Popular Comic Book Artists to Visit Provo

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    By Crystalee Webb

    World famous comic artists known for drawing characters such as Superman, Batman, Captain Gravity and Archie will make an appearance this Saturday at a local comic shop.

    Dragons Keep, located at 260 N. University Ave., will be hosting its first official customer appreciation day Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

    “The comic shop has been around for about 20 years, and we want … to let the customers know that we appreciate them coming in,” said BYU graduate John Ortiz, the Web site and event coordinator for Dragons Keep.

    The professional comic artists will make their appearance from noon to 3 p.m. and provide free sketches for those at the event. Bill Galvin, artist for “Archie” and “Scrapyard Detectives,” will be giving out free copies of “Scrapyard Detectives.”

    “The people that are going to show up at this event are professionals, and some of them are veterans of national and international appeal,” said Sal Velluto, known for his work on Captain Gravity and The Flash, who will be at Dragons Keep.

    Velluto is recognized in the comic industry after 20 years of work in all of the major comic companies. For the past two years, he has worked for the LDS Friend magazine.

    “He”s a fantastic artist,” said comic artist Howard Tayler about Velluto.

    Tayler created the comic series, “Schlock Mercenary,” in 2000. He does the penciling, ink and color for the science fiction series, which has 30,000 regular readers. Tayler said he was happy to change careers seven years ago from his former white-collar top-paying job at Novell, to pursue his passion of creating comics. He enjoys telling stories and discovering where his comics take him.

    “Once a story is started, the characters develop themselves,” Tayler said. “There”s never a shortage of ideas.”

    A veteran comic professional appearing on Saturday, Ric Estrada, has been in the industry since the ”50s. He”s worked for animation studios Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and Hanna Barbera. Estrada did storyboards for the animated cartoon series “Men in Black,” formed secondary characters for “He-Man: Masters of the Universe,” and Marvel studios employed him to create a comic strip for the popular series “Spiderman.”

    Estrada remembers when he was 10 years old, and he copied the hero from the cover of a DC Comic book for a drawing competition.

    “Little did I know at that time that one day I would be drawing those characters,” Estrada said.

    Estrada was recognized seven years ago for his lifetime comic industry achievements when he received the Inkpot Award, a prestigious honor in the comic world.

    He said one of his favorite projects was the New Testament Stories for children, noting that millions of copies were sold in the 20 years they were published.

    “That has been perhaps my most satisfying work,” Estrada said. “My wife said that I looked very happy when I was drawing those.”

    More information is available at dragonskeep.com.

    What: Dragons Keep Customer Appreciation Day

    Where: 260 N. University

    When: Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

    Cost: Free

    Activities: Professional artists drawing free sketches

    Leading Edge magazine hosting workshops on villains and heroes

    Free comic books and prizes

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