Namor Nouveau

Undersea Tee

This Marvel design for MightFine available here.
The character's costume choice for this one is more like his recent versions in the X-Men books. It was just more fun to draw than only those green underoos--

I did a bit of catching up with the classic title and now really dig Dodson's work. Pulling my nose out of the indie books, there's some great work out there. 

In drawing the first Marvel mutant, I wanted to incorporate both (his sailor father's) nautical motifs and Atlantean influences. Oceanic fun~

The Nouveau Magneto

The Nouveau Master of Magnetism

Marvel licensed shirt design for MightyFine (welovefine.com)-- get attracted to it here!

The Show with No Name

Saddle Up!

This is an upcoming show at the Catalyst Art Space (where we had the "Prehistoric Show"previously), this time themed around Spaghetti Westerns. In case you didn't see the Community episode "A Fistful of Paintballs", westerns in a contemporary setting still rockin' something fierce!

To get several of the artists acclimated to tone of Westerns steeped in Spaghetti, I put together a DVD that we showed during early planning meetings. They featured clips, trailers, and posters from "The Good the Bad and the Ugly," "A Bullet for the General," "Once Upon a Time in the West," and "Navajo Joe" and others. The Italian directors of the time really established a unique and recognizable aesthetic that we hope to showcase in the show.

Something's strange is afoot. 

Just as a teaser, we will have our resident makeup artist (who did the cavegirl makeup in the last show) apply her magic to make a select group of us all rugged (and possibly shot ;).

There will also be a olde-time photo-op space for folks with some Western themed ephemera to get a fancy photo-graph taken too!

Stay tuned through the invite on Facebook EVENT PAGE here and be ready for a fine roundup, July 9th at 7:00!

[edit: WANTED POSTERS of the Artists!]

"Captured"-- as in art form... get it~?  :le sigh:

I hope Dog the Bounty Hunter (or Boba Fett) don't take these posters too seriously~

The Lawmen will get their metal.

[I'll post up previews of the piece I'll be contributing as updates in this post. It'll feature a mix of Tuco from "Good, Bad, Ugly" and the classic 8-bit game "Wild Gunman"]

[a Preview of artworks on display:]

by Christina Rincon

by Christina Rincon

My old "Old Man and the Mountain"

Chris Houghton's "Reed Gunther"!

[Our increasing collection of Western accouterments:]

[Construction of our hitching post. Oversize pony riders please inform us beforehand ;]

And if you got the kind of pony tends to get lost easy, find the the gallery here:

View Larger Map

Tee Time

(Marilyn ain't got nuthin' on this Monroe..!)

[6/18 updated T-shirt design info!]

Storm Front

Hot off the news presses and available in apparel form HERE through fantastic MighyFine tees-- it's everyone favorite weather goddess!!

The X-Men were the comic characters I grew up with as a young lad, so to add some Nouveau flair to one of these iconic characters was mighty fun! Her design is meant to incorporate some African influence to merge with the art movement of 1900s Europe and pay some homage to her Wakandan royalty.

By the power of the wind! ...wear this shirt to stay warm ;]

Belated Crescent


Also on my late newsfront is that the "Arabian Crescent" design for Threadless was chosen for print and is up for sale up their site. The winnings from it have provided a warm and steady stream of tees through these temperate Californian months~

(This shirt is perfect camouflage in wheat fields)

It's been supremely encouraging to join a part of their ranks and there'll certainly be more apparel design related news to spread in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to all who voted--!

O Do Tell

Tell the Truth

Here are some previews and sketches for a short comic I'm working on for a group called the "Mini Comics Dump Truck".

Headed by one of the co-hosts of the "Art and Story"and "Big Illustration Party Timem" podcasts, Kevin Cross, this is part of the 'Supreme' membership group that makes a pledge to create a mini-comic to be mailed to all members.

I usually need self imposed deadlines to get personal projects done between freelance work so this creative group was a perfect motivator. Here are some pages at the penciled stage and a shot of some inks strewn on the lightbox. I don't want to give too much away, but generally, it follows the events previous to my first short story "The Sunless Circus".

My convention copies of "Sunless" are currently sold out but you can find the p.o.d. version available here. There were also some limited edition ones I made that included a sketch card and premium cover on the Collectors Society forum, which was pretty neat to see at this early stage~

It's been fun exploring this world in the story and reverse engineering ideas for characters and locations that I may or may not have subconsciously had in mind when making the first silent comic. This one has a more complicated story involving the inventor of Ardee the Acrobatic Robot Boy and the Ringmaster.
The text is still left out so there's some room for your imagination to tinker.

Free Comic Book Day!

"The Ink Raven" hand carved stamp

FCBD FTW !

Many cheers to friendly neighborhood photographer Caitlyn of Comic Book Resources for the kind mention on their site. It's an honor to be named anywhere near the regal Richard Starkings. 

As a youngin, I followed "Generation X" (which Starkings lettered) amd I mistakenly took the company 

"Comicraft" to be some sort of magical lettering program. I can wholly appreciate the art of type and lettering now that I've attempted it myself and marveled at Comicraft's newer work in "Elephantmen".

Vol. 1 "Wounded Animals" was beautifully done. 

One tough gang

The Raven leaves a Trail

There were events all over LA for Free Comic Book Day, but I decided the best place to be was the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach. I made economy paper versions of my Ink Raven story (standard edition currently sold out :/) to give away at this event in exchange for being "inked".

This idea of the Raven leaving his ink-laden talon marks is actually part of the larger story in its universe. Generally, the idea in the story is that the mark is dynamic and rotates like a compass in the direction of your destiny. I'm itching to dive into it~

Pics from the Comic Bug:

 Troopers take the streets!

