Artamus Studios

Madman

2011-05-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

I had Mike draw this in my sketchbook shortly after joining Artamus. Being the mid-90's and Mike being being such an indie comics fan, Madman was the perfect choice. I always wished he'd had a chance to draw some Madman or collaborate with Mike Allred at some point. It would have been a good match. I remember them talking on the phone a few times, but I don't think they stayed in touch. It's a shame -- I would've really liked to see Allred ink Mike's pencils!

I've decided the people who say that time helps you "get over" a death are just full of shit. Still just as sad as ever. I wish I could call Mike and have some laughs, catch up, and talk for 3 hours. : (

Rob and Artamus

2010-05-01T11:28:00.006-04:00

Another discovery from a big stack of papers a few weeks ago -- a single flyer for a '93 comic show in Roanoke! I didn't go to the show, but saved this flyer I picked up somewhere. It's one of the only times I saw Rob Haynes ink over Mike. Granted, it's from 1993, but it's still a cool novelty to see them both together.

Rob had a brief association with Artamus, but left before I got there in '95. Mike was probably Rob's biggest fan at the time... you can really see Rob's influence on the early Flash stuff and the Firearm book. They were also really good friends, and Mike took Rob's abrupt departure from the studio really bad. I won't get in to details, but I think a lot of people had expectations for Rob's career and Rob was just never interested in being on a monthly book and having a ton of commitments that it brings with it. Which confused EVERYONE. Eventually, I met Rob in '96-'97 and started working with him on projects. We became great friends and Mike would always take an interest in what Rob was up to. Eventually, over the years, Mike let go of the bad feelings and got over the grudge he'd had against Rob. It makes me really happy that Mike and Rob smoothed things over before his death. Remembering seeing those 2 guys talking and laughing together after so much time had passed... well, it's something I'm really grateful for.

Kudzu

2010-03-28T15:03:00.003-04:00

I was digging through some papers today and found a copy of this drawing Mike did for Dave Johnson. It's Dave's characters from his Penthouse Comix work, which was a Hotrod, devil-worshipping, porn, humor strip. Dave has a great sense of humor. So did Mike. I was really happy when I heard Dave had joined Artamus Studios after I left... and, a little jealous to miss out on that, too! And, I was just as bummed when it didn't work out. I guess it was just a personality clash between Mike and Dave. I look at it as 2 alpha males working in too close of a space. Whatever the case, Dave moved on to LA and started working in animation. It's still one of those weird things, though... Dave was such a creative force, I wish his time at Artamus had been better for everybody. Oh well. Anyways, here's a pretty neat piece that not many people would ever see. I believe that's Dave's partial inks -- I wish they could've worked together more.

I'll be honest, I get sadder about Mike everyday. I'm hoping that will change at some point, but right now I try not to post on here and bring everybody down. Hopefully I'll keep finding stuff like this to keep sharing and telling stories.

Favorite Topics

2009-10-12T20:44:00.008-04:00

Sorry for not updating in so long. As time goes by, I seem to just get more and more depressed over Mike's death. I'm still hoping to share some good stories, but I haven't been up to it lately. But, in the meantime, I thought I'd put down a list of the things that Mike loved a lot -- things we talked about all the time and always seemed to come up. And, I don't get to hear them anymore... certainly not with the passion Mike had for things. So, I'll just set these off into the ether... on Mike's behalf.

Things Mike Loved -

Magic Pickle by Scott Morse - Mike was first to get on the Scott Morse train. He loved that stuff and it's amazing to see the work that Morse is doing today. I wish Mike could see it - he would FLIP!

Big Blown Baby by Bill Wray - I'd never heard of this before I met Mike, but you couldn't help becoming a fan after he pitched it for you, though! Apparently, this is the funniest book ever printed (according to Mike!).

Roachmill by Tom McWeeney -- I think Mike must've been Roachmill's biggest fan. All through McWeeney's Wildstorm and Battle Chasers career, all Mike could say was "fuck that -- I want more Roachmill!".

Bill Willingham's artwork -- Willingham seemed to disappear for about 10 years or so before coming back strong with Fables. Mike kept his name alive through the halls of Artamus, though! He loved his stuff.

