THREE MEMORIES OF DARWYN COOKE

One of my cartooning heroes, Darwyn Cooke, passed away this weekend from cancer.

Darwyn's work was a huge inspiration to me, and him being a Canadian just made him even more inspirational. He was so supportive of my work even from the early days of my career when the first volume of Essex County was published. I have a lot of fond memories of Darwyn, but I thought I'd share three that I'll never forget...

1. Darwyn and I were nominated against one another for "Best Cartoonist" at the 2008 Shuster Awards for Canadian cartooning. I ended up winning the award that night and on my way back to my seat, Darwyn cut me off and grabbed my hand, congratulating me in such a heartfelt and genuine way that I was incredibly moved. I mean, who is kidding who, I had no business even being nominated for a cartooning award against a master like Darwyn, let alone winning. Yet the look in his eyes that night as he shook my hand made me feel worthy and meant as much to me as the award itself.

2. When Essex County was collected into one volume I emailed Darwyn and asked if he would write the introduction. When he agreed I was over the moon and when I read what he wrote, I was so honoured and moved.

3. At Fan Expo in 2013 Darwyn pulled me aside and asked if I'd take a walk outside of the convention centre with him because he wanted to "talk to me about something". I was curious of course, but I was also worried. I knew that Darwyn had a temper, and I worried that I'd done or said something to piss him off. But when we got outside and found a spot to sit on the steps near the Rogers Centre I was stunned when Darwyn told me that he wanted me to write something for him to draw. He had just read Underwater Welder and said he wanted me to write something like that for him to draw. I was stunned, flattered and, again, moved. I never got a chance to work with him. I became so busy it was always one of those things I thought I would follow up with him about one day down the road, and now he's gone.

While I never got to know Darwyn on a deeply personal level, he still made a huge impact on me and these are memories that I will always cherish. Darwyn was one of the greatest cartoonists alive, and he not only accepted me into the clubhouse, he made me feel like I belonged.

I'll never forget his kindness and his talent.

Rest in peace, Darwyn. And thank you.

MY TCAF SCHEDULE

I will be a featured guest at the  TCAF - The Toronto Comic Arts Festival  this weekend, May 14-15

I will be signing all day Saturday and Sunday in the MASONIC TEMPLE location along with my Plutona collaborator Emi Lenox and many other talented comics creators.

I will also be interviewed by RAY FAWKES at THE PILOT in Saturday at 11:00 am and I will be doing some live drawing on stage at the Masonic Temple on Sunday and giving away whatever I draw.

SATURDAY MAY 15 11:00 am - Spotlight panel moderated by my friend and frequent collaborator RAY FAWKES at THE PILOT (22 Cumberland Street, Across from The Library)

In addition I will be selling these new LIMITED prints featuring all of my crater-owned characters, from LOST DOGS to ROUGHNECK, from the last 10-years! The prints are limited to 150 copies and come signed and numbered.

The prints will also be made available online through CADENCE COMIC ART, who also sell my other prints and original artwork,  on MONDAY MAY 16.

I will also have a limited supply of signed BLACK HAMMER PREVIEW COMICS.

BLACK HAMMER NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE ORDER!

BLACK HAMMER, my new creator-owned series with Dean Ormston and Dark Horse Comics is now available for pre-order at any local comic book store.

Simply bring this order-form to any local comic book shop and order today!

NEWS! AD, MOON KNIGHT and More!

The release date for my upcoming Graphic Novel collaboration with writer SCOTT SNYDER, entitled AD: AFTER DEATH has been set for November of this year!

There will be a 16-page PREVIEW of AD in the upcoming issue of IMAGE + Magazine, out April 27.




My next MARVEL series, MOON KNIGHT will launch April 13 with amazing Art by GREG SMALLWOOD and JORDIE BELLAIRE. There is a recent interview about Moon Knight right here.

There was also a recent article focusing on my work in MACLEANS MAGAZINE.

Also of note, I will be a guest at TCAF The Toronto Comics Arts Festival and The Stockholme Comics Festival is Sweden both in MAY

And as always, my original artwork, prints and sketchbooks are available for sale at CADENCE COMIC ART

BLACK HAMMER New Series From Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston Debuts in JULY

Black Hammer is finally ready to launch! Coming in JULY 2016 from Dark Horse Comics!

BLACK HAMMER follows a group of oddball superheroes who have been "wiped out of continuity" after an earth shaking cataclysmic "event" and wake on a farm in a mysterious small town.

They were the greatest heroes of a lost era, Golden Aged crime buster, ABRAHAM SLAM, interstellar adventurer COL. WEIRD and his robot sidekick TALKY-WALKY, BARBALIEN warlord From Mars, GOLDEN GAIL, America’s super-sweetheart, MADAME DRAGONFLY, mistress of the macabre, and BLACK HAMMER invincible champion of the streets.

They have no idea where they are or how to get back home. All they know is they can't leave the borders of the seemingly idyllic small town.

The book follows the strange cast of characters as they work to assimilate themselves into quiet small town life, living as a bizarre surrogate family on the farm, all the while try to uncover the many mysteries of the farm, where they really are and how to get back home.


Written by Jeff Lemire and Illustrated by Dean Ormston, Black Hammer also features colors by Dave Stewart and Letters by the legendary Todd Klien.

Order DEPT H Now!

One of my all-time favourite cartoonists (who also happens to be one of my best friends) MATT KINDT has a new series, DEPT H, launching soon from Dark Horse Comics.

DEPT H is the follow-up to Matt's acclaimed series Mind Mgmt and will written and drawn by Matt and coloured by Matt's talented wife, Sharlene Kindt. Based on the early artwork and designs I have seen the book is going to be amazing, so please consider showing your support and pre-ordering the first issue.

All the info you need to PRE-ORDER the book at you local comic book store is provided on the handy order form above.

I also illustrated a VARIANT COVER for issue 1 (below)!

COMING OCTOBER 2016...