Caliber Rounds Interview

Here is a short interview that I did recently with Travis Mcintire from Caliber Rounds. You can check out their Facebook page here.

1.How did you end up doing work for Caliber Comics?

       

       I helped start a sketch group about five years ago called Motor City Sketch and we had a get         together at Wonderworld Comics in Taylor. Gary had put a call out for a somewhat secret project that he would like to discuss with local creators and that he would be there to talk about it. There was a pretty good turnout as can be imagined. Gary was putting together the Voices From The Deadworld book and wanted it to mainly have Michigan artists in it. I’m not sure how the selection process worked, but I was given the character Tattoo to illustrate and I was able to submit a zombie character of my own design. I had done a sketch a few years before of a hermit type guy with a black trench coat and all these pocket watches attached to it. I’m not sure if he was out of time, had nothing but time or was timeless, but I liked the imagery, so I changed him from a hermit to a zombie and sent it in. There were some funny email exchanges about this character, but in the end Gary wrote up an interesting back story for him. Since Voices of the Deadworld I have been fortunate enough to contribute illustrations for various Gary Reed publications. 

2. If you could be the artist for any character or property, what would it be and why?

    When I was younger, I would have killed to be the artist for The Amazing Spider-Man. He was by far my favorite character and had all the great artists on that title. Spider-Man had the best costume and would have been great to draw. I’m sure all of the buildings would have given me fits, but I could always see the attraction to drawing that title.

If we are talking about a Caliber character, then I would go with a King Zombie tale. That would be great fun. He lends himself wonderfully to great visuals with the leather biker jacket, red headband, spiked hair, etc. He’s an interesting creature to draw and explore graphically. 

These days I tend to lean more to the stories I want to tell. I have three graphic novels that I have been kicking around ideas on for quite some time. They need to be done, but with being busy (which is good) I have a hard time getting to them. So many stories to tell with so little time. There’s that clock zombie coming back to haunt me. So, with that said, I need to set aside time to get these stories told.

3. What’s next on the horizon for Bruce Gerlach?

      I am currently working on the third book for the Stoopid Stuf cartoons that I do with my fellow co-conspirator Kevin Minor. We seem to have a good following and were almost picked up by Universal Press Syndicate, plus we are just having too much fun in creating these off the wall and most times cheesy cartoons. It’s what we do. 

I am also currently wrapping up a couple of projects for clients, including a ten page comic for a writer in Chicago and a sculpture for someone in Tennessee. I will release details about those when I can. 

Also, the clock zombie tells me that a few graphic novels that need to be started…

Deadworld Day

This Saturday I will be in Saginaw, MI for the Deadworld Halloween Comicfest at Coy's Comics. The event will go from noon until 8pm and I will be there with Gary Reed And Marvel/DC inker Jason Moore. I will have most of the usual stuff, including two Deadworld prints and some Deadworld books and will be signing bottles of dead world Soda, as well, so stop on by.

Btw, that zombie pig is drinking a Deadworld soda that I drew the label for.

Deadworld Premium Zombie Soda

This past Friday was the launch of a new Deadworld product. Zombie Soda! You can have a variety of flavors featuring labels drawn by various illustrators, such as myself, Jake Minor, Matt Minor, Bill Pulkovski, Mark Bloodworth, Tony Miello, Ted Woods, John Marroquin, Anne Garavaglia, Vince Locke, among others. The above image that was done by me was colored by Demone Amerson. Kevin Minor and some others did more of the coloring.

Check out the Caprice Brand page for more details on the sodas and who drew what labels.

Ruby Thursday And The Clock Zombie Menace!

Ruby Thursday And The Clock Zombie Menace!
11x14
ink on bristol board



Above is a recent commission that I did that involved a creator owned character fighting a character of my own design. Michael's chosen character Ruby Thursday (created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema) vs my clock zombie from the Deadworld book, which he selected from my creations. I was happy that he chose the zombie and I think it's an interesting scenario. You can view Michael's commissions and creations here.

Detroit Fanfare 2012

The 3rd Detroit Fanfare kicks off tonight at 6pm and will run until Sunday. Check out the times on their site. Besides myself (you can find me at table 129 in the Great Lakes Ballroom), there will be a whole bunch of Michigan based artists and creators. Of course, there will be artists and such from out of state, as well. And don't forget the celebrities, such as David Prowse, Sam Jones and Michael Jai White, etc.

Voices From The Deadworld by Gary Reed will premiere at this show, which is an anthology of the characters that have appeared over the last twenty years, or so in the Deadworld comic. I have two pieces in the anthology and they are shown above as they will be seen in the book. I have color prints available for the two, as well. The top character is Tattoo and the bottom one is of my own creation, a zombie obsessed with time. I will have copies of the book and prints at my table, as well as my other books and prints, sketch cards and will be doing commissions as requested.

Don't forget to get your official fanfare print by Bill Pulkovski and get them signed by the actors. He did a great job on this one!

Deadworld Sketch Cards

Let's roll with the Halloween theme and show some Deadworld sketch cards, shall we? Above are some of the 50 cards done for the set coming out soon by Breygent. Deadworld is a comic that was originally put out in the late 80's by Caliber Comics. The original stories were written by Stuart Kerr and illustrated by Vince Locke and are now written and published (as was then) by pal and colleague Gary Reed. As many in the industry will testify, Gary Reed is a good guy and I always learn something and enjoy the time spent when in his company. Definitely a straight shooter.

It was a lot of fun to work on this set and explore the many different characters that populate the Deadworld universe. I even made Gary a zombie on a couple of cards.

In a couple of weeks I should have news regarding another Deadworld project that I am a part of as Detroit Fanfare nears.

Wizard World Chicago

Starting tomorrow and going through to Sunday will be the Wizard World Chicago convention in Rosemont, IL. I will be set up in Artists Alley at table #4128 and will have all the usual goodies, such as prints, my cartoon books, Muck Man comics, original licensed and personal sketch cards, etc. I will have two new prints based on a Deadworld project that I will have more news on later. One of them is the image above as the print will look. They are printed on a linen stock, so they have a nice texture to them that lends itself nicely to the topic at hand.

It looks as though Michigan will be represented in a goodly manner with such artists as Jay Fosgitt, Bill Pulkovski, Tony Miello, John Marroquin, Scott Zambelli and Ryan Stegman among others. Well, maybe it won't be in a 'goodly manner' with this crew...

Anyways, stop on by and say hello.