Bloodstream Comic

America's First Serial Killers

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Hello. There is a lot of stuff I could write about here, given that it has been three years since I posted. (Three years! That's sad.) Much has happened. Bloodstream is still alive. I have more I want to tell about Amber and Dr. Evers. I have published a trade paperback of the first four issues that I am selling at cons and through the website here. Please email me if you would like a copy.

My latest book is called Harpe: America's First Serial Killers. It is about, well, just that: the first american serial murderers, the Harpe brothers, who terrorized Tennessee and Kentucky from 1798 to 1804. It was written by Nashville script and comic book writer Chad Kinkle and painted by me in black and white washes. It will be in the September Diamond Preview catalog and on shelves in November. Look for it. (Cover art posted here.)

I am currently working on a graphic novel of King David. It should look great when it's done. Each page takes a long time to complete. Painted like the BloodStream pages. More on that later.

I will be at the San Diego Comic-Con this year but not at a booth. Chad and I will be walking around talking up Harpe to retailers and others. Why do I return each year for more disappointment you ask? I don't know. I guess I like the town. And I have relatives on Coronado that I enjoy visiting. At least I don't have to worry about a booth. See you there.

For more current Adam Shaw art go to http://dunkmunkee.deviantart.com/

Long time no blog

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 21:18:00 +0000

A lot has happened since I added something to this blog. I will try to stick to just the comic related stuff: Penny and I and Sophie went to the San Diego con this year with the Jetta crew. Visited with Steve Rude and his family. It was a lot of fun.

And I met Flash Gordon! AHH! Dream come true! Dale Arden is Hot!

Also attended Metropolis Superman Celebration in Illinois back in June with my friends. It was great. They really treat their guest artists well in Metropolis. Gave us all cool certificates. Sweet daddy!

This month has been especially busy. We put together a convention here in Memphis called Con-Sequential. Like a regular convention but with crash courses in creating your own comics. The classes were well attended but the dealer room didn't get as much traffic as we needed. We're learning. Next year will be a lot better. The coolest part was my friend Dave Beaty arranged to have Mike Manley and Bret Blevins as guest artists at the show. It was amazing meeting them and seeing their work. I have admired their work on Batman, Doll and Creature, New Mutants, and a lot more. And they are the nicest guys on earth. Couldn't have been cooler.

Finished some illustration work for a new role playing game written by Sean Preston called RunePunk. It will be out in December. It was great worrking on it. Check it out at this link http://www.realityblurs.com/

Went to a Horror and Comic con in Nashville this weekend. Meet David Naughton from American Werewolf in London got a picture with Penny(below). Also the guy who played Michael Meyers in the first Halloween movie Tony Moran. Scary.

In addition I just took a bunch of originals from Bloodstream down to Booneville, Miss (yes, there is a Booneville) for a show at the NorthEast Mississippi Community College. So if you live around there go check it out.

Comic-Con San Diego 2005/Convention Exclusive

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 20:54:00 +0000

Adam and Penny will be at the San Diego Comic Convention from Wednesday, July 13th until Sunday, July 17th at the Knife-N-Eye Booth, Number 132. Adam and his friends, Kevin Harthun, see ligosheffer at DeviantArt.com, who is working on the zombie infused horror novel, "Elmwood", and Antone Wade, www.toshigawa.com, of "Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa: Defiance", have put together a fantastic 88-page Convention exclusive sketchbook. We will have new tee-shirts, all four issues of "Bloodstream" and the "Dead in Memphis" series. Visitors at the booth will include Dave Beatty and Lin Workman, who have recently launched the online comic "BushiTales". www.bushitales.com

Bloodstream Honored With Darrell Award for Science Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 02:14:00 +0000

Saturday night, April 2, 2005, Adam Shaw and Penny Register and "Bloodstream" were the winners of the Mid-South Science Fiction and Fantasy Association's 2005 Darrell Award. The Darrell Awards were created for the purpose of promoting literacy in the Mid-South by recognizing the Best Published SF, Fantasy and Horror during the year. We received the award at the Banquet for the MidSouthCon. I guess we can now say we are "award-winning authors". Very cool!

Some History

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 17:09:00 +0000

I intended on including this at the end of Issue #4 but couldn't find a place for it. So I've decided to publish it here. Sort of a 'thanks' to everyone who had a hand in making this book happen.

The comic you hold in your hands is twelve years in the making. Not to produce, but this character has been in my head, believe it or not, for twleve freakin' years! For those who care I will try to give a brief overview. In 1992, I was home from college visiting my friends Kevin Harthun and Christian Bates and we, being comic fans and all around creative types, thought: wouldn’t it be unique and interesting to do a comic book about a hero who could control their blood. Give themselves adrenaline rushes, increase their stamina, etc. And wouldn’t it also be cool to make the character a strong female protagonist (back then it was unique, now there seem to be a lot of them). We gave her the name Amber O’Neill and called the idea Bloodstream but the brainstorming sort of stopped there. Other than a few sketches and an airbrushed t-shirt, I didn’t devote a whole lot of time to the concept.

Now jump ahead to 1995, I’ve graduated from art school with my degree in painting and a friend gives me a bunch of graphic novels she doesn’t want anymore. I have been reading comics since I was 8 years of age, (mostly marvel titles, Spider-man, FF and the Hulk) but being busy with art school I was not up on current books. In the stack were The Watchmen, Swamp Thing and a little number called Dark Knight Returns. Damn! I was blown away. These books changed my life. I was seriously enthralled. All through school I’d tried to incorporate comics into my painting. But now that I was out of school I knew I wanted to make an actual comic book. So I dug up Bloodstream and tried to come up with a story. I knew I wanted to base it in real science so I did some research in DNA and cloning and stumbled upon something perfect for the story--blood substitutes. I wrote a few scenes and ran it past my girlfriend at the time, Samantha Fields. I even ran her in an RPG to try and add some realism to the character’s decisions. That summer I did some pencil pages on bristol paper in the industry standard style and went to Comic-Con in San Diego. Generally the feedback was positive but not overly enthusiastic. One negative review was from a certain industry giant (who will go unnamed) who ripped me a new one (I’ve come to understand over the years that he goes to the conventions just to do that to aspiring artists).

