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SWINGHAMMER Kurt
SWINGHAMMER Kurt
Born 1957 in Newmarket, Ontario.
He is both a singer, songwriter and a visual artist.
He has released 13 albums of original songs, appeared as a studio musician on 100 CD’s. And composed music for film and television. In 1990, his band was chosen to represent Canada at the New Music Seminar in New York City.
He has created designs and graphics for music videos, album covers, television commercials, computer animation, stage sets & wardrobe, tee shirts, and dance club murals. He is represented in the Canada Council Art Bank.
In the 1980’s he was active in the Niagara Artist’s Centre in St. Catherines, Ontario participating in solo and group shows. In 1985, he did a mural for the Nutz & Boltz disco in Toronto, followed by a mural at the Dance Cave. In 1986, he had a show of large works at the Trenton University Art Gallery in Peterborough Ontario. He became involved in the “neo-primitive” graphic style which became part of the visual signature of Toronto’s Queen Street West scene. Over five years, he created fund raising tee shirts and posters for the community radio station CKLN. He designed the Canada Booth at the New Music Seminar in New York and the CASBY award logo and set design for CFNY-FM.
He has worked with many music groups. For the Shuffle Demons, he designed and illustrated album covers, art directed videos, and designed their stage costumes. For Maestro Fresh Wes, he art directed the videos Let Your Backbone Slide and Drop The Needle which won both Juno and Much Music Awards. He animated the video for Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song The War Racket.
And, of course, he illustrated the Stompin’ Tom Connors lyric book below.
He has continued his fine art pursuits being represented by I Nabstracto in Toronto and True North Gallery in Waterdown.
WORK:
ILLUSTRATOR:
BOOK TEXT & GRAPHIC:
Content lyrics & Cover book front:
My Stompin’ Grounds and four other songs. Writ., Tom Connors. Doubleday Canada, 1992.
SOURCE:
Article Book:
My Stompin’ Grounds…. Doubleday Canada, 1992: “Kurt Swinghammer”: Back cover.
Internet:
‘Kurt Swinghammer”. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 20 Feb. 2019. Accessed 9, July 2019.
“Kurt Swinghammer”. Writ., Sean Carruthers. Allmusic. www.allmusic.com/artist/kurt-swinghammer. Accessed 9 July 2019.
GALLERY:
My Stompin’ Grounds and four other songs. 1992: Front cover.
PHELAN Jennifer
PHELAN Jennifer
This Torontonian illustrates children’s books. Hey Boy her first effort won the New York Times, Best Illustrated Children’s Book for 2017. .
WORK:
ILLUSTRATOR:
BOOK TEXT & GRAPHIC:
Content lyrics & Cover book & dust jacket front & back:
The Log Driver’s Waltz. Writ., Wade Hemsworth. Simon & Schuster Canada, 2018.
NIGHT-REALM
NIGHT-REALM PUBLISHING INC. Location: 440 The Kingsway Islington, Ontario. Owner: Fred Diana.
Contributors: David Baggley, Kent Burles, Scott Cooper, Fred Diana, Ron Kasman, Jeff McLachlan, Fran Milkovich, Kyu Shim, George Todorouski, Chris Turner, Robert Varacalli, Scott Wylie.
Characters: American Annihilator, Nathan Impaler, Scenturus, Synthetic Assassin.
Fred a long time comic book collector, and B.A. graduate from York University decided during the black and white boom that he wanted to publish his story idea “Synthetic Warrior”. He solicited two 15 year old boys George Todorovski to do the pencils and Chris Turner to do the inks and lettering. The first issue was successful enough for Fred to publish a second, although not without problems as in the second issue Fred apologizes for the “Sloppy”* word balloons and misspelling in the first. With completion of the second issue both George and Chris left and were replaced by Kyu Shim and Scott Wylie for the third in 1988. By this time the black and white boom was over and issue 3 was the last of this series.
After about two years Night-Realm resurfaced with a new title “Nathan Impaler: Monster Hunter”. In addition to the collapse of the black and white market, Fred blamed “… lousy artists and a lack of advertisements …”** for the failure of his first publishing effort. It is evident that the illustrations in Synthetic Assassin show the work of artists at the very beginning of their experience in the field. He vowed to do things differently by employing professional artists like Ron Kasman, and Kent Burles to do covers. He hired new artists like Dave Baggley, Scott Cooper and Yan Rozentsveig who was associated with Tick Tock Tom. The work in 1990’s issues showed more competence but is still the work of artists in an early stage of development.
Publishing problems continued. Because of scheduling problems for Nathan Impaler, Fred resorted to doing a series of specials including . Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Fall Special, 1991 and Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Werewolf Special 1993. A projected fourth issue Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Frankinstein Special never appeared. Another projected periodical The Purple Scar also never appeared although there was an incomplete story in the back of Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Werewolf Special.