Howard Chaykin (who doesn't love Howard Chaykin?). I believe they got to hang out a bit at the Baltimore show a few times. I'm glad. The cool thing is that Howard was a big fan of Mike's stuff, too.

That's all for now. But, hey -- help me out and add your own in the comments section!

Drawing comics

2009-03-11T20:00:00.007-04:00

As you can tell by the lack of new posts, I'm drawing comics again! I tend to go back and forth between comics and doing illustration work for Disney Imagineering, but with the recession in full swing, the Disney freelance is gone. So, it's all Marvel Comics these days, and I'm really grateful to have the work! With comics, though (or at least with ME and comics), it's a nonstop, full-time, 7 days a week, 17 hour a day job. So... it's been busy!

After Mike passed away, I was extremely glad I WASN'T drawing comics at the time. 15-17 hours a day at the drawing board is a lot of time to sit and torture yourself. I've always thought it's sort of a mix between being a long haul trucker and a monk. You've got to work out all your shit and figure yourself out through the years... otherwise the demons in your brain will make you nuts. So, it's nice to have had a bit of a break before returning full-time to comics. As down as I got, it sure could've been worse.

I did MegaCon last weekend, and I wore my nice "By Thy Side..." pin over my heart each day. Won't get to see Mike at a show again, but I'll still think about him each day. I was a little surprised with how quickly I'd get choked up when folks who dropped by would start talking about Mike. Just fans looking through my FF artwork who weren't even thinking about it. Just jawing about how great a guy he was. It's crazy how fast all the blood rushes to your head and your eyes well up. I don't know how I'll get through Heroes Con. We'll see.

More updating soon! Gotta wrap up this book first... and the next one is with Parker, so it should be a blast!

Dolemite & Ron Garney

2009-01-09T09:53:00.001-05:00

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that Rudy Ray Moore had passed away, and it made me think of the old studio days. I think it was Rich who had a Beastie Boys album that had some Dolemite samples on it, and I eventually went out and got one of his albums for us. It was a lot of fun and made for some great studio fodder. We would take Dolemite poems (I guess they're poems) and put comic book people in them... just something to do while walking to the copier. My favorite little rhyme was:

Ron Garney went to Kansas City
Started kicking asses
'Til both shoes were shitty

Over and over. There were many like this, and for whatever reason... they all involved Ron Garney. This was in the day when Ron and Mark Waid made Captain America one of the best books in the industry (which seemed impossible in the 90's), and we were all HUGE fans. Mike ended up being really good friends with Ron after meeting at Heroes Con '96 (I think it was '96...). Knowing how much Mike admired Ron's work, I got a big kick out of it and I know it meant a lot to Mike. It was very cool.

Ron was also good buddies with Tim Townsend, and I eventually got to know Ron through Tim. It's weird that I ended up meeting Ron through a totally different set of events than the studio in North Carolina (now that I think about it), but the comic industry is such a small community that I was bound to meet up sometime. Ron's one of the nicest guys I know, so it's been fun having him as a friend. Although, I don't think I ever shared any of our Dolemite poems with him.

Mike and Randy

2009-01-05T10:43:00.012-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few months. I've been on a deadline and generally pretty miserable, so I didn't want to stink up the blog.

Randy sent me this great picture of him and Mike, so I thought I'd share it here (just because I liked it so much). Two of my favorite people:

I got to catch up with Randy over the holidays, so that was nice. Hopefully I'll get to see him a few times this year.

1995

2008-09-28T13:23:00.004-04:00

My old buddy Chris Kemple sent me some photos over the weekend, and it was like getting a trip in a time machine. I don't think I've ever seen these before -- if I did, I just forgot about them. Even though I'm making stupid faces, I'm just so happy to have a few color shots of me and Mike together. And, in my office to boot! Those years are such a blur... it's just amazing to see shots like this.

Kemple was probably working on his adventure comic, Red Vengeance, at the time, and one of the benefits of having a studio was being able to quickly snap some reference photos. Rich, Tommy Lee, and Scott would do the same. Since all of us worked so much, photos like this are the only time capsule that exists.

