Artists Assemble is a weekly event where members of the Facebook group can submit art based on a specific theme. The art must be your own and match the theme.
This week requires a little more effort than normal. The theme is festive cards- Christmas, Hanukkah etc . I thought it would be nice to do cards so everyone can print them off and give them to their friends.
Merry Christmas from Avengers Hulk and Wolverine By Joey Mackay
SantaPool by Richard Chin
Iron Man by Shane Syddall
Black Cat and Spider-Man by Zeena Benjamin
Doop and Wolverine by Jason Graziano
Storm Card by Ha Jim Mi
Oh, Thor by Michael Brower
Hellboy Card by Adam Bayes
Merry Christmas from Poison and Harley by Allison Julien
Groot and Rocket by Rodney Celerio
Link gives Zelda the D in a box by Brett Buffington
What happens if you mix over the top humor with heavy metal? You get the band Psychostick. In the last ten years, the Arizona band has released three full length albums, three EPs, and either shared the stage or toured with a lot of known names in metal. The band has a strong online presence with their popular Youtube channel with over ten million views. Recently, they launched a successful campaign on Indiegogo. Which the band will be making a new album and building their own recording studio. CBNAH staff writer Peter Drakopoulos caught up with lead singer Rob "Rawrb" Kersey to chat about the band, Indiegogo project, the Alfredo Afro web comic and more.
Peter Drakopoulos: First off, how’s the band been touring for the past few weeks?
Rob "Rawrb" Kersey: No, actually. We’ve been off the road for the past couple of moths because we’re focusing on the Indiegogo project and writing and recording. We still do a couple of dates here and there but not on tour.
PD: When I first heard the band’s music it has a lot of humour. Does this humour comes from what you guys experienced in your daily lives?
RK: Yes, it’s pretty much a lot of it is based on real life experiences. For example, Two Ton Paperweight is about Josh’s [Guitarist] crappy car.
PD: You guys have a successful Indiegogo campaign with the new album and studio. Why Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter?
RK: Indiegogo is a lot more flexible. In Kickstarter, if you don’t reach your goal for funding, you don’t get anything. Indiegogo avoids that all or nothing model, so, we wanted to have at least a little bit money in case, you know, if we didn’t make our goal. We kind of took the safe route.
PD: You have a web comic called Alfredo Afro. Can you tell us a bit about the comic?
RK: Sure. The web comic that I draw is basically just me having another creative outlet. It’s really just about random stuff that happened to me or other people on tour.
PD: Do you see this web comic published in print by a publisher?
RK: Honestly, I don’t know. It could happen eventually, I guess. The problem is a lot of the material is pretty vulgar. I don’t know who would wanted to publish those unless it’s one of those alternative publishers. But it really all depends on the situation.
PD: You have a popular Webcast on your Youtube channel. Can you tell is the origins of the Webcast?
RK: Webcasting is something we’ve been doing for the last five, six years. It started through a website like Stickam. But once Youtube introduce the ability to do livestream, so, we do it from them now. The whole idea behind it’s just to hangout with our fans and interact with them. We used to do this thing called Druken Webcast. Where people would be able buys us some shots through the website and we would say their name and then take a shot online and get pretty messed up. [Laughs.]
PD: The band has been around since 2000. Have you ever thought you would be this successful?
RK: I knew that at some point, early on in our career, when we first formed. With the recording of our very first album, and I remember listening to it and I just had a feeling that if the right person heard this at the right time, I think we go somewhere. But wonder it would be so cool if it happens. But… The record didn’t get played at first, and then it got played on XM Radio and then it blew us up like crazy. Sometimes I have to sit back and go wow we’re actually doing-- I haven’t had a real day job in like six, seven years now. And being in this band I’m really grateful for it. The fact we’re still here and people are still supporting us. We’re pretty gratefully for that and I had no idea that it would go this far.
PD: What can fans expect from the band in 2014?
