Meet Our Featured Members
Clever Kaiju is a community of, by, and for visual artists looking for inspiration, encouragement, and support, and working together to self-publish, freelance, and do studio projects. Our official members are featured here, tapped for our Clever Kaiju Studio freelance work where possible, and may have their work featured in our store or webcomics platform. See the join page for info on joining us.
Member Bios (listed alphabetically)
Brian Atkins
Comic book artist
Instructor, Design, Illustration
Brian Atkins is a St. Louis-based illustrator with over a decade of experience penciling, inking, and coloring comics. His creator-owned comic work includes The Family Graves and Final Street, and he is an inker and colorist on G.I. JOE for IDW. Brian is an experienced educator, being the head instructor of Ka-Pow!! The Comic Art Academy, and teaching courses at Webster University.
Darrell Claunch
Multimedia artist
Visual Effects, Illustration
Darrell is an ex-video game artist, current visual effects artist. As a game artist, he worked on over two dozen titles on the Nintendo handhelds for publishers such as Disney, Nickelodeon, and the Jim Henson Company. As a visual effects artist, he has added shine and beautified shots for such feature film and television shows as the Walking Dead, WestWorld, Queens Gambit, Mad Max Fury Road, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Life of Pi, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and over 80 other titles. In between he illustrates book covers, indie movie posters and pop culture portraits. He is always on the lookout for his next project and a better, stronger coffee.
Gary Bedell
Illustrator
Design, Digital and Traditional Art
Gary Bedell has worked as a professional illustrator and designer for over 20 years. His inspiration comes from many sources. From the look and eerie feel of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” video and visual artists like Katsuhiro Otomo, Arthur Adams, Koji Morimoto, Adam Duff, Rodney Matthews, and Craig Mullins, to musicians like MF Doom, Thundercat, DJP, and Karriem Riggins. But his main inspiration came from his grandparents and other members of his family. They taught him to push, work hard, and never give up, while also nurturing his creativity.
In his career, Gary has worked with such companies as Crypt TV, Activision, Aftershock Entertainment, Fantasy Flight Games, Disney, and Nickelodeon. He is currently the lead artist for Attack Wagon, creating conceptual art for their project Scrap Guilds. When he’s not working, Gary loves to spend time with his wife and three kitties, traveling, spending time on personal projects, DJing, and collecting vintage toys. He is a co-founder and co-manager of Clever Kaiju.
Ike (Isaac) Crawford
Comic book artist/writer
Illustration, Writing, Directing
Co-founder and co-manager of Clever Kaiju, Ike is a prolific self-publishing comic book creator and a licensed professional counselor. Ike started seriously making comics in 2015. All of Ike's books are free-to-read webcomics and he shares his mindfulness-oriented practice on his YouTube channel, Ike Comics. Ike wants to be a creator in a different way, making the best books he can while sharing behind-the-scenes into his practice and mindset.
Ike's storytelling is lively, psychological, and sharp. He's known for his speed, backgrounds, and dynamic scenes. His latest book, First Son and Sword, is a long-form Sword and Sorcery series that is a culmination of his experience from his prior books, as well as a record of his continued progress in craft, voice, and storytelling.
James Rutherford
2D and 3D artist
Illustration, Animation, Educator
James Rutherford considers himself a generalist digital artist who has created everything from 2d and 3d graphics, animations, 3d modeling, rigging, vector graphics, and general illustration. James is a co-founder of Clever Kaiju, bringing to the table his 10 plus years’ teaching experience at Missouri State University along with his professional experience in the gaming industry, working on over 25 accredited titles.
Jose Alvarez
Comic book artist/writer
Digital and Traditional art
Jose Alvarez has been drawing since he can remember. He spent his early years in Mexico before moving to the US with his family. He also spent some time in the USMC, which took him to Okinawa, Korea, and *almost* Australia. His earliest interests include Astro Boy, Dragon Ball, Samurai Pizza Cats, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
His artistic influences include Akira Toriyama, Adam Hughes, John Singer Sargent, Jean-Leon Gerome, Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuya Terada, Steve Huston, Ron Lemen, Marko Djurdjevic, and many, many more. His interests include drawing, playing video games, eating, spending time with his family, and annoying his cat. He currently resides in Memphis, TN. Jose Alvarez likes to talk about himself in the third person.
Josh Meador
Comic book artist/writer
Illustration and Graphic Design
Josh Meador is a writer, illustrator, and graphic designer with a heavy focus on comics. He has self-published The Forthcoming (2021-2022), a fun comic about mankind’s downfall. Josh began making comics as early as he could write and draw. His early influences include: Jim Lee, Tod McFarlane, Arthur Adams, Frank Cho, Édouard Manet, Neal Adams, Simon Bisley, Jorge Jimenez, and James Harren. He is currently working on a murder mystery full of action, twists, and suspense. You can find updates and plenty of art on Instagram under the handle josh_meador_art.
Miriam Cooper
Artist/storyteller
Illustration, Character Design, Writing
Miriam Cooper is a comic book creator, writer, illustrator, and character designer. Coming from a large family of artists, she’s inspired by her five sisters and has her heart set on writing and drawing original stories. Miriam collaborates with her dad as the artist of the Dual Justice series, a story that explores the idea of original sin and plays with the complexities of taking justice into your own hands. She’s working with her sisters to create new stories, characters, and artwork for their family-run company, Champion Comics.
Muzi Sensei
Manga artist/author
Illustration, Character design
Muzi Sensei is an indie manga artist currently working on his latest project, Bloody Hell. Born in South Africa he had to claw his way to find enough resources to help him up his game. He has done multiple manga titles in the past. Muzi is now a proud member of the Clever Kaiju community!
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Nate Howard (Mammoth Press)
Artist/writer, Designer
Illustration, Animation, Tattoo
Nate Howard is an independent artist, specializing in graphic design, illustration and animation, and is cofounder of Clever Kaiju, a design and animation studio with a focus on artist outreach and education. Nate is also the co-owner of Cryptic Tattoo and Social Gallery in Springfield MO, under the tattoo brand “Mammoth Ink”- tattoo work can be seen on Facebook and Instagram.
Nate’s most notable work includes the webcomic series “Potbelly Mammoth” at potbellymammoth.com, as well as the self-published graphic novel “Behold: The Mammoth!” published under Mammoth Press LLC. Additionally, Nate is the creator and host of an arcade playthrough and artist interview Youtube series “The Mammoth Multicade”- an arcade cabinet designed and built by Nate, where guests play their favorite retro games and discuss their careers and experiences as creators.