Bay Area Backstage on Location .
This Episode we Chat With Comic Artist Ty Templeton and Star Wars Toys Creator Jim Swearingen.
Templeton first received attention for Stig’s Inferno (Vortex Comics), now a cult favourite, which detailed the journey of its lead character into Hell in a parody of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Templeton recalled that after reading the three books of The Divine Comedy, “I fell in love with them as stories. It took a bit to get past the language translations, but for a year or so, I was reading different versions, off and on, as my reading on subways and buses, getting to and from school.” Templeton first transferred this inspiration into comic book form with the intent of making it a strip in his campus newspaper, but ended up shelving the project until Vortex publisher William P. Marks suggested that he make it into a series. According to Marks, of the five series that Vortex was publishing at the time, Stig’s Inferno was the most consistently produced on schedule.
He has gone on to do titles for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Bongo Comics, and Moonstone Books, including Batman Adventures, The Simpsons and many others. He also created his own graphic novel, Bigg Time, published by DC Comics’ mature readers imprint, Vertigo. He was recently editor of an independent Canadian comic company, Mr. Comics. Recent work includes writing and drawing stories for DC’s Batman 66, based on the 1960s television series. He teaches classes in comic book writing and drawing, known as “Ty Templeton’s Comic Book Boot Camp”.
This will be Ty Templeton’s debut appearance at San Francisco Comic Con!
Jim Swearingen was the principal conceptual designer for Kenner’s line of “Star Wars” toys. The Cincinnati-based company was coming off a year in which it had sold millions of toys based upon the 1977 smash hit. Trying to meet the clamor for more intergalactic merchandise, Kenner sent Swearingen to Skywalker Studio for a sneak peek at the character Boba Fett, which was to be released as an action figure prior to the fierce bounty hunter’s appearance in the 1980 sequel “The Empire Strikes Back.” Besides “Star Wars,” Swearingen also contributed to many other wildly popular product lines while with Kenner, including PlayDoh, Spirograph, Baby Alive, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake.
7 окт 2024
