Day 602

Day 602 October 19^th  

Creator Spotlight: Justin Shauf

Hard at work!  There is something about this picture that I love!

Another new feature here is the creator spotlight.  It seems only fitting that the first creator spotlight I do is on my friend and an artist that is easily on my short list of favourite artists in comics today – Justin Shauf!

Justin is a Saskatchewan artist based out of Langenburg.  He and his wife, Lisa, raise 4 children, ages 9, 8, 5 and 22 months.  He works at a grain elevator during the day while Lisa works casual as a care aid while also running a small photography business.  Justin has mastered the ability of making the most out of his days as he works during the day, spends time with his family and then works on art after that too!  He is a great guy to talk to and has a strong passion for comic books.  Having had the chance to talk to him many times and we share a lot of similar tastes.  One of the biggest things I admire is the fact that he prefers to work on all-ages appropriate books, as a father he wants to be able to share as much of his work with his family as he can.  As a father myself I appreciate this greatly as it can be tough to find comics that are all ages but not ‘little kid’ focused comics for kids that are older than that!

I find his style quite refreshing.  It is a bit more ‘cartoony’ and has an angular texture to it.  I see a lot of similarities in his work and other favourite artists such as fellow Canadian Chris Bachalo and Mexicos Humberto Ramos.  I also seem glimpses of my all time favourite artist, Tony Harris, in his work.

His website is www.justinshauf.com. It is currently being revamped to include an online store and should be up and running by December.

Now it is one thing to read a comic and find an artist that you really enjoy and meet them down the road at a convention, but my finding of Justins work and our subsequent friendship has a bit different of a timeline so here is a rundown of that!

Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2012

This was my first comic con ever and was a bit of a celebration of my completing my Bachelor of Education degree and my birthday which was soon after that weekend.  I really didn’t know what to expect from the event, and knew that there would be a lot to see and do.  One of the things I knew I wanted to do was get some artwork in artist alley.  I had a pretty strict budget for that weekend but really wanted to get as many sketch of Starman in my book as possible.  I came across an idea online for seeing how many artists were willing to do reduced price sketches at shows and decided I would pitch $2 sketches and see what I could get.  A few people I know scoffed at the idea and I braced myself to get laughed out of artist alley.  I had 2 artists that completely dismissed me at the request, but came home with 30 two dollar sketches in my book!  As you may have guessed Justin was one of those artists that contributed to that first outing.  I passed by his booth several times over the course of the 3 days and pitched him the idea which he hesitantly accepted, once he wasn’t working on other pieces.  On the Sunday he added a piece to the collection and, unbeknownst to either of us, a connection was made!

Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo 2013

The following year a couple of forward thinking Saskatoon fans ventured out and put together the first Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo (S.E.E.), in a similar style to the bigger Calgary type show.  Since this is practically a local venue for me there was no doubt that I would be there.  The guest list for artist alley had several names that I wanted to add to my sketchbook, which I had now upped from $2 to $5 as I felt it was a better pitch.  On my first pass into artist alley out of the vendor area I see Justin sitting there, and recognized the name immediately from Calgary.  In the time since Calgary I had added some more sketches to the book and gone over it many times just checking out all the different styles of my favourite character.  Justin’s had struck a chord with me so I went to his table first, told him the story about Calgary, showed him the sketch and got him to do another one!  In Calgary I had no idea he was from Saskatchewan so I had no idea I would run into him again.  This time I looked at more of his work at his table and chatted a bit more.

Fan Expo Regina 2014

Following the success of S.E.E. in Saskatoon the company responsible for the Calgary and Edmonton Expos partnered with the organizers of Saskatoon to bring their brand of shows there and the Fan Expo family brought one of their shows into the province, more specifically Regina and in the spring.  Timing worked out very well for me and I made it to the show on the Saturday of it.  Pitching my sketchbook in artist alley I once again came across Justin.  While one of his neighbours was sketching in my book, I visited a bit more with Justin.  I told him that since he had been so awesome about sketching in my book twice already that this time I would buy something from his table instead.  He also helped convince his neighbor who was on the fence about doing the sketch.  I ended up buying The Purple Bean and I LOVE it!  First off, it is written by his daughter Abigail which is very cool since my oldest daughter is named Abigail.  As a father who loves to spend time and give my attention to my kids this book really hit a homerun with me.  The story is very cool and this was my first taste of Justins art in a sequential format and I loved how it flowed!  I talked to him about the possibility of him being interested in making appearances in classrooms or other venues, and was happy to hear he would be interested!  He and Abby both signed and sketched my book and I had plans brewing in my head.  Shortly after this I even used The Purple Bean in a grade 1 health class I was teaching and had the students draw their own pictures from it.

