Here Kitty, Kitty

Here's another one of those tracing paper recreations from MegaCon. This one's Kitty Pryde when she was going around as Shadowcat. She had a number of bad fashion choices and questionable names (Sprite, Ariel) before she settled on this one. It stuck for a while, but honestly, it never felt like her to me.

Still, when you comes up and pays your money, you get what you wants. Someone came up wanting Shadowcat and I was happy to oblige.

Incidentally, this is the first piece done on my new Jack Skellington Mac and man does it just scream. Painter just flies on the new machine, so I was able to mess around with an oil painterly color technique, which I think adds a little energy to the piece.

A Cautionary Tale

So, Saturday morning, my Mac G5 tower decided to crash.

Some of you may remember the Great Crash of 2006. I lost nearly everything. I had some stuff backed up, but not as much as I should have. Fortunately, I can be taught (on occasion) and I do back up constantly now. In fact, I had just backed up all my important files an hour before the crash, so I was safe.

But, I decided this was the bat through my window that I needed, and I bit the bullet and bought the new computer I've had my eye on. I was able to save and restore my old tower (For those techies in the audience, the directory got corrupted and there were overlapping files. I don't know why, but it was actually fairly simple to restore once I got the right equipment.) and pull all the files off of it. My client files were preserved in my backup. Things like the last couple of weeks of e-mails, my iTunes music library, that's the stuff I was able to rescue.

So, let this be a lesson to you all: Backup, backup, backup. I run three hard drives on a backup routine, and store one of them offsite just to be safe. I'd fallen a little bit out of that pattern, but not enough to hurt me. This time.

The new computer, by the way, is a screamin' piece of Apple hardware excellence. I've mentioned before that I name all my computers so I can see them on my internal network. I get cute and do themes and cartoon characters. I had Jessica Rabbit and Krusty and Faith the Vampire Slayer and when that was rebuilt, it became Denny Crane. In honor of the slick-as-can-be wafer thin gray and white keyboard on this one, I've named it after the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington.

Not that you actually care, just sharin'.

Because She-Hulk was Too Easy

The Bat and the Cat

One of the reasons I've been doing this whole super women thing is to try new techniques. I did a Catwoman piece in a cut shape/Adobe Illustrator technique that worked pretty well. So, when I was at MegaCon, the Batfan asked me to do a Batgirl/Catwoman illo and he wanted it in the same style. At the con, I couldn't do it. I had no computer with which to work. But when my workload became too much, I took that piece home and, gosh and begorrah, there was my computer. I couldn't resist playing in the style again. So, here's my second attempt at that flat shape style.

Otherwise, the last couple days have been pretty good. FCBD numbers, getting the book to the printer, and some other stuff that I'll reveal at a later date. It's time for a weekend!

Orders Up!

I got my order numbers for the Free Comic Book Day version of Love and Capes #7. They are verra verra good, and, more importantly, better than last year. It's Snoopy Dance time.

Less than two months to the big FCBD!

I'm Lovin' It

I dig Orlando. Yeah, it's touristy, but there's nothing wrong with that as long as you're ready for it. And this is a place that has Disney and Universal (plus Sea World, although I've never been there) so it probably should be touristy. Orlando also boasts...

Yes, The Most Unique McDonalds in the WORLD. The whole frellin' world! And it is.

Sunday, I wanted to grab breakfast, and since I was sans Sandi, I decided to get something quick, rather than go to an IHOP or Perkins or something more sitdownish. So I stopped at this McDonalds. I've been there before, but I didn't have this here blog where I could share it with you.

It's like someone said "Let's take everything we can and put it in one building." Video games arcade? Check. Gift shop? Check. Giant Mac Tonight, Marilyn Monroe and a cardboard cutout of Clint Eastwood? You betcha.

It's also got one of the more unique menus. Shrimp ravioli, pizza, Belgian waffles are there along with the Quarter Pounder and chocolate shakes. I've never been to a McDonalds where you can order a number thirty-two value meal.Which, incidentally, is what I had, a made-to-order omelet with hash browns.

It's the visual equivalent of having someone scream at you, but it somehow works. It's just so gloriously cheesy that it's fun. And, I have to say, a great selection and fast service. It was the perfect place to stop and still get to MegaCon in time.

Laws of Attraction

I did more commissions at MegaCon than I have at any other show so far. Hopefully that trend line will continue. I offer to color the commission (for an additional charge, of course) if the buyer sends me a high-resolution scan. People are still filtering back, so I don't have any of those yet, but I did keep the tracing paper roughs for a couple of them, and went ahead and redid them so I could have a copy.

So this is Polaris, of the X-Men, X-Force and I can't remember who else. This was done as a gift for a friend, and I also used it as a Sunday morning warm-up and wake up, much-needed since I am without my morning coffee during Lent. It's another Dave Cockrum redesign, and shares a lot with Shrinking Violet's revamped costume. I had a lot of fun marrying the graphic elements, like the "stained glass" panels and the magnetic waves, to the organic brush artwork,

I'll have more to post soon!

Megacon-tinued

Continuing my con report from MegaCon...

I went to Downtown Disney, and was distressed to find out that they no longer make the little coffee cans that I liked so much. They have the bigger ones, but not in the flavors that I liked. Oh well. I consoled myself with a new Jessica Rabbit t-shirt.

