Shawn Alleyne | COMIC PRIVY

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Shawn Alleyne, Artist with Talent to Spare Gives a Rockin’ Interview…

Posted in Comic Book Characters, Comic Book Creators, Comic Book resources, Comic Conventions with tags Aizan, American comic book, Archie Comics, Arts, comic book, comics, Daredevil, DC Comics, Shawn Alleyne, Shawn Alleyne Street Team, Street Team on February 7, 2012 by privypress

This guy can Draw, and he has a killer appetite for marketing his brand…You’ve got to SEE his Pencils!!!

Greetings Comic Natives, as you can see by my bold intro, I am excited about this interview. I met Shawn while exiting a convention, I was late to a meeting (meaning my ride was about to leave me hanging so I had to book or suffer the consequences of finding my own ride and a place to crash for the night, not happening) at the Double Tree Hotel in Orlando (a local watering hole for many of the industry’s top artist, creators, and writers…Who knew our industry talent could party like rap stars and rock stars combined).

Shawn Alleyne's Street Team cover

Well, as I was leaving his display caught my eye; in fact he made sure I took note. How? Well he called out…”Hey, take a look at this” the magic words in order to get attention and potentially get things sold. At the risk of losing my ride and a room for the night I took a look and was beyond impressed, Shawn’s lines are killer…he has professional “artsmenship” all over his work. I would be proud to say he penciled any project I am working on, if I had any…but you never know what the future holds, huh! Well, with all the accolades I’ve showered Shawn with it’s time for him to deliver so below you will find an impressive interview complemented by an equally impressive ARTIST… ENJOY:

Comic Privy: What plans do you have for your Company? Is a book in the works?

Shawn Alleyne: Right now I do a lot of freelance work and with anything I try to keep my plans simple: put out a good product. That’s what’s going to make a company successful. My goal is to become an artist that’s never broke. Still working on that. Lol As far as a book, I have plans for an original creation, but right now it’s on a back burner. I do have a book coming out that a large collaborative effort between myself and five other independent creators. The name of the book is called Street Team, and features a good old school team up between all of our characters.

Shawn and his Street Team poster

Comic Privy: What are some of the most challenging aspects regarding the company/book creation process?

Shawn Alleyne: Two words: time management. It took me forever just to do this interview. Lol I would say the next thing would be separating yourself from your product. Sometimes artists and creators get so attached to an idea because they’ve had it in their heads for so long, that they don’t take the proper steps to insure the product is as good as it can be. Small things like getting an editor or asking colleagues for HONEST critiques can go a long way and help a project reach its full potential.

Comic Privy: Tell us a little abut how your fascination with comics began, and how you became involved in the comic book industry?

Shawn Alleyne: It started with my Dad plopping me down at his knee and showing me how to draw Daredevil. After that I was hooked. And I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family where they loved all kinds of comics and shared that diversity with me, so I read anything from 2000A.D comics, to the Marvel and DC guys, all the way to Archie. Yes, Archie.

Shawn Alleyne and a few of his Achievements

I’m still trying to claw my way up the comic book ladder, but I became involved in the industry by attending comic cons. People seemed to like what I was laying down, and after a while I received a few commissions, which lead to more and more.

Comic Privy: What were some of your first projects?

Shawn Alleyne: One of my very first projects was re-designing a client’s universe of characters. He was writing a book called Surian Seed, and brought me on to do touch-ups and turn-arounds, and at the time I had NO idea what I was doing. I was then asked to do a few chapter illustrations for an illustrated novel called Knight Seeker. And after that commissions kept coming in.

Comic Privy: Can you tell us a little more about the Street Team project?

Shawn Alleyne: Well, the Street Team concept as a whole began when I drew some of my friend’s characters, combined with one I co-created with another guy, together as a “fake-team” pin-up. A guy saw it online and contacted me about doing a video-game. I got in touch with the other creators and we decided, “what the hell! Let’s go for it”. Then, minds got to working and one of the creators suggested we do a comic book tie-in. The official name of book is called Street Team: Reign of the Iron Dragon, and it tells the story of our five urban vigilante type heroes joining together to overcome a real bad-ass prick called Oguun and his minions. I co-wrote the book as well as supplied inks and the cover.

