EMERALD CITY CON

I will be a guest at this year's Emerald City comic-con. I am excited to go back this year and I hope it's a successful convention both personally and professionally. I will be at J-03 right next to the amazing team of Phil Hester and Brian Churilla. Hopefully some of their mojo rubs off on me. I will have the debut of my new (and 1st) sketchbook, Seventy-Five Vol.1 as well as more copies of the Villains trade. Both of those are smoking deals at only $5 a pop. I'll be doing $15 sketches and taking commissions as well. Another cool thing that I am a part of is that I contributed to a small series of concert type gig posters for the show. Along with poster artists Jesse LeDoux, Jeff Kleinsmith and comic artists Shane White, Stefano Gaudiano, and Dean Trippe. I'm in great company there. I can't wait to get up there and talk with some fans and hang out with friends. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello.


My "gig" poster will be available at the Clone Press booth #507 (click for full size)


Seventy-Five Volume 1. (click for full size)

UFC 110 Predictions

There are some fighters I like and I'm looking forward to seeing this weekend, so I thought I'd post some picks and uneducated analysis.

Big Nog vs. Cain Velasquez - I have never seen a fighter be able to take as much punishment as Nogueira, he'll take a beating while setting up his ground game or biding his time. I think his loss to Frank Mir had a lot to do to injury but with that said, I'm going with the slight underdog Velasquez. I have been impressed with Cain's wrestling ability and that will give him control of the fight. He threw Ben Rothwell and Cheick Kongo around the octagon like they were in a different weight class. Nog will be his toughest fight, but I think he can control the match and get a slight edge. So I'm going Cain by split decision.

Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva - Even though Wanderlei has lost several recent fights, they have all been against elite competition. Bisping has stepped up to elite competition once and got his ass handed to him by Dan Henderson. I think Bisping is always going to be the third of fourth best in his weight class in the UFC, but I don't think he can take Wanderlei, and he would get completely outclassed if he fought Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort or even Rich Franklin. I don't think Wanderlei takes this easily, but I do think he wins via TKO. Silva easily wins the battle of most awesome fight names as well. The Count should lose to the Axe Murderer.

George Sotiropoulos v. Joe Stevenson - I don't really care much about this match-up but I hope Sotiropoulos wins just because Joe Daddy is talking about getting another shot at BJ Penn soon and I think that would be hazardous to his health. BJ licked Stevenson's blood off his gloves after their last fight, a rematch would end even more badly for Joe.

Keith Jardine v. Ryan Bader - Much like Cain Velasquez has the wrestling pedigree to dominate a match, so does Ryan "Darth" Bader. Jardine has a weird stand up style that may give some fighters the fits, but Ryan will just take him to the mat and work him over. I'm thinking Ryan Bader by decision.

Stephan Bonnar v. Krzysztof Soszynski - I think The Polish Experiment takes this one and Stephan Bonnar is finally let go by the UFC. They have showed him tremendous loyalty thus far in his career, but he cannot seem to put together the wins. Soszynski by desision.

Brian Foster v. Chris Lytle - I'll go with the underdog and pick Foster. No real reason other than Lytle likes to stand and Foster is a wrestler, so he can take Lytle down and grind out a decision.

Goran Reljic v. C.B. Dolloway - CB is another local guy like Ryan Bader, but he does not have the talent that Bader does. I think Goran Reljic sends CB and his lip curl out of the UFC. Reljic by TKO.

Seventy-five Vol.1

Next month I will be releasing my first ever sketchbook. Seventy-Five V1 features 48 black and white pages of sketches, character designs and unpublished pages from the last couple years. In part it is a way to show work that I haven't posted before as well as a personal document for myself. The plan is to release this at The Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle and then sell them online after that. I am currently asking for pre-orders as well to help fund my trip up to Seattle, so for a limited time I am offering a special offer.

For $30 (Plus $5 s+h within the US) I am offering a copy of 75V1 as well as my normal 9x12 b/w commission. $50 for the usual 11x17 commission still applies but I will throw in a copy as well. So it's a free copy of the sketchbook for anyone who has been thinking of getting a commission from me. I can hand deliver both at the convention to anyone who is going, or they will be mailed out the first week of March. I am only taking about 15 spots for this so if you are interested please email or message me here.

Thanks again for all the support and kind words.
- Ryan

* For anyone just wanting the sketchbook, I can't take pre-orders yet but once I have the online sale info available, I will post it.

Thailand trip recap

After high school I went straight to work full time and except for a couple months of stretches, I have always worked full time or a school/work split or a school/stay at home with kids split. So when I had the chance to take my first ever "real" vacation in almost 15 years, I jumped at the chance. I spent 10 days in Thailand (and about 2 and a half on planes to and from) and it was awesome. We flew into Koh Samui and took a ferry over to Koh Phangan for three days where I witnessed the unholy abomination of excess known as the Full Moon Party. It's a world famous party among travelers all over the globe and I'm glad I got the chance to take it in, even it wasn't my cup of tea. I think I am too old for all of that now. I felt very much out of place.

After Koh Phangan we took a ferry over to Koh Tao where my girlfriend and her brother went scuba diving and I went into full relax mode. The two and half days on Tao were my favorite part of the trip and where I had a few moments of absolute peace and relaxation, something I can't ever remember having since I have been an adult. After Koh Tao we spent a night at Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui before flying back up to Bangkok for 3 days. In Bangkok we visited Khaosan Road and the Grand Palace. So I got a bit of everything there. All in all it was a great trip, I didn't do enough sketching while there but I'm putting a couple of them up on the Sketchjam over the next couple days. For next year I'm planning on a camping tip through Ireland, so if any Irish comic peeps out there want to let me couch surf, hit me up!

Me @ Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand.


Koh Tao, Thailand.


The Grand Palace complex, Bangkok, Thailand.


Koh Tao, Thailand.