Phoenix Comic-Con re-cap 2009

The Phoenix Comic-con was great again this year, the crowds still came out in droves but seemed to spend less which is to be expected with everyone freaking out about the economy. I also noticed a dramatic shift in how many more anime kids were there this year, I would guess it was 2-1 against the traditional comic fan. Thursday night was preview night and I got there a little late and didn't get set-up until about 7:45 with the hall closing at 9:00. After grabbing a beer with my brother next door to the con, I went over to my first panel at 10:00 which was the southwest sketch-off. A group of artists including my friends Scott Godlewski (currently my second favorite Hellboy artist ever), Ben Glendenning, Tony Parker along with Jonnie Alan, Tone Rodriguez, Travis Hanson and the Bushi Tales crew all gathered around a couple tables drawing whatever the crowd of 20 or so people wanted. I did a hideous Hawkgirl and a worse Black Canary, but a good time was had by all.

Friday was the first full day of the con and it was much slower than I expected, Sunday was actually more crowded but I guess it makes sense that people weren't going to miss work to attend the con. I did a few sketches on Friday but the best part was the panel I was on with The Bushi Tales guys, Daniel Davis, Andy Kuhn and Terry Moore on Indy Comic Creators. All the other guys had some great insight to share and I was just glad to be a part of it, and we had a good crowd of about 25-30 people I think.

Saturday was busy as usual, I had a great signing at the HERO Initiative booth with Andy, Terry, Tone, Tony and Tim Seeley where they sold a lot of the HULK 100 books for charity. Saturday night I went down to the Art Auction with Ben, his wife Julie and Tim where we witnessed Mike Kunkel do a great job as the auctioneer. He even flattered me by bidding up my piece, he's a swell fella that guy.

Sunday was busier than I expected and I had alot of fun. I made my goals for the weekend and got to meet and hang out a bit with some great artists. Over the weekend I met some of the coolest comic fans on the planet including a teenage girl that actually reads and loves american indy comics (and The Middleman in particular), she is the only person ever to bring up the fact that I did a short story in MM Volume 2. It always impresses me how humble and cool most artists are so a big thanks to everyone and a special shout out to Rob Osborne, Andy and Sean Galloway for being so encouraging to an artist who is still working on making a name for himself. Thanks to Flint for lunch too. See you all next year. Here is a batch of a few of the sketches I did.





This Hellboy I sketched on my tablecloth.

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Phoenix Comic-Con this weekend.

Also don't forget I will be doing sketches, taking commissions and I have copies of Villains, Hurricane Kids and Fata Obstant available.

The Hurricane Kids

The Hurricane Kids started out as an idea as far back as 2001 when I created the character of Johnny Levin for a character design course I was taking at The Art Institute of Phoenix. In 2005 I was introduced to writer Grant Alter and he helped me flesh out the characters and he became the writer on the book. We spent most of 2005 going back and forth with a couple publishers and we even self-published a 16-page black and white comic that year. After ideal publisher #1 ultimately passed and publisher #2 was unrealistic in what they wanted from us we decided to shelve the book and come back to it later. Well, it's now later and Grant and I plan to launch a Hurricane Kids web-comic this spring and this issue, The Hurricane Kids Super Color Spectacular is the launching pad for the series. It's 24 pages (17 new and exclusive pages) in full color. It will debut at the Phoenix Comic-Con next week, so stop by and check it out. If you can't make it out to the convention, this book, as well as Fata Obstant, is also available in North Phoenix at Spazdog Comics and online with the fine folks at www.khepri.com.

Fata Obstant

Fata Obstant (roughly translated means; The Fates Oppose It) is a project I have been thinking about and messing around with for over 5 years. Originally, back in 2003 or so I actually animated a few webisodes and had them online but they are now lost in the internet black hole. I always knew it was something I would want to work on someday, it just never took priority. This year when I vowed to do 24-hour comic day I knew I wanted to do something fun and something that I could print and hold onto for years to come. After thinking of a few different ideas I decided I would finally make a comic based on the world of Lola Lilly and Fata Obstant. So, starting at noon on Saturday one afternoon in October, and finishing 24 hours later, I had done it. Afterwards I re-lettered the book and toned it digitally and sent it off to the printers. I'm very happy with how it all turned out and I'm looking forward to sharing it with people at the Phoenix Con next week.

Saturday @ Atomic Comics

I will be at the Mesa Atomic Comics on Saturday January 17th promoting the Phoenix Comicon alongside Tony Parker and Scott Godlewski. Tony is a friend and a great artist, he recently completed a run on Warhammer from BOOM comics and Scott I will be meeting for the first time but he is an amazing artist with a great style. Come on by if you are in the area, I should have preview copies of my books for the Phoenix Comicon and we'll probably be sketching for charity or something like that.

