Post: Aw Yeah Sketches for The Hero Initiative

This past Saturday, I was invited by Aw Yeah Comics to sketch for donations to the Hero Initiative.  I accompanied Randy Field, Ben Hunzeker, and Kurt Wood and we sketched from 11am - 2pm but we all stayed over a little extra because it was so much fun!

Here are some of the pieces I did that day all in the name of Jack "The King" Kirby:

#Kirby4Heroes

365 days of #cardBORED sketching

Go back and relive a year of drawings done by me: http://thecardboredsketchbox.blogspot.com/

Let me know what your favorites were!

Post: DanCon 2012

This past Sunday WIWL began it's 2012 Convention with Dan Con out in Orland Park, IL.  This has to be the closest convention I've ever had to attend and it was great. 

The convention was set up into individual rooms, a creator room and a dealer room.  Nic and I found our spot after a little confusion with the table arrangements.  By the time we got set up, the convention was ready to roll and I must admit it went by rather quick.

It got really packed by mid afternoon and people kept me busy with sketch requests.  Nic handled all the book/print transactions and the crowds were happy to stop at your table.  With the show being more affordable than some of the bigger cons, comic fans had no problem listening to you chat about your projects and talk comics, movies, and more.

I really liked the layout of the show and it's venue, The Orland Park Civic Center.  The multiple rooms made it easier to check out everything rather than piling it into one big open space.  If you were going to check out comics and toys you knew what room to be in and you didn't have far to look.  If you were going to check out Artist Alley you knew where to go.  It was great!

Also with the spacing of the aisles, it never felt crowded.  It never felt empty either.  Some times with these larger shows the aisles are so wide it's hard to grab anyone's attention from off in the distance.  People were constantly walking and stopping at this show and that is always a plus on the artists' end.  Even if they don't end up buying anything at least you got a chance to talk about your art and projects that you are so passionate about.  If they walk away with your business card that is a definite plus in my book.  The atmosphere of Dan Con provided all these great things.

My Ghost Rider print did well and I was excited to see that people were seeking it out once it was put up on the convention's home page.  It was also nice to see my TMNT print from last year's Fanfare go up in the raffle was well as a Krang sketch card I did for the show.

One thing I was upset about was my phone didn't charge all the way and I was really excited to use my new Square reader for the show.  I had a few people ask me if I took credit card and I felt like a dope for not checking to see if my phone charged all the way through that morning.  People were still nice about it.  Another thing was I was so busy (which isn't a complaint), I didn't snap that many photos of the show itself.  I took some pics of sketches which I will throw up on my other blog.  But I thought I'd share this photo of a hat I drew some TMNT on!

Since the show was local, a lot of my friends and family stopped by to show their support.  I don't get to see them at my shows because of the pricey ticket or I am out of state, so thanks to all those who came out to the show.  That meant a lot.

Dan Con was a great way to start my season and I hope the rest of my shows are just as successful and more importantly, fun!

Post c2e2

Hello all,

I've been away from the desk a bit after the dust has settled from what was a terrific start to the convention season for me.

The show was bigger and better in every way in terms of Artist Alley, vendors, guests, panels, and layout of the show floor.


I wish I could haven taken more advantage of that but in a good way, I was at my table for most of the show. I shared my table this year with Mike Roll, whom I went to Detroit Fanfare with last year. We plan on going to SPX and plans are in the works of returning to Fanfare in September!


Sitting on my left side I met the great Cary Kelley, author of Fallen Justice and the DynaGirl web comic. This guy was my savior when it came to odd sketch requests. He busted out his ipad with me and talked good ole' Austin Texas BBQ with Nicole. He is probably THE nicest table neighbor I have ever had at a con. The man knows EVERYTHING about EVERY CHARACTER in the comic book universe.

Friday night Nic and I had dinner with some new friends I met last year at Mid Ohio Con. We went to Jerry's Sandwiches. Where I had the best burger ever, the Crab Cake Burger.



Saturday day was busy day. It was also family and friends day as some came out to support me. I also re-met a few people who contributed to When You Were Little and stopped by my table to check out the book. It was great reconnecting with them and having a few moments admist my busy sketch-dule (hehe) for the day.





