Interviews

Me and James were just interviewed by Invest Comics about our upcoming Blue Water and Cosmic Times work, as well as our take on digital comics which you can read here and I'll be appearing on Sunday's episode of Nerd Nation for a round table discussion with Gene Hoyle, Martin Pierro, and James Whynot about our upcoming comic from Cosmic Times entitled "From Blood."

Lots o art

Souled 2 Preview Pages by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Decisions 2, preview pages by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Padme by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Ang by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Future Foundation Phoenix by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Pris by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Souled #2 and 7th Control

7th Control Band Poster by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

I finished the pencils for Souled #2 the other day and did this for my friend's band, but I've heard mixed reviews about its readability. If you turn it 90 to the right you can see the skull pretty easy. But I think it works as being intrinsically visually interesting even if you don't know what you're looking at. So I think I still accomplished my goal and got to do another digital painting.
As far as souled goes since doing 20pgs for From blood #1, back to back with a 24pg issue for Souled - my style is starting to cement itself. In my opinion somewhere between Chris Spouse and JRJR. Drawing for color with Souled has also changed things like my black placement and made me use more lines and hatching, like a exaggerated or blocky Kubert. Though I love seemingly simplistic work of guys like Alex Toth and even how loose Rick Leonardi's work is. But I'm also finding out how great and different a piece can look when you leave that much up to the inker. Some things that don;t matter to me and some that I envisioned as being a bit different when finished out than they go - not better or worse, it just means giving some of the finished product up to the inker. Which takes a little getting used to, especially since before Souled I hadn't worked with a separate inker over me. But I've still been able to stay well ahead of my deadlines and even fit projects into crunch areas when I have a break.

Not relating to my style, but finding some classic Jose Luis Garcia Lopez artwork that I grew up with and being able to say - "That's my Batman" and feeling so dumb for always assuming his art was Niel Adams - though both look great and I prefer with the bold inking of my fav. Dick Giordano, RIP.

Con Schedule 2011

It's been a while. I'm back at the drawing board getting started on Souled issue 2, and a few other projects with cosmic times comics as well as the first half of a book me and James have been working on that were calling "from blood" - the first issue will be 30pgs b+w and should be ready to debut at Megacon. I've been working on coloring the Dynast as well as winding up to teach a Class on graphic Novels at the Community College of Aurora later this month. So between my computer crashing in the middle of all that and me and my wife changing day jobs its been hectic since mid-november but it's good to be back and doing art that is better than ever. So far I've planned to attend the following conventions in 2011:
Megacon - entity, from blood and souled will all debut with some contribution from me.
SuperShow (those guys keep me motivated all day long)
SwarmCon (scad)
Ny Comic Con (hopefully)
San Diego Comic Con (hopefully)

I may be selling original comic pages and art at the con's as well as doing convention sketches for $10. We'll see how things go, hopefully we can finish up Souled, get in some other projects and finish up "From Blood" before 2012, just in case the world does end. Oh yeah and I also finished digitally painting my first cover for souled #1 - which is full color by the way for only 3.50 thanks to my friend Kevin Ziegler, as well as my wife doing the alternative cover. See the cosmic times website for more info here.


Souled Issue 1 - Cover by ~xaqBazit on deviantART


as well as a teaser trailer for Souled that used some of the interior artwork.

Decisions Review

Indy Hunter recently reviewed Decisions issue 1 saying my art "...has a rough style that speaks to me as an artist. It’s a bit raw, unrefined but highly energetic. It does however seem a bit rushed and too loose in some areas. Also there were some structure issues in the second story that I wonder if drawn as an afterthought. With that being said, I think there is some promise with both Martin and Zach as a regular writer/art team. I do look forward to seeing how these guys mesh and progress into one working, effective voice." Se the rest of his review here.
I also just finished inking issue 6 and the first half of issue 7 of Kord & Harley for Mortal World Entertainment. And that is being published by Arcana Comics. Should be cool.