Sunday started and I was a man down. Sandi took ill and didn’t come to the show for the last day. It would have been nice to have her there, of course, but I was able to soldier on as a one-man operation.

I got to be on a panel, my first at MegaCon, for Independent Comics Creators. I got to be on there with such luminaries as Josh Blaylock of Devil’s Due, and my new acquaintence, Stefan Nilson. We spoke of getting started in the industry, staying in the industry, and all that. It was a good time, and I was glad to do it, but it also meant I was away from my table a bit, and I had to leave an hour before show close to make my flight home.

So I needed to get five hours of con into three-and-a-half. And there was definitely five hours of con to do.

Sunday just exploded.My numbers for the shorter day were almost the same as Saturday, where I was at the table all day. I wound up doing eight commissions, including a kick-butt Doctor Doom that I hope to get a scan of, a neat Joker, and a Shadowcat. And, for one particular guy, The Batfan, Harley, Ivy, Batgirl and Catwoman. Well, I would have done those last four if I didn’t run out of time and have to head back to Payless Car Rental and Orlando International Airport.

Fortunately, I’m going to be able to do them back at Art Studio Zee and mail them to him. And normally I don’t name the people who get my con sketches, but The Batfan has business cards with his name on them, so I figure a little online love is perfectly okay.

I also sold a few more sketchbooks, so they are officially A Success. I’ll have to get some more printed up for the New York show. I have a feeling they’ll fly even faster there. And I sold a bunch of Love and Capes. I bring a shortbox full of books to these shows, and the box was half-empty by the end of the show. So yay commerce!

Before you ask, yes, I made it home with my earnings intact. No Lunchbox Incident this show.

My flight was a bit delayed, and had a layover in Chicago that I’d honestly forgotten about. (Hey, I knew when I had to be at the airport. As for when I get back and how, well, I looked at that back when I booked the flight. I couldn’t change it, so there was no reason to have it stick in the old noggin, I guess.)

And I came home to fifteen inches of snow. My Mom, of her own volition and despite the protests of my cold-ridden Dad, shoveled enough of my drive that I could get my car in when I rolled in around 2 am. I didn’t ask her to do it, and would have tried to stop her as much as I could over the phone. Still, I do appreciate it.

All in all, it was a great show. I’d forgotten how much I liked it, and it did well enough to make sure it's on my con plate for next year, too. Maybe I'll even make the time to hit an amusement park or two. Say, isn't there some new a new Simpsons ride starting next year, maybe even a Harry Potter park?

I'll probably post a smattering of random final thoughts later. Right now, it's time to get back to work.

Snowhere I'd Rather Be

Ha-hah. (Best read as Nelson Munch from The Simpsons.)

My Mom sent me a picture from home showing a couple of the cars in my parents’ drive buried under a foot of snow. I’m in Orlando, Florida. So, again, I say ha-hah.

MegaCon’s been going really well. I’ve been doing sketches at my table almost non-stop. Some interesting choices, too, including Red Tornado, Arrowette, Harley Quinn and Phoenix (Light, not Dark).

Meeting fans, and God bless them there are actually fans of my work here, has been the second best part of the show. More on the first in a moment. But now, people are starting to track me down, as opposed to just happening upon me. Someone came by with a copy of the Marvel Comics career widowmaker Crimson Dynamo that I lettered, and someone else bopped by with New Adventures of Superboy #35 which featured the appearance of Any-Body, the character I created for Dial “H” for Hero back when I was eleven.

The best part, though, was when I ran into Mark Waid and he said he liked the ending of Love and Capes #6. Mark’s been a friend for years, and one of my favorite creators. When you can impress the guy who impresses you, that’s, well, impressive.

See, I’m still goodish with the words.

I also got to meet Adrian Pasdar, star of some little show called Heroes, but more importantly of Profit. I’ve written about that show before, but man, it is one of the best things to ever crawl across my TV. Unfortunately, I left my Profit DVD set back in the great Ohioan tundra, so I haven’t been able to get him to sign it. I even tried to find a copy last night, but all that was open was Barnes and Noble and they were out.

Last night I had dinner with The Defuser, his wife Mrs. Defuser, and Fat Momma, as well as my Booth Babe for the weekend, Sandi. Sandi’s been a friend for years, I met the Defusers at the Mid-Ohio-Con last year, and Fat Momma’s a new friend. A new friend with a darn catchy theme song.

Tonight will be dinner with more friends, and then an early start for a long day that will end with me back in the Buckyesickle state around midnight. Let’s try to have the roads cleared off by then, okay people?

My Life in Airports

I'm am, as I am so frequently, waiting at Cleveland's Hopkins International Airport. It's a little better than it has been, because I can get online for free now, Not out of any kindness of the airport, but because AT&T has expanded their home DSL service to allow me to log into AT&T hotspots gratis. So I've got that going for me.

The radio show interview went well last night. It's Comic Book Talk Radio, and it's available on iTunes as well on the wsRadio.com website. I'm on the first two segments, and if you listen, you'll get a hint about a Big Announcement that will be coming down the pike come April.

It's supposed to snow a lot here in Cleveland while I'm gone. Excellent! I have to say that I enjoy the Florida weather better when I know I'm missing some cold up north. Of course, I'm flying into some thunderstorms today, so I may have some problems in Orlando myself.