Friday Ink and Detroit Fanfare

Captain America
9x12
ink on bristol board
$30


Today's Friday Ink is none other than Captain America. I figure it's fitting since Detroit Fanfare starts tonight and goes through Sunday. I will not be there for Preview Night tonight as I will be at the Fox Theatre seeing Jeff Beck and Brian Wilson perform, but a few of my fellow artist friends are manning my table, so if you really wanted to pick something up you can. See all of you tomorrow!

Zelda's Zombie Zoo

The other book that will be debuting at Detroit FanFare that I have a piece in is Zelda's Zombie Zoo written by Gary Reed and published by Binary Press. This is an all ages book, so even though it has zombified zoo animals, the gore and rotted flesh was kept to a minimum. So, I've been told. I've seen a few of the other contributor's images and there is a varied collection of zoo animals for your viewing pleasure. I will have copies of this book at my table in artists alley, so stop on by and get your copy this weekend.

Stoopid Stuf

This Friday marks the launch date for a new web comic that I crated alongside Kevin Minor of Universe-M fame. Kevin does the writing and the coloring and I do the draw-w-wing. For the past four months we have been coming up with ideas, rehashing them, making them work the way we want them to work and now we will be able to share them with all of you cartoon loving pagans once a week. Stoopid Stuf is a cartoon by two curmudgeons who want to put our curmudgeony thoughts in a single panel to show you just how cranky and/or goofy we can be when satirizing life and all that stoopid stuf. So, starting this Friday toon in to Stoopid Stuf at www.stoopidstuf.com and we hope to be able to bring a chuckle or two to at least two of you.

We chose this Friday to launch our web comic to coincide with Detroit Fanfare, the premier Comic convention in the Detroit area, which will be held at the Adoba Hotel (formally, the Hyatt) in Dearborn, MI.

The Book Of Tarot

The Hermit
11x14
ink on bristol board



I have a few projects coming to fruition this week, so I will be updating on them throughout the week. The first is The Book Of Tarot, a collection that will make its debut this weekend at Detroit Fanfare in Dearborn, MI. All of the artists in the book will be on hand at the convention to sign their little hearts away. The book was put together by Gary Reed and printed up through his Transfuzion Publishing.

I chose to do The Hermit card and the above image is what it looks like. I wanted to incorporate a few different aspects, such as The Hermit himself, the tale of Diogenes of Athens, which lends itself perfectly with this card and the story of St. Gerlach, a dutch mercenary who lived in an oak tree after his journey from the Crusades. The tree replaces the mountain in the original card.

I've already seen a few pieces from this book and they have all been stellar looking, so if you are into anything Tarot, then this book is for you. Stop on by my table in artists alley and pick up a copy.

Detroit Fanfare 2012

The 3rd Detroit Fanfare kicks off tonight at 6pm and will run until Sunday. Check out the times on their site. Besides myself (you can find me at table 129 in the Great Lakes Ballroom), there will be a whole bunch of Michigan based artists and creators. Of course, there will be artists and such from out of state, as well. And don't forget the celebrities, such as David Prowse, Sam Jones and Michael Jai White, etc.

Voices From The Deadworld by Gary Reed will premiere at this show, which is an anthology of the characters that have appeared over the last twenty years, or so in the Deadworld comic. I have two pieces in the anthology and they are shown above as they will be seen in the book. I have color prints available for the two, as well. The top character is Tattoo and the bottom one is of my own creation, a zombie obsessed with time. I will have copies of the book and prints at my table, as well as my other books and prints, sketch cards and will be doing commissions as requested.

Don't forget to get your official fanfare print by Bill Pulkovski and get them signed by the actors. He did a great job on this one!

