BLACKJACK is DONE! Greetings DIESELFUNKATEERS! The Artwork for the Graphic Novel “Blackjack: There Came A Dark Hunter” is DONE! Blackjack, aka Arron Day, is a world travelled African-American Soldier of Fortune created by Alexander Simmons in 1996. My first exposure to Alex’s work was way back in the Eclipse Comics days. He and Jim Sherman had done this horror/adventure story called “Demon Chronicles”. I also recognized him as the reference for “the black dude” in Don McGregor’s Detectives Inc. Yes folks, I was reading this Cat’s stuff across the road from a cotton field. What’s even more ironic is that my BIG break into comics would come through Joyce Brabner at Eclipse Comics just a few years later. Now I didn’t realize Alex was involved in any of this till just a few months ago. So of course when I first met him as one of the cartooning teachers at The Children’s Arts Carnival back in the early 2000s I had no idea of the connections. I saw him as a colleague who graciously allowed me to promote and screen elements of Matty during his Kidscomicon events. Two years ago, while deep in production on the Matty’s Rocket animated series, I felt I needed a bit of an “art break”. So I approached Alex about producing a new Blackjack story. Amazingly, he said YES. This would be the first comic I had done since 1999 (an awful soft porn Scifi comic Don’t ask:-) I had no way of knowing that what I initially decided was a detour would ultimately turn into a fun little 22 page comic book, and ultimately into a 50-60 page fully painted graphic novel. Despite my nearly giving Alex and myself a heart attack with the level and length of work, I’m VERY PROUD of my work on this book. Alex has given me the opening to showcase not only my personal art, but the character of Arron Day at his best. Blackjack: There Came A Dark Hunter!
Enjoy it Folks
Now back to FULL SPEED on Matty’s Rocket! BLASTOFF!
