a mirror image... : heroes

Hotshot and Mighty Girl graphic novel sneak peek!

Jason Embury — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:33:00 GMT

not much in a writing mood this morning, however here's a little peek at the Hotshot and Mighty Girl graphic novel coming out in March from Platinum Studios. Written by Fred Van Lente (Marvel Adventures, Wolverine: First Class, The Incredible Hercules), with pencils by Billy Penn and colors and stuff by yours truly. enjoy!

Hero By Night #1 ongoing review at The Pullbox.

Jason Embury — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:09:00 GMT

Great review up from the guys over at The Pullbox on Heroestv.com,

http://heroestv.com/blog/strongbadwi/2008/01/23/hero-by-night-1-new-on-going-series/

"I suggest that fanboys cut the fat they’ve been choking down out of their comic budgets (*cough* Spider-Man *cough-cough* Superman) and add in some nutrition in the form of Hero by Night." I might just have to agree with him on this point, although I'm biased of course.

Hero By Night on Facebook!

Jason Embury — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:54:00 GMT

if you've got a Facebook account, you can join other fans of Hero By Night over there by adding the HBN facebook page, just click the link and BAM! instant internet teleportation to your favorite online superheros corner of facebook!

Teleport to HBN's facebook page now!!!

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Now playing: New Order - Let's Go (Nothing for Me)

Looking back and stepping forward.

Jason Embury — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:47:00 GMT

2008 is here, and I’ve gotten caught up enough with work, and taken enough time off to enjoy family and relaxation here, that I can look back on the great things that 2007 brought to me, and look forward to what this year has in store. I’m not a big list guy, but there will be lists in this post just to make it shorter. Get ready to scroll down!!! So first up, last year.

2007

Family wise we had a great year here really I think. We accomplished a lot on the home front such as: a new stone patio in the backyard, retaining walls around the burms behind our waterfall/pond area, put in a fire pit off the patio, planted more trees in the yard, got our basement almost finished, got the pool table set up and re-felted in the basement, painted both of the kids bedrooms (which involved a lot of hand painted silohettes and things on the walls, an entire wall of giant Kracken tentacles and a treasure map in my sons room, tiny little stars, custom shelving, borders and 4 different colors of paint in my daughters room) watched both the kids play baseball and softball and be successful, found time to fit in a real family vacation for the first time in a couple years, and generally just really made this house start to feel like it’s our home now instead of just being the “new house”. So in that regard things were hectic and busy as ever, but also fun and even relaxing at times.

I met a few people in 2007, that I’ve come to regard as friends as well. GOOD people first and foremost, and all of that has nothing to do with them working in comics, but everything to do with them just being real people without any sort of agendas or anything. Hard workers, and people that share a lot of things in common with me. People like Dan Forcey, Rob Richardson, Jason Maranto, Dale Mitchell (a.k.a Adam Black), Carly Wagner.

And lest I not forget my long time buddy DJ Coffman. DJ and I have known each other for a long time, but this last year I think we really started to become not only better friends, but a sort of Batman and Robin type of act. We share a lot of the same philosophies on life and family, politics and spirituality, and of course comics. I honestly probably owe a large part of my current happiness and success in comics to DJ. I was working as a colorist in the industry before I started coloring his Hero By Night book, doing various things at Image including a stint on Shadowhawk right before, but having him ask me to color HBN was probably what really solidified my financial situation enough for me to hone my craft, make more connections, and become good and fast enough to make a living coloring comics all day. I have had an immeasurable amount of fun working with him over the last year, creating an enormous body of Hero work, talking shop, bitching about things that seem lame and petty, and as stupid as it sounds…..looking to the future and dreaming. He has a lot of big ideas, and big goals, as do I, and I think I’ve seen enough of this industry at this point, to know that we have a real chance of making those things come to life some day.

In terms of work, 2007 was really a breakthrough type of year for me. This was the year where I really transitioned into coloring comics full time. The year started with wrapping up colors on the successful Hero By Night mini-series, started coloring the new KISS comic KISS 4K, which also allowed me to color the Guiness World Record largest comic book ever, doing some digital painting commissions, creating some card art for Fantasy Flight Games, working with some extremely talented creators on various projects…..Also starting with Wizard World LA, where Hero By Night debuted, where the KISS comic debuted, where I signed a lot of autographs and such, went to dinner with Scott Rosenberg (who was a real genuine and nice guy) and had a great time. I went to all of the Wizard World conventions this year, met some other great creators, publishers, fans and people in general. I met a lot of cool people and generally had a blast.

