About Us
Red Handed Studios has had a long and trying evolution to get to this point. But here we are! As it stands right now, we’re pretty much a three man band.
Cary Kelley founder and owner does most of the writing chores, all the production and design work, and a great deal of the lettering on the books we produce. He created the Fallen Justice universe along with Harold Edge and Steven Forbes, as well as creating Totem, The Kansas Hit, and several other forthcoming titles. He also lettered the first two issues of Sky Pirates, wrote three issues of the Nifty comic The Cadre, and did letters on the Zuda winning web comic Extra Curricular Activities. So he stays busy. Cary wanders the Earth a lot, but makes his home in south Texas.
Harold Edge first hit comic pay dirt with the art chores on the Sixgun Samurai series by Alias comics where his dynamic art style brought a whole new shine to the wild west. Once he completed that series he picked up Fallen Justice and has been with us ever since. He’s already hard at work pencilling and inking the Dynagirl series which will follows right on the heels of Fallen Justice, and he has several other projects on the burner as well. Harold lives with his wife and cats in New York City where he attends graphic design school when he isn’t chained to the art table.
Ross Hughes is the colorsmith of Fallen Justice, having colored the complete series, including some beautiful promo work. Ross brings a fresh vision to coloring and grows stronger with every piece he produces. He lives in the Houston Texas area with his wife and kids, and does something for some place called NASA.
Lisa Moore is the newest addition to the team and we’re excited to have her aboard! Lisa is another Texas native and she has a ton of coloring work out there over a range of publishers. She’s done some fill in work for us up to this point and she’ll be taking on the full time coloring chores on Dynagirl with issue #1!
Scottie Ray Watson broke into comics in a big way with a smashing win of the Small Press Idol 2007 contest working over the competition with his series Talon. Since then Scottie has been working his way around the industry while running his own business, and he recently decided to take on some more work. Enter Red Handed Studios! We met Scottie in Chicago two years ago and instantly hit it off. Since then we’ve wanted to work together, but the timing was off. Now, the time is right! Look for Scottie’s dynamic art on our newest title Seppuku Blues coming soon from Red Handed Studios!
Michael W. Kellar has been inking comics since 1993 after getting out of the U.S. Navy where he spent time overseas in Operation Desert Storm. Michael has worked for several independent comic companies, including Gravitywell Productions, NouVeau Studios, and Jolly Rogue Studios where he got to sling ink for the first 4 issues of Sky Pirates of Valendor. He makes his home in North Carolina with his girlfriend, her son, and his three kids, and is currently working with a Marvel Comics inker to hone his skills even further with the use of a brush and crowquills. Look for Michael’s work here at Red Handed Studios in several upcoming books!
Virginia Mills-Barfield is another new addition to Red Handed, but that by no means indicates she’s new to comics! Ginny has worked at pretty much all levels of comics and we’re quite lucky to have her signed on to do the Kansas Hit for Red Handed Studios! She’s also going to be working on a brand new graphic novel co-starring Dynagirl and her own character Bandit, called Ignition! More info is on the way for that book so stay tuned!
Peter Palmiotti has been inking comics since 1991. He started work with independent publishers, mostly a wide range of work which included his more popular work on Razor for London Night Studios. But around 1994 landed a full time position with Valiant comics. (just at the time when Valiant was more popular then even Image comics!) Working with Bob Layton and the rest of the crew of great artists, colorists and writers was a experience he will never forget, but unfortunately he didn’t really get his chance to shine while working there. After Valiant, he got the call from DC comics and was tapped to ink over Jim Califiore pencils on Aquaman during Peter David’s run, which is still to this day what he’s best known for. That success lead to a string of Marvel comics work that included work on Iron Man and several different X-men titles. Since 2000 though he’s been back in the world of independents, working on such titles as Valentine, Shadowflame, Ripperman, Java, and an Armorines mini series video game tie in, as well as various smaller projects.
Today, he’s joined a few studios and is still inking but is more focused on spreading his wings a bit and venturing into writing, penciling, coloring and creating his own character as well as books. First up will be his superhero called Retro coming out though Midnight Horizons this year, and Peter is the inker on our latest endeavor, Seppuku Blues.
So yeah, we’ve kept the family small thus far. Of course we have a huge number of contributors that help us out of the inevitable jams that come up with daily life, and we’re always on the look out for new membership, so stay tuned because you never know who else you’ll catch…Red Handed.
Now to answer a few questions:
Why call it Red Handed Studios?
Because it sounds cool? Honestly, my grandmother is to blame for this one. She’d always bust me doing whatever my latest mischief was, and had no problem telling anyone who’d listen how she caught me red handed. So there you have it.
Is that logo really a scan of your hand?
Yup. Can you see how badly I needed a logo at the time? I was goofing around with the scanner and that led into the finished product, which led naturally to the name. Aren’t you glad I didn’t use some other body part?
Are you looking to add new people to the Red Handed team?
Always. But it doesn’t happen too often. Getting too big too fast is death in comics or any business really so we’re focused on staying small and doing our thing to the best of our ability.
Do you take submissions?
Absolutely. But we’ve got guidelines just like anyone else. First, we’re not looking to publish just anything by anyone. We’re really quite selective and picky. Second, we’re much more interested in talent to apply to our already existing stable of books and properties rather than picking up someone else’s story. I’m not saying it won’t happen, I’m just saying chances aren’t good. For a full set of submission guidelines check out the submissions guidelines page.
What does your production schedule look like?
We started publishing with Fallen Justice #1 in February 2009 and we’re holing fast to our bi-monthly schedule, meaning we’ll put out an issue once every other month until it’s done. We’ll follow Fallen Justice with the Dynagirl series on a bi-monthly schedule as well. Once that wraps we hope to have The Kansas Hit done and ready for the presses. At the same time we’ll be producing Seppuku Blues, and the Ignition, and Kansas Hit graphic novels. Beyond that…we’ve got things like original iPhone comics in the pipeline, a couple of one shot issues, an anthology compilation of various short works we’ve done over the years, and more! If the fans are there and they like the work, we’ll keep on keeping on and add on some other titles for you guys to enjoy.
Are Red Handed books carried through Diamond?
Nope. Indy comic numbers being what they are we didn’t meet their projected estimates and they declined to carry the book. But that isn’t a problem! There are other means to get the books out to the people who want them, and we’re pursuing those means even harder. All our books will be available through Indy Planet, Haven Comics Distributors, and Comics Monkey as well as right here at the Red Handed Store for subscriptions and direct sales. We’re also looking into other avenues of distribution, so have no fear, we’re going to get the books out there!
Do you guys attend conventions?
Heck yeah! We’re going to be stepping up our appearances in 2010 as well! We’ll be announcing specific appearances on the home page in the new blog section so check that for updates. We love to meet our fans and sign the books. We’ll always have cool merchandise in addition to the comics, some of which you can also buy right here on the website!
Are you really going to kill the main character of Fallen Justice?
Heh. You’ll have to read the book to find out. But I can tell you once someone dies in the FJ universe…they’re dead forever. No one gets a redo.
If you have any other pressing questions about Red Handed Studios or you just want to get something off your chest, feel free to contact us at info@redhandedstudios.com and we’ll get you hooked up with as much info as we possibly can.
