LeSean Thomas

“Midnight Marauders” is not just the title A Tribe Called Quest’s dopest album. It’s also the title of LeSean’s upcoming art book, Midnight Marauder volume 2. Here’s the info straight from the publisher’s site:

“Artist LeSean Thomas ( Co-Director/Supervising Character Designer of Peabody Award Winning “The Boondocks” Animated Series / Cartoon Network’s Ben10: Alien Force animated series) returns with his highly anticipated MIDNIGHT MARAUDER: THE ART OF LESEAN THOMAS VOLUME 2, a second collection of illustrations, conceptual designs and tutorial anecdotes. Featuring visual ranges from American animation and anime-influenced stylings to edgy, urban-driven aesthetics, it’s a visual tour de force of unique and dynamic work from one of today’s top American contemporary character artists.”

He sent over a preview for us to check out and I can verify that it looks great. We’ve got four pages and the cover linked below. Check those out, and then go to his site and order it. If you can’t wait until July, hop over to his DeviantArt page and check that out, too. He’s got storyboards, Boondocks art, and a ton of sketches.

Look for more with LeSean on PCS soon.

RACK UP SOME EXTRA POINTS WITH UDON’S BONUS STAGE
Comics’ Biggest Names Team Up in Street Fighter® Vol.4: Bonus Stage

Toronto, ON – July 18, 2007 – UDON’s ‘jumbo manga’ size trade paperbacks have been a big hit with fans who missed out on the original Street Fighter® and Street Fighter® II monthly comic series. But until now something has been missing– those hard to find backup stories by comics’ biggest names! Now, Street Fighter Vol.4: Bonus Stage collects every single Street Fighter backup story in one volume.

Here’s a complete run down! Featured are stories drawn by Adrian Alphona, Kaare Andrews, Carlos Barberi, Ale Garza, Keron Grant, Hyeung-Tae Kim, Salvador Larroca, Kevin Lau, Mark Lee, Joe Madureira, Josh Middleton, Andy Seto, SVEN, Chris Stevens, LeSean Thomas, Adam Warren and Skottie Young. Also included are guest covers and the hilarious Cheap Shots comedy pages by Cory ‘REY’ Lewis.

Street Fighter Vol.4: Bonus Stage hits comic shop shelves August 2007. For news on this and other Capcom® comic books head on over to www.CapcomComics.com.

STREET FIGHTER VOL.4: BONUS STAGE
US Price: $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-897376-00-3
Diamond #: JUN073931
Format: 144pgs, Full Color, 8 ¼ x 5 ¾”

Also Available:

STREET FIGHTER® VOL.1: ROUND ONE: FIGHT! (OCT068047)
US Price: $9.99 ISBN: 0973865202

STREET FIGHTER® VOL.2: THE NEW CHALLENGERS (OCT068048)
US Price: $13.99 ISBN: 097386527X

STREET FIGHTER® VOL.3: FIGHTER’S DESTINY (MAY063447)
US Price: $13.99 ISBN: 0973865288

STREET FIGHTER® LEGENDS VOL 1 SAKURA TP (OCT063730)
US Price: $11.95 ISBN: 0978138643

ABOUT UDON ENTERTAINMENT
(www.udonentertainment.com)
UDON is an award-winning Canadian-based art collective formed in 2000 to provide high-quality creative services to the entertainment industry. Its client list reads like a who’s who of the business and includes Alliance/Atlantis, Capcom, DC Comics, Gamepro, Harmony Gold, Hasbro, Konami, Marvel Comics, Nintendo, Random House, Score, TDK Interactive, ToyBiz, White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast and Wiz Kids amongst others. In addition to client work, UDON also publishes official comics, manga, and artbooks based on Street Fighter, Darkstalkers™, Rival Schools™ and Exalted.

ABOUT CAPCOM

Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises Resident Evil®, Street Fighter®, Mega Man® and Devil May Cry®. Capcom maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Tokyo and Hong Kong, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about Capcom can be found on the company web site, www.capcom.com.

Capcom, Resident Evil, Mega Man and Devil May Cry are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd., in the U.S. or other countries. Street Fighter is a registered trademark of Capcom U.S.A., Inc.

“Throughout my workday, I’m usually interrupted to approve a freelancer’s design, make a correction to a design that has been handed in for notes after being turned down for approval or sit in on character design approval meetings with the higher ups. My normal job is designing the entire initial cast of characters to be approved, corrected by me, then cleaned up and turned by my team of in-house designers.”

LeSean Thomas

Plus: Keith Knight on ECBACC.

Brian K. Vaughan at Midtown Comics

Khary Randolph & Boondocks Co-Director LeSean Thomas

LeSean Thomas & PCS’ Howard Brown

Howard Brown & Konami’s Michael Shelling

Simone Bianchi at work

Simone Bianchi & Illusion TV Girl, Ashlee

Allhiphop.com Founder Chuck Creekmur & PCS’ Howard Brown

Celia Calle & booth babe boy

DJ Dylan Garret working it

Crayon Shinchan!

Bruce Lee!

Rich Johnston checking out at Midtown

LeSean Thomas (and PCS TV) at Midtown Comics

Naruto cosplayers

I want this game!

Pikachu

Pokemon card players

Timonthy Zahn at Midtown

Host Michael Davis and Reginald Hudlin at the Black Panel

PCS’ Jon Haehnle filming the BET Black Panel

PCS’ Jon Haehnle making the next move

BET’s Denys Cowan and Reginald Hudlin

Midtown’s Tom Galitos & PCS’ Dylan Garret

Sunday night after the show the PCS crew had dinner at Go!

For more convention pics, check Midtown Comics’ NYCC photo gallery!

DRINK AND DRAW, VOL. 1 HC
art DAVE JOHNSON, JEFF JOHNSON, JOSH MIDDLETON, DAN PANOSIAN & LESEAN THOMAS
cover DAN PANOSIAN

December 6 • 112 pages • FC • $24.99 HARDCOVER

The DRINK AND DRAW SOCIAL CLUB, VOL. 1 contains the scribblings and scratchings of a large group of artists done strictly at pubs and taverns across the country. The pints and pencil shavings make for some “good times” as they do their best to “keep it real!” Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/drinkanddraw – What started out as just DAVE JOHNSON, DAN PANOSIAN and JEFF JOHNSON has spread to over 1600 members with splinter groups popping up everywhere. Just recently they were filmed as part of the upcoming MySpace film documentary.

LeSean Thomas kicks it with PCS TV at San Diego Comic-Con

Download:
• higher-res version (15MB)
• for Video iPod
• for Sony PSP

Standing tall as the Supervising Character Designer on Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks, it doesn’t hurt that his anime-inspired, hip-hop infused, revisions of the popular social comic strip helped catapult the show toward ratings paradise for The Cartoon Network.

With a smile and New York swagger, LeSean will tell you that it’s been anything but easy. With a journey that began – at least for most fans – with spectacular art on titles that fizzled too early to catch, Thomas might argue that his rise really began with a full moon, a childhood of Street Fighter art, and tracing paper. Light tables were out of the budget.

With little tolerance for laziness, and a great deal of love for the artistic process, LeSean sits with PopCultureShock.com to promote his latest labor, Nervous Breakdowns: The Art of LeSean Thomas Vol.1, Hip-Hop’s Little Brother, and why Roy Hargrove is great creation food.

Keep up-to-date with LeSean on Leseanthomas.com, or shoot him a line on MySpace.