Free Comic Book Day Mini-Con?

Hey guys I'll be hanging out at Past Present Future Comics in West Palm Beach Fl. for free comic book day, where you can get a poster I inked and colored over Larry's pencils from What the Flux Comics and where you can get your own copy of Descisions Issue 1, from Cosmic Times - which just recently premiered at Megacon, just over one month ago. It will be like a mini-convention with many local creators and publishers - Check out this article on the store and event, here.
Other than that I've gotten started on some new secret projects and have also been comissioned to do two paintings, one as large as 6ftx2ft. I'll post pictures here in the next month as they get finished.

Post Megacon 2010

As a guest of What the Flux Comics, my Megacon table looked like this. With my prints on the lower left, portfolio to the right and shirts in the background. I was able to sell at least one of everything I had at the table. I also had the Concrete Dove posters, I inked and colored, as well as my shirts and Bellydancer posters, and actually had quite a diverse audience for them. I later started hanging the following sketches, that I did, live, at the con, on the front of the table to get people interested in Commissions, which you can see below, of Daredevil, Emma Frost, Batman and Batgirl.

Batgirl Con Sketch by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Batgirl con sketch - inked by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

I did end up getting four Commissions, including: Death, a character the man apparently got various con sketches of and seemed to list mine among his favourites, and mentioned it getting very positive comments from several other artist’s he approached to do one. A fellow artist’s personal character, for whom I regret to say I don’t remember the name (please email if you find this and let me know so I can link you). Batgirl sitting atop the Hulk’s shoulder. And a character from Patrick Sessom’s comic S.O.A.R.

Megacon Commissions 2010 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
Jeramy Hobbs, a fellow WTFC artist seemed to like my work quite a bit and I was asked to ink one of his pieces. This one of the main characters from God of War and Assassin’s Creed fighting one another, I was told this piece sold, later that same day.

God of War vs Assassins Creed by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
I got to sit next to Larry Watts and his wife Sarah, who along with Patrick Sessoms and Randy Taylor, along with a few others were running the ICCW table right next to us. We were all kind of in the corner, and business was hard. There were many artists but very few companies – so networking was about the only option and for that reason ICCW flourished, with around 25 new members after the first day. The ICCW rampage Vol. 1, featured my story “Friend$hip” and Patrick’s story that I inked, “3:33am” will premiere in Vol. 2.
I got to meet new artists, such as Banky Farando, Patrick Larcada, Matt Buck, and Lamar Mathurin as well as catch up with some past acquaintances from the Mini-Megacon, and old friends like Ryan Miller. I also bought a book from Botobit, Epidemic vol. 1 – which, like the ICCW rampage vol. 1, was an anthology of different artists from around the globe, though more fine arts related and less sequential focused. I also stopped and grabbed a flyer for the Orange County Regional History Center, who have several comic themed exhibits, both currently and upcoming.

I got a few artists’ to critique my portfolio and recent work in Decision’s, such as Rick Tucker and various companies I talked to. And I was even asked to review up and coming artist’s portfolio’s, which was great, such as Jeanette Pabon, who is working on putting a website together. I got to meet and talk art with one of my recent influences, Erick Jones, one of my all time favourite artist’s Dave Dorman, and others as I examined their wealth of original artwork they all had on hand.

I was also able to spend some time at the Cosmic Times booth with Robin on Sunday, where we signed the first available copies of Decisions for customers, which premiered this weekend, and got to talk with two of the nicest people working in Indy Comics. Here’s a pic of the three of us, the creative team for the 1st issue, excluding only the cover artist Dan Mann, who was also available for autographs at the con though I didn’t get a chance to meet, and the editor Connie Voss. (From left to right: Martin –writer-, Robin –letterer- and me, Zach –interior artist).


I did want to mention, to those of you who bought the book, and there is a note towards the end of the book that Cosmic Times is depending on readers like you writing in and letting them know what you think about the series, to decide weather of not to continue Decisions into a series. So send in those reviews! Speaking of which, we should hear back soon after from a few different blogs and websites who will be giving their opinion. Arthur: The Legend Continues, the Legend Continues (their flagship book) was received very well and even featured on the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS) so I can’t wait to hear back about this one.

I was able to pick up some trades I was looking for at ½ cover price such as The Return of Superman, New X-men: Vol. 2, Fables Vol. 1 and Vertigo’s: First Cut. And while not everyone who stopped and looked bought something, most did take the time to grab a business card and that exposure alone is enough to help. All in all it was a great first Convention to officially be on the other side of the table at.

I was also informed I am slated to ink their next coming first issue – Outlaws, as the banner displayed on their website shows.

Megacon Preview

I'll more than likely be at the What the Flux booth durring most of Megacon which is located in the Orange Section of Artist's Alley, booths 21-23.

I'll also have a 11x17 pinup poster I inked and colored at the What the Flux booth for Concrete Dove for sale.

Possibly a few t-shirts featuring some the Elephant and the Angel Warrior from my DA pages.

ill have prints of the belly dancer available for sale.