RK: Well, completing the studio and obviously the new album. We’re going to get that done. There will be a lot of touring, we’re trying to go to Europe. Working on that but it’s always been a struggle for us. I think we’ll be able to do it for next year. I’ve said that a few times already for the past few years. We’ll see. Next year will be the new album, lots of touring, more videos and more content.
CBNAH staff writer Peter Drakopoulos recently conducted a phone interview with Adam Macleod, lead singer of Alberta metal band Until Dawn. To chat about touring, the metal scene in Alberta, new album and more.
Peter Drakopoulos: What’s it like to grow up in a small place like Fort McMurray?
Adam Macleod: Fort Mac is a small town with a big city mentality. It’s not really a huge place but pretty much when you grow up here, you sort of know everybody. With us, we all grew up together and knew each other from school. It’s not too crazy but it is a work city. It’s not really, you know, a very active city, mostly just ship work and everybody working at the plants. What’s why when we do hit the road, we try our best to get to the bigger hubs and other places where there’s more heat compared to what’s going on at Fort Mac.
PD: I’ve notice that there’s a lot of metal bands coming up from the [Canadian] Prairies and I’m just wondering why is it?
AM: Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, there was a lot of punk coming out of here. A lot of those bands that had their reign are sort done now. I think it’s just more right now it’s more accepted. People are looking for more of a variation to it rather than the old typical trash band. That’s what we’re planning when we go out on the road because we tend to play with rock bands, metal bands and death metal bands. All of these different variations -- All of the different fans are starting to rally around, not just one specify genre. A lot of people coming together and focusing on metal rather than just rock
PD: Can you tell us the genesis of the band and how it got started?
AM: It started a few years back with Steve [White, Guitarist] and Luke [Worrell, Drummer]-- The Worrell [Luke and Deke, Guitarist] had a Christmas party one year and we all just went out there. We were just chatting and pretty much, all of us were in different bands at the time, but everybody was frustrated due to various issues. We were all tried of it, we just sort of talked about and said, “You know what? We should start a band!” We were all in bands with guys that were lacking the passion that we do. It took awhile, about a year, Steve had a lot of music that he had worked on his own time and he brought it back to the table, that ended up being our first record. When your in a city like Fort McMurray there’s not as many options of musicians to choose from, but you find a good group of guys, you definitely try to stick with them.
PD: I really enjoyed your first album, the self-titled album that came out in 2011. Can you tell us the differences between recording the first album and the new album Horizon(2013) musically and lyrics wise?
AM: Well, like I said early, see how a lot of the material for the first record was already written and it was written in a long time frame, about a few years. Once Steve joined the band he brought it all and we started to work together. We did the exact opposite when it came for Horizon, we did it in a short time frame and we wrote it together as a unite rather than everyone just piecing their parts together. Lyrically, on the first album, when I first joined the band I didn’t really have a lot on the go and I wasn’t really finding a lot of inspiration. So, I just sort of lean towards my peers and I looked towards bands like The Misfits, Danzig and even The Black Dahlia Murder that write songs about horror films and other medium. I sort of used that as inspiration, and to be honest, I’m not going to lie to you. Our first record is all about Dexter. If you’re a Dexter fan, you would be able to pick it up like a sore thumb because songs like Slice Of Life and m99 is the drug that he uses to knock his victims out. The song The Struggle is all about just him and the whole scenario of him taping people to the table and wraps them in plastic. That was the main focus was I’m just going to write something based on Dexter. Horizon however, we sort of wanted to have as a collection and we’re all big fans of concept albums. We decided to come up with a story that reflected the band and where we from. Being a heavy metal act from Fort McMurray, it’s not the easiest place to be a band from. We tried to focus on writing a story that reflected on and where we are right now. The storyline is about a gentleman who’s stuck in a point of time where society still believes in that the world is flat and they sentence him, because he knows its not, to fall off the edge of the earth. That’s what we sort of feel like being a band from Fort Mac. We’re in this desolated area where no one thinks anyone can be in a band from. The reason why we choose the word Horizon is just because we’re out playing shows and we’re always on the road, it’s almost like we’re looking towards the edge of the road and looking towards the horizon. It just felt so soothing to put all that together as a concept record.