Working Professional

Well I'm not sure how much I can say about each project but I have secured enough work for the next year or two to finally quit my day job and go pro.
The second best news is that it is all pencilling, and some of the inking will be handled by my good friend and soon to be neighbor James Whynot. We have also nearly completed our pitch packet for "From Blood" formerly referred to as "27." I will be doing some more work for Cosmic Times, Mortal World Entertainment and What the Flux Comics, and have also started getting a fairly healthy stream of commission and side work as well.
So other than having to move twice this month, getting struck by lightening and getting my identity stolen the only thing that makes this month any better is (st some point) getting to celebrate my anniversary.
I have also colored a 6pg short horror story that Whynot inked over Drew Zucker, who is already getting to work with one of my idols of a related industry - cartoons! And I am submitting to Soyfucker vol 2 - an all vegan comic anthology.

Busy Bee

I’ve been a busy bee, and a very ADD one this month. I’ve helped ink 2 pages of Jeremay’s Trash #2 for What the Flux, and 2 pages of Randy’s Assassins Guild #4 for Knightshift Studios. I’ve all but finished the last script in a 6-issue superhero series I’ve wanted to do and have been plotting since my first year of college. I’ve also Penciled an 8pg story for The ICCW Psychic Kids Anthology in about 3-4 days, which you can see here and set up to go to both Heroes con and Florida Supercon - both 3 day cons - in June. You can see me eitehr at the Cosmic Times booth where they will be selling copies of Decisions that I worked on, or at the What the Flux booth - at supercon. On top of that I’ve landed some ongoing work with Mortal World Entertainment which should keep me busy for the good part of this next year - you can see some of my character designs on Matt’s facebook page, here. Not to mention some other secret work I can’t talk about with WTFC. I also finally acquired a Waccom Tablet and an 11x17 scanner - my essential gear for this kind of work load.

Post Megacon 2010

As a guest of What the Flux Comics, my Megacon table looked like this. With my prints on the lower left, portfolio to the right and shirts in the background. I was able to sell at least one of everything I had at the table. I also had the Concrete Dove posters, I inked and colored, as well as my shirts and Bellydancer posters, and actually had quite a diverse audience for them. I later started hanging the following sketches, that I did, live, at the con, on the front of the table to get people interested in Commissions, which you can see below, of Daredevil, Emma Frost, Batman and Batgirl.

Batgirl Con Sketch by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Batgirl con sketch - inked by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

I did end up getting four Commissions, including: Death, a character the man apparently got various con sketches of and seemed to list mine among his favourites, and mentioned it getting very positive comments from several other artist’s he approached to do one. A fellow artist’s personal character, for whom I regret to say I don’t remember the name (please email if you find this and let me know so I can link you). Batgirl sitting atop the Hulk’s shoulder. And a character from Patrick Sessom’s comic S.O.A.R.

Megacon Commissions 2010 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
Jeramy Hobbs, a fellow WTFC artist seemed to like my work quite a bit and I was asked to ink one of his pieces. This one of the main characters from God of War and Assassin’s Creed fighting one another, I was told this piece sold, later that same day.

God of War vs Assassins Creed by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
I got to sit next to Larry Watts and his wife Sarah, who along with Patrick Sessoms and Randy Taylor, along with a few others were running the ICCW table right next to us. We were all kind of in the corner, and business was hard. There were many artists but very few companies – so networking was about the only option and for that reason ICCW flourished, with around 25 new members after the first day. The ICCW rampage Vol. 1, featured my story “Friend$hip” and Patrick’s story that I inked, “3:33am” will premiere in Vol. 2.
I got to meet new artists, such as Banky Farando, Patrick Larcada, Matt Buck, and Lamar Mathurin as well as catch up with some past acquaintances from the Mini-Megacon, and old friends like Ryan Miller. I also bought a book from Botobit, Epidemic vol. 1 – which, like the ICCW rampage vol. 1, was an anthology of different artists from around the globe, though more fine arts related and less sequential focused. I also stopped and grabbed a flyer for the Orange County Regional History Center, who have several comic themed exhibits, both currently and upcoming.