Let's all re-cap

On Saturday morning I was a part of the "I have Issues" podcast (click on link to see me ramble on) where they interviewed me in anticipation of the upcoming Phoenix Comic-Con. We talked mostly about Super75Comics.com which is my self publishing label (calling it a company would be a stretch, so we'll stick with label for now). The Phoenix Comic-Con is very personal to me, originally I had issues with them, but we spoke about and settled our past disagreements and last year it was the best con I had ever done, it was both personally and professionally satisfying as well as financially satisfying. Let's not kid ourselves, I like meeting and chatting with everyone, but the money I make at one con will allow me to attend another one and let me continue to self-publish so it is as much a business as a way to meet and speak to a lot of cool fans and comic-lovers. Some of the things we touched on besides the con and super75comics (which I will be blogging about more next week), included the Sketchjam, Drink and Draws, Daniel Davis and Villains.

Villains was the book I drew and co-created for Viper Comics, it is still available by ordering through local comic shops, or directly at vipercomics.com. It was recently optioned by Universal for a major motion picture.

The Sketchjam is a wonderful conglomerate of insane talent all posting to a shared blog and kicking all types of ass in the process. I post there almost daily with new art.

The Drink and Draws are something I haven't scheduled in a while, but I'll get them started back up again in February and I will be contacting the appropriate people so we can back on track. I run the Arizona branch of the D&D's started by Dan Panosian, Jeff Johnson and Dave Johnson.

Daniel Davis is a wonderfully creative individual who is a great friend and does a beautiful web-comic called Monster Commute and knows more about being an independent cartoonist and artist than I ever will.

So if you haven't been to any of those sites, get clicking and check back later this week for more info on my appearance this weekend at Atomic Comics.

I Have Issues

Everyone has issues, but tomorrow night I will be a guest on the I HAVE ISSUES podcast, talking about the upcoming Phoenix Comic-Con. I've done a few audio podcast interviews, but this will be my first video podcast. A couple years back I did a 5 minute segment on a local news channel and I was nervous as hell, let's hope I'm better this time around. In the next 2 weeks I will be posting more info about my panels and other con events tied into the Phoenix Comic-Con, so check back often, it's going to be a lot of fun I think. I also posted a new character design up at THE SKETCHJAM!

Good Lord.

Another year has flown by, another year in which I had nothing new out, other than a self-published 24pg comic. Next year should be a lot better for me, career-wise. I'm putting together a proposal with a fantastic writer with a great hook, and good chances at a couple different publishers, all I need to do is deliver. I'm also writing a proposal with an amazing artist attached that I think may have a good shot landing somewhere, so I'm equally excited about that. With the added fact that every year I seem to pick up more and more freelance work, I have high hopes for 2009. 2008 had it's ups and downs, but it's all in the past now and it's time to move forward.

Here is something I posted yesterday to the Sketchjam, but I added some zip-tones to it last night.

Hop along...

Over to the Sketchjam, where I'm posting 3 new commissions today.

Guess who's back?

I hope everyone had a great holiday, I've been dying to post a couple of commissions I did earlier this month but I wanted to wait until they had been delivered to the buyers. So I'm going to post this Sinestro/Guy Gardner, this one was a bit tricky as it was difficult to show both characters "head-on" and this was the second version, there was actually a fully penciled and partially inked version I scrapped.

And because I can't wait to post this, here is a Hulk I did. I love drawing pin-ups of the Hulk.
I hope you like it Reid, it's on it's way to you later this week.

busy busy busy bee

I finally wrapped up the Fata Obstant and Hurricane Kids projects and got them off to the printer. Now for the rest of the month and January I will be working on a new pitch with a great writer that we are very excited about, I have a couple commissions lined up and I agreed to do an 8-page short for my friend Brian at Microbrew Comics. I had a blast working on The Hurricane Kids book but towards the end there, it was getting a bit tedious. I did all the artwork including colors and lettering and it was just too much, it will be a while before I agree to color any more stuff. So now I am just excited to get back to drawing after about 3 weeks of coloring. I'll be doing alot of stuff in conjunction with the Phoenix Comic-Con next month including a few panels so I'll be sure to post about that when everything is locked in. Also, a redesign and proper site for www.super75comics.com is up, so check that out for previews of my two new books.

Purple

Just a sketch, done after hours of coloring, to clear the pallette.

Groan.

So every year my kids' school has a winter fair, where they help raise money by selling tickets to kids and their parents and then we proceed to use those tickets to play games, buy little gifts, eat, etc. It's a way of getting around just paying cash for all of it, which I'm sure falls into another tax bracket, and possibly into illegal gambling, but anyway...... tickets. So one of the rooms gets filled with the previously mentioned trinkets like pencils, stones, chalk and the like and they sell them for like a buck (sorry, ticket) a piece. This year, instead of just buying and donating something typical, I decided to make up a batch of original, winter-themed sketchcards. I forgot to scan them, so please forgive the crappy cellphone pictures.




Hopefully they don't all wind up in the trash.

