Here's an awesome BLOG you guys NEED to check out, Spitballin' Comics. A collective of amazing local illustrators working together, with new entries EVERY WEEK.
Past entries include Spawn, Astro Boy, Captain America, Hellboy, Starfire, Kraven, Harley Quinn, Big Barda, Blacksad, Miss Martian, Josie and The Pussy Cats, Harry Potter, M.O.D.O.K., Marvel Zombies, and Loki.
Gearing up for FAN EXPO, Aug. 25-28, one of the largest North American comic book, sci-fi, and anime conventions here in Toronto, if you're going, catch these guys there and get some awesome comissioned sketches!
Until then, here's a short Q & A with David Culter, one of the founders of Spitballin' Comics.
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Hi David,
Welcome and thanks for doing this feature on a la mode.
How did Spitballin' Comics begin? How did it all come about? And how does it work?
I guess Spitballin' was my idea, originally--in as much as stealing a format from other artblogs like Drawbridge (http://draw-bridge.blogspot.com) and Comic Twart (http://www.comictwart.com) can be called an idea haha. At the time I was getting bored and losing the passion for my own work and pursuit of a career in comics, so I was looking for a way to find the fun a little more and foster closer friendships with local cartoonists in the same boat as me. I approached some people I knew from the Toronto Drink and Draw about starting a group sketch blog, a little nervous about suggesting it at all, and the idea went over better than I hoped. As for the name, I can't remember who came up with it originally, but it was between myself, Neil Tavares, and Michael Walsh. One of us was rattling off potential blog names, and added "it's not that I think any of these are good, I'm just spitballin' here." Someone else pointed out Spitballin' was kind of on the nose.
The concept is pretty simple: every week one of us picks an established character, usually from comic books, but anything from nerd culture is cool as long as they have a visual hook. Then the eight of us (or, you know, whoever's available) each do our take on that character. Depending on the week we could stick pretty close to the source material, do a redesign, a total re-imagining or whatever. We rotate character selection alphabetically by last name, so everyone gets to choose the week's subject once every two months, more or less. It keeps us in practice, keeps us having fun, and gets our work out there to a little bit of a (hopefully) wider audience then we'd achieve with our own blogs and what have you.
Are you looking for any new contributors? If so, just local or anywhere in the world?
For the time being we feel like the eight we have is pretty solid. There are so many fantastic cartoonists in the GTA, even just considering the ones just starting out like we are, if we started adding more people now we'd never stop. If people don't get to decide who we're drawing every couple months or so, they get a little antsy, too.
While we don't plaster Toronto all over the blog or anything, we do try to keep things local--maybe half of us live downtown, the rest are spread out a little more, in Scarborough, Hamilton, and Pickering. Every so often we do "guest posts", though, and for those we're a little more geographically open. We're still working through a long list of friends for the guest post slot, but we just featured Tim and Grace Miner of the popular sketchblog 5 Minute Marvels (http://5minutemarvels.wordpress.com) which was really exciting for us as we love their blog and enthusiasm for cartooning. The guest spot also allows us to show off the work of people we admire, though we prefer to approach people for it rather than be approached. We generally try to line up contributors with characters we think they'd pop with.
Out of all the past entrees, which ones have been everyone's favourites?
I can't speak for everyone, but I know the first time we felt the blog really clicked was Hellboy week, which I think closed off our first month as a group. Hellboy's a character we were all into, and every one of us count Mike Mignola as a major influence, so it ended up tying everything together pretty well. Beyond that, a couple of my personal favorites were Kraven the Hunter (the jungle-themed Spider-Man villain) and Josie and the Pussycats. During Kraven week, Ryan Bullard (the eighth Beatle) was just a guest poster, but he blew us all away so hard we scrambled to bring him on full time. One of our more interesting weeks was Umbrella Academy week a month or so ago, when instead of everyone doing the same character, we each took on a different member of Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's indie superhero team. It was a lot of fun and I think it shows in the results.
What's coming up next for Spitballin' Comics? What are you guys planning in the coming weeks, months?
We try to play our upcoming characters pretty close to the chest--I'm not even sure why, but we like to keep it so no one knows what's coming until it like magic appears on the blog. The rest you'll have to wait and see!
I am excited to see what you have in store for us in the near future! Since you guys are based in Toronto, how do you view the Toronto art scene right now? Good/Bad/Awesome?
I don't pretend to be a very artistically informed guy haha... I love how big of an art town Toronto is, we're like the Portland of the North or something, but what little I know of the scene here comes from looking through gallery windows, huddled in a blanket like a starving Dickensian street youth, staring jealously at the oversexed, fashionable art hipsters inside. As an outsider looking in, it seems pretty awesome to me hahaha.
Speaking to stuff I'm more familiar with, Toronto is overflowing with unbelievably talented cartoonists and animators and illustrators, both established pros and up and coming amateurs. It's kind of daunting, really, the level of competition and ability right outside our own doors. Again, if I started naming names, I'd never stop, but it really is incredible how much talent we have here. I moved here from the east coast to be where it's at, art-wise, and I wasn't disappointed.
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Fun Trivia:
Mac or PC?
I think if I bought a new computer it would be a Mac but I'm on a PC now. Until money rains down from the empty heavens, I'm a PC by default. I'm in the extreme minority of Spitballers, I might be one of two who use a PC.
Pentel Pen or Sakura Micron Pen?
I use both but I'm sort of unsteady and heavy handed with a brush pen, so it's a pocket full of Microns for me for the most part.
Xbox or Playstation?
Playstation brainwashed me early on with Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. I still think of Xbox as the Halo box for jocks.
Burgers or Hotdogs?
Big Smoke Burger.
Red heads or Black hair?
I've always been a simple brunette fellow.
Hipsters or Goths?
Hipsters. I like to watch them go by on their fixies in the spring when they crawl out of the ground after winter hibernation.
Acid Rain or Shit Storm?
Acid rain.
Avril Lavigne or Celine Dion?
I've always been partial to Lavigne's nose.
Asians or Jews?
As a predominantly white male, I am not authorized to answer questions of race other than answering "who's terrible?" with "white people!"
Aquaman or This?
Aquaman. Always Aquaman. A woman with blood in her mouth (even if that woman is Emma Frost) doesn't send me to a good place mentally. She did something awful to me, or I did something awful to her, but either way we should both be ashamed.
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Agreed. Once again, thank you David Cutler and Spitballin' Comics.
All pictures are courtesy of Spitballin' Comics.
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