I got a few artists’ to critique my portfolio and recent work in Decision’s, such as Rick Tucker and various companies I talked to. And I was even asked to review up and coming artist’s portfolio’s, which was great, such as Jeanette Pabon, who is working on putting a website together. I got to meet and talk art with one of my recent influences, Erick Jones, one of my all time favourite artist’s Dave Dorman, and others as I examined their wealth of original artwork they all had on hand.

I was also able to spend some time at the Cosmic Times booth with Robin on Sunday, where we signed the first available copies of Decisions for customers, which premiered this weekend, and got to talk with two of the nicest people working in Indy Comics. Here’s a pic of the three of us, the creative team for the 1st issue, excluding only the cover artist Dan Mann, who was also available for autographs at the con though I didn’t get a chance to meet, and the editor Connie Voss. (From left to right: Martin –writer-, Robin –letterer- and me, Zach –interior artist).


I did want to mention, to those of you who bought the book, and there is a note towards the end of the book that Cosmic Times is depending on readers like you writing in and letting them know what you think about the series, to decide weather of not to continue Decisions into a series. So send in those reviews! Speaking of which, we should hear back soon after from a few different blogs and websites who will be giving their opinion. Arthur: The Legend Continues, the Legend Continues (their flagship book) was received very well and even featured on the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS) so I can’t wait to hear back about this one.

I was able to pick up some trades I was looking for at ½ cover price such as The Return of Superman, New X-men: Vol. 2, Fables Vol. 1 and Vertigo’s: First Cut. And while not everyone who stopped and looked bought something, most did take the time to grab a business card and that exposure alone is enough to help. All in all it was a great first Convention to officially be on the other side of the table at.

I was also informed I am slated to ink their next coming first issue – Outlaws, as the banner displayed on their website shows.

Megacon Preview

I'll more than likely be at the What the Flux booth durring most of Megacon which is located in the Orange Section of Artist's Alley, booths 21-23.

I'll also have a 11x17 pinup poster I inked and colored at the What the Flux booth for Concrete Dove for sale.

Possibly a few t-shirts featuring some the Elephant and the Angel Warrior from my DA pages.

ill have prints of the belly dancer available for sale.

Belly Dancer Commission by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
as well as the iccw anthology in which these two stories are published.

Friend$hip - pg 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Friend$hip - pg 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

"3:33am" I inked and "Friend$hip" i did all on my own. You can read the first few pages of each on my DA page by clicking either one of the pictures.


3:33am Pg 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

3:33am Pg 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

And don't forget a whole issue of interior b+w artwork in "Decisions" for Cosmic Times Publishing at their booth. With beautiful cover art by Dan Mann and letters by Robin. Check out the page for more a plot synopsis and credits on their website.


Decisions, issue 1- preview by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
And of course I'll have plenty of original art on hand for all to see in my portfolio.

One heck of a Month

This month alone:
-I have drawn and inked the 9pg story for Cosmic Times, “Saving Father” in “Decisions, Issue 1.”
-I have written/penciled/inked/lettered a 5pg story entitled “Friend$hip” and inked (with my wife’s help filling some spot blacks) a 5pg story entitled “3:33am,” written by Patrick Sessoms for the ICCWW Anthology Showcase.
-I have done 2 pgs of inking samples and a pg of pencil samples for ECV press.
-And lastly I have penciled the first 5pgs for James’ Graphic Novel “27.”

Megacon
The two stories I worked on for the ICCWW Anthology “Showcase,” will be sold at Megacon, as well as my first published whole issue of art, “Decisions Issue 1 (which will be available at the Cosmic Times Booth). I believe Issue 2 of “Concrete Dove” will also be available but it may be saved as a web comic, for What the Flux Media that I did the cover for.
I’ve also started a Con Calendar on my profile if anyone is interested. Right now Megacon is the only one up, but I’ll be adding more soon. I will be jumping between the “What the Flux Media” booth and the “Cosmic Times” booth and will have issues of the ICCWW Anthology for sale as well (which can also be bought through the ICCWW booth).
I will have my portfolio as well as plenty of original art on hand either to see or buy, and will be doing Con Sketches for $15-20, depending on if you want it inked etc.

