I feel lucky to have found such a great group of talented people to work with me on this project. My hope is that Biowars opens your eyes to the incredible micro world of the human body and familiarizes you with the various terms and roles of our immune system.
As a pre-med student at NYU, I took an endocrinology course and became fascinated by how cells within our bodies communicate with each other. I started to see the body as a bio-cosmos all unto itself. A micro-universe, in which incredible battles for existence and the struggle to survive constantly take place. And just like in ‘our’ outside world, our inner immune systems are governed by a central intelligence agency, with all types of patrolling guards, response units and Special Forces. Their battles against invading forces of viruses and bacteria take place on a vast, epic scale. Their biological weaponry is unmatched by our primitive use of explosives and bombs. And I thought, how awesome is that!?
I wanted to share my vision with everyone and open their imagination to understand how amazing our inner worlds are. This led me to create the Biowars, a story where the cells of our immune systems and nervous systems are given humanoid forms, yet they maintain their real life biological powers. All other cells retain their cellular shapes and functions. The invading microbes also manifest their true menacing powers and are given monstrous designs that are scary close to the real thing.
So rather than going to medical school, I decided to pursue Biowars. Long story short, Biowars got me into multimedia and Web design. That was many years ago. It wasn’t until I started a digital agency that I had the actual means to bring this story to life and share it with you. I hope you like, and enjoy it as much as I do.
Some personal stuff about me; I can’t go to sleep without watching Family Guy, definitely need some laughs before calling it the day. I wish I can live in the world of Futurama and I’m guilty of actually enjoying SpongeBob in the mornings with my little girl (don’t we all have friends like Patrick Star?). And although I live in New York, a city with a great vibe for creativity and motivation, I always fantasize about moving to the sunny shores of the Florida coast…maybe one day.
I feel lucky to have found such a great group of talented people to work with me on this project. My hope is that Biowars opens your eyes to the incredible micro world of the human body and familiarizes you with the various terms and roles of our immune system. So the next time a doctor says ‘antibodies,’ you will know that antibodies are the projectiles fired by B-Cells to combat microbes.
I’ve been working in and around the entertainment industry—primarily comics—for over 20 years now. I spent about a decade at Marvel Comics, fulfilling a childhood dream while making some lifelong friends. After Marvel, I moved out to Chicago to work at Devil’s Due Publishing, and it was at DDP that I first began writing. To that point, I’d always harbored a desire to be an artist—it was what I’d studied in school—and it was only a confluence of unexpected circumstances that provided me with the opportunity to write. Before long, I was writing G.I. Joe and creating and writing a sci-fi book called Drafted. Since then, I’ve written the comic book adaptations for two of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels, Rest for Top Cow, and have co-created a horror title called This Haunted World. So, when I first landed the assignment for Biowars, I thought I was pretty well prepared. I was wrong. Well, at least partly. The first time I met with Gabriel at his apartment to talk about Biowars, he asked me “Mark, do you know our bodies create blood vessels when we’re just walking around?” I could only try to hide my ignorance—nope, didn’t know that. The rest of the evening was spent being introduced to B-Cells, Macrophages, T-Cells, Natural Killer Cells (how awesome is it that we have something called “Natural Killer Cells” in our bodies?), and how they go about fighting disease and infection. Honestly, I felt a little overwhelmed. But the concept was great, and I loved that Gabriel had a very detailed, far-reaching plan to develop the property. And more than anything, it was clear Biowars was his baby. When someone entrusts you with his baby, you take care of it like it’s your own. So that’s what I’ve tried to do. We have a phenomenal art team on the project, and I’m really excited for people to see how they’ve brought the incredible world of the Biowars to life. Once you read this comic, you’ll know that epic Lord of the Rings-scale battles are going on inside your body every time you get the sniffles. When I’m not working, I love to spend time with the true loves of my life—my wife Stacy and our two girls, Madison and Ella. I also read as often as possible, and when I can squeeze it in, I like to give myself over to a video game addiction. I look forward to hearing your reaction to the story we’ve been working on for so long.
I began my career as a professional illustrator at the age of 17 at an international advertising company, immediately after I graduated from high school. Because I didn't have an art background but always loved drawing, I tried to absorb as much as I could from the people around me, becoming proficient in most everything the advertising world demanded: illustration, storyboarding, post-production and conceptualization. I even dabbled in toy sculpting and prop creation. During my last five years there, I was the lead illustrator and visual consulter on film and advertising shooting, which provided me with a lot of experience in cinematics. About a year ago, I made the decision that it was time to leave my comfort area of advertising and explore new horizons. Biowars caught my attention due to the sheer potential I saw in it; immediately I could see entire scenes in my head and I loved it. I could not pass up this opportunity to bring to life something awesome.
My passion for art has always existed as far back as I can remember, yet my educational background is in no way art-related, nor straightforward or even logical. I took Biology in high school and got a Master's in Computer Engineering with specialization in game development and project management. I taught myself art during my free time by watching other artists' works and techniques. I dropped my coding career to focus on becoming a full-time artist and evolve as one. Through the years, I was able to work on a bit of everything, from advertising and comic books (being most well-known for coloring Transformers comics),to game graphic design, conceptual art and illustration. From above, you can tell why Biowars easily caught my interest; it brings together a bit of everything from my background. It provides the perfect opportunity to go back to researching a subject that I love so much, and to apply what I learned from way before on the tasks I'm assigned for now. Big cheers, from Portugal.
I was born with pad of paper and a pencil in my hand. I can only imagine how painful of a childbirth that must have been for my mother; perhaps she should have thought twice about swallowing all those drawing utensils. She's always been so literal, that one! In any case, drawing. It's been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life since I was a young scrap, sitting in front of the TV drawing Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Mickey Mouse and Bill Cosby (...someone clearly changed the channel on me there). I've dabbled in different aspects of performance art as well, studying improv and on-camera acting on the side, as well as doing stand-up comedy in the past (Pro tip: avoid abortion jokes. People really like babies). Though despite all that, I'd always be drawn back to my original passion: making puns, apparently. Aside from working on comic books, I've also spent years working in video game production as a concept artist, as well as doing sporadic freelance work. I hope to one day climb Mount Everest, or at least a moderately tall hill. Possibly wrestle an ostrich or throw change at a squirrel. At the very least, I'd really like to learn how to write in Turkish. Not speak it, mind you. Just write. One day, perhaps. One day... In all seriousness though, what really attracted me to Biowars was the aspect of creating these awesome, otherworldly alien landscapes inhabited by cool and interesting characters that - despite their fantastical appearance - are rooted in reality. I'm very happy with what we were able to come up with, and hope you will enjoy discovering the world of Biowars as much as we did creating it. Stay healthy my friends.
I began my career as graphic designer 14 years ago, specializing in webdesign and interaction design. When I'm not working, I love to spend time with my wife, watching movies and TV shows as I’m a huge fan of the entertainment world. My passion for creativity is great and working on a project such as Biowars has been very interesting and valuable. Biowars isn’t just a comic book, it is a whole world of creativity and imagination that will amaze the world of entertainment soon. Working with such talented people on this project, the comic book artists, marketers and developers, has been fascinating to me and made me a better designer. Working with Gabriel Shaoolian (the creator) on Biowars for the past 2 years has made me a better professional and his trust in my work means a lot to me and challenges me to create outstanding work. Today, I love this project so much that I sleep thinking about the amazing things we could do with it in terms of digital design and creativity for the future. I look forward to hearing your reaction to the new website where you will find everything about the fantastic world of Biowars, hope you guys love it!
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