Iron Man - again!

Here's a quick drawing of Iron Man I finished a few nights ago. I drew it up in ink markers, but scanned it into photoshop and added a bit of paper texture. As some of you might know, I doodle Iron Man quite a bit, though not as much lately. But I felt like drawing him again, so I took an old sketch from my sketchbook and inked it up to share on this blog.

Incidentally, I do keep another blog of all Iron Man sketches (you can see a link to it on my sidebar), but sadly, I haven't had any time to devote to it, so I'm thinking of closing it up. For those of you who sent me Iron Man drawings over the last few months to post, I'm very sorry for not getting around to it. The demands of freelance work and family life just haven't left me much time to spare lately. I'll try and post all the ones sent to me before I close it up for good.

An Offensive Rip off

Ty Buttars, comic enthusiast and all around nice guy, sent me this photo he took today saying that he knew I "wouldn't like this". He's right. The photo above is of a fellow he ran into at Heroes con in Charlotte, who was wearing a t-shirt featuring a rip off of my artwork. According to Ty, this guy said he "found it at a goodwill", which may or may not be true.

Either way, let me just say a few things about this. Firstly, I don't like people ripping off my artwork to put on t-shirts. Even if they print only one, for themselves. My work is clearly copyrighted by, and owned by me. It says so at the bottom of this blog. If a company ripped off my work to reproduce in mass quantities for profit, I'd be really pissed. If its just an individual doing one for themselves, I'm not pissed but still offended. Especially if, as is clear here, that person has removed my signature from the art. And please note, this isn't a "re-draw" or a "re-creation" or a drawing similar to mine, - this is just a straight grab of my artwork, as is, minus the signature.

Secondly, I am particularly offended by this specific drawing being reproduced on a t-shirt. Why? Because its a drawing of Jack Kirby: a creator whom I have immense respect for, and who was also routinely and unfairly exploited during his lifetime. I did this drawing as a tribute to him, to post here on this blog, and have had several comments from people suggesting that I make it into a shirt for sale. Unfortunately, I'd never want to do that. The reason for that is obvious: I don't want to make money off of his memory or likeness. Kirby has a fine estate, and unless they authorized the work, I would never ever want to violate his memory by exploiting him one more time.

In that same spirit, I've inked several pages of Kirby artwork for fun over the years, yet I'll never offer them for sale for that very same reason. Its just a personal decision of mine.

So, I'm posting this blog entry to make it clear that this t-shirt was never authorized or approved by me, and to ask a favour. If you're the guy who printed this shirt and you did it just for yourself, please be kind and stop wearing it. You're probably a Kirby fan like me, but please understand that you're not only ripping off my artwork, but that you're using it in a way that is upsetting to me. I don't want anyone to see the shirt and assume that I was responsible for it, especially anyone connected to Jack Kirby's estate. If you like, I'll send you a blank shirt or any of my other t-shirts I've designed over the years to make up for it. Contact me via email, and I promise to honour that pledge with no hard feelings. However, If you're a company and you printed this shirt for profit, stop being a douchebag and desist right away. I will do everything in my power to stop you if you don't.

I am also asking a favour to anyone who sees someone wearing this shirt. If you could be so kind as to tell the person wearing this that the artwork was ripped off and that he should stop, I'd appreciate it very much. I realize that's a big favour to ask, and I wouldn't ask for most other rip-offs of my work, but this particular case really bothers me. And if any of you know any more information about this rip off, especially if it's by a company producing mass quantities, please contact me. I'll make it worth your while.

For those who read my blog regularly and were hoping to see an art-post here today instead of this rant, my apologies. I'll get back to posting art again here soon, but I really needed to bring this problem to attention.

Thanks for your patience.

Billboard Magazine

Here's a recent 1/2 page illustration I did for Billboard magazine, concerning the decline in British music retail. Above is the final art, and below, you can check out my colour rough.

I usually hand in colour roughs to most clients, as I find that it gives a much better idea of what the final will look like than a pencil rough. Since I usually pencil in "clear line" without indicating where the tones will be placed, it can be a bit misleading -- especially since I tend to drop out most outlines in my final artwork and only use the pencil as a guide for "painting" in tone.