Belly Dancer Commission by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
as well as the iccw anthology in which these two stories are published.

Friend$hip - pg 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Friend$hip - pg 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

"3:33am" I inked and "Friend$hip" i did all on my own. You can read the first few pages of each on my DA page by clicking either one of the pictures.


3:33am Pg 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

3:33am Pg 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

And don't forget a whole issue of interior b+w artwork in "Decisions" for Cosmic Times Publishing at their booth. With beautiful cover art by Dan Mann and letters by Robin. Check out the page for more a plot synopsis and credits on their website.


Decisions, issue 1- preview by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
And of course I'll have plenty of original art on hand for all to see in my portfolio.

Pre-megacon work

Belly Dancer Commission by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
Just finished this a week or so ago. You can read details on DA. I did mention I will most likely have prints of this to sell at the con as well as some other original artwork of popular characters. I've also been working on a Concrete Dove Pin up for What the Flux that I'm inking and coloring. This month I'm working on a tattoo commission and for a chest piece, and designs for MMA fighter's t-shirts. So far I've done one and more are on the way. They have been seriously fun, like the tattoo design because it has been general directions and has basically been left up to me to make look cool. Which I think I did quite well.

Waring Angels by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
I also recently finished this tattoo commission, you can find out more on my DA page by clicking the image.

One heck of a Month

This month alone:
-I have drawn and inked the 9pg story for Cosmic Times, “Saving Father” in “Decisions, Issue 1.”
-I have written/penciled/inked/lettered a 5pg story entitled “Friend$hip” and inked (with my wife’s help filling some spot blacks) a 5pg story entitled “3:33am,” written by Patrick Sessoms for the ICCWW Anthology Showcase.
-I have done 2 pgs of inking samples and a pg of pencil samples for ECV press.
-And lastly I have penciled the first 5pgs for James’ Graphic Novel “27.”

Megacon
The two stories I worked on for the ICCWW Anthology “Showcase,” will be sold at Megacon, as well as my first published whole issue of art, “Decisions Issue 1 (which will be available at the Cosmic Times Booth). I believe Issue 2 of “Concrete Dove” will also be available but it may be saved as a web comic, for What the Flux Media that I did the cover for.
I’ve also started a Con Calendar on my profile if anyone is interested. Right now Megacon is the only one up, but I’ll be adding more soon. I will be jumping between the “What the Flux Media” booth and the “Cosmic Times” booth and will have issues of the ICCWW Anthology for sale as well (which can also be bought through the ICCWW booth).
I will have my portfolio as well as plenty of original art on hand either to see or buy, and will be doing Con Sketches for $15-20, depending on if you want it inked etc.

Experimenting/Influences
All this work forced me to ink everything but “Friend$hip” and the ECV inking samples here in the last week. I wish I could taken more time on but I am extremely proud of the work none the less. I do believe the work I’ve been doing is my best, which is always the goal and have even snuck in a good amount of experimenting.

-For example, Friend$hip is done in a cartoonier style as an homage to Humberto Ramos, an artist who my wife loves and I’ve been watching for some time. We just finished collecting the complete “Crimson” series he did a while back. The story is dedicated to her, and is autobiographical.

-For this second story “Saving Father” in Decisions Issue 1, I was told to try a darker style and so every time the characters get angry the style changes to a grittier rougher inking style. This was highly influenced by the work of the late, great Jorge Zaffino and this page specifically - available on his website. It was also the first time I have used Google “Sketch Up” for my art, a fact which many artist would hide but I wanted to state, because it was my first time and I have been on the fence about using 3D for comics after being shunned away by professors in college. But the truth is I ran into so many professionals at Mini-Mega Con who used it and made it work, and know of so many more, that I figured I better see what everyone was talking about. I found it decently easy to work with (after being a 3D major for a year in college) but still clumsy. I also noticed several details I would have needed to add to the model had I shot it from the other side, and the use of photo reference for textures and details like that must (I believe) go hand-in-hand. I also believe what someone said at the con, that “they might be laying it out digitally, but are Inking it by hand” And I think that goes a long way to making it mesh with your artwork.

-I tried Strathamore’s line of “smooth” comic Bristol board, because of its economy (around .50 cents a sheet) and Higgins Black Magic ink, for its availability (the only brand of waterproof ink that Michael’s carries). I don’t know if it is the combination of both together but I could Not use a quill without it bleeding horribly. In which case Faber Castell’s “M”and “B” size tech and brush pens came in extremely handy. I was able to pull it in a way that feathered the line and imitated the Quill, even with the “M” pen. Using the ink in a brush to fill spot blacks I also found the ink to be incredibly watery and gray.

-Dave Gibbons and seeing the Watchmen Motion Comic has had huge effect on how I draw, the close up zooms of his art really let me study and see what he was doing and so the way I shade walls and even draw some faces closely resembled his style while illustrating Watchmen. The way I illustrated the father character in “Saving Father” closely resembles the way he drew the character Moloch, mixed with a pseudo self-portrait of me while working on the pages. I also got to do some cool things with a toothbrush, reminiscent of John Cassaday’s run on Captain America, after 9/11.

