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Tommy Lee Edwards, Bernard Chang and Sean Philips, among others, contribute to the collection, with all profits going to the late artist’s family.
Comic artist Walter Simonson will serve as one of the many contributors for the Artist’s edition of the late John Paul Leon’s The Winter Men, giving us an exclusive sneak peek of his work for the project.
The Winter Men has been described by Modern Fanatic as “a passion project” for Leon, who served as the illustrator on the series. The artist passed away on May 1, 2021 after a 14-year battle with cancer. Following his loss, Simonson and several other artists, considered to be some of Leon’s closest friends, have joined together to create John Paul Leon’s THE WINTER MEN Artist’s Edition, available exclusively through ZOOP.
The 6-issue series was originally published by WildStorm, the DC Comics imprint that ran from 1992 to 2010 and brought forth many well-known stories and characters, such as the initial launch of the recently-adapted The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and character creations like “Grifter.” The Winter Men was co-created by Leon and writer Brett Lewis, focusing on the now-collapsed Soviet Union and following the subjects of a superhero experiment who long to rebuild their lives, despite a deadly threat stalking them.
The Artist’s Edition will include work from Simonson (exclusive art shown above), Tommy Lee Edwards, Bernard Chang, Bill Sienkiewicz, Lee Weeks, Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Denys Cowan, Kim Jung Gi and Joe Quesada, each contributing brand new art prints for the project, which will feature 184 pages of full-size (12″ x 17″) scans of all the series’ original comic art pages (used with permission from IDW Publishing), with additional bonuses like never-before-seen concepts, sketches and unused art. All proceeds from the purchase of the book will go to benefit Leon’s family. Those involved, like Simonson, had much praise to give to the late artist.
“John Paul Leon was a former student of mine SVA in New York City,” said Simonson. “He was brilliant, and he only got better. I’m honored to do a drawing based on his work on The Winter Men. Not only did I draw the Rocketmen, I did it for the first time using Pigma markers, inspired by John Paul.”
Zoop, responsible for the edition’s exclusive release, is a full service crowdfunding platform founded by Jordan Plosky (ComicBlitz founder) and Eric Moss (BRZRKR project manager, former head of Business Development at IDW Publishing) and created for the fandom community. Zoop’s CEO, Jordan Plosky, spoke on Simonson’s work in the project and how notable it was to have him involved. “Not only is Walter a renowned comic creator, he was also John Paul’s teacher and mentor. That’s a special relationship, and having Walter draw John Paul’s creation is a sadly beautiful full circle and wonderful tribute.”
The crowdfunding campaign has reached its $35,000 goal on Zoop, the Artist’s Edition now available to pre-order, with different contributor awards and art prints available. The campaign will finish funding next month.
Source: Modern Fanatic
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