Monday, December 17, 2012

Larry Blake Collaborations

Larry Blake and Hawaii's own Gerry Lee have re-teamed to continue their collaboration on Gerry's comic book, The New Sons of Thunder, after two years apart. This results in two current projects: 1) Gerry is putting out a trade paperback collecting the first three issues written by Gerry and drawn by Larry, with a full-color cover by Larry. 2) Gerry and Larry are also working on a fourth issue which promises to be just as much fun as the others.

The Sons of Thunder are Tempest and Maelstrom, two would-be adventurers from Gokuraku island, "a place halfway between heaven and earth" where "anything can happen, and any place and any time is a simple boat ride away." These two sword-wielding princes, who can call down thunder and lightning, are on "a mission from God" as "heralds of the Messiah," a task they pursue with more enthusiasm than knowledge.

Gerry composes his fun and funny stories with their very appealing extended cast as roughly drawn manga-style pages, which Larry then translates into finished art in his own cartoony style, sometimes using Gerry's layouts, sometimes not. Like Larry's work with James Rubino, this blend achieves a quality beyond any Larry and Gerry could achieve alone. There's never been a comic quite like The New Sons of Thunder. It's an all-ages fun-blast that isn't tied to any one time or place!


Larry loves collaborating with other cartoonists, as these past couple of entries show. He claims he learns something new from every team-up. Just recently, he completed a year-long project doing inks and finishes on a dozen stories of a character called Silverwolf, written by Kevin Yong and roughed out by artist Eric Jansen. Kevin and Eric have created a unique superhero who is fun and appealing to all ages. The stories tie together in an overall science-fiction-tinged way while covering a wide-surface look and feel of everything from science fiction, superheroics, fantasy, and horror. The Silverwolf stories are slated for release in a trade-paperback collection. Most have been previewed in rough form in the Alpha-Omega APAzine, issued by the Christian Comic Arts Society. Click here for their website.

Larry Blake is a busy artist, and he has another collaboration in the works for Five Star Comics #2. It is the second story in the saga of Larry's new superheroine, Missile. This time out, the story is ten pages and is scripted by Terence Hanley. Penciled and lettered by Larry, the newest Missile story will be inked by Larry's longtime collaborator, that living legend of small press, Tim Corrigan!

Art copyright 2012 Larry Blake
Text copyright 2012 Five Star Comics

Monday, December 10, 2012

Larry Blake Teams Up on Followers of the All

Archives of the Alien-Volume 1: Followers of the All is now available from small-press veteran James Rubino. It features the origin of the Christian superhero Mr. Faith, who appeared in many small-press digests of the 1980s. This science fiction adventure is set in a  dystopian future and drawn in James' wild-and-wonderful style that seems like a crazed blend of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. On top of that potent eye-candy are the moody inks and legible lettering of Five Star Comics' own Larry Blake. Larry and James are longtime artistic collaborators and have done over 400 pages together--most of which remain unpublished!

James Rubino is a musician/writer/artist who has now added "publisher" to his list of accomplishments. Aside from Followers of the All, he has released the Tales of the Seventh Galaxy series and several other cool titles. His work is visually powerful and thought-provoking. James is one of a kind despite his obvious influences. Add Larry Blake's also one-of-a-kind underground-comix-influenced bold inking style to the mix and it becomes a very strong visual that neither artist could achieve on his own. Check out:


for cool Rubino/Blake comics.


Copyright 2012 Five Star Comics

Monday, December 3, 2012

Comics Buyer's Guide Reviews Five Star #1 & #2

Whitney Grace, a reviewer for Comics Buyer's Guide, has written about her impressions of Five Star Comics #1 and #2 in the magazine's November issue. Ms. Grace voices an opinion that seems common among comic book readers of today. "Original stories inspired by or updating the Golden Age adventures are welcome," she writes,  "especially their freedom from modern super-hero soap operas." In creating Five Star Comics, we wanted to avoid the cynicism, irony, extreme violence, nihilism, moral relativism, and moral depravity of modern day comics. If super soaps are part of that picture, we're glad we have avoided that, too. In any case, Ms. Grace concludes her review with this: "Five Star Comics has something going for it that many other independent comics lack." She doesn't say what that might be, but we hope it's good.

Original text copyright 2013 Five Star Comics