It so happens I have gotten a new job in a new city, I’m commuting 50 min each way until we move in Sept. so I’m really busy. To help me through this busy time I have great people doing guest strips for me and I will be posting them as I receive them. I feel really lucky to get the help and support from so many talented cartoonists, I hope you all enjoy seeing them as they come up, as I do.
Don Ahe
Tom Dell’ringa’s comic strip Marooned is one of those strips I have always meant to get around to reading but never did. Well I was missing out! 3 weeks ago I finally sat down and traveled through his archive, What great stroytelling and characters. After reading 180 strips I was so involved in the storyline that I felt the urge to draw his characters, and fired off some fan art, which you can see there today. Tom is a crafty storyteller and innovative cartoonist that is always striving to create the best comic he can, It is definitely a website worth book marking! So don’t be silly like me , check it out right away.
Hey everyone, I’m the webmaster around here. I recently had the privilege to sit in on and record a fascinating conversation about comics by two of my favourite comic artists: David Scott Smith, of Space Base 8 fame, and your very own Don Ahé. Dave and Don talk about their recent comics, how they came to discover webcomics, and also discuss other comics which they’ve been following and enjoy. It’s really quite… revealing! OK, maybe I threw in my own 2 cents a couple times as well 
Anyway, you can listen to the audio below, or use the download link to save it for later listening. Hope you enjoy!
or download.
I guess I owe it to John Sanford of Chippy and Loopus fame for me discovering Mighty Monocle. That is where I found the link to this witty comedy. D.M. Rolfe is one of those cartoonists that seems totally in control of what he is doing. I was so impressed with his first dozen strips that I felt a strong urge to draw his characters. So I did. Mighty Monocle is about lackluster hero and his side kick Terry who take mediocrity to an hilarious level. I really suggest you give this strip a look over, I laughed out loud a few times reading it, and I’m sure you will too. Today is fan art Friday and you’ll find some art by yours truly there, I hope you enjoy.
I was at TCAF (Toronto Comics Arts Festival) this past Sunday, wandering around looking but not really interested in the things I was passing when I came to an abrupt halt! It was the artwork I noticed first, (which is why it’s a comic arts festival) I had seen it before on the web and remembered it immediately. It is one of those art styles I am drawn too (no pun intended). Of course the book was Shi Long Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk. I came across this comic on the web before and remembered just loving the art. I can only guess the reason for me not diving in and reading the archives when I first discovered it is because I have two kids in diapers, and time to go through a comic archive is limited to say the least. Also I was hesitant only because it seemed like everything I wanted in a comic, art I loved, and a subject I loved, but I was afraid to be disappointed by the story. Now here I was at TCAF and there was the book in beautiful hardcover right in front of me, I stopped, picked it up and bought it with a hope the story would be good.
It was everything I hoped it would be and more. The author Ben Costa intertwines fiction and history wonderfully, with great footnotes to educate the reader. I love the tidbits of history brought into the story, a history that is fairly unknown to the western reader, that Costa explains making context easier to understand, which I appreciated. Costa does make the reader work and you do have to pay attention, but that is just another thing that is great about this book.
I’m a shy guy, but I did find myself babbling a bit to Ben as he signed my book, something I didn’t expect cause I have never bought a book from an artist before. He was nice and gave me a great picture of Pang in my book, great stuff!
I couldn’t recommend this book more highly. It’s rare to find a comic that exceeds expectations, and Pang the Wandering Shaolin Monk does this with ease. Also it’s nice to read a graphic novel that doesn’t take 10 min to finish, I mean it actually takes a long time to read and when I started to get near the end I was really sad that it would be over. Thank goodness there is more coming!
Don Ahe
