Copland's VanCityComics Space

Jason Copland · Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject: Copland's VanCityComics Space

I'll try and keep this thread focused on stuff I'm working on, promoting and whatnot. Sound cool? Cool

First off.... Here's a link to the Silent Devil site that has the Empty Chamber trailer.

And here's the link to the Newsarama 6 page preview of issue #1!

Empty Chamber is a 2 issue James Bondish mini series that is being published by Silent Devil Productions. Written and co-created by A. David Lewis.

Retailers - I'd love to work with you in getting copies of Empty Chamber into your shops!

Here's a page from the second issue (minus the grayscales by the very talented Jenn Rodgers). Thanks for looking!

Jason Copland · Last edited by Jason Copland on Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:39 pm; edited 1 time in total

Success! My 24 hour comic is finally online for all to ridicule...er... read.

24 pages in 24 hours... 23 1/4 hours, actually. It was an interesting experience. My body isn't as young as it once was, which became painfully obvious around hour 19. My right hand, my drawing hand, started to cramp up, making drawing very uncomfortable. Luckily, I managed to work through it and finished up my book a few hours later.

After a few pages, I realized exactly why I draw comics and not write them. Yikes! In my defense, I did this 24 hour challenge to the letter. I had absolutely no plot/story/character designs/etc in hand prior to the start of the 24 hours. I made it all up on the fly. Which usually makes for a big ol' mess. And, for the most part, a big ol' mess it turned out to be. I did manage to get a few nice pages and some nice panels on so-so pages. And, I have a great sense of accomplishment.

Will I do it again, you ask? We'll see.....

I did my comic on this year's International 24 Hour Comic Day (October 7/8 ) in the comfortable confines of my home studio. I listened to copious amounts of music (as detailed on my blog, http://jasoncopland.blogspot.com/2006/10/jackie.html ) and lived off the sustenance of iced tea and Tim Bits (mostly sour cream ones and chocolate coconut sprinkle ones).

You can see the whole 24 pages on my site. But, here's a look at a couple of the pages to give you a feel for the story.

Anyways, feel free to have a look at my comic and, if it moves you to comment, you can drop me a line here, or at my blog, and tell me what you thought of it.

Thanks for looking. Smile

Jason

Jason Copland · Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:14 pm Post subject:

omit this post, please

Jason Copland

While I wait for the second issue of EMPTY CHAMBER to fall from the sky (news on that soon!), I thought I'd tell you a little bit about another project that will feature some of my artwork. It’s the black and white anthology called POSTCARDS, which will feature some of the best and brightest creators of the indie comic talent pool. People like Harvey Pekar, Phil Hester, Tom Beland, Stuart Moore, Michael Gaydos, Rick Spears, Rob G, Antony Johnson, Andre Parks, Joshua Hale Fialkov and my good friend, A. David Lewis.

So, you ask, how did I get to be included in such a high profile book? I’m not entirely sure. It could be that POSTCARDS’ head honcho, Jason Rodriguez was my editor for the WESTERN TALES OF TERROR story I illustrated for Hoarse & Buggy. Or, it could be that he’s the editor of KILL ALL MONSTERS!, my new book with writer/co-creator Michael May. But, more likely, it was just another one of Jason’s charitable acts.

Sometimes its better to just not ask questions.

As you can see by the image at the top of this post, I was teamed up with the very talented writer, Matt Dembicki. His script was quite a challenge, let me tell you what. It was a 5 pager that had many many panels to draw... with next to no text. It was a blast to do, actually. It really pushed me to make sure the panel-to-panel storytelling was solid. And, I also got the chance to try a slightly different drawing style, which was nice. Here a close up of a panel like the one that Jason used for the banner image above.

That's about all I'm allowed to show at this point. There will be a big announcement about who has stepped up to publish POSTCARDS very soon!

Jason Copland

It seems to be on every comic book creator's lips right now... Comicspace.com.

It's a little bit bare, currently, but I think it's going to be a great place to see tons of new comic art and "meet" some of your favorite comic writers and artists.

You can find me here: www.comicspace.com/jasoncopland

Jason Copland

omit this post, please Smile

Jason Copland · Last edited by Jason Copland on Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

Here's a panel from the book I'm currently working. It's called, KILL ALL MONSTERS!

First issue is done. Now we just gotta find it a home. Wink

Jason Copland

More pimping....

