Time to get Conventional

Rise of the Apes

This upcoming month will find me at a couple events. Exciting times~

First October 1st & 2nd will be APE (Alternative Press Expo) with Josh Kemble. I'll have copies of the full version of "The Tell" as well as another print run of "The Sunless Circus" for sale. I have a limited number of the "preview" hand-stapled/punched versions left over from the previous Mini-Comics Dump Truck on hand.

Inked Ardee pages

We will be at Booth #455, right next to the usual partners in crime of Ralphco Comics (Ralph Miranda) and Co.


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There will be one more addition to the Nouveau Robotica series, "Frontier Legacy" will be making its appearance here. A featured post about that print will be up soon and linked as well.

In case they're out of your size, I'll also have a few extra "Arabian Crescent" shirt designs on hand. Be sure to let Threadless to reprint your size if they're out here.


I'm looking forward to returning to APE this year with Josh since it was years gone by that I first stepped foot into the expo, played roadie at his table, and saw that there was such a great avenue for indie creators.

Josh (with printers accommodating) will have copies of the new book "Barbarians: A Handbook for Aspiring Savages" by Byron Clavicle, which features over a hundred of his skull-bashing barbarian illustrations (some of which I posed for!)
You can pre-order it on Amazon here-- but truly illustrious conquerors will demand it in person at our table.
Anybody dressed up as an authentic Barbarian will win a free... chest bump.

Going Long

[ EDIT: Table confirmed-- We'll be at Booth #1507 in Artist's Alley ! ]

Second will be the local Long Beach Comic Con, Oct 29-30 with tablemate Victor Camba and Patrick Sung.

[Table details pending on this venue] but we will be in Artist Alley under "C.K. Perfecto".

Victor will be debuting his book "You're Stuck Here", which goes like this:

The first semester of college! A time of promise, of leaving the nest and meeting new people, with your whole future ahead of you. That's the life that Bridget McKeen longs for. But Bridget, her twin brother Jeff, and their friend Chet are leaving Winchell High for their first semester of Cyprus COMMUNITY college, the educational equivalent of purgatory. Will Bridget make room for a social life at a school she hates? Can Jeff cope with life away from his high school sweetheart?
And why can't Chet get that fast food cashier-girl out of his head...

 He will also have original lithograph prints of characters and art available.

By this time, I'll have a mini-diorama setup of my character Ardee (the Robot Acrobat as Fortune Teller) built and fully operational. I will double my efforts to construct it on schedule.
I'll be shooting to have screen prints by this time too.

At both venues, look for the red toy machine full of buttons I designed, trinkets I found, and a chance to win  personalized artwork (Blue Caps are winners)!
  

The Ink Raven

Lightboxes: They make everything more epic~

Don't Graphite, Just Ink About It

This story was my first mini-comic that serves as a intro to a longer 4 part story I'm working on. There is Norse mythology influence in this particular tale and is meant to ask questions about self fullfilling prophecies, the origin of folklore, and the power of belief. Yep, all that in 5 pages~

My first stab at making a mini comic came from much inspiration from the folks at Art & Story.

Much thanks for advice about materials from Mark Rudolph (whose "Echoes from Astroid X" I was using as a quality barometer). I planned to screenprint the band that wraps the mini that lines up with the image, but time constraints forced the monastic discipline of hand painting them in time for the Alternative Press Expo (APE).

[EDIT: for the Long Beach Comic Con, the bands were indeed screen printed!! For a process series, see the link at the bottom of this post]

And now, a story from colder skies:

"Where once there were three

two would remain

bound to the old keeper

of fury and spear.

Flown high from the Tree

to know a dire fate

born to escape

and chase a tale,

a new post--

a ghost. "

-old poem

....

All Part of the Process

In an effort to not overcrowd this blog space (and maybe hide my hodgepodge comics-making process~) I put the "making of" pictures for this minicomic on my Flickr. I thought I'd share this after one person at the Long Beach Con recognized that the band was indeed screened, not just colored paper-- the awesome n' talented Dustin Nguyen! I scored a beautiful sketchbook of his full of amazing watercolors and some of my favorite characters.

The inch strips were actually leftovers from the 11 x 17" single sheet trimmed to make the mini size divide evenly into 8 parts. They wrapped around perfectly, and some part of me wanted to feel like I was honorably using 'every part of the animal' which is paper.

Only some of these minis included a bonus "poster" on the reverse side, a collage of raven sketches I did leading up to writing the story. I think the process pictures can clarify the construction~

Here's a preview for those interested--

If you want more, just jaunt on over HERE!

Back to Triple-two

I will be having another show at this cool little clothing store in Huntington Beach, 222 Clothing. I'm excited to showcase my comic art specifically for this one. I'll have original pages and some new work on display with ole pal Digitalcasm debuting some new songs.

This happens with the monthly Huntington Beach Art Walk. Directions here!