By the time summer rolled around I was busier than ever here. In May I started as the VP of Creative Development over at the new publisher Big City Comics. I had met Jeff Kaufman in LA, signed up to color one of his books shortly after, and then as his plans changed and we talked more and more, I decided to come onboard and help him coordinate things, find talent, and make the comics he was producing the best they could be. So here I was, trying to coordinate things with Diamond, design ads and promotional materials, color 2 Big City books, as well as the KISS 4K comic. It was a great experience, I learned even more about the comic industry, met even MORE great people, but I realized after a couple months I was really stretching myself pretty thin trying to be a colorist AND be on the editorial/administrative end of things for a publisher, and it was having a negative impact in my life (and on my health) I decided to step aside and continue just coloring for them after a period of a few months, and really focused myself on doing some outstanding coloring work on their Dragon Cross title, providing near painted pages at times for that first issue. Literally the week I finished the last page of Dragon Cross #1, a series of things happened rather quickly: first, my lucky 3 legged chinese frog who holds in i-Ching coin in his mouth and sits on the top of my desk had the coin drop out while I was dusting. THAT DAY, I got a call from my editor on the KISS comic, and was informed I had been let go as had then entire creative team on the book. Well, evidently I hadn’t put the right side of the coin back in the frogs mouth, so I immediately rotated that coin. I’m not sure which happened next, but I know that a check I had been expecting to come the week before, and NEEDED to get to me that week, didn’t show up. So THAT wasn’t a lot of fun, and again, the coin got rotated in my lucky frog. The next day, I had gotten offered enough work for the next 6 months here, and that frog hasn’t been TOUCHED since. All of that happened some time towards the end of August/beginning of September I think.

So as September got underway I now had several things going once again, had gotten back into a much saner schedule work wise, and the quality of life started to improve dramatically for me here. DJ and I were working on the new Hero By Night webcomic coming out 3 times a week, had started planning for the upcoming ongoing HBN series launching in December, I was starting work on an 88 page graphic novel, and things were going fairly well. October and November were much of the same thing, with a trip of WW Texas thrown in. As November close, I found myself finishing colors on HBN 1, steadily working on my graphic novel, and ignorant of what December was about to blow into the studio. One day, early in the month, I had just finished putting in about 8 hours here, it was around 4pm I got a call from my EIC over at Platinum, and was asked how many pages I could get one overnight for the KISS one-shot KISSmas special book, written by Chuck Dixon and drawn by Tone Rodriguez, I guess they had some problems with scheduling and stuff or whatever, and the book had to go to print the next day. Well I thought about it some, told them I could do 6 pages, hung up, thought about it some more, talked to my wife, talked to DJ, decided I could in fact probably do 13 of the 15 pages they needed for the right price. So I called back 15 minutes later and agreed to do 13 pages. I then proceeded to knock out all 13 pages, with the help of some VERY wonderful and reliable people who were able to flat for me, and low and behold from 5pm to 11:45 am the next day, I did indeed to get all 13 pages done, after which I proceeded to eat lunch, lay down long enough for the phone to ring 3 times, the dogs to go crazy and get absolutely NO sleep before heading up to the gym and coaching my daughters basketball practice for almost 2 hours. So I took the next weekend off basically, then did another 11 pages of my graphic novel, wrapped up the HBN webcomic for the month, started issue 2 of the HBN series, heard from an author in Ireland that I had colored a book for in late 2006 that my services may be needed for the remaining 5 issues of her story as she was working out the kinks in a deal with a major BOOK publisher and distributor for her series, then around the 18th got a call from my buddy Rob who informed me his book was going to be late if it wasn’t done by the 4th of January because they had a colorist drop out after issue 2. This was the Dragon Cross book I had to leave to take all the work I had signed on for at Platinum. Rob is such a good guy, I saw how issue 2 had turned out, I had just done essentially half a book overnight a week or so earlier, I still felt bad for HAVING to leave his book, so I agreed. Lo and behold it’s January 2nd, I was able to take time off to spend with family on Xmas and New Years, and I only have 3 1/2 pages left of issue 3 of Dragon Cross, and the whirlwind that closed 2007 will have come to an end. WHEW!!!!!!

Which leads us to….2008

I’m not sure about doing resolutions this year, life is a spontaneous, ever changing thing. But I do have some goals for this year though, which if you want to think of as resolutions I guess they could be seen that way. In no particular order:

1- Find more time to create art for just me. I have a couple of projects I’m working on right now of my own that I would really like to find time to develop and produce. I also would like to find time to set aside for working in my sketchbook every day, for throwing around some colors in a traditional way (i.e. with markers or real paint)

2- Finish losing the weight I wanted to lose last year. I lost 15 lbs in 2007, I have about 10 more lbs to lose to get to where I wanted to be in 2008. I think I’ll get there by the end of the year though.