I've gone from angry to sad over losing Mike in the past 2 months. These pictures really lifted my spirits. Thank you, Chris!

Nathan

2008-09-03T10:03:00.002-04:00

Before I started this blog, I googled Artamus Studios to see what would come up. I'm glad I did, because I stumbled on to my old buddy Nathan Massengill's site. Nathan was always part of the gang even though he lived too far away to come in very often (like Randy!). But, I always looked forward to his visits and talking shop. Sometimes he would bring in artists that were down visiting with him like Pop Mahn and Ed McGuinness -- it was always fun! Anyway, thinking about Suzanne's recent post about how hard it was to get Mike away from the drawing board made me want to point folks over to Nathan's site for this:

http://nathanmassengill.com/blog/?p=10

Nathan is one of the most thoughtful guys I've known, and he did a much better job of putting this into words than I ever could.

Mike the Fan

2008-08-26T04:03:00.001-04:00

I don't think anyone wanted to draw comics as much as Mike. There wasn't anyone who was more interested in comic fandom, comic book history, and reading interviews with a comic creator, than Mike. I think he had every single issue of Comic Interview -- he would read any interview that he could get his hands on. So, whatever CBG or Comic's Journal that was around... it's a pretty sure bet that Mike devoured it. One of his favorite books was Gerard Jones' The Comic Book Heroes: The First History of Modern Comic Books.

Mike read that book from cover-to-cover, twice (during '95-'98 at least). He just couldn't get enough. So, it's not surprising that the internet was like striking gold for Mike -- with an endless supply of interviews with creators from around the world. He loved getting to learn more about artists and their techniques, and you could tell from his Blog that he was happy to return the favor. Seeing Mike get his own Modern Masters volume from TwoMorrows Publishing was a proud damn day. I don't think anyone would've appreciated having something like that more than Mike.

The week after Mike passed away, I kept hearing people say "I wish he could've seen this" or "I wish he would've known" in regards to the huge outpouring that went out online ... which really was a wonderful and beautiful thing. But, I kept thinking.... he DID see this, he DID know how people felt -- he's one of the only people who have seen something like that. It was just a few years before when Marvel changed direction on Fantastic Four and people went absolutely ape shit. The news actually "broke" Newsarama for several days! You had an endless amount of people, fans and pros alike, testifying to the might of Waid & Ringo for page after page after page after page. And, the one thing I can be sure of, is that Mike read every single one of those posts that were up there. Every nerd on planet Earth stood up to profess their love for the work. And, even though there was a lot of stress at the time, I know that somewhere down deep, that Mike was smiling ... really, really fucking big. It was the first time something that huge had happened online, and it actually made Marvel reverse their decision. Totally unprecedented and unbelievable, and it's hard to say if it will happen again.

Scully, Scully, Scully

2008-08-17T18:24:00.001-04:00

One of the few "social" things we would do during my years at Artamus, was to get together and watch the X-Files. This was the mid-90's, so the show was at it's peak. There was probably more social get-togethers going on than X-Files, but I usually worked 7 days a week... at all hours... so, I probably just missed out on the rest. (Didn't get to see much of North Carolina in those years).

As much as we liked the show, I think the real reason we watched was to see Gillian Anderson. Hubba, hubba. I remember, every week, talking with Mike and we would marvel at how it could be possible for somebody to get better looking every single week. Each week she just seemed to get more and more beautiful -- it was ridiculous! Sounds silly now, but we really could wax on about that lady for hours.

Now that the new X-Files movie is out, I'm happy to see Gillian Anderson popping up on the talk shows and stuff. It seems like she's gonna stay the course, because she's more beautiful than ever. Saw her on Letterman and Kimmel both, and it's just staggering how pretty she is.

Is this the stupidest post ever? I guess so. But, seeing her on Letterman would've prompted a quick call to Mike the next day, so I've gotta talk about this stuff somewhere.

