mat nastos Posts

The History of Barry Blair and Aircel

Barry Blair was born in Ottawa Canada, long ago.

Early on, Barry got a job as a kid working on a Local TV show “You Cant Do That On Television” before Nickelodeon purchased it. Shortly after, Barry started doing Aircel Comics in Canada in the late 1980s after the insulation company he was working in lost its funding. They had this big warehouse with nothing to put in it so Barry invited his friends to come and make it a studio and he convinced the owner to turn it into a Comic book business.

Aircel  turned out a lot of titles in its time including but not limited to, Elflord, Samurai, Dragonring — Dragonforce, Warlock 5, Gun Fury Stark Future and a batch of others that came later.

Aircel then began publishing through Malibu Graphics in Hollywood for a time and Barry started doing some adult comics with them like Leather and Lace. They sold well and Barry was happy for a few years.

While Barry was convention hopping, at the Pennsylvania Hotel , he met Colin Walbridge. A bond was forged and they started self publishing together and Barry restarted his company Nightwynd productions.

It was around that time Barry went back to Asia again to spend time in Taiwan with some friends. He traveled around the China Sea and visited Macao, stood on the battlements of the Spanish fort and looked into Red China. He was the contactacted by The Pinis, who wanted him to be managing editor of their Elfquest comic company Warp Graphics (Wendy And Richard Pini WARP). So it was back to America and off to Poughkeepsie New York for a really great time in his life.

Poughkeepsie was great to Barry and he forged some good friendships there with young talent like Mat Nastos, Delfin Barrel and more. He spent a few years helping Richard run Elfquest. During this time Colin andBarry wanted to get back to doing their own stuff again and started into self publishing and doing some work for various Hollywood productions. They were even featured in the movie Bicentennial Man. If you look at the punk girl’s bedroom in the movie, you’ll see Elflord and Samurai posters. Barry also did the Comic series for Stargate and many more Hollywood focused work.

Doing the work for Warp, Hollywood productions and art assignments as well as conventions began to wear on Barry and he and Colin decide they had enough They decided to just ditch the whole rat race and go live on a mountain somewhere to draw and create.  And that’s what they did!

With the help of  Santos Aleman, their new business manager and sales rep. Barry finally just got to do what he loves—draw. The idea of someone else dealing with all the crazy stuff really appealed to Barry. So at that point Barry hooked up with his company Sanmania Productions and started their new studio Realmwalkers, named for the online World of Warcraft guild his niece Kimmi runs.

Recently Barry has hooked up with his old friend Mat Nastos.  Nastos and Nifty Comics have acquired all rights to Barry’s catalog of material from Aircel, Night Wynd, Sirius and more!  They have some very nice and personally exciting projects lined up that Barry is sure that his longtime followers will like and hopefully entertain some new readers along the way.

August 25, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 32

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.

June 19, 2010 | No Comments

Appearing at Geeks Con Tomorrow

Don’t forget, I’ll be at Geeks Con tomorrow at Geeks Comics in Whittier - 6747 Greenleaf Ave. (Cross streets: Philadelphia /Greenleaf), Whittier, CA – 12:00pm – 10:00pm

Stop by for sketches, comics, my 2010 ElfSong Sketchbook, Star Wars and even Phineas & Ferb sketch cards!

June 18, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 31

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.



June 17, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 30

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.

June 15, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 28

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.

June 10, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 27

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.

June 8, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 26

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.

June 5, 2010 | No Comments

Mat Nastos at Geeks-Con June 19

Hey, all!

Just a quick announcement while I take a break from drawing ElfSong pages.  I’ll be appearing at Geeks-Con on June 19 in the lovely city of Whittier, California.  I’ll be doing sketches and showing off cool new ElfSong artwork.  I’ll also have copies of the ElfSong sketchbook, along with Cadre trade paperbacks and signed copies of the various ElfQuest comic I’ve worked on in the past, all available for purchase.

The big announcement, tho, is that I’ll be doing free sketchcards for any fan who comes up and mentions they’re a fan of the ElfSong website or my follower on Facebook/Twitter.  That’s right, come out to Geeks-Con and get a free sketch just by telling me you enjoy the website.  How cool is that??

Below is all of the Geeks-Con info you’ll ever need to know:

GEEKS-CON!
Date: Saturday, June 19, 2010
Time: 12:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: GEEKS Comics, 562 – 696 – 9393
Street: 6747 Greenleaf Ave.
(Cross streets: Philedelphia /Greenleaf)
Whittier ,CA 90601

Come by and say “Hi!”

-Mat Nastos, Creator

http://www.ElfSong.com

June 3, 2010 | No Comments

Cadre Issue #1 Page 25

Online ComicsComic RankVote For  Webcomic - The Cadre

Written by Mat (Elfquest and TV’s Sliders, First Wave and others) Nastos and art by Top Cow superstar artist, Kenneth Rocafort and Nastos.

The Cadre Webcomic is updated three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

You can purchase Cadre trade paperbacks in the Nifty Comics Webstore.

The Cadre created by Mat Nastos.

June 3, 2010 | No Comments
  • Blindside by Marat Mychaels and Mat Nastos - coming in 2012!