Celebrity Photographer Allan Amato Kickstarts A Comic Called PUNCH

Photographer Allan Amato, who has captured stunning portraits of celebrities and personalities that include Stan Lee, Danny Trejo, Kevin Smith and Alicia Witt, is now ready to share his venture into writing with a comic book entitled PUNCH.

Red Dot Diva got to know about Allan Amato a number of years ago because she is a huge David Mack fan. David Mack, award-winning artist and creator of the best selling graphic novel KABUKI has worked with his friend Allan for a few projects like The Alchemy of Collaboration, where he would enhance Allan's photos with his brushwork, effectively turning the prints into unique mixed media collage.

Allan Amato shared that the writing of PUNCH took 4 years in the making, with patient mentorship from comic book writer, Grant Morrison. He is now ready to bring the project to life together with artist Jonathan Marks Barravechia, who has hand drawn the panels in the comic.

PUNCH is a supernatural tale about the life altering path taken by a Catholic priest called The Drifter after he had committed an unforgivable sin. He stumbles into a seedy bar where God (aka The Derelict) and the Devil (aka The Deceiver) battle for this soul. God  brings on his infernal Virtues and the Hounds of Heaven, while the Devil calls on the Seven Deadly Sins to the brawl.

In addition to the core creative time hard at work on the graphic novel, other fantastic well-known artists are also contributing to the project, like cover art or splash pages. These artists include Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack, Jason Shawn Alexander, Jim Mahfood, Satine Phoenix, Satine Phoenix, Jaw Cooper and Stephanie Inagaki.

What is interesting is how Allan Amato has also visualised and cast actors for the characters in his graphic novel. For instance, Thomas Jane is the Drifter, and Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon of Starz's “AMERICAN GODS” as The Deceiver.

With the help of Kickstarter, the project has already been fully funded for 48 pages. However, stretch goals are still running. If these are reached, the book will have extra goodies and expand beyond the current number of pages for those who pledge for the Hardcover or Limited Edition versions.

Check out for more info about PUNCH at http://inconvenientguide.com, and pledge for one of the Kickstarter levels in order to get a copy!

Join the "Femme Magnifique" Graphic Novel Anthology Kickstarter Campaign!

Never before has the volume of female voices come through so strongly in various forms of geek and pop culture than in recent times, where the rights of women are being questioned and debated upon. These discussions range from the Gamergate incident, the hacking and leaking of celebrities' nude photos, and the rise of "Cosplay Is Not Consent", to the success of the movie "Hidden Figures" which was based on the lives of three black female "computers" who worked at NASA.

Most of these voices from women have been delivered with courage in times of adversity and polarity, while some voices are made in derision against or in confusion as to what a female voice really means. There may be a high level of unfiltered noise and negativity in the feminist rhetoric, and yet, this is the opportunity to fight stereotypes about women and set the stage for more varied and uplifting female-centric stories to be told.

Former Executive Editor of DC's Vertigo imprint Shelly Bond takes up the challenge by creating a comic book project called "Femme Magnifique". She will be working closely together with Kristy and Brian Miller of HiFi Colour Design to publish the hardcover graphic novel anthology, which will consist of 30 short stories about kickass women who have been trailblazers in art, science, history and pop culture.

Kickstarter Project Signal Boost: "Temple of Art" Documentary To Unveil the Life of Artists

Click pic for larger version

"Temple of Art" is such an interesting documentary Kickstarter project that involves an astounding number of artists, like Bill Sienkiewicz, Jason Shawn Alexander, Jim Mahfood, Stephanie Inagaki, David Mack and Grant Morrison. And these are just a few people from over 50 wonderful creators who aim to unveil the life of an artist, what art means to them and how they connect with the people and world around them. The brainchild of "Temple of Art" (which incidentally started out as a 2-year photography project) is Allan Amato.

Red Dot Diva first heard of photographer Allan Amato through artist David Mack's social networks. Also, Allan Amato was the one who took an awesome black and white profile photograph of David, which was later used quite often as David's promotional picture when he here for last year's Singapore Toy, Games and Comic Convention (STGCC). The photo is in fact used again for this year's guest profile pic as David is returning to the island this September!

