The Bluewater International Comic-Con 2025

This Saturday, I will be set up in Artist Alley at the Bluewater International Comic-Con in Port Huron, MI The show runs from 11am-6pm. I will have all the usual stuff; comic books, cartoon books, illustrated books, stickers, prints, AP sketch cards and original art. 

You can get all the pertinent info here. 

Hope to see you there!

 

Making A Halloween Costume

 

My friend Kelly and I made Halloween costumes this year. I had two parties to go to, so this came in handy. My latest Substack is up and involves the making of our oversized heads. Check it out here.

Happy Holloween! 2025

 

My latest Substack is up and has some Halloween related cartoons from years past. Most have never been seen, so maybe you'll be in for a treat. Or a trick, I don't know.

Click here to be spookified. 

Belleville Drink N Draw October, Part Two 2025

Last night was the Belleville Drink Night Draw at Egan's Pub. We had a pretty decent gathering with plenty of good conversations and sketching going on.

I chose to do a sketch of Pizza Rat, a character that cartoonist Clay Jones sneaked into his political cartoons. Pizza rat, or Peezy as he is affectionately is called has become quite popular among Clay's fans, including me. Recently, Mr. Jones suffered a stroke and people have been sending him their versions of Peezy as a show of support and encouragement with his healing. Below is the version that I sent to him. I think you can guess as tho where I was going with this one. He is putting up all Peezys on his Substack.

Get well soon, Clay Jones!

Inktober, Day 28: Skeletal

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is Skeletal. This guy is giving a little peep.

 

Inktober, Day 27: Onion

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is Onion, as in Onion the Hunter! Oh wait, that's Orion. the Hunter. Oops.

 

Inktober, Day 23: Firefly

 

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is Firefly. Do I go bug or do I go sci-fi series? I went with the bug.

Inktober, Day 16: Blunder

 

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is Blunder. For this...BLUNDERbuss!

And that would be an Uncle Fester looking chap holding a blunderbuss.

Workplace Cartoons, Part 9

 

Once again, we have more workplace cartoons and sketches in my latest Substack newsletter. Like the sub-header says, 'more mattress making hilarity.' Click here for so much fun. 

Inktober, Day 15: Ragged

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is Ragged. I kind of liked the idea of a mummy with ragged rags.

 

Warren Elks Comic Book Show October 2025

 

Poster by Martin Hirchak

(click on image to bigefy)

This Saturday, I will once again be at the Warren Elks Comic Book Show in Warren, MI. I do believe that the hours are 10-3. I will be one of five artists that will be on hand that include Dave Nestler, Mark Bloodworth/Claudine Creates, Steven Bejma and Gloria Pridemore.

I will have all the usual; AP sketch cards, original art, books, prints, stickers, etc, etc, etc.

Inktober 2025, Day 14: Trunk

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ink in sketchbook

I've missed a few days of this here Inktober thing. I've been kind of busy, and add in that some of these word prompts are less than thrilling. Although, I have seen some folks do some imaginative stuff with those words. 

Today's word prompt is Trunk. 

 

Inktober, Day 7: Starfish

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is Starfish. I'll bet that you didn't know that starfish, or sea stars as we in the scientific community call them now, have skeletons. Well, the skull is a dead giveaway. 

Science!

 

Inktober, Day 6: Pierce

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt: Pierce. Via le Revolution!

 

Inktober, Day 5: Deer

 

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Ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'deer.' Spooky deer skull.

Inktober, Day 3: Crown

 

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ink in sketchbook

I'm a day late with this one, but as today's word prompt (murky) is 'eh,' I'll skip that one and do this instead. I was originally going to go with a zombie Jesus with a crown of thorns, but thought of this. I went with the word play of the other day and you have a crow with a crown. I crack myself up.

Then again, I could have done Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Jughead (as someone else did), a sloppy orange asshole who thinks he's a king...

I like the crow. What's not to like about crows?

Inktober, Day 2: Weave

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ink in sketchbook

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'Weave.' Now, I could have gone with a spider 'weaving' its web, but no, you'd be wrong. Instead, I went with WEAVEr, as in Sigourney WEAVEr. Deep, I know.

And hey, I have now done more Inktobers than last year!

 

Belleville Drink N Draw October 2025

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colored pencil in sketchbook

Last night, we picked up again with the Belleville Drink N Draw at Egan's Pub. I worked on a couple of cartoons that still need to be finished up, but here is a sketch that I did of a bar patron. I was going to also sketch her friend, but his ass was hanging out bigly, so passed on that one.

 

Inktober 2025, Day One: Mustache

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ink in sketchbook

So, it's Inktober again. I'm not sure just how committed I'll be this year, the same as lately. I have stuff to do, dammit. Plus, some of the word prompts...