3- Become a better digital painter. I made some great strides this year, I really did. From taking 2nd in a Gnomon School of Visual Effects monthly digital art contest and winning lots of great training DVD’s, to painting my first comic cover (Dragon Cross issue 4) I have a vast amount of potential for growth, more than I EVER saw for coloring comics when I started. So I really want to take the steps to become an even better painter this year.

4- Learn a new software program. The likely candidate will be Painter X, however getting my hands on Maya or a similar 3D app would be nice.

5- Paint the elvish script around the decorative ceiling shelf in our living room for my wife, and include a large celtic/elvish design motif painted on the ceiling for her. I told her that I didn’t want to do anything this year but mow the lawn, however if this is ALL I have to do extra, then I can count myself lucky!

6- I have a comic coloring related goal I don’t want to mention really. I’ve established myself this past year as being undeniably GOOD and reliable. IF I can make as much progress this year as I did the last year and a half, I can approach being great I think. I know that may sound selfish, but I think all artists want to be more than just good, it’s in your nature as an artist. That’s all part of it though.

7- Make more connections. I made some great connections in the comic industry this past year, as well as in the digital art community, the concept art and gaming industries, and I want to further those connections this coming year. Being a freelancer isn’t easy, but having a larger pool of editors, publishers and potential employers that know your name is always a good thing.

8- I want to start to step back a bit and give my kids more freedom. NOT an easy goal, and hard to explain, but my wife and I have always been VERY involved in our kids lives, making decisions, coaching sports teams etc….. I’ve come to the realization though, especially as my daughter is in that pre-teen stage now, that we really need to start letting the kids, mostly HER, start to become more independent, and either succeed or fail on their own. I think we’ve done what we can to make them strong enough to handle things, and we’ll obviously still be guiding them, but the only real way to learn some things is through adversity, and learning to deal with that adversity on your own (especially when you get to be a teenager) They are both at the absolute top of their classes in school academically, they both have reading levels that are FAR beyond their grade level, and they both are good athletically as well. It’s hard being a parent, but I think if we don’t start to step back a little bit, that what will happen is that the kids will start to RELY on us to be there for them at all times, and the fact is, as a parent you CAN’T solve all the problems.

9- Relax more. Deadlines can be stressful. I need to actually eliminate some things from my daily routine here, and add some others in order to accomplish this. I’ve moved away from meditation a lot in the last year or so with how busy things have been, but I really feel I need to get back to that a lot more. I also need to do things like read more, find more time for family and doing brainless activities like watching TV, and playing some video games now and again, playing pool. Sadly deadlines drive your life as a freelancer, and living in the state with probably the WORST economy in the nation right now….you take whatever work you can, when it’s there. I’m extremely blessed to do what I do for a living, but I can’t be content. If I were to have to go FIND a job out in the “real world” right now, there is NO WAY I could find something that would pay me as much as I’m making now (which is kind of sad) There are just no good jobs to be had, so for me to be able to work from home, remotely, and for employers that are from all over the world, is really something of a miracle.

10- Become a better person. Don’t get me wrong, regardless of the few people out there that may think I’m a jerk, I’m really a good person. There are certain things I want to work on though for sure. I think we probably ALL have this goal somewhere deep down, for some it might be buried in their sub-conscious, but the bottomline is just being the best person you can be. A better dad, a better husband, a better friend, a better brother, a better son, a better artist, a better citizen….that’s a lot of hats for any of us to where, and yet finding the BALANCE is the key. At 31 I think I’m just starting to get the right weights on each side of the scales, now it’s just a matter of adjusting the scales until they’re balanced.

Whew. That’s it I guess, probably some other things I want to do I’m not mentioning, I’m probably forgetting some things too. But in a nutshell, that’s pretty much it. I’d like to look back NEXT year at this time, and say that I was able to make progress on each and every one of those goals if not accomplish them outright. Hopefully everyone else can think of at least 10 things they can work on or strive for in the coming year. I’d like to throw world peace on there somewhere, as a lot of us would I’m sure, but working on being a better person will have to suffice as a write in for that one. Happy New Year everyone!!!

First review of the new ongoing Hero By Night comic book series!