Jason Rodriguez, editor of the upcoming anthology POSTCARDS: True Stories That Never Happened , is guest-blogging at Newsarama all this week. He's just posted a small conversation about my contribution , which is pretty interesting. I kinda sound like I know what I'm doing.... kinda.

POSTCARDS is published by Villard Books, a division of Random House, and will be on sale in June. You can pre-order a copy through your local comic store, order code APR074039 , or you can get it from a bookstore with the ISBN 978-0345498502 . (Or, of course, you can always buy it from Amazon.)

Jason Copland

It looks like the interview A. David and I took part in, for the second issue of Empty Chamber, has finally hit the Newsarama site!
It starts:

Debuting with #1 in October of last year, Empty Chamber is an espionage series by writer A. David Lewis and artist Jason Copland, published by independent publisher Silent Devil.

Just to refresh – the solicitation for issue #1 read:

Boston is quiet, the University is deserted, and Matt, alone for the winter, is a nobody. But he quickly becomes the government's most wanted, a beautiful mercenary's top priority, and a renegade general's prime target when the knowledge he possesses might thwart American genocide.

Issue #2 hits in a couple of weeks, and we had a chance to chat for a bit with the two creators to get the skinny on how this story came to life and more.....

Read more here!

Thanks for reading! Smile

Jason Copland

Well, Empty Chamber #2 has made it to the shelves! Now I can focus on getting a home for my next book, Kill All Monsters!

Here are the first 2 pages coloured.

Line work by me.
Colour by Scott Keating

oh, yeah.... SDCC, here I come!

Jason Copland · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:40 am Post subject:

I'm in the middle of the art for my short story for the anthology, DEAR SANTA, LET EXPLAIN but yesterday, I sat down and started drawing this picture. It's starring the robot from my upcoming comic series, KILL ALL MONSTERS!.

It was going to be a quick sketch for a fellow I met at SDCC but it turned into something bigger than expected. I'll be inking it for him, too.

Jason Copland · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject:

Here's the previous penciled image inked. Hope the recipent likes it!

dares · Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:19 am Post subject:

That's really awesome. I'm sure the recipient will love it.

Jason Copland · Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Dares. Smile

Jason Copland · Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:09 am Post subject:

I just finishing up the inks for my current project and thought I'd better break out the pencil and get that part of my brain going again. These sketches aren't for anything... just me goofin' around.

Jason Copland · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:07 pm Post subject:

Recently, I had the honour of being interviewed by Bernie Gonzalez of IndiePulp.com. I had a great time answering Bernie's questions, as most of them made me do a lot of thinking about stuff I rarely put into words, like how did my "style" come about and why do I draw comics. Sometimes I surprised myself with my responses. Here's a taste:

BG: Would you say that most of your artwork is comic artwork? If so, then do you think of yourself as a "serious" artist?

The interview was a blast to take part in and I managed to give Bernie so much information that the interview will be broken up over the course of a couple of days.
You can read the first part of the interview here.
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ComicSpace

Jason Copland · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:02 pm Post subject:

The PR machine just keeps on rollin'...

My latest Q & A is concerning my involvement in an amazing new book from poet and friend Alex Ness. A Life of Ravens is a collection of narrative poetry, written by Alex and illustrated by many talented artists, such as Mike Grell, Peter Bergting, Alex Sheikman, Bob Giadrosich and Josh Howard.

This interview is in a roundtable format where each artist answers the same questions, making for quite a variety of interesting responses. Michael May did a great job in pulling it all together.

Click here to see what I had to say about the experience of working on one of Alex's poems.
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ComicSpace

Jason Copland · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:08 am Post subject: A 2007 24 Hour Comic page

I tried. I really did. But, sadly, I only managed to do 12 hours of my 24 Hour comic challenge attempt this weekend before I decided to throw in the towel. There were a few factors that lead me to that conclusion, the biggest one being that my story sucked ass. Writing is hard enough but having serious time constraints heaped on as well makes the job of creating a fulfilling story extremely difficult. I did manage to get a few cool pages out of the time I put in at the drawing table, however. The image above is page 1. Very Sienkiewiczesque, no?

I may scan them and put the rest of the pages on the web if I get the time/urge....
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ComicSpace

Danger · Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:46 pm Post subject:

Your stuff is looking great Jason, too bad about the 24 hour day thing.

Jason Copland · Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:29 pm Post subject: