A Little Early This Year

I got my confirmation from Comic-Con that I'll be back this year, same place as before, booth 2000. It's nice to have that taken care of early.

Thundra and Lightning

The second drawing I did for Ted was Thundra. I remember her from Fantastic Four and Marvel-Two-in-One. What was particularly cool was that the reference that Ted brought for me was an old issue of Spidey Super Stories. Man, I miss that book. A kid-friendly Spider-Man book written to tie in with his appearances on The Electric Company. It was written with a primary reading level in mind.

I particularly remember the story where Spider-Man and Hellcat (just called "The Cat" for obvious reasons) take on Thanos for the Cosmic Cube. And they do the whole thing in rhyme. They just don't write stories like that anymore.

All the Joys of a Con Over the Internets

Okay, let's try this! Recently, I've started doing convention sketches, and having a blast doing it. I think the success of Love and Capes and its style is why people are interested in having me draw their favorite characters. And I'm having so much fun, I want to keep doing it.

I'd like to put together a book of con-style commissions, something like 101 Super Women or something like that. Now, I can pick out 101 characters myself, but why not open it up to all of you?

So here's the deal: For $40.00, you'll get an 8.5x11 black and white original commission featuring one character, and a same sized color print of the commission. (I color on computer, so the b/w original will be untouched.) Pick any character you want, even if I've already drawn them. A lot of these characters open themselves up to multiple interpretations. Let me know what version of the character you want, too. Supergirl in her animated series outfit? Mary Marvel Murderess in black? Backgrounds will be simple, if at all. And no nudity.

I'll entertain two-character commissions for $75, but it'll be my call if I take them. If you're interested in that, e-mail me here and put COMMISSION in the title. I'm definitely going to do a Harley and Ivy, and have already done a Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl image.

Click here to be taken to the main commission page. Or click on the button at the top of the rightmost sidebar.

No Mindwipes Here

Here's one of the commissions I did at Mid-Ohio-Con I did for a guy named Ted. He was nice enough to scan them so that I could color them, and I think they turned out nicely. Here's everyone's favorite fishnet-and-top hat wearing illusionist, Zatanna. Zee's had a few outfits, but she keeps coming back to this one. It was fun to discuss with Ted and the other people at my table her past costume choices. I think I'm the only one who remembered her Dick Dillin outfit. Dick was a fine artist, and a staple on Justice League, but why he did that to her, I'll never understand.

Kickin' It Old School

These are the two other Free Comic Book Day commissions that I had. The customer wanted a couple images of Mark and Abby from Love and Capes. Posing the "Mark changing" piece was particularly difficult, as Mark is so big that he tends to block Abby from the camera. The flying one had some issues too, since these were done on bristol and I usually add the building backgrounds via computer in the comic. I think I figured out a decent way to do it, and to get some of the flight and flow into the image to boot.

I like these a lot. I may color them and figure somewhere to use them.

So Not Jessica Alba

This was my Sunday Mid-Ohio-Con sample. I've always liked Susan Storm Richards, the Invisible Woman. In recent memory she was always handled best the late, great Mike Wieringo. Her could make her look sexy and still a little older and matronly and mix those things all together into a great drawing. Man, I still miss Mike.

When I do these pieces, I do an 8.5x11 black and white image on bristol (suitable for purchase, hint hint) and then color them on the computer later. A lot of times I leave things open and figure out how to color it later. That's part of the fun, and gives me the opportunity to try new techniques.

This is one of the few that I knew how I wanted to color it when I started. I knew it'd be softer and more airbrushed, but that the invisible effect would be a halftone screen. I think it came out pretty sweet.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

As part of my new mission statement to get more commission work at conventions, I've started doing a sample every day of the show. At Mid-Ohio-Con, I started with this Mary Marvel one, which I colored when I got back home. It's the Seventies version of the outfit, as most of my drawings seem to be. I like this image a lot. It's everything that DC isn't doing with the character right now: happy, innocent, optimistic, not a murderess...

I'm still trying to figure out how to package these super women illos together, and how to make it a little more interactive and purchaseable. I'll let you know when I figure something out.

If I Only Had a Brain

I'm finally back from LA . The Secret Meetings went well, but like many of these things, I won’t know more until later. As much as I’d love to have that “I like the cut of your jib, son, let’s do this deal”, that’s not the way these things work.

I even got some good news about another Love and Capes related project, but not anything to do with the one that I came out to Los Angeles for. That’s another thing that I’ll hear more about later, but it was nice to have happen while I was out there.

Wow, nothing like talking about things I can’t talk about, huh? Well, let’s move onto something I can talk about.

I’ve gotten to know Matthew Atherton, Feedback, the winner of the first season of Who Wants to be a Superhero? I was hanging out with him at Mid-Ohio-Con, and when he found out I was coming to LA he made sure to get me to promise to call him to get together.

