Fightin’ Flatsmen bio’s
It wasn’t long after we started preparation on The Uniques that we realized there was no way to do the book on our own. The biggest job we couldn’t do were the color separations or ‘Flats.’ Flats are the process of separating areas of color from each other in simple, flat tones. It separates hair from skin from clothing, shirts from pants from jackets, and so on. Having flats allows us as colorists to quickly and efficiently select each section of the page to color digitally. It is a time consuming process, but absolutely essential to the creation of the book.
If we had to do flats on our own, it would easily have added a month or more to every issue, and that just wasn’t acceptable. We needed help, and we needed it bad… but we were making this book out of pocket, with the only financing we had consumed entirely by our living expenses. We could pay for rent, but we couldn’t hire people to help with the comic. So, the call went out through the internet seeking folks to lend a hand, and the following brave souls answered the call.
Here’s a lesser-known secret: all coloring companies use people to do color separations. When you see the credits for a comic and they list one person’s name or a company’s title, what you don’t get to see are the names of the people who work diligently month in and out to get the flats done. We feel that’s a travesty! These people worked hard for us and made this comic possible, and are worthy of recognition. Say hello to our Fighting Flatsmen!
Joel Bartlett
(Issue #1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)Joel is a student of ours and comes over every Saturday night to work with us while we teach him about anatomy, layout, sequential storytelling and the like. He has a huge love for the medium of comics has been a big fan of The Uniques ever since he met us a few years back. He took some time out to help us with the book and did a really nice job, making us so proud. With any luck he’ll be at college with scholarship money in his pocket this time next year - and he won’t have any time at all to work on our little comic because he’ll be so engrossed with his own stuff. Joel’s got a deviantART page, and it’s well worth a look. He’s a good kid.
doomedmarshmallow.deviantart.com
Jared Brokaw
(Issue #8, 9)Known as RBL_M1A2Tanker in our forums - Bio to come.
Johnny Bourlett
(Issue #1)We met Johnny at Wizard World Chicago in ‘07. He is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and to prove that he volunteered to help us with our flats. He’s a real pro, working for people like ATP where he’s also a flatter - and has a couple of books he’s written coming out: The Haggis, a comedic tale about a self indulgent quasi-hero, and Seven Swords, a fantasy story about seven unlikely companions who are forced to work together for their own survival. He, his wife, and six (that’s right, six!) kids live in southern California, and we hope to be able to see him at another convention sometime soon so we can thank him personally for being so good to us and helping us so much.
Christa Carpenter
(Issue #5)
Damian Davis
(Issue #2, 3, 4)Damian is another person we met through Deviant Art. He’s been into comics since as long as he can remember. And he’s a huge fan of the artwork and the creativities of the comic world. He and a friend of his started to color back in 1999 and he’s been working to find the time to get better ever since then. And for him the process of doing color and separating flats is very relaxing and enjoyable. It’s his way of escaping the problems and stress around him. Comics have been a big part of his life and coloring makes him feel like he’s a part of that world. He’s the nicest sweetest guy and we are so thankful that he’s been able to help us so much! You can see Damian’s artwork at davisjes.deviantart.com
Ken Gordon
(Issue #6)
M. Jessica Hunsberger
(Issue #1, 2)Jessica is an honest-to-goodness professional Flatsman, who does color separation work for way professional people from independent publishers to the bigwigs on books like Ultimate Fantastic 4 and G.I. Joe. She’s primarily a stay-at-home mom (4 kids between ages 2 and 10 years, wow!) who loves the challenge of ironing out her skills and loves to see the progression of the piece from lines to final color. She’s done an amazing job for us and we are terribly happy to have her on-board.
Will Jones
(Issue #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)Will is yet another of our students, and a member of our Private Lesson squad that comes over on Saturday. He’s is quite the talented young man and could go anywhere if he puts his mind to it. He was one of the people who read over the book for us early on, and liked Quake and Singe so much that we let him handle flatting their debut in issue 1. He’s got a lovely deviantART gallery that has an awesome picture of Singe he did for us in it, so get over there and see what’s what.
razarik.deviantart.com
Ron Kieser
(Issue #1, 2, 3, 4, 5)Ron had never really done flats before working on The Uniques, but once he got the hang of it, he powered through like a pro! He’s a young guy, 22 years old, and lives out in Beaverton, Oregon with his fiancée Kim and his two cats, James and Toby. He’s loved comic books since he was little and his excitement and enthusiasm for The Uniques was a joy to us.
Ron owns a small Oregon-based game design company called Ronime Studios, and they are working hard towards their first game release, "dollhouse",” along with other projects such as "Exodus: Faded Spirits"” and "Draconis".” He’s got a deviantART page as well and we encourage you all to go pay him a visit and see his artwork.
ronime.deviantart.com
Frank Rapoza
(Issue #1, 2)Frank’s flats are crazy detailed. He always goes the extra mile, breaking our flats down to a level that makes our job a breeze. He’s got tenacity and humility that endeared him to us right away. He and his wife, Susie, have two boys Kimo & Keoni and live out in the land of Las Vagas where he works creating designs for Video Slot Machines. His art can be seen in many TV shows and Movies such as Las Vegas, The Sopranos and National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation among others. It’s all so fancy we wonder why the man takes time out from his busy schedule to help us out… but that’s just the kind of guy Frank is. Awesome. He’s got a few links, so make sure to go check out his work - it’s quite nice.
