This Bart Sears and That Bart Sears

I thought it time to do a more generalized post to bring some news from both Bart himself and some of my own Bart related news.

First off, if you didn't know already, Bart is on Facebook! Hard to believe, I know, and even more unbelievable for the fact that he posts regularly! I'm sure Satan just felt a chill. He and wife Michelle have also set up a fan group on Facebook, with lots of galleries of his work and links to sites where Bart can be found, including this very site you're on now. So if you're not already, be a Facebook Bart Sears fan!

Next up, I've found a few items of Bart's that up until very recently I was completely unaware of. I love when this sort of thing happens normally, but not this time. You see, I just placed another order with Mile High Comics (to which I'll write about when I receive them in a few weeks). The money has been sent, the comics are on their way, and now I've gone and found a few more covers of Bart's that Mile High has on sale at the moment too. Sadly, they'll have to wait for the next order, when I can buy up enough comics to make the shipping cost worth my while.

But anyway, here are the covers for you. They're pretty good. They are 'Blade of the Warrior: Kshatriya #1,' and Ramayan 3392 AD Reloaded #7' respectively, both from Virgin Comics.

I also found this image, which was scheduled for Ramayan 3392 AD Reloaded #10, to be released some time in late 2008, but as far as I can tell, never came out. If I find out more, I'll let you know.


Lastly, my 32nd birthday was last week, and I got some cool stuff, including a new baseball cap that says 'Bart Sears - Ominous Press' on it, I also got an A4 magnet that says 'Bart Sears - #1 Fan - Bart Stuff' on it that is currently attached to my chest of Bart stuff. I also got a cool keyring saying 'Bart Sears #1 Fan.' All of these things came from my awesome wife, who saved the best gift for last. We had a car for the weekend just gone, thanks to my father-in-law, and we clocked up 800km over the two days. We travelled around the countryside of the West of Ireland, and saw some amazing things.

We stopped off at a spot that I've been wanting to visit for a long time - Queen Medb's Tomb. It's pronounced May-v. To read up on her, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb. She's a very interesting person, and even features in Pat Mills' Slaine comic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sl%C3%A1ine_(comics).

Here's a picture of me standing in front of her tomb, which is a 1km walk up a ridiculously precarious mountain. I've got my trusty Mael Postcard with me, and I'm wearing my new Bart Sears cap.

We also went across the border to Northern Ireland (for all of 10 minutes), and here I am standing in front of a decommissioned Police garrison.

We also visited the grave of one of the greatest writers and poets of all time, W. B. Yeats. Despite the lashing rain, heres a picture of me next to it with my Bart Sears cap on again.

But the best part of the weekend was when my wife treated me to a Falconry lesson at the amazingly posh Ashford Castle. It was a blissful hour of walking around a forest and estate gardens, getting a Harrier Hawk called Wexford to land on my arm, feed, take off and do it again. It was darn incredible, and I couldn't resist replicating a pose from one of Bart's comics.

In other matters, the great Bart Sears laminating experiment is going well. I'm working my way through The First, which has been a pleasure to read again, I'd almost forgotten just how good Bart's art is in it. I had originally hoped to have the experiment done in November 2009, but it looks as though it will have to be extended to about May 2010, only because I've been spending my meagre Bart Sears allowance on actual comics instead of laminating sheets over the past few months. I'm up to my 15th box of laminated comics, all of which tower to about 60 centimetres in height. They will eventually be put into 100 sheet folders, but that will dramatically increase the space required to store them, so will have to wait until we have our own house and my study is fitted out to hold everything.

I'll be writing another post later on this week, so check in again soon.

Bart Sears News and stuff

I thought I'd better report on a few things that have been happening in the Bart Sears collecting world of late, to get those not in the know up to speed.

First of all, Bart has moved away from regular comic work for the time being. The reason for this? Well, Bart landed the enviable job of Senior Concept Artist at a new Gaming Company called Heatwave Interactive, Inc. Check out their cool website here http://www.heatwave.com/, you may even recognise some of Bart's artwork around the site. Bart has been working with top of the line computer programs such as Z-Brush, Sketchbook Pro and Manga Studio Pro4, not to mention getting back to one of his great loves - sculpture.