After another one to two year hiatus, there appeared in 1995 two publications, American Annihilator, and Blood Masters. Both lasted only one issue each. A last effort Scenturus lasted for two issues. With the demise of this periodical Night-Realm Publications vanished from the scene.
“Synthetic Assassin” was in the thriller/espionage genre with a human hero who had extra strength from mechanical implants much like the hero of the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man. The first story was a hostage episode. It included along with the next issue a second mysterious hero called “Dragon-Fire”. The last issue introduced a Russian mutant villain called “Boyevaya” who was planned to be an ongoing character in future issues. The character “Synthetic Assassin” re-emerged as a secondary character fighting the primary character “American Assassin” in the periodical of the same name. At the end of this fight “American Assassin” is revealed to be connected to Nathan Impaler” who was also resurrected. At the end of American Assassin there was a promise of an up-coming fight with vampires, but since no further issues of American Assassin appear, we never know where this hint was going. Nathan Impaler, and Blood Masters both centered around fights with vampires and werewolves. Scenturus had a female centaur as the heroine helping an all-female group of warriors fighting a monster spider.
*”The Lettering Sucks” Writ., Fred Diana. Synthetic Assassin, 2, 1987. ** “The New Night Realm” Writ., Fred Diana. Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter, 1, 1990.
PRODUCT:
PERIODICAL GRAPHIC:
American Annihilator, 0, 1995. “Sheer Force”. Writ., Fred Diana. Illus., Dave Baggley. Let., Ron Kasman. Contained a 9 page incomplete story “The Frankenstein Conspiracy: The Dead Remembered”. Team was Fred Diana, Yan Rozentsveig & Ron Kasman. Cover, Dave Baggely. Was this a sample promoting the never published Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Frankenstein Special ?
Blood masters, 1, 1995. “Let The Roads Run Red”. Writ., Fred Diana. Illus., Robert Varacalli. Contained a 9 page incomplete story “The Purple Scar: Vampire Bats over Chinatown”. Team unidentified. Cover, Kent Burles. Was this a sample promoting the never published The Purple Scar?
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter, 1, 1990. “The Fiend Farewell”. Writ., F. Diana. Illus., Yan Rozentsveig. Let., Gordon Chin. Cover, Ron Kasman.
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Fall Special, 1, 1991 “Collision With A Colossus”. Writ., F. Diana. Illus., Yan Rozentsveig. Cover, Yan Rozentsveig.
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter:Werewolf Special, 1, 1993. “Beasts In The Dark”. Writ., F. Diana. Illus., Yan Rozentsveig & Ron Kasman. Let., Kent Burles Contained 6 sample pages from Blood Masters “Let The Roads Run Red”. Also contained a 2 page short version of the incomplete story “The Purple Scar: Vampire Bats over Chinatown.” Cover, Kent Burles
Scenturus, 1, 1996. “The Valley Of The Spider”. Writ., F. Diana. Pen., Fran Milkovich. In., Jeff McLachlan. Contained 4 sample pages from American Annihilator “Sheer Force” at back. Cover, Scott Cooper.
Synthetic Assassin, 1, 1986. “A Quiet Day in Beirut”. Writ., F. Diana. Pen., George Todorovsky. In. & Let., Chris Turner. Cover, George Todorovsky.
Synthetic Assassin, 2, 1987. “Dance With The Devil”. Writ., F. Diana. Pen., George Todorovsky. In. & Let., Chris Turner. Cover, Kyu Shim.
Synthetic Assassin, 3, 1988. “Russian Roulette”. Writ., F. Diana. Pen. Let. & Prologue, Kyu Shim. In., Scott Wylie.
SOURCE:
Article periodical:
American Annihilator, 0, 1995. “Inside Fred’s Head.” Writ., Fred Diana.
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter, 1, 1990. “The New Night Realm.” Writ., Fred Diana.
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Fall Special, 1, 1991. “Inside Fred’s Head.” Writ., Fred Diana.
Synthetic Assassin, 1, 1986. “Introduction.” Writ., Fred Diana.
Synthetic Assassin, 2, 1987. “The Lettering Sucks.” Writ., Fred Diana.
Synthetic Assassin, 3, 1988. “We’re Not Dead, Jim, well almost.” Writ., Fred Diana.
Correspondence:
Email Ron Kasman to Robert MacMillan, 21 June 2019 and 24 June 2019.
GALLERY:
Synthetic Assassin, 1, 1986: Front cover. Illus., George Todorovsky.
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter, 1, 1990: Front cover. Illus., Ron Kasman.
Nathan Impaler Monster Hunter: Fall Special, 1, 1991: Front cover. Illus., Yan Rozentsveig.
American Annihilator, 0, 1995: Front cover. Illus: Dave Baggley.
Blood Masters, 1, 1995: Front cover. Illus., Kent Burles.
Scenturus, 1, 1996: Front cover. Illus., Scott Cooper.