The project was launched just before this year's Comic-Con and the accompanying panel that featured Allan Amato as moderator, together with collaborators David Mack, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jason Shawn Alexander, Barron Storey, Dave McKean, Kent Williams, Grant Morrison, Ryan Graff, Stephanie Inagaki and Jon Schnepp. The room was packed to the brim with interested fans and media. (Unfortunately, Red Dot Diva had another media op at the same time and was unable to be there in person.)

Currently, there are a few more days left to the "Temple of Art" Kickstarter. To add a little boost to the fund-raising campaign and to bring more awareness about the project to this side of the globe, Red Dot Diva has asked Allan Amato to provide a little more details about himself and the unique project.

Kickstarter: Vamplets' Frightfully Cute New Residents - Undead Baby Dragon and Bitemares!

Baby Undead Dragon and Bitemares!

Enter into Gloomvania - where nightmares abound and where fiends call it home.

This is also where little devilish Vamplets kill you with uber-cuteness in mere seconds.

Gothic Gloomvania is one of Red Dot Diva's favourite places to escape to, especially at comic conventions. Their little hideouts at the creative toy section is always a joy to visit - even though there is a risk of Diva getting bitten by its awful residents.

Now, the Vamplets family is inviting mortals to partake in conjuring up more little terrrors , namely Baby Undead Dragon and 3 Bitemares!

There is currently a Kickstarter to hail their pesky arrival, and there's only 8 days to go! So Red Dot Diva urges you to click this link and join in to the support their new project! But only if you dare to!

Diva Catches Up With David Mack About "Captain America" and His Kickstarter Project!

Marvel superhero action movie "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (currently showing in theatres) has been getting two thumbs up from a majority of comic book and pop-culture lovers internationally. Its engaging story-telling, energetic action sequences, sheer screen presence of its actors and that bromance (So.Much.Feels!) made the cinematic experience thoroughly enjoyable, even for comic book noobs.

Once the end title credits began to roll, the eye-catching animation and artwork caught many by surprise. Most of you are already aware of the identity of the artistic talent of the drawings used for the very snazzy credit sequence. But for those who may have been curious about the personality behind the striking images, wonder no more.

The artist involved in those few delightful minutes is none other than David Mack - creator of a comic book series called "Kabuki", who is also a New York Times #1 best-selling author/ artist ("Daredevil: End of Days" with Brian Michael Bendis, Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz and Alex Maleev), and whose innovative artwork have graced many comic covers including his run on Marvel's "Daredevil", Archaia's "Immortals: Gods And Heroes", Dark Horse's Buffy series "Willow" and Black Mask Studios' "Occupy Comics", to be released later this year.

The Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter Campaign - What Happens When Fans Unite

It has been .. wow!... 6 years since cult TV series "Veronica Mars" (VM) was pulled from the defunct station UPN.

The last episode did manage to tie up some loose ends but it also left its faithful viewers with an unsatisfying cliffhanger.

Hardcore fans will know that there was a Season 4 unaired pilot that featured Kristen Bell, the effervescent star of "Veronica Mars" working in the FBI. But that has never stopped "The Marshmellows" (i.e. VM fans to the uninitiated) from clamouring for a follow-up movie.

And finally, after many years, their dream has come true!

Introducing "J, Robot" - Japanese Culture Meets Humanoid Robots

HRP-3 android

Traversing the interwebs can take one on rather unexpected journeys, and it is on one of these digital travels that Red Dot Diva got to know San Francisco-based videographer/ producer Michael Garrigues.

For one thing, the project that he has been working on was a rather unique documentary on Japanese humanoid robots. It was an interesting visual trip behind the scenes about robotics that promptly reminded Red Dot Diva of "Transformers" and "Astro Boy" and the various sci-fi stories and movies, like the classic "Blade Runner" and well-loved "Short Circuit" to the more recent "Artificial Intelligence". Oh, and which scifi geek can forget the myriad of robots wandering about in the "Star Wars" universe, and those ominous Cylons or "toasters" from "Battlestar Galactica"?