The StatiCCREEP Exhibition Promo

href="http://vimeo.com/18028651">StatiCCreep from href="http://vimeo.com/user5505852">Mieke Zuiderweg on href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.

Beta-tease for DREAD:TWH

“Time blunts the keenest memory and histories will ignore what cannot be reconciled.
This is how we have come to forget that the first arrival of the Werewolf in the Americas was more an invasion than the affliction that took centuries to creep across the Old World.
The collection of horrors making up this invasion, and those who stood to gain in its success, went largely unnoticed by a native society already deeply pre-occupied and violently divided by a crisis that was literally erupting across their doorsteps and into their homes -the American Civil War.”
“And, as though suffering through the already great privations and predation, the guns, the shelling and the disease weren’t enough to stagger anyone misfortunate enough to be caught in the paths of two great armies bent to mutual destruction, we have to take into account that hard, and I mean very hard on the heels of all the death and of all the ruin…rode the fiend, Jeremy Dyre.”

-Diogenes Wilkens, 1881 Kyoto, Japan

I want to thank all the "beta-readers" that are taking time read the first issue of 'Dread:The Westchapel Horror'. Know that I've picked you because of your Nerd Quotient, your keen sense of story and your unflagging contempt of all convention. Round two will come in short order and then, there comes a calling down of Thunder.
Tony Akins

Bad Movie

Uhg..I Netflix'd "The Messenger". Couldn't even finish it. But the revelation sequence featuring the young Jeanne D'arc had some interesting images in it...This wasn't one of them- but for some reason my mind wanted to see this happen. Here's a prelim.

Fables TV ad for BBC America

Captain America For Mark Beatty

What- a year? Then the year was punctuated by the cruel taunting over the C2E2 weekend as I toted the art around, flirting it within Marks eye/earshot while two rows of conventioneers separated us...
Well, it's scanned now. I'm taking it to him right after I post this. This is still raw because I haven't cleaned up the inks. This is my first Cap. I'll hand the file to Paul Mounts to be colored and Mark has agreed to put a HUGE banner of this in his window as my payment. I'll swap out the Swastika for a red skull as it will be in the view of the general public.

For Your Consideration...

Julie, George...welcome to my humble blog. Please feel free to trove the older post to find various examples of my work; sketches, concepts and such...
Enjoy!
Tony

Western Wizard

There's Jonah Hex artwork in my files from twenty years ago...Way back, a few writers wanted to resurrect the character and I made samples for the trials. Just a few pages, mind you...but I come across them from time to time. Old friends.
So I was surprised by the face I was confronted with when I did a new sample when Jimmy Palmiotti recently asked for one. The peaked hat is more like that of a wizard's and the leer seems to be where I like it.

Bigby&Company

One of the pluses with being on the Fables/Jack of Fables Team is the community of fans gathered around both titles. Cindy McShane was generous enough to commission pieces related to the titles. Here's the first one delivered. Michelle Ho was there (at C2E2 in Chicago this past week) and taped the exchange. Bill Willingham, the recipient, was pleased I think. The piece revisits Bigby Wolf's two-part recounting of his experiences behind enemy lines in WW2. I can't recall the exact issue numbers. More to come!

Paulina

Paulina, originally uploaded by Tony Akins.

The old station. It's no more. Damn you, Godzilla!

Matt Baker

Sometimes I make a bit of noise about being a second-gen comic artist, apples do make some noise when they hit the ground, after all. If my father is considered a "pioneer" of color in comics, then I guess that makes Matt Baker the first established African-American comic book artist. I'm totally cool with that. Andrew Pepoy, who possesses a wealth of knowledge, first told me about Baker some months ago, "Consummate Good-girl artist...". This was no lie.
So as I move into this next phase of my professional life in comics, it will be with the added sense of something kindred, in addition to what my father shaped in me. The title to this entry is linked to a short article about Baker, who died young less than two years before my birth.



...you slick Devil!

Dedication

I recently took time to take a gander at the Fables Crossover TPB and noticed my dedication; "For the debaser, the harbinger and the killer-of-clones. For the meta-wizard, for the statiCCreep and all the shifters of the shapes within and around us... and to the page ever being turned."

I realize now that this is less a dedication and more an incantation in the truest sense.
And so be it. There's never a guarantee of getting far by following in an other's footsteps, you'll simply remain always behind, following. Lost men have discovered amazing things!

Things That Might Have Been...

Offers roll across my desk, sure. Sometimes my initial reaction to an idea tossed my way is, "Really?"...Generally this reaction is because I'd never in a million years think that I would be a fit for certain things. Other times it's because I may not feel that the title merits any serious consideration. The times I relish are when I'm surprised by an offer and think I'd be able to contribute to a line title, not "change" or "improve", but contribute.
Alas, a recent opportunity to expand my contribution to comics won't happen, despite the ardent advocacy of Jimmy Palmiotti. Oh well. This doesn't mean I'm leaving Jack of Fables. What I'm doing is starting a studio, several artists producing work for hire with yours truly in the lead. This should triple the pages I work on while maintaining quality. Basically it's just fucking time to change my studio dynamic.




At present there are no less than FOUR projects that I'm being considered for...wow.
All seem to be a pretty good fit. A couple are things I'm REALLY excited about, but I have to maintain an even strain and no, you can't ask me about them... I'm looking forward to working with other professional artists, whoever they may be...I'll begin the recruiting process once I find out what lands on my desk over the next few weeks.

This is that "new page" that needs to be turned ever so often in Life. At any rate, I've kept my productivity far too low for the last 10 years and now I'm looking forward to a new period of generating. Cheers to that!

Dance of the Demented!

Our fiendish friends at Chicago's Wildclaw Theater are having a benefit on Saturday February 20th at the Viaduct Theater. Alex Wald, Dave Dorman and myself will be among the grip of artists on site doing live sketches of burlesque babes from Michelle L'Amours Chicago Starlets in horror-inspired accoutremente. These pieces (the art, not the babes..that I know of) will be up for auction during the frightivities to support the upcoming run of William Peter Blatty's "LEGION", Wildclaw's new production. Follow the linked title of this blog entry for all the details, then SHOW UP! I swear these people know how to throw a good time (and viscera) for the sake of entertainment. I'm thinking about donning a pair of blood-splattered coveralls for effect, no?