INTERVIEW WITH J1 STUDIOS FOUNDER & ANGEL SAVIOR CREATOR JASON RICHARDSON

Here is the all new interview:

By Frankie Rodriguez 

1. Hey Jason. Thanks for the interview. Let's start out with J1 Studios in general. Last year has been a big year for J1, right? 

Indeed it has! We started Mayhem Madness, our video game tournament/anime expo. We also had our first anime event-turned-mini convention J1 AN-EX. The Announcement of the Mega Ran comic and other titles happened within 2011.

2. So how do you juggle the many hats you have as President of J1 Studios, artist, writer, etc? 

NO SLEEP. None at all!

My passion for craft/business is so strong that it would destroy the average fanboy/otaku because I want to do everything! Only recently did I realize that I need to NOT do every concept that comes into my head.

3. Currently, you can find many of your works up on the J1 Studios website. Particularly Angel Savior, which is nearing it's end. How do you feel about this final battle in Angel Savior?  

Well, I wouldn't TECHNICALLY call it the end. With the 3rd issue of Angel Savior, this is my way to take the action a little higher. Higher as in scale of destruction. In issue #1, they fought on a rooftop, in #2 they ended up destroying a few cars, and in issue #3 buildings and streets will suffer!! Mwuhahahaha! 

4. How do you feel the impact of Angel Savior has been over the course of these #3? How has Jason developed as a character? 

To me the responses seem to be 50/50.  I know some were really blown away while others weren't, but I wanted people to see the "magic" I hid in the comics. Unfortunately, it's hard to show every single person the trick that really would have the "WOW factor". You see, after you read #2 go back and read #1 again, because I hid stuff in there that will make more sense now! Once you do that, read #3 then go back and read #1 and #2 over and you'll see that there are even more things that I hid in the book that open up the story even more.  

5. Shifting gears for a minute, how did you originally start being an artist? And how did J1 Studios begin?

Well, I was an artist from a young age, and I'm talking about making full graphic novels for myself and my friends at 8 years old. Minimum page count was 80. Haha I was crazy! In high school and college, I hung out with a lot of artists and I wanted to have everyone work on various projects under one label, but people didn't like my concept. Years later, I started the idea and the name of J1 Studios with the late Kevin Siter (of Fighter's High fame) and Ben Dudden (of Low Road fame). We planned 3 comics that were all different, being showcased on the site. It wasn' t long until we saw how much work was involved and we couldn't keep the pace (we were trying to update daily). So the group fell apart. I kept the name and created Angel Savior and changed J1 Studios to focus on more than just comics, but entertainment in general.

6. What do you find important as an artist that you display when you draw? 

 Fun. Plain and simple if you are having fun while you draw then for the most part, others will have fun reading it.

7. Who are some of your influences in your art and writing? Any creators you would love to work with? 

Masami Obari (Fatal Fury the motion picture), Bruce Timm (Justice League Unlimited) and the production art team behind most Capcom games.

8. What were the comics that really brought you into the industry? How do you feel now as a creator compared to a fan? 

Spiderman changed my life! That second question is loaded! As a creator and still have the fan in me, but I realize that because I have to focus on my own projects it takes away the time I would be spending on comics that I love and follow. 

 

9. With Angel Savior almost done, any ideas for a release of the final version in print? What projects do you have coming up? 

Most definitely! We will have a collection of all three issues of Angel Savior in one book. Then, the new Super Bounty J1 will be a graphic novel series! Oh, I can't forget Mega Ran: Random Lyricism, which will be a hip hop rap battle tournament with the use of various elemental powers! Issue #2 of Lime Rind is still ongoing as well as rumored title "Gunplay Romantica" (Romeo and Juliet Hong Kong action comic). I want to make the change to graphic novels because I feel more people are willing to give the stories a try if they can get a complete story instead of issues. Sorry, I'm babbling. 

10. Finally, what would you like to say about Angel Savior & J1 Studios in general? What would you tell to any aspiring artist or writer who wants to break into the field of comics? 

It's harder than you think! Why do you think I took the indie route? No matter how good you THINK you are there are hundreds of people who ARE better than you. With all that said, it's the person with all the heart and drive who will most likely succeed. You have to be humble and ambitious while at the same time happy to do what you are doing.

THANK YOU JASON. Catch more of Jason's work here at J1Studios.com as well as listen to him on Black Tribbles, every week alongside the other Tribbles on Thursday Nights on G-Town Radio and Podamatic. 

