New venture coincides with the commemoration of Glass House Graphics 15th anniversary "To our clients, we sell the experience of working with the best-trained, most creative comics professionals in the world, explains GHG's David Campiti. "No other agency on the planet puts the hours, months, sometimes years of training that we put into our people, most notably outside the U.S., but with American talents as well. Now we're able that's exactly what we want to carry on doing in Europe." Trevor Landolt has been working with Comics since 2004 and, during this period has developed the reputation as one of the upcoming International Editors -- accomplishing licensing deals and creating innovative and successful marketing campaigns, both in and out of comics. Trevor also services as a translator for GHG Europe, and is fluent in 4 languages. To reach Glass House Graphics in Europe, please contact: More information regarding Glass House Graphics., its members, services, properties and other projects can be found at www.glasshousegraphics.com.
Expanding on its growing presence in the international comic book, illustration, and animation scene, Glass House Graphics opens its first office in Europe this month located in Bristol, England, which is managed by Trevor Landolt, best known as editor-in-chief of Praxis Comics,
Under the guidance of GHG's founder and C.E.O, David Campiti, Trevor Landolt plans to bring the diverse culture of comics and media services that Glass House Graphics has long offered. This will be important to European artists, who will now have an enhanced pipeline to top comics publishers, characters, and titles. It will also be important to European companies who wish to take advantage of the wide range of services GHG offers.
GHG Europe also ensures an active presence at the largest Conventions, Shows, and Exhibitions of related/relevant media, broadening their range of visibility and creative opportunities through the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and beyond.
Landolt says, "I've already begun scouting and coaching European talent for Glass House Graphics. I feel privileged to be able to represent GHG in Europe and, given their track record with artists in other parts of the world, this truly is of huge significance for artists in this continent. This new milestone marks Glass House Graphics as the leading comics agency in the world."
GHG Founder and CEO, David Campiti 
(photos : Manila-International Comics Creation Seminar 2006 and 2007 )
Landolt was in communications with GHG's Brazilian Director Vitor Ishimura regarding the translations of various project; following a very good working relationship, Ishimura had the foresight to approach Landolt regarding a new position within Glass House Graphics.
Ishimura states, "I have no doubt that this will be a another success expansion for GHG. This a satisfying way to celebrate GHG's 15th anniversary, and we would like to welcome Trevor Landolt to our Company."
Glass House Graphics Europe,
Trevor Landolt,
17 Bramble Drive,
Dursley -Bristol
GL11 5PX, England.
Email : trevor@glasshousegraphics.com
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Glass House Graphics Europe Launches with U.K. Office
Comic Art of Bong Dazo
I just updated Bong Dazo's portfolio and website and I like to share to everyone his comic art, He's now known for taking comic pencils on Doom, Prey, Killer 7 (2006), Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic and the new Star Wars: Force Unleashed for 2008. He's known also for some Filipino komiks titles such as KAPITAN AKSYON, PI JOEY, WARRIORS OF THE NIGHT, TAKIPSILIM. In my previous blog post here you can see a cover of PI JOEY.
you can check out more artworks after the jump below.
I'll be posting more cool artworks of artist in the coming days.
more artworks here in his Glass House Graphics portfolio
http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/creators/pencilers/bongdazo/index.htm
and official website
www.angelotydazo.com
and check this great mash up pin up below
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
GLASS HOUSE GRAPHICS’ 15TH ANNIVERSARY: A Look Behind The Company That's "Behind The Scenes"
by David Lawrence
Homeless, a young man in tattered clothes and ratty hair steps through the trash and muck of a garbage dump. He "lives" there. Finding an old tire and a discarded sheet of transparent plastic, he fashions a makeshift drawing table and practices inking a comicbook page with whatever tools and supplies he can scrounge.
A married illustrator in a small foreign city works long hours as a newspaper paste-up artist to house and feed his wife -- weeks away from giving birth to their daughter -- on less than five dollars a day.
An unemployed commercial artist survives a tragic public bus crash where others lost their lives, only to be turned away from his hard-won job interview after arriving disheveled and bloody.
A student, poor and uncommonly thin, struggles to learn to draw comicbook pages before a congenital heart defect ends his dream and his life. His family cannot afford to have the necessary surgery performed.
Sad stories with more in common than undiscovered talent and a love for the comicbook medium, they share a happy ending called Glass House Graphics -- a company well known by editors and publishers but something of a secret to comicbook fans.