-I tried some reflection techniques similar to the Jurgens/Breeding style run around the time of the Death of Superman. As well as picked up on a few things other superman artists did to quickly depict buildings during those issues. I posted a small picture a few posts back relating to what I’m talking about.

-I experimented with mark-making using the brush to imitate leaves though I still need to work on that more.

-And lastly I’ve found that printing Blue Lined Art at Fed-Ex/Kinkos stinks and is expensive. It printed way too dark and lead me to have to use the “Replace color” tool in photoshop to replace left over Blue (even after tweaking the “levels”) with White - which thinned much of my inking out in the story “3:33am.” Which will also be my first published story just as an inker over another artist.


A short word about the 90's
-It’s been a weird experience growing up and loving what is now considered a dark and nearly was “the final period” in Comic’s history - the collecting bubble of the early 90's. On the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS), which I have been listing to almost non-stop for the last week, the first question they ask their guests burring interviews is “what was your first comic” or even what was your “gateway” comic, that lead you into wanting to do this as a profession. And the comics I grew up on are now something to shy away from, stylistically and otherwise. So re-learning what “good comics” are, has largely been a very troubled road for my generation I think. And for more reasons than this, but - it may be why it is so hard to break in right now, is because the people that are young grew up learning with the wrong idea of what comics are and should be (in the eyes of the people who would hire you now). We are the ultimate fanboy generation, who bought multiple issues, foil, variant and fold-out poster covers and anything that had an “X” in the title or that resembled either mutants or Jim Lee’s art. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Jim Lee but it was that whole generation of artists and writers who either by choice or were told to imitate him that lead to such a derivative and similar in the name of money - and maybe that generation was even more so a “fanboy generation of creators” than the one’s who grew up reading their work, but never the less - now here we are, the kids who grew up with that being our definition for comics and now we are in a world where that type of thing gives some people shivers. So it is up to us to redefine it for ourselves, but it is also a burden, I guess of every generation of artists to not look outdated and move past your influences, to look more modern and to get work that way - who knows, perhaps that’s all they were doing as well.

Comics and Pop Culture
-I good point was brought up the other day on CBGS, that “comic characters are more popular in movies/games than they are in the comic books, anymore.” And even comic-related shows like “Heroes” are capitalizing on what comics brought to the world and while the companies are seeing the money at some point it is passing through more hands, forcing specialty shops to widen their product base to everything related to comics just to keep people comic in. My point is, it is sad that comic characters are so popular right now and yet they are making the least amount of money through their original medium. How would they have ever gotten where they are with out it? Or are they like movies in the theater or Disney world, they make very little off of your ticket but everything off of the snacks and t-shirts. Has it always been that way? Or does a spike in the actual market cause the 90's collector bubble I previously commented on? I, myself saw/read “one of the most celebrated comics of all time,” Watchmen, for the first time as a “motion-comic.” But at least they were nice enough to add at the end of the credits something like “be sure to enjoy Watchmen in it’s original form” - but did I? No. What does that say about the industry?

One last note:
- I recently acquired a reprint edition of the Star Wars Dark Empire II trade (I’m still trying to get I) which includes Empire’s End and it’s the only time I’ve been compelled to buy a different edition of a book because of the print quality. All the colors are light and washed out, the blacks are every shade of gray and rarely dark enough to keep a consistent tone and all the colors look fuzzy and grainy, similar to what saving a picture as a low quality .jpg will do. I love Cam Kenedy’s work and I love being able to get it in reprints but the quality of this most recent reprint just ruined the experience for me - of what I remember the original Trade having - vibrant saturated colors and stark blacks - amazing clarity and the classic iconic Dave Dorman covers - which they also changed and moved his art to the back cover.

Unused Designs

Here's some old stuff I did right out of college, chances are yo won't be able to see most of it on this site if you don't have a DA account because it has a warning.

Skateboard Design roughs 6 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Skateboard Design roughs 5 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Skateboard Design roughs 4 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Skateboard Design roughs 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Skateboard Design roughs 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Skateboard Design roughs 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

DVLP Sleeping Samurai Design by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

DVLP Owlman Design by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Mysteria

So the pages I finished a few months back finally saw print the other day. I penciled them out and then learned I would also be inking myself. But I had fun with it and it has been my first published work that has truly been collaborative, I haven't just been a penciler on a project yet but this is pretty close considering it passed through a letterer and a colorist before it hit the presses. So that has been an interesting experience to get used to. I did the first 8 pages, not including the black title page.
http://1089comics.com/2009/11/08/misteria_herculean-tasks_pt1_title-wc/
I'm still trying to see if it is alright to post the original art now since the final art is open source anyhow.
You can use the thumbnails along the right hand side, the labeled arrows at the bottom or just click the pages to navigate.