Gammill, Ramos and Wilson to Appear at SXSW!

South by Southwest Festival x Three (Artists) = Pop Culture Multi-Media Event

Austin--Three artists will be appearing at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas at the Wizard World Booth this weekend, by special arrange with Wizard and Eva Ink Artist Group.... all bringing a little taste of sequential art to the popular music/film event, that is fast becoming a multi-media mecca.

"SXSW is quickly growing to be one of the most important festivals in the US, and each year there is more growth in fanning out to include other types of entertainment," said Renee Witterstaetter of Eva Ink. "I'm really thrilled that our artists will be appearing at this years show in this promotion with the folks at Wizard World."

On hand sketching, signing books, and offering their own unique merchandise will be legendary penciler Kerry Gammill, trendsetting artist and inker Rodney Ramos (recently featured with an exclusive Buffy print at Wizard Miami), and "Hammerlocke" creator Keith Wilson.

Just to tell you a little more about these guys:

Kerry Gammill is renowned for work on such books as POWERMAN AND IRON FIST, MARVEL TEAM-UP, INDIANA JONES and the X-Men spin-off FALLEN ANGELS. His work has also been seen in FANTASTIC FOUR, UNCANNY X-MEN, STAR WARS, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, DEADLY FOES OF SPIDER-MAN, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, WONDER MAN and DOCTOR STRANGE, and at DC Comics as the regular penciler on SUPERMAN, ACTION COMICS, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL and two graphic novels, SUPERMAN FOR THE EARTH and SUPERMAN: UNDER A YELLOW SUN, as well as many Superman covers and trading cards. Other work for DC included TEEN TITANS, POWER-GIRL, ELVIRA'S HOUSE OF MYSTERY, HAWK AND DOVE and others.

The 1990's found Gammill also working as a conceptual artist for film, providing designs or storyboards for many sci-fi movies and TV shows including VIRUS, PHANTOMS, SPECIES II, THE OUTER LIMITS, STARGATE SG1, DREAMCATCHER, ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, TREMORS - THE SERIES, G.I.JOE: VALOR VS. VENOM and the video game AREA 51. His book, "KERRY GAMMILL'S MONSTERS AND HEROES FOR FILM AND COMICS" published by Vanguard Productions is now in it's third printing. Gammill also compiled an award-winning book on the art of legendary monster magazine cover artist Basil Gogos which was published in 2006.

Gammill recently joined the team behind Monsterverse Entertainment. Their first comic is the critically acclaimed horror anthology, BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE, for which Gammill is editor-in-chief. Other recent works include cover illustrations for KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES (a massive book on 1950s sci-fi movies) and FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine.

Rodney Ramos has been a professional penciler / inker in the comic book industry for over 15 years. He has worked at Marvel Comics, Marvel .U.K, DC Comics, Valiant, Acclaim comics, Malibu and Continuity Comics with Neal Adams. His inks have graced many titles such as SPIDER-MAN, X-MEN, IRON-MAN, PETER PARKER, BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN, and the critically acclaimed TRANSMETROPOLITAN with Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson. Recently he has worked for DC Comics on 52, COUNTDOWN, GREEN LANTERN, BATMAN, JSA, MAGOG, Vertigo's BANG TANGO and too many to name!

As a comic book illustrator and writer Keith Wilson has worked for Marvel, DC, Harris and many more. He co-created (with Tom Joyner) two comic series: HAMMERLOCKE (Science Fiction adventure) and SCARLETT (a complex tale of vampires) both published by DC Comics. As an animator, his feature film credits include SPACE JAM, QUEST FOR CAMELOT, THE KING AND I, and the television pilot for KING OF THE HILL.

During the mid 80's Keith was Assistant Art Director and Cover Editor for DC Comics, and was responsible for production and the overall look of the covers for the regularly published comic line. He's also had the privilege of working with animation legend Chuck Jones as illustrator for three trading card sets in the popular COMIC BALL series from Upper Deck that featured the Looney Tunes characters teamed with popular sports figures like Michael Jordan. Currently he's teamed with comics legend Kerry Gammill and co-editor Sam Park to create BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE from Monsterverse Entertainment.

Come out and see these amazing creators. Rodney Ramos will be at SXSW March 11-13th, all hours of the show. Keith Wilson and Kerry Gammill will be at the show March 12-13th.

It's not too late to register for SXSW either! Just go to:

www.sxsw.com and check it out.

Once there, The Wizard World Booth, Kerry, Keith and Rodney will be located at Stands 315-317 and 414-416 in the ScreenBurn Arcade Exhibitors area.


For more information contact Eva Ink Artist Group at: www.evainkartistgroup.com

And for more information on Wizard World, their conventions and new digital magazine, visit: www.wizardworld.com

(Above: Why it's the banner of the Lone Star State, along with a genuine Texas Limo, so a saddle up and git to the show.)

Renee's "Kerry and the Scary Things" Inteview Online

Hi Everyone-- As some of you are aware, I did a radio interview last Wednesday talking about some of my new projects--Thanks to those that were able to tune in! The interview, which was live, is now online in the radio station archieves. One of the things I talk about is my new book "Kerry and the Scary Things." Hope you enjoy the interview.

If you are interested in ordering this book, you can do so by contacting me at: evaink@aol.com

Thanks!

