My Comic Ads.

Hey everyone. Since my Book is on sale, I wanted to do some cool ads for it. I've been such in a creative slump. But for the past 2 days i've been feeling the juices flowing again. Check em out. ^_^ Until next time. PEACE AND BLESSINGS.

My first Blog.

Wow! So this is my first official post of the year. I made this Blogspot acount last year, but i never got a chance to actually "Blog." So here it is. For everyone that doesn't know me, My name is Chuck Collins. I'm an illustrator/animator based in good ol' NYC. I worked on a bunch of various gigs such as the GettoSake cartoons. I worked for my good friend Aaron Augenblick at AugenBlick Studios. So i've been at this animation thing for a while, about 5 or 6 years. Alot of my influence is anime. People have a problem with that, i dunno why. What's Anime ever done to hurt people...lol.
Anywho...I have been working on a project called DSX for a while. It's not until the end of 2005 i had actuall time to work on the book. I finished it in Feburary, its was fun but very frustrating. See i can't afford to hire a colorist, writter, inker, letterer, so i had to do all that myself. Not to mention the business aspect of getting your stuff out there. The Story of DSX , tho very cliche, is probably a hard story to tell. It's your average Post-Apocolyptic story, but it has political undertones. Its hard to be free in this soiety. Freedom of Speech in this country doesnt exist anymore. While it's ok to say the word NIGGA, BITCH, HOE, Etc. Talking about the government and its backwards policies is frowned upon.
It exists everywhere i guess. Look at at Hip Hop. While rappers like 50 cent is allowed to fill up white america with false images of what African American culture is "supposed" to be like, Lyricists like Paris, Chuck D., Mos Def, and Common get close to no radio play at all. There is no variety cause the record companies wont allow you to HAVE variety. This with in itself is censorship. Portraying the negative aspects of any culture for personal gain is wrong. But it seems to be the "American Way" at this time.
The same applies for comics and animation i guess. I remember when Akira came out (the manga, not the movie), people ranted and raved how great the story was. A post-apocolyptic society with real social and econmic problems, and a revolutionary group that opposed the system that kept them down. It was great when a japanese artist tackled the problem, but when a black dude from brooklyn does it, its angry alien conspiracy retoric. Even in anime like Ghost in the Shell Stand alone Complex, they deal with revolutionaries that are (and i quote) "as charasmatic as Malcolm X." Many of the characters on this show even quote Che Guevara.
What i'm trying to say is, i dont want to go in the traditional ways of comics, where there is some cape toting character saving the world from alien women with big breasts and big guns. I wanna go deeper. Now dont get me wrong, i like some of those cape toting stories, i grew up watching superman. So as "pro-black" as i am i like a little superman action, but i want variety. Which is something that comics, music, movies, entertainment period, doesn't have.
Anywho, enuff of all that. I have plenty of time to talk about all of my problems with the "biz." DSX is complete and ready for sale. You can purchase a copy of it at ComiXpress
Here are a few samples of the pages in the book if you need pursuasion.