Astro-girl 2009

Just a quick sketch I drew up in gouache and ink today. I added some textures and fiddled with the colour a bit in pshop before posting. Drawing girls in space-suits seems to be a common theme with me...and a zillion other illustrators.

TCAF and Spider-man

Well, its 3 days later, and I'm pretty much recovered from the madness that was TCAF this year. It was a great show, and much busier than other shows. I got to meet some truly exceptional comic creators and chat with fans, and I have to say, as much as I like super-hero stuff, indie comics are where the real energy is at. Highlights included meeting for the first time Joe Ollman (whose work has been an inspiration to me for years), Matt Kindt (who created the wonderful graphic novel "Super Spy") and Maurice Vellekoop (who needs no introduction). All of them were charming and gracious and a pleasure to finally meet.

I picked up a lot of great mini-comics and zines from people, but I didn't get to leave my table and wander around as much as I'd hoped. The crowds this year were just so big that there wasn't much free time to check out all the cool stuff on display. Thanks to everyone who came by my table to chat or buy a print - its always a joy to talk to comic fans, especially at TCAF.

Even though I wasn't sketching at this show (I never sketch at TCAF), I did bring by a bunch of original art and sketches for sale including this Spider-man drawing which was snapped up pretty quickly. I had a bunch of other never-before-seen sketches at the show, but sadly, no scans of them.

...and a Quick Zatanna

This is the 2nd quick sketch I did this week, for a friend who wanted a drawing of Zatanna. For those who don't know, Zatanna is a DC Comics super-heroine, who happens to be a magician (The top hat and tux kinda gives that away, I think). I'd never drawn her before, so I was pleasantly surprised at how simple she was to sketch.

Like the Batman I posted earlier, this one was also done very quickly, in gouache and ink, with a little pshop cleanup after scanning. For those who might be interested, you can check out my pencil sketch for this drawing below.

A Quick Batman

I was laid out pretty badly the last couple weeks with a nasty flu, so I haven't had much new stuff to post on my blog, but here's a quick Batman sketch I drew up tonight. I painted this really fast in gouache and ink, and did some corrections in photoshop to even out the tones before posting. For those who are interested, you can compare it against the uncorrected scan below.

Keep in mind that I am lousy at drawing Batman, so if you see me at a convention, please don't ask me to draw him. You'll only make me sad.

Canon Street

This is a quick sketch I painted up one night while battling writer's block. Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that I painted it while procrastinating from some writing. It was painted in gouache and ink, and the background was inspired by my memories of growing up in Hamilton, Ontario. This sketch is also a companion piece to an older sketch I posted ages ago.

My Favourite Cartoonists Part 4: Wally Wood

My appreciation for Wally Wood is complex and contradictory, much like the man himself. He was one of the greatest inkers ever, with a virtuoso ability to render images in black and white. Yet his inking almost completely obliterated the penciller's work. He could draw beautiful and fluid cartoon figures, full of energy, life and charm, yet his more illustrative work often looks stiff and stilted. His work is marked by an attention to detail and obsessive craftsmanship, yet his thoughts on his art are often filled with cynicism and a "just get it done" mentality. He was nothing if not complex.

Wood was, in many ways, a tragic figure. His tale is a cautionary one, and several books and articles have been written about this aspect of his legacy. But for all the darkness that surrounded his personal life, I'll always remember and treasure the great cartooning he left behind: Superduperman and the Mad magazine parodies, the endless stream of inventive sci-fi imagery that poured out of him, the big-foot cartooning that looked so solid and believable with his application of light and shadow and, of course, the gorgeous women that only he could draw. And I'll always remember the sheer joy of looking at the art of a virtuoso cartoonist working with total confidence and a with a staggering command of his tools.

For samples of Wood's art, you can check out this very nice blog dedicated to his work. Thanks to Rich Dannys for the link.

Girl With A Red Scarf

Lately, I've been so busy with assignments and deadlines that I haven't been able to draw anything for myself. However, I finally got an opportunity last night to break out the gouache and ink and work on a quick sketch.