Sunday was kid's day and also Nicole was attending my niece's baptism so I was on my own. It was a bit nerve racking trying to take sketch requests, handle book sales, and draw at the same time but Cary and Mike were real helpful in watching my table during bathroom breaks. A lot of kids and parents responded to the new prints...it seems the Green Lantern from last year and the Captain America and Catwoman were the cutest of the bunch.

c2e2 was quite the experience and I look forward to the how the rest of the convention season turns out. Keep an eye on the blog, twitter, and facebook, as I'll eventually be adding more show dates and book festivals as they come to me.

Thanks all for the support and please stay tuned for what's in store in the When I Was Little series!

Here's some select sketches from c2e2 that I thought you'd enjoy:

Art Jam at the United Methodist Church in Geneva

Hi all,

The subject of the post says it all. My good friend, Minister E, invited me to be a part of their youth groups art jam session this past Saturday up in Geneva, IL. I brought my books and some concept books and portfolios to share and talked to the kids about my sketch process a bit. After the quick introductions, we warmed up with the hat game, which is when someone picks out topics from a hat that the jammers would then have to draw.

We then used the rest of the time for the kids to focus on their own personal projects. E and I played catch up whilst my wonderful girlfriend made an attempt to draw herself. Her sketches are GREAT! I will have to show them to you sometime...as long as she is ok with it and doesn't punch me in the face.

Anyhoo, here are some of the sketches from the nights event:

Mid Ohio Con 2010

Mid Ohio Con marks the end of my convention run for the year. Wow, I thought I had a good show last weekend, MOC was just great fun all around and a terrific way to wrap up the year.

This year's show marked the 30th Anniversary of Mid Ohio Con and they really made it worthwhile for the artists. There weren't a lot of Media Guests and dealer shops but a big focus on artists, writers, independents, and comic superstars.

Saturday was a huge success. I probably ended up leaving my table once or twice to go to the bathroom and the rest of the time I was glued to my seat responding to sketch requests.

I think by the end of the day I did about 25+ sketches with another 10 carrying over into Sunday. It flew by so fast! I think posting some of the unique character sketches (at least to me) on the blog, I gotten a lot more of those requests from people at the shows.



I've also noticed that whoever I make my sketch sign of for the weekend, that is usually the most requested character. Hence the army of Iron Men:




Big win for the Pixar prints I framed as within the first two hours, [I think, I have no concept of time, the day was a huge blur of amazing-tude] I was able to sell it.

I seriously thought I'd be taking it home after Sunday.

The only thing that stunk about the show which isn't a real huge complaint, was that I missed 75 percent of the artists/creators who were there. Nic was a real trooper scouting the tables for me and keeping me in the know with what was going on with the show. I was way too focused into drawing to even pick my head up. I tried my very best to meet and greet with all the folks who stopped by the table.

Sunday was nice and light but I was consistently busy. I was able to take some time to meet with some new creators but not really a chance to talk shop. I did get some things signed and met with friends I've made at the show last year.

With the spending spree Nic and I went on last weekend, we decided to put a limit on purchases and instead we focused on getting stuff for other people.

Sunday worked out perfect for me, heck the WHOLE SHOW worked out for me. I am always surprised by the amount of people who dig my work and have a really affection towards the book series. So to all those who got a sketch, prints, or books from me, a big thank you goes out to all.

It was a great time and I hope to do it again, I'll see ya next year. ;-)

Detroit Fanfare 2010

This past weekend I attended the Detroit Fanfare at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Michigan.



The Fanfare was a great con for me and quite a fun one. I think having it take place on Halloween weekend opened up the flood gates for creativity on Detroit Fanfare's part. They had a Zombie Walk, a kid's costume contest, charity events, and a well rounded group of artist and creators.

It was nice to walk around and see an enormous amount of talent everywhere you turned. There weren't any ex-wrestlers, porn stars, or tv stars in attendance at all.


