Mark Wheatley's new webcomic project

Mark just sent me the following press release and pictures -

The Mighty Motor Sapiens Roar To Life
New Characters Introduced on Rowdy.com

Rowdy.com has partnered with Insight Studios Group to offer The Mighty Motor Sapiens, a new online daily comic strip that combines high speed action, fast cars, humor and the entire planet being taken over by lizard people.

With new installments appearing every weekday beginning September 3, 2007, the story begins 18 months after the world has been taken over by a race of the Morisoni, lizard people from the center of the Earth. Despite the odd change in circumstances, life has continued and things seem disturbingly okay. Sure, they took out Washington, Moscow, Beijing, and Paris, but on the other hand they took out Washington, Moscow, Beijing, and Paris. And for some reason they wiped out everyone's credit histories, too.

Now the Morisoni control the world and their military bases are everywhere. The Lizards live among us, but this new arrangement seems to be working. Four teenagers, Cam Corman, Hannah Barbario, Gigs Brewster and Maddie Brewster, haven't seen much of an impact from the changes. Yet.

Springing from the minds of writer-artist Daniel Krall (Oni's One Plus One), writer-artist Mark Wheatley (Frankenstein Mobster), and writer Robert Tinnell (Feast of the Seven Fishes), The Mighty Motor Sapiens was created as an exclusive feature for the ROWDY.com web community. The strip will be written and drawn by Krall with additional material by Wheatley and Tinnell. All three creators are veterans of both print and online comics. They are joined by inker Craig Taillerfer (The Chelation Kid), with colors provided by Krall's studio and lettering by Matthew Plog. The strip is produced by Insight Studios.

About Rowdy.com
At the forefront of the new media revolution, Rowdy combines podcasting with social networking and the internet to create a unique new place for NASCAR fans to congregate. The Rowdy podcast is a daily racing radio show devoted strictly to NASCAR racing. For 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, fans listen in on their MP3 players, computers, or cell phones as hosts Reginald "Buck" Fever and Leonard "Bass" Masters deliver the latest news on America's most popular motorsport. Joining Buck and Bass to deliver expert commentary and analysis are award winning broadcaster Mark Garrow, former Cup driver Rick Mast, championship-winning crew chief Barry Dodson, and veteran print reporters David Poole of the Charlotte Observer, and Steve Waid of NASCAR Scene.

About Insight Studios Group
Producing numerous award-winning comic books, on-line and newspaper comic strips, graphic novels, portfolios and other publications, Insight Studios Group is profiled in a lavish art book titled IS Art - The Art of Insight Studios. This exceptional collection of artists, writers, film makers and media-masters is responsible for many books, comics and films that include Sightcadelic, Hammer of the Gods, Titanic Tales,
Jimgrim and the Devil at Ludd, Frank Cho Illustrator, Gray Morrow Visionary, Al Williamson Adventures, Frankenstein Mobster, Miles the Monster, MARS, Tug & Buster, Gregory, Marc Hempel's Naked Brain, Breathtaker, Feast of the Seven Fishes and many more. Their website, www.SunnyFundays.com, features additional daily strips such as The Chelation Kid, America Jr., Doctor Cyborg, Cryptozoo Crew, and others.


For more information contact:
Mark Wheatley
Insight Studios
insight@insightstudiosgroup.com
410 871 1235

- he also sent me the theme song, but I have no idea how to link it here.

Insight Studio Group on Fanboy Radio

Suburban Maryland's Insight Studio Group, which is centered around Mark Wheatley and has seen Marc Hempel, Frank Cho and the late Gray Morrow as members, was interviewed today on Fanboy Radio. I haven't listened to the show yet, but I ran into Mark a few weeks ago and think that he's going to bring Frankenstein Mobster back soon. Yeah!

Wish You Were There #2 - IS Art: The Art of Insight Studios

From the International Journal of Comic Art 3-2, we present another WISH YOU WERE THERE, starring Frank Cho, Mark Wheatly, Marc Hempel and a defunct comic store. Is Insight Studios still functioning I wonder?

IS Art: The Art of Insight Studios. Washington, DC: Illumination Arts Gallery of Georgetown / Beyond Comics II, May 12--June 30, 2001.

IS Art displayed original art of Insight Studios, founded in 1978 by Mark Wheatley, and artistically now consisting of him, Marc Hempel and Frank Cho. The exhibit is based on the book of the same title (by Allan Gross, Baltimore: Insight Studios Group, 2001. ISBN 1-89317-11-X; $29.95) which includes a history of Insight; the title of both is undoubtedly a play on words reflecting the general perception of comic art as a lowbrow form. There was a checklist for the show, but no explanatory exhibit text except for captions; presumably the book was intended to fulfill the viewer's possible desire for further information. Due to his syndicated comic strip, Liberty Meadows, and his penchant for drawing beautiful women, Cho is undoubtedly the main attraction of the Studio. In this show, held in an unused upper floor of a comic book store, very few of Cho's strips were displayed. However, instead he was mostly represented by his fanzine work on E.R. Burroughs' Tarzan and Mars series. Hempel included many of his early 1980s paintings of women, cover paintings from his 1990 DC Comics series Breathtaker, and cartoons from his self-published comic book Tug & Buster. His current work, of increasingly-stylized caricatures in ink and watercolor, harkened back to art of the 1920s and 1930s. The twenty-year span of Hempel's career exhibited here provided an interesting view of his artistic evolution. Wheatley has frequently worked on material derived from pulps and magazine illustration. His gouaches for IS's publication of Talbot Mundy's Jimgrim and the Devil at Ludd, clearly having evolved from his comic book work, displayed a strong sense of color and composition. The exhibit, although obviously not done by art gallery professionals (artwork not used in the show was still leaning in piles under a window), was an enjoyable look at a trio of local creators.