Comic Privy: How did you come up with the idea for your personal book?

Shawn Alleyne: I came up with the idea after working on a project where the writer seemed to base everything off of their life. There were some things we disagreed on that he stated plainly he was not going to change, and I realized he had no reason to. This story, the characters, were all his. I had no connection to it. So I set out to create something that would be mine…that would reflect my history…my viewpoints. So I got a brand new sketchbook, and listed all the things I loved, all the things I wanted to see in a comic, all the stereotypes I wanted to break. I combined those things and came up with Aizan, the title character. BTW, she spins out of the Street Team story.

Shawn Alleyne shows off his Aizan pencil line work.

Comic Privy: What do you enjoy most about the creative process as a whole?

Shawn Alleyne: I get asked this question a lot and I always say: it’s the magic of it. To take a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and create something from nothing is euphoric. Sometimes when I’m really in a groove I can just sketch and doodle for hours, getting caught up in the characters, the story and their world.

Comic Privy: Describe a day in your life as a creative artist.

Shawn Alleyne: Wake up around 6, draw till 9/10, handle computer stuff/emails/etc till around 12, draw till 2/3, have lunch, handle household business, maybe a nap, 5-8 is more art, 8-10 is dinner and family time, 10-1 is more art, the sleep. Wake up, rinse, and repeat.

Shawn Alleyne hard at work.."The pencil Never Sleeps"

Comic Privy: Marketing is essential to succeeding in this business, what are your plans for promoting and marketing product?

Shawn Alleyne: With Marketing being so important the main thing we’re going to do is maintain a strong internet presence. Everyone on the team is committed to promoting the product through their personal social site pages, and we’re offering the book through online stores. We also have a social network site just for the Street Team, where we not only promote the book itself, but what the individual creators are doing separately as well. For those that want to get up close and personal, we plan on hitting the convention circuit.

Comic Privy: What other projects do you have coming down the pipe?

Shawn Alleyne: Besides my project Aizan, I’m working on the Surian Seed comic project I mentioned earlier. We plan on releasing a Marvel Universe style guide book, with the comic to follow. I’m also illustrating all the chapter art for a fantasy novel called Dusk: A Crown of Horns and I just signed up for a supernatural type of comic from an independent publisher.

Comic Privy: Tell us a little about Aizan, what it is all about?

Shawn Alleyne: Aizan is about a lot of things. It’s about music, graffiti, parkour, heritage, ninjas, truth, angels, fisticuffs, and more ninjas. The story starts off with Aizan, or Hela as she is known, as a young woman who’s very angry at the world she’s living in: Her mom is in the hospital with an incurable disease; she has a strained relationship at best with her dad; she’s dealing with the struggle of being a small-time business woman; and due to the events that will take place in the Street Team book her city is going to be left devastated. So coming out of all that she’s got a mad-on for life in general and specifically, people with powers, and does stuff where she “tags” buildings in the city with her crew of graffiti anarchists to expose the truth of the corrupt government. The twist comes when this old hero called The Black Aizan revels to Hela that she in fact is a super powered being and must carry on his legacy. From there things go downhill pretty quickly.

Shawn Alleyne's Aizan turnarounds 2

Community Question: What changes do you see happening in the comic industry, and how do you see it affecting the independent creator.

Shawn Alleyne: I see digital comics having a stronger and stronger impact. I also see technology as a whole allowing the independent creator to have more control over their product and the way the consumer acquires it, meaning the playing field is going to become more level. As a result I feel the “majors” are going to have no choice but to re-evaluate the material they are putting out in the haphazard way it seems they are. And we have to be ready.

Any additional details you want your fans to know about your book: