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Not-for-kids comics

Exotic dancer gets 'Bloodstream' going for Shaw

By John Beifuss
January 23, 2004

Can a kidnapped stripper transformed through an experimental blood substitute into a vengeful superhuman find fans in a marketplace crowded with mutants, monsters, samurai, spacemen, daredevils, and devilspawn?

We'll soon know the answer, thanks to "Bloodstream," a new comic book from Image Comics created by the Memphis team of artist-writer Adam Shaw and writer Penny Register.

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" 'Bloodstream' is selling well for us," said Ron Crum, owner of Comics and Collectibles at 4730 Poplar, where Shaw and Register will sign copies of their new comic from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday. "It's a mature, well-written story. It's not aimed at children."

In fact, the cover of the first issue of "Bloodstream" depicts clothing-challenged heroine Amber O'Neill with her hair flared over her head and her arms crossed across her bare breasts, a pistol in each hand.

"It doesn't hurt to have a nude woman on the cover, especially in this market," said Shaw, acknowledging that most comic book consumers are teenage boys and young adult males:

As should be obvious by now, "Bloodstream" may surprise those unaware that comic books are no longer the exclusive domain of square-jawed (and just plain square) supermen, comical cartoon critters, friendly ghosts and Archie and Jughead.

The debut issue of "Bloodstream" opens with its "exotic dancer" heroine strutting her stuff across a stripclub catwalk. Each of the comic's 32 pages features fully painted acrylic artwork rather than the pen-and-ink drawings still found in most comic books and in the Sunday newspaper funnies.

This approach links Shaw with the hottest artist in comics today, Alex Ross, whose superhero paintings have been collected in the hardcover coffee-table book, "Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross."

In addition to creating comic books, Shaw, 31, is a gallery artist whose work has been shown in Cleveland, California, Alabama and Memphis, among other places. Three of his paintings are on display in the lobby of the MetLife Building in New York.

London is next on Shaw's schedule. Eight of the artist's canvases will be displayed at the Plus One Plus Two gallery in an April show devoted to emerging American artists.

Several of Shaw's paintings can be viewed on his Web site, http://www.abshaw.com.

For Shaw, so-called fine art and so-called funny books always have been linked. Of course, there is a difference: an issue of "Bloodstream" sells for $2.95, but the price tag on each of the 4-by-5-foot Shaw paintings on display at MetLife is $5,000.

The artist - who works in a converted storefront studio on Broad Avenue - was always a fan of superheroes, creating his own comic books as a child. "I was really into Spider-Man, especially since he was so funny," Shaw said. "While he was beating up bad guys, he would make all these comments. I try to put some of that kind of humor in 'Bloodstream.' "

At Central High School, under the guidance of retired City Schools art teacher Bill Hicks, Shaw became interested in painting. He majored in painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art, pursuing a realistic, representational style. He mostly paints the human figure, working from models or photographs.

"Every now and then, he says something like, 'Can I take a picture of your foot?' " said Register, vice president and general counsel of FedEx Trade Networks Inc., who is Shaw's girlfriend as well as his co-writer.

"Bloodstream" is a four-issue miniseries or "finite series," in comics parlance. The second issue is due March 3. The print run for each issue is about 8,000 copies.

University of Memphis public relations major Erin Grills regularly models as Amber O'Neill for Shaw. Sometimes, Shaw snaps photos of Grills bouncing around on a trampoline, to help him accurately reproduce the anatomy of mid-air kicks, leaps and falls.

"I like being part of a creative process," said Grills, 28. "At first I didn't know Amber was a stripper. But I've waited tables, I've bartended, so I could definitely identify with the character. She's a tough little cookie and I think of myself as a tough little cookie."

Shaw also has collaborated with several local artists on the independently published comic book "Dead in Memphis," about the supernatural adventures of a group of friends who were killed when their car ran off the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Four issues in the intermittent series have been released since 1999.

"Bloodstream" is published by Image Comics of Orange, Calif., which ranks third in comic book sales behind Marvel (X-Men, Spider-Man) and DC (Superman, Batman). The company - which publishes the adventures of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider - was founded in 1992 by seven Marvel artists seeking greater creative freedom and financial reward for their work. The group included "Spawn" creator Todd McFarlane, whose toy company recently announced plans to produce three Elvis Presley action figures.

Image (http://www.image comics.com) is a "creator's" company, meaning the artists and writers retain all rights to their concepts and characters. This is why Image attracts such novice but ambitious comic book artists as Shaw and Memphian Will Dixon, another Central High and Cleveland Institute graduate with an Image comic, "Soul of a Samurai."

Shaw - who cites modern British figurative painter Lucien Freud and late 19th Century American portraitist John Singer Sargent as influences - approached Image with the "Bloodstream" concept in July. The company bit, but asked him to cut the project from a 12-issue epic to a four-issue miniseries.

Shaw draws multiple thumbnail sketches and designs layouts for each page in his comic books. Then he paints the artwork on 15-by-20-inch panels of Crescent illustration board.

After the panels are scanned into a computer, he adds captions and word balloons. The completed pages are scanned onto a disk, which he sends to Image.

Shaw said he hopes readers will appreciate "Bloodstream" for its humor and psychological foundation as well as for its action, as Amber searches for her past while trying to elude the goons who want to return her to the secret biotech lab where she was transformed into an uber-stripper.

The comic also contains political and social commentary: The blood substitute that transforms Amber is being developed not for the good of mankind but for profit.

"In the second issue, there's a commercial for the biotech company saying, 'You can do all the drugs you want and be as promiscuous as you want, and this blood will clean your system,' " Shaw said. He said he was inspired by news reports about genetic engineering, cloning, "Frankenstein foods" and other biotech wonders and horrors. "I like reading about that. It's really interesting but it's also really scary."