Roadblocks

Ugh. I have been busy coloring these Hurricane Kids pages and it really hammers home a couple points. I am not a colorist. I can get by, and sometimes I have fun at it, but I don't really enjoy it overall and it is very time consuming for me. I also realize that after the layout and inking stage, I don't have much energy left for the rest of the page, so I'm worried that the colors will show a lack of commitment. That said, it's something that needs to get done, so here are a couple things that have been getting me by;

Harry Potter Audio Books. I was reading on artist Ryan Stegman's Twitter about how he was going through all the books and I thought I would enjoy it. I've read them all already, and seen all the movies, but listening to the books while I work has been very enjoyable. I'm about 2/3rds through Chamber of Secrets and am very much looking forward to hitting the meat of the series in books 3-5.

Netflix Instant Watch feature. I can't really watch any movies while I work, but I listen to their selection of stand-up features. So far I have listened to Zach Galifianakis, Joe Rogan, the wonderful Sarah Silverman "Jesus is Magic" special and the very forgettable and unfunny Vince Vaughn Wild West Comedy Tour. Maybe I'll que up Eddie Murphy's RAW next, or put on a movie I've seen a bazillion times, just for the dialogue and background noise. The only real problem with this feature is that it's selection is limited, but I may venture into the documentaries next.

Anyone have any good ideas? I've tend to only listen to the Sidebar podcasts and I know there are a bunch of good other ones I'm missing out on.

Super75Comics.com

So I started a new site to feature just my self-published comics, like the 2 Hurricane Kids books, Fata Obstant and Hollow. It's bare bones but gets all the info across cleanly and nicely so check it out if you're interested. www.super75comics.com and I also put a link to it here and on the sketchjam. Here is a quick character design for an upcoming project.

BlackBolt!

A Blackbolt sketch card I did a few months back for The Hero Initiative/Rittenhouse Archives/Marvel is up on eBay right now. I would assume whoever bought the Fantastic Four cards that it came in is selling it, although the seller looks likes a dealer. Too bad that money doesn't go to the charity, but business is business I suppose. If anyone has any hook-ups into a sketchcard gig, email me or drop me a comment.

Monday

Here is a snippet of some panels I'm finishing up.



I just wrapped up the tones and letters for Fata Obstant, thanks to those of you who have shown interest in the book, it's not the best art of mine by far, but it was an experiment to do the best I could do with hourly deadlines, so I think it turned out great in that respect. I am now coloring the Hurricane Kids book, I have a little over 2 weeks and I need to color 15 pages so hopefully I can get cracking on that this week, but it may be hard with the holidays. I try not to work on comics on the nights I spend with my girlfriend, but I may have to do that as well, to her delight I'm sure.

The interesting thing about both of these books is all the pressure I am putting on myself. I am self financing and self publishing these books so I have a self imposed deadline as well. These are very much personal projects as well, I don't honestly expect to sell more than a couple hundred copies of the Hurricane Kids book, and much less than that of the Fata Obstant book. I surely will not make much money on them, but I hope they can finance another small book I want to do, then another and so forth. As much as I want to do a monthly (or 2) book, or always have a project lined up with a publisher, I will always enjoy doing these short one-shots as well.

After these self published ventures, I'm diving headfirst into working on 2 projects for other publishers. Both are still pitches at this point but one is with a writer with a proven track record and with some early interest already from a publisher. The other I'm actually going to be writing with a sickengly good artist, who if I do my job even half decently we should have no trouble finding a publisher. So, here's to hoping for a good 2009 all around, I hope it will be my biggest year yet.

Fata Obstant

No pressure, just thought I would offer this to anyone interested that cannot make it to the Phoenix Comic-Con in January, and yes, I misspelled "receive".

Silly blog, I still love you!

I have not forgotten about this blog, just been a little busy is all. Here is what I have cooking that has been keeping me busy.

The Hurricane Kids Super Spectacular! (January 2009); I have 2 pages to finish layouts/pencils on, then I have to ink/finish 13 of them and then color 17 pages. The cover is being finished this week by a wonderful colorist I met on Deviantart, I'll post it when it comes in.

Fata Obstant (January 2009); I need to illustrate the cover and add zip-tones to the last 12 pages and letter them.

After I wrap that up around the second week of December, it's on to my next project which, if everything goes according to plan, will be coming out next spring. I'll post more about that when things become concrete.

Weekend round-up

Halloween was fun I suppose, 2 of my kids refused to wear their costumes, so I was a bit bothered by that, but whatever, all ended well. I penciled 2 more pages and did up the cover to the Hurricane Kids book and got that sent off to the colorist, hashed out some stuff on another project, so creatively it was good. Watched Gone Baby Gone and was pleasantly surprised and emotionally moved by it, it was a good movie. Last night I watched 300 again, so this sketch came out of that, a cool-down after the real work.

Finally

Universal plans film adaptation of 'Villains' comic

My publisher, Co-Creator and Writer Adam and myself have been working on this for at least 18 months. Several things delayed the process but I'm glad it's finally happening. I'm very proud of the work Adam, Russ and I did on the book. An option by no means guarantees a movie, btu you can't have one without the other, so it's the first step.

Vote!