Happy Endings Are Only The Beginning
* The homeless inker became Jeffrey Huet, star Marvel embellisher on The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, New Avengers Annual, and other titles. He has bought a home for himself and his family.
* The undiscovered paste-up artist was Mike Deodato, Jr., the Marvel superstar on Spider-Man, The Avengers, Hulk, Thunderbolts, and more.
* The rejected crash survivor was Will Conrad, soon a prized inker who later became a top Dark Horse penciller on Conan, Serenity, and the upcoming Kull.
* The artist needing open-heart surgery was Wilson Tortosa, now healthy and noted for his work on Battle of the Planets, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and the upcoming Wolverine: The Manga.
All were discovered and trained by, with careers carefully molded and developed by, Glass House Graphics. But they're just the tips of the comicbook iceberg.
Celebrating its 15th Anniversary this month, Glass House Graphics is a professional service firm and agency that is home to those and 118 other artists, writers, designers, painters, and colorists hailing from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Australia, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
Founded in 1993, Glass House Graphics’ genesis came when its C.E.O. David Campiti was founder and publisher of Innovative Corp. (Innovation Publishing) in 1988. Under his leadership that little company became by 1991 the fourth largest comicbook publisher in the United States -- its success built upon adaptations and tie-ins of books, TV shows, and films, helping the company to carve out a unique niche in the marketplace. Among its most successful were adaptations of such Anne Rice novels as Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned. Securing the rights to adapt Rice was a coup that put Innovation on the map.
The company also published comics based on Piers Anthony's On a Pale Horse; the TV series Dark Shadows, Quantum Leap, Beauty and the Beast and Lost in Space, its biggest seller; and the seminal science-fiction movie classic Forbidden Planet, all of which Campiti personally negotiated, edited, and often wrote or co-wrote.
Those were heady days for the entire industry, with an unprecedented number of publishers producing a quantity of material unmatched since the halcyon years of the Golden Age. The extreme demand for quality artists inspired
Campiti to search far from traditional sources to fill the pages of Innovation’s expanding line of titles.
He turned first to Brazil, where a thriving market for American comics existed alongside a seamy homegrown industry that paid starvation wages to artists. His attention initially drawn there by bootleg reproduction of Innovation titles, Campiti was impressed to discover an unexpected and untapped goldmine of talent.
Among his first discoveries from Brazil in late 1990 was the now-legendary Mike Deodato, Jr., whose earliest American work was published in the pages of Innovation’s full-color painted adaptation of the cult favorite TV series Beauty and the Beast. Others, such as Joe Bennett, Luke Ross, and Joe Pimentel, followed as Campiti built connections to a rising roster of international talent.
The Birth of Glass House
By 1993 things had turned for the worse at Innovation. In spite of the company’s solid success, or perhaps because of it, squabbling investors were making their presence felt throughout the company’s operations. Before long they pushed it to the brink of ruin.
In March of that year, Campiti decided he had seen enough and resigned -- immediately launching Glass House Graphics and soon representing many of the artists he had been publishing. Glass House Graphics took only two days to secure its first assignment, a pencilling job for Joe Bennett on the Green Hornet. Innovation, sadly, was dead within a year of his leaving it in the hands of those who'd wanted control.
For Glass House, timing of the launch was perfect. Marvel Comics was publishing nearly 200 comics a month; DC Comics about 100; Image and Dark Horse were becoming forces to be reckoned with in the industry. And they all needed artists.
Soon Glass House was providing writing, art, inks, lettering, and/or coloring for up to two dozen titles a month. Mike Deodato led the charge. His eye-popping work on Wonder Woman was just the beginning. He soon caught the eye of Marvel and made his mark on virtually every character in their universe. The Mighty Thor, The Avengers, Elektra, Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk were just a handful of the heroes' titles to get the Deodato touch.
Meanwhile, other Glass House stars were turning heads as well -- Luke Ross on New Gods and Spectacular Spider-Man; Al Rio on GEN 13 and DV8; Ed Benes on GEN 13 and Supergirl; Joe Bennett on a half-dozen different projects in a variety of styles; Cliff Richards on a five-year run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and many others.
For aspiring artists and writers, Glass House Graphics was the place to be.
The House Keeps Growing
Keeping pace with the ever-growing demand for artists was a challenge. One answer was found halfway across the world in the Asian island nation of the Philippines, where Glass House first opened an office in 2000.
