Bruins Cup

A slightly more complicated illustration here, commissioned by Andrew to give to his dad, a lifelong Bruins fan, as a Christmas present. These requests are never boring!

Rrrip

More cops in trouble, from The Stranger:

Go Team USA!

USA vs Canada Friday morning for a berth in the gold medal game. Go Coach Bylsma and the boys in Red, White and Blue!

Pat Patriot

The Patriots may be a better team since ditching Pat Patriot, but they sure haven't looked as good!

Wonder Woman Redux

Here are a couple behind-the-scenes images leading up the Wonder Woman piece I posted recently, my original page of sketches and the inked line art. As I mentioned, this piece was created for the Trinquette Weekly Drawing Challenge on FB. Trinquette head honcho posts the theme and about a half-dozen images as reference, and you go to town. My initial idea was to tackle Power Girl, a character I like and have been drawing for years, but wearing her "New 52" costume from the current DC Universe. I realized as I was sketching this, however, that a lot of the New 52 costumes are overly-detailed, needlessly ornate and rather boring, so I scrapped the idea and just went with Darwyn Cooke's beefy, brawny, brick shithouse Wonder Woman. Zaftig!

Finally Making the Scene

I've been reading Cleveland Scene since 1987, at least... it's the very first weekly newspaper I ever saw. Still, having moved away from NE Ohio in 1995, I've never had an opportunity to work with them before...which is why it was so nice to get the call from Vince, the current EIC,  to provide the cover for the magazine's 2013 Year in Review issue!

Pens Pals

I've Been Saving for a Custom Van

An awesomely fun assignment from Boing Boing here, showing a myriad of fun and different ways in which Ford's Transit wagon can be made to fit any lifestyle. I don't know abut you, but I'd drive the one with the babe and the barbarian around town til the wheels fell off!

Suspended

From a Stranger piece, about a cop who got himself a few days off by threatening a reporter.

Wonder Woman

I recently took the time to participate in another Trinquette Weekly Drawing Challenge, this time with a Wonder Woman/Power Girl theme. Much to my own surprise, I picked WW, and gave her sort of a Darwyn Cooke/New Frontier vibe. Great Hera, indeed!

Hartford WolfPack

Bonnie

Congrats to AVN Performer of the Year Bonnie Rotten. She's an adult film star (and a popular one, apparently) and according to the commissioner of this piece, a Raiders fan. She also has a Twitter feed that'll turn your hair white and SPIDERWEB TATTOOS ON HER BOOBS!

Van Art

For a secret project:

Cyber Monday Sale

Like everyone else in the known universe, I'm running a holiday sale! All orders over $25... which includes ALL original art... are 30% off thru next Saturday, December 7th, at the Atom-Bomb Bikini Etsy shop using the code SHOPSMALL. If you've had your eye on something, now's the time to pull the trigger...and if there's something you've seen here on the blog in which you might be interested, but don't see at the Etsy shop, please shoot me a comment, tweet or email about it...chances are it's available, and I'll make you a good deal!

Dr. Sketchy: Monsters in the Lair

Frost

I went with Miranda Frost (as portrayed by Rosamund Pike in DIE ANOTHER DAY) for the Trinquette Publishing Bond Girls Facebook Challenge. I figured I'd be the only one, at least!

Beck and Blue

’Nuff said!

On the Air!

Hey all, I'm happy to report that I'll be a guest on The Hockey Show this very afternoon at 5:30 CST on Winnipeg's WMUM! We'll be talking about comics, Old-Timey Hockey Tales, the Penguins and hockey in general, all kinds of stuff. Please tune in!

Happy Halloween!

Spooky C-Ville

Just in time for Halloween, here are a few recent spooky illos for University of Virginia's online Alumni magazine.

Kent Comic Arts Fest 2013

Last weekend the fam and I trekked up to Ohio for, primarily, the inaugural Kent Comic Arts Fest and to a lesser extent, for a long overdue visit with my parents and my sister's family. KentCAF is a show that's been in the works for quite awhile...the organizer, my old friend Wayne Harold (best known as the filmmaker behind P. Craig Russell's Graphic Storytelling series), has been talking for years about creating a convention in my hometown, but life and other obligations kept getting in the way. Thankfully, things finally came together over the last year, and I'm really glad they did.

The small but extremely impressive guest list included old pals P. Craig Russell, Jill Thompson, Galen Showman, Jay Geldhof, Will Pfeifer, Neil Vokes and Jim Anderson...honestly, it was as close to a class reunion of the old Lurid.com Message Boards as you're ever likely to see...as well as folks I hadn't met yet, like Derf, Scott Hampton and American Splendor's "Genuine Nerd", Toby Radloff.

I have plenty of my own thoughts on the show, but before I get to them I'd like to share a few comments from Wayne with his take on how things went.

Overall, I think that things went really well! The weather took a turn for the worse and it was pretty cold and drizzly, but the audience built throughout the day so that by the time we got to The Artists of The Graveyard Book presentation at 3PM, the Kent State Kiva had a nice-sized, very engaged audience.

I’d like to get more foot traffic for the Guest Alley and Marketplace next year—especially since that portion is based at the KSU Student Center and is totally free—but the guests and exhibitors that I spoke with all said that they made decent money selling stuff, especially since it was a debut festival. Most have already signed on for next year and they promise that they will bring other creators and exhibitors with them.

