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The summer blockbuster season has started, and to help kick it off, here is a 16 page web "trailer" pdf of Hearts & Iron #4. That's half a comic book! The finished issue will be 48 pages. This prologue will lay the foundation for the next several issues.
(In this web preview, the Greek training and competive scenes are drawn with lthe athletes in loincloths, but in the finished, printed comic they will appear nude, as they would have in the historical Games.) When will the completed issue be released in print? I'm drawing as fast as I can...best estimate is late summer.
H &
I issues 1 and 2 are being
reprinted.
A review of Hearts & Iron from
the Gay Comics
List -
click
here
What
Readers
Are Saying About My Comic Book, "Hearts & Iron"...
"I am enjoying your work immensely. Most of all
your
ability to weave an interesting story with believable characters and
plot
lines."
- John Calimee, artist
"I was fully expecting to mostly enjoy the
strong visuals.
While your artwork is extremely well done, I found myself really being
drawn into the storyline."
- D.B., WI
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HEARTS & IRON #4
ENTWINED LIVES, PART ONE: A GAME OF GODS
How long have Carl and John been together? Perhaps longer than they remember. The next story arc ranges from the far past to the near future. In ancient Greece, Kallikrates and Ioannes meet and fall in love as they train for the Olympics, and the seeds are planted for millenia-spanning adventure and romance. Members of the Greek pantheon have their favorites in the competition and attempt to influence the outcome, in “Entwined Lives, Part One: A Game of Gods.”
Download this web preview PDF of Hearts & Iron #4 (it's a large file!) by clicking on the cover image at left. Click on the Adobe Reader icon to get the latest version of the reader.
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HEARTS
& IRON #3 "Judgment"
In this
issue, the
background characters take center stage. Carl's brother, Joe, a
straight
policeman, and his rookie partner Andy pursue the perpetrator of an
escalating
series of hate crimes. They're on the same side...or are
they?
Betrayal, and redemption.
Now available! 24
pages, $3.00/issue. Go to Contact Me
to order.
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Panel from Page 1 |
Page 4 |
From page 6 |
Page 10 |
Page 16 |
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HEARTS
& IRON #2 "Clubland"
In issue two, John and Carl go out
on the town and flex their way through bars and clubs, and confront
"gay
culture" head on. Adam and Troy, the music-loving club goers whom
Carl and John rescued from bashers in issue #1, are trying to get their
demo heard. Carl solos his ultralight. Line dancers,
leathermen,
street preachers - they're all in "Clubland".
Hearts
& Iron
#2 is being reprinted. Check back for availability. |
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HEARTS
& IRON #1 "Beautiful Friendship"
This is the story of Carl Hanson and John
Sullivan, two iron-pumping gay men who begin a life-journey together.
As
competitive athletes who don't live in a major urban center or in a gay
ghetto, Carl and John may challenge ideas of what gay people are like,
as will the presence of gay punk / alternative characters. Their
path will take them into scuffles in which they turn the tables on gay
bashers, and into competition in strongman events like the Highland
games.
Hearts & Iron
#1 is being reprinted. Check back for availability. |
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| John
studies, HI #4 |
Carl/John
studies, HI #4 |
Carl
studies, HI#4 |
Carl study |
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"An Early
Grave," left, is a previously unpublished comic from
the late 90's exploring a couple of my favorite topics, prehistory and
myth. Joseph Campbell's "Primitive Mythology" provided much of my
source material on prehistoric shamanism and the possible meanings of
cave
paintings. Click on the icon to download the 5 pag pdf comic. |
Other
Published
Comic Art
(All artwork in Gay Comics and Strip
AIDS is
© individual creators.) |
Strip AIDS USA, 1988
A collection of cartoons from
a
diverse group
of American cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Alison Bechdel and Frank
Miller.
All work was donated by the artists and profits from the book went to
various
AIDS foundations. My contribution was a two page story called "Safe Sex
2088". . |
Gay Comics #25, 1998
A collection of past Gay
Comics
contributors
in celebration of 18 years of publishing. John and Carl of "Hearts
&
Iron" make their debut here in a one page story entitled "Midway". |
Influences
I grew up reading 1960's
Marvel and DC comics, and science fiction of the Golden Age.
There were also little-known gems like the Classics Illustrated Comics
Story of Great Scientists (such as Einstein, Curie and Pasteur), with
its beautiful, uncredited artwork and delight in learning about the
world around you. Mad magazine, great fun when I was a kid in the
Sixties, soon paled next to the more sophisticated and subversive
National Lampoon. I followed Jack Kirby's Fourth World books
devotedly, but my interest in comics was waning. After a long period of
not reading comics, I was pulled back by books like Crisis on Infinite
Earths, Secret Wars, Alan Moore's Watchmen and V For Vendetta, Frank
Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and Daredevil, Akira
and Neil Gaiman's epic Sandman. Now, I was hooked again.
Artists I have admired over the years include Jack Kirby,
Frank Frazetta, Al Capp (whose L'il Abner strip was ghosted by Frazetta
for years), Mad magazine's Mort Drucker, Neal Adams, Mike Dringenberg
of the early Sandman issues, Yukinobu Hoshino's amazing art and
storytelling in the science-fiction graphic novel 2001 Nights, the
stark, Alex Toth-like brushwork of David Mazzuchelli on Frank Miller's
Batman and Daredevil issues, and the lush compostion and masterful
figure drawing of P. Craig Russell.
Tom of Finland and Bill Ward of Drum fame are gay artists
whose work I greatly admire, as well as the humor and imagination of
Roberta Gregory, Howard Cruse's precise line and sophisticated
storytelling, and Ivan Velez 's comic/soap opera Tales Of the Closet.
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