A flock of great Filipino artists had made their mark on American comics in the '70s, led by such artists as Nestor Redondo, Alex Nino, Alfredo Alcala, and Rudy Nebres. Though their work had mostly disappeared from the American scene, surely talent still flourished there. An old friend helped Campiti make connections. Steve Schanes, founder of Pacific Comics and one of the fathers of the comic book direct sales market, put him in touch with the Marvel Comics licensing representative for the Philippines, who helped Campiti contact artists.
There Campiti discovered a sprawling artistic scene bubbling with good young talent. He also found a situation much like that in Brazil, only worse: artists capable of producing professional quality working only earning pennies a page. It was a situation he set out to fix.
Today many of those artists are making their mark. Such artists as Carlo (Hulk, Iron Man) Pagulayan, Harvey (Ultimate X-Men) Tolibao, Wilson (Wolverine: The Manga) Tortosa, and Bong (Star Wars) Dazo are already on high-profile titles at Marvel and Dark Horse, while another surge of Filipino artists -- including Stephen (Countdown to Mystery, Vampirella) Segovia, Jonathan (Battlestar Galactica) Lau, Jinky (Banzai Girls, Avalon High) Coronado, and Lui (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) Antonio -- are not far behind.
But for many of those artists, a peculiar hurdle remained before they could find success drawing American comics: artists used to churning out piles of pages each day merely to survive had a hard time slowing down to focus and create the higher-quality work required to earn top American page rates. Gradually the message got through and, today, more than 40 artists work through the GHG Asia office.
Roughly half of the business GHG now does each year is not traditional comicbook related. One arm of the company, BigJack Studios in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, concentrates primarily on advertising and graphic design. Another, Studio Sakka in the Philippines, produces storyboards, animation, sculpting, and thousands of pages of manga each year.
Other parts of the company do book illustrations, photo retouching, specialty printing, custom comics, 3-D animation for medical clients, web design and maintenance; talent representation; and even private commissions.
What's more, GHG's tight roster of writers script not only comicbooks, but also short stories, children's books, feature articles, screenplays and teleplays, technical writing, advertising, web copy, publicity, and award-winning novels.
The Door is Always Open
Today Glass House represents 122 authors, artists, inkers, letterers, colorists, and designers. Not all are comic book artists. There are painters, digital artists, animators, web designers and sculptors, novelists, and freelance editors, as well. They are considered a professional service firm with far-reach clients both in the U.S. and abroad -- including Sony Pictures, POW! Entertainment, Hasbro, Harcourt Achieve, Reader's Digest Books, Harper-Collins, Lego Toys, and Random House.
One of the keys to the growth and success of Glass House has been an open door policy for aspiring talent. For many a talented creator, the biggest hurdle they face is simply getting somebody to look at their work.
At Glass House Graphics, it’s exactly the opposite. Every single sample and submission is carefully reviewed by Campiti and, no matter how busy he is, he always makes time to give suggestions.
The Glass House website makes submitting samples simple, too. An entire section on assembling a portfolio is filled with plenty of useful advice. Test plots and scripts feature a variety of well-known characters that hopeful artists can draw as samples and, by "leveling the playing field" with professional stories that hopeful artists can draw from, Glass House teaches by showcasing a variety of successful interpretations of those plots. Those plots are designed truly to put the artists through their paces. In six pages they include everything an artist needs to show, to work in comics. If the artist isn’t ready, the plots will expose weaknesses, showing the artist what s/he needs to improve. Links are provided to submit the pages to Campiti, and he’s found work for many artists beginning with just those samples.
Yet the question remains -- why did GHG evolve from merely a comics agency to a full-scale professional service firm? As David Campiti explains it, "Let's put it this way: IBM used to offer business computers and, later, home computers. Now they offer systems management services -- the 'soft' services, the thinking stuff -- and, by the way, they sell these computers and business systems as part of the package. We're the same way. Yes, people can come to us for comicbook scripts or art or lettering or coloring or whatever, but that's only a small part of what we can offer. Need a property from concept through printing? Done. Want to start a publishing company for comics or for books -- or both? We can handle their entire start-up, with everything from setting up their office facilities and equipment to staffing and training.
“Is somebody looking to create a new format, an unusual type of book with embossed, die-cut, fold-out, magnetic, 3-D pop-ups, and can't figure it out? That's what we're here for, to help solve the technical problems and even supply the printer.
"A medical company wanted to expand its newsletter into a 3-D DVD that showed medicine injected and flowing through a bloodstream and what it did in the human body. We scripted and animated the video, produced the DVD, handled the manufacturing and the packaging design, even did the publicity and the direct mailing. In business, it's often a strategy of 're-invent or die.' By constantly evolving, we stay ahead of the curve and anticipate services that clients will need. Yet I've done it in a way that, instead of abandoning comics, we're doing more comics work then ever."