This year I shared a table with the very talented Mike Roll whom I met at SPACE back in July. There I picked up Apooka, his Adorable Zombie book. Check out that and some more great artwork here:

Having Stan Lee as your guest of honor really drew in the crowd and the flow of people was consistent. I did tons of sketches for people and met some great new creators and book dealers who were looking to purchase books for the comic shops.


The movie geek in me couldn't pass up the chance to meet Brian O'Halloran, better known as Dante from Clerks and Clerks II. The guy is real nice and very welcoming of the fan appreciation for the work he's done.

On Halloween there were a lot more people dressed up and even some artists passing out candy for the kids. It was a bit slower that day but I did manage to sell quite a few books and sketch some more unique requests like an Iron Fist and a Thanos. The guy who wanted Thanos actually went and bought a comic for reference. I thought that was real nice of him considering he told me he just dropped 2 and a half Gs on an X-Men #1 for Stan Lee to sign.



And the award for most requested character sketch goes to:



The volunteers at the Fanfare were really accommodating, always coming by with snacks and water for the artist. One of the coolest things was that they gave out one of the Fanfare exclusive comic books that they were selling at the welcoming tables.

Overall it was a nice weekend getaway and even nicer introducing my art and the When I Was Little series to a new audience.

Process: Green Lantern Print

Hello all. It's been a while.

I finished a new print that I'll be having for the Mid-Ohio-Con this November. I've been doing these special When I Was Little limited prints this year for my 2010 con tour. I thought it'd be a cute way to put my own personal spin on well known comic characters and incorporating the idea of my children's book. The response to them have been great.

I have two new ones I want to do for the end of the year which I'll be selling well into my 2011 con tour. One of them is Green Lantern and the other I'm working on is Bat-Girl.

I thought I'd share you my process. I've seen other artist do this and found it interesting to see the layers that go into a finished piece. Here's my take on it.

Whatdya guys think? Click for big!



Starting with top left: rough, inks, flats, shades, highlights, glows, and the Final.

Save the date! On a side note, don't forget I'll be at the 57th St. Book Fair this year on September the 19th. I'll be selling my books and other goodies too (more details to come).

Character Design and updates on books to come.

I've been on an art funk and I'm slowly coming out of it. Did a bit of character designing for a new story idea I've been tinkering with. These designs are for a main character I had in mind, a little girl with a giant treasure chest on her back that she wears like a back pack. Now, this isn't the new book I've been tweeting about. That book is written and I've been doing some art style tests and character designs for that as well. That goes into production July/August and I hope to fish it around some publishers. Wish me luck! Anyhoo here are some concepts I've been playing with:

Here's some concepts for a story in the works...WAY in the works. It's fun to play.




P.S. - New blog header! YAY!

c2e2: 2010 Recap

C2E2 was simply an amazing show for me. This was my third comic book show and my first for the year. As always, I went into it super nervous because of the huge crowd this con was going to turn out. I was surprised by the amount of business I did on Friday and thought that it would be equally as busy Saturday. Boy...was I wrong. Saturday was just a constant flow of people. I was so busy interacting and sketching, I barely had time to leave my table! It was an amazing turn out and I had a lot of support from family and friends. Nicole's parents and younger sister even came out to show their support which meant a lot to me. Nicole was quite busy herself as she was meeting the stars of Kick-Ass including her new boyfriend, Christopher Mintz-Plasse.





Saturday was also wonderful in that I reunited with an old grammar school friend I haven't seen since 1992. My friend, Aireen, has come into her creative own as well, as an art director and graphic designer for hire. Please click on her name and check out the wonderful work she does. She is amazing.


Sunday was the slowest day and that is when I was able to make some quality purchases and catch up with Eric Rampson and my good friends over at ComicRelated.com. I met a lot of artists that I admired like Katie Cook and Skottie Young. I even got some great inking tips from the incredible Sanford Greene. I ended up not really spending that much money which was odd because everywhere I looked I saw something that I wanted to bring home.

All in all, it was the best show I exhibited at and really set the bar for me. I'm excited to continue this positive uphill toward building my art career.


Of all the comic book characters in the world, Krypto was the most requested...ain't that some shiiii......

I was ready for the S.P.A.C.E. show...