Sean Wang A Rising Star Feature by Melissa Minners             Since meeting Sean Wang at I-Con 25 and reading his graphic novel, Runners, I have become very impressed with his body of work and intrigued by his style as an artist.  Especially after reading his website bio: “Defying a high school aptitude test that recommended artsy unconventional careers like stuntman, DJ, dancer and puppeteer, Sean Wang went to MIT where he got a degree in architecture.  Upon graduation, he immediately squandered that education by pursuing work in comics.”  It takes a great deal of strength to walk away from a conventional job and follow your dreams.  Many fail such an attempt, but Sean Wang has proven that he is more than just another dreamer.             Since he was young, Sean Wang was always drawing and designing his own characters.  However, at the time, he didn’t feel he should try to make an occupation out of being an artist or illustrator, so he went to MIT, studying for a degree in architecture.  While in college, Sean’s love of drawing never wavered and he soon found himself designing superhero characters.  Soon after graduating and receiving his degree, Sean realized that he just didn’t have the same amount of passion for architecture that he had for storytelling and illustration.  He decided to try his hand at comics.             He got his start working on The Tick for New England Comics.  The comic is based on the original series by Ben Edlund featuring a former insane asylum inmate who has declared himself The Tick, protector of The City.  The quirkiness of the character and hilarious situations make The Tick a favorite of superhero fans looking for a bit of levity in the genre.  According to Sean Wang, his best work in the series is the six-issue Tick and Arthur story arc in which The Tick and Arthur join a team of equally-dysfunctional misfit superhero wannabes.             Sean Wang’s love for superheroes is still evident in his work today.  His self-published sci-fi action/comedy series about a group of smugglers, Runners, contains some of the characters Sean had originally designed as superheroes.  Instead of attributing their feats to superhero powers, Sean attributes them to alien abilities, fulfilling the sci-fi genre requirement.  Much of Sean Wang’s inspiration for characters and storylines comes from movies.  Sean tries to capture the same sense of movement and pacing for his work.  Runners receives much of its inspiration from Star Wars – the smuggling elements in addition to the seediness present in the cantinas and Jabba the Hutt’s headquarters.  Sean doesn’t just take inspiration from science fiction movies.  In addition to Star Wars, Smokey and the Bandit provided inspiration for some smugglers’ hijinks, The Unforgiven for character complexity, and The Godfather for mobster politics.  Since Sean is a big fan of epic storytelling, Lord of the Rings figures in as a tremendous inspirational force.             Sean Wang’s Runners has gotten stellar reviews across the board.  It has become extremely popular among fans of independent and well-known comic books alike.   The first five issue story arc was collected into a graphic novel entitled Runners: Bad Goods and is available at Amazon.com, Sean Wang’s website, and comic shops everywhere.  The graphic novel has received accolades from a number of online comic review sites, becoming a fixture in their Best of 2005 lists.             Since completing the first Runners story arc, Sean has begun working on a new superhero project for Image Comics called Meltdown.  Written by David B. Schwartz, with artwork by Sean Wang, Meltdown is about a superhero whose powers are slowly killing him.  During his last remaining days, the superhero reflects on his life and tries to make up for his many failures, attempting to correct numerous bad decisions before his imminent and unavoidable death.  In this project, Sean uses many different art styles to tell the different aspects of the superhero’s life, using a cartoony style to depict childhood scenes and gradually making the artwork darker and grittier as the character approaches death.  According to Sean, “You’ll definitely want to check it out.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen done before.”  Upon completion of Meltdown, a two-issue, 96-page series, Sean will return to Runners and begin work on the next story arc. For more about Sean Wang and his work, visit his website at www.seanwang.com.  There, you will find information on all of his works, including sample pages for both Runners and Meltdown, as well as a fun convention sketchbook of sci-fi doodles.  Be sure to ask your local comic book store to order Meltdown (from the October 2006 Previews)!  Don’t miss it!                      For feedback, visit our message board or e-mail the author at talonkarrde@g-pop.net.