We’re also going to expand the educational offerings next year. Jill Thompson called me on her drive back to Chicago and said that she would love to do a painting class and also portfolio reviews for budding artists. P. Craig Russell is up for the latter as well. I’m going to try to get another nice room for the all-day classes. So we’ll have a dedicated space for the educational portion, plus the free Guest Alley and Marketplace, plus the onstage programming at the Kiva auditorium.

With a lot of the shows lately, it all seems to be about herding as many people in as possible in order to outdo each other by trumpeting higher and higher “numbers.” I’d rather have a smaller number of really satisfied attendees—the whole KentCAF experience is all about getting to spend some quality face time with the creators.

We’re not doing the show to make money—there are a lot quicker and easier ways to make a buck. It’s all about promoting comics as a true art form, teaching eager folks some great techniques, and having a freaking amazing time at the VIP party. And on that count, I’d say we succeeded right out of the gate!

The first year is all about planting the flag, now we just have to keep improving the experience.

I think he really gets to the point of the show in that fourth paragraph. Granted, the size of this first KentCAF could've been much bigger...and it promises to be in years to come...but man, the quality of this small sample of exhibitors is beyond reproach. The same applies to the small but interested crowd. The focus on education is a worthy goal, as well.

I rolled into the KSU Student Center about a half-hour before the show was set to open and got right to setting up. The limited guest list, combined with a great amount of space, meant I could actually spread out my "shop" a bit...there was plenty of room for all my comics, as well as space for prints and original art, even my box of what I call "Fire Sale" art, weird odds and ends from 12+ years of freelance illustration gigs that I sell for $8 apiece. It's a nice change of pace from having to cram everything onto a six square feet of tabletop. Next year I'm bringing everything. 

Sales and attendance were good too, if not quite seeming in line with their potential. Granted, it was an amazingly shitty day weather-wise, cold and drizzly, not exactly the kind of stuff you get excited about going out in, but I did figure the free admission to the "marketplace" section of the show would bring a few more curious souls than it did. One problem may have been a bit of a lack of promotion...a friend whose son is a freshman at Kent told me he came to the student center to look at the show but couldn't find us. Nothing a few bigger, more colorful posters can't fix! And still, for the size of the crowd, I was amazed that almost everyone who walked by the table actually bought something...not just a $2 mini comic, either, but prints, original art, etc. Having a huge crowd of looky-loos is one thing, but it doesn't mean much to me as an exhibitor unless they're prepared to drop some cash!

Of course, the fact that KentCAF essentially took place in my hometown meant seeing several pals old and new who stopped by to check it out, including my friend RyCo who drove all the way from Pittsburgh and Brian who came over with his family from Youngstown. I saw a few folks like my friend Sue (with who I actually attended Kent State back in the 90s) and my pals Eric, Kelly and Bill who came in from out of town as much to hang out with all us arteests after hours as to shop around the festival. 

It was also just plain odd at times...at one point I walked to the lower level of the student center to have lunch in The Hub, a huge commons area that houses the food court, etc...I sat in that room on countless nights in 1994-95 working on my first comic strip, which ran in the Daily Kent Stater, but haven't stepped foot inside in well over a decade. Put me in a very melancholy place...got me thinking about what I'd done, how far I've come...but also what's to come, and frankly, what I have left. Hell of a thing to contemplate over a Subway Classic BMT, I'll tell you.

So overall, I'd call the inaugural Kent CAF a big success. There's definitely room to grow...I'd definitely love to see some not-quite-as-local folks as exhibitors next year, guys like Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg from Pittsburgh, Tom Williams or Jeff Smith from Columbus, more folks from Chicago...and I plan to contribute my efforts to make that happen. Also, I was too busy to take in any of the panels, which is frustrating if de rigeur, and I hope to remedy that in the future. 

So bring on KentCAF 2014! And until then, hop over to Facebook for a bunch of photos!!

Photo by Robert J. Lucas/Record-Courier

Me and RyCo

A couple sketches

Look Ma, I'm Onna Radio!

While you're clock-watching at 4:30 this afternoon, tune in to TSN 1290 Winnipeg! I'll be joining The Hustler and Lawless Show to talk about Old-Timey Hockey Tales, sporty pin-ups, the Winnipeg Jets, probably Sidney Crosby a little bit and god knows what else!

Buctober

I've been loving watching the Pittsburgh Pirates return to MLB prominence all season, and naturally, that enjoyment has led to my creating a bunch of new Buccos-themed artwork, including couple prints and even a t-shirt!

The Art of the Spank

I created these illos for the October issue of Penthouse (you can probably guess the topic), and I'm really happy with how they turned out! Anyway, look for more in November and December!

Starburst

80s Phils

When I think about following baseball in the early 1980's, two names always spring to mind: George Brett and Mike Schmidt. They were inescapable, on every book cover and pack of baseball cards... and usually sporting that sharp baby-blue uniform.

Diamonds are a Girl's Worst Enemy, Collected!

Finally, some new comics! The print version of Diamonds are a Girl's Worst Enemy debuted at SPX last weekend, and is now available in the Atom-Bomb Bikini shop! What started as a lark too me waaaaay too long to complete and publish, but I'm glad it's finally done and I hope you enjoy it!

My SPX Haul

Knee

Go, Mordecai!

Mordecai has always struck me as being an Archers of Loaf guy. Rigby, I dunno...Any suggestions?

Coming Soon in The Hockey News

Registered at "Cash"

A cover illustration for C-Ville Weekly, about the high cost of having a wedding in Charlottesville.