It’s Free Comic Book WEEK!

Happy Free Comic Book Day, boys and girls!  Victor and I will be posting a page-a-day for an entire week from an all new Wonder Care story! 

Written by Victor and illustrated by Justin over at our web comic homepage: wondercareafterschool.tumblr.com

We know that you are out with your friends and families picking up your free comics and visiting your favorite comic shops.

That’s why today we are just posting the cover which was drawn and colored by Victor, himself. He draws too, kids!

So enjoy this tease of what’s to come and tune in Sunday for page one of the Wonder Care: FCBD Special! (click on the image above)

Victor will be at Wizard World Minneapolis ALL WEEKEND Table B37! Justin will be at the Aw Yeah Comics Shop in Skokie, IL starting at 10am! If you are in any of those areas, come check us out!

#WeeklyWhenUWereLittle

During the last 24 hours I had this creative brain fart about Periscope and social media in general (don't worry that's a positive thing).

For those not in the know, Periscope is an app where you can live stream video from your smart phone and users can log on and see what you see.

So the last few Periscope videos I did went over pretty well and I enjoyed doing them and interacting with whoever was watching.

From there, this snowball effect happened and I was left with this: social media programming, FREE creative content just for YOU. 

It's simple. All you need is your smart phone, click the follow button on whatever social media you are into, and you can see what I'm up to everyday. And if you dig it, share it!

So your #WeeklyWhenUWereLittle is this:

Monday's: #HyperlapseMonday is a timelapse video of the artistic process taken with the video app Hyperlapse. 
- Posts on Instagram and YouTube

Tuesday's: After School is a weekly web-comic I do with fellow creator, Victor Dandridge. They are the mini-adventures based on the print comic we do, Wonder Care Presents: The Kinder Guardians.
- Posts on Tumblr and Twitter.

Wednesday's: The Pull Box is a bi-weekly show where I talk about the latest comics I am into and we discuss what everyone picked up for New Comic Book Day!
- Posts on Periscope.

Thursday's: #TBT w/Me is a show where I take a look at old sketchbooks and you can ask me questions like, "Why do you like drawing Alf?" Watch my art style evolve as we go through the pages together.
- Posts on Periscope.

Friday's: Draw, Monkey! is a show where viewers can tune in and from the jump suggest a character for me to draw. I talk about my process and show you what tools I am using as we go from roughs to a finished drawing.
- Posts on Periscope.

*So I hope you tune in and find me on your various social media outlets! Use the following hashtag: #WeeklyWhenUWereLittle

Post: Appleseed 2015

Earlier in May, I attended the Appleseed Comic Convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I also had the pleasure of staying with my good friends, Justin Stewart and Tressina Bowling. We recorded an episode of their podcast, Sequential Spirits which had special guests too, from Victor Dandridge (writer on Wonder Care Presents: The Kinder Guardians), to Ren McKenzie, and Mason Easley. It was incredibly fun but very, very NSFW.

The show itself was a lot slower than most cons I've been to. I did get some groovy commissions which you can check out here. Also did a few art drops but again no one stopped by the table to claim it. Victor's girlfriend Adrianna spotted it, but left it for some lucky kid to find.

c2e2 2015

I will be at the C2E2 convention in McCormick Place from Friday, April 24 to Sunday, April 26. My artist alley table number is table V13 and I'll be alongside my good friends Mike Roll and Tressina Bowling.  I also be doing art drops all weekend and on Sunday (kid's day) I am hosting a drawing workshop in their Family Fun Zone.

Here's the info for that:

Shape Our Drawings with Justin Castaneda

Sun. April 26| 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM | Family HQ – N427bc

Artist Justin Castaneda will show you the importance of using 

shapes when drawing. You will be able to see what core shapes

make up some of your favorite heroes and villains. Also, we will tap

into our imaginations and create fun, dynamic drawings from the unique 

shapes we make up.

If you are in the area or plan on coming down to the show, stop by the table
and say hi! I'll be doing commissions all weekend. And I'll have copies of
Wonder Care Issues 1 AND 2 as well as some other comics I have worked on. 

Look forward to seeing you there.

- J

Post: DanCon 2015

The third and final convention I had in the month of March was DanCon. With all the traveling I did the past two weeks, this was a nice one to end on because it's pretty much right in our backyard of Orland Park, IL!

The show was fantastic. There were a lot of comic creators this time around from Instant Press, The Sun Bros, and the lovely, Ali Cantarella. The crowds were also excited to be there and the comic trifecta of tables that included Victor, Miker, and myself were excited to draw and talk comics. You can check out some of the commissions I did over here. And even though the venue is smaller compared to other comic shows I do, the people kept coming in and STILL I was able to sneak an art drop: 

Since its a local show for me I had some family and friends visit and my former co-worker brought her adorable daughter. I stealth took this photo as it captured the essence of why I am behind the table and why I make my art:

I always look forward to this show. Dan and Amy have been really big supporters of my art career since the jump. I'm honored that he asked me to do the last two show posters and I'm always thankful when they throw some work my way.

Up next: C2E2!

