Page 2 – Noah Van Sciver

Jason first discovered the work of Noah Van Sciver in the anthology comic Not My Small Diary and became a huge fan of his work, tracking down all of his books, including The Hypo. Van Sciver’s work channels the legends of the underground comix movement of the 60s, but with a style and skill that modifies it into something uniquely his own. His ongoing comic Blammo showcases his diverse talent with a variety of storytelling styles. He currently is serializing an online graphic novel St. Cole on the website The Expositor. He also has a brother that works in comics too.

Noah Van Sciver can be found online here and here.

Page 6 – Dustin Harbin

In addition to being a letterer for books like Casanova, Dustin Harbin is a fantastic cartoonist as well. He is the creator of the autobiographical comic Dharbin!. He also maintains a blog about making comics that is equally informative and hilarious.

Jason met Dustin at SPX and purchased some of his minicomics. A year later at TCAF, Jason asked Dustin to contribute this page to the FF9 project.

This page was originally going to be commissioned from Dave Sim, however Mr. Sim was less than accommodating. Though he agreed to draw the page, he refused to sell it, and told Jason that he would have to bid on the page in an auction. However, since Jason had given him the idea, he was willing to make a copy to give to Jason. Jason declined the offer. And we’re all the better for it, as Dustin’s take is fantastic.

Dustin Harbin’s website can be found here.

Page 1 – Jim Woodring

Jim Woodring is a cartoonist and illustrator probably best known for his series of critically acclaimed Frank books, as well as his self-published comic Jim and the construction of a seven-foot tall dip pen.

Jason is a long-time fan of Woodring’s work, and set to work trying to convince him to contribute to the Fantastic Four No. 9 Project. Woodring was apprehensive at first, never being a fan of superheroes, but Jason charmed him. And paid a lot of money. Jason’s insistence on having Woodring contribute to the project comes from seeing the similarities in the Kirby original of some of the furniture in Namor’s lair to various objects and designs in The Unifactor, the world in which Frank takes place.

Fun Fact: Of all the contributors to the Project, Jim Woodring is the only artist whose work appears on Jason’s body in the form of a tattoo (it is up to your imagination what and where).

Jim Woodring’s blog and website can be found here.

Page 9 – Josué Menjivar

Josué Menjivar is the biggest Jack Kirby fan Jason has ever met. He insisted on doing this page for free, but compromised when Jason agreed to buy all of Josué’s comics in exchange for drawing the page.

Josué is the writer and artist of Way Off Main and Everyday Things. You can find his art and comics at freshbrewedillustration.com.

Page 20 – Kurt Dinse

Kurt Dinse is a comic artist and illustrator from Chicago, IL who made the mistake of befriending Jason at the Columbus, OH Small Press and Comic Expo (SPACE). Despite being “friends”, Kurt still charged Jason an insane amount of money to draw this page, which is why there has been no new pages for the project. Kurt’s unique art style and twisted sense of humor is fully on display with this page.

Kurt, a former punk rocker, is best known for his comic series One Year in Indiana, and the barbarian homage/parody, Hurr. His work can be found at Pungent Basement Art, and recently he became the newest member to join the art collective, Ok, PANIC!, of which Jason and former Fantastic Four No. 9 contributors Pat Kain and Eric Shonborn are all a part of (though Pat Kain has moved on to bigger and better things).