I drew this one up for Ramon Perez's excellent Pin-up blog, She's My Kind of Girl, which features girlie drawings by a lot of us Canadian artists. For what its worth, this one came to me in a dream, during an evening nap (I've been so busy lately that I've needed naps to recharge for some all-nighters). I pretty much took what I saw in my dream and tried to copy it as best I could onto paper. But like most pin-ups I do, by the time I finished it, it ended up looking more like a drawing of my lovely wife.

This is REALLY old...

...but I thought I'd post it anyway. I've been a bit swamped with deadlines lately, so I haven't had much time to devote to posting new work here. So forgive me if I pull out an image from my files to share now.

This one is a really old drawing, I think it was drawn back in 2005 or 2006, and it was drawn as collaboration with a friend, Darwyn Cooke, who needs no introduction. During that time, Cooke was living in Toronto, so we'd hang out each week as part of our regular "Superman club" lunch group of local comic artists. Of course, after he left for the east coast, we've since taken to referring our Wednesday meetups as "the Jimmy Olsen club", but I digress.

I think during one of those lunches we were all talking about our love of Kirby's Inhumans (particularly my favourite, the big-headed Karnak), and Darwyn suggested we collaborate on a drawing of them. So here it is -- I pencilled this one night after work, and Cooke was gracious enough to ink it.

And just to give you an idea of how much I dig the Inhumans, you can check out another old drawing of them here. And I always put Karnak at the front.

Marvelman (or Miracleman)

This one's a quick painting I did as a commission request, and its a portrait of Marvelman (or Miracleman as copyright demands he be called here in North America). I was a fan of the character in the late 80's when a friend lent me all 15 (or so) issues of Alan Moore's superb take on the character. Seriously, I read all those issues in like, 1 night because I just couldn't stop. Anyway, I hadn't really read or heard much about Marvelman since that one time, but I still kept a fondness for the character based on Moore's writing. So when I got a request to draw him, it was fun to spend a day revisiting him. I also liked the opportunity to draw a superhero that fit a more contemplative composition, as opposed to the usual "Wham! Cominatcha!" type of shot.

The final painting was done in gouache and ink, about 10"x15" in size. Usually, I draw a pencil sketch first, but for this one I thought I'd experiment and draw a rough digitally in software, which you can check out below. It was a novel thing for me to draw the sketch on my computer, but it actually took longer than a pencil drawing would. And I kept thinking throughout the sketch "here I am, using a $100 piece of software, and a $1000 tablet...to replace my $1 pencil."

I think I'll just stick to using the tablet for touchups and revisions.

Abraham Lincoln x 2

Here's an illustration of Abraham Lincoln I did for this week's New York Times Book Review (AD: Nicholas Blechman). I actually enjoyed this assignment so much that I did 2 different drawings of Abe for the art director to choose from. They ran the more iconic "bearded Abe" above, but you can also see the younger, "clean and fresh" Lincoln below.

One thing I learned drawing these: Abraham Lincoln had great hair.

My Favourite Cartoonists Part 3: Jack Kirby

Today is February 6th, 2009 -- the 15th anniversary of the passing of Jack Kirby. Most people who know me well know how much I love his work, and how much respect I have for his accomplishments.

Unlike the other cartoonist-influences I've blogged about in the past (see here, and here), I don't think Jack Kirby needs much of a write-up or introduction. There's plenty of other great sources of information on Kirby and his art, so all I'll say here is that he was one of the greatest comic creators ever, and certainly the very best super-hero cartoonist of all time. His work was infused with compassion, innovation and heroism, and he left a legacy that will span the ages. Every cartoonist I admire also admires Kirby, and in the centuries to come they'll talk about him the way we talk about Giotto or Picasso. He was that good -- that's why they called him King.

A few notes about Inking

Late last year, my buddy Ramon Perez invited me to fill in for him at a class he teaches on inking comics. Specifically, he asked me to come in and give a talk to the students about how I approach lighting and "spotting blacks" (a comic term for figuring out where to put the large areas of black ink on a panel or page). Ramon's an excellent artist and inker himself, with a lot more experience in comics than me, so I really didn't know what else I could add to what he was teaching, but I agreed to give a short demonstration.

