"On this day" 5 year retrospect

An Aussie Comic TV Prop, by Philadelphia Philpot

This week, I found this post by Wendy from Philadelphia Philpot, who make wonderful unique hats for commercial and Bridal use. They were the company that created 'The Soldier's' Digger Hat, that featured in the Youi Insurance/Soldier Legacy commercial that appeared on Australian network television late last year, to early 2012. Thank you for the nice comments and post, Wendi :D http://www.philadelphiaphilpot.com/an-oversized-diggers-hat-for-youii-insurance-tv-commercial/

And, see her website here: http://www.philadelphiaphilpot.com/

Black House Comics on 'Beauty and the Geek'

Quick post: The TV good fortunes continue with some great guests on Channel 7's 'Beauty and the Geek' this Thursday night. My publisher and friend Baden Kirgan will appear as a judge on the show, alongside the lovely Nicola Scott (artist of DC Comics, and whop has given me so much wonderful advice this year), and King's comic store owner Jim Papagrigoriou! (Sydney's leading comic shop and location for the recent 'Youi Insurance/Soldier Legacy TV commercials).

Should be loads of fun, and a good excuse for me to watch it :D

http://blackhousecomics.com/articles/black-house-comics---now-on-beauty--the-geek.html

and the press release http://blackhousecomics.com/comic-book-publisher-turns-judge-on-beauty-and-the-geek-tv-show.html

Youi/Soldier Legacy spot Behind the scenes production photos

Youi commercial producers, and director Bryan Cawood were kind enough to keep Baden, publisher of Black House Comics , up to date with all the goings on during the filming of the comic commercials at Kings comics in Sydney. Seeing these pics are great as you can really see all the effort the production team went to, to give the store a real 'Black House' presence. Chris Sequeira/Dave Elsey/Phil Cornell's Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes, Bruce Mutard's Mind of Love, Jason Frank's Kagemono, Jan Sherpenhuizen's Twilight Age, Jason Paulos's EEEK!, Jason Fishers/Jason Franks After the World Aussie pulp stories, the upcoming Terra Magazine art, and my Soldier Legacy books and artwork can be seen throughout the store, including a Dr Nikola poster I did from #6 of DD: SH.

The sets are also a great example of set design/mise en scene. Those shelves and walls adjacent to the counter actually don't exist.Kings has a rather open 360 degree counter design, with an open glass store front, so I am gathering the walls were errected not only for the purpose of the shoot, but to stop onlookers from peering in, getting in the background of shots, or also to control the lighting of the store. It actually gives the sotre in the Ad that darker atmosphere that other comic stores tend to look like, or the perception of them. Actually, the thing that first struck me about the real Kings store was how light, open and 'retail' it looked (as opposed to a dark, clutterd second hand bookstore I was used to getting comic books in- very oldschool).

I think the Commercial captures the best of both worlds- what do you think?

Anyways, Enjoy!

p.s: I will have to try and reference these actors as characters in the upcoming issues. It's hard not to!

The Soldier Legacy on National TV, thanks Youi!

A bit of a personal message today, but since I had a bit of a win against the universe today, I hope you will grant me a reprieve :)

Below are links to the 2 national TV commercial by the clever people at Filmsmiths Australia for the purpose of advertising for YOUI insurance. These are significant to me as they quite prominently feature my creator-owned comic book series 'The Soldier Legacy', published by Black House comics. These were uploaded thanks to who I only assume is the Director Bryan Cawood (nice work :D). I hope you come across them also on Channel 7!

I'm sure Baden at Black House comics will shortly spill the beans, or let cats out of bags, or feed cats beans (getting off track) regarding the good people who made this commercial possible. It is something that one of my best mates, mentor and pro writer Chris Sequeira has dubbed " part of Aussie comics History" for the book and for Black House Comics. I am humble in this regard; I'm just full of hope. I hope at least some of the general public notice it, I hope some of the Aussie comic community notice it. If it means more good things for Black House and my work in the future, and someone can now point to a superhero/comic character and say 'Hey I know that. That's Australian", then I'd be very stoked.

http://vimeo.com/30121681

http://vimeo.com/30113565

As I've indicated, I was blown away by the release of the Youi Insurance TV commercials featuring my comic book character. As I think I've said before, 12 months ago I didn't think anything close to this would be possible. As you know, it began as a university honours project at the Queensland College of Arts, Griffith University (Southbank) and was a short run self-published comic book which basically grew from my love of Lee and Kirby comics, and my love of Australia, and the potential we have for our own voices and stories in superhero/action comics. Sure, the news today for me is a little bitter-sweet, as I have some personal stuff taking up some head space and total excitement at the moment (doesn't it always folks), but to see this, AND have Soldier Legacy #3 a mere few hours away from total completion, makes the lack of sleep and sunshine not so crushing.

