I am super excited about heading up to Seattle this weekend for the Emerald City Comicon. I'll be sitting at table H. I will have copies of the Hurricane Kids Color Special, Fata Obstant (my 24 hour day comic), and also very limited quantities of the Villains: Thick as Thieves trade (only $7) as well as The Sketchjam Vol.1 sketchbook. I'll be doing con-sketches and taking commissions as well, email or leave a message if you are interested in getting on the list early. The HERO Initiative will also be selling a very limited edition ECC sketchbook that I contributed to, with a color cover by Time Sale.
For more information on ordering The Hurricane Kids or Fata Obstant, please visit Super75comics.
I'll also be able to see one of my best friends in the world and hopefully eat some good Japanese food. I'll be sure to post a con report afterwards and possibly squeeze some art in before I leave, if possible
My kids go to a wonderful school that teaches in an alternative way with great, but sometimes non-traditional results, overall I think they are getting a much better education than in most city run schools, especially the schools in the neighborhoods they live in. They are taught to be free-thinkers and immersed in the arts, but if I have one problem with the school is that it often feels as though they do not take the parent's schedule into account on any decisions they make. On any given month, the school will have 2 to 3 events taking place a week, either on the weekend or on one of the weeknights (and many times during the school day) that I feel bad if I can't attend. They are a public charter school, yet rely heavily on lots of fund raising and direct money from the parents to keep going, both are hard for me to do currently. They also tend to take multiple days off for minor holidays (2 days off for President's Day for example), and have a half day once a week which greatly affects my work schedule on a weekly basis. I just think that they sometimes forget that most parents have to work full-time and cannot alter their schedules so frequently.
I bring that up because my oldest son is in Little League this year for the first time and has been having practice twice a week, at 2-hours a clip. This week it's been upped to 3 times at 2.5 hours each. So 7.5 hours on baseball practice this week. Maybe it's just me, but that seems excessive. It's fun for him I'm sure, but I also have two other kids with me and that's 7.5 hours that affect their lives as well. Maybe it will return to something normal when the season actually starts, and maybe I just don't know enough about Little League.
Sorry for the rant, it's manageable, I'm just noticing a trend over the last several years where everyone believes if it's "for the kids" then it should be plausible and expected that the parents drop everything else and devote all their time to those events, which in reality and in today's economy, is not always possible or practical. Here is some art, as always, click to go big.
An image for a project I am developing with Scott Godlewski, not much to talk about right now, but I think this turned out really well so I wanted to post it since most of the stuff I have been doing lately has been coloring his linework and it's stuff I don't want to post yet. So far it's been an excellent experience and a ton of fun. Pencils by Scott, Inks and Colors by me. Click the image for full size.
click for larger version.
This is my contribution to the Hero Initiative's Emerald City Con Sketchbook. It'll be very limited, featuring amazing artists, and has a knockout cover by Tim Sale. Obviously it will go on sale at the con, and I suppose online if there are any remaining copies. This was a fun little pin-up to do and it is of Lola Lilly, the lead character from my Fata Obstant book. I'll probably include this image in the pitch packet when I get around to pitching this series as well. As always I love helping out HERO and they have been very good to me and given me great exposure, all while helping a great cause.
click to make big.
Probably my favorite character from the books, although I'm not sure why, is Remus Lupin. So here he is against his nemesis Fenrir Greyback. I honestly really like this one, I think I may turn it into a print for the Emerald City Con. Also a Voldemort sketch.
Oh! Hop over to the SKETCHJAM! to see a pencils/inks/colors process shot of the Lupin piece.
While the lack of paying commissions and paying work continues, I will continue sketching Harry Potter characters and I don't care how many odd glances other grown adults give me. Here is Sirius Black and Kingsley Shacklebolt who, along with Moody and Remus Lupin, are the coolest of the Order of the Phoenix.
click for full size.
I originally pencilled in Lupin in place of Sirius, the pencils for this piece can be found on The Sketchjam! You can see how I made some changes in the inking stage. If you guys want me to stop, all you have to do is pay me to draw something else.....
Huh? What? Two posts in one day? You guys are special, and you deserve it. Coming in March Popgun Vol.3 comes out from Image Comics. I will have a short story in it called King's Hollow. It's a follow up to my self published one-shot Hollow from last year. It's written with black and white artwork by me and color art by my pal Anthony Nixon. I found Anthony through Deviantart and he agreed to do the long-delayed and still in limbo Villains Vol.2. I love his stuff and was really glad he agreed to color this for me. So run out and have your comic shop pre-order it for you. It's not cheap, but should be around 400 pages, full color and check out this list of creators!
Alison Acton
Joshua Agerstrand
Laura Allred
Anjin Anhut
Kris Anka
Amanda Becker
Peter Bergting
Patricio Betteo
Danilo Beyruth
Sam Bosma
Dan Brereton
Olaf Brill
Dennis Brown
Antonio Campo
Dominique Carrier
Jim Charalampidis
Bobby Clark
Ryan Cody
Dave Collinson
Dave Curd
Mike Dawson
Ben DeRosa
Michael Dialynas
JEIK Dion
Juan Doe
Becky Dreistadt
Nathan Edmondson
Ulises Farinas
Ray Fawkes
Gary Fields
Fonografiks
Frank Gibson
Vassilis Gogtzilas
Zac Gorman
George Gousis
Paul Grist
Scott Hallett
Jason Hanley
David Hopkins
Jason Ibarra
Joelle Jones
Janet Kim
Huseyin Celal Koc (a.k.a. Celor)
D.J. Kirkbride
Nic Klein
Adam P. Knave
Peter Krause
Edward Kwong
Erik Larsen
Robbie Lawrence
Johann "Ullcer" Leroux
Maximo V. Lorenzo
Thomas Mauer
Derek McCulloch
Sam McKenzie
Tara McPherson
Alberto Mielgo
Robb Mommaerts
Paul Montgomery
Chris Moreno
Matt Moylan
Ralph Niese (aka, Donald Hello)
Anthony Nixon
Josh Parpan
Jeff Powell
Isam Prado
Justin Randall
Stephen Reedy
Jamie S. Rich
Rachelle Rosenberg
David Rubin
Matteo Scalera
Douglas E. Sherwood
Guillaume Singelin
Eric Skillman
Mark Andrew Smith
Eric Stephenson
Alisa Stern
Amy Stern
Chris Stevens
Frank Stockton
Andre Szymanowicz
Gregory Titus
Ron Turner
Christian Ward
Daniel Warner
Connor Willumsen
Brian Winkeler
Michael Woods
Derek Yu
K.I. Zachopoulos
Tonci Zonji
Jim Zubkavich
edited by
MARK ANDREW SMITH
D.J. KIRKBRIDE
cover by
TARA MCPHERSON Crazy, I know. Go do it. Love it.