But, I take it as a challenge, to not only come up with a decent image, but to make it Octobery, spooky, halloweenish.

Today's word prompt is 'mustache.' So, a creepy, Salvador Dali skull, with the appropriate stylish and waxed facial accoutrements.

 

Alberto Giacometti

 

My latest Substack is up and I have some thoughts regarding the Swiss sculptor, Alberto Giacometti. You can click here to read and hopefully enjoy.  

Monroe Comic Con 2025

 

click on image to bigefy

This Friday and Saturday, you can find me in Artist Alley at the Monroe Comic Con, located in, of all places, Monroe, MI. This is my first time doing the show and I've heard good things, so I'm hopeful that my good year continues. 

Come on by, if you are so inclined. I'll have all the usual goodies; books, comic books, AP sketch cards, original art, some prints, stickers and I'll be doing commissions, as well.

Hope to see you there!

Workplace Cartoons, Part 8

 

My latest Substack is up for you to see. As you can tell by the title, it is continuing my workplace sketches  and cartoons. This time from my stint as a mattress maker. The boxbuilder years. Click here to be amazed. 

Go Figure! Sketch Night August 2025

 This past Saturday evening was the Go Figure! sketch night at the Grosse Pointe Farms Congregational church in Grosse Pointe Farms. Our model this time was Loki Gregory dressed as a fair renaissance maiden and she did a great job. Here are some of the sketches that I did during the evening.

Above are a couple of blind contour sketches

I tried to experiment a little, using colored pencils, ink, ballpoint pen and pencil (not shown). It was a fun night drawing at the church. And we didn't burst into flames. 

Keith Richards?

 Well, almost...

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acrylic on illustration board

mixed with flood water

This morning, I was out in the garage doing some loose scribbling in charcoal on the easel. I have a small stack of paintings sitting nearby that were damaged during a basement flooding some years ago. It's denial, like they will somehow magically not be water damaged. I look at them from time to time and cringe. Some were ok, some just started, like this one of Keith Richards. I think something finally relented in me, because I'm now starting to think about restarting this one. I've resisted, angry that I should even have to start over again, dammit! I had even given in to scrapping this all together, but now...

Maybe this is why I relegated these pieces to the garage only to be seen every once in a while. The chance that I will see some kind of promise, like I once did and start again. Maybe.

I think that I had a decent enough idea with this one. I planned on having all of these abstract looking smoke whirls filling up the entirety of the background, all coming from a cigarette attached to the end of his guitar. The smoke would be thick and all encompassing, suffocating, but somehow pickling the man, keeping him alive. The music, as well, yeah, yeah...

Yeh, I think that I may begin again with this one.

Mindblowing Exhibit

My Heike Diver drawing will be included in the Mindblowing exhibit at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial starting tomorrow. I am one of 58 artists exhibiting their surreal works. I was able to see some of them when I dropped of my piece on Monday and there are some very cool and evocative works to be on display. There will be a lecture about the show with the Canadian artist Adam Strange who was the juror for the show. That will start at 6:30 on Thursday August 7th. Awards and such will also be presented at this time. Below, is my piece all framed up and ready to go.

 And below, is the drawing as I scanned it.

The Grosse Pointe War Memorial is located at The War Memorial campus, 32 Lake Shore Dr.Grosse Pointe FarmsMI48236. Stop on by to see the show. It will run through the beginning of October.

Ripley

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colored pencil on tinted paper

For a while now I have been tinkering with the idea of doing pet portraits. but I needed to find a way to make them unique to my way doing things. I wanted something to add than just a somewhat stylized version of someone's pet. One of my friends has a cool little dog named Ripley, named after Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien. This was a no brainer. But, I do fear that I may have started way high and everything that comes after will be somewhat of a let down. I mean, c'mon, Alien! What are the chances that someone will name their dog Deckard or some such thing. They are out there, I know...

So, spread the word.

 

Parasaurolophus Linocut Process

 

My latest Substack is up and I show the process of the Parasaurolophus linocut prints that I made yesterday. So, check it out, if you are so inclined. Click here.

Parasaurolophus Print

 

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print on bristol board

For those of you who might have been paying attention, I did a sketch of said Parasauropholus, the very best of all the hadrosaurs, sometime back. January, to be precise. All with the intention of doing a linocut, then the print. Which is what you see above. 

I had meant to do a Substack about the process and have that ready last month. As you can see, that didn't happen. But, it will. Tomorrow, in fact, I will do a post and show the process and more of the prints. When I was printing yesterday, I decided on red ink (kind of looks orange, but I didn't mind), but I poured some out over some dried black ink thinking that it's dry, it won't reactivate. Did I mention that I'm kind of sort of new to all this? So, as I was going along, the two colors mixed and I was getting some cool looking images. Now, I don't know the exact rules as far as numbering goes when the color changed a bit during the process, but I'm going with 1-12, with the one you see above the 1st of the 12. I'll need to check with my Jedi linocut master, John Benson to get the correct way of doing things. 