Jason Embury — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 17:05:00 GMT

The first official review is in that writer James Patrick found for our new Hero By Night series…. see here:

Kevin Powers: Silver Bullet Comics Line of Fire Reviews: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/reviews/119827005595745.htm

“Overall, I am very excited about the return of Hero By Night. Coffman has the opportunity to bring some creative ideas to the table, as evidenced by the introduction and conclusion of this issue, and expand and introduced characters that could not be covered in the mini-series. I think this is definitely a great series to follow that has a level of realism in the writing and some fantastic artwork to really bring it all together.”

Hero By Night is published bi-monthly by Platinum Studios Comics. The webcomic can also be read online for free at HeroByNight.com

Happy Days.

Jason Embury — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:05:00 GMT

So yesterday I got 4 boxes worth of comp copies in here, 2 boxes of the hardcover collected trade of the original Hero By Night mini-series, a box of the first issue of the new ongoing Hero By Night comic, and a box of the KISS 4K KISSmas special one-shot. I'm going to run through my thoughts on them real quick here.

Hardcover HBN trade- Where to start. This is admittedly my very first trade collection, or graphic novel, of any kind. Thus I was prepared to be critical, as I always am when I see any of my work in print. What I wasn't prepared for when I cracked open that first case of books yesterday, was to be COMPLETELY blown away by how awesome it looks. I have several hardcover collections already from Marvel and from DC, and I've seen countless others on shelves in comic shops and at conventions. This HBN hardcover not only stands up there right next to anything DC or Marvel has done, but it surpasses a lot of trades that are out there. I know that the ONLY collected work I own that is nicer, was the oversized Absolute Batman HUSH hardcover that DC put out, complete with that thick black cardboard slipcase and dust jacket. The gold foil HBN logo is NOT obnoxious at all on this thing, and neither are the blue foil flames. The printing and design of the spine of the book is great, and will look wonderful on my shelf of books. The interior page design and layout is spectacular. Zach Pennington, and everyone over at Platinum Studios, REALLY, TRULY, did everything in their power to make this book beautiful. Zach's design work is wonderful. They even included a cover gallery of all the covers from the original series without any text or logos on them, and used a previously never before seen version of the issue 4 cover that didn't make the final cut. Very cool stuff to see all in one package like that. A nice introduction by DJ at the front of the book, of course the 5 pages of extra epilogue content we did just for this edition, creator bios, and a great ad for our ongoing series. Kudos to everyone involved in putting out such a great product are in order. DJ and I work hard to not only deliver great work each issue, but we're continually pushing each other to do better. I really feel that is evident from the time you turn the first page of this book, until you get to the last page of the epilogue. It's only getting better, and I'm extremely energized and excited to see this all come together in such a fantastic way.

Hero By Night #1 (ongoing series)- This won't count as one of the first official reviews since I'm biased. But, this book looks even better than just about any of the pages from the mini-series. Lots of reasons I think for that, going back to how hard I think DJ and I push each other to get better, and how hard we push OURSELVES to not settle for good enough but to strive for maybe one day approaching something that resembles really GREAT work. Thinking back, just doing pages, and more pages, and then doing webcomic work, and more webcomic work, and more pages over the last year, we've started to really become comfortable with working in the world of Hero By Night, and it's starting to show. When you turn the cover and stare at page one I think you become IMMEDIATELY immersed in this new book. Starting with page 1 and continuing through page 4, you're looking at this huge fight scene between HBN and a LAVA MONSTER deep in the heart of a volcano. How cool is THAT? And if that wasn't enough action for you..well, one of the all time favorite characters from the Hero By Night webcomic, makes his first official debut in print. It's funny to think that characters makign their debut in an issue 1 already have a fan base, but with over 250 UNIQUE pages of full color work that we've done for the online webcomic in the last year, there is just this enormous backstory to this book already. Tons of characters and plot lines from the webcomic that ALL tie directly into the books that are being printed. I mean, there are now 110 pages of story in print, plus all the webcomic stuff....so what, close to 400 comic pages worth of material in about 12 1/2 months. DJ alludes to it in his intro to the trade collection, but what readers and fans and kids that have been following Hero By Night, or might just be picking it up for the first time, what everyone is seeing happen RIGHT NOW, is a new hero being born. Everyday for over a year I've spent a good deal of time, up to my eyeballs in Hero By Night. I'm making a living now using things that didn't exist when I first started reading comics, working on a superhero that wasn't around then either. But in the space of a year, there is so much story, history and nostalgia behind HBN, that it really feels like the character has been around forever. I'm proud to say that I'm a part of something that is probably much bigger than DJ or myself. These are stories that are telling themselves for the most part. What our job is artistically, and we've often times reminded each other of this fact, is to let the story tell itself, to do what is demanded by the characters on each page, to not take shortcuts for the sake of taking shortcuts (for evidence of that, look back to the original webcomic of the HBN journals, sometimes as much as 4 to 5 hours being put into a DAILY webcomic the NIGHT before it's supposed to be posted-and that's just on MY end) I think part of what makes HBN so special to me, is the fact that the creative team of DJ and myself both believe in the same type of things when it comes to storytelling, and producing comics. You don't dictate what goes down on the page, the story and characters do, it's up to YOU as a penciler, inker, or colorist, to do what is required of you by the story so that you add something to it, make it something more than just another comic page. You won't always succeed of course, but more often than not you'll end up with something you can be proud of and you'll know that you really have put your heart and soul into producing that page or book. When I look at this first issue, I can see vast improvements on both of our parts, and I can say with confidence that we have both put our souls into this book, and it shows. It may not be a book that is to everyone's taste, whether it be the story or the art, but it truly IS a book that is FOR everyone who loves comics and who loves superheroes.