Both Abby and Justin signed my copy!

City of Humboldt’s Kids Summer Fun Camp – Kids Camp Comic Con 2014

My summer job with the City of Humboldt’s Kids Summer Fun Camp allows me to try some really fun things and one of them was bringing a very small scale form of a comic con.  This was the second year I did this type of an event and I wanted to increase the number of artists doing free sketches for the people that came and I knew that I really hoped Justin would be one of the artists to come.  Not only did he come and draw his hand off for the afternoon for many happy kids but he also gifted me not one but two fully inked Starman pieces for my ever growing Starman art collection!  These pieces are some of my  favourite pieces in my collection!

Saskatoon Comic and Entertainment Expo 2014

This show was brought on by the partnership of the Calgary Expo and the local guys in Saskatoon who ran S.E.E. the previous year.  This was a bigger show with a lot more to see and do but I still made time to visit with Justin at his table.  Yet again he helped pitch my sketchbook to the artist that was at the next table and while that was happening I looked through his new work on display.  While this was going on he excitedly told me and showed me some work he was doing for an upcoming independent book of Canadian superheroes which by this point was an area of increasing interest to me.  This of course would be Canadian Corps.

City of Humboldt’s Kids Summer Fun Camp 2015

Yet again Justin gracefully came out to the Kids Summer Fun Camps Kids Camp Comic Con and did some fantastic sketches with a neat twist by doing them on coloured paper instead of plain white.  By this point the Kickstarter for Canadian Corps had been very successful and Justin was excitedly wrapping the last of his artwork on the first issue.  We talked briefly about the buzz around the book and about its potential launch in the fall at S.C.E.E. 2015.  I commissioned Justin to do a Canadian heroes jam piece on a blank cover of the Captain Canuck Summer Special at this time.

Justin hard at work doing a sketch for a new fan on coloured paper - such a fun idea!

A sketched out shot of the Canadian heroes jam cover commission!

Saskatoon Comic and Entertainment Expo 2015

I was over the moon excited for the Sask Expo this year as there was literally a ton of stuff that appealed to me.  I added 6 Starman sketches to my book which was fantastic, but more importantly I got to hang out with some amazing people.  Part of this was meeting 3 of the 4 people responsible for Canadian Corps.  Obviously I had already knew Justin but I got to finally meet Donovan and Andrew.  The team was awesome to visit with at the show and the finished product of the first issue looked fantastic.  I have never really been huge on wanting the original art pages from a comic book before but seeing the finished pages for Canadian Corps up close and having read the issue and loving it I jumped at the chance to buy the double page spread of the team assembled.  I am fairly certain these won’t be the only pages I own from Canadian Corps!  This weekend also gave me the opportunity to socialize with Justin, amongst others, after the first day wrapped up and he is a really great and humble guy to hang out with.  On the Sunday the crew was a part of a Canadian creators panel at the expo and I got to watch the commissioned cover piece get some awesome work done on it.

The Canadian creators panel with (Lto R) - Donovan Yaciuk, Andrew Lorenz, Kurtis Weibe, Ed Brisson and Justin Shauf

Now…

This brings us to now, and I am quite happy to count one of my favourite artists as a personal friend!  Not only that but we have a project together on the go…nothing major on my part other than organizing it but I went after it with the idea of Justin being the artist I wanted to see do it.  More to come of that next year!  Barring me winning the lottery and getting out to C4 in Winnipeg in a couple weeks it’ll likely be summer before Justin and my paths cross again but in todays global community we talk frequently as he is working on issue 2 of Canadian Corps, our project and of course that commission cover!

Posted by Justin just this weekend - hard at work on Canadian Corps issue 2!