Comic illustrator at The Met June 17 to aid Starting Point
Published Date Written by Tom Eastman
CONWAY — Comic illustrator J. K. Woodward will be at The Met Gallery in North Conway on Father's Day, Sunday, June 17, from 1 to 4 p.m., autographing prints of his work and donating proceeds from the sale of any prints to Starting Point.Raised in Attleboro, Mass., he is the son of community activist Donna Woodward of Fryeburg, Maine. He moved with his mother to Fryeburg as a teenager and attended Fryeburg Academy for a short time.
“At the academy,” says his mother, “the art teacher being humbled by his incredible talent, turned her class over to him to teach. Wanting to excel his career he pushed to graduate high school at the age of 16 and moved to Hollywood, Calif., to feed his dark side and bury himself in his creative hungers. He was discovered by Geiger (the famous German artist who created the “Alien”) and was mentored for 18 months in Germany where his mission was to create and develop his unique style.”
J. K. Woodward lives in New York and is an accomplished artist and illustrator working for some of the biggest names in the comic world including Marvel, Dark Horse, Boom! Archaia and IDW Publishing. He has worked with Peter David for the re-launch of his creator-owned series "Fallen Angel." Comic aficionados won't want to miss this opportunity to meet one of the industry's rising stars, notes Suzette Indelicato, executive director of Starting Point.
He started his professional comic career in 2003 when he collaborated with A. David Lewis on the indie comic "Mortal Coils" and Michael Colbert on the Digital Webbing Presents series "Crazy Mary," where he still does covers. IDW noticed his work on Crazy Mary and offered him a gig doing a CSI: NY limited series and he followed in short order with a standout story in BOOM! Studios' "Zombie Tales" series.
When Peter David was re-launching the creator-owned series "Fallen Angel" at IDW, Woodward was a natural choice for Peter's dark world of magic, violence and redemption. His painted work eventually caught the attention of Marvel editor, Mike Marts, (now an editor at DC Comics) who chose him to illustrate "X-men Origins: The Beast" which was released September 2008.
He recently relocated from Long Beach, Calif., to Long Island City in Queens, N.Y., and still illustrates Peter David's "Fallen Angel" as a reoccurring miniseries for IDW as well as various other works for IDW and BOOM! Studios. His most recent releases include Archaia's OGN, "Everlast" written and created by Chad Michael Murray and "Doctor Who/Star Trek: Assimilation Squared" from IDW. You can see more of J.K.'s work, including the Star Trek/Dr. Who poster being donated for the event at his blog at jkwoodwardart.blogspot.com/2012.
Donna Woodward said her son has known he wanted to be an artist from a very early age.
“Jymn knew when he was only 3 years old he wanted to be an artist — more importantly an illustrator," she said. "He loved Spiderman and actually might have thought he was Spiderman at different phases of his growing up.”
As for the connection with Starting Point?
“I recently decided to clean out my attic, where several large canvas paintings of his earlier years were stored,” said Woodward. “When I asked him what he would like to do with them he said, 'Donate them for a fund-raiser.' I told him about Starting Point and he was all for it.”
More recently, his mother was cleaning out a bedroom closet where she found a large stack of numbered prints from one of his shows.
“So again, asking what he would like to do with these, he said he was coming to Boston to do a signing on June 16th and would be willing to create a visit with me and expand his fund-raising efforts for Starting Point by doing a signing here. He travels all over the United States and Europe as a special featured artist drawing huge crowds at comic conventions. He has a huge fan base following in the comic world.”
Starting Point, Services for Victims of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault serves hundreds of victims and their families in Carroll County and works to prevent violence in the home through education and support of school age children and their families.
For more information about the event or to contact Starting Point, visit www.startingpointnh.org.