KISS 4K: Merry KISSmas one-shot- not sure where to start with this book. A week ago almost to the day I got a phone call at 4 in the afternoon, and was asked how many pages I could color overnight, because the book had to be AT the printer the following morning. I'm not entirely sure they believed me when I said I could do 13 pages overnight. So after firmly stating I could, and convincing them that I wouldn't let them down, I proceeded to sit down at 5:30 pm and not get up from my workstation except for a bathroom break or to get more coffee until 11:45 am the next day. I worked straight through. I owe some shout outs to a few people that helped me along the way by flatting a few of my pages, and by FINDING me a reliable person to do 3 of the 6 pages I needed done at the VERY last minute in the WEE hours of the morning. So big thanks to Michael, Alex, Chris and Daniel. You guys rock. And you made me not only meet my deadline but look like a badass in the process :D Taking that into consideration, I really don't think that you can tell I did so much work in so little time. The pages look GREAT. Would I have made a few changes here or there if I had more time, you bet. But it turned out great, AND the book was NOT late. A large part of that is due to having wonderful line art supplied by Tone Rodriguez. It was written by THE Chuck Dixon, and I have to say, I laughed my butt off a few times while reading it. Chuck really paced this book out nicely, and it's really a great read. I would definitely recommend it for any KISS fan in your life, or for just a sheer fun read (since I colored the first few issues of the actual KISS 4K book, I will also say with confidence that this one-shot is a MUCH better read)

So to recap, the Hero By Night hardcover is GREAT, go buy one today, you can find them on ebay, you can buy them from the Platinum Store in a week or so, or you can have your local comic shop back order you one. The new ongoing HBN series kicks BUTT, so go get your hands on that as well, and make sure to check out the HBN webcomic where we've got an absolute TON of stuff for you to read for free. Have a Merry Kissmas, and all that jazz. I'm headed to make more coffee, grab a few sticks of incense to burn, and get my butt coloring this morning. If my new set of prismacolor markers come today in the mail, I plan on playing with those for a bit, and tonight, is buddy night with my son while the girls are out having fun. Which means playing some pool, darts, video games, popcorn, coke, and maybe some more episodes of Smallville.

Back with a BANG! New interview sneak peek!

Jason Embury — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:34:00 GMT

I seriously doubt that I'm throwing too many spoilers out there for this, but I did an interview recently that will be appearing in the Platinum Studios releases for the month of December. Here's the special edition, EXPANDED interview from that for all the rabid fans (probably mostly friends and family actually) that read my blog on a daily basis, enjoy! More indepth answers you won't find anywhere, as well as a BONUS question that didn't end up getting used because of space constraints. Be sure to check it out in the back of Hero By Night issue 1 landing next month!

What was your first job in the comics industry?

I started out inking a book called Zombieopolis, drawn by some guy named DJ Coffman, and written by a guy named Bob McDeavitt. It was supposed to have been a mini-series published by a fairly small publisher in the late 90's. We did like the first 2 issues or so, it ended up getting cancelled, so DJ self-published it in graphic novel format just to get the book got out there. That book actually got me some inking work on some small press stuff, I inked a story in the very first issue of Digital Webbing Press which was probably my first work that got onto shelves. Then I sort of went through a period where I just got out of comics for about 4 years, after banging my head against the wall as an inker, working for peanuts, and getting a lot of "close, but not quite there yet" stuff from most of the major publishers. Actually, it was funny because when I DID get back into comics, I was inking a book for a guy and he was having a REAL hard time finding a good colorist for our cover. So I had bought a Wacom tablet a few months prior, and after seeing the results he was getting back from various people, I just kind of told him, "you know what dude? Let me try this coloring thing out." Not only did it look pretty good, but I think it showed me in just one page, that I should probably be focusing on coloring and painting, than on inking. It was just a lot more natural for me to see the finished product, than just working in black and white.