Anyway, since it was a first-year/beginner's class, I thought it would be best if I covered some fundamentals. So I prepared a 3 page hand-out for the students, with some notes regarding basic concepts in inking.

Now, I don't presume to try and teach anyone reading this blog, and there are far better inkers out there than me, but I thought it might be fun to share and post those notes here. Hopefully, some of you might enjoy reading it.

Toronto Back Alleys Pt. 18

Its been freezing cold here in Toronto, so here's another winter-time alleyway sketch. A nice thing about this one was that it needed no pshop cleanup. Done in gouache and ink.

More Marvey Superheroes

Here's a couple of quick test sketches of the Hulk & Peter Parker (aka. the amazing Spider-man) that I did while breaking in some fancy new brush-pens. Done in ink and gouache, with a little photoshop cleanup for good measure.

Digital Test Part 2

Here's another image from my week of test-driving the cintiq 12wx. As I mentioned in a previous post, I found the cintiq very handy for doing digital corrections and patches to existing artwork. In this case, I had an old drawing that I had created years ago which I wanted to revise a bit before it was published in print. I never liked the copy I had written for the original, since I had pretty much swiped it from an existing ad. So, in this case, I re-wrote and lettered some snappy new copy by hand (not on the cintiq) and inserted it into the drawing.

However, I also wanted to do some quick paste-ups to the artwork, swapping out 3 or 4 of the smaller images in the fake ad, which I was never very satisfied with. Normally, I'd draw the paste-ups by hand and then composite it in photoshop, but in this case, I drew the new images in a separate layer in pshop and then merged it in. The process was pretty seamless, and in the final product, I think it's hard to differentiate what was drawn by hand and what was patched on the cintiq.

For those who want to compare this piece to the original I posted years ago on my blog, you can check out this link.

I also have to thank Paul Conrad here for his advice on creating the paper-texture on this piece, though in the end I did the bare minimum of work in that department. Thanks for the help, Paul: I wish I had more time to follow your tips!

Digital Test

As you might know, I'm an old-school guy when it comes to art and illustrations. I prefer to work on paper, using brushes and inks, and don't really dig the slick-photoshop look of some of the art being produced today. That doesn't mean I hate computers, of course, despite what I may have posted in the past. I still like to experiment with how to incorporate digital techniques into my process, trying to find ways to save time and enhance creativity. Essentially, I view computers as just another tool in my toolbox, not as a replacement for anything.

With that in mind, I was test-driving a cintiq 12wx digital tablet over the holidays. For those who don't know, the cintiq is kinda like a souped-up touchscreen for artists. Because you can draw right on the display surface, it more closely mimics the feel of drawing on paper than a mouse or a regular drawing tablet. I was curious to see how my style would translate to working digitally, as I've seen friends of mine work exclusively with the cintiq with excellent results. However, their drawing styles were obviously different from mine, and I wondered if I could get that same fluidity of line I like while working on the cintiq.

My results, I have to say, were a bit mixed. The cintiq does an adequate job of imitating a brushline, but some of the dry-brush and thick-to-thin feathering I do were quite difficult to replicate while using it. For example, drawing foliage the way I do is much faster and more precise using real brushes. However, the cintiq is great for doing patch-ups or corrections to existing artwork. And it's about as close to drawing on paper as you can get with the current generation of digital hardware. The best moment for me was when I was able to slap a ruler on top of the surface and drag the stylus across it for a nice-hand drawn thick-and-thin ruler-line. That was cool. The other cool part of the design was that the cintiq can be laid flat on my drawing table, so I can rotate it around like I would a piece of paper while drawing on it. That clearly showed that it was designed with artists in mind.

One great drawback to the cintiq though is all the cables and cords that it needs. You'd think that having a touchscreen to draw on would mean you could just lay back on your couch and doodle away, but the amount of cables attached to it limits its portability. Also, you really need a keyboard nearby, since all software is going to require you to hit keys or type in filenames at some point. Maybe in a couple of generations, they'll make this thing wireless and then it'll really take off.

