For What It’s Worth

I Am IronMan

Sooo…since I’ve been a little under the weather for a while, the only good thing to come from all this time I was forced to my couch for was…some time to do some daydreaming and sketches.
I always have sweated Iron Man pretty hard. And I always thought his armor never made too much sense. I mean…it was like…bendable steal….
Anyway…I figured I’d take a stab at doing an armor design. My take on him would be like…really light bendable steel as the base layer, with plates on top of it. Which….kinda…makes sense, right? I was going for a “built for speed” kind of look.
And I wanted to get rid of his “mouth”….as I just never thought he would need it. I mean…they would theoretically have some sort of speaker for him to speak out of to mask his voice anyway….

So whatever….here is my take on Iron Man.
This is what happens when I’m under house arrest for so long.
Thanks for bearing with me as I explained my boredom. And just in case you were wondering, I have nothing to do with Marvel Comics or Iron Man. I was simply passing the time with this sketch.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

“You Have Our Gratitude”

Sooooo the one thing I always wondered was WHY didn’t Han ever get ANY love from people? I mean….you see all sorts of Bruce Lee stuff everywhere you go. Even I am guilty of that. And that’s fine, as Bruce is very deserving of everything out there. But come on….Han(for those of you who might not know…Han was the baddest bad guy ever…from the movie Enter the Dragon) needs to get some respect too.
He was quite possibly the coolest bad dude ever.
AND….it is to him, that my brothers and I owe the name “Epic Proportions” too. I’m just going to go ahead and write the entire quote from which we got our name from. For those of you who have seen the movie, think back to when Bruce and all the other fighters were first welcomed to the island when they had the big ceremony. And Han came out with all those girls throwing apples in the air…and Han would throw darts into the apples.
“Gentlemen, welcome. You honor our island. I look forward to a tournament of truly EPIC PROPORTIONS. We are unique, gentlemen, in that we create ourselves. Through long years of rigorous training, sacrifice, denial, pain, we forge our bodies in the fire of our will. But tonight, let us celebrate. Gentlemen, you have our gratitude.”

I drew Han with a felt tip pen, scanned him in and messed around with the “levels” in photoshop. Ran a couple minor “blur” filters on him to soften him up. Then made a bitmap tiff out of it.
Then used a painted smudge from before that I had already bitmapped. And laid it out in Illustrator.

Unfortunately, actor Shih Kien who played Han, had passed away in June of 2009. So rest in peace brother. We’ll always be thinking of you.

I loved him as an actor and as the baddest mofo around.
Shih Kien, you have our gratitude.
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

The Dragon VS The Butterfly

Just thought I’d post my latest idea here. Feel like there is something missing from this, before I go ahead and make it. But could just change my mind and use this image either way.
My older brother recommended me drawing the two of them actually fighting as that is what people would really want to see. But when I did draw Ali punching at a kicking Bruce, the figures just got too small in my opinion. And it got harder to see who they were.
I think at the end of the day, people would rather be able to tell who the “Dragon” is and who the “Butterfly” is, rather than a action pose.
But I could be wrong.
I’ll have to think about it.

But I basically laid this design out in Adobe Illustrator. Then drew it by hand. Scanned it in and then printed it out again. Then with the print out, I used some weird chemical on it to transfer the image back onto another piece of paper to give it a weird inky effect to it. My coworker Alison Beal actually taught me that great trick. Then I scanned that “inky” version back in and messed around with it a bit in Photoshop to finally get this.

And as to why I chose to do this? Well…..I mean…as a Bruce Lee fan…I’m always daydreaming about him putting a whipping on everybody. And I mean…who is the ONE guy that would go toe to toe with him? I mean…if either of these guys got the first hit, they’d win. If Ali tags Bruce with a jab…its over. But if Bruce gets the first kick in…game over as well. So its really a fight to see who gets the first shot in…and if that’s the case….I like my boy Bruce’s chances as much as anyone else’s. Which is why I gave him top billing on this shirt!

Anyway….you might be seeing this as a shirt available on my site soon.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

CNET the 404 Podcast & Racebending.com

So this friday, January 29th I’ll be on CNet the 404 podcast speaking along with Cliff Chiang about technology and its effect on the comic industry.

This is a pretty legit podcast. To my knowledge, it is the numero uno listened to podcast. I mean…I believe Tony Hawk was their last guest!
So HOW did I manage to get onto it? No, I did not bribe anybody. No, I did not win a drinking game which caused this. Although I kinda wish that is how I got on.
But a buddy of mine, Jordan Viray(graphic designer) happens to know Justin Yu. Justin is one of the guys that runs the podcast. But Jordan had mentioned to Justin Secret Identities and some of the other stuff I had been working on.
And lucky for me, Justin is a comics fan.
So with a few emails this was a pretty easy thing to make happen. I kinda felt silly doing the interview by myself, so I asked comic rockstar Cliff Chiang to do it as well. As….people will probably care what he has to say waaaayyyyyy more than what I got.