So, tomorrow. The process. 

And, I would like to re-mention that the above design was inspired by the logo done for the band Beat by Dan Ermy. He did a very cool looking elephant head that they use for their backdrop,

Ultraman Series Four Kickstarter

 

A Kickstarter for the Ultraman, Series Four card set is going on via RR Parks cards. I did do some sketch cards for this set, with some of them shown above. Click HERE to get to their Kickstarter.

Drop Dead Sketchy July 2025

 

This past Wednesday was the July meet-up for the sketch group, Drop Dead Sketchy at the Detroit Shipping Company. Nothing special from me, I tell ya. I ended up doing some doodles of people milling about the tent area. I think that the guy with the baseball hat saw me sketching him and moved behind one of his friends. Oddly enough, that was one of the better sketches that I did. Oh well, fun was had!

Go Figure! Sketch Night July 2025

 This past Saturday was the re-emergence of the Go Figure! sketch night that was usually held at Rainy Day Art Supplies. They have been in the process of moving to a new location, so this time we were at the Grosse Pointe Congregational Church. And, this time we had a mermaid model! Amanda, who is one of the aquarists at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit is also a cosplayer and did a most awesome job. 

It was good to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a while. I've been doing a few different sketch events these past few months and it is interesting that there is some crossover between us artists, but they also have their own uniqueness. I'll see different people at different events and it's all good. I like that. here are some of the sketches that I did on Saturday.

Detroit Zoo Sketches

 

So, I did get in a couple of sketches from yesterday's trip to the Detroit Zoo. Nuka, the polar bear at the top was an experiment with capturing movement, as he was on the go. I'm not sure that I succeeded with this one, but I still kind of like it. Does that count?

Then there were a couple of camels just before being fed some carrots. They have interesting heads. 

Resist!

 

3x4 sticker

A few months ago, one of the scientists that I follow on social media was talking about how resistant ammonites were and are. They have survived all of Earth's mass extinctions and still survive today in the form of the nautilus, cuttle fish and the like. So, I thought, what a good symbol for the resistance. An ammonite, or my version of one. It represents everything fascists hate... science, education (I put in a little education symbol in the center of the ammonite swirl), critters, etc.

I originally was going to use a cuttle fish to represent the tentacles part of the image and quickly changed my mind on that. I had recently saw a Ray Harryhausen exhibit, so I used the nautilus model from the movie The Mysterious Island, complete with the red eye. So, help me God, it had red eyes! 

And I made stickers. I will put them up on my website very soon, but you can always contact me directly, if interested. And who wouldn't be interested in an ammonite sticker?

Michael Madsen

 

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ink on bristol board

Michael Madsen has left us. I always enjoyed his roles. He had a way that no other actor (at least, for me) had in making one think that, yeah, that's an asshole right there, but maybe, just maybe, there is something good in there, something relatable and likable. I always thought that his characters were struggling with decency, but just couldn't pull out of the quagmire. Well, maybe not Mr. Blonde. He embraced the cruelty.

Above is a drawing that I did of Madsen as Mr. Blonde back in 2013. I was experimenting with blank eyes during this time. This one sold a few years ago and the woman who bought loved the pose. Whew. 

Workplace Cartoons, Part 7

 

My latest Substack is up and finally finishes up the sketches from my days as a stained glass worker. Finally! Click here to take you there.

Drop Dead Sketchy June 2025

 

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colored pencil in

sketchbook

This past Wednesday was the June meet-up for the Drop Dead Sketchy sketch group at the Detroit Shipping Company. I worked a little on a book illustration and did this quick sketch of my buddies kid, Charlie. It doesn't really look like her... I was kind of focused on the hair. A fellow artist who I haven't in about twenty years showed up, so that was a pleasant surprise. 

We meet up once a month and if interested, you can follow Drop Dead Sketchy here and here. 

Belleville Drink N Draw June 2025

 So, last night was the June edition of the Belleville Drink N Draw. Half of the city had lost power, so everyone was at the pub! It was quite packed. Sketching, gabbing, grubbing and the Tigers were on, so a good night.

I was the only one there from our group for about a half an hour, so I did a sketch of the only empty seat in the place. 

Then I worked on some ideas. This one is for a book that is in the works. Trying to come up with what the East West wind would look like. I was going for what one would see on an old map or something.

Then, I focused on an idea for a sketch card involving some cryptids and I like the idea of the frogman of New Jersey (?). So, some frog guys.

Tonight is the another sketch club meet-up. This time in Detroit! More on that tomorrow.