Experimenting/Influences
All this work forced me to ink everything but “Friend$hip” and the ECV inking samples here in the last week. I wish I could taken more time on but I am extremely proud of the work none the less. I do believe the work I’ve been doing is my best, which is always the goal and have even snuck in a good amount of experimenting.

-For example, Friend$hip is done in a cartoonier style as an homage to Humberto Ramos, an artist who my wife loves and I’ve been watching for some time. We just finished collecting the complete “Crimson” series he did a while back. The story is dedicated to her, and is autobiographical.

-For this second story “Saving Father” in Decisions Issue 1, I was told to try a darker style and so every time the characters get angry the style changes to a grittier rougher inking style. This was highly influenced by the work of the late, great Jorge Zaffino and this page specifically - available on his website. It was also the first time I have used Google “Sketch Up” for my art, a fact which many artist would hide but I wanted to state, because it was my first time and I have been on the fence about using 3D for comics after being shunned away by professors in college. But the truth is I ran into so many professionals at Mini-Mega Con who used it and made it work, and know of so many more, that I figured I better see what everyone was talking about. I found it decently easy to work with (after being a 3D major for a year in college) but still clumsy. I also noticed several details I would have needed to add to the model had I shot it from the other side, and the use of photo reference for textures and details like that must (I believe) go hand-in-hand. I also believe what someone said at the con, that “they might be laying it out digitally, but are Inking it by hand” And I think that goes a long way to making it mesh with your artwork.

-I tried Strathamore’s line of “smooth” comic Bristol board, because of its economy (around .50 cents a sheet) and Higgins Black Magic ink, for its availability (the only brand of waterproof ink that Michael’s carries). I don’t know if it is the combination of both together but I could Not use a quill without it bleeding horribly. In which case Faber Castell’s “M”and “B” size tech and brush pens came in extremely handy. I was able to pull it in a way that feathered the line and imitated the Quill, even with the “M” pen. Using the ink in a brush to fill spot blacks I also found the ink to be incredibly watery and gray.

-Dave Gibbons and seeing the Watchmen Motion Comic has had huge effect on how I draw, the close up zooms of his art really let me study and see what he was doing and so the way I shade walls and even draw some faces closely resembled his style while illustrating Watchmen. The way I illustrated the father character in “Saving Father” closely resembles the way he drew the character Moloch, mixed with a pseudo self-portrait of me while working on the pages. I also got to do some cool things with a toothbrush, reminiscent of John Cassaday’s run on Captain America, after 9/11.

-I tried some reflection techniques similar to the Jurgens/Breeding style run around the time of the Death of Superman. As well as picked up on a few things other superman artists did to quickly depict buildings during those issues. I posted a small picture a few posts back relating to what I’m talking about.

-I experimented with mark-making using the brush to imitate leaves though I still need to work on that more.

-And lastly I’ve found that printing Blue Lined Art at Fed-Ex/Kinkos stinks and is expensive. It printed way too dark and lead me to have to use the “Replace color” tool in photoshop to replace left over Blue (even after tweaking the “levels”) with White - which thinned much of my inking out in the story “3:33am.” Which will also be my first published story just as an inker over another artist.


