Fanfare Recap

Well, it's been over a month since I posted anything new on here mainly because of preparation for the Detroit Fanfare in Dearborn and trying to beat deadlines on a few projects.  At any rate, here's the lowdown on this years Detroit Fanfare:

First and foremost, this was the most enjoyable time I've had as an artist at this show.  That's not saying I didn't enjoy myself the other times, quite the contrary in fact.  After a better than expected first year, a disappointing, yet fun second year, the third time is definitely a charm as the promoters, in my mind, have finally found a balance that makes their show unique.  In other words: there was definitely something for everyone here.  My only complaint would be that there just weren't enough vendors, and vendors with big ticket items such as variant comics, collectibles, trades.

Whereas Motor City Comic Con attracts audiences by having celebrities from the A-D lists, Fanfare is ultimately about comics, the artists and creators, which obviously works for me.  And the media guests they do have, are related to comics or comic related media.  This years main guests were Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite, Spawn, and Gambol from the Dark Knight, just to name a few) and David Prowse, the main who played the physical aspect of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films.

Overall the show was very well organized, the staff was incredibly accommodating, and the layout of the show was ideal.  Everything was easy to navigate around and traffic was laid out to where people had to pass by tables to get to their next destination, so people were always stopping by to chat and whatnot.  Sunday they even had trick-or-treating for kids, and I even got up earlier to go out and pick up some candy that no doubt rotted their teeth a bit, but hey, it's part of being a kid.  Right?  Right.

For this show I released a Walking Dead print that is limited to only 30 prints:

It didn't do gangbusters, but I didn't mind; I sold a bit of EVERYTHING.  My Avengers prints were still as popular as when I had them at the last show, sold a few sketch cards, and I even did a couple commissions to boot (something I don't really care to do to be completely honest).  Overall, I was quite happy with the sales aspect.  Definitely one of my best shows.

Also released at the show was the short story book "Voices from the Deadworld" (pictured above, along with my contribution) which is written by Gary Reed and features 30+ short stories and illustrations to accompany them from artists such as myself, Bruce Gerlach, Bill Pulkovski, Jay Shimko, Alex Buechel, John Marroquin, and many others.  I have 3 copies (signed by Gary Reed) on hand, so if anyone wants one, drop me a line.

Overall, this years Fanfare was fantastic, and I truly cannot wait to see what they have in store for next year.  Here are some random pictures from the event:

 Muppet Trooper platoon.

 Muppet Troopers!

 The lovely Heather Nolan, myself, the Dark Knight, and Hellboy with his horns and the left hand of doom.

 Bane took time off from destroying Gotham to show up to the after party on Saturday night.

 Iron Man.  Get it?

 I'm not ready.

I passed.

That's it for now, but I have more stuff to talk about next time and a few more updates on some projects I have on the horizon.  

Til' next time...

Catching Up.

It's been about a month since I've last posted so I figured I'd give an update on a few things.

First of all, October 26-28 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn is the 2012 Detroit Fanfare Comic Convention. Yours truly will be there with some a couple new prints and some other goodies. Others in attendence will be fellow artists Andrew Shirey, Josh Werner, Ted Woods, Bruce Gerlach, and Jay Shimko among others. It'll be a good time, plus Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) will be there as well, so come on out. Plus, it's only $15 to get in the door. That's basically a steal. Why not? You can find all the details at http://www.detroitfanfare.com

A couple weeks ago, Motor City Sketch, the artist group I'm part of, was in Grosse Pointe for the Art and Sole Fest doing sketches for charity raising money for the Belle Isle Aquarium. We did our own sketches, plus if anyone wanted portraits done, we did that too. We raised around $1200 and all around it was a good time. Next up, I have a bunch of sketches that I started at the Art and Sole Fest, and continued afterwards. I'll also have these on hand at Detroit Fanfare:

Can you tell which superhero franchise I like the most? Tough one, I know. I'll be working on stuff full-throttle until Fanfare so I'll try to post updates here and there until then. Until then...

DEADWORLD Return Cards

Here are my 6 approved AP's from the upcoming Deadworld trading card set from Breygent Marketing. If anyone is interested in one (or all six!) let me know!

DEAD WORLD

Well, here are my approved cards for the upcoming Dead World trading card set from Breygent Marketing. I did 31 cards, so obviously some weren't approved, but that's ok. It was a fun set to work on and of course with each project I tackle, a learning experience.

MEGA POST

Sorry it's been a while since I've last updated this. I've been swamped with freelance and the dark cloud known as deadlines. But alas, I figured I have quite to show so why not do a mega post of everything I've been working on. So, without much more rambling, let's get to it, shall we?

