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I recently made my second visit/appearance on the podcast Drew & Mike Save the World, this time joined by Chris Giarrusso.

We get Googled and we talk about Comic-Con, robot news, and more. You can download it through iTunes or go to this link here and download Episode 0019: “You’re About to Meet the Wizard”.

How I Spent My Comic-Con 2010 Vacation

So, vacation’s the wrong word for it, because it’s very much work-work-work, but who am I to deny the playful flow of a post title?

But yes, Comic-Con 2010 ended on Sunday, 7/25, and as always, it was a whirlwind.

Many sketches were sketched, among them a “Punisher being annoyed by SpongeBob and Patrick”, a series of Batman related head shots (I was particularly pleased with the Clayface; hopefully I’ll get a scan of that soon), and interestingly enough, two separate requests for me to draw people’s dogs.

I’m happy to say a nice number of people picked up copies of the X-BABIES paperback collection, and I got to meet a nice bunch of folks who’d read and enjoyed the series when it came out at the end of last year. On the flip side, there were those two “industry” dudes who in one conversation passively mocked the X-Babies, but the less said about them the better (save for the fact that, if they read X-Babies they’d see that we were taking jabs at them, so ha-ha indeed!). Read more »

Comic-Con 2010!

Once again I’m attending Comic-Con International in San Diego, specifically holding it down in Artists Alley, table FF-18. I will have books, original art, and prints for sale, along with doing “sketches by request”, as usual.

Over the years a lot of people have lamented the growth of the con and that “it’s not even about comics anymore”. To that I say embrace it! For all the shop talk about bringing in new readers to comics and expanding the audience, it seems an event called Comic-Con that brings in people who while not specifically comics readers, dig on things that could be tangentially connected, could be a good thing and a good opportunity to reach out and/or open our arms to the anime/manga fans, the video game/MMORPG gamers, sci-fi aficionados, and yes, even Twilight fans.

I for one encourage you all to stop by and have a chat with me about any of it. It is  convention after all, where people convene and discuss and share. So let’s do that!

DMSW

I was recently a guest on the podcast Drew & Mike Save the World, which would fall under the category of “conversational podcasts”.  Some parts are informative, several parts are funny, and some of it’s a lot of three dudes talking over each other. So if you have an hour and a half and want to hear me chatting about comic book based movies, food creations, Harrison Ford, playing Pyramid, and more, check out Drew & Mike Save the World, episode 0009: “Topless House”, available on iTunes or at this link here.

Free Comic Book Day

The first Saturday in May is and has been, for the past several years, “Free Comic Book Day“. This means that you could go into any participating comic book store and they’ll have a selection of comics available…FREE.

Over the years, FCBD has become a bigger and bigger event, with publishers generating original content and comic book shops putting together events, promotions and sales to commemorate and maximize the event, including participation and appearances by comics creators.

For example, a store mentioned on this here site more than once, Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, has become well known for their FCBD events, bringing in a slew of writers and artists and drawing huge crowds.

To that end, this coming Saturday, May 1, check out your local comic book shop and see what’s going on. At the very least you’ll get some free comics. At the very best it’ll be like a miniature convention. And if you’re in or near Bloomfield, NJ, stop by The Comic Book Market (28 Washington Street), where I’ll be alongside my pal and co-conspirator on X-BABIES, Jacob Chabot, signin’ and sketchin’.

And if you don’t know where your local comics shop is, well, click here to find it!

Wonder-Con

Coming up this weekend, 4/2-4/4, I’ll be at Wonder-Con in San Francisco alongside pal and fellow cartoonist Chris Giarrusso. If you’re out there, stop by and say hello. You can fund us in Artist Alley, table 45. I’ll be doing sketches and I’ll have copies of X-BABIES as well as some Batman and Superman chapter books, mini-comics, and a brand new set of prints that may or may not take the world of fictional character fans by storm. Dig ‘em:

And yes, as a matter of fact they do line up side-by-side.

See you in San Francisco…

MegaCon!

This weekend, March 12-14th, I’ll be in Artists Alley at MegaCon in Orlando. I’d love to tell you exactly where, but as of this post I don’t yet know my table assignment.

I do know I’ll be sitting alongside Chris Giarrusso and collectively we’ll have all the X-Babies, G-Man, and Mini-Marvels you could ask for…I think.

Also this weekend, if you’re on the left coast, is the Emerald City ComiCon. That’s a great show and if you’re in Seattle I say check it out. Tell ‘em I sent ya!

And in about two weeks I’ll be on the west coast at WonderCon in San Francisco…

SpongeBob SquarePants & Me: A Love Story

I have been drawing SpongeBob SquarePants professionally, with varying degrees of success, for ten years now as of today.

February 14, 2000 was my very first day working for Nickelodeon as part of Nickelodeon Creative Resources (AKA: NCR). And it was on that day I got my first real exposure to the now still mega-popular SpongeBob SquarePants.

That day I saw what was for me my first episode of “SpongeBob SquarePants”, and considering the date it was no coincidence the episode we watched was episode 16a, “Valentine’s Day”. Read more »

I just keep talking…

I’m still going on and on about X-Babies out there. And in the event that you don’t regularly do web searches of my name, I’ve gathered a few here so as to share.

First up, an interview on the appropriately named site, Lots of Interviews.

Next, I had a brief chat with Rachelle up in Nova Scotia from the always pleasant and comics-positive blog Living Between Wednesdays.

Thirdly, the audio of my appearance on Comic Book Club (along with Jacob Chabot) is available on iTunes or here, should you care to give that a listen (though for those not familiar with comics and without the visual, it could be…challenging).

Jesse Thorn over at Maximum Fun (PRI’s The Sound of Young America and a series of podcasts) kindly posted the reference I dropped to his “Jordan, Jesse, Go!” podcast in X-Babies #2.

And finally, a couple of video interviews, both from the weekend spent at Acme Comics in Greensboro last month. The first of these is an interview with Dylan O’Connor, a very savvy interviewer despite his age:

And here’s my post-show, wrap-up interview with Julie, who helped out at the event and brought us delicious cookies and brownies.

I can’t explain the color changes to my flesh in the two videos, though it might have something to do with the different cameras used. I can explain, however, my seeming ignoring of the camera in the second video, as I was working on the last sketches of the night and people were waiting on us to get dinner.

Oh, and that fella sitting to my left in the video, that’s Jacob Chabot, artist on X-Babies.

And if all that weren’t enough: G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS #4 is on sale today, 11/17. The penultimate issue (and it’s got not only three more pages of PIX: TEENAGE AMERICAN FAIRY, but an all-new SAFARI JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL comic in there too). It’s a good one!

Acme Comics Weekend

This past weekend, 10/23-10/25, myself and a handful of other comics creators (Chris Giarrusso, Jacob Chabot, Brian Smith, Art Balthazar, Ian Flynn and Michael Watkins) were the guests of Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC. We were flown in, put up, fed and essentially made to feel like rock stars and all we had to do was sit around and draw and sign comic books. And boy did we ever draw. Holy cow. There were well over 200 sketches done by all of us in total. The crew at Acme scanned as many as they could and posted them on their site.

By my count, based on what’s on their site and what I can remember that wasn’t scanned, clocked in with about 38 sketches. I encourage you to check out the scans of everyone’s sketches here (I encourage you to check out Brian “Smitty” Smith’s takes on E.T. and “The Star Wars”), but for simplicity sake, here are 32 of the sketches I did: Read more »