On the CONtrary...

Hey everyone!

I hope you guys had a great weekend, I know I did!  I just finished the Dallas Fan Expo aka Dallas Comic Con, and it was a blast!  First off, I didn't know until I got there, that I was sitting next to none other than, James O' Barr, creator of the Crow....  What?!  Of course that was on Friday, Sunday it was more like, oh...I'm sitting next to James O'Barr....again...  HA!  I kid, that man was funny!  And full of stories, and tips on art and working conventions.  Definitely a master of his craft, and an honor of sitting next to him, even if he ragged on me all weekend!  HA!  It was definitely one of the big highlights of the show.

Me wearing my Fernando Ruiz t-shirt, since he was a guest there also.  Had to make him proud!  

The place was packed, and that was a great thing!  I got to meet lots of people and spread the word about LARP!  They seemed pretty interested and was going to look for it when it comes out this summer.  I had the spiel down by Sunday...  I had a few requests for commissions which were a lot of fun including an Elfquest piece.

still haven't read this one....

Hulk piece in a guy's hulk themed sketchbook

ElfQuest

I also sold my Attack on Titan piece, which means, I need to do that as a print for HeroesCon!

Attack on Titan, SOLD

and my Snake Eyes print was a hit.

Snake Eyes not with Nicolas Cage...

Another big highlight for me was meeting Mark Kistler from Imagination Station and Secret City, a show on PBS I used to watch when I was a kid.  I learned my basic shapes of drawing watching Secret City.  He would draw these floating islands that had waterfalls connecting to another floating island city with pipes and furry creatures.  He was my Captain Kangaroo, and I got the chance to meet him!  He was everything I remembered him to be from the show except a bit on the gray side, and wearing a kilt.  He even sounded like the show, it was awesome!  I was walking around and came across his booth, had no idea he was going to be there!  I ran up to him and said, "Oh my Gosh!  I watched your show religiously when I was a kid!  My mom showed me drawing skills, but it was you who introduced me to the world of cartooning!  I learned my basic shapes because of your floating cities!"  His eyes gleamed with excitement and noticed I was an exhibitor and asked what I did.  I told him all about Dark Horse and LARP!, and he was so thrilled, and I told him I owe it to him for directing me down this path at a very early age!  He came to my table to see my work, and kept using his exclamations that he used on the show, it was so great!  He gave me a print in exchange for one of mine, it truly was a memory I will cherish!  And with that I will leave you with this video of Secret City, so you all know the awesomeness I got to meet!  Till next time!

The "I Can Do That!" mantra

Hello Everybody!

  I know you guys have missed me.  I'm sorry for not keeping up with this blog, but I got a bit busy.  Since my last post from 2012, (Yikes!  really sorry!) We had Lillian June Shoop, born July 1st 2012!  She has been the light of our lives, and I wouldn't know how life would be like from that moment on.    She has been my greatest masterpiece yet, and Cyndi and I have never looked back.  She has been a true joy in our lives, and thankfully taking after her dad as joining into the geek culture!  hehehehe

Lily as Supergirl Princess

     I used this costume as an ice breaker to meet Dan Jurgens at NC Comic Con 2013, who I sat next to for 2 days, and unfortunately never built up the courage to speak to one of my heroes until Lily showed up.  I had been burned by heroes of mine in the comics industry before, and didn't want to be let down by another, but Dan was one of the nicest people I ever met!  I told him that Lily was my icebreaker, he said "Icebreaker?  She's a deal Maker!  and proceeded to talk for a good half hour.  It was great to know not all of my heroes are dead.   It does make for a great story with Lily.  Hopefully she will appreciate it one day, but for now, if it isn't Octonauts, she doesn't care.  HA!  

As to what I have been doing since the last post job wise, I did a few things since then.  I worked on a game for the iPad with HeroClix called the Tab App game.  Using both Marvel and DC characters, I had to draw their story lines for the in-between scenes of each level.  It was my first time doing full color anything in comics, always just a penciller.  It was a test for sure for future things to come.  Anyways, in the game each character had a figure that you would put on the screen of the iPad, and the game could recognize which character it was and play the game according to the figure.  it was a pretty cool idea.  Unfortunately, i didn't get to draw the characters the way I wanted to draw them, but I still got to draw them, from Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, to Captain America and Thor.  I was thankful for the opportunity.

New 52 Batman

Mr. Freeze and Bats

Thor vs. Loki

Loki no likey...

Doth hast any Meade?

Then came along Dan Jolley...

FCBD 2014

 

    I have known Dan for quite a few years, we met  in Philly at Wizard World, when Wizard was a good show.   He was signing for Firestorm at the time, and I had done some sample pages of a script he had written that a mutual friend had given me to work on.  I went to talk to Dan, and from there we became friends.  We had always wanted to work on something together but we always had something going on, until finally we both had the time to work on something.  And that something was LARP!, a graphic novel of 88 pages.  Now as I had mentioned earlier about the HeroClix game, I had only done pencils for any book I ever worked on.  Going through art school, I always said, I will just be a penciller, for I am a slow inker, and colors are too involved.  I just want to draw.  HA!  Not on this project, once Dark Horse gave us the green light I was asked to do all pencils, inks and gray tones!  Who was I to say no, "I can do that" I said!  Gracious, once I really dove in, it was a bit daunting. With trial and error of what worked and what didn't, I think I gained 500 experience points to level up for the next one!  What I am really proud to say is, I did that, ALL of it!  from concept to final art, I did it, while changing diapers, to cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, to potty training, to bedtime with Lily, to moving 4 times within a year from NC to Texas, I did it.  And I will have the book to show all the blood, sweat and tears, but also memories of what I was doing when I was working on such and such page.  A big THANK YOU to Dan for letting me be a part of it as a co creator.   If anything, I am pleased and thankful of Dark Horse especially my editor Brendan Wright, for being helpful and patient with me through all this.  I can now say in confidence going forward, "I can Do that!" and it be true!  I can't forget to give props to Shawn DeLoache, Dan's writing partner, for being my cheerleader when things were getting a bit daunting and Brendan or Dan wasn't available at that time.  It definitely has been a ride, and can't wait to do more with it!  It is pretty great to be able to finally talk about it now that it will be out this summer!  So I will end this blog until next time with a few images showing my process of the book.  I promise, I will try to be more frequent with this blog!  Until next time, Hakuna Matata!

Original thumbnail to the cover

then to pencils

to inks and colors

                         

                     To final cover