Fallcon 2009

Last convention of the year is done for me, Fallcon in Minneapolis, MN. As usual, the promoters and staff treated us like Kings, did some sketching for them, and gabbed over wine and beer after a great steak dinner that they put on for all the guests and volunteers. Big hardy thanks to them for having us out for another year. Here are some sketches done for the con staff (2nd was actually my only full commission I had for the con)...

The weakened economy had some effect as I didn't have that many commissions to do (guess I might have to rollback prices. :P). But I was able to get some prelim sketches done for an upcoming project, more later if the client wants it known before it's done.

Fantastic Gene Ha and I traded sketches; I drew up one of his friend's RPG characters, and I got another Rogue for my collection. I mentioned to Gene that I like the short hair on Rogue and that for some reason, artists like to put her hood up, covering it. Well, looks like Gene threw in a little joke by having Rogue tauntingly playing with her hood. Good Job, Gene! :)

Since sketch commishs were slow, it opened up the possibilities to sketch some interesting things, this being a quicksketch for a guy who had a stack of Jack Kirby Monsters, and he would get other artists to do their rendition. I like drawing rocks, and have always been fascinated by Easter Island so The Stone Men (of Easter Island) was a natural for me. The girl was no extra charge. :P I also drew up a marker piece for the charity auction, Samurai Jack and Aku of course since it's what I'm currently working on. When I was coloring it I was noticing that something looked odd about Aku, then it dawned on me after a bit that I forgot his beard! Luckily, I wasn't far enough that I couldn't add it in. Back at home I noticed that I left the beard off of Aku again in the approved pages for the SJ story I'm working on. Those were also caught in time. :P

Fallcon Comes and Goes

The last con of the season for me, Fallcon has come and gone. A two hour trip up to Madison, then Jeff drives the rest of the way for 4 more up to Minneapolis. Along the way we took a little stop at a "scenic" rest stop off of I-94 near Black River Falls. It has a lookout view of forested area which would probably look spectacular when the leaves change. Unfortunately we were too early for that.

The guys that put together Fallcon are great, and I can't thank them enough for inviting us. Not only did they treat us to a steak barbecue again, but one of the organizers, Mike got married to his girlfriend Lisa with all his friends, relatives, and convention guests in attendance. It was a short but sweet ceremony, with a few comic-related jokes thrown in to make it memorable. Friends Cory and Amy Carani also came up from Madison for their first Fallcon experience, and we all hung out in Artist Alley like old times. Shoulda taken more pics of everything, rats...

Commissions for me were kind of slow this year, probably due to the downturn in the economy, but the ones I got, I enjoyed doing. First was a Rogue piece done for the charity auction there. Being the first, I had a hard time getting things to look the way I wanted, I must have redrawn the face like 15 times. So out of practice. I also got to draw a Playboy Bunny (which reminds me I have to make my all Bunny superheroine sketchbook) and Betty Rubble in my own style, I always like the challenge. Since I didn't have that many new commissions to do, I had time to Make Some Magic For Johnny, and finish up his piece that's been laying around since San Diego. Now I just have to mail the darn thing.

After the convention and before hitting the road, we went to Outback and had dinner with a bunch of the local creators and some of the other out-of-town guests. I sat next to Gordon Purcell and Dwayne McDuffie and had discussions about JLA, the ol' days at Marvel and DC, Ed Benes, and Star Trek. Total geek stuff and a great time, of course 2 for 1 Happy Hour helps too. :) After that Jeff drove back down to Madison (with our Tasty Pies from Baker's Square) and I did a redeye drive back home just because I love avoiding traffic. I got back round 2:30am and went to bed round 4ish.

Totally blowing through the day recovering, watching an ineffectual Congress trying to skewer the CEO of Leman Bros., having pie for breakfast, immediatly followed by lasana for lunch, and the obligatory food coma, I got a call from Sarah at Wildstorm for some more WoW work. It must be the book that will not die, because I got to do the inks for the Cover (squee!) over Ludo Lullabi (squee!) with some Busty Woman front and center (Squee Squee!) So Issue 12 will have 9 pages of inks and the cover done by me. Nice work when you can get it. :)

Fallcon Sketch Cards

Long Time no See! Yes, yes, I've been laxative in my duties updating even a simple blog, but here goes. I've been working on some semi secret projects of late, one of which I hope I can start posting on. Other than that, playing around too much with those pesky MMORPGs.

First up is a set of Sketch Cards done for the Midwest Comic Book Association to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. The MCBA runs the fabulous Fallcon up in Minneapolis, MN. They treat their guests well and I'm happy to do the little bit of extra work for them with these cards.

Colors came out of the scanner fine, except with some weird redish tint coming from the black Copic marker I used. The other exception is Blossom's orange hair and pink tones that got muddled. They're pretty much done now, though I don't know if I want to run out and grab a Glitter Pen to add a little Sparkle (heh, a pun :P).