Who were some of your influences and inspirations growing up?

I'm grown up? That would be news to my family and friends. Seriously though, when I was younger I bought comics for about 6 years I think, religiously, in the late 80's early 90's. Pretty much before the advent of computer coloring. I'd have to say that I have a strong liking of guys like Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane's loose style, and I think Kirby was a great storyteller. I follow a FEW colorists in the industry today, people like Brian Haberlin, Alex Sinclair, Rod Reis, Dave Stewart, Richard Isanove. Stewart and Sinclair are probably my biggest contemporary influences I think in terms of comics. Jim Valentino also taught me a LOT about comics when I was first starting out. I've always drawn a lot more inspiration and knowledge from classic masters like Rembrandt though. I'm a HUGE Rembrandt fan. Also, I've been getting into a lot more painting and digital art, including 3D lately, which has opened my eyes to a massive number of inspirational artists and really taught me a lot more about being an artist and really understanding art than comics probably ever could. I'm more a traditional guy though, so I kind of like to look at the NATURE of art and not really focus on how it's created. I mean, we've got ALL theses tools today, that are really just extensions of us as artists. So it's more about what you want to accomplish, rather than how you get there you know.

How were you brought on to Hero By Night?

I was finishing up work on my last issue of Shadowhawk over at Image for Valentino at the time. I've known DJ now for going on 10 years almost. I knew he had won the Comic Book Challenge, and I think I called him a few days after he got back from San Diego, just to tell him congrats and wish him luck. He called me back a few weeks later I think, maybe it was a month, and asked how Shadowhawk was going, and if I'd have time to maybe fit in his Hero By Night book. Shadowhawk had actually just wrapped up over at Image like a couple weeks beforehand, so I told him I'd love to come onboard. I had a lot of fun working on a superhero book, and DJ liked what I was doing at the time and thought I would be a perfect fit for the look he was after.

As a colorist, how closely do you work with the rest of an art team or the writer on a book?

Well, in terms of Hero By Night, it's sort of a different situation because until James Patrick came onboard, there were only 2 people producing that book. DJ and I talk multiple times just about every single day of the week and weekends, either on the phone or we'll instant message each other. I think as a creator, you need to understand that you have to have someone, or a tight knit group of people, you can trust to bounce ideas off of. DJ and I have the sort of relationship where he knows he can run stuff by me and I would tell him if it sucked or not. We're always talking about HBN back and forth, not in a way where I'm really doing anything with the plot or storylines, but you know, I'll have an idea now and then of something I may want to do, or add in, and I can run it by him and usually we work out something that might be even better than what we were after initially. There is a respect I think that comes from familiarity, that I don't have with other books or creators really. He knows that I'm a creator too, that I'm also a pretty decent artist in my own right, and that I understand the entire comic making process from conception right through to getting your books printed and distributed by Diamond. Other books, I have pretty set guidelines of what I have to do and I can't stray from things very much. Books that I've colored straight from pencils, almost everyone that I've done, the editors or publisher has realized early on, that I can clean up the pencils and fix things that might be off, fairly quickly and easily, so I go in and make things look their best. I mean, I'm technically the LAST stop for the artwork, and it really comes down to just putting the best product on the shelf at the end of the day that you can.

If you could color any book in comics today, which would it be?

I'm already coloring it aren't I? Outside of Hero By Night though it would be a tough decision. For a long time my favorite character was Spiderman. But right now, I'd have to say hands down, it would be Batman. I would love to color just about any Batman book out there.

What's on your plate next?"

I'm currently working on the graphic novel Hotshot and Mighty Girl coming out early next year from Platinum Studios Comics, as well as the new ongoing Hero By Night series. I've got some other books and personal projects I'm currently working on as well, when I get some time in between deadlines and coloring of course. One is a fantasy based online type of project incorporating digital painting, another is a darker, murder mystery type of graphic novel project that I've just started writing in the last month here that I'm really excited about, and I have another project that I'm doing a rewrite on at the moment that is sort of a suspense/thriller type of story.