If you are a registered voter I urge you to vote. Not because I honestly believe in the system, or the fact that the electoral college is completely dated and useless, but because I want to believe my vote makes a difference. I really do. The first problem we have is that in today's day and age, a majority vote count is possible and would be more effective. Electoral votes, superdelegates, etc., all that crap could be done away with. The second problem is the way we vote, different states have different machines, in Arizona we have this ridiculous make a line form that seems could easily be loaded into a machine that is calibrated wrong and therefore ending up reading the vote wrong.



The electoral process needs a makeover in the worst way, it's painfully obvious. However, we must deal with the system in place so we do it. Go vote. Vote for who you honestly believe will do the best job. I'm not going to say who I voted for, but most people who know me will know who it is, and I'm proud of my candidate and my vote, even if I'm not sure I think it will really make a difference.

I love Zip-a-tone

Here is a low-res sample of how the final 24-hr book will look.

24 Hour Comics Day - Video

Shawn at Spazdog put together this little video, we have some more footage that may be put together into something else at some point as well.

24 Hour Comics Day - Recap

I woke up, just about noon cuz I knew that I had to be at Spazdog soon......
Something like that. After dropping my boys off with their grandparents, I headed to Spazdog comics where the event was happening. You can do a 24hr comics day anywhere, but it's much more fun and enjoyable with others around. I've done several events with Shawn at Spazdog, so I pretty much knew I was going to be treated excellently while there. I got in with about 10 minutes to spare and found out I was only the second one there so I started to worry that most people would not show up, but thankfully they were all running just a tad late. My friend Daniel was the last to arrive and had to set up his G5 as he does all his work digitally, so we officially started with I think 7 or 8 people at about 12:20 or so.

I felt really good the whole time and started out pretty strong realizing I could keep the quality I wanted and still finish the pages in under an hour. That pace was good as it let me have time to stretch my legs and snack, etc. I was penciling, inking and lettering even though I knew I would re-letter the pages digitally later. Freehand lettering and typography are 2 of my weakest points. I had a breakdown of "beats" in which I knew where story transitions needed to go, but I did not have a script or firm story planned outside of the first 2 pages.

The group we were with was pretty good, and at times became very sociable, unfortunately, because I knew I wanted to finish the project I often did not engage or seem sociable to everyone. Even when I was interacting I often did with my face buried in a page, so I apologize if I seemed rude in any way. Over the course of the night we lost most people as they packed it in and left, so by sun up, there were 3 of us remaining and Shawn asleep on his couch.

Glenn is a computer programmer from Tucson who created a pretty popular computer game in the early 80's called Rouge. He was the only other person to finish the full 24 pages. His story was very funny and reminded me of an early 80's children's book. We both finished early, a little after 10 am.
Daniel Davis rocks the world with his Steamcrow site and his goal was to pad his Monster Commute webcomic with future strips. He also proved to be both entertainment and mentor to many of the artists in attendance. He never fails to impress me with his infinite patience and generosity with his time when it comes to helping others and spreading his knowledge. He also helped keep the mood jovial throughout the night, he's a class act and a real grapple in his own right.

For my part, I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, finish a 23 page comic + cover in 24 hours and keep the quality to where I think I could publish it. I did both, and the story actually flowed together pretty well too. The no-sleeping part really wasn't all that bad, I never had a hard time focusing or staying awake, but I do think there are stronger pages and weaker ones, and maybe that has something to do with the time of night I did them. The hardest part was actually trying not to re-use too many standard shots (which I did alot of) and managing the aches in my hand from inking. I'll be posting the line-art pages over at the Sketchjam over the next few weeks but here is the cover + page 1. I will be adding grey-tones to these and re-lettering them prior to publication, which should be under my Super75Press banner in time for the Phoenix Comic-Con.

This was actually the last page drawn, I need to re-draw the girl since her angle is all wrong and the logo will be re-done of course.


Here is an example of how the final panels will look.

I made it

For those of you who do not follow my Twitter posts, I just wanted to follow up that I made it through 24-Hour-Comics day pretty painlessly and had a great time. I'll post a report, with some art, tomorrow. You can read a bit about it on the Spazdog blog as well.

24 Hour Comics Day

So tomorrow I am taking part in 24 Hour Comics day. The name says it all, from noon Saturday until noon Sunday I (along with hundreds, thousands?) of others all over the country (world? Egads!) will be attempting to complete a full 24 page comic in 24 hours. I have wanted to do this for a while, and so I thought this year I would take the plunge. I'm participating at my friend Shawn's comic shop, Spazdog comics, in north Phoenix. Shawn's store gives off a wonderful, laid back atmosphere (I refuse to write "vibe") and it's always a joy to do events there. I think they are expecting 12 or so people total so it will be a great environment. My friend Daniel, the great Steamcrow himself, may be documenting the event and we thought we might put together something for the Phoenix Cactus Comic-Con in January. What's better that trying to draw comics all night? Having me in your face asking you about it! I've got my character picked out, my template pages printed out and I'm ready to go. I cheated a bit and did a page breakdown today, so I have a general idea of what I want.