So, Tuesday, he and I and the lovely Mrs. Feedback went to the Sci-Fi Channel premiere of Tin Man. Being a Sci-Fi guy, Matthew’s on the list for such things. So they picked me up and we went to the Arclight theatre (dangerously close to the Amoeba Records of Credit Death that I’ve been known to frequent, but the Lunchbox Incident managed to keep me away from there) to see the first part of the three-part retelling of Wizard of Oz.

First off, the miniseries, at least the first part, is decent. Neal Mcdonough and Alan Cumming are very good. The production values are quite good, and it does a great job of not looking like Vancouver. I really liked the density of the story, too. A lot of miniseries seem to have that languid “why bother getting to the point, we’ve got six hours to kill” pacing. This one avoided that trap. I mean this next statement in the best possible way: When I was in the theatre, I wondered if they were going to show all six hours, it was so thick. In this age of decostructed storytelling, it’s nice to see something tauter.

Now, there are some clunky bits, which you’re going to have in something this plot driven. There’s one performance (and, no, I won’t say whose for reasons which I’ll get into later) that’s pretty uninspired. It won’t set the world on fire, but I’ll definitely be setting the ol’ TiVo to grab the other two parts.

The premiere itself was a trip and a half. There was a red carpet, well, a yellow brick carpet to walk down. We didn’t get to walk down it, but it was just cool to be on that side of the fence for once. There were free drinks and popcorn Junior Mints and Redvines and all sorts of stuff. I’ve never seen a film at the Arclight, but it’s quite an experience. Super huge screen, comfy seats, stadium seating, great sound and all that. The movie/show was digitally projected, and the colors really popped. It was a great way to see a film.

Then there was an after party, which we also got to go to. More free food and drinks, and a lot of networking. Matthew brought me there, in part, because he knew it’d be a great place to hand out a few cards. I really appreciated that.

Some of you may remember my brief meeting with Neal Macdonough. You can read about it again here. But, basically, he pulled up along side me and a couple of my friends in our rented PT Cruiser Convertible to ask us how we liked the car.

So, I had to go up to him and say “I have a bizarre question, but did you ever buy a PT Cruiser?”

“Yeah, I bought one for my Mom. Why?”

“About a year and a half ago you came up to us...” and then I recounted the story.

His wife (or girlfriend or companion or sister, I don’t mean to guess) said “Wow, you’ve got a good memory.”

“Not really. I don’t get accosted by many actors asking for car buying advice. Does tend to stand out.”

I got to meet a few people. There were some other actors there, too, in addition to the cast. Kevin Sorbo was there, as was Kari Matchett from Invasion, ER, 24 and a five episode stint on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Of course, for people like me, the behind the scenes guys are more important to trade cards with. The problem is that I don’t know what many of those people look like.

Fortunately, as a party favor, they had a green screen set up so that we could get our pictures taken in front of the Yellow Brick Road. One of the photographers had a cheat sheet, so he’d know who were the VIPs. I got to use that to figure out which person was Craig Van Sickle, the co-writer of Tin Man, as well as The Pretender and Alien Nation and a few other shows.

So I went over and introduced myself, and we talked for a bit. That was pretty nice. And, yeah, I carded him, too.

We got some gifts, too. ATin Man souvenir book. the Yellow Brick Road picture, and a Tin Man cookie. And, there may have been a box or two of Junior Mints that made it out with us, too.

On top of that, I got to have dinner with some friends on Wednesday night. Add to that the constant coolness that is spending time with Eugene and his family who could not be more welcoming if they tried, and it was a good trip.

Now, let’s wait and see what comes out of it.

So, Other Than That, How Was the Play, Mrs. Lincoln?

Other than the aforementioned lunchbox incident, Mid-Ohio-Con lived up to my billing as (say it with me now) my favorite comic convention. Let me give you some random hits of the goodness that was MOC 2007.

MOC07 was my girlfriend’s first real comic convention. We did the Licensing Show in New York last May, and while that was con-like, it wasn’t really a comic show. MOC is a nice, friendly show, and I think things went well. The whole comic convention experience can be a little overwhelming, especially when you’re not as well versed in comics as everyone else around you. Christine did fine, and I’m very glad she came.

I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends, including Matt Haley and Sandy, Paul Storrie, Mariann, Lisa and Sarah, Feedback and Mrs. Feedback, and I got to meet and add The Defuser and Mrs. The Defuser to that list at this show. Feedback, of course, is the first season winner of Who Wants to be a Superhero? The Defuser is the second season winner.