In the meantime, I still haven't decided whether I'd want to purchase one for my own use. I doubt it would ever replace drawing on paper for me. The cintiq offers some nice advantages, but it also comes with some limitations -- just like any other tool in my toolbox.

To give you an idea of some of the drawings I did while testing out the cintiq, check out the quick portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer above. I drew it completely in software, in about 15 minutes. I think it would have taken about 30 minutes using ink and guoache.

Edit: Because I am a bit obsessive, I thought the original sketch was a bit 'flat' looking. So I did some additional work on it and added some textures, which I think make it look a bit more complete. You can see the results below. Which do you prefer?

Toronto Back Alleys pt. 17

A break from the night time drawings of alleyways I've posted lately.  This one's a winter one, which I did as a card for the holiday season.  Like many of the others, this one was also done in ink markers, with a little drybrush thrown in for texture.

U Go Girl

Here's two drawings of U Go Girl -- a superheroine I drew for a commission.  I had actually never heard of this character before, so the client even had to send me some reference, since I knew nothing about the comics she appeared in (even though they were created by the fabulously talented Mike Allred).

Anyway, because of my lack of any connection to the character, I had a bit of a tough time coming up with a drawing.  I tried to think up an action pose but not knowing much about her made that difficult.  I knew her super-power was teleportation, but what was that like? Did she just pop in and out of space?  Did she disappear in a blue cloud and a "bamf!" sound effect?  After a bit of thinking, I settled on trying to create a quiet drawing of her, in a contemplative mode (as had been shown in a couple of the reference samples).   For what its worth, I'll outline a bit of my process in coming up with the final drawings below.

First, I did a quick colour thumbnail in marker, which I thought was alright, but pretty dull: 

But the thumbnail did get me thinking about one of my favourite paintings, "the Voice" by Edvard Munch:

  I've loved that painting since I was a teen -- the quiet serenity of that piece is so evocative to me.   So, inspired by that memory, I sat down and did these two pencil sketches:

I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I decided to ink and tone-up both of them and let the client pick which one he preferred.  The client eventually went with the blue one on the left, so I still have the other one, and I'll probably keep it to sell at a convention or show some time in the future.

Incidentally, this isn't the first time I've been inspired by Edvard Munch's paintings.  I often do subtle riffs on his work, as you can see in this previous post.

Everybody Dies: an Interactive Fiction Game

Nerd Confession Time: ever since I was a teen, I've been a huge fan of text-adventure games, or interactive fiction (to use the high-brow term).  Those who were computer geeks like me in the 80's will know what I'm talking about and might even remember games like Zork, Planetfall or the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy (all made by that classic interactive fiction company, Infocom).  

Anyway, I still play those kinds of games today and when my buddy Jim Munroe asked me to draw some illustrations as part of his new text-adventure game, Everybody Dies, I was thrilled.  My schedule at the time was jam packed, but there was no way I was going to miss out on the opportunity to get my name in the credits of something like that!

Originally, I was asked to draw 3 small illustrations, but that quickly morphed into 16 full drawings, which is a pretty sizable amount.  But after I played through a rough beta version of the game, I was totally stoked and wanted to deliver the best job possible.  Jim is a professional writer of some repute, and he crafted a game that was refreshingly original and hilarious.  

After the game was completed, it was entered in the annual Interactive Fiction Competition (a cool nerdy event all on its own) and we were delighted to find out that it won 3rd place.  The credit really goes to Jim, since he had the hard task of writing and programming it, but I was very happy to contribute.

So all this is preamble to me explaining where the illustrations at the top of this post are from, since they are 2 of the 16 drawings I created for the game.  These two feature two of the characters from the game, Graham and Lisa.   You can check below to see the pencil roughs for those illos.

The best part though is that if you want to play Everybody Dies and check it out for yourself, its completely free.  You can play it online at this link (using Javascript), or  download various Mac or Windows versions to play offline.  Give it a try, if you've got the time -- Jim's writing is a real treat.