For example; Pages 1-5 intro, Pages 6-9 establish situation, Pages 10-20 FIGHT!, Pages 20-23 Wrap-up, Page 24 - Cover

So I'll be pencilling, inking and lettering a 24 page book in 24 hours. I know how fast I work, so I don't think the 1-page 1-hour deadline will be hard. Staying awake will be hard. So wish me luck, stop by the shop if you are in the area, and I'll post a report on Monday.

The Dark Knight

I've always loved the darker aspect of Batman, the meaner, grittier Batman. The ass-kicking detective, Miller's Batman. That was until I read Vol.1 of All-Star Batman and Robin last night.This was absolutely terrible, not one likable character in the book other than Alfred the butler. I think, as do other people judging by what I have read, that Miller is writing this book as a joke. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture here, maybe I'm not smart enough to "get it", but not even Jim Lee can save this for me. After reading it I got nostalgic for the original Dark Knight, so I sketched this. Colors and digital zip-a-tone done in Photoshop.

Page Evolution 2

Here are a few screenshots of how I worked on a page from last year. Ideally I would use this process for every project, but I don't have a large format printer, and I'm not keen on paying money to have the bristol printed out. Anyone wants to donate a 11x17 printer, let me know.

Hurricane Kids blog.

On the The Hurricane Kids blog I've posted about how the creation of page 1 came about, including showing all 3 versions and the reasons I made the changes. It's a good read I think, so please check it out and feel free to leave some comments.

New Sketches

Here is a Punisher sketch I did last night.



Here is a sketch of a character I'm planning on doing a 24-Hour Comic Day book about. The rules of 24HCD say that you should go in with no preconceived ideas or characters, but I think that's crazy, in my case at least, where I focus more on superhero and adventure comics. I'm pretty excited about doing it though and I hope it all works out.

HULK commission

Here is a Hulk commission I did on a blank Marvel Secret Invasion cover. The surface on these is absolutely terrible to work on, much worse than the Hero Initiative covers for some reason. I hope the client is happy, I always worry about that. The original is in black and white, I put some quick digital colors over it for the web.

My HULK cover on eBay

My HULK cover for The Hero Initiative is up for bid on eBay. THE HERO
INITIATIVE has been established to provide monetary assistance to former comic
book creators requiring supplemental health, medical, and quality-of-life
assistance. This really is a great charity and has helped numerous comic
creators who typically do not have health insurance or 401k's when they need it.
I'm very proud to help them in any way I can, but it'll only help if my cover
sells, so if you're interested and can spare the donation, click over to the auction and feel good about what you're doing as well as getting a great piece of original art.

Diet. Day2

Not drinking sodas definitely sucks, unsweetened tea and water would not be my first 2 choices of beverages in an ideal world. My legs are a bit sore from the bike rides, 5 miles yesterday, 5 more this morning but it will only get easier, and I managed just fine thanks. I think I might be able to stick with this one. Here is a bit of art, the first page of the new Hurricane Kids book I'm working on. See it full size at The Hurricane Kids blog.



also be sure to check out my daily (almost) art posts at The Daily Sketchjam!

The Hurricane Kids

My creator-owned book The Hurricane Kids which is written and co-created by Grant Alter will be making a comeback in January 2009 with an all new Hurricane Kids Super Spectacular. I've rebooted the blog for it and put up some pin-up art we just received. Check it out, show some love.

Time to make a change.

About 3 and a half years ago, the ex, the boys and I decided to switch to a Vegan diet. I only went Vegetarian and even then, I still ate fish, so I didn't adhere the way they did. I stuck to this diet 100% for about 2 years. No chicken, pork or red meat. During that time I took tremendous pride in my self control to not slip up. While not on that diet anymore, I've decided it's time to get back into that mindset of self-discipline. Starting next week, I will start the first ever diet (for weight loss) in my entire life. Growing up I was a skinny little twig, but eventually, the lack of physical activity, poor eating habits and beer drinking caught up with me.

So the plan is, only Cheerios with 1% milk for breakfast, salads with balsamic dressing for lunch and a normal dinner, plus riding my bike 5 miles at least 4 times a week. I don't expect miracles, but I currently eat crappy for breakfast most days and really bad for lunch almost every day. I'm also cutting out sodas, so that will reduce my calorie intake by about 900 a day. It's all water and unsweetened tea from here on out. I'll keep you all posted as I'm sure you will be following with unimaginable excitement.

Here are a couple new sketches, I'm currently working on The Hurricane Kids special for January 2009 and looking for new freelance opportunities.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #1

#1 - Writer/Director.

Not a huge shock, someone already called it in the comments (Rory?). I believe that most people who enjoy creating, writing and drawing comics really just enjoy telling stories in a visual medium, which is the same thing as film, only with a much lower budget. I've never gotten past page 15 on any screenplay, and I've never directed, but I like to boss people around. If T.V. shows like Saving Grace can be greenlit and movies like Bangkok Dangerous still get made, then I figure I still have a shot.