CBC DCnU SPECIAL # 1 - What we thought of JUSTICE LEAGUE #1

 With the historic relaunch of DC Comics now underway, we took some time out this week to give you all a look at some of the views on the new Justice League #1 by people throughout the country. Here are some opinions, as well as opinions from members of the CBC crew. So, sit back, relax and read on. Please NOTE, the following statements will contain spoilers.

From CBC’s own Hector Ramirez:

Well, I just picked up my copy of Justice League #1 last weekend I can say I was rather impressed. Decent art, good story, tremendous ending. I love how they started out with the heroes as unknown vigilantes that didn’t even trust each other. The cops were going full force against all costumes it was awesome. One thing I hated was Hal friggin’ Jordan!!! He was such an arrogant prick and what up with him talking in third person. Those last few pages were priceless that red blue and green blur when Clark knocked Hal down a few pegs and the last page revealing his new costume, loved it!!!

D. Jones from NYC

  I read JL #1 Ehhhh I was a little underwhelmed. I cant remember who it was in one of the other post who said that it should have been an 80 page special but yes, it should have been. I know the new thing is to make the story last over 5-6 issues so it fits easily in TPB but if you are really introducing these characters for the first time it felt like you relied to much on my past knowledge of them. . . . I said earlier that for the flagship book it should have been longer. It's got nothing to do with trying to show the differences between characters or anything, it has to do with taking forever to tell a story. And . . .  it does seem that many writers have a very 1950's mindset when it comes to speaking to kids which i never understand cause these little mofo's are WAY more advance than us 

D. Franklin from Baltimore, MD

Yeah, I expected more from a debut issue. There were some neat moments, like GL scoffing at Batman's lack of powers and then Batman proving him wrong. But it def would have benefited from more pages and story!

C. Smith from Michigan

Sure . . . Batman and Hal have always had their clashes in ideology . . .  for this to be the flagship book that's launching a new universe that you desperately need to be accepted, there should have been more. You can't even use the argument that the price point would be too high. It was the second of only 2 books that came out this week for the company. . . The story was so color by numbers it should have been in the activities aisle in Toys R Us. It was entirely cliche and below the standards of the industry today. If they were going for an all-ages feel, then, this would have been just fine. Maybe that was the intended goal. However, kids are a lot more advanced than writers want to credit.  . . If they wanted this story to have teeth and justify the pacing, and also add needed characterization without the need of dialogue, we should have seen the entire arrival of the parademons. Batman in shadow reacting to the event. Green Lantern doing the same and then their crossing paths. You would have established suspense. You could have shown just how Batman is perceived as myth by him working in shadow, barely seen through most of the comic until the end. I'm really beginning to question if Geoff Johns is just burnt out. His writing has been subpar of late.

G. Williams from New York

Justice League is interesting, but I'm a bit guarded about it since it is starting 5 years ago as well as restarting Cyborg without him joining the Titans first. Of what I see of the costumes so far, I have no objection. Batman fits him and his personality. Superman's is okay but I am confused about why they choose to make it armor. I feel that it may simply be for effect. I think that it will take a few months until we get acclimated to the new personalities of these characters. We have been reading them for so long but it is DC's goal to shake things up so that it will open new stories for them.

And Finally, CBC Head - Frankie "Seraph" Rodriguez:

     I have to admit that this was by far one of the better debut issues. I honestly did not find anything wrong with it. It helped show us a little of this new universe and how things started. The interplay between Batman and Hal Jordon was priceless. The fact that they were only 2 of the 7 members to be featured in the book having a lot of screen time did not bother me at all. It actually helped us established who these characters are at this point and time. 

     With super heroes just starting to rise, it set up a lot for us to come with the big bad being mentioned, the beginning of Cyborg's origin and how Batman and Green Lantern meet Superman . . . which leads directly to the next issue.

   I think it was a fast read . . . not too short. It gave readers enough to be intrigued and entertained while giving us some basic outlooks on the characters, personalities and setting up for the formation of the league, Cyborg's origin and the League's first big bad. Lee and Williams gave a tour de force in terms of art. It has never looked better. And to everyone who is whining about the costumes . . . Look at Superman at the last page of JL #1 and tell me he did NOT look awesome . . .and I will call you a liar. 

   A great beginning for Johns and Lee.