I recently wrapped up on two sets for Unstoppable Cards, the first, The Avengers 50th Anniversary (above), and Night of the Living Dead (below). I signed up for 30 cards and decided to do them all in black and white and I was very happy with how they turned out....until I was asked to add color. You see, the card stock wasn't necessarily in my favor this time around as it's very glossy, read: very smooth. In the past, I would ink everything and wait a day or so to add color, yet the blacks would still run and everyone would end up looking like they have 5 o'clock shadow. I didn't get around to scanning the new ones in due to time constraints, and I'd like to remember the cards looking how I originally intended. Not to say that I learned my lesson from the past by adding color, I did it in limited quantity this time around, I just like how these turned out. Moving on...

The second set I did for Unstoppable Cards was 'Night of the Living Dead' and I for one can't resist drawing the undead. These were really fun to do, especially the title puzzle I did, pictured first. Sorry about the quality of the picture, by the way; my scanner wasn't really agreeing with me at first so for the sake of time, I just put them all together at once, but you get the picture. Anyway, for this set I focused soley on the zombies, because that's why we watch these movies, right? These were very fun to do. And like the problems I had with 'The Avengers', glossy card stock reared it's ugly head, but I decided to do all of these in black and white, with a little grey....and of course, red, so that helped overall. Next up are two small sets I did for Unpleasant Dreams, Britannia (10), and Dead Sexy (5).

Both featuring my Achille's heel for drawing: women. Drawing women has always been my curse because they always end up looking like dudes with boobs. Considering that, I think they turned out pretty well. And lastly, for the moment, I finally got a chance to work with Breygent Marketing on two sets I'm very excited about: Transformers and Deadworld. Robots and zombies. Awesome. Below are the 24 cards I did for Transformers:

I opted to draw the 'formers from the Michael Bay movies. They were incredibly challenging because of how complex the designs are, but I'd be lying if I said they weren't the funnest cards I've ever worked on and I'm VERY happy with how they turned out. I have a few AP's (artist proofs) from this set, and once I get them done I'll post them. I don't have the Deadworld set done yet, but that deadline is rapidly approaching and I'll post them here, of course. Well, that's it for now. I have some more stuff, including some new longboards I designed, but I need to get the images from work, so that'll have to wait until next week. Until then...

Motor City Comic Con 2012

Hey everyone, I meant to post a follow up earlier, but I've been pretty busy with freelance, work, and other personal issues. Nonetheless, MCCC this year was a great success. The show seems to be profitable for most artists and the people who attend seem to really embrace the work all the artists put out. This year I shared a table with Ted Woods who had his first MCCC experience. Every show you are part of is a different experience as you don't know what people are into at the moment or how they will respond to the art in general, but I've always done very well in Novi and this year was no different. Doing shows like these is a learning experience; seeing what other artists have is a huge inspiration, how to display your work, what work you are displaying, etc. I've taken away mental notes that will no doubt help me in the future; I just need to do more shows in general. The Avengers prints I had on hand were a HUGE success and people loved them. If anyone is interested in snagging one, or all four, let me know. They're 11x17, and you can get one for $10 or the whole set for $35. Here are a few select pictures of some of the costumed guests on hand: As you can see there were some pretty colorful costumes. I personally loved the Bane outfit; I gotta get that mask. In other news I'm lined up to be a part of quite a few sketch card sets that will be coming out in the near future including The Avengers 50th Anniversary and Night of the Living Dead. I'm almost done with both of those sets and once I'm finished, I'll post them up here. I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far. The other sets I'm going to be apart of are very exciting, but I can't talk about them yet. More on that soon! Til' next time!

Motor City Comic Con 2012

Hey everyone, again it's been a minute since I've updated this thing, but with between work, getting ready for the convention and other personal issues I haven't had a chance to catch up. Having said that, the Motor City Comic Convention in Novi is this weekend and I am very excited as this show is always a good time and all the artists seem to do extremely well, which is awesome for everyone. I'm going to have a lot of stuff on hand, but I am going to have 4 brand new prints available featuring 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes"....The Avengers. For this series I decided to highlight the main four heroes (Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor, respectively) minimalist style and maybe somewhere down the line I'll get to Black Widow and Hawkeye. At any rate, these were a blast to do and everyone is responding to them very well. They are all 11x17 and will be $10 each, or the whole set for $35.

I'll also have other prints on hand, sketch cards, a few painted skateboards, and some other goodies to boot. I don't know what table I will be at until I get there on Friday, but I'm sure I'll run into a few people I know. Also look out for Ted Woods (whom I'm sharing table space with), Jay Shimko, Adam and Comfort, Bruce Gerlach, and many others.