El Arto

El Arto is the studio name of a couple illustrator buddies of mine by the name of John Marroquin and Chris Sanchez and they have taken their mascot and studio image El Arto and turned him/it into a comic book, which will debut this weekend at Detroit Fanfare. I was honored to have been asked to do a pin up for the book, which is the image above. I wasn't sure at first about the background, but after finishing it and letting it sit for awhile, I think I achieved what I was going for in a claustrophobic and cluttered background, something seemingly impossible to escape from. Bullets, Bandito Goblins and death. But, our hero (or is it an anti-hero?), the undead mariachi has his six-shooters  ready to face the improbable.

Make sure to check out the artwork of John and Chris on their websites and be sure to come on by Detroit Fanfare this weekend in Dearborn, MI and check out the El Arto book! Oh, yeah, I'll be there, too.

Deadworld Sketch Cards

Let's roll with the Halloween theme and show some Deadworld sketch cards, shall we? Above are some of the 50 cards done for the set coming out soon by Breygent. Deadworld is a comic that was originally put out in the late 80's by Caliber Comics. The original stories were written by Stuart Kerr and illustrated by Vince Locke and are now written and published (as was then) by pal and colleague Gary Reed. As many in the industry will testify, Gary Reed is a good guy and I always learn something and enjoy the time spent when in his company. Definitely a straight shooter.

It was a lot of fun to work on this set and explore the many different characters that populate the Deadworld universe. I even made Gary a zombie on a couple of cards.

In a couple of weeks I should have news regarding another Deadworld project that I am a part of as Detroit Fanfare nears.

More Sketch Covers

I haven't done too many of these sketch cover thingies, but after attending Wizard World Chicago back in August I can certainly see the potential for them. I'm sure it depends on the show, but for that one I did alright with the covers. So, while I was there I drew up a couple more to replace the ones that I sold and were commissioned to do. I will have these on hand at this month's Detroit Fanfare if anyone is interested in them!

Detroit Fanfare!

Detroit Fanfare is finally amongst us! This Saturday and Sunday at Cobo hall in Detroit will be the place to be for all of your comic and pop culture needs and this event is turning very fast into being the Detroit area's premiere con scene. The founders of Fanfare, Dennis Barger, Gary Reed and Tony Miello have pulled out all the stops in making this a fun and exciting weekend. Besides there being over 200 artists, there will be a few media guests there, as well. Peter Weller of Robocop and Buckaroo Banzai fame, Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead and Burn Notice, Steven Yeun of The Walking Dead and Kelly Hu from X-Men 2 just to name a few.

Motor City Sketch will have a presence there, as well. We will have our artists at the MCS booth throughout the weekend doing sketches for charity and some of will be doing a panel on Sunday at 2:30 talking about sketch cards, including Jay Shimko, Bill Pulkovski, Jake Minor, Matt Minor, Kevin Minor, Jason Westlake and Jeremy Treece.

I was honored to be asked to do an exclusive official Fanfare print and what you see above is just that, minus the Fanfare logo. The print is of guest Steven Yeun. You can get that print at the main table when you come through the door or at my table, as well. Although, mine won't have the Fanfare logo. I will be at table 224 in Artists Alley.

So, come on down and say hello. I will also have other prints exclusive to Fanfare and it's content, sketch cards, books and original art.

Saturday 10am to 7pm

Sunday 12pm to 6pm

You can get all the details at the Detroit Fanfare site by clicking here.

Uniroyal Thanos

I did this drawing of the mighty Thanos materializing out of the Uniroyal Tire for a Detroit/pop art inspired sketchbook that will be available at Detroit Fanfare next weekend (Sept. 24+25) at Cobo Hall. This exact image may or may not be in the book, as I haven't heard which of the three images I submitted will be included, but I thought that I would show it here anyways. I will have more on Detroit Fanfare in my next post.

The Hellboy Thinker

The Hellboy Thinker
12x18
colored pencil on tinted paper


I've been tinkering around with Detroit themed pop culture ideas for next month's Detroit Fanfare convention and this was an idea for another painting, but I kind of like it as a drawing. It would definitely have a very different feel to it done in acrylics. I may still do it, but I have a few other Fanfare related projects that have to be done first and I don't think I can talk about it just yet, so I won't.