Wonder Care presents: After School coming soon!

Hi all,

After the release of Wonder Care Presents: The Kinder Guardians #1, I approached Victor about doing a web series based on these three panel strips of knock knock jokes he tagged at the end of the book. I thought it'd be a great idea to do a few of these for fun as a filler when we were between issues.

During the winter months the conversation grew. The thought of doing these like the Sunday Funnies of our youth also presented the challenge of having another outlet to tell stories in this three panel format. This would give the readers an incentive to check back and see what happens next!


We began brainstorming ideas showcasing the kids interacting with each other to even further develop their personalities and quirks, not just on the pages of the comic. The idea of introducing new characters and sharing the untold origin stories of some, opened more creative opportunities for us to share and give to our readership.

As we start this new chapter with the wonderful kids we will begin like they would, with baby steps. Here is the first art from After School!

As of right now we don't have an exact launch date but it will be sometime towards the end of February when my convention season begins. The comics will be published on it's very own tumblr page which you can check out right here: http://wondercareafterschool.tumblr.com/


We are excited to dive into the world of web comics with you and hope you enjoy it!

Welcome back. School's in session with Wonder Care #2!

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great winter break with some much needed time with family and friends. I have a few announcements to ring in the New Year. First off, I have updated my appearances and conventions for 2015. More shows to come as the year rolls out, so be sure to check out where you can find me this year.

The second is that my friend and fellow creative Victor Dandridge sent me the scripts for issues 2 and 3 for our all-ages comic, Wonder Care Presents: The Kinder Guardians. Since then, I've been busy working my through each issue. In an effort to get people excited as our convention season begins, Victor asked me to work on the cover first and I've been posting process pictures and videos via the Instagrams and the Twitters which you can follow with: @whenuwerelittle.

And here is the finished cover for Issue 2 with Victor placing the titles: "What Can't Your Dad Do?" 

ENJOY!

Wizard World Ohio Con 2014

I will be attending the Wizard World Ohio show this Halloween weekend in Columbus, Ohio!

My table number for artist alley is B26. If you come by on Friday (Oct.31st)  I'll be handing out free Halloween themed  #HEARTcards. And on Saturday I will be doing an #ArtDrop or two so follow @whenuwerelittle via twitter or instagram for clues!

Post: Wizard World Chicago Art Drop

This past Saturday, I attended Wizard World Chicago. I was not only there for the release of Wonder Care presents: The Kinder Guardians #1, but I wanted to do an art drop experiment for the show.

An art drop is where you go to random locations and hide a piece of art in a specific area and give clues on your social media feed (Instagram, Twitter, or both) so that people who follow you can find it.

Since I was only going to be at the convention for the one day I thought it'd be fun to leave a little something, something for the hundreds of attendees. It also gave me something to do at the show besides walking around and spending money. 

I had Miker with me and we got to the show around 10:30 am. We must have walked the entire show floor a dozen times. 

I tried to leave the drawings in places that would have a constant flow of people such as information booths, eateries, and rest areas. 

About lunch time, I hit a snag with the clue portion as I wasn't able to upload my photo clues to Instagram and Twitter. It was quite frustrating not being able to tell my followers where I've hidden my #carsBOREDsketches. There was no Wi-Fi and the cell service was terrible.

I stopped by Victor's table for our Wonder Care signing at 1pm. It went excellent and I hid an art drop in one of the issues which my cousins ended up finding.

photo credit: @eliza_bacani on Instagram

Being fed up with the terrible cell service. I decided not to worry about uploading the clues until I was able. Miker and I took a break for lunch and I shut my phone off. After recharging my battery...and my phone, I tried again. 

Success! The clues were able to upload and I was able to post the photos of where I placed the last four sketches. I also left one at our table.

Getting my second wind the next art drop was the most fun. For my Winter Soldier sketch, I found a cos-player donning the look of Winter Soldier / Bucky Barnes. The best part was he had one of those giant convention bags,which after a few attempts, I was able to drop the sketch into. It was really exciting!

Now, the very last art drop I did wasn't technically an art drop. Back at the Wonder Care signing Victor said I should give the Merle Dixon sketch to Michael Rooker...ya know for fun.

So I did. I dropped that sketch right into his hands. He was super cool about it and even busted my chops with a critique saying, "Why do I look bald, man?!" He said he dug the piece and we snapped this photo:

Hope you enjoyed this recap of my day of sharing. I know of at least 4 of the pieces that were claimed so if you found one, please let me know via @whenuwerelittle and #wwchicagoartdrop. I definitely had a lot of fun doing it. It was a nice warm up to September 2nd...

Wizard World Chicago Wonder Care Signing & Art Drop

Now I don't actually have a table for Wizard World Chicago this weekend, but I will be attending Saturday, August 23rd! I will be walking the show floor and will be signing at Victor Dandridge's table, B31 for our new book, Wonder Care Presents: The Kinder Guardians around 1pm!

... and as a bonus, while I'm visiting with friends, I will be doing 10 Art Drops, randomly hiding art all over the convention floor. Hope you find one!