A short word about the 90's
-It’s been a weird experience growing up and loving what is now considered a dark and nearly was “the final period” in Comic’s history - the collecting bubble of the early 90's. On the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS), which I have been listing to almost non-stop for the last week, the first question they ask their guests burring interviews is “what was your first comic” or even what was your “gateway” comic, that lead you into wanting to do this as a profession. And the comics I grew up on are now something to shy away from, stylistically and otherwise. So re-learning what “good comics” are, has largely been a very troubled road for my generation I think. And for more reasons than this, but - it may be why it is so hard to break in right now, is because the people that are young grew up learning with the wrong idea of what comics are and should be (in the eyes of the people who would hire you now). We are the ultimate fanboy generation, who bought multiple issues, foil, variant and fold-out poster covers and anything that had an “X” in the title or that resembled either mutants or Jim Lee’s art. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Jim Lee but it was that whole generation of artists and writers who either by choice or were told to imitate him that lead to such a derivative and similar in the name of money - and maybe that generation was even more so a “fanboy generation of creators” than the one’s who grew up reading their work, but never the less - now here we are, the kids who grew up with that being our definition for comics and now we are in a world where that type of thing gives some people shivers. So it is up to us to redefine it for ourselves, but it is also a burden, I guess of every generation of artists to not look outdated and move past your influences, to look more modern and to get work that way - who knows, perhaps that’s all they were doing as well.

Comics and Pop Culture
-I good point was brought up the other day on CBGS, that “comic characters are more popular in movies/games than they are in the comic books, anymore.” And even comic-related shows like “Heroes” are capitalizing on what comics brought to the world and while the companies are seeing the money at some point it is passing through more hands, forcing specialty shops to widen their product base to everything related to comics just to keep people comic in. My point is, it is sad that comic characters are so popular right now and yet they are making the least amount of money through their original medium. How would they have ever gotten where they are with out it? Or are they like movies in the theater or Disney world, they make very little off of your ticket but everything off of the snacks and t-shirts. Has it always been that way? Or does a spike in the actual market cause the 90's collector bubble I previously commented on? I, myself saw/read “one of the most celebrated comics of all time,” Watchmen, for the first time as a “motion-comic.” But at least they were nice enough to add at the end of the credits something like “be sure to enjoy Watchmen in it’s original form” - but did I? No. What does that say about the industry?

One last note:
- I recently acquired a reprint edition of the Star Wars Dark Empire II trade (I’m still trying to get I) which includes Empire’s End and it’s the only time I’ve been compelled to buy a different edition of a book because of the print quality. All the colors are light and washed out, the blacks are every shade of gray and rarely dark enough to keep a consistent tone and all the colors look fuzzy and grainy, similar to what saving a picture as a low quality .jpg will do. I love Cam Kenedy’s work and I love being able to get it in reprints but the quality of this most recent reprint just ruined the experience for me - of what I remember the original Trade having - vibrant saturated colors and stark blacks - amazing clarity and the classic iconic Dave Dorman covers - which they also changed and moved his art to the back cover.

storyboards

finished with my first 13pg story, now im boarding for the second 8 pg story.
the added my boards for the first 6 pages to the sketchbook part on the cosmic times website.
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards.htm
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards01.htm
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards02.htm
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards03.htm

been doing inking samples for "ecv press" and have sent stuff out to "papercutz" and a few others.
doing storyboards for "27" with james, which i co-rewrote and will be a 50 pg graphic novel, shou;d be bloody but meaningful. im sending him the first 5 pgs to ink soon.
also doing an 5 pg story for the indy comic creators worldwide anthology.
all these projects should be done by mid january.
also got my bio up on wtfc? site though i havent been able to do much for them as of yet. http://www.whatthefluxcomics.com/staff.html

Decisions comic - first look

So the website has posted some stuff about me and the book I'm working on for them, including character designs and a brief synopsis. Here's some links.

Synopsis
Skecthbook

News about me (copied and pasted since the page will change and soon be outdated. But right now it can be found here, or you can search the archives.)

