Naaw, kids are awesome... Scribbles and comic readers at Extreme Martial Arts/Authentic Taekwon-do Central Coast Gym

Some of the Adults and Juniors from the training weekend. Fantastic junior fighters too. Well done, kids!

Some Australian Taekwon-do team training last weekend on the Central Coast, a shotgun trip to get some more training in before London next month. The event became a bit comic-orientated at the end,  thanks to head trainer at Extreme Martial Arts, Sabum and Assistant coach Gary King. Gary has promoted and sold copies of 'The Soldier Legacy' at his school, and a bunch of the juniors really enjoy the Aussie-themed heroics.

Thanks for smiling, Deeyon ;P

Some awesome kids were keen to come by afterwards to get their copies signed, grabs some cheap prints, and also get some head sketches as there favourite Superheroes. One mum said "Your comics encourage my boy to want to read", and I'm totally bragging when I say this, but f*** it: I was so proud of that. It might mean absolutely nothing on the grand scheme of things, but the world to me. And, that's comics, man. They did the same thing for me as a kid, and I do wish more comic books remembered their audience isn't always the die hard, continuity-loving older audience. Another kid had googled details mentioned in the book like the war, the places etc. to learn more about it- mission accomplished ;P (though it's a mental note to keep bleeping the language- he thought the "swearing" was awesome, too :P I guess hash tags and squiggles aren't enough for the imagination and new world playground talk of primary school kids hahaha.)

Anyways, some pics snapped from the tale end of the sketching for those who stuck around.

Thanks again to Senior Master Jamie Moore, Sabum and Head Coach Scott Bower, Sabum Gary King, Sabum Penny Childs-King, Sabum Robert Graf, Boosabum Paul Daniels, and the rest of the team members who attended, the juniors, and those that came alone for some extra training.

God bless Hollywood action men like Bruce Willis or Jason Stathom, otherwise I'd have a serious complex :P #Balding

Gary and student Josh: the boy with 1000 questions :P Love it!

Josh likes Aquaman! A first! ;P

A "Fire-Fighter" indeed- a real-life inspiration behind a 'Soldier Legacy' comic character

A great write-up from a Central Coast publication this week, featuring one of my closest friends, and a bloke who I look up to as an "older brother". Gary was one of my instructors I would train under when not teaching at my own school years ago (of Authentic Taekwon-do Australia), and was my Muay Thai coach for a number of years. We competed together in the 2005, and 2007 World Taekwon-do championships, and are back for more punishment in the 2013 squad for Korea, where he is one of the Aussie coaches. Outside of TKD and belting people, Gary is just an all-around top bloke and someone I'm glad to call a friend.
 He's also the person I decided to use when I needed a mentor/martial art coach for the 'Young Soldier'. Our actual instructor, Master Moore, might show up in a page or two in the future, but looks a bit too close to the primary antagonist in the main WW2 Soldier story, hence I wanted to avoid confusion. Anyways, 'Barry' was introduced in Soldier Legacy #4, and becomes one to the characters integrel to the young vigilante's attempts to honour his WW2 grandfather's "legacy".

So, if you were actually interested enough in that little "behind the scenes" post, I thank you for taking the time to read about a fantastic Aussie bloke helping his community in more ways than one. And cheers, Gary, for not belting me when you saw yourself in the comic pages ;P

If you're keen and on the Central Coast of NSW, I recommend you check out Gary's Full Time Extreme Martial Arts Gym- Full equipped, complete with Kickboxing/MMA ring, taekwon-do ring, matted floors and heavy bags. Head to Alma avenue, Woy Woy, and tell 'em 'The Soldier' sent you ;)