iFanboy Upstarts: Sheldon Vella

People grow up, people change. It's no different in the comics world, where today's top talents were once just newcomers clawing their way into comics. Some people remember Jim Lee's early work on Alpha Flight years before he touched Uncanny X-Men, or Steve McNiven's work at Crossgen years before he drew Civil War. Amongst the immense volume of comics coming out today online and in print, another future comics greats are cutting their teeth and carving out a name for themselves.

This week's iFanboy Upstart is Sheldon Vella. Vella broke in on the internet scene with his Zuda webcomic SuperTron, which was one of the first monthly competition winners and entered a long run on the now defunct DC site. Coming forth as some sort of modern day Jamie Hewlett with a full grasp of modern technology, Vella caused quite a stir with his artwork, popping up in Image's Popgun anthology and signing on to draw Coheed & Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez' Kill Audio series for Boom!. After that, the House of Ideas took notice and after a short in their indie anthology Strange Tales II got the chance to do his most-acclaimed work yet, the short comic "Disco Highway" in X-Men: To Serve & Protect #4. Arguably one of the few times where Dazzler's retro origin was taken up with spirit and transformed into something totally unique, it's a story that's work tracking down either in the singles, the trade or a digital edition. Since then, Vella did an issue of Deadpool just last month with more planned in his future.