3 Talented fellas and me.

Taken this past weekend, me, Artist Andy Kuhn, Artist/Writer/Editor Shannon Denton & Writer John Lewis.

More con sketches

Monster Commute Commission

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".