P.S. for the record, my favourite Interactive Fiction games of all time are Sorcerer, The Lurking Horror and Infidel, all by Infocom.   I even played them again just a couple of years ago.  There -- taste my nerdiness.

Toronto Back Alleys pt. 16

Another night time sketch of an back alley in my neighbourhood.  I'm still experimenting, but getting a bit closer to the look I'm aiming for.  Like the last one, this was also done small, in ink and thinned-out gouache.

Toronto Back Alleys pt. 15

This one's more of a quick test sketch, trying to capture that summer night, orange streetlamp glow. It was drawn smaller than the others, in ink and thinned gouache.

I'm Voting for...

My wife and I came up with this bumper sticker idea, combining our two ideal candidates for the upcoming US elections.  It's just a bit of fun, really, but I get a real kick out of imagining what a Conan/Swamp Thing administration would be like.  I figure national security wouldn't be a problem (who'd wanna mess with an axe wielding barbarian?) and environmental issues would definitely take center stage.  Hell, even the current financial mess in the US would probably benefit -- you could imagine President Conan meeting with Wall Street heads and scowling, "Crom!  You're all thieves!  You should all be strung up by your fat necks!".

If you like these candidates, I suggest you download the image and print it up on your own sticker paper to paste on a car nearest you. It beats supporting the Nader/Thulsa Doom ticket!

Special thanks to my wife, Claudia, for her great type treatment on this one.  

Now in all seriousness, I won't insult your intelligence by asking you not to write these fictional characters in on your ballot.  I will suggest though, that if you don't want another 4 years of divisive politics, pointless wars or hateful muslim-bating and fear mongering --  then go out and vote for Obama/Biden on November 4th.   

This is why I don't do caricatures

I admit it -- I'm lousy at drawing caricatures.  Like, epic fail lousy.  In the old days, when I'd get illustration assignments to draw someone famous, I'd immediately break into a sweat.  Especially if it was someone who wasn't that easy to draw in the first place.  Most conventionally good-looking hollywood types fit that category -- they're so bland they're impossible for someone like me to draw.    I remember a terrible likeness of Britney Spears I drew once, where she looked more like Madonna than Britney.  God forbid that someone should ever ask me to draw Charlize Theron, you know?

Anyway, these days, I usually turn down assignments where I'm asked to caricaturize someone.  I leave that for the pros.  But to give you an idea how bad I am, take a look at a couple of old illustrations I did for Canadian Business Magazine.  These two were drawn several years ago, but I still cringe when I see them.

First up is Bill Gates as a tupperware saleslady (don't ask, just buy it). Honestly, this one's so bad I had to put a frikkin nametag on him just to sell the likeness!

Next is that lovable cutie-pie, Alan Greenspan -- the big financial muckity-muck.  I think this one's a bit better, but its still pretty stiff.

Age of the Sentry Issue #2

I posted earlier about a 10 page story I drew for Marvel's Age of the Sentry comic, and now that it's on the stands, I thought I'd post a couple pages of artwork from it. So here it is in good old black and white, free of word balloons or colour! If you're stopping by your local comic shop this week (they still have comic shops, right?) go check it out on the racks for yourself. It features a ton of guest stars from the glorious silver age of Marvel Comics, including many of my all-time favourite superheroes. And if you buy it, I recommend reading it while munching on some vintage hostess cupcakes...er...actually, maybe not. Those cakes are probably like, really moldy by now.

X-men First Class!

Sorry for the long delay in posting, folks. I've just been very tied up with work and family lately and my poor blog is getting neglected (geez, I say that so often its getting to be a broken record). Anyway, one of my recent fun assignments was a 5 page story I drew for Marvel's X-men First Class comic. It's for their upcoming Halloween Special, which should come out in (duh) October. The writer of XFC, jazzy Jeff Parker, was gracious enough to let me draw something for his book and even let me draw it in my regular two-tone style, which was a real treat. Aside from being a fun sci-fi-homage-based script, the story was also special to me as it was an opportunity to draw Cyclops -- my all time favourite X-man (I'm not kidding, as you can see here).

I've drawn the original X-men before, as a poster, but you can check out page 1 of this story above and let me know what you think.