johnnyqwest.deviantart.com
www.comicspace.com/johnnyqwest
www.myspace.com/johnnyqwest
Cassandra Reyhani
(Issue #5, 6,9)
Cassandra always makes us laugh. Each e-mail she sends has something that makes us giggle - not to mention she does delightfully wry and honest tweets. Cass is 24 years old and a jack of all trades. If she’s not doing flats she’s either knitting, crocheting, baking, cooking, writing, drawing, painting, coding websites, dabbling in photography, playing too many video games, listening to music from all genres…or she’s just sleeping. A lot. All while she attends college, majoring in microbiology and minoring in art. What a split, huh? If we get our way someday Cass will someday become a big time Chemical Pathologist and every night she’ll come home from a hard day’s sciencing and take a nice long bubble bath. You can read more about Cassandra and her adventures outside of color separations here at her blog
http://ussrorcssr.wordpress.com
Krista Schuman
(Issue #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)We met Krista waaaaay back when she first started taking art classes with us when she was a wee 12 years old. She’s now all of 18 and was responsible for the lion’s share of the pages in the first issue of The Uniques. She’s fun, sweet, and an amazing colorist herself. Go check out her deviantART gallery to see her stuff
kurisutachan.deviantart.com
Jade McGilvray
(Issue #9)
Jade had never done flats before, but let us tell you - she is incredibly awesome at it! One of our favorite things about Jade was how eager she was to learn the process and get this experience. Right now Jade is gearing up to head to school for 3D animation, and is super excited to go. One day, she hopes to write and draw her own comic, but she tells us she knows she still has a lot to learn. In our opinion though, we’ll be seeing some great things from our young Jade one day. Some of her art is posted on deviantART- go check it out!
http://quantum-kid.deviantart.com
Jarrah James
(issue #9)
Jarrah found the Uniques through deviantART and when we put up another call for flats for our 9th issue, he felt like improving his Karma score by helping out other comic artistes. With luck, his next life will be as something awesome. He even learned a new trick with the lasso tool as a result of his efforts, and we were incredibly thankful for his help. You can see his work at her deviantART page zartes.deviantart.com, or check out his (sadly neglected) webcomic TransStellar
http://www.transstellar.llamaslap.com/
Tyler Kryzanowski
(Issue #9)
Tyler was a student of ours when we taught in the Continuing Studies department of Kendall College of Art and Design. We started working with him when he was still in high school, and though we moved away and had to leave our students, we remained in touch with young Tyler and when the opportunity arose to do some flats for us, he jumped at it. Though still learning, Tyler is showing a tremendous amount of promise. We look forward to seeing where his talent takes him and what sort of artist he shapes up to be. You can see his work at his deviantART page:
http://amtyk.deviantart.com/
Kenny Keen
(Issue #9)Kenny had already established himself as a force in independent comics before he so kindly offered his services as a Fightin’ Flatsman. He’s the creator of the comics Slayer, Expulse, Ruthless, and Horrific Tales - all published by his company, Midnight Horizon Comics - http://midnighthorizon.com/ He’s also contributed short stories, pin-ups, and cover to numerous small press publications over the years. He is the letterer for Tribulations, Dressed to Kill, and Guardians, all from Highburn Studios. A man of great skill and professionalism, we’re honored to have Kenny working with us on Uniques!
Kyle Schetzel
(Issue #9)
Young Kyle lives in Verginia Beach, VA and has been into comics for the past 7 years. We me him at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte a couple of years ago - introduced to us by his friend Cat, from the forums. At the moment he’s a sophomore in college and is working toward an associate’s degree in Graphic Design. Kyle loves to color and is thinking about pursuing it professionally. Kyle is quite skilled and a very hard worker; he was a pleasure to work with, to say the least. Go check out his deviantART page here!
http://aburameshino122.deviantart.com/
Sasha
(issue #9)
We met Sasha (or Kanku as she’s also known on the internets) at the Motor City Comic Con waaay back in ’07 when she got a sketch of Michael from us, and she’s been following the comic ever since. Sasha grew up on comics and comic cartoons like Batman, Superman, and X-Men. She’s now in her first year of college in Ohio and when she gets a spare moment away from her studies she’s nice enough to go onto the college computers and do some flats for us. She’s got a Live Journal page where you can read of her adventures!
http://kanku1317.livejournal.com/
Arto Heino
(Issue #9)
Arto has been an artist for about 35 years. He’s tried his skilled hands at most styles and forms of art and is currently a member of the Liverpool Art Society - which is only fitting because the man’s worked on a ton of stuff! He’s made underground comics and fanzines in the late 60’s, worked as cover artist, authored three books on Magic Squares, is currently working on a book about alternative historical events… and he’s also a computer programmer and musician. Frankly, Arto is such a cool and busy guy that we’re amazed and thankful that he took time out of his busy schedule to help us out. We find this quote of his baffling and fitting all at the same time: "When it looks like I am doing nothing, I am working my hardest!" With all his skill, hard work, and determination, Arto is a man after our own hearts. Go visit his deviantART page and check out his stuff
http://valnor.deviantart.com/
Aziz Balamani
Aziz is originally from Washington, D.C., but currently lives in the great state of Georgia with his wonderful wife. He’s a giant comic and Manga fan, which influences a lot of his artwork. He’s currently working on a wrestling comic called Rumble Land and has a fantasy comic called Chaos Destined, both of which are still in the development stages. Personally, we can’t wait to see them finished. As you all may have guessed, we love to watch people making their stories into realities. Go check out Aziz’s art at http://mrdragoncomics.deviantart.com/ - or you can go to his comic Rumble Land’s official website http://rumbleland.blogspot.com/