Hands Across the Water
Yet for all that, the greatest accomplishment of Glass House is not found in the pages drawn or the jobs completed, but in the lives touched and affected. It sometimes results in intense, fierce loyalty -- Mike Deodato, Cliff Richards, and Joe Pimentel are among the artists who have been with GHG since it began fully 15 years ago. And counting.
As mentioned earlier, Wilson Tortosa, from the Philippines, is a good example of what Glass House has been able to do. He appeared about eight years ago, young, with a good heart and a desire to draw – but, ironically, it was his physical heart which gave his life its biggest hurdle. He didn't know how to draw comics, but he knew how to draw. He had an excellent portfolio, rendered on the back of scratch paper, jammed with wonderful images: a woman running through the driving rain, trying to protect her little daughter with a newspaper; a teenage boy and a teen girl flirting in a tree; a gang of kids hanging out at the mall, all with animated body language, gestures, and expressions.
For months Tortosa worked with Campiti and his team, devoted to mastering the fine points of sequential storytelling until he was ready for professional work. It was only then he revealed he had a congenital heart condition requiring surgery he could not afford; with the low wages paid in the Philippines, it was a virtual impossibility he would ever have the money. Yet less than a year after his professional career began, he was able to get the surgery and is now happier and stronger than ever. Indeed, drawing comics literally saved his life. He has even been able to buy a house for his family and a brand-new condo for himself.
Glass House has been able to expand its offices to help artists in other ways. Managed by Michelle Calanog and Rhene Principe`, with the animation division supervised by Grace Dimaranan, the new GHG building in Manila includes not only multiple floors of workspace for Glass House Asia and Studio Sakka, but an entire floor devoted to artists' personal lives -- beds and showers where they can stay, complete with kitchen and terrace. Given that many artists live far out in the provinces, some choose to stay for days at a time rather than travel back and forth. Some stay for a week or two at a time or even choose to live there, a true adaptation of Glass House to the culture of the country.
"Sometimes I feel like a hotel manager, other times like a den mother, and still other times like a strict schoolteacher with a long stick," reveals Michelle Calanog, who speaks Illongo, Tagalog, and English and has managed the Manila office for the past four years. "Each artist needs a different bit of guidance and inspiration."
With three locations throughout the largest country in South America, each GHG Brazil office brings something unique to the cultural mix.
* The primary Glass House Graphics Brazil office in Sao Paulo, managed by Vitor Ishimura, is located within a glass tower -- a perfect location, given the company name -- for upscale client meetings, television interviews, and talent reviews. "I also teach a weekly class in comicbook storytelling here in Sao Paulo," Vitor explains. "New talent comes of age every day, so the teaching is ongoing. It has to be. Editors are too busy editing to become teachers for every new wave of talent. That's what we're here for -- so the storytelling and the art will be right before it ever reaches the editor."
* The BigJack office in Belo Horizonte, managed by Cristiano Seixas and Joao Camillo Torres, is a workhorse studio in a restored, historic landmark building. It handles 3-D animation, television commercials, shopping mall photomurals, and advertising work, as well as custom comics. As part of GHG's commitment to teaching talent, Cristiano Seixas also owns an art school, which has generated some talents that have joined BigJack, as well. "As we delve further and further into television services, I felt it necessary to learn and grow as well," reveals Cristiano Seixas. "I split by time between managing the business in Brazil and attending film school in California to learn the most progressive techniques and equipment."
* The satellite GHG Brazil office, run by Will Conrad from his art studio, caters to a specific handful of artists in the northern regions of Brazil, particularly those in need of translation services. "Drawing is my passion," he explains, "but I saw how difficult it was for me to get work before Glass House came along to help. I'm passing it forward."
On a different scale, the Glass House Graphics home office in Wheeling, WV, has had a positive economic impact on a town still reeling from the loss of its traditional large manufacturing employers, and more than one employee has been saved from a life on the street, its training programs offering fresh starts to former glass painters, sign painters, and calligraphers long without work.
What's more, GHG's star-studded Creating Comics Seminars are taught annually throughout the U.S., the Philippines, and Brazil, coordinated by each office.
GHG In The Future
Next month's GHG comicbook, graphic novel, and manga book schedule includes 51 projects for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Dynamite, Dabel Brothers, TokyoPop, FOOM Studios, RealBuzz Studios, Arcana, Harris, and other publishers, plus a sizable load of advertising, animation, sculpting, design, web, and custom work, as well as specialty printing and consulting services.