Fan Expo 2008...is over

Yep, Fan Expo 2008 is over...and now I'm both buzzed and exhausted. As I mentioned, it was my first time at this event, and it was a great time. I arrived at my table at artists alley on Friday afternoon, and was really surprised at how many people immediately hit me up for sketches. I didn't even have time to set up properly before I had a half-dozen sketch requests. By end of Friday, my list was way too long, and I had to stop taking any more requests -- or else I'd have to get some kind of cybernetic drawing arm (hmm...bet I could have found one at the con). Needless to say, I spent the rest of the weekend getting through them all, so I didn't really get a chance to walk the floor or check out the con much until late Sunday afternoon! For most of the con, all I saw was my table, the washroom, and the coffee stall. Luckily, the coffee was good and strong.

As well, it was great seeing and meeting some other artists who's work I know, but have never met, or with whom I've shared emails, but never had a chance to hang out with face to face. Like Eric Talbot, who is one supremely talented guy, and who was really great to chat with for the few minutes that we both got a chance to leave our tables. Same for Michael Choi -- who was really sweet to meet. We often get mistaken for each other at these things (or Frank Cho, or Brandon Choi), so I think it'd be great if one day all of us Korean comic artists could share a table together -- and cause some kind of matter/anti-matter explosion! And as is usual at these local cons, my tablemates like Scott Hepburn, Ramon Perez and Ray Fawkes made the experience as enjoyable as possible.

Anyway, my thanks to everyone who stopped by to buy a print, or some artwork or just to chat. Meeting and shooting the breeze with comic fans is always a highlight of any con I attend, and this one was no different. Comic fans come diverse, and there's a huge range of interests, which I enjoy hearing about. For the folks who drove in for hours from out of town -- I'm really flattered you stopped by the table for a bit. And of course, my apologies to anyone who's sketch requests I had to turn away -- honestly, I just can't draw any faster! I hope you'll look me up at a smaller event around town so I can make it up to you.

And luckily this time around, I had an opportunity to scan a few sketches before I gave them to the owners, so here's a small sampling of the 20 or so drawings did over the weekend:




I drew this Captain America one for a fellow who never picked it up. Even though those "secret invasion" covers are murder to draw on (they're glossy so they make my markers streak and take a while to dry), I kinda like the sketch, so maybe I'll keep it or sell it at another con in the future:



Same for this Wonder Woman one -- though the person who wanted this one paid me in advance. If you're the person who asked for this one, please email me and we'll work out some kind of delivery:

Fan Expo 2008

I'll be appearing this weekend (August 22 - 24th) at Fan Expo, here in sunny Toronto. It's actually my first time at this convention, so I'm really not sure what to expect. I keep hearing though that its the biggest comic-con in Canada, so in my mind I'm picturing a smaller, kinder and gentler version of the San Diego comic-con . I'll be seated with the rest of the Transmission-x gang, selling prints and doing sketches for any attendees who want to purchase one.

When I first started attending cons like this a couple of years ago, I used to be petrified of doing sketches on the spot. After all, I'm used to working in the privacy and comfort of my studio, listening to my itunes or a with a TV playing in the background. I thought sketching at cons would be a horrible experience, but I quickly found out the reverse was true. I enjoy talking and goofing around with comic fans, and I quickly realized I had an innate ability to carry on a conversation while drawing a picture of Wolverine fighting Iron Man (trust me, its a totally necessary skill). I've also found it really pleasant to see some fans over and over again, and catch up with what they're doing in their lives. All in all, my con sketching experience has been pretty positive and I'm very thankful about that.

Now, if you're wondering what kind of sketches I do at events, you can check below for a sampling of drawings I've done for people over the last year or two. Bear in mind though that there's one cardinal rule about con sketches: the very best ones never make it online, and the worst ones always get the most exposure. So the cool Joker or Creeper drawing I did that I was really proud of will probably never be seen, while the horrible Captain America I busted out for free at the end of the night will get viewed by everyone. That's just the way it rolls in sketchland!

Special thanks to everyone who's sketches are posted here. Sorry I didn't contact you first for permission -- I really really hope you won't mind.