Favorite movies of all time... True Romance and The Departed. I'm easy like that. Sorry to be so anticlimactic.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #2

#2 - Travel Writer/TV Host

Ever since the onslaught of travel shows on channels like Discovery, Travel Channel, National Geographic, etc. I’ve always thought about how that would be the greatest job in the world; global travel on someone else’s dime. The only problem is making a show unique and I’ve found 2 ways to do that. The first is that I travel solo, couch surfing with local artists and writers around the world, documenting my travels that way, each week introducing a new and passionate spirit that I meet. The other way, and one I see as lacking in any current show, would be me traveling the globe with my kids in tow, documenting the reactions to all these places from both my own, and their perspectives. Again, that could be affordable as well; we could stay in hostels, people’s homes, etc. I think the family type show would work well on Discovery Kids or PBS or something. If anyone knows any producers or anybody that could get this rolling, let me know. I’m down.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #3

#3 - Successful Independent Comics Creator

This one is fairly straight forward. I want to be able to live well off of my own creations. I don't produce nearly enough work right now but a large part of that is due to the fact that I work 40 hours a week (or more) at a day job. Critically my book VILLAINS did very well, but financially, it was a loss for everyone involved. That may change in the future with other media options, but for now, that's the facts. I'm aware of some creators that live off of their books, but I know many more that have to do the same thing I'm doing. I'll have to keep plugging away and produce more work more frequently to get noticed, but it would be a great career to have, I have no doubts about that.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #4

#4 - Comic Book Publisher

This is both selfish and creative. It would give me an outlet to put out my own work and other work I feel needs more attention. In my dream scenario I would be a successful publisher and success can be defined both creatively and financially, and I would need both. Financial success generally means that my books would be getting into the hands of the most amount of people, and that would be the goal. I have self published 2 books so far, both with just a small handful of a print run. In 2007 I published the SketchJam sketchbook along with 4 other artists and it was a mixed experience. I did not anticipate all the costs involved in dealing with artists from other countries, or all the headaches involved with wrangling and designing a book featuring 5 different artists. Early this year I self-published an issue of a book called HOLLOW, this time I did it solo and was much happier with the results. In January 2009 I will putting out a new Hurricane Kids book as well, with a new story by Grant Alter, art by me, with hopes of drumming up interest in that property again. I love the idea and creative control of it, I just hate the marketing end of it, trying to get people to pick it up and give it a chance. In my dream job as a publisher, some rich old man with nothing to do but throw money away will give me money to pay creators, a marketing department and offices. No need to half-ass it. There are plenty of publishers that make it, and many that don't, but it is an intriguing business and something I think about often.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #5

Totally and shamelessly ripped off from High Fidelity (a top 5 John Cusak movie, in at #5, with Better off Dead at #1 with Grosse Point Blank a close second and Say Anything in there at #3. The #4 pick goes to One Crazy Summer). So anyway, my top 5 dream jobs;

#5 - Mixed Martial Artist

I have become obsessed with MMA over the last few years. One of the bandwagon fans who got on board with everyone else, I'll admit that. I'll watch as many fights as I can and I follow the websites and I try to educate myself on the sport. I love watching a good knockout as much as the next guy, but the beauty in watching a submission expert make someone tap is even more exciting. I'm a bit old to start training now, but I would if I could find an affordable gym. Check out www.mmalinker.com for a wide selection of fights. My favorite fighter and my pick for best pound for pound is probably a motivated and in shape B.J. Penn.

Some guys in their 30's want to be rock stars, I want to make someone tap out by armbar.

Let's get to know each other...

For you handful of viewers, yes all 3 of you, I've decided to touch base and let you know what I'm up to, where to find me online, etc. A progress report if you will. I figure if Warren Ellis can do it every once in a while, then I surely can.

Name: Ryan Cody
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Currently Working on: 11-page short for CAKE V2. and Villains V2.
Upcoming Work: 8- page short in Popgun Volume 3 (December 2008?)
Favorite Tools: My wacom for layouts and coloring, photoshop, red pencil, bristol, Pentel Brushpens, and assorted pens.

My Daily Sketchblog
My Gallery on DeviantArt
Me on Myspace
Me on Facebook (?) I don't know how to find my direct link...
Me On Twitter

email me at hurricanekids(at)gmail

Feel free to please post your info in the comments section, let's get to know each other a little better. The we can save the world with harmony and song.

Check it daily for new sketches, started it off with a quick digital sketch of Wildcat.

Happy Birthday

A very special Happy Birthday to my son Ash who turned 10 today, and also Barack Obama who Ash was thrilled to learn he shares the date with. I share my birthday with a bevy of talented folks including;

George Thorogood
Val Kilmer
Steve Rude
Ben Kingsley
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Paul Westerberg
Nicholas Sparks

This looks great.

Regrets?

I am wishing I was actually in San Diego right now. I should have gone.

