Oni Press Asks

Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Oni Press, san diego comic con | Tagged: sdcc, shaky kane

For 30 years, Shaky Kane has cut an swathe through comics but nothing as unusual as what Oni Press is rolling out for San Diego Comic-Con.

For the past 30 years, artist Shaky Kane has cut an unusual swathe through the comics art world…and probably nothing as unusual as what Oni Press is rolling out for San Diego Comic-Con.

As a member of the first class of artists to spring forth from the pages of the UK’s Deadline Magazine alongside then-rising creators like Jamie Hewlett, Steve Dillon, Brendan McCarthy, Bret Ewins, and more, Kane (always known by his obvious pseudonym) was always a band apart with a Day-Glo, Ditko-driven art style that was as combative as it was kitsch.

Kane has undergone a re-emergence in recent years with several notable Image projects, including The Bulletproof Coffin, The Beef, Kane & Able, and, most recently, Weird Work – a new series currently on stands featuring Kane paired with UK writer Jordan Thomas.

But Kane has never done conventions in the States and has no pictures or personal information of himself available online… He, for all intents and purposes, a mystery and the closest thing that the comics community has to a Thomas Pynchon-esque creative genius-cum-recluse.

Now, with San Diego Comic-Con beginning today, Oni Press is asking “Who is Shaky Kane?” in a social media video featuring Kane collaborator Jordan Thomas, former IGN comics editor Joey Esposito, retailer Jermaine Exum (aka “Lord Retail) of Greensboro, NC’s Acme Comics, Oni Press Editor and cartoonist Zack Soto and Oni President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson...alongside someone who may or may not be Shaky Kane himself and some suitably tall tales…

Is Shaky Kane a man or a myth? Is he a single person or a guerrilla art collective? Did he operate a pirate radio station in international waters? Does he leave secret coded messages in his comics? And what is “The Man From Maybe”? Expect more details to be revealed this week in San Diego.

(I mean, he’s Michael Coulthard. Of course he’s Michael Coulthard. But Banksy is Robin Green, and no one seems to care about that either.)

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