And that is all the opinions this week. Next week . . .we will cover all 12 books of the DCnU with our opinions and the opinions of you, the fans all over the country. If you want to give us your opinion on any of the 51 books left to be released, feel free to contact us at francisco.k.rodriguez@gmail.com or follow us on facebook under J1 studios. 

Don't forget this week:

 J1 Studios own Jason Richardson will have his art in Archie Comics' Megaman #5. 

And This Friday, J1 An-Ex 2 will be in full effect with comics, video games, card games, raffles, art and more for the very affordable price of $2. J1 An-Ex 2 will also have its first exclusive release: a brand new mix cd from J1 Sound team. J1 An-Ex 2 will have all your favorite J1 creators there including Jason, Hector and Frankie. So come on down this friday in Philadelphia at the Hawthorne Rec Center on 12th & Carpenter from 5:00pm to 8:30pm.

And we will see you next week. 

NEWS EDITION # 8 - JUSTICE SOCIETY IN 2012, GATES OPEN TO VICTORY AND ALPHA FLIGHT GOES ONGOING

Welcome to this week's News Edition.

J1 OWNER/PRESIDENT  HAS ART IN MEGAMAN # 5

 J1's own Jason Richardson, founder, owner & president of said company will have art featured in Archie Comics Megaman # 5. Richardson, who is an avid gamer and long time fan of the Megaman Franchise, recently garnered attention with his art work with his depiction of the iconic video game hero in the upcoming September 7th release of Megaman.  

  Richardson also recently placed second in Capcom's recent Street Fighter III Strike online edition poster contest where he was the runner up. So don't be shy. Go picking up Megaman #5 next Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 from Archie Comics. And after reading the story, take a look at Richardson's art work in the back. 
  Congratulations Jason! 

JUSTICE SOCIETY RIDES AGAIN IN 2012

    This past weekend in Fan Expo, DC Comics announced that fan favorite series Justice Society WILL return coming 2012. This time, the Justice Society will be brought back by writer James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott. Didio, Robinson and others in DC's editorial revealed that the fan favorite book would return but in Earth-2, allowing for more characters in Justice Society.  Didio explained that they wanted to be sure that if they brought back the Justice Society, they would do it right.
  The setting of Earth -2 will allow for more of the characters that were long dead for Robinson to use to create a new rich trapestry.  More on Robinson's & Scott's JSA book as it becomes available.


ALPHA FLIGHT UPGRADES TO ONGOING

  Often times these days in the comic book industry, we have seen many an ongoing series become a miniseries due to low sales; Marvel's Thor: The Mighty Avenger being one of the most recent examples of this. With impressive sales since it's 0.1 issue came out, the latest version of Alpha Flight is doing what has not been done in years . . . going from a mini series to a full fledged ongoing series.
    So yes, instead of 4 of 8 . . . it will be just issue #4 and so on and so forth for as long as the titles sales do as well as they have been doing. And now that Alpha Flight is now an ongoing series, writers Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak will be showing us how the once proud team of super heroes have to deal with things as fugitives in their own country  and more.
   Fred Van Lente describes a little more about the plans with Alpha Flight now that it is an ongoing series:

It's very different to go from a book that has two main characters, to a book that has, I think at last count, about 17,000 major characters. All with their own distinct storyline. So it's very cool that everybody's now going to get the room they need to have their stories property laid out. We have this storyline of Jeanne-Marie taking over Aurora's body, and Walt Langowski seemingly can't turn into Sasquatch anymore. And how did Puck get out of Hell? And what really is going on with Heather Hudson? Because there's clearly something very wrong with her, but we don't quite know what it is yet. That is to say, you don't. Greg and I know.  It's very cool, because it lets us tell even more of the story we were going to tell anyway. And there was inklings of this happening even really before the first issue came out, so fortunately Greg and I were able to have this in the back of our minds.


Pak adds:

We're good at working towards different eventualities. If the book had ended as scheduled with issue #8, we were perfectly fine with that. It would have been a great eight-issue maxiseries. But we always have that "B" plan in the back pocket, and it's very fun to be able to shift that into the "A" plan category. 

There's a way in which what's happening in Canada, as the story progresses, the rest of the Marvel Universe is going to become aware of exactly what's going on and will take an interest. We're going to be able to explore much more deeply how what's happening in Canada affects the Marvel Universe, and how the rest of the Marvel Universe is going to affect our characters. That is an opportunity to really open up the canvas a lot, and having the book turn into an ongoing absolutely with help with that.