Anyway, I’ll be donating these two copies of Secret Identities for giveaways for Cnet. As well as a tee shirt or two.
Here are my sketches for the two Cnet copies. Hopefully I can sucker Cliff into doing some sketches in them too.

And while I’m at it, I figured I’d talk a little about Racebending.com.
Mike Le of racebending had approached the editors of Secret Identities about donating a book as a giveaway on their site.
I had the opportunity to meet Mike briefly at the San Diego Comic Con last year. And I really love what they’re doing over there. So when he asked, I couldn’t say no.
So I decided to do another sketch in a book, and I’ll also be donating a couple of t shirts as well.
Here is the sketch for racebending.

So log onto Cnet later this week and win some free stuff from me! And help me out at the same time too…cuz I’m terrified of being the reason they loser listeners.

And keep up to date at racebending.com. And see what those guys are up to.

thanks
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

ZOMBIE BOMB COMIC ANTHOLOGY!

So a little while back, my good friend Adam Miller had told me of an idea he had to put together a zombie comic anthology graphic novel.
Now…..I LOVE zombies.
So when Adam asked me to contribute a piece to it….I mean….I jumped all over it. Adam happens to be a pretty damn good comic artist himself. And his enthusiasm for this book shows in all of the other stories/artists he has gathered. It really does look pretty amazing so far.

This is actually the first time I’ve ever drawn a zombie. So I hope I didn’t butcher it all that much.

Just to give a little info on how I did this piece. I actually did the actual drawing and painted textures on separate pieces of paper. Scanned them each in and then finished it in Adobe Illustrator.

You can read more about the anthology here on the facebook fan page.

And the book will be published through our good friends over at Terminal Press.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com

ImaginAsian

First of all, Happy New Year everybody. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. And it really is my honor that the first post I write is for this cause.
Kate Agathon approached me to do some pieces for this ImaginAsian exhibit months ago.
This is basically to bring some awareness to Asian American studies at Purdue University. Kate has been spearheading….and basically doing this all by herself.
So when she asked me to do two pieces for it, how could I refuse? The only problem I had with it was…why would people bid on my art…or even care that it was there……

So I asked my friend…and supporter Phil Yu to go in dutch with me. Phil is the crazy genius behind AngryAsianMan.com.
I thought it would be a good idea to do two drawings that best represented him and his site. Which…was painfully obvious to me to be Bruce Lee and Quick Kick. And this Quick Kick drawing was what made me want to do a AngryAsianMan t shirt.
And honestly, Phil has said that he doesn’t understand why he was signing these pieces. But if you know him and his work….you know what an inspiration he is to all of us. And why it meant so much to me that he be a part of this.
So read what Kate has to say. And help contribute anyway that you can. Every little bit helps.
Below these sketches is in Kate’s own words, her description of the show.
Thanks.
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

Basically, I am asking anyone who is interested in creating art in
celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2010! Here is an
opportunity for people to create art celebrating the history and
contributions of Asian Pacific Americans, donate to a good cause, and
have their artwork publicly displayed at the Tippecanoe Arts
Federation in West Lafayette, IN this spring.

The exhibition is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the
Asian American community as articulated through a variety of art
including photography, visual, and literary. For $5 donation, people
can submit a piece of art (8.5 x 11″) to the exhibit that will be
displayed along with all the other contributions.The art will be
placed into hanging frames, so it must be flat. During the time the
exhibit is displayed, people will be able to bid on pieces in a silent
auction. All proceeds go towards the IU and Purdue libraries to
purchase Asian American materials.

For celebrity contributors who donated two pieces of art, the $5 fee
is waived. One piece is used for the auction and the other is part of
a permanent collection, that is intended to travel. Much like the
“commUNITY” photo exhibition I produced, it is intended to travel to
promote Asian American awareness.

I am overseeing every aspect of this endeavor myself- there is no
team. From soliciting art donations, to keeping track of donations-
all me. When I embarked on this last summer, I had hoped to get more
help promoting the event from IU and even here at Purdue, but it did
not happen. That is why your help and support is invaluable! To me,
the cause and promoting awarness is the most important thing. Even if
a small amount of money is raised, a remarkable collection of art
capturing a slice of contemporary Asian America will be available.
Having a strong Asian American Studies program at Purdue is long
overdue. We need to engage the students and community through projects
like this. The Asian American Network of Indiana will purchase the
frames using what remains of their funding. The art will be curated by
myself and the executive director of the Tippecanoe Arts Federation,
Tetia Lee.