Comic Creator Survey (I stole it)

Seen via Radiomaru, stolen from Jake.

PART ONE: COMICS PERSONALITY TYPE Name: Ryan Cody Age: 32 Sign: Capricorn

Introverted or extroverted?
Very introverted I would say, which makes networking and talking with other creators very difficult in an industry where that contact is easily 85% of getting work.
What are your top 5 procrastination tools? Internet, TV/Movies, reading comics, my kids and my girlfriend.
What gets your juices flowing? Excitement over a new project, or reading a really, really well done comic. Also, if I'm being honest, positive feedback from my peers or those I see as better than me in my field.
PART TWO: COMICS CONSUMER What kind of comics do you like to read? Mostly American superhero and crime comics. that's what I grew up on, that's what I still love today.
What kind of comics do you dislike? Most manga, just because it's not for me, I never got into it. Also, I've never really gotten into alternative comics much either, just from lack of exposure to them or lack of effort into getting them.
When were you first introduced to comics? Mid to late 80's. Right after the creative boom of 1986.
What were some of your first comics?
Spider-Man, X-Men and Excalibur. I absolutely loved Claremont and Davis' first 7-8 issues of Excalibur.
When did you first get "The spark"? When Liefeld starting going absolutely apeshit on New Mutants. The energy and craziness he put in there was very infectious to a 12-year old boy. Couple that with Lee and Silvestri exploding and I knew what I wanted to do. Years later, Mike Oeming did they same thing to me to get me re-interested in comics.
What is your favorite animated movie? Probably The Incredibles. The scene in the plane with Elastigirl and the kids is flat out one of the best, most tense scenes I have ever seen. Right up there with Will Smith yelling at Ben Vereene on Fresh Prince. I'm not joking either. I really enjoyed Akira and Steamboy as well.
What is your favorite anime series? Dragonball. I still love the team, but not a team, mentality of that show, as well as the utter destruction these guys caused. Non anime would be the Bruce Timm/Glen Murakami Batman & JLU stuff.
PART THREE: COMICS CREATOR What kind of comics do you make? I try not to limit myself to superhero stuff, although everything leans that way. I change my mind constantly, but never stray too far from my comfort zone. I want to make stuff that's accessible and fun, and maybe a bit political or something that expresses my views on environment and society, but without any type of preachiness.
When did you first start making comics? When I was around 13.
What are your favorite comic artists right now? Eric Canete, Mignola, Jeff Smith, Darwyn Cooke, Mike Oeming, Jim Lee, and a whole bunch of new guys like Toby Cypress and Kristian Donaldson. Anything that's exciting and doesn't look exactly like a photograph.
What are your main influences in comics? Mike Mignola, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Oeming. Artistically? See above.
Who do you admire in comics?
See above, and anyone who has the balls to be a publisher in today's market, including self-publishers.

Also, some new artwork I found in a box from 2006, and an Elephant guy, an idea I stole from Ottley or Walker from Invincible.

San Diego Comic-Con 2008

It's time for the annual geekgasm known as Comic-Con, and I for one, will NOT be going. I've gone the last 3 years and short of some amazing announcement happening in the next week or so, I'll be passing this year. I have nothing new to promote with Viper Comics or Villains, and I don't have a booth to sell copies of Hollow or commissions at. I don't really like the crowds, and the trip is financially a burden, with nothing new to show for it. Seeing other creators and networking is always a plus, but I don't think it outweighs the hassle. If you, dear reader, are going, let me point you towards a few people and places I was looking forward to seeing, for your amusement.

Steamcrow Press for the best books, atmosphere and monsters around.
Viper Comics (Publisher of my comic book Villains), wonderful group of creators.
Image Comics, all around great publisher of great books.
Khepri retail booth, get your graphic novels here, the best retailer of indy books out there.
ArtJumble/CAKE booth, pick up your copy of CAKE Vol1.
Pixu, looking to be the best book to be released @ SDCC.

And search out local AZ creators Jeff Mariotte, Bret Blevins, Tony Parker, Ben Glendinning and Johnnie Allan (Stykman). All great guys, all deserving of wider recognition. Sorry if I missed anyone, my brain is a little hard boiled right now.

If I did make it out to San Diego this year, it would probably just be for Friday and Saturday, I would really like to make it out to the drink and draw out there.

digital girl

After working for hours last night on freelance and anthology stuff that I can't show yet, I capped the evening with a quick digital sketch. Pencilled in Painter, colored in Photoshop.

Weekend Comics

I recently paid my $137 in fines to the Phoenix Library (ironically using the money they paid me to teach a series of seminars on comic book art), and yes I said $137. That got me free and clear of over a years worth of late fees, and one very used copy of Ultimates Vol.2. I was very happy to do it though, as it got me and my boys back on track to library good karma. In the past week I have checked out and read, a volume of Noble Causes, the Invincible Hardback, Paul Pope's Batman 100, a volume of Ultimate Spider-Man and most notably, the first Immortal Iron Fist volume by Fraction, Brubaker, Foreman and Aja. I loved every inch of that book, their legacy of the Iron First is fantastic comics.