[EDIT: I forgot to note a fun factoid: The 222 Store specializes in Scandinavian and Nordic Indie Brands of clothing-- a perfect perch for a Raven~]

Convention Peeks

" Hey watch where you're goin'! "

Pictures from APE

Before going into the above image, I must say, I had a stellar time at the Alternative Press Expo-- even with the rainy Sunday! I just wish I had more opportunities to browse the other tables and pick up some indie comic gems. It was good to see Javier Hernandez and meet some of the other Cartoonistas there. Also 1/3 of the Art & Story hosting team, Kevin Cross was in attendance. Though far up North, I also met near home local artists like Kevin Woody, who had a small anthology of his work with some diverse stylings I really enjoyed.

I also got a couple of Jim Lujan's Ghettomation DVDs. A great collection, the interview "Conversatio," especially had me in stiches~

Our booth with the fierce and formidable Ralph Miranda ("Man Fighting Street")

Raul Aguirre Jr. ("Man vs. Art") on my right and Kevin Cross ("Art & Story") on my other right.

Kevin Woody sports a fancy 'stache along with similarly themed fun comic ("Between Mars").

[The banner and title totally piqued my interest]

Rule #135: It's not really a Con unless you have last minute projects to finish

Pics from LBCC

Conventions only we apart! Pardon for the backlog but the times have been eventful~

To see more of these pics from Long Beach Comic Con, find my illustration page on Facebook or see some selections on my Flickr.

Each of these events seems to have a different appeal and it's always great to meet diverse crowds at these conventions. The "Soviet Space Simian" screenprints which got no love at APE (ironically~) were very popular at LBCC and are now sold out! I'll likely be trying my hand at more screen printing techniques in new work too. I'll be putting up some pics from my haphazard process in another post.

Our table setup featured the "INFECTED" Anthology,

prints, "Man Fighting Street", and an assortment of mini-comics

McFly! Caught gliding around the convention floor

When pint-size cuteness collides...

Frankie wants a hug!

Goofing around among greats: Dean Yeagle and Amanda Connor

The Sunday of the convention fell on Halloween, so there was an even larger surge of costumed characters-- many creators taking part too.

It was a great pleasure to meet the amazing cover artist for our "Infected" book, Dean Yeagle and one of my favorite comic artists out there, Amanda Connor (in full skunk regalia!).

Fun with Fotoshop

Part of the fun of the Con is getting to see some of the great costumes folks put together. I ran into a detachment from the 501st Stormtrooper Legion while waiting for my morning coffee...

The Imperials occupation of Seattle's Best

I got one of them to humor me this shot:

Which resulted in:

(Bluescreens not included)

...and just because I can:

:]

'(Near-mint'/ 'Fair' condition)

24 Hour Geeky People

"24" (without Jack Bauer)

This zany event happens every year to test the wits and limits of comic creators everywhere. Challenged by sometime collaborator and sometime nemesis Ralph Miranda, I decided to join in to make a 24 page comic in 24 straight hours, even with a late start last Saturday.

Originally, I was planning to just be a 'spectator'-- even so far was calling the folks [admirable] nuts on the Twitters~ I was just going to hang around and work on other pending projects-- but being around that many people working so hard on comics, I couldn't help but at least try.

The event, started as a challenge by Scott McCloud, is now held all over at comic shops and venues throughout the world. I was at Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug, publishers of the Infected anthology I was in.

I also had the privilege of sitting near the original organizer of the day Nat Gertler, who had a copy of his soon to be published retrospective on Schultz's "Peanuts". A beauty of a book with lots of cool inserts and behind the scenes about the legendary catoonist.

Below are the first three pages from my story. The little narrative was cobbled together from random bits of funny thoughts over dinner with my girlfriend at Carney's Restaurant in Hollywood-- a diner built inside of an old Amtrak passenger car from the 1920's. [It's likely their website was built in the same era too... :P]

The story is called Dream Destinations and I'd summarize it as "like Inception: but for little kids!" The fantastical stuff comes later with rockets and hamsters and cat food... o my:

Though I wish it had more polish to it, I'm pretty satisfied that at least it's one complete story and actually spans the full 24 pages. There's a few more episodic adventures for the trio to go on in my head and I'd like to add some splashy color fitting for this all-ages genre. First things first though because it's nearing time for....

A.P.E. (without Monkeys)

This happens Oct 16-17 at the Concourse Center in San Francisco. I'll have all eight of the posters from the Nouveau Robotica series as well as one extra large set for the "Aceite Fino" design. I'll also have buttons, screenprints, a mini-comic, and the Infected anthology story too. This will be my third time attending, second time as an exhibitor so I'm really looking forward to seeing some familars and seeing and meeting some awesome indie talent.

Here's more info about the Expo. I'll be at table with #629 with Mirando Calrissian [Ralph], Yan Solo [Stephen], Grand Moff Parsons [Jeremy].

More Coffee Sketches

Going Postal:

This is the most recent spread for a project Postal Sketches, where several artist friends mail a sketchbook between each other, drawing up some inspiration from the previous pages. I had forgotten to link to the blog this whole time! Be sure to check it out though. Great fun to see what develops in the sketchbook and keep in contact in such an old school way-- go snail mail!

I decided to stick to using ink and coffee for this spread since I've been using it as my medium of choice in my own sketchbook these days. Check out below some recent doodles from a trip to San Fransisco's Alternative Press Expo (APE) and around my own town's coffee shops.




... subsequent sketches to come in more frequent posts :]