use in your work and why?
A. I use a .5 Pentel Graph mechanical drafting pencil with blue lead to draw. I like using mechanical pencils because I can get really fine mark-making with them that I can’t quite get with a regular pencil. I like using blue lead, not only because it’s my favorite color of all times, but also because If I plan to ink the piece after I draw it, the blue is much easier to clean up in a digital file than traditional lead. As far as inking goes, I’m still new and trying to find the right tools for me, but so far I think I’ve been getting pretty good results from using the Pentel brush with regular Holbein ink, Faber-Castell PITT pens, and Hi-Tec-C pens.

Q. Do you have any professional work that has been published? And are you working on anything currently?
A. I have gotten published work. I actually did an 8-page back-story, pencil, ink and color, for the 4th issue of Oni Press’s “Resurrection” series. Currently I’m not working on anything, but I am due to start some pages for Marvel Comics’ Deadpool Corpse series sometime late this summer, so stay tuned folks. I’m heading for the big leagues!

Q. Are you working on any personal projects and, if so, what are they?
A. I’d like to think of myself as a hired gun. For now, I’m happy with working with other writers, translating their written ideas into sequential pages. I have a few ideas, but currently suck as a writer. Working as a penciler with many different scripts should cure that sickness over time. Then maybe later down the line I might try to execute a story or two of my own.

Q. How do you juggle your workload between college and your freelance life?
A. Schedules help. BIG TIME. Telling myself exactly how much time I need to sleep, I subtract that time from each day so I know exactly how many hours I have to get whatever I need accomplished. Then I set a weekly schedule according to how much work I have to do, usually trying to leave at least two days open to anything.

Q. Who would you love to work with one day and why?
A. Hmm… I’d probably need a thousand foot scroll if I were to list all the people I’d love to work with. There are just so many people I could name, including some of my friends, mentors, and professionals that I don’t think I’d ever be able to narrow it down.

Q. Where do you hope to see yourself professionally in five to ten years?
A. Same thing we do everyday pinky. Try to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!! … Wait. Does that work here?

Check out some of Domo's work. And this is just the beginning of his career. We can't wait to see his work in the future!

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!