Cosmic Starlin

2008-08-10T16:31:00.005-04:00

I got my giant box of comics from Shelton this week. I've been getting all my comics through Heroes Aren't Hard to Find since moving from Charlotte to join Artamus in '95. I can't say that I still order as much as I used to, but I still ring up a pretty decent amount of stuff every 6 months or so. Those hardcovers add up!

Anyway, I'm one of the goofballs out there who collects the Marvel Masterworks. I needed a good-sized write-off 4 or 5 years ago and went ahead and took the plunge. I love having the stuff, and Marvel has done a great job with the series. So, this week I received Captain Marvel Volume 3 which features Jim Starlin's breakout work for Marvel.

My God, the days and days that Mike Wieringo and Rich Case would spend talking about this stuff! Their eyes would just glaze over in fanboy euphoria as they talked about Starlin's work and the cosmic stories that were so big in the 70's. Now, most of the time, I could hang with whatever Rich and Mike were into, but this is one time where the 10 year age difference between us left me out of the loop. Being a child of the 80's, I grew up on JRJR X-Men (and Byrne X-Men, and Paul Smith X-Men, etc.), and I really didn't know much about the early Bronze Age of comics. I won't say I argued with them... but, I'll just admit that I didn't get it. Those guys sure did, though. Looking back, I can see how this stuff really must have been revolutionary... big, giant outer-space superhero stories way before Claremont and Cockrum retooled the X-Men, and more importantly, way before Star Wars hit the theaters in '77. So, it's fun to look through this book now and see what charged-up the imaginations of a young, punk Richard Case and a young, punk Mike Wieringo. It's nice to finally get my hands on this stuff!

Heroes

2008-07-19T13:29:00.003-04:00

Jim McLauchlin at The Hero Initiative sent me some copies of the What If book this week. I was happy to see it. Mike would've gotten a big kick out of it -- he always loved those big jam books like Batman 400 and stuff like that. I was glad that I was invited to do a page and help finish up the book. Right after Mike died, there were several folks emailing to ask if I'd do a piece for a tribute book, and I always said no. Doing a drawing was the last thing I wanted to do -- there was no way I could've done it. If it wasn't for eventually spilling everything out here on this blog, I wouldn't have been ready for anything like that. So, it was good timing when Jim called.

It was weird, though -- I really couldn't understand all the tribute pieces at first. It wasn't until Dave Stevens died that it made perfect sense. I didn't know Dave, but I loved his work (like everybody). It was totally logical to want to draw a Rocketeer piece as a tribute when he died. With Mike, it was just that one of my best friends was gone... not an artist I liked. But, I get it now, and I appreciate those tribute pieces a lot more.

It's hard to read those pages in the back of the book from Matt, Chuck, Scott, Waid, Jeff, Rich, and Todd. I don't know what it is, but Scott's is the one that gets me. The same goes for his speech at Mike's funeral. It's hard to put into words if you don't know him, but Scott's a special guy. He's one of the most unpretentious, most sincere people I know, and he has almost a childlike approach to the world. Don't get me wrong, he still has a mean sense of humor and is extremely intelligent, but he just has an unfiltered unpretentiousness that makes him a joy to be around. You know how you meet some people who are completely full of shit? Scott is the opposite. Anyway, I think it's this quality that made it so easy for him to tap into the raw emotion of everything. And, he never covered up the anger he felt. I think that's what I appreciated the most.

So, I hated to miss Heroes Con. It was the first time in 18(?) years I've missed it. But, to be honest, I'm a little relieved to miss this one. Nobody needed to see me bawling all weekend. I think next year will be fine, and you'll find me at the booth with Matt and Squeeze!

Also, I sent Jim the page I drew, so it'll be available at the HERO booth in San Diego, so somebody please buy it and help a good cause. Thanks!

Who Are You?

2008-05-18T03:42:00.004-04:00

I thought I should make a post and give a little background on my history with Mike and the Artamus crew -- just to give some context to some of the things I talk about. I've drawn comics off-and-on since the mid 90's, but I've certainly never had the impact that Mike did with his career (and certainly never burnt up any "Hot Artists" charts). Most people who'll stumble across this blog won't know who the hell I am, especially since Mike reached so many people around the world with his work. So, rather than assuming anything, here's a brief rundown.

