REDBUD STUDIO
presents
BROTHER BONES – The
Beginning
Redbud Studio’s Managing Editor and Publisher, Rob Davis is
thrilled to announce his studio will soon begin production on the first ever
Brother Bones graphic novel by New Pulp writer Ron Fortier.
One of the most popular fictional figures in New Pulp, the
character debut years ago from Airship 27 Productions in a collection of seven
stories by Fortier, “Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger.” It was then followed
up with a full length novel by Roman Leary, “Brother Bones – Six Days of the
Dragon.” Fortier then completed two additional collections. “Brother Bones –
Tapestry of Blood” and “Brother Bones – City of Lost Souls.” In that time
several short Brother Bones strips were offered. “Needle Justice,” was a short 8 pg tale with
art by Joe Arnold and has appeared in various black and white comic
anthologies. “Bullets of Jude” was a 24
pg single from Redbud with art by John Polacek.
Whereas the actual origin of the character was only related
in the first book collection. Something Fortier had hoped to change and so he
wrote a 130 pg graphic novel that does just that. The challenge was finding the
right artist to bring that story to visual life. “In the end, I decided to put
the word out on Facebook,” Fortier reports. “My hope was if I cast a wide
enough net, someone out there would either respond or connect me with an
artist.” A few days later, Florida based artist Cesar Feliciano, suggested to
Fortier that he contact New York artist Jim O’Riley. After exchanging a few
e-mails, O’Riley agreed to take on the project.
O’Riley will pencil and ink the Fortier’s script while
Redbud Studio head, Rob Davis will letter and edit. Once done, the studio will
print the book via Amazon.
Jim O’Riley is a freelance indie comic and sketch card
artist. He has done sketch cards for Topps and Upper Deck working on such
properties as Star Wars Master Works, The Last Jedi, Solo, The Walking Dead,
Stranger Things, Marvel premiere, Thor Ragnarock, DeadPool, Xmen Ultra Fleer
just to name a few. He has also illustrated indie comics for Pilot
Studios, Crazy Monkey Ink, Limitless Comics, and Industry veteran inker Mark
Mckennas virtual inks inc., on various projects such as covers and interior
work. “I fell from the womb with pencil in hand and have been drawing on and
off ever since,” he says. In the 90s O’Riley laid down the pencil to
start a family and in 2016 started back with art. He has participated in
comic cons from NYCC to All Star and C2E2. Hands down Baltimore is his
favorite and he is am looking forward to returning this year.
In regards to this project, “I am honored to be given the
opportunity to work on Brother Bones along side Ron and Rob. I have been
looking for a script to sink my teeth into and I have to say the universe
thankfully fated this one to me. A special thanks to Cesar for
introducing Ron and I. It will be a challenge for sure and in the end I
hope readers enjoy it and I do the story honors.”
Fortier’s own reactions were no less enthusiastic. “After seeing
Jim’s early sketched of the characters from the story, I was simply bowled
over. Not only is he a gifted artist, his style is perfectly suited for this
kind of dark, creepy tale of mobsters and ghouls. Working with him is going to
be a real treat.”
Fortier is a comics and pulps writer/editor best known for
his work on the Green Hornet comic series and Terminator – Burning Earth with
Alex Ross. He won the Pulp Factory Award
for Best Pulp Short Story of 2011 for “Vengeance Is Mine,” which appeared in Moonstone’s
The Avenger – Justice Inc. and in 2012 for “The Ghoul,” from the anthology
Monster Aces. He was awarded Pulp Grand Master in 2017 by the Pulp Factory. He
is the Managing Editor of Airship 27 Productions, a New Pulp Fiction publisher
and writes the continuing adventures of both his own character, Brother Bones –
the Undead Avenger and the classic pulp hero, Captain Hazzard – Champion of
Justice.
Rob Davis began his professional art career doing
illustrations for role-playing games in the late 1980’s. He began
lettering and inking, then penciling comics for a number of small black and
white comics publishers- most notably for Eternity Comics, which eventually
became Malibu Comics in the 1990’s, on their book Scimidar with writer R.A.
Jones. He eventually worked at both DC and Marvel on likeness intensive comics
like TV adaptations of “Quantum Leap” and Star Trek’s’s many incarnations
mostly on the Deep Space Nine for Malibu. After industry implosion in the late
1990’s Rob picked up work on video games, advertising illustration and T-shirt
design as well as some small press comics like Roby of Sherwood for Caliber.
Rob continues to do the odd self-published comic book as well as publisher and
designer for his small-press production Redbud Studio. Rob is Art Director,
Designer and Illustrator for Airship 27 Productions. Rob is the recipient of
the Pulp Factory Award “Best Interior Illustrations” in 2010 for his work on
“Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective”and has been nominated for the same
award every year since. He works and lives in central Missouri with his wife and two children.
REDBUD STUDIO COMICS –
RETURNING FUN TO COMICS.