So early night tonight for me is the plan (did I just jinx myself?) and a massive day tomorrow catching bad guys :P Maybe a long overdue gym session in the morning is on the cards, to celebrate :D (...If I can get up that early ;P)

I want to thank my family, friends, the fans of the books, and the professionals that have given me the time of day, in helping me to get to this step so far in reaching my goals.

And I know I can be hard to reach, I actually related to a Pro Artist's comments the other day who was asked "Wow! it must be cool to drawing for a living", to which he replied with something like "Yeah, except it's usually 3am and your friends and family hate you ;p"

More to come on this. I also want to mention (Cool) Shite on the Tube and Comics Masterclass (hosted by the Australian Society of Authors) for posting the links on their Facebook pages. Thanks heaps!

Gotta run, these pages unfortunately won't print-prep themselves ;P

The beans are split! Soldier Legacy to be in TV Ad!

My boss Baden Kirgan has split the beans today on Facebook and Twitter courtesy of the Black House Comics Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=216084821781182&set=a.125927350796930.19582.121050057951326&type=1&theater

The quote reads:

Time to spill some beans.

A few weeks ago we were approached by an advertising agency who wanted to use Paul Mason's The Soldier Legacy in a campaign.

Negotiations ensued with the end result being that last Monday a TV spot was filmed for a major national brand using the Soldier (and his eight foot tall standee). I can't tell you the name of the company yet but the spots will air from October 9 around the country and will provide the widest exposure for any Australian comic that I can recall.

It was filmed in Kings Comics in Sydney, closing the store for the day. The entire shop was decked out top to tail with Black House Comics books, posters and merchandise - The Dark Detective, EEEK!
, After the World, Terra, The Twilight Age and of course The Soldier Legacy everywhere Marvel and DC would normally be. If only it was like that every day!

I will post photos from the shoot as they come to hand and once the ad airs a copy will be onwww.blackhousecomics.com - but stay glued to your sets October 9 - it'll be a big day!

And the sneaky photo from the King's comic Facebook page from Monday 5th September. Speculation was rife, I'm just hoping the fans aren't disappointed that the DiCaprio film 'The Great Gatsby' was not the reason the store closed for filming :P (photo from King's comics: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=207370135992464&set=a.135212919874853.25320.135187129877432&type=1&theater

So we all wait with baited breath until October 9th to see the little Aussie-hero-that-could make his debut on national TV.

Ok, it's time to get personal here. It's something I never do but I feel as though it's quite prudent in this case. So confession time:

This time last year, I was very concerned with the future of my work. I felt very stagnate, was very unsure of what the future held for my comic art. Towards the end of last year, I didn't even believe I would have the second issue printed due to some external topsey-turveiness, and I believed that I was invisible- that the style of artwork I was producing was not that appealing or marketable. I let people inadvertently get into my head that I wasn't going to get anywhere by myself and I needed to wait on them to organise things or write things or whatever. Thanks to one of my best friends and mentor Chris Sequeira, and the support from guys like Jan Sherpenhuizen, 'Chewy' Chan, Baden Kirgan, and a hell of a lot of sleepless nights and work at the drawing board/computer, I sit in a much brighter position with the series today. I have a scholarship to study my Doctorate, thanks to The Queensland College of Art (and my supervisors Paul Cleveland and Andi Spark), I have one of the only Australian comic publishers (Black House) printing and distributing my work, I was able to visit the 2011 San Diego Comic con with best mates and met some personal comic heroes and make new friends and contacts, I had work appear in the Supanova 'Tides of Hope' charity comic for the Queensland flood appeal (thank you Tim, Danny and Chris), I have work to appear in the next 'Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes' and a concept that is very close to my heart both in development and learning for me, to be in a national TV commercial for a major Australian Company. Tell me this at the start of this year and I would have laughed at you. Very hard. So I have to say I am very blessed. I'm generally not a religious man, and sometimes I feel like I've gone 15 rounds, but someone's definitely in my corner. I'm not saying it's been easy- my social life is lacking, and I probably can't kick someone in the head as easily as I use to (:P- I will get back into Taekwon-do eventually), but I figure if I keep my nose to the grindstone, I WILL get there eventually.

And if not, I'll teach it at Uni ;D

Thank you all, particularly my family and friends. Without those who pick up the book or post on the Social sites, I wouldn't have a voice. I hope these books entertain you in some way, I'm here to learn.