Meet Artist John Sewell Upon meeting artist John Sewell you will find he is a true example of an East Londoner, a kid who grew up across from the O-Pee-CHee factory where he eventually worked, studied at Beal Art and continues to produce, work and support the comic book industry. You could literally say ‘You can take the boy out of East London, but you can’t take East London out of the boy’. Although John no longer resides in the neighbourhood, he regularly finds his way over here to indulge in the counter-culture we know and love. His stories of Old East include tromping around on Dundas as a kid with his mom shopping for groceries at Dominion (now T&C Mart) or finding shoes at Siegle’s (now World’s Away). He goes on to tell of his trouble-making years in and out of the arcades or visiting the Park Theatre (now the Palace Theatre) or messing about in the demolished Globe Casket Factory before it became the London Police Headquarters. He also played in bands that would have played at local venues at the time including the infamous Embassy Hotel. A very honest and down-to-earth guy, John makes no bones about how his life has taken some very interesting turns. At age 14 he started working at the O-Pee-Chee factory (now the Adelaide Lofts) where his mom was working at the time. For years he worked in the factory every summer and especially after school every day during the major hockey card rush from October to December. He can replay the events of the trucks unloading in the bay, sheets of cards running through the slitters, then moving upstairs to be cut into individual cards and eventually packaged to be ready to ship right out the same loading docks. It was a hot time for O-Pee-Chee.
John’s love for collecting and artwork stems from these early years, not unlike many boys who grew up in the 70s and 80s. Along with his love for Film Noir and B movies he came to adore the work of the great comic book artists Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. By bringing to life well-known comic book characters such as Spiderman, Captain American and many more, these are the guys that helped establish a culture and industry in visual art. John’s skills took him down a new road when he started reproducing famous comic book art for some local enthusiasts. These pieces became a hit. With a pencil, eraser, ruler and sharpie in hand, John would carefully recreate by hand some of the best-known covers in varying sizes. He has prints of the black and white images made and then skilfully paints them to match the colours of the original comic book cover. The detailed work is impressive and a flip through even just a portion of his catalogue points out the incredible time that goes into these pieces.
House Numbers Garden Rocks Laser Etching Water Fountains Business Entrances Cemetery, Pet and Tree Memorials
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Page 10 Old East Villager September/October 2024
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