mid-tuesday update

Jason Embury — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:14:00 GMT

in the zone. I had pinched a nerve or something in my lower back, hip area, last week raking leaves and stuff outside. Bugged me a little bit while I was in Texas this past weekend, and again yesterday REAL bad, today wasn’t going much better until probably about an hour ago. Things all of a sudden got like 1000% better, so I’ve had a Monster, had some dinner, and am working on getting in to juggernaut mode here for the next 6-8 hours and making up for some lost time. My daughter is downstairs right now baking brownies, so barring any unforseen shouts of “daddy, there’s a FIRE” coming from the kitchen, I think I’ll be in good shape until my wife and son get home from cub scouts in about an hour. Going to crank out the last 2 pages here on my current batch of pages, then get RIGHT into formatting and digitally inking/cleaning up more pages. I might just send out this next set of 22 to get flatted for me as well, I can do it myself fairly quickly, but I think I could probably have all 22 DONE in a week and a half if I had them flatted. I’d like to have time here to get some bulbs in my track lighting in the studio replaced in the next couple weeks. gets sort of dark with just the lamp on in here at night.
DJ and I will be cranking out the issue 3 cover to HBN this week, or early next week as well. Additionally, we’ve got…..looking at the calendar real quick here…..4 more updates for the November installment of the webcomic. So we’ll have to jam those out as well to wrap that up. Lava monster origin is coming soon, and I’m not spoiling anything really, as some of the readers have guessed what it is that’s coming, so unless you’re a reader of the webcomic and you ALSO happen to read my blog….If not, you SHOULD be reading. It’s reminding me of those classic Johnny Qwest type of adventure comics that used to be around. fun stuff… alright, back to it here!

Emerging from stealth mode.

Jason Embury — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:47:00 GMT

back in action. Got everything colored on time just like I wanted to (translated to Monday, and only 24 hours behind the final couple pages of inks getting to me) Took a bit of a breather yesterday to get some things done around here. Was up early today to get my work done, so that I don't have to work much if at all tonight, my daughter's birthday is today. I'm getting old, or feeling that way every year she adds another digit to her age. And then again, I'm not THAT old myself. Trying to get 2 pages a day done here, on top of getting a week or two ahead on the Hero By Night webcomic so that I don't have to do anything when we get back from Wizard World Texas. Speaking of that show, I've got 11 pages of Hotshot and Mighty Girl to get done before then. So I need to hop to!!

Hero By Night interview is up at The Pulse, as well as an 8 pg. preview!

Jason Embury — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:25:00 GMT

HBN interview with series creator DJ Coffman is up over on The Pulse. Check it out here!!!

Good stuff.

here's the preview for those that don't have time to read the interview or aren't inclined :D

Hero By Night Trade HARD COVER, and new ONGOING comic series coming soon!!!

Jason Embury — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:09:00 GMT

BIG update! Our collected HARDCOVER trade of the original Hero By Night mini-series will be out in November, and debuting at Wizard World Texas! That's right, I said hardcover :D

OUT OF THE LAIR AND INTO THE NIGHT…AGAIN!

Hero By Night Returns as an Ongoing Series

LOS ANGELES, Calif., October 23, 2007 – Platinum Studios Comics (www.platinumstudioscomics.com) and DJ Coffman are proud to announce that Hero By Night is back! The winning comic book idea from the inaugural 2006 Comic Book Challenge (www.comicbookchallenge.com), launched in March 2007 as a four-issue series. Due to overwhelming demand, the critically acclaimed SOLD OUT comic returns in December as an ongoing series. The new series focuses on a young Jack King who struggles with the pressures of being a superhero in the modern age while battling the worst Steel City has to offer.

The comic also follows Jack King’s predecessor, David Day, as he attempts to reconcile the faded memories of a forgotten past. “I was thrilled with the overwhelming support and popularity of the first Hero By Night series,” says creator DJ Coffman. “With the help of my co-writer, James Patrick (Death Comes to Dillinger and Crackurz), we’ve expanded the Hero By Night universe and added a whole new opportunity by following the continuing story of David Day. I’m proud that this comic will appeal to comic fans of all ages.” In addition, for both new fans as well as those familiar with the story, Platinum Studios Comics will release the Hero By Night Trade Collection this November. The HARDCOVER trade collection of the original four-issue series includes an added storyline that reveals what happened to the previous Hero By Night, David Day, after the Steel City explosion in 1956, and it will be available for only 12.99! Fans can also check out over 300 pages of background story for FREE of the Hero By Night in the form of webcomics at http://herobynight.com.

Hero By Night #1 (OCT073736) Co-written by D.J. Coffman and James Patrick, with art by D.J. Coffman and colors by Jason Embury, will be on comic stands this December. Tell your comic retailers to order now!!!

Also, international fans can order the book from Comicsnow.com, and a huge discount and get very affordable shipping. http://www.comicsnow.com Just enter Hero By Night into the search menu.

