Here's a picture of Iron Man, or Arn Man as we call him in Pittsburgh, that I drew during a Free Comic Book Day event at the local comic store, Phantom of the Attic in Oakland. Iron Man is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Summit City Comic Con
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Summit City Comic Con this past weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was the first year for the show, and it was pretty great. Usually the first year is really difficult for a new convention, but this one had the attendance and energy of an established show.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Godland #32
I just finished the art for Godland issue #32 last week. I got this page back from the colorist, Bill Crabtree. I can't wait to see the rest of it. This issue has a bunch of double-page splashes, each one weirder than the one before it. This is the first double-page splash.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
TCAF 2010
I just got back from the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. It's a great, well-run, friendly show in the heart of a beautiful, fun city. I didn't get to experience much of the show except from my side of the table, but things were really popping. Part of the beauty of the show is that it's in the middle of Toronto's library, so you're getting a whole different crowd than you would at a show with an admission price. Mixed in with the usual comics crowd are lot of casual browsers who are genuinely interested in comics but didn't know they still exist. It's one of those shows that, after it's over, I'm exhausted, but my interest in comics is reinvigorated. I couldn't wait to get back to work on my next project.
Toronto is a great city for long walks. Unless the weather doesn't cooperate, which it didn't Friday night. The long walk down Bloor to The Beguiling was great. Visiting the store is always a highlight of the trip. I had to special order the new Jim Starlin Dreadstar hardcover because none of the stores in Pittsburgh had ordered a copy. The Beguiling had a nice stack of them on display. That shows you the kind of store Chris Butcher runs. And he runs his convention with that same curator's attention to detail.
The walk back from the Beguiling was not so great. By then the heavy rains that ended up dominating the weekend had rolled in. Usually at TCAF, you walk down Bloor or you walk down Yonge and you'll end up running into friends. Your group keeps growing and growing. Didn't happen this year. Not a lot of people were out for a stroll. There were plenty of great bookstores, cafe's and restaurants to duck into though, so it still ended up being a really fun evening.
There's a great burger (whose name escapes me) place right across the street from the library that we went to last year and just had to revisit.
TCAF again had heavy foot traffic, the kind of density you would see at San Diego.
I didn't get to see a lot of the show, being tied to my table for the most part. There were signs all over the library saying "Please visit our Arthur Conan Doyle room." I went to check it out only to find out that it was closed sundays. Next time! The friendly librarian gave me a nice full-color brochure about it, though.
The social aspect of the show is another thing that brings it above the rest. The party on saturday night was a lot of fun. The venue was great. I'm not a drinker, so I appreciated the great food they served at the pub.
This is the third time I've attended the convention, so I've gotten to the point where I have favorite places to revisit, and places that looked good last time that I got to try this year. I travelled from Pittsburgh with fellow cartoonist Pat Lewis and my friends Dave and Rob. Dave and Rob were there mainly to enjoy Toronto, so they were able to tell us about all the things the city has to offer that we missed by being at the library all weekend. The museums sound pretty great.
Sunday was packed, but not as crazy as saturday. I brought some "American Barbarian" art with me. It may sound self-serving, but people at the convention seemed genuinely excited about it in the same way that they were when I was working on drawings of Basil Cronus at conventions before the release of Godland. Sometimes you're working on something and the reaction of people around you tells you that it's going to be something special. Basil ended up being the standout fan-favorite character of Godland. Hopefully this means good things for American Barbarian.
I spent the convention in the "Jim Rugg Block" surrounded by Jim, Cecil Castellucci(his Plain Janes collaborator) and Chris Pitzer (publisher of Afrodisiac). It's definitely a good place to be since Jim is usually a center of energy at conventions. I definitely benefitted from some of that residual cool, and we got to "talk Kirby" during the rare slow moments.
By the end of the show, my non-cartoonist friends were ready to leave, being all walked- museumed and restauranted-out. Pat and I were also ready to leave being all conventioned-out. Pat had never been to TCAF before and didn't know what to expect. I told him he'd be welcomed with open arms, since I think his work fits the TCAF scene perfectly. That ended up being the case and Pat was anxious to return again next year. This was the first time TCAF was yearly rather than every-other-year. The consensus was that this is one of the best comics shows in one of the best cities. I think we're all going to be up for it again next year.