And here's the link:

http://wheremonstersblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/episode-126-with-renee-witterstaetter.html



--Renee
:-)

Renee Talks "Scary Things," on WhereMonstersDwell, Wednesday, Nov. 17th!

Just did this radio interview, November 17th! It is available for listening on www.wheremonstersdwell.ca, along with my last appearance on the show as well as interviews with Steve Scott, Michael Golden and much more!


Just alot of fun: talking about my new children's book, "Kerry and the Scary Things," conventions, gallery shows, art books, movies I've worked on... and whatever comes up!


--Renee
:-)

The Afterward to "Kerry and the Scary Things!" Book to hit stores this month!

Hey Everyone-- My new children's book "Kerry and the Scary Things is hitting stores at the end of the month. It's the first in a series of new books. I hope you'll check it out. In the meantime, here is a little history about the project. Oh, and the cover is by Michael Golden, interiors by Keith Wilson, story by myself! :-)

Best,
R.

_____________________________________



The Bag of Tricks!


Kerry, the hero of our piece, may look like a kid, yet he's anything but!

In fact, he had his birth somewhere around 1986 when my friend and collaborator, Keith Wilson and I first started batting around the idea of a little boy who loves monsters, and the alternate universe in which they live.

At that point, fresh out of college and eager to create, I penciled out the story for Kerry, and Keith, an amazing cartoonist, designed the look of the title character, along with our other cast and crew.

Before the days of the Internet, we sent out pitch packets to various companies, heart in hand, and waited on the postman for a "yeah" or "nay."

We finally got our "yeah." A publisher bought our story, and elated, we began working on the follow up to "Kerry and the Scary Things," entitled "Kerry and the Dreadful Dragon." Other books in the works included "Amanda and the Magnolia Tree."

Unfortunately, the publisher in question went belly up, and Kerry's temporary home was no more. There was nothing in our bag of creative tricks to fix that! Plus, Keith had already moved to New York at this point to work on covers at DC Comics, and around the same time, I was also offered a job as an assistant editor at DC Comics myself, working in the Superman office with the talented Mike Carlin.

So, I loaded up the truck and moved to New York. And Kerry was put on the back burner, where he sat for many patient years, while we lived our lives and worked on our careers.

As time went by, I continued editing comics, and segued into film production, writing and artist agenting. Keith moved back to Texas, started a family, and continued to work in comics and publishing. We also began to see many of our initial original ideas mirrored vaguely in various books and films... Not that it was intentional... sometimes I feel that once things are out in the ether, anyone with a creative brain can grab them "out of thin air," and voila! Like concepts can happen almost simultaneously. (A word of advice to all of you "sitting on your ideas.")

In fact, one of my usual sermons is about how the instantaneous hum of the Internet puts us in the position of homogenizing thought and creativity around the world...will thoughts and ideas have time to grow and mature unfettered, without constant outside, uniforming stimuli?

Kerry and his cast of Scary Things are certainly paying tribute to some of those fantastic, unfettered ideas of bygone years, while still trying to be far removed from any "monster" stories out there, as he becomes his own adventurer with his own ideas of how to deal with his world, and as we also glean hints of his Grandfather's past.

After working in publishing for over 20 years, it became obvious that it was time for Keith and I to get back to the children's books we loved so much. Eva Ink and Hot Attack Publishing illuminated the path. Not only did we owe it to our concepts and ideas, but also to the people who helped along the way.

Our monster fighter, Kerry himself, had his start inspired by grand old monster stories of our "Afternoon Movie" days, and to those we pay homage. Kerry himself is named after monster loving artist, dinosaur drawin', Kerry Gammill , who is a friend of both Keith Wilson and myself. So, naming our character who puts together a monster fighting backpack and goes in search of adventure was the easiest part! Thank you Kerry!

So too, was naming our writer Doc McNamee, inspired by my Shakespeare teacher and mentor Dr. Laurence McNamee, and one of the most influential people in my life after my parents. He was a wonderful, encouraging teacher, who inspired all who knew him to go out, be creative, and approach life as focused and unafraid as possible, making your own metaphorical "backpack" and working on your set of tools to do so. There were so many facets of Doc--interpreter during World War II, Shakespeare expert, boxing aficionado AND columnist for the Dallas Morning News, writer of the popular column, "A Few Words"... one doesn't even know where to start...

Except to say, "Thanks Doc for everything."

Although the "Doc" in the book is not him, his spirit is certainly present.

Along the way, we were blessed to be joined by amazing cover artist, the incomparable Michael Golden--Co-Creator of X-Men's Rogue character, Bucky O'Hare, Spartan X, and much more. One of the best storytellers in any business, and a superb designer. I know that when I was an editor, I hired him to do practically all my book covers. We are thrilled to have him providing the frontage here!

So, now in 2010, "Kerry and the Scary Things" gets a face lift, a fresh coat of paint, and a rewrite through my older eyes, and he's presented to you here after a long and winding road. The treatment has a retro feel-- almost like a coloring book when we are finally trying to stay within the lines, reminding me of recent lazy afternoons coloring Spiderman with my great-nephews Ryan and Randall on my Mom's kitchen table. The intent is full of nostalgia. The story, well...

If there is any "point" to the fun and hijinks that ensue in the story, other than the journey, I suppose it would be to encourage, to use your imagination, you creative kids you, of all ages.

It's the strongest tool there is, and unique just to you. Just ask Kerry!

--Renee Witterstaetter
New York City
2010