Nevertheless, I decided to approach comics in a style that I knew. Painting. A lot of my favorite comic book illustrators were painting books, Kent Williams, Dave Mckean, Bill Sienkiewicz. So I began taking some shots of friends as characters for reference and did a few painted pages in ink wash. In the meanwhile, I was doing various jobs and illustration work to stay afloat. I kept up with comics and tried many times to get jobs in the professional arena. To keep the momentum up, I would collaborate with friends on independent anthologies (Bloodnut, Dead in Memphis). The Bloodstream story, however, was not coming along as I’d hoped. Unhappy with my own writing, I kept giving it to friends to see if they could give it the spark I needed to get the imagery in my head flowing and motivate me to start. I got help from a guy named Cliff McKellar and another friend Pete Lacy. But ultimately I knew the only way I was going to be happy with this character was to sit down and write it myself.

In 1999, I meet my true love Penelope Register at an art show here in Memphis. We started dating and I find out that among other talents she has a gift for writing. Had even been picked up by Paramount to script an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation (which they never used). She gathered all of my notes and began condensing everything together to form Amber’s history. She wrote the first few chapters, added flashbacks and a new character: a sister. I knew I always wanted to include flashbacks but Penny really gave them a dreamy verisimilar quality, drawing from her own memories with her little sister. I was so excited at these new developments that I snatched the story back from her (sorry, baby) and tried to finish it myself. Well it sort of went back and forth between us until we finally had a completed version of the origin story. At the 2001 San Diego Con we gained the interest of an up and coming publisher called Etherian and were all set to produce the book when 911 kicked that square in the ass. The offices of Etherian Comics were in New York and they had to shut down everything. In the next few years, I did a few more pages in acrylic wash and sharpened the story further. I then showed it to some people at the 2003 Wonder Con in San Francisco including a publisher at DC who asked me to send it to him in the mail. I did that and sent a submission to Image at the same time. I heard back from Jim Valentino via email in a weeks time. And,..well, there you go.

-Adam Shaw
October 2005

Issue #4 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 19:46:00 +0000

Click on link above to check out this review of issue #4 by BloodStream fan Alex Miller.
And please check back soon for our Store where you can buy t-shirts and 'Dead in Memphis' comics.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 03:51:00 +0000

It's been a while since I wrote, but Adam and I have been busy this fall-finishing Bloodstream #4; writing the next 4 issues; several art shows. As the year winds down, I wanted to express my gratitude to those who have given Amber a chance to show what a clever girl she really is. And for those of you who have asked and asked, Issue #4 will be at your stores soon. Hope to see you at a Convention in the new year.

#3 in Stores August 25th

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 20:07:00 +0000

Sorry, folks I thought it was going to be August 11. And that's what we've been telling people including everyone we met at the con but apparently that was the date the printer was sending the book to Diamond. But it is definately the best issue so far, it will be worth the wait. Rock.

San Diego Comic-Con

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 18:01:00 +0000

Comic-con rocked. We met some great people and sold lots of comics and T-shirts. Which will be available on our site soon. Kids love stickers.
Check out our picture at the link below.

http://comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=4006

San Diego Comic Convention

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 04:21:00 +0000

Next week, Adam and I will be leaving for the Convention in San Diego. We will be at our own Bloodstream booth #5104 from Preview Night on Wednesday until the close on Sunday. On Thursday, we are signing in the Image booth (no time yet). We will have copies of "Bloodstream #1 and #2", four issues of the anthology previously composed by Adam and his friends-"Dead in Memphis" #1 through #4, tee-shirts, and some freebies. I hope you will stop by and say hello.

Bloodstream #3 In Stores August 11

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 03:01:00 +0000

Well, after weeks of thinking that "Bloodstream #3" would be on the "Coming Next Week" list on the Image site, we got the definative answer-AUGUST 11 (my little sister's birthday). Of course the late date is mainly my fault for getting sick in the spring and taking Adam's time away from painting to take care of me. I was glad to get the date but sorry that it comes after San Diego Comic Con. I do think it is worth the wait. The art work is the best yet-Adam is experimenting with a different palette-and the story is starting to take-off/gel. I have lived with Amber for almost four years, so I think I know what she will do or say in any situation and, frankly, I was surprised by how cool she is in Issue 3. I'll write more about the Con plans early next week. Have a happy (and safe) 4th. Penny

More About Great Escape

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 21:04:00 +0000

Great Escape is located at 1925 Broadway (across from Vandy Law School) in Nashville. Call (615) 327-0646 if you get lost. We will also have copies of "Dead In Memphis volumes 1 to 4".

Good Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 16:41:00 +0000

Dear Fans, About to be Fans and Others-Getting ready for Bloodstream #3 to come out and have booked a Release Party at GREAT ESCAPE (fabulous comicbook store)in NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE on "Free Comic Book Day" July 3. Adam and I will be there almost all day, but come before 2 p.m. to be eligible for the first ever Bloodstream tee-shirt give away. See you there. Penny

Blood Stream Comic #3

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Shaw) — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 17:02:00 +0000

Issue #3 will be released next month, July, 2004. Sorry for the delay. I am currently busy with issue #4. We will be at Comic-Con San Diego this year. Check back here for updates. Thanks!