With the first fifteen years under its belt, Glass House Graphics looks forth to an even brighter future. Having opened its doors last year to a partnership arrangement in India that has brought new art and coloring talent into its fold, guiding force David Campiti has set his sights on expanding further into Europe, with plans to open an office there later this year.
Glass House can be seen at www.glasshousegraphics.com, with Studio Sakka at www.studiosakka.com.
-- end --
GLASS HOUSE GRAPHICS
109 North 18th Street
Wheeling, WV 26003
(304) 277-5557/phone
(304) 277-5558/fax
www.glasshousegraphics.com
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Inquirer.net video interview with David Campiti
Inquirer.net video interview with David Campiti -How artists can make it big in comic book industry
Description: MANDALUYONG CITY, Philippines--Glass House Graphics CEO David Campiti talks about how budding artists can make it big in the comic book creation business. Glass House Graphics is credited for discovering world-renowned comic book talents such as Carlo Pagulayan, Bong Dazo, and Stephen Segovia, among others. Video taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania at SM Megamall on Oct. 27, 2007.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH
Friday, March 9, 2007
THUNDERBOLTS #110
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Mike Deodato
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 10th 2007
Sometimes you open a book, or a comic or start to watch a TV show and know that this is a moment: that something special is happening and that you are going to be a part of it. I remember that feeling from reading the first issue of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, and without taking this too far I think Ellis and Deodato’s opening issue of Thunderbolts is in the same league.
The premise of the series is that mid-Civil War, the Thunderbolts have been re-formed with some fairly hefty villains in their ranks (and in command of them). The second-rate bad guys like Radioactive Man and Swordsman have been supplemented by A-list villains like Venom, Bullseye and well, that would be telling. The main action is told through a variety of dramatic ‘lenses’, both direct and indirect using, for example, faux media coverage of the Thunderbolts to provide context and commentary on the views of the US Establishment (in the story). The use of a TV advert for Thunderbolts toys with Captain America as the masked villain is a particularly good piece of role reversal that works because advertising really can be so totally unsubtle.
Ellis and Deodato have worked together before on The Mighty Thor but it is fair to say that both of them have honed their craft considerably since those early days. Ellis uses a combination of plot advancing, yet natural sounding, dialogue and insightful character moments to set up what looks like one hell of a story. Deodato supports this with some excellent artwork, mixing close ups and long shots in a very effective cinematic style. The opening sequence (featuring a conversation with Bullseye) uses a tight framing of Bullseye’s face very effectively. Deodato’s art is perfect for the book marrying as it does the classic, clean lines of an Alan Davis or a Brian Bolland with the use of light and shadow of early Frank Miller. In terms of framing, there is a hint of 90’s style Jim Lee in the mix, particularly in the Jack Flag sequence where he dons his mask and looks for all the world like Wild.C.A.T.S. Grifter. But rather than making the book look dated, Deodato succeeds in imbuing it with a timeless sense of quality (The review copy is in black and white which perhaps adds to this classic look, one can only hope that the colouring does not detract from it).
In DV8 Ellis wrote about the dark underbelly of teenage superhero teams, but in that book they were as much the victims as their opponents. Here the bad guys (so far) seem pretty straightforwardly villainous, although it is fair to say that the rank and file have not had much ‘air time’. Instead the story concentrates on the team’s leadership, which though sanctioned by the government, appears to be unremittingly evil in its intent. If the book were simply about bad guys, it would be difficult to find a character to root for; so several pages are devoted to introducing Jack Flag (an old Captain America sidekick), presumably as the Thunderbolts’ first victim. His story gives a human aspect to the book that would otherwise be lacking.
In terms of pacing, the issue concentrates on establishing the situation and the characters and there is no action per se. None the less there is plenty of drama and no feeling of frustration as a reader that makes you want to shout ‘get on with it’ at the pages.
Given his previous comments about the super-hero genre it is in some ways surprising that Warren Ellis has chosen to pick up an ongoing comic book in the main Marvel universe. On that basis he obviously has something he wants to say. I’m listening and I suggest you do too. So, with fantastic art, great writing and an interesting premise I feel pretty certain this book is set to make headlines. Is it the next Watchmen? Perhaps not, but I expect this to be a classic run and, as Moore did with Swamp Thing, my guess is that it will promote what many people would have regarded as a second rate book into the big league.
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Thunderbolts #111 Review