I was only 19 when I literally snuck my way into Artamus Studios. Lucky for me, the work I was doing for DC at the time kept rolling along, and I later got busy at Marvel on Excalibur. My years there were from 1995 to early 1998. I believe Mike was working on the last issue of the Rogue mini-series when I arrived. He started on Tellos right after I left. So, I had a ringside seat to inspect every single page he drew during those years... Robin, Spider-Boy, Sensational Spider-Man... it was a great time. Being so young, Mike and Rich really took me under their wing and looked after me. I couldn't have asked for 2 better mentors.

But... After 3 years of working out of the Studio, it really started to put stress on my marriage. I would work 7 days a week, 17 hours a day, so I was just never home and it seemed like I never got to see Laura. So, we eventually moved to Orlando, Florida where I continued to draw comics for a few years. In 2000, I started doing illustration work for Disney, and my career totally moved in a different direction. I finally had time to balance work and family life (totally new concepts!) and things have worked out well for us. It's hard to leave a studio situation that was so fun like that, though, and I've always felt a little guilty about leaving my buddies behind. I sure did miss them!

So, that's a quick primer for these posts. For a little more info on Artamus, you can find Jeff's little studio history here in one of his great Heroes Con reports:

http://www.parkerspace.com/heroes03sat.html

More posts soon!

Monday Morning

2008-03-31T04:14:00.007-04:00

Shelton called me that Monday morning just bawling. Just howling. At first, I just prepared myself to deal with trying to help Shelton -- his Dad (good ol' Stump Drum) is in his 80's, and all I could think of was that something had happened. But, Shelton was telling me the whole time what had happened... it just wouldn't stick. When I finally realized what he was telling me, all I could do was argue with him. "Who told you that?!" "What are you talking about?!"

This was around 8 o'clock or so, so I was downstairs getting coffee. With Shelton still on the phone, I walked upstairs and opened Newsarama and saw the story. I read the thing, and basically just hung up on Shelton. I called for Laura to come upstairs. She did. I just pointed to the computer while I stood across the room, hanging onto a bookshelf. With all of this, the only thing I can be thankful for is that Laura was here with me. This is the only time in my life where I was grateful that I was freelancing, and not stuck in an office when this hit. Laura read the news and came over to me, and I just fell into her arms. I've never cried like that before... I couldn't even lift my arms to hold her back. I just cried... loud and defeated.

Within minutes Rich called, Parker called... after that, I quit answering the phone. I couldn't make it very long before just losing it. I finally picked up for Randy, and didn't make it too long there either.

I've got a rule that I don't go to funerals. After going batshit crazy at a few of them when I was about 12 or so, I made it my policy that I would never go to another one. Didn't go to my Grandmother's, my Grandfather's, and made it clear to all the family that I wouldn't be at any other ones either.

So, not once did I plan on going to Mike's funeral. On top of my strict "no funerals" policy, I had just moved the whole family back to Orlando from Virginia, two weeks earlier. As the week progressed and the funeral plans were set, I would ask Rich or Shelton about their plans to go -- "What are you going to do?! You are going to freak out!" -- I just couldn't imagine doing this. But, in the end, it just came down to paying respect to Mike. I wouldn't be doing it for myself or to support someone else. It was just to be respectful to Mike.

I had kept working all week to meet my deadlines for everything I was juggling after the move. Until Thursday at 2:00, I wasn't even thinking of going. But, after I turned in my last job, I went online, booked a plane ticket for 2 hours away, and started packing. Shelton could pick me up and let me crash with him that night, so I quickly left the house to buy funeral clothes before catching the plane. Laura was glad I made the right decision, and dropped me off at the airport.

I still didn't want to do it -- I genuinely didn't know if I would shit myself or just pass out and cause a terrible scene. I just didn't know. Once I was there at the memorial, all I could do was make it for about 2 minutes and then leave the room. Couldn't hold it together at all. But, seeing my friends Rich and Randy was good. I wish I'd been strong enough to hold it together, and stand there and hug those guys for as long as I could. But, I couldn't.

