click to make big

Octopussycat, as a kitten, showed some psychokinetic powers and was taken by the government to be groomed as an assassin. Later, through the help of one of the scientists working on the project, she escaped. After exacting her revenge on those who created her, she became a vigilante in the streets of Zoopolis. This led to a series of run ins with World Wildlife Federation of Justice members such as Go-Rilla and Shaolin Monkey. Eventually they convinced her to join the team.

Powers: limited telekinesis and fear projection. Camouflage cloak. Ninja-oriented skills and octopus-related gadgets.

Comix & Stories is Sunday Aug 28 @ 3102 Main St Vancouver

Toren Atkinson will be sharing a booth with his Caustic Soda Podcast co-host and creative cronie Kevin Leeson of Critical Hit Comics at Comix & Stories on August 28 2011, 3102 Main St, Vancouver BC.

Come on by and say hi to Toren and check out his comic artwork plus merchandise for The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, Caustic Soda and The World Wildlife Federation of Justice.

Without giving too much away, the tale features multiple heroes and villains who must join forces to fight a new threat unlike any they’ve ever faced! It’s a nine page story to be illustrated by Toren Atkinson and, if all goes to plan, a very special guest artist.

Stay tuned to this space for further details!

Clearly, it’s a send-up of the old Hostess Fruit Pies ads. If you like the comic and my other story on the site, please consider making a donation to the Primate Rescue Society.

(If you make a donation, please specify that it’s via Panels for Primates.

Thanks and enjoy!

Everyone involved in this project has worked for free to aid the Primate Rescue Center, so be sure to check that out and donate if you can!

Don’t forget to scroll through my archive for some behind-the-scenes artwork. Enjoy!

Primates promo art by Robert Wilson IV

Last year I was approached by Troy Wilson to donate my artistic skills for Mark Shainblum’s writing for a charity project. I was quite tickled by Mark’s story which is an exceedingly clever mash-up/parody of Curious George and the Superfriends and as a fan of DC Comics, the Superfriends cartoon and monkeys I was happy to contribute.

It’s been a long road but the work is finally done and on May 4th the story will go live on act-i-vate.com. Over the past week I have been showcasing some behind-the-scenes character design for the story.

When the big day comes and the comic goes online I’ll post a direct link to it, but in the meantime here is the lowdown:

What is Panels for Primates?
Panels for Primates is a charity anthology of primate comics that has been updating every Wednesday at ACT-I-VATE (http://act-i-vate.com) since October, and will be winding up on June 1st.   The ever-growing Panels for Primates archive can be viewed absolutely free, but if readers are encouraged to swing over to http://www.primaterescue.org/ and make a donation.

International effort
The project features work by creators from the U.S., Canada, Israel, Britain, Mexico, Germany and Indonesia.

Loads of Canadian contributors

• Lower Mainland – Toren Atkinson, Colin Upton, Jonathon Dalton, Scot Ritchie.
• BC - The above Lower Mainland creators, plus Troy Wilson, Gareth Gaudin, and Simon Roy (all in Victoria).
• Canadian – The BC creators, plus Mark Shainblum, Jeff LeBlanc, Clayton Hanmer (Toronto, ON), Kari-Lynn Winters (St. Catharines, ON), and Faith Erin Hicks (Halifax, NS).

Some other coverage of the project

• http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/post/2011/02/panels-for-primates-combines-comics-with-charity/1

• http://www.newsarama.com/comics/primates-in-need-comic-books-101228.html

• http://talkingwithtim.com/wordpress/2011/03/09/troy-wilson-on-panels-for-primates/

• http://www.bclocalnews.com/entertainment/114901309.html

Stats so far [ie. As of the Bleek story running.]

• 31 stories

• 50 creators

• 105 pages (not counting the cover or the donation reminder pages)

Pose copied from Alan Davis

Aayla, The Super Sisters, Bleek and the Metafriends are created by Mark Shainblum

Poses stolen from Alan Davis

(Nightspider, Bleek and Metafriends created by Mark Shainblum)