Hero By Night collected trade, and Dragon Cross issue 3 cover sneak peek!!

Jason Embury — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:53:00 GMT

Been battling some sort of stomach virus thing here for a couple days, tiring and not fun at all. Likely due to deadlines being destroyed the last week and a half. So here is a little update as I have lots to catch up on and little energy to waste. With the Hero By Night collected trade available to order this month in Previews (or online here for only TEN BUCKS) and the first issue of Dragon Cross available to order as well (or again online here) I thought it would be a good time to plug the books and show a peek of the covers to both the HBN trade and the DC issue 3 cover I finished last week. So here they are,

two different books, two different styles of coloring, BOTH done by yours truly, both books that let me display different talents, and both books I really enjoy working on. Go forth and order online and save, or get them from your local comic shop. back to my regularly scheduled radio silence until I catch up here.

Upcoming Wizard World Philadelphia appearance!

Jason Embury — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:14:00 GMT

I'll be at WW Philly this coming weekend, June 15-17th. If you're going to the con, stop by and say hi. I'll be navigating between the Hero By Night table, which I'll be manning with HBN creator DJ Coffman, and the Big City Comics booth most of the weekend. You'll be sure to catch me at one or the other so long as I'm not off getting a beverage or some food or something stupid like that. Also at the Big City booth will be publisher/writer Jeff Kaufman, penciler/writer Rob Richardson, and painter Elvin Cintron. With our lineup being solicited in the September Diamond Previews, we'll have banners of our upcoming books on hand, and yes, we are looking for another top notch penciler to pick up the reigns on one of our flagship titles, TOTEM. So if you're an aspiring penciler and think you can mimick the style of Mario Gully for at least half an issue until we wrap issue 2, swing by and show us what you got. See you all this weekend!

New comic garnering attention from the NFL and Hero By Night in Wizard magazine (again!)

Jason Embury — Fri, 11 May 2007 15:13:00 GMT

Back with a couple of updates on projects I'm currently working on. what a long week it's been, what with trying to get 3 books colored this month, building retaining walls around our pond in the backyard, a stone patio, kids and all the stuff they're doing this time of year.......but enough boring everyday stuff, on to the news!

With the first Hero By Night mini-series heating up and getting rave reviews, Wizard magazine stands up and takes notice, putting it in some pretty good company. To see a scan of the article visit the HBN creators blog over at herobynight.net. Issue 3 hits stands this coming Wednesday the 16th of May!

In other news......New York Jets fullback Darian Barnes has created a new superhero comic, alongside fellow writer Josh Goldfond, that is being featured on the official New York Jets website. The National Triumph League is the story of super powered teams, battling to capture villains in a competitive environment for points, and deals with the real life issues concerning the pressure and notoriety of being a professional athlete and life in the public eye. A fun new twist on standard superhero fare, the comic is being written by Barnes and Goldfond, edited by Barbara Randall Kesel, pencil/inks by Jim Muniz, colored by Jason Embury, and lettered by Jason Hanley. To read more on the article visit the New York Jets website through the following link. National Triumph League making waves!

down time

Jason Embury — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:35:00 GMT

working my way through a small lull right now, watching a lot of Smallville with my son, and generally not working much more than 7 or 8 hour days the last week (and the weekends off) That’s all going to change rather quickly, probably starting this weekend unfortunately. Pages are starting to roll in for 2 books due before the end of May, and I have even more pages from another side project to work on as well.

People are saying good things about Hero By Night #2 though, Blake Petit over at Comixtreme.com made it the Pick of the Week this week, here’s what he had to say,
“In a week full of solid comics, but nothing truly mind-blowing, selecting a favorite was actually quite a chore. After much soul-searching, deliberation, meditation, prayer and Cool Ranch-flavored Doritos, I’ve decided this week’s trophy goes to Hero By Night #2. D.J. Coffman and Jason Embury’s miniseries about a guy who finds the hidden cache of a long-lost hero is original, refreshing, and a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a new look at superheroes without the doom and gloom, but with plenty of excitement and adventure, check out Hero By Night.”
It’s really energizing to get good reviews and recognition for such a fun, all ages book. Both DJ’s kids and my own are absolutely bonkers over HBN, to the point of bugging every day to know what happens next, when does the next issue come out….it’s great to see that kind of excitement in kids under 10. That’s exactly how I used to feel about comics when I was little. There is more Hero By Night news to share soon, but I’m waiting to clear up a few details first I think before I share how MUCH more news there is precisely.

Off to get working on some pages from KISS 4K issue 2 right now, while I ponder how rainy days suck the energy right out of you.