Preliminary artwork by Zach Bassett for our forthcoming anthology series "Decisions". has recently been added to the Special Features section of the site and can be found - HERE. - 11.3.9

Zach Bassett is currently working on thumbnails for the first story in "Decisions". We were so impressed with his storytelling ability that we have offered him the second story as well. - 10.30.9

Artist Zach Bassett will be penciling and inking the first story in the "Decisions" anthology coming in 2010 from Cosmic Times. Look preview art coming soon. - 10.10.9

Also “somebody” I know will be lettering my pages for Decisions, and will have a short bio and pic up on the “team page” of the Cosmic Times website soon. As will I.
A similar bio will soon be found on the What The Flux “Staff page.” They also uploaded a small gallery of some of my black and white work (Capricious Alchemy cd cover, 2 Star Trek Defiant covers and the promo image for my Terra Novus serial radio drama.)
I’ve also been credited on all the promo material for “Outlaws” on the WTFM page as the inker.


The good news first and now for the “horrible, terrible, no good, [almost completely] very bad day” I got so busy inking that I neglected to clean my cats’ litter box, resulting in them using my comic box as a new litter box. When I discovered this I stopped immediatly to clean them, leaving my inking supplies out. The night got away from me and the next morning I woke up to a zebra striped room as my dog had managed to bite apart one of my brush pens and drag it across the apartment, leaving india ink everywhere. I found scraps of a plastic bag for my bottle of india ink, which I eventually found bitten up but not open under the bed, where he wasn’t able to complete his plan of total apartments destruction So the long and short of it is, its hard enough to keep my pets out of my professional things - let alone when I have kids. Like a page Ryan Ottely from Invincible posted on his DA page that took him 2 hrs. to ink and 6 in photoshop removing all the crayon from it, that his son thought he was just coloring it like a coloring book, when Ryan forgot to lock his office.

Moving

I might be doing a 12-pg piece for Cosmic Times here coming up and just finished my cover for What the Flux comics. I've had a little extra time this week for packing and have also been able to read some comics, specifically event/crossover titles. I got the 1st two graphic novels for Batman: KnightFall and The Death of Superman. and got to read the image miniseries Fight for Tomorrow. As well as finish what I had of Elementals vol. 1 and a few scattered issues into volumes 2 and 3.
Elementals was great up until the final last few issues, that their creator/artist Bill Wilmingham had nothing to do with and according the The Elemntals Wiki page dropped off of comico's map for a while. He apparently supervised vol. 2 and I have a few good issues from it that he even came back to draw. Towards the end of vol. 1 you could tell it was beginning to get into the 90's market, variant covers, specials, spin-off titles that never got past the 1st issue. By the time vol. 3 rolls around that's all it is, and the only reason worth reading the issues are some of the writing, which is still interesting as it starts to break all the rules the 1st volume set and expand the world. Though there are various obvious marvel/dc rips and rip-offs as well as fill in stories that are self contained and irrelevant. They even did Sex-specials - originally saying it would further explore their characters, then moved onto swimsuit and lingere specials where it became increasingly aparent they were looking to turn a buck and capitalie on all the horny teenagers using their parents money to buy comics - just like the other comics at that time.

Willmingham was a good storyteller, not a great artists, but i got used to it, a very non-pc writer but he was fairly good at pacing and plotting and kept it interesting.
Knightfall and Death of Superman are similarly great for those reasons, pacing and plotting. Thank you Louise Simonson and Chuck Dixon. They are essentially the same story:
Act 1) hero gets injured
Act 2) new heroes step up,
Act 3) old hero returns and must fight to reclaim his mantle.
But they are done very differently and both explore, fairly deeply, the philosophy of the main character - through the viewpoints of the secondary characters, since the hero isn't there to do any of the things they are talking about. I also got Kelley Jones' Deadman, which is among my favourite of his work. And there is experimentation at every turn, some things working amazingly, others not. Even to the point he uses his fingerprints to put down the ink. I'm also intrigued by the plot for the story as I don't know much about his character.

I have been working on finalizing a script for a graphic novel with James that I will pencil and he will ink while im down that way. During which time we will finish plotting and writing the scripts for the rest of Maelstrom. I'm hoping to get A project done, period, with him so we have something to show for our work and as we have played off of before we are trying to mix our styles. In the upcoming series I may just let him pencil and ink himself for the flashback sequences, or something - like marvel has been doing with JRJR and Joe Kubert on X-men.