It’s interesting. Both Feedback and The Defuser are exactly the right kind of person to win the show, and yet are very different people. Feedback got to define the role of the winner, and The Defuser is a worthy member of that two-person club. We all had dinner on Sunday night (incidentally, the first time I’ve been to Buca di Beppo where we had enough people to really make it work) and just had a great time.

I also hosted two of their panels. Sunday was the Q&A about Superhero, which they did along with series artist, good friend, and fellow Shatner fan Matt Haley. It was well-scheduled, being on Sunday, because I’d been able to get a decent rhythm going with each of them. That allowed me to fit in ad (I hope) add to their talk, without stepping on them or hogging the spotlight.

My favorite comedic moment was when they were talking about Doctor Dark, the second season villain. Apparently the bad doctor was supposed to turn out to be a Major Hollywood Star but it didn’t work out. Matt made the joke that it was supposed to be Sean Connery, and I, in my best Scottish accent said “As you know, we’re from the planet Zeist” to uproarious laughter.

That’s what I love about cons in general and MOC in particular: I’m with my people. In the real world, that joke gets no laughs. If I were to explain it and the horror that was Highlander 2: The Quickening it still wouldn’t be funny. But it is funny, just only to the right people. And at MOC, I’m surrounded by the right people.

Of course, the big event was the Comic Book Trivia panel. we shook things up this year. First, we made the questions easier. I think the original panel from last year was patterned after San Diego’s, where it’s Ubergeek against Ubergeek. At a smaller show, and with random entries, we had to compensate for the random eight year old that might make it in.

To better help with that, and to better utilize our guests, I came up with the idea of running it like $20,000 Pyramid. We partnered our celebrities (Matt Haley, Feedback and The Defuser) with the contestants so that there’d be a bit of a buffer on the harder questions. And, it gave our stars the opportunity to joke and ad lib, rather than just read questions.

We managed to run three heats and get to a final round that was won by a lovely girl named Victoria. All of our round winners won a DVD set of Who Wants to Be a Superhero, which is a pretty good prize. The grand prize winner, Victoria, got a Matt Haley original sketch, as well as a set of Love and Capes and an LNC shirt. On her, it was big enough to be a dress, but she still wore it on Sunday.

I sold pretty well, too. Lots of 6-packs of Love and Capes. A couple of Star Trek: Sky’s the Limit books. More t-shirts than I’ve sold at any other show. And the sketches were back.

Incidentally, let me stop here and say that whoever was at Chicago in 2003 and was set up with a scanner so that artists could keep their sketches, you had a brilliant idea, and I think the time is more right for it. I did half a dozen commissions, most of which I wish I had copies of. Fortunately, a many of the owners promised to send me scans.

I drew Judy from the Sea Devils, Zatanna, Supergirl, Chameleon Boy and Thundra, and those are just the ones I can remember. When I get back to designing and posting some of those super women pieces, hopefully a couple of those sketches will make their way onto the site.

Other than that, the show was just good. I don’t know how else to explain it. And, it wasn’t any one thing, just a low buzz of fun from beginning to end. I met some fans, hopefully made some more, and got to hang out with my friends. What could be better than that?

One Little Thing

Mid-Ohio-Con was another phenomenal weekend. I got to see a bunch of my friends, my girlfriend experienced her first real con, I met some great people, and I sold really well...

...and you can hear the "but" coming, can't you?

There was one thing that happened that soured an otherwise great weekend. It's no one's fault but mine, and as bad as it is, there's still hope. But I lost my Buffy the Vampire Slayer lunchbox. I carry this box at shows all the time because I use it as my cash box, as well as a carrier for some art supplies and other things.

So, yes, I lost ALL my sales money from Mid-Ohio, and from Texas. Plus my camera and some art supplies.

I had it after the show, I know. I think I may have lost it bringing it out to the Chestnut Parking Garage. I loaded up the car in the morning before grabbing breakfast. I didn't notice it until I got back to Cleveland from Columbus.

I had about 45 minutes from when I arrived to when I had to leave for the airport for LA (where I am now) so I didn't have time to tear everything apart. It's possible it IS in the car or the house, although my Dad has looked for it, and we haven't found it. I was in a hurry when I got home and was rushing around. I could have put it down somewhere weird and not remembered.

I mention this, just in case you've seen it. It can't hurt to have more eyes. I've called the hotel and the parking garage, with no luck at either place. I had some friends staying over, and they did me a huge favor and looked a couple of places. I've done all I can until I return, so now there's just the waiting.

Right now, I'm just hoping my Super Secret LA Meetings go so well that I don't care about it.

The con really was a wonderful weekend, that Bad Thing aside. So good that even losing the lunchbox can't ruin the weekend, just taint it. I'll write more about the show later, I promise. I've just got to do the meeting thing for the next couple of days.

Updates as they happen.