 The two writers confirmed that they will explore the characters, including how Puck got back from Hell and more on the Unity storyline. Artist Dale Eaglesham, a Canadian himself, has been enjoying the book and will stay on as regular penciler to the newly elongated series. Pak and Lente also promised guest stars from all over the Marvel Universe, including the Commonwealth of Heroes, Captain Britain & MI:13 and, of course, Wolverine.
    Alpha Flight is written by Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente with art by Dale Eaglesham in available from Marvel Comics. 


GATES OPENS KIRBY'S UNIVERSE WITH CAPTAIN VICTORY

  Dynamite Entertainment recently released a new book featuring a whole new universe that was created by comic book legend, Jack Kirby. Now Dynamite is preparing to release a second series as writer Sterling Gates takes on one of Kirby's oldest, non Big 2 works in the form of Captain Victory.
   Captain Victory features adventures of the Galactic Rangers, a police force that preserve peace and maintain order throughout the cosmos, lead by the title character, Captain Victory.
  Yet, Gates recently stated in an interview that these Galactic Rangers are NOT like the Green Lanterns or the Nova Corps.

They have a sense of honor, yes, but they’re far more soldier-like than the Green Lanterns. They’re not going to detain you if you try to shoot them, they’re going to fire right back, and they’re going to shoot to kill. Know what I mean? They’re soldiers doing their best to protect the galaxy from harm, and Captain Victory in particular will go to great lengths to make sure evil doesn’t spread out and overtake everything. As you see in the first issue, he’s willing to go to greater lengths than even his fellow Rangers would like...

 Gates added that he plans to really give readers a look into Captain Victory and the characters themselves while exploring this new, vast universe that has been untouched for decades. And while the writing style is different, Gates promises to keep the enthusiasm of the original work:

 Every panel of his Captain Victory series seems to be shouting at you with this lyrical excitement. The style played big back then, but I think comics have changed pretty drastically. The way we write and read comics has changed. Readers don’t seem to respond as well to the crazed narration style that Kirby used. If anything, people read that kind of thing as “retro-pastiche,” and I didn’t want to write the book that way. I wanted to tell these big, space operatic stories using a modern comic style, so that it appeals to any modern reader. 

 Captain Victory is written by Sterling Gates with art by Wagner Reis from Dynamite Entertainment.


STORMWATCH PREVIEW TRAILER

A look at Stormwatch #1, which follows events of Superman # 1. Stormwatch #1 is written by Paul Cornell and written by Miguel Sepulveda on September 7, 2011 from DC Comics. 



COMIC BOOK CLASH DC'S RELAUNCH BLOG PROJECT


 Yes. You are reading right. CBC is doing a special project in honor of the massive relaunch of books from DC Comics this September. This is historic. And we want to know how you feel about the books. Yeah you! Not the person to the left. No, no the midget who stole your girlfriend. Not your parents. YOU!  DC is releasing 52 new number 1s as you know . . . and we want to hear for you what you think.

    We will go by a Week by Week Breakdown of the new titles. And we need your input. It can be a few sentences. It can be a video of your opinion that we can upload and/or link. But we are looking for as much input from fans about the books after you have read them.

    Comments and/or videos from books on a certain week will come out the week after they have been released . .. For example, Justice League opinions will be hit our page September 7th. Then every week after till the final week of new number #1s, which will be seen in the first week of October.

  We want your input. And we will take your input on more than just 1 book but at least 1. We want to have something for all 52 books so do hesitate to pick up a new #1 and tell us what you think. And don't worry, CBC and many of the J1 staff themselves will be weighing in their own opinions come September.

So if you are interested in take 1 book or more, reading it and giving us an honest opinion other than just "It's sucks!" or "It's awesome!", please feel free to email us at francisco.k.rodriguez@gmail.com and state which book or books you will give opinions on. Deadline for opinion of the book is the Monday before the next CBC so for Week 1, you have until 11:59pm Monday September 5th to tell us what you think of Justice League #1 and next Monday till 11:59pm for all the books of Week Two.  J1 Studios and CBC will reserve the right NOT to post certain comments if they are too . . .offensive.  So don't be shy. Tell us what you think. See and talk with you all soon.

Frankie Rodriguez (aka Seraph)
CBC Head

SEE YA NEXT WEEK!!!