| Sunday, July 22, 2007 |
| San Diego Comic-Con :: REVISED |
I'm off to San Diego in a few days. I've been eating well, drinking a lot of water and preparing my poor liver for the show. This is always a fun show, but extremely exhausting! Every year I'm excited to get there, and then even more excited to get home by Sunday. This year I'll either be walking the floor and pressin' the flesh, or I'll be at the 12 Gauge booth (2547). There are also a few signings and a panel. Hope to see you there! Here's the schedule:
Autograph area -
Thursday AA12 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Friday AA12 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Saturday AA5 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm
O.C.T. Panel -
Thursday, July 26 at 1:00-2:00
Rosario Dawson: Occult Crimes Taskforce—Actress Rosario Dawson (Grindhouse, Clerks 2, Sin City) is joined by her creative team, writer David Atchison and illustrator Tony Shasteen, as well as 12 Gauge Comics' Keven Gardner (The Ride) and Gus Vazquez, for a Q&A session about their hit comic series Occult Crimes Taskforce. With their first trade paperback in stores now and new stories on the horizon, the O.C.T. is just gearing up! Find out about the upcoming miniseries and get an update on Dimension’s Occult Crimes Taskforce feature film. Room 6A
Signing at the 12 Gauge Booth -
WEDNESDAY: 8:00 – 9:00
THURSDAY: 11:00 – 12:00
FRIDAY: 11:00 – 12:00
SATURDAY: 11:00 – 12:00
SUNDAY: 10:00 – 12:00 |
posted by Tony Shasteen @ 12:13 PM  |
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| Friday, July 20, 2007 |
| Business Week :: Mario Poster |
I did this piece for Business Week a few days ago. Here's the point they wanted to illustrate...
"The Nintendo Wii is a huge hit, and you’d expect the large video game publishers to be ecstatic, right? Well, no. They have focused most of their time and energy on PlayStation and xBox over the past few years, since they were the leading platforms and Nintendo tended to make its own hit games. But now, with Wii, Nintendo is too big to ignore and the publishers are scrambling to get Wii games out. This is putting a mighty strain on them since it’s a major investment, they’re in a race to get it done, and the game industry is being challenged by social networking for kid mindshare."
It sounded like a call to arms to me... or a call to keyboards for the developers. Either way, I thought an homage to Flagg and his Uncle Sam icon would be appropriate. Hope you like it.
Here's the piece in progress...
and here's the final...
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| posted by Tony Shasteen @ 8:02 PM |
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| Wednesday, July 18, 2007 |
| Still Point :: Sketch to final |
Last week I illustrated an entertaining story for Realms of Fantasy called Still Point, by Graham Edwards. I struggled with how I was going to choose one image to illustrate because the story was absolutely packed with insane visuals. After a few thumbnail sketches, and a nights sleep, I realized there was no way that I couldn't use the landlord even though he was only seen a couple times throughout. Here's a brief description...
"Inside the hooded man’s cloak was a cavernous space filled with wooden scaffolding. His internal organs hung pulsating from a Chinese puzzle of struts connected by dangling strings and straws. Black termites bustled over the scaffolding from heart to lungs to liver, carrying tiny buckets of blood. When they saw me watching them, the termites stopped and crowded to the front of the hooded man’s timber ribcage. Their eyes were huge and red and curious. I stared at the empty space inside the man’s hood. I could feel his gaze like a wind, stiff and cold."
Now I couldn't get so detailed to get the blood toting termites in there, but I think I captured the gist of the guy. The key is also a pivotal piece of information that needed to be shown.
See the approval sketch here. Also, it's amazing how some subtle color variations can completely change the tone of an already disturbing piece. See the color variations here.
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| posted by Tony Shasteen @ 11:37 AM |
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| Saturday, July 14, 2007 |
| O.C.T. #5 :: Random Panel |
Here's a new random panel from issue 5. Lots o' werewolves in the next story arch. More to come!
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| posted by Tony Shasteen @ 10:25 AM |
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| Thursday, July 12, 2007 |
| Heroes Con Interview :: thedollarbin |
There's a nice interview with the O.C.T. team over at the Dollar Bin. Listen to it here, or download it here.
"Meeting Rosario Dawson was a highlight for a lot of visitors to Heroes Con this year. From getting pictures taken and giving autographs, to the special screening of her film Descent, she was everywhere con-goers wanted to be. On Sunday, we caught up with Rosario, co-writer David Atchison and artist Tony Shasteen to talk about their book Occult Crimes Taskforce at the 12 Gauge Comics booth. Find out what they had to say about OCT and more in this edition of the Dollar Bin."
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| posted by Tony Shasteen @ 10:38 AM |
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| Looney Tunes Anniversary |
| I don't make a habit of posting videos, but this one has significance to me. What's Opera, Doc was released way back on July 6th, 1957. This was one of the cartoons I grew up with that influenced me as an artist. It's amazing how it still stands the test of time. What cartoons made today will measure up in 50 years? I'd guess not many. On that note, Rabbit of Seville was also one of my favorites. Apparently I had a thing for Operatic cartoons staring cross dressing rabbits and hunters. Who knew! |
| posted by Tony Shasteen @ 9:16 AM |
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| Tuesday, July 10, 2007 |
| Marvel Cards :: Sketches |
I'm doing 100 of these Marvel Sketch cards for Upper Deck. One card will randomly go into Marvel Masterpieces card sets. For the time it takes to do the card, and the small size (2.5 X 3.5 inches), it doesn't allow for a whole lot of detail. They are "sketch" cards anyway. Some of these may be winners but some may equally be stinkers. So, I'll post a batch now and again and at the very least it'll give me the opportunity to sketch more than usual. My attempt is to get a little looser and do a little more than static head shots by the time I finish these. Hope you enjoy.
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| posted by Tony Shasteen @ 1:44 PM |
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