ImaginAsian will run April 2- May 9, 2010. It will coincide with “New
Communities: A Symposium on Exploring, Challenging, and
Negotiating Contemporary Asian American Identity” that I am chairing
on campus on April 13, 2010. It will feature a mix of academics and
stakeholders in the Asian American community including: Frances
Kai-Hwa Wang, Jinah Kim (Northwestern), Karen Su (UIC), Melanie
Castillo-Cullather (IU), David Chich (UIUC), Jason Lee (Turtlist
Media), Bich Minh Nguyen (Purdue), Debra Kang Dean (IU), Kelly
Zen-YieTsai, Ryan Suda, Phil Yu, Kent Ono (UIUC) and Vincent Pham
(UIUC).

Please consider participating in this endeavor and join writer Maxine
Hong Kingston, Congressman Mike Honda, director Michael Kang, writer
Lac Su, and other stakeholders in the Asian American community. If you
have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at
kate.agathon@gmail.com. An informational flier is attached.

Kate

The Year in Review.

So I know that 2009 is still going strong. And that most people haven’t even made new years planes yet. But lucky me, I’ll be leaving for Taipei and Tokyo in a couple of days and won’t be back until the new year. So wanted to go over everything that has happened one last time as this was a really big year for me.

First of all, this year was the first year for me to sell my stuff online. Which, was a BIG deal. I mean…there was a LOT of work involved in making that happen. And I want to thank my cousin Eric again for really holding my hand throughout the process.

But back in February, I got a chance to attend my very first ECAASU over at Rutgers. There I got to meet some great people including Phil Yu, Fiona Chin and David Chu just to name a few. Also, it gave the editors of Secret Identities(Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and myself) a chance to introduce ourselves to the world in a weird way.

And then later on in the month of February also marked the beginning of something new for me. At the New York Comic Con, I had the honor of presenting the first shirt within my line that I’ve dubbed The Signature Series. Which will feature work from what I perceive as the Elite talent in the arts. And the legendary Walter Simonson kick started things at my booth that weekend. Not only did he sign autographs and take pictures with everyone, but he was even giving away free sketches to all the patient people that waited to meet him.

Then of course in April, our book Secret Identities actually came out!

Which of course then lead to our book signing tour around the country.
It started I believe back in May in New York, at the Time & Life Building. There I was on a panel with Pornsake Pichetshote, Cliff Chiang, Christine Norrie, Ken Chen, Jef Castro, Sarah Sapang, Alex Tarampi, Jeff Yang and Keith Chow.

And then from there we had travelled to LA for a whirlwind tour through a LOT of bookstores. And finally to finish it off at Giant Robot and the Japanese American National Museum.
During this weekend, I had the chance to meet most of the talent involved with Secret Identities for the first time. Koji Steven Sakai, Michael Kang, Keiko Agena, Bernard Chang, Leonardo Nam, Lynn Chenn, Benton Jew, Danny Lee, Jonathon Tsuei, Jason Sperber, A.L. Baroza, and of course all the people at Giant Robot.




Ok, I’m skipping out on a few stops we had along the way…not because they weren’t important, but just because this entry is already getting pretty long.
So I’m jumping to July…where we had the privilege of opening up the New Museum of Chinese Art in Chinatown NYC, with the first ever Asian American Comic Con!
Here, I got a chance to hang out with Larry Hama, Cliff Chiang, Jason Lee, Tak Toyoshima, Jeremy Arambulo, Derek Kirk Kim…I mean…there were a LOT of people there. Even Parry made it down to NYC for this one.

Oh boy…I just forgot something pretty cool from the month of June. Which was, I got the chance to design the official t shirt for the New York Asian Fim Festival. This is a picture of Director Ryoo-Seung Wan wearing the shirt I designed in his studio in Korea. The design was based off of his movie, Dachimawa Lee.

Ok, sorry. Back to July, where I spent some time in San Diego for the Comic Con there. I’ve been attending this con for like…7 years now as an exhibitor. Every year has gotten bigger and better for me. This year was no different since I was able to host Secret Identities at the booth. So we had Parry Shen, Jeff Yang, Keith Chow, Kelly Hu, Keiko Agena, Ming Doyle, Gene Yang, Sonny Liew, Bernard Chang, Cliff Chiang and even Clarence Coo at the booth!
But of course, I was there with the usual team of Ken Knudtsen, William Morales, Gordon Chu, Marcy Lee, Sandra Kang, Rosali Concepcion and we missed Diana this year.