We headed out of town immediately after the show on sunday. It sounded like the sunday night closing party was going to be a lot of fun, but we were all anxious to return home.
Toronto is a great city for long walks. Unless the weather doesn't cooperate, which it didn't Friday night. The long walk down Bloor to The Beguiling was great. Visiting the store is always a highlight of the trip. I had to special order the new Jim Starlin Dreadstar hardcover because none of the stores in Pittsburgh had ordered a copy. The Beguiling had a nice stack of them on display. That shows you the kind of store Chris Butcher runs. And he runs his convention with that same curator's attention to detail.
The walk back from the Beguiling was not so great. By then the heavy rains that ended up dominating the weekend had rolled in. Usually at TCAF, you walk down Bloor or you walk down Yonge and you'll end up running into friends. Your group keeps growing and growing. Didn't happen this year. Not a lot of people were out for a stroll. There were plenty of great bookstores, cafe's and restaurants to duck into though, so it still ended up being a really fun evening.
There's a great burger (whose name escapes me) place right across the street from the library that we went to last year and just had to revisit.
TCAF again had heavy foot traffic, the kind of density you would see at San Diego.
I didn't get to see a lot of the show, being tied to my table for the most part. There were signs all over the library saying "Please visit our Arthur Conan Doyle room." I went to check it out only to find out that it was closed sundays. Next time! The friendly librarian gave me a nice full-color brochure about it, though.
The social aspect of the show is another thing that brings it above the rest. The party on saturday night was a lot of fun. The venue was great. I'm not a drinker, so I appreciated the great food they served at the pub.
This is the third time I've attended the convention, so I've gotten to the point where I have favorite places to revisit, and places that looked good last time that I got to try this year. I travelled from Pittsburgh with fellow cartoonist Pat Lewis and my friends Dave and Rob. Dave and Rob were there mainly to enjoy Toronto, so they were able to tell us about all the things the city has to offer that we missed by being at the library all weekend. The museums sound pretty great.
Sunday was packed, but not as crazy as saturday. I brought some "American Barbarian" art with me. It may sound self-serving, but people at the convention seemed genuinely excited about it in the same way that they were when I was working on drawings of Basil Cronus at conventions before the release of Godland. Sometimes you're working on something and the reaction of people around you tells you that it's going to be something special. Basil ended up being the standout fan-favorite character of Godland. Hopefully this means good things for American Barbarian.
I spent the convention in the "Jim Rugg Block" surrounded by Jim, Cecil Castellucci(his Plain Janes collaborator) and Chris Pitzer (publisher of Afrodisiac). It's definitely a good place to be since Jim is usually a center of energy at conventions. I definitely benefitted from some of that residual cool, and we got to "talk Kirby" during the rare slow moments.
By the end of the show, my non-cartoonist friends were ready to leave, being all walked- museumed and restauranted-out. Pat and I were also ready to leave being all conventioned-out. Pat had never been to TCAF before and didn't know what to expect. I told him he'd be welcomed with open arms, since I think his work fits the TCAF scene perfectly. That ended up being the case and Pat was anxious to return again next year. This was the first time TCAF was yearly rather than every-other-year. The consensus was that this is one of the best comics shows in one of the best cities. I think we're all going to be up for it again next year.
We headed out of town immediately after the show on sunday. It sounded like the sunday night closing party was going to be a lot of fun, but we were all anxious to return home.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Black Racer
Here's my rendition of one of my favorite of Kirby's New Gods, The Black Racer. Kirby used this character to break the fourth [world] wall and speak directly to the reader, "Is he coming for...YOU!?" I thought it would make sense to have him pointing his death staff directly at the viewer, making good on that threat.
I recently saw a drawing of The Black Racer that Kirby did for the eighties' Super Powers toy line which showed that BR, like many gods of destruction, also had a creative, life-giving aspect. I assume, had Kirby been able to continue the New Gods, that would've been one of many surprise reveals. Every new piece of Kirby New Gods art I see further compounds the tragedy that he was never able to continue this series beyond a dozen-or-so issues.
The New Gods and The Black Racer were created by Kirby, but are property of DC comics, just in case you're wondering.
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