Comic Creators Kevin LaPorte, Laura Guzzo, & Shawn Harbin Brings To The Dinner Table Road Kill!!! Bon Appetit!!!

Road Kill Du Jour

Kevin Laporte (writer)

Shawn Harbin (Artist)

Laura Guzzo (Colorist)

Inverse Press (Publisher)

www.InversePress.com

Comic Creators Kevin Laporte,Shawn Harbin & Laura Guzzo Serve up some hot Road Kill!!!

Kevin Laporte manages to pull it off again!!! He masterfully takes the weird and bizarre and makes it palatable so that us layman can both understand and experience a unique story. Du Jour is a story of curses, consequences, and bad choices, and how these choices are embodied within the lives of the characters in the story. Du Jour (The main Character) has just recently lost his entire family to the curse of an unspeakable evil…. Now he is cursed to roam the roadways forever as an immortal, (immortality hmmm- sexy at first thought right…?) An envious gift, however, with one caveat… he can only survive and remain so as long as he feast on the putrid and decaying carcass of road kill (in case you neo-layman are confused, road kill is an animal Killed on the road preferably by a automotive vehicle of some sort). Being forever doomed to this existence would be a nightmare for most of us, but Du Jour is not most of us, he now is driven by more primal stuff…

Kevin laPorte, Laura Guzzo & Shawn Harbin presents Road Kill!

Du Jour lives this “life” in the most lucid of fashions (just think Johny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas type of Lucid), the pages take you into this world, and after reading them his world begins to unwillingly seep into ours. You begin to see the pages as it is drawn, more importantly as Du Jour sees his current existence. The pages at first may seem confusing, but that is until you begin to understand that it represents the mental state Du Jour happens to be in. Laura Guzzo’s colors the pages in vividly blunt and psyche altering tones, I am sure the mental state of Du Jour would not have been represented correctly if not for the mental assault her coloring evokes. The Character designs are intricate and memorable, thumbs up to Shawn Harbin on his wicked pencil skills.

One of the finer points of this entire production; is that it managed to grip my attention by explaining the premise of the story really early on; without it feeling forced. Now, the portion of the story that appeals and interest me is what occurs when Du Jour eats his Road Kill feast, another important question, what did he managed to do to piss this evil off so royally that would warrant the slaughtering of his entire family and dooming him to a life of eating the dead?

Kevin laPorte, Laura Guzzo & Shawn Harbin presents Road Kill!

This is another GREAT read by Kevin LaPorte and his Crew.  Pick up this book and let us Know what you think! Were we right? Do Motorcycles, Mayhem, magic, vengeance, and road kill make for a Good Story??? Chime in!:-)

 

Creature Entertainment Presents Ultra Vixen.

Reviewed by: Ron Kerronian

Written and Created by: Marcelo Bravo
Penciled by: Jed Daugherty
Inked by: Kevin Routon
Colored and Lettered by: Rick Porven
www.Creatureentertainment.com

Marcelo Bravo’s Ultra Vixen.

Depicting Humor in comics is not always an easy task, many have tried and failed. However sometimes you get surprised…humor, Creature Entertainment’s Ultra Vixen not only pulls it off, but does it with style. The artwork flows extremely well, continuity is not lost here. The Story kept me guessing until the characters played their roles…once completed, I could not help laughing and feeling some envy, wishing she would someday rescue me once or twice. Comic Natives, if this story is a preview of what Creature has ahead, then I am all in.

Creature Entertainment Presents Ultra Vixen.

Creature Entertainment and The Rise of Ravenous; a Comic Not For The Faint of Heart.

Creature Entertainment and The Rise of Ravenous

Reviewer: Ron Kerronian Flash Rating: Ravenous, not for the faint of heart. Ravenous comes from the creative minds of Creature Entertainment; a dynamic entertainment company that has through grass roots marketing methods managed to produce cinematic quality Films and Comics worthy of an Eisner Award.

Written by: John Ulloa   Pencils by: Jose Varese  Inks/ Color by: Jose Varese Cover painted by: Patrick Reilly  Editor: Jaun Navarro Letters: Julio Alvarez Publisher: Creature Entertainment        www.creatureentertainment.com

Ravenous, a book of top tier quality; not only is the art superb, but also the story. The books’ concept of werewolves taking on the role of earths’ immune system is genius. Men have their weapons, earth has mythical beast to protect it. Ravenous is the classic adventure tale of hunter and prey, but the motivations of the characters playing in this deadly game are much more complex. The story starts off with a slow tense feel, the reader can sense the impending chaos about to ensue, and they are not wrong.

Creature Entertainment Presents Ravenous

Almost immediately the story throws the reader into a bloody battle, I was left to wonder whether or not this main character was going to survive the first few pages. The level of life and death uncertainty painted in those initial pages created an infectious interest (I had to read it all) in the story’s outcome up until the final pages. If Ravenous #0 is a prelude of what is to come, then I feel will be a story be a huge commercial success, but it would have done its job of ingraining the reader into the mystery, magic, and potential menace both hunter and prey bring to the table.

This episode From a rating system of “A – F,” I give  a solid A. This rating is awarded because the series starts off with enough interest to motivate me to want to read the next installment. The art is crisp and clean; with clear continuity. The writing at the story’s beginning gives a voice to the character ensnaring the reader into a false mood, it takes on an almost “once upon a time” cozy feel, instead of the bloody melee surprise which awaits him.

The Author or Director; Whose Movie is it?