I also picked up CAKE vol1. on Friday and chatted with those guys a bit. Fun release party, great book, good beer, and I only wish I could have stayed longer. Big congratulations to those guys for having the balls to take on such a big self-publishing venture.

cha-cha-changes....

If anyone actually uses the www.super75press.com domain name to get here, then please note that I'm not renewing it, so please change your bookmarks to http://ryancody.blogspot.com/

CAKE!

I'm part of a wonderful collective of online talent in the ArtJumble blog, and tonight in central Phoenix there is a release party for the first volume of CAKE, an anthology featuring local Artjumble members to the Phoenix area. I know some of these guys through friends, some through the jumble and some through freelance work, but they are a great group of guys, so go on out if you're local, I'm going to try my best to make it out there tonight.



Also, I will be participating in CAKE Vol.2 as well, My story will feature a character of mine called Cara del Fantasma, and I'm pretty excited to get working on it. Here are some quick character sketches and assorted other artwork done this week. Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm doing a lot of freelance work lately that I cannot show, but I'll try and squeeze more comic stuff in soon.

I used wordle to create an image map using key words from this blog. Obviously, in the 2+ years I've been posting here, the manga discussion from last month had the most impact and conversation.

I really need to work on a regular comic again.



click to enlarge and go to the wordle site.

HULK #1 100 Covers

My HULK sketchcover I did for the HERO Initiative is one of 30 unveiled @ Comic Book Resources (CBR) today. Check it out.

sketch for Tuesday.

A few quick notes to finish out the week.

A follow-up to the earlier post, I never meant to imply a manga vs. American comics debate, I was just posting about how I personally found it a bit depressing that there are very few kids who seem to want to draw American comics anymore. It's my opinion and a reflection, and not a condemnation on one form or another, and getting kids to draw in any way, is a great thing in today's age of computer games and entertainment bombardment. I really like teaching the kids who seem interested and want to learn.

Now, onto other things. Set your Tivo, DVR, VHS, Betmax, whatever you have and be sure not miss the premiere of THE MIDDLEMAN on ABC Family on Monday night. Based off of the Viper Comics series of the same name, I'm proud to call Les and Javi friends and very proud of them to have gotten this show made. I contributed a very small bit to the 2nd Middleman volume in a back up feature called "Legends of Middleman" where I illustrate a WW2 version of the Middleman. It was my first published work and while it has many flaws, will always have a soft spot in my heart. So don't miss out, if I recall correctly Javi has an Emmy for working on LOST, so he knows what he's doing.

Manga killed the Comic Book Artist

First off, I do not dislike manga in all it's forms. I read some when I lived in Japan and despite it's flaws, I still have a soft spot for old Dragonball cartoons and comics and I think Battle Angel Alita was wonderful sixteen years ago.

For the past week (and for the next three weeks) I have been teaching a series of lectures at the Phoenix Library branches. The lectures/workshops are designed to introduce teens to proper sketching and gesture drawing, basic anatomy and storytelling techniques. Over the course of the last five classes and roughly fifty kids, one, only one, has admitted to reading American style comic books, and many of them, probably about 50% do not read any types of comics.

The breakdown generally goes like this, a 70/30 girls to boy ratio and 99% to 1% manga reader to american comic book reader. They all ask about Fruit Baskets and Naruto and they all draw in a strictly manga style. They also have a hard time understanding what I am trying to teach them, because I don't draw the way they like to draw, even though I reinforce the fact that the rules and guidelines are universal.

At the end of the class I recommend books by Scott McCloud and Will Eisner, and they all ask me if I've read "How to Draw Manga". There is good manga and good manga art out there, but the problem is I don't see any kids out there right now, at least in my neck of the woods, learning how to draw like Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Ron Garney, Ryan Ottley or Eric Canete. They all want to draw gigantic eyes, tear drops on the forehead and spiky hair.

Bottom line, I don't hate manga; but if I'm part of the last generation of comic artists influenced by Kirby, Toth, Lee and Mignola, then we are in sad, sad shape, because I am neither that good nor influential.

Please deposit hate mail and support for the manga art form in the comments section. Here is a recent commission.
*edited to remove a line that makes me sound very rude and conceited, my apologies.

Summer Comic Workshops

I'll be giving workshops all this month at the branches of the Phoenix Library for ages 10-18. We'll be covering anatomy, sequential storytelling and drawing construction. If they have been to a previous workshop, this will not cover anything new however.

It's time to make some changes.....

image courtesy of my good friends @ STEAMCROW PRESS

New Stuff

Here is a cover for the War Heroes cover competition, I'll link to it when the voting begins.


Here is a quick sketch of the old Milestone/DC Comics character HARDWARE


and here is a quick re-imagining of B. Clay Moore's Mid-Nite Hour character from his Battle Hymn series.


I have been keeping extremely busy and will be so throughout the month of June, but I'll still try and post as often as I can.