This past weekend I attended the SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY CON at the...wait, that's not true. I actually went to MoCCA Fest 2011. MoCCA, The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, holds this event annually to help fund the exhibits and courses contained in their lower Manhattan building. The festival brings together thousands of the most talented independent writers and artists working in comics. What a perfect opportunity to add some signatures to my bound volumes of Grant Morrison's 30-issue story, SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY. Vol II of my collection already featured character sketches from Yanick Paquette and Freddie Williams II. This weekend I was fortunate to meet two artists who worked as staff letterers for DC Comics when SEVEN SOLDIERS was released.
According to his bio, Jared K Fletcher makes designs and pictures, mostly for comics. He has an Eisner, Harvey and Eagle award nomination. But he also has 28 Steven Seagal movies on dvd. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Jared was at MoCCA promoting his web-comic, STRANGER FICTIONS. I bought a mini-comic containing the web-comic's greatest hits. And it's hilarious yo! Subscribe to his rss feed to follow the adventures of Dethicus, the angry one who likes to smoke and watch Steven Seagal movies. And Captain Fantabulous, the other angry one. But back in '06, Jared was putting Grant Morrison's metatextual musings in word balloons and creating ingenius sound effects to suitably compliment the masterful artwork of SEVEN SOLDIERS.
I was also lucky enough to briefly make the aquaitance of Phil Balsman. Back in the day he was lettering some of the SEVEN SOLDIERS books, notably FRANKENSTEIN. Phil was at MoCCA supporting his fiancée, and fellow artist Paigey Pumphrey. Lately, Balsman has been working as a Commercial Graphic Artist based in NYC. His work typically focuses on eye-catching, iconic design sense with a high-energy, high-impact aesthetic. Hit him up if you're in need of some amazing design work!
Both Jared and Phil were VERY generous with their time and couldn't have been more approachable. I dig hearing behind-the-scenes stories about the books that I groove on. They were even kind enough to provide some sketches with their signatures. Stay tuned for more adventures with the SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY. I will also be giving shout-outs to all the other talented creators whose stuff I bought.
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