Work-For-Hire #1

I don't do a whole lot of commissions or work-for-hire stuff, but occasionally a paid art project comes along, and if it is interesting and/or I think I can do a decent job at it, I take it on. This was a project for a company that designs an alcohol education course for college students. They had a comic scripted and their artist flaked out on them. They had a small budget, so I told them the work would be cartoony and simple color. Who could turn down the offer to draw kids playing beer pong. Luckily, they were happy with with the finished product.

Pin-Ups #2: Grifter

First time in a while I brought out the india ink to make a real mess of my drawing table. Grifter has always been a favorite character of mine.

New York Comic Con #2: Post-Game

Breaking news from the New York Comic Con...turns out I am a Skrull!

Yup, the skrull masks were a big hit at the large Marvel booth, but just a drop in the bucked of the merchandising that was NYCC. This was my first major con, and I think I am still recovering from the sensory overload that is a major comic convention. Rather than give a thorough blow-by-blow of the con, I'll just provide the highlights as I saw them.

• Got my copy of Civil War #1 signed by penciler Steve McNiven and inker Dexter Vines. Steve is a really nice guy, and it was cool to flip through at look at his layouts for Civil War.


• Saw a panel on creating an independent television show, which included Redeeming Rainbow, an off beat comedy pilot worth checking out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrBBhX-W6vA


• Met Rob Liefeld, and got my original Youngblood #1 copy from the early 90's signed, along with a copy of the new Youngblood series. I also snagged a signature Derek Donovan, the artist on the new Youngblood. I talked to Rob for a bit about Super Seed, Armageddon Now, and also spent time flipping through pages of original art. Wow, do those pages pop in person...just awesome comic action as only Liefeld can draw.
  


• Picked up a copy of the Mouse Guard hardcover by David Peterson. David signed it and drew a quick sketch in there. I had an interesting conversation with Peterson about his choice of format for Mouse Guard. He said he originally planned to self-publish, and wanted a unique size for his book to make it stand out from the rest of the small press work out there. So, he took a legal size piece of paper, folded it in half, and came up with a square sized paper, that he liked because it allowed for nice widescreen panels for establishing shots that didn't have to be as thin as on a standard comic page.


• Checked out the a new Marvel video games for Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Much like their respective movies, the Iron Man game looked great, the Hulk...a little suspect.
  


• Met Mark Poulton and Steven Sistilli, the creators of Koni Waves. I've interacted with Mark on message boards over the past couple years, and seen this series develop. I picked up the First Wave trade, which collects the first 4 Koni Stories. Series artist Steven Sisitilli tossed a sweet sketch on the inside of the book for me as well.

• The loot. One of the best things about the Con was the massive amounts of discount trade paper back bins. Yes, I went to town. I picked up Daredevil Visionaries 2-3, which collect the celebrated Frank Miller run that includes the classic Daredevil/Electra storyline. I picked up the first two StormWatch:Post Human Division trades for $5 a pop. I also grabbed a Darkness Trade with art by Silvestri and written by Ennis. I also got a ton of freebie comics as well.
  

All in all, it was a good time, and I'd definitely hit NYCC again. Not quite sure if I'm ready for San Diego though.

Super Seed #12- Pinup Gallery

I want to share some of the Super Seed pin-ups that I've done, and that other artists have done. A lot of the criticism my comic has taken has revolved around Super Seed not being "visual" enough, and if I could have turned back the clock, I probably would have entered a more visually dynamic submission. I think Super Seed as a concept lends itself to some outstanding visuals, and hopefully this snippet of pin-ups can help showcase this.

Sketches and Layouts #2- Free Agent and Ninjas!

A pre-con sketch. For this one, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to do a finished piece or just a sketch. I think it ended up somewhere in-between. It was for a Free Agent Sketch Challenge at the Liefeld boards. If you are looking for a great place to see lots of fun comic art updated daily, head over to those forums. The art threads are great.

New York Comic Con #1: Pre-Game

I'm off to New York Comic Con this weekend. This will be my first major comic con, and I'm trying to mentally prepare. To get me prepped, I just listened to the Around Comics podcast episode 122, which was all about the do's and don'ts of comic conventions. I think I'm ready.

While I'm not sure entirely what to expect, I am setting out with a number of goals in mind. In no particular order:

• Pass out all of my Super Seed postcards...probably going to take all weekend.


• Meet the Zuda Comics gang, and thank them for giving Super Seed a shot on their site. I also am looking forward to meeting the High Moon and Bayou creative teams and seeing some of their work up close.


• Get some books signed! I'm packing a select number of comics by a number of creators that will be there.


• Check out some panels and exhibits. Some things that look cool include: The Incredible Hulk and The Spirit first looks, Comic Writer's Talking About Writing, and Comics Experience: The Art of Storytelling.


• Meet Rob Liefeld and some of the members of his board. I've been "hanging out" at his forum for the past few years. There's a ton of talent that posts over there, and I've collaborated with a bunch of them. It'll be nice to put some faces to screennames.


• Do some artist hunting. I've a project called The Reclamation that I'm currently looking for an artist to collaborate with. Planning on surfing Artists Alley looking for an up-and-comer that might want to collaborate.


• Get some deals! I love hitting up the quarter bins, and I hear cons are a great place to buy trades at a deep discount.

Looks like it's going to be a busy weekend.

Super Seed #11- Contest Results!

Alright! Here it is, the results from my Super Seed scripting contest. Drumroll please...

Runner Up- Rodney Brown








I really like the attitude Rodney gave the Mother, here. No reason to assume a super pregnancy would be any more enjoyable than a regular one. I also like the concerns of the father on page three, as he seems to be second guessing the whole Super Seed idea.


First Place- Alan Adelberg







Alan made a couple different choices, putting the father in the delivery room with the mother, which was not my intention when drawing the piece, but it still works. I like the flow of the dialogue and really like the script transition between Page 1 and 2, "...a healthy baby- Oh, boy!) I thought that was great writing. One interesting thing about both entries, both had a character concerned that the baby would come out breathing fire, and that was no where in the pictures. Just an odd coincidence.

I'll be contacting both winners, taking their sketch and NY ComicCon requests. Thanks again to all who participated, and thanks for the interest in Super Seed.

Super Seed #10- Ads

Being involved in this month's Zuda competition has been very interesting. I'm planning on doing a whole forum post over at the Zuda boards detailing "Lessons Learned" from competing...but we'll let that wait until after this month's competition is done.

One of the interesting things I've had the opportunity to study is advertising effectiveness. In a previous blog post, I showed two of my banner ads that I've been placing around the net that have been working. But this ad below has been far and away the most effective in terms of getting clicks. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered turning page views into favorites and votes over at Zuda. Fact is, there are only so many things that one can control.

Anyway, here's the ad that's been very successful.

Pin-Ups #1- Multiforce

Took a (much needed) break this weekend from Super Seed, and spent some time finishing that Multiforce pin-up. (See the sketch layout from this earlier post.) It was nice to spend some time drawing a few mainstream characters for a change.

Penciled on 11 x 14 bristol board and darkened in Photoshop.

Super Seed #9- Postcards

Receive my shipment of Super Seed Promo postcards in the mail yesterday. They look nice, and the deal I got on them from gotprint.com was quite reasonable. I spent today hitting up the local comic shops to spread them around. One thing I've been pleased to find is that comic shops, at least in the Cambridge/Boston area, are very supportive of local creators and were enthusiastic about the contest.

I also had some requests for postcards, so I mailed a bunch out today. I'll hopefully get rid of most of them next weekend at the New York Comic Con. But if anyone wants one, just fire an email with your name and address to superseedcomic@gmail.com.