PD: You guys shared the stage with everyone from Korn to Kiss to Fozzy to 3 Inches of Blood. Have any of those bands give you guys any feedback or advice?
AM: Well, there’s a difference between each band. When we played with Kiss, Obviously we were trying to dig for a couple of a little inside tips or anything but you know those guys were busying. We still got a tip of the hat from them which is pretty much keep on trucking along and persistence is the key. Working with a band like 3 Inches of Blood which we played with them in the summer. Asking them about the road and trying to get some tips. Basically what it is just anything you can do for touring and to keep your sanity. Working out, trying to eat right and not partying everyday-- Not partying as hard as you normally would do. Just in general, tips about the road especially us being a younger band that hasn’t done too much touring. Trying to learn and playing to larger crowds. We’ve been blessed to play at some very big festivals. We don’t get those options very often to play in our city. It can be a bit nerve-racking but at the same time sharing something that you love with thousands of people rather than a hundred.
PD: The Horizon album is getting a lot of positive feedback. Did you feel that the next album or EP will be a big breakthrough or build a bigger fanbase?
AM: I believe so. We’ve gotten a lot of reviews and we sort of already knew prior to getting those reviews to what was going to be said and we took it for what it was. The fans are reacting to a lot of the songs we’ve been playing, it’s just like the first album. We’re going to stick to what we know and going to see what works. But at the same time we do want to be diverse and do want to grow. I mean, there’s songs on our record that can be consider as ballads. That we don’t want to be a band like Slipknot where fans sort of get mad at them for later on their career because they did something lighter. We want to be a band that has already done some light stuff and it’s not going to be very -- It’s not going to be a huge change if we do something light compared to something heavier.
PD: What does the future holds for the band in 2014 and beyond?
AM: 2014 we’re going to hit the road hard. We got a couple of tours planned with our management, we’re working on right now. We wanna hit the States and get into some markets that we haven’t been in. The first thing that we want to do is get out East. There’s a high demand for Ontario, Quebec and even in the Maritimes. That’s probably our main goal for ’14 is to do Eastern Canada and then go down South.
Master filmmaker Katsuhiro Otomo returns in an epic way with Steamboy (2004); this being his largest undertaking since Akira (1988). With an insane budget of $22 million, the ability to truly flesh out an intricately detailed world presents itself. Still one of the largest and most time consuming anime film projects, Steamboy boasts a 10-year production, along with over 14 artists, 440 cg cuts, and over 180,000 drawings. With a boost from Sunrise studios, the film's animation flows seamlessly. Once again, Otomo is a writer for the film. Relative newcomer is composer Steve Jablonsky (1970-); this being his first score for an animated feature / foreign film. Some of his later notable works include: The Island, Transformers, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Battleship, Gangster Squad, and Ender's Game. With such a grand sounding conglomeration, does this film own up to it? Perhaps. Beauty, after all is in the eye of the beholder.
Personally, I am a fan of this film. I enjoy the represented genres, subject matter, themes, animation, voice acting, soundtrack, color palette, detail, stylization, and many other aspects. The pacing of action vs story is well balanced; one doesn't feel bored by too much talking or not enough progression in the plot. The hero is idealistic an innocent, but still relatable. The film panders to fans of steampunk, a rather eclectic sub-culture today, but still prevalent in many branches of culture such as: mechanics, fashion, decor, engineering, music, and more. As an aspect of film I usually geek out over, I must point out that the level of realism and detail in this film greatly appeals to me. From the texture and weight alluded behind every brick of every building, to the contour of a vase of flowers on a table, the quality of line work is immaculate. In sync with the grandiose scale of the film, is the score. Steve Jablonsky's score is incredible; its loud, brassy, and adds to the thrill of the action sequences, while also emotive and uplifting in its thematic elements. Quite easily can I recommend listening to the score separately, as well as enjoyed during the film. Nostalgically, it reminds me quite a bit of The Rocketeer (1991), which is another fantastic film, and is scored by longtime screen composer James Horner. The scale and scope of this film is definitely worthy to be called epic. The voice casting is only as excellent as its script, which I found to be intriguing, intense, and a force to be reckoned with. I personally more so enjoy the English version, because the leading cast members consist of a few actors I admire such as Sir Patrick Stewart and Alfred Molina. The unique casting of Anna Paquin as the lead was a nice twist. Well acted, beautifully animated, and brilliantly scored, this film soars to great heights of achievement. No matter what, there is surely something for everyone to appreciate and enjoy from this masterpiece. Definitely not one to miss!