Tyler Crook was super swell and drew me a Liz Sherman.
He definitely got a mini comic in return~

 Mike raffles off prizes in style

The most leisurely paced Flash I'd ever seen 

and one warm-blooded Wonder Woman 

Comic and rhyming pals Ralph Miranda and Kathryn Renta

Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame

I also had a fantastic time getting to talk to Joe Benitez, whose "Lady Mechanika" is some great steampunk fare. Having run out of mini-comics, I gave him a copy of the "Sunless Circus" (sorta steampunk~). The second part of that story titled "The Tell" is more than half complete and I'll be posting previews soon--!

The Art of Artifiction

A Brief Prehistory of Time

These are some photos from an art show I was in at Catalyst art space: "Prehistoric Artifictionn" 

Ideally these pics would have been posted much earlier, but I was doing some up-to-the-minute hand building for the construction of a fullsize cave installation in the show.

The cave was constructed inside an adjacent room to the gallery made out of cardboard supported by easels, make-it-stone spray, expanding insulation foam, and live ferns.
The audio aspect of the installation, with help from Abel Stearns, featured a collection of "prehistoric" sounds (drips, echo, growls) provided by a hidden amp in the room. The lighting was partially recessed and angled to cast long shadows and illuminate higher areas of the cave and stalagmites.
Many thanks goes out to Jeremy Parsons and Jackson Root for helping me construct this crazy thing.

The postcard from the past at top was also something I digitally painted for the show. Something time travelers might appreciate~

Pre-set up photos:

Testing the Make-it-Stone Spray

Jeremy takes some process pics 

The small room being prepped for "cave in" 

The show also included live actors dressed as prehistoric people and music:

Make-up artist Tammie Rupe apply prosthetics to our Cavegirl.

 A view after patrons contributed their cave paintings.

 Prehistoric Picasso Tim leaves his mark

This dino's right on the money

 The contemprary Venus of Willendorf is a bit more conservative

 "Sssssimbaaaaa!"

A view facing out from the Cave

Josh Kemble adds a great piece where Deleks wipe out the Dinosaurs

Curator Corazones Christina's Caveman!

I saved this Universal Studios' Jurassic Park ID badge
from when i was 9, just for this purpose.

If you enjoy this type of interactive show, the next theme is going to "Spaghetti Western", so keep your eyes peeled pilgrims!

Patton Oswalt Poster and WonderCon

A True Comedian of Comedy

This is a show poster I did for Patton Oswalt at his show coming up April 29th.
If you're anywhere near Tucson around this time you should definitely check it out! Details and ticket info can be found in the Events section on his site here.

Prints are available through my Etsy store. Get 'em while they're hot--!

Comics and Comics

So I had the lucky happenstance of meeting the swell funnyman at the Hammer Museum where he was moderator for an event promoting the release of the book "75 years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking." Jumping at the chance to see comics history and geekery elevated to such a classy locale, I joined some friends to see the entertaining discussion. The guests included the author and former president of DC, Paul Levitz, as well as creative giants Jim Lee and Geoff Johns.

During the Q & A, someone in the crowd asked a fairly general question about how to 'make it' in the comics biz, to which even the moderator jumped in. Talking about how one's got to just do your thing (with interwebs n' all)-- not wait to be picked up by some bigger imprint or get 'permission' to do what you love, it was totally heartening to hear words encouraging independent aspirations. I dug.

I think some similar sentiments came though in his "Comedians of Comedy" movie, which follows "alternative comedians," Brian Posehn (another comic book aficionado!), Zach Galifinakis (awesome!), and Maria Bamford (even awesomer!) on tour.
Patton was a fantastic fit for the event and so I made it a point to tell him so after the show... and certainly glad I did~

Pictorial proof :

I strategically placed myself in the front row,

 hoping to absorb some of their talent via spit/osmosis.

Comics pals Ralph and Jeremy were part of the cadre as we squinted our closest resemblence to the Man of Steel of the Golden Age...

Squinty McSquinterson



If you can draw fantastically, be a Publisher of DC, be very well spoken,

 and not have to let go of a good beer all at the same time, your name might just be...

...Jim Lee!

We then proceeded to become zombies...

A Time to Wonder

I'm going to be a bit more timely with this post and make some noise about Wondercon this year. Celebrating it's 25th anniversary, the event will be held April 1-3 at the Moscone Center-- smack dab in the middle of San Francisco. This was one of the first events I ever tabled at and it's been great fun every time. I really enjoy its size, space, and audience. To me it feels like a fine balance between the cozy halls of APE and the rabble crowds of ComicCon. The city is also rad to boot.
Hope to see folks for the show~

Mark your calendars! :

Fri 4/1 Noon - 7pm
Sat 4/2 10am - 7pm
Sun 4/3 11am - 5pm

More info about the event is available on their official site.

I will be in attendance with aforementioned Ralph Miranda and Co. at table #AA-077

I'll have a the newest of my 'Nouvuea Robotica' posters on hand as well as some comics, stickers, and buttons.

One new addition this year will be unveiled in the form of some fashioned machinery--
a vintage vending contraption that'll dispense buttons and other fun goods. 

There will be a limited quantity of capsules with the non-red caps that'll get patrons a free sketch!Bring your quarters! (or at least small bills I can break ;)

Here 'tis, still having it's kinks worked out--

Promised to be ready full of fun trinkets for the show~

[GumballmachineVenturetime is a joint operation

by myself and musician pal digitalcasm--

look for it at his performance too!]