Once upon a time there were two good friends who shared a passion for comic books and a desire to someday create them professionally. These two kindred spirits were D. Jason Meadows and Shawn D. Wagner, and they spent a large portion of their high school life handing out in the art room, drawing the characters they grew up with, dreaming of the luxurious life Frank Miller and John Byrne surely lived. Graduation day came and went, real-life was hideously introduced to these two young men and they drifted apart.

     LeadSlingerStudios was founded in 1999 by Jason “HappyJack” Meadows and it crept along with no real sense of urgency and very little forward movement for a few years. Doing freelance work for small companies, his own projects fell by the wayside. These companies and projects dissolved or never came to fruition and Jason’s creative fire started to burn out. Something was missing. Becoming a family man, the dream of working in the comic industry was drifting from his thoughts.
 

     During this time, Shawn “Hippy” Wagner was also starting a family while taking on the occasional freelance job. While he enjoyed illustrating the stories of others on the pages in front of him, they still didn’t satisfy his desire to tell his own tales. They exercised his drawing chops, but still left him wanting for more. Something was missing. He continued on, waiting for his big break.
 

     In 2005 a chance encounter at Shawn’s work place not only reunited the long time friends, it helped to rekindle their desires to make the type of comic books they would want to read. They got together at Jason’s home studio and that spark was reignited. LeadSlingerStudios was now the studio it was meant to be since its inception. Better together than they could ever be alone, the spark is now a fire in their bellies and the duo are striking out to make a name and reputation for themselves. This is their beginning.

The 'Slingers

Jason (l) & Shawn (r)

Then (1988)..............

and

...............Now (2007)

 (now with 90% less hair!)