Where Giants Once Stood has been making some huge waves in the Canadian metal scene. From word of mouth and a solid live show, the band has been winning a lot of new fans in process. In July, the band released The Changing EP and the music video for the single The Heavens Tremble. Currently are in the middle of their Where’s Your Head At Tour, which the band is touring all around Ontario and Quebec. CBNAH staff writer Peter Drakopoulos caught up with lead vocals Reshaun Page, and lead guitarist and vocals, Jordan Turnbull, to chat about touring, the EP and more.
Peter Drakopoulos: This is the start of your Ontario and Quebec tour. How are things so far?
Reshaun Page: We only played two shows so far. In Oshawa, our hometown and Belleville. Driven pretty good and I’m excited for Montreal tonight.
Jordan Turnbull: Our Oshawa show was really good. It was a bit of emptiness off the top, we were a little worried and it just filled up. It was nice and yeah, we’re actually really stoked to be in Montreal. Our last tour we weren’t able to come through here. So, it’s really cool that we’re actually going to be playing in the metal capital of Canada.
PD: Well, I thought Toronto was the metal capital of Canada. If you look at all of the bands that came out of that province like Kittie.
Both: True.
JT: I’ve always just heard that there’s an awesome metal scene in Montreal. I only pass through here.
PD: There is a great metal scene here in Montreal. The best way I can describe your music is a cross between Death and Alice in Chains. Were you guys greatly influenced by both bands?
JT: Honestly, not really. Reshaun really likes Death a lot, but he’s not even a guitar player. [Laughs.] I listened to a bit of Death and Alice in Chains. But my main influences are a lot of the new wave of American Heavy Metal like Lamb [of God], Avenged [Sevenfold], Killswitch [Engage] and also I like Blues a lot. It’s Interesting with a couple of names you drop but for me personally, no.
RP: You know, Chuck [Schuldiner] had that high scream. I did listen to him a lot before I really focus on my technique. I really never thought about it.
PD: What’s the metal scene like in Toronto and how you guys are able to stand out?
JT: The whole GTA [Greater Toronto Area] seems to be pretty good and always has been a big music scene for all types of music. We’ve been treated very well overall in Toronto. Our fist show was with Chelsea Grin and Veil of Maya, that was awesome. We played a few shows here and there -- Sneaky Dee’s and stuff. There’s always crowds and always mosh pits so, yes, it’s been pretty good. I enjoy it.
RP: We’ve been told that our style of music will appeal more here in Montreal, which is interesting. The metal scene in Montreal is very traditional. We kinda of have that traditional metal influence too in our music. Other bands have their own sound in Toronto and it’s really good I love their sound, but we’re also trying to do something a little bit different too. People would say , “You guys gotta go to Montreal. They will love you there.”
PD: You guys released the Changing EP this year. I was wondering will you be releasing a full length album next or planning on releasing an EP every year to have your music out there constantly?
JT: The next idea is gonna be EP again. Our personal opinion as a band is that we don’t feel it’s necessary just yet for us to release a full length album. First of all it’s a lot of money and we don’t have a lot of money. If we can put out four songs we can tour and do the same kind of stuff as would of eleven songs. We’re going to stick with the EPs for the next little awhile. If things pick up or we get bigger or we ever get an agent or label then definitely of course we’ll talk about full lengths.