These were probably all the “main” events of the year for me. I mean, there were tons of stops at colleges and bookstores, but again….this entry really is getting long.
All of this…really makes me look forward to the next year and everything it involves. The next couple of years are already basically scheduled out for me. But probably the coolest thing that I’m personally looking forward to, is taking this “Signature Series” to the next level. The next shirt that will be debuting will be from legendary artist Geof Darrow. You might know his work from books like Hard Boiled, Shaolin Cowboy, and movies like The Matrix and Speed Racer. Also Walter Simonson has agreed to do another shirt as well. And this one is going to be a doozy. Then Larry Hama and Bernie Wrightson have all agreed to jump on as well.
Which all makes me feel like this!

whew….so thanks for listening to me ramble and think about everything that’s gone down this past year.
When you hear from me next, I’ll hopefully have some bombass stories to tell from Taipei and Tokyo!
Happy Holidays everybody.
-jerry
www.epicprops.com

www.epicprops.com

www.epicprops.com

A few questions with Leonardo Nam.

• Jerry: The first question I have to ask, is how you got involved with Secret Identities and why it was important for you to do it? As…I know it wasn’t for the money. haha

• Leo: I heard about Secret Identities through Parry Shen. He and I were at an audition together, and we were just catching up. He mentioned that he was working on this amazing project and I loved the point of view the project had. I asked to be a part of it, and it just kinda took off from there. I think it’s important to support new ideas and emerging projects, because, strength is in numbers and I believe that there was a need for a project such as this. I
mean, how amazing is it to be in a comic book plus be a superhero! I think the creators of the projects are the super heroes here. I know how hard it is to put together a project, and one as big as this, is a real testament to their passion.

• Jerry: What will it take for Asians to break through in Hollywood?

• Leo: I think it all starts with the integrity of the writer. It all begins in the writing. If Stephen King writes a book and has an asian central character that becomes a huge hit, then they are going to have to translate that book into a movie with the intention of having a central asian character. The writer must insist on the movie staying true to the book. We need to understand that asians aren’t being underrepresented just because they are out to get “us”. It’s not something they plan behind closed doors. It’s a business and they market and produce the products that the consumer wants. We must put our money where out mouth is. We must support and pay the dollars to go see asian content film. We have to create and demand more asian content.

• Jerry: How did you get into film?

• Leo: I’ve always been interested in story telling. As a kid I would always be the one telling stories. That love translated to another love, which is film and the craft of it. It’s the combination of the two that makes me think I have the best job in the world. I always wanted to story tell and acting is a format which I am able to do that. I moved to NYC with a dream to act and now I’m doing it!

• Jerry: As far as Asians in Hollywood, does art imitate life or vice versa?
Question being:
Are Asians not portrayed as heroes in Hollywood because we aren’t heroes
in real life or what?

• Leo: I think we are all of the above. We are both heroes and non heroes. We just have to come up with stories and content that reflect that in a commercially viable way. The actor is just a reflection of the writing. If it’s in the writing, then it will most likely end up on the screen.

• Jerry: How political is Hollywood? These days, their blockbusters are car commercials and army recruitment campaigns put together. And Asians seem to be more and more on the villainous side. How do politics and public perception via Hollywood tie together?

• Leo: I don’t think that it’s a very political world in Hollywood. It’s very much just consumer driven. Now that we have a black president, I think you will see that Hollywood will respond accordingly because public perception is changing.

• Jerry: How does being Asian effect your work? Do people only assume you do Asian stories? Do you feel a responsibility to represent Asian people in a certain way?

• Leo: I don’t know how being Asian effects my work. I’ve never been anything else! I don’t think people assume I only do asian films, my work has been, and I hope will continue to be, a broad spectrum of work. The only responsibility I feel is to represent the characters in the projects I’m in
in the most authentic way possible. If that reflects a certain stereotype, well then I can’t help that. I can only be true to the story and character.

• Jerry: I have to ask this….how real is the lifestyle those guys on Entourage are acting out? And if it IS true, please explain…..slowly.

• Leo: Elements of the show are true because everyone in the business knows someone with some aspects of all the characters. I think we have all found ourselves in some of there situations at one time or another.

• Jerry: And finally, are you able to tell us a little bit about what you’re working on now? And the best way we can find out about any of your future works?

• Leo: I just finished a film called “Watching TV with the Red Chinese”, which we hope to get distribution on next year, plus I’ve developed a couple of shows that we are in the process of shopping around.
I have a website www.leonardonam.com which has info on what I’m doing, or you can follow me on twitter under LeoOnTheGo or find me on Facebook!
Leonardo Nam.

-jerry
www.epicprops.com