Read 'The Sire: Lost In Time' #5 – An Exclusive Excerpt
PLUS: I interview SIRE: LIT#5's cover artist Hassan Godwin and more industry news!
Happy Friday everyone. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the weekend (Happy Easter to all who are celebrating) than by giving away an EXCLUSIVE excerpt from The Sire: Lost In Time #5 – in stores NOW!
►5 Questions With: Hassan Godwin – cover artist on The Sire: Lost In Time #5
I caught up with my frequent collaborator Hassan Godwin, co-host of the Secrets of the Sire and Rogue Wav podcasts. Aside from being an outstanding talking head, Hassan is also a super talented digital artist – which you knew if you took one look at the gorgeous cover to issue #5!
1) What was the inspiration for the Samurai Sire/Phazer cover?
It was time travel and an eastern motif, so we went with Samurai. I really love the snapshot of Kenada (of Akira) in the opening shot of the motion picture. It’s been my social media avatar for YEARS now. It’s really wonderfully cinematic and subtly mysterious. Introducing a character from over their shoulder ALWAYS works for me, you just have to be cautious you don’t do it too often… 😒
2) What is your process like when creating Digital Art?
I use a million (not that many) elements in producing a piece, it’s like tossing it all on the table and slowly eliminating a color from the pallet one at a time until i’m satisfied with the outcome. Which means sometimes it takes a while. 😉
3) Because of AI art a lot of actual digital artists are being accused of using AI art. Is that a concern for you these days?
The whole subject is a concern, the rhetoric behind it, in front of it, all around it, has been less than pleasant. I get it’s an innovative tool, but you have to blame the bad discourse surrounding it on the roll-out. It came screaming out of the gate in this really dodgy “ethics be damned” manner, and whenever you do that there’s a powerful backlash. Who knows where it’ll end.
4) Who are your favorite superheroes/superhero books?
Spider-man, both Peter and Miles, first and foremost. Then X-Men. I really enjoyed Claremont and Alan Davis’ Excalibur back in the day.
5) What are you working on these days (that you’re allowed to share 🙂 )
I’m working on a new indy project with Dan Gotlieb, too hush-hush to talk about for the moment. And then there’s quite a few other things that will be revealed later this year! 😉
►The SIRE Continues Past Lost in Time
Right now you can PRE-ORDER the next two issues in The SIRE Saga in PREVIEWS: The Sire #6 (MAR241531) features art by yours truly and a cover by Tony Donley and The Sire #7 (APR241437) features a cover by Victor Dandridge Jr. with art by Soussherpa and colors by Daniele Caramanico.
The Sire: A superhero FORCED by his costume to fight evil!
►Raiding the Vault. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story that director Justin Simien and writer Christopher Yost are teaming up with Confluential Films to adapt Heist: Or, How to Steal a Planet, a sci-fi crime thriller from Vault Comics.
I think it’s always a positive for indie comics folks (like me 😃) and the industry as a whole to see others break through to Hollywood. Making money in comics is incredibly HARD (see Geek Chic’s latest post on Substack all about it!) so it’s pretty outstanding that despite perceived superhero fatigue, comics are still a breeding ground for new film and TV ideas. Maybe one day that’ll be us!
►NEXT WEEK: More music! I’ll be posting a never-before-heard interview with Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd, circa 2013, around the time he released his first solo record. PLUS: More A.G.O. tracks!
See you in seven!
-Mike