PD: Can we expect the new EP in 2014?
Both: Yes.
JT: I don’t think we should announce releases just yet, but it will be in 2014.
RP: We’re writing and we have scheduled for the next recording sessions. And we’re actually working with Jon Howard from Threat Signal. He’s going to be producing our recording. We’re all excited about it and it’s going to be fun. So, yes, definitely in 2014.
JT: We’re also all pretty big fans of Threat Signal. We think that Jon [Howard] is amazing vocalist. We’re really stoked for Reshaun because Jon is probably going to be able to help him [Reshaun] to get to the next level as a vocalist. We’re pretty excited for this next record for sure.
PD: After this tour of Ontario and Quebec are there plans to tour the rest of Canada?
RP: Hoping to go out West in the spring or in the summer. The offer was there to do it but touring the Prairies during the Winter time is a big risk. We’re definitely going out West in 2014 that’s our goal.
PD: What can people expect from you guys in 2014 and beyond?
JT: It’ll be probably pretty similar to what we did this past year. We’ll have new music videos, probably do another drum and guitar playthrough on our Youtube channel. Along with another lyric video and we’re just going to tour as hard as we can and if we’re lucky and if they have us, hopefully we can crossover to the States. As you mention, The West Coast would be awesome. We just want to stay out as long as we can. We all have jobs and stuff but that’s second -- besides the point we just want to be out on the road and try to get the band out there.
PD: For the recording process what happens first? Do you guys jam and work on the music while Reshaun is writing lyrics or you work on the lyrics first and then music or combination of both?
JT: Well, Reshaun is always writing lyrics. Myself and Scott [Major, Rhythm Guitarist] write the music and both him and I can record. We have a little recording program and basically we just demo. We write and work on it until it becomes a song. Then we bring the song to the band, Austin [Hamilton, Drummer] and Remy [Lebeau, Bassist] adds the drums and bass, and everything comes together from there. Reshaun is generally the final step. He comes in at the end and puts his lyrics on top of the song.
RP: Yeah, I keep writing lyrics all the time and I bring my ideas to Jordan and Scott and they work with me on the phrasing and producing. It’s a collaborative idea with like how the vocals go on top of songs and Jordan usually sings most of the choruses. So, he writes his parts, for the most parts If I have an idea I write what I’m thinking and then Jordan will write his part for the chorus and his melody.
JT: Usually, Reshaun will come up with a theme of the song, the music will be written but there won’t be a theme to what it’s about. So, he’ll give us a theme and he leaves the choruses and bridges blank. For Scott and I, whoever happens to sing that part can write our lyrics based off Reshaun’s theme. That’s how it works.
PD: Last question, where do you guys see yourselves one year from now?
JT: Hopefully if we’re lucky, touring Europe. We want to try and get out there whether label or not. If we can it’ll be awesome and the same for America. Hopefully we can tour outside of Canada by year end, I think that’s probably everyone’s goal.
RP: We want to go to where the metal markets are a lot bigger. We’ve been playing around here for a long time, even when we were younger. The metal market in Canada, I would say is not as big compared to Europe and the States. Hopefully will be touring there and the band can take the next step. This is our second tour of this year since we launched as a band. We just got to keep on pushing, keep on going and hopefully it’ll payoff.
Another short and sweet Psylocke Appreciation segment. In the last segment, we left off with Betsy taking on the role of Captain Britain and ending up getting her eyes gouged out by Slaymaster and her going to Switzerland to recuperate.
Continuing on our journey in New Mutants Annual #2 (1986):
In New Mutants Annual #2, Betsy was kidnapped from the Alps by Mojo, brainwashed and given cybernetic eyes. This is the issue where she is referred to as "Psylocke" for the first time. She became the star of Mojo's new show "Wildways".
After Brian Braddock and the New Mutants rescued her, Betsy took up residence at their mutant-training academy, run by Magneto at the time in absence of Professor Charles Xavier.
Stay tuned for the next segment where Psylocke meets Sabertooth!