Hunger games author(Suzanne Collinns) and director(Gary Ross).

While visiting one of my local comic book store haunts, Tates Comics. I overheard (Meaning I was Nosey) a discussion; one that almost got quite heated (We comic fans are so full of passion) between two store goers. The conversation asked the question, who gets the credit for the movie if it is based on a book?

In my opinion books and movies are two very different art forms; that happen to share a common interest – telling a story. These mediums are different; and distinctly so. The details of a book are imagined; and imagined differently by each reader, the possibilities are endless as to what the author intended and what the reader interpreted. Movies on the other hand are very direct and deliberate; there is no mistake as to what the director intends and what the audience received (in most cases, i.e. what the hell was Eyes Wide Shut all about).

For example, the color Red in a book can translate to many variations of red; even if the author spells out which color red, the reader will in most cases envision another color (In most cases). On the other hand, when a movie shows the color red, that color is the same red to all the viewers; unless they’re color blind.

Based on the correlations, it’s starting to seem that the director is the king of the movie. So with that said my opinion is that all movies based on books are inspired by the author but not necessarily credited to the author.

Your Thoughts my Entertainment Natives…

Walter Ostlie Creator of Cubicles and Shiver Bureau Gives an Interview To Encourage The Comic Writer and Artist in all of Us.

Walter Ostlie:  Key Ingredient for Success in This Comic Industry – Stic….

Sometimes you have to take a double take (two, Three, or even four years in a row) when trolling artist alley in order to recognize amazing work done by dedicated artist and writers. Venues like Mega Con affords purveyors like myself this unique opportunity; as it sets the stage for artist and writers that have the wherewithal to produce, showcase, to achieve  praise and in some cases endure the possible rejection of their work year after year. This drive is a great determinant as to whether artist and writers have a necessary ingredient to achieve in the comic industry – “stick to-itness” (I know it’s not a word, but it is becoming a very common phrase). Thus Far, Walter has given me the simplest and perhaps the best example as to how to go about achieving this “Stick to-itness” in our daily creative lives.

Walter seems like a very laid back sort of fellow as the video will attest, but his work ethic is anything but. In this video he explains just how “Stick to itness” paid off. His efforts landed him the opportunity to publish his creator owned property (Cubicle: The Movie), through the distribution and publishing arm of  Red 5 Comics (Atomic Robo, Abyss, MidKnight,  Afterburn, and Neozoic are a handful of products released by Red 5 Comics).

Walter Ostlie’s monstrous

What do Walter Ostlie and Thomas Edison have in common? They were not afraid to suck at their job if it meant they got better with every successive attempt. This kind of thinking and drive is what all artist and writers need in order to be successful.

Walter Ostlie’s MIcronauts

Walter is currently working on a new project Shiver Bureau which is currently published as a web comic. His Style of Art is as layed back as Himself, it seems effortless; yet comes together nicely. The colors are crasp; which make an immediate impact in the foggy and misty manner it complements the line work. In addition to the light heartedness of this interview, the one aspect of it I walked away with is the sudden burning desire it lit for me to start drawing and writing again…Who knows maybe you will feel the same way too.

I wish this amazing talent a lot of success.

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How to Make a major Impact on FREE Comic Book Day.

365 Killer, Sure Fire, Down – and – Dirty Marketing Strategies; Tactics For Indy Publishers and Comic Shop Owners…PART 24

How to Make a Major impact on FREE Comic Book Day - Power girl.

While investigating stores and the event that is FREE Comic Book Day ( FCBD), I noticed there were lots of promotion for the  FCBD event itself, but little to  no artist/creator promotional and relationship building material for the store itself  and its’ customers.  There was no branding, no creator community bonding, no creator retailer cross promoting… again, just the branding of the FCBD.

How to Make a Major impact on FREE Comic Book Day - The Fans Branded.

FCBD is already a known staple in the comic book world, what may be an unknown is your book, and the best way to change that is to get them in stores. How? You build relationships with the store owners, who have access to the customers, who in turn have access to the money and potential success of your work of art.

How to Make a Major impact on FREE Comic Book Day - True believers.

How do you go about building this relationship? The method I will be discussing is that of Private labeling, have the store incorporated in the comic book or published work you’ve  created, the easiest way to do this is by creating a store specific personalized emblem, picture, ect… on your book cover….this emblem/picture will be the accompanied by  the FCBD emblem. However, it will also brand you as a partnership fixture in the mind of the store owners and the potential customers that pick up your book.

Happy Hunting…

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How to Effectively Use Comics as a Means to ShowCase Your Other Talents.

How to Use Comics to Showcase other talents - Filming.

365 Killer, Sure Fire, Down – and – Dirty Marketing Strategies; Tactics For Indy Publishers and Comic Shop Owners…PART 23

While you are always encouraged to promote other companies in your book, I would encourage you to implement the uses of your company’s talents in the book as well.  Many publishers have diversified into multimedia, now they not only publish books but engage in activities as diverse as photography, video production, websites, logo, and graph design.

Photographer Uses Comics to Showcase other talents.

During “sequential intermissions”, I would encourage you to place Advertisements of you and your creative team doing what you do best, this will make the reader, customer, client or retailer, or even other publishers aware of your added benefits. If you do not wish to show boat, you can disguise your company by simply adding the talents of your creative team, at least they may get potential business from those reading the book.

How to Use Comics to Showcase other talents - website design.

Happy Hunting…

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