Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks met as teenagers in Kansas City, where they learned animation while working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company.
Did you know that Walt Disney learned the craft of animation in Kansas City? Or that his close friend (and Kansas City native) Ub Iwerks later followed Disney to Hollywood, where Iwerks created Mickey Mouse?
The pair met while working as commercial artists and learned the craft of animation while working at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. They also worked with a number of other Kansas City cartoonists who went on to become legends in the animation business.
Find out more in our newly updated the biographies of Disney and Iwerks in the “Creators” section of the site.
Lovestruck by Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Mellon will be published by Image Comics in Septemer. Cover by Erik Jones.
The creative team behind Gearhead, writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Kevin Mellon, have a new original graphic novel coming from Image Comics this September. Lovestruck is the story of a group of people employed by the Roman god Cupid, who has turned his matchmaking prowess to profit in the modern world.
Both Hopeless and Mellon are local Kansas City comics creators. Hopeless has also written Hack/Slash Trailers 2. Mellon’s work has appeared in Comic Book Tattoo, Hack/Slash, and Marvel Comics’ S.H.I.E.L.D. one-shot earlier this summer.
Mellon says that Hopeless initially pitched the idea to him as a follow up to Gearhead. “It was like a light kind of shone on me and it became something I not only wanted to do, but had to do,” Mellon said. “One of the many joys about working with Dennis is that everything we come up with together, I pretty much have to do. Come hell or high water.â€
Lovestruck features a cover by Brooklyn-based Erik Jones. The 192-page graphic novel retails for $16.99. It is currently available for pre-order from comics shops and other book outlets. Westfield Comics has announced that copies of Lovestruck pre-ordered through the service will comics signed by Hopeless and Mellon and will include a limited edition print.
Fear Itself:Wolverine #1 is written by Kansas City's Seth Peck
Local comics writer Seth Peck is scheduled to appear at Elite Comics on July 7th to sign the first issue of his new Marvel Comics mini-series Fear Itself: Wolverine. Peck will be in the Overland Park comics shop from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM, meeting the public and discussing his latest comics work.
Peck’s previous comics work includes co-writing Sorrow with Rick Remender and co-writing ’76 with B. Clay Moore. Both series were published by Image Comics.
Fear Itself: Wolverine is Peck’s first work for Marvel Comics. The three-issue limited series ties into the storyline of the main Wolverine book, which is written by fellow Kansas City area creator Jason Aaron.
Peck told Newsarama, “There are a lot of things that will actually be planted in this miniseries that will end up playing out in the main title. Obviously it’s part of the event, but if you’re just a Wolverine fan, I wanted it to be a good story, and I wanted it to have some kind of lasting impact. I didn’t want it just to be three issues and done without really having any ties to what Wolverine was going to be doing in Jason’s book.”
Elite Comics is located at11842 Quivira Rd, Overland Park, KS 66210. The event is open to the public.