Here's an image Bart produced a while back for Heatwave -

And here are a few others-

In other news, the Helm TPB came out on April 1 of this year, and it sported the first cover completely drawn digitally by Bart Sears. Bart told me, not long after completing it, that he did it all, from sketch to finished inks, on his computer. He said, and I quote, "I'd never want to work on paper again." Here are the inks and final cover -

As far as other news, Bart has just completed two covers for Hero Initiative. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to release any more details, so I'd better not. I've seen the covers and they are fantastic. As soon as I find out any more details, I'll let you know here.

Regarding the great Laminating Experiment... I've just purchased another 200 x 250 micron A4 sheets, and they will cover the last remaining Spider-Woman comics I have to do, and get me well into Bart's The First run, leaving me a mere 550 odd to do, down from over 2000 when I first began. I plan to have them done by the end of the year.

I'll post more soon.

What to do with all of those Bart Sears comics

Let's face it, collecting comics can be a space consuming affair, especially if you're in any way a serious collector, because that means you're probably using bags and backing boards for each comic. My own comic collection probably peaked at about 1000 comics at one stage, back in the mid 1990's when there were just so many comics out there. There came a day, though, when I came to the conclusion that enough really was enough. So I culled, and then a few years later, I culled some more, then a few more times. Now I probably have about 200 comics, excluding my Bart Sears ones of course. And that is plenty for me, thank-you very muchly.

So I've got a comic box for all of my non-Bart Sears comics, and they're happy where they are. But what about my Bart Sears comics, which are obviously far more important to me. For a long time I had them stored in boxes that perfectly fit comics, the boxes previously containing ketchup squeezy things. Then they were upgraded to a custom made wooden comic box I knocked up in woodworking class in High School. Next they were stored in Michael Palin book set slipcases, that, again, were the perfect size for comics. And most recently, they've been housed in two small wooden chests, the perfect size once more.

But late last year, I undertook a monumental task that will take me over two years to complete- I have chosen to laminate every single Bart Sears comic page!

I'll say it again- I HAVE CHOSEN TO LAMINATE EVERY SINGLE BART SEARS COMIC PAGE!

How many pages is that, you ask? Over 2000, that's how many.

And it get's worse. The anal retentive freak that I am demands that I don't just buy any old laminating sheets; nope, I need the good stuff- 250 microns of sturdiness.

So why am I doing this? Won't that cost a fortune? Isn't it a waste of time? Well, yes, it will be expensive, the laminating sheets I use cost about US$40 for a pack of 100. That's why it will take me over two years to do, I'm restricting myself to one pack a month.
The question of whether it is a waste of time? I don't think so. If you think it is, go and pull out a comic you own from the 1980's or earlier and have a proper look at the paper. Do you remember it being smoother, brighter, cleaner? What if you could encase that comic in a plastic seal that would ensure the pages neither fade nor wear, ever!

If I felt as if I would ever consider selling my Bart Sears collection, then yes, I probably would resist the urge to laminate the pages, but that is never going to happen, never ever never.

So the way I see it, I'm giving these comics that I cherish so much an extended shelf life with no side effects at all. I still have posters of various things that were laminated nearly 20 years ago, and there is no sign of decay or anything like that.
So while some of my Bart Sears comics could be little more than a pile of dust in 30 years, they could theoretically still be around in 300 years now thanks to my trusty laminating machine. That thought alone makes it feel more than worthwhile to me.

So I've been laminating my Bart Sears comic pages for a few months now, and I know I've made the right decision. I've just started laminating the Justice League Europe issues, and they look fantastic now. True, they take up much more room than they ever did before, but the trade-off is worth it. I put each page slap-bang in the centre of the A4 sized laminating sheet, put it through the machine, and leave it that way, I don't trim the excess laminate off, I just stack them on top of each other and put them in a A4 sized box.

Some comics are easier to do than others, namely Justice League Europe, in which every page is double sided, so no advertisements show up on the final product. Other comics aren't so accommodating, unfortunately. There have been several comics with a comic page on one side that has an ad on the back, with no opportunity to double up (doubling up meaning when you can take two pages that are consecutive but also have ads on the opposite sides that can be put ad to ad to form a single page). But these are rare enough. Each issue has an average of just over 13 sheets required to complete them, with the most sheets for one issue being Invasion! #3, which took all of 42 sheets to polish off.

I'm trying to laminate the comics in a chronological order, but there are some comics that I am sorely tempted to bump up the list, and I can't wait for the day when the whole lot is done. But I'll keep you all posted on how it is progressing.
So stay tuned.