The actual part where everybody sits down and somebody talks was a little better. At least if I passed out, nobody would really notice. It was the most wrenching, emotional experience I've ever been a part of. It's kind of like somebody just wringing you dry. It's hard to describe, and I can't get over the strength of all my friends that got up there and talked. Matt's speech was the killer. I don't know how he made it through... it was the most genuine, most moving speech I've ever heard.

When it was over, I was shocked to actually feel better. It really was like getting squeezed in a vice for 2 hours, but it was the first glimmer of relief I'd felt since Monday. I'm glad I was there. Thank God for Scott Kurtz.

I don't have many close friends. And, I especially don't have many close friends that I keep in regular contact with. Just two -- Shelton and Mike. Through all the moves, career changes, and everything else, they are the only 2 guys that I would catch up with on the phone every week or so and shoot the shit. I regret not talking even more to Mike. I hate I haven't kept in touch better with everybody else, too.

Heroes Con '94

2008-03-31T02:09:00.011-04:00

I had planned on getting all the heavy stuff out of the way first, but I'm going to mix it up with something fun. It takes a lot out of me to write something personal like that first post, so this will be a good way to put that off some more. So, let's lighten the mood -- I want the majority of this blog to be that way.

Tonight I was digging through some old binders for reference and found this old copy of a sketch Alex Ross did for Mike back in 1994. As most comic people know, Alex is a big fan of Captain Marvel (Shazam!), so when it was announced that DC was doing a new book with him, written by Jerry Ordway and drawn by Mike, he was pretty excited. Apparently, Alex was a fan of Mike's work on the Flash, so he definitely approved of the team of Ordway & Ringo on the book. Mike had done a promotional piece for the annual catalog that DC used back then to roll out the next year's titles to the retailers, and Jerry Ordway did the inking (and would be inking Mike on the covers, too, if memory serves).

So, that year when Alex arrived at his first Heroes Con appearance and Mike had to break the news that he was taking the Rogue mini-series gig instead, poor Alex was heartbroken (not an X-fan). He couldn't believe Mike would walk away from drawing Captain Marvel!

After a weekend of playful ribbing about how the decision would haunt Mike forever, Alex surprised Mike with this drawing at the end of the show. It's amazing how Alex totally nailed Mike's likeness, just from memory. He impressed the hell out of a lot of people that weekend -- sitting there just busting out these amazing sketches on the fly. Mike got the biggest kick out of it and was just so flattered that Alex had been so cool with him all weekend. He was so humble -- he was just happy to get to meet Alex Ross!

Mike

2008-03-12T01:32:00.007-04:00

So, when all this went down... I just did not want to talk about it. I couldn't do it. I don't have many friends as close as Mike, so I really didn't know how to process any of this. But, all the "this can't be real" stuff was processed out the door with the memorial service, and all that's left is sadness. I hear people say that it gets easier with time, but I seem to get more sad everyday. I really can't understand how Mike's brother Matt has been able to do it. I'm really just in awe of him and how amazingly strong he and his wife Suzanne have been. I can't imagine how hard this has been for Mike's best friend Paul. His parents. It just makes me sadder and sadder. But... I want to talk about Mike. And, I think getting this out here will be more positive than dumping it all on Matt and making his day more difficult.

The purpose of starting this site is to share the good times. I'm sure there'll be some posts that get a little heavy, but my main goal is to share some stories that you might not have heard yet, and hopefully, share a smile. Another reason for doing this is that I have a really rotten memory. I'm scared that there'll be a day where I don't remember something that happened or part of a story that I can't remember. I just want to keep as much of my memory of Mike alive as I can.

These are the stories that I think about every night when I lay in bed awake... when I'm zoned out at my drawing board... every single day. I feel really lucky to have known Mike for so long, and especially to have shared a studio with him for as long as I did. Getting to work with him and Rich... every single day... it's the most fun I've ever had. That's the sort of fun I want to share here -- the goofy stuff, the day-to-day stuff... just personal stories. Nothing mind blowing. But, I'd feel guilty if I didn't share them.