Super-Con: quick hits and first impressions

Back from San Jose and just about to crash. Super-Con was richly attended by artists, so the folks that came had a great selection of folks to talk to and artwork to check out. Essentially no original art dealers, but artwork to buy from the artists themselves. The best piece belonged to my table mate, the great Craig Hamilton, who had a simply astonishing full color piece with him showing off the entire Starlinverse. It was just breathtaking, the amount of work that Craig had put in. There are many more close up shots over at Craig's Comicartfans.com gallery. Certainly plenty of the other artists agreed, and spent time coming over to check it out.

One of the best things that the Steves who run Super-Con do is to put together a good mix of established stars and new folks and to mix 'em up. Our row of tables had a healthy mix of veteran and newbie, giving the convention goer a chance to see some new material while in search of some of their favorites. I was happy to be down the row from Craig Hamilton and Mick Grey, who is always good for some killer artwork and good music talk. And it that means a few more folks who saw the new flyers for Yocomics.net, more the better. Besides being nice guys, its great to talk art with them and learn some new things.

New Artwork: Golden and Yoakum at Super Con

The final scan of the Michael Golden piece before taking the thing to Super Con today in San Jose. Convention season is clearly rolling along through most of the country, and I'm looking forward to getting a chance to check out the new small press and indy stuff as well as meeting a few old friends down at the convention.

Michael's piece is amazing, with some awesome half tones that needed delicate treatment to make the art work. Come on down to Super Con and see the original!

Edit: the winning bidder was Blue Moon Comics in Novato CA. Go on by and tell Sam and Kyle that you want to see the Golden piece. Its up in the shop!

New Artwork: Wonder Woman by Hughes & Yoakum

The finished piece for the Super Con auction of the Adam Hughes Wonder Woman. Enjoy!

I have no idea how many different versions of the artwork are out there, but this is easily the closest that I'll ever get to a Hughes original (I don't even have a con sketch from him in my art collection), so I wanted to make it good.

Art In Process: Michael Golden

Stopped myself the other night to take a break and threw the Golden piece on the scanner so that you can see the piece in process. you can tell the stuff that I went straight to (tenatacles!) and the stuff the I'm waiting on until my hand is really warmed up and ready for delicate work (the face).

Remember, Super Con is right around the corner!

Tentacles baby!

Coming Art: Michael Golden at Super Con

Have not a clue what this Michael Golden piece was originally done for, nor do I really care.

What I'm completely psyched about is the opportunity to put brush to paper to ink the thing. The scan at left is a detail from the photocopy of the original pencils. i've darkened it a bit in photoshop to make sure that it shows up well. The original, inks and all, will be up for auction at Super Con in San Jose. Get off your butt and go there. I mean, really, Golden, Frank Cho, Adam Hughes... how many more stars do you need?

Michael Golden may, for some, be a contentious figure. He is, however, a superb artist and was, at least to me, a star from day one at DC with his Man-Bat and Demon in the Batman Family books. They were raw, true, but they were bursting with originality and power and a great eye. Over time, he has developed other unique looks, and remains one of the true originals that we've seen over the last 30 years in superheroes. Bid well, bid often.

And for once, I agree with Todd McFarlane: Avengers Annual #10 is one of the crowning achievements in superhero comics books. Its just that good.

Coming Art: Adam Hughes at Super Con

A small sample of the Adam Hughes piece that many of us will be inking for the charity Art Auction at Super Con. I know that there are a few pieces floating around on the ComicArtFans site, but I wanted to post one here for everyone to check out. i'll post the finished inks now that I've got a new scanner that can do this large work!

The problem here is always the same with a penciller that gives you this much information: you can only mess it up if you're not paying attention. Adam has basically given you much of the line weight and detail, now you just have to pick and choose what to put in and leave out. Very different from the Michael Golden piece.

Which we'll see tomorrow.

Elric and Disney: a perfect Memorial Day pair

Just got back from a few days down in southern California, taking the kids to Disneyland, enjoying the minor upgrades to the Pirates ride.

Also had time in the evenings to finish this sketch in my good friend Steven Wyatt's Elric Sketchbook, which already contains good pieces from Bo Hampton, Dan Brereton, JG Jones, Tom Yeates and others. Steve, by the way, has his Super Con on this weekend, so if you're anywhere near the San Jose area, go there this weekend for some great guests.

While its not the greates scan, here is the finshed piece with a couple of tweaks to do to it. Now you can see where the skull study was going.

If there is anything that you can say about Disneyland, its that they have perfected the art of vacuuming out your wallet, all the time making you pretty much enjoy it. I noticed any number of details on the Haunted House ride that I did with my oldest daughter 3 times, and I still like the London flyover in the Peter Pan ride.

Perhaps the other thing to note is just how good they are about making characters that seem born out of whole cloth right there, with all the details in perfect position. It is, lets face it, a testament to the great artists that they've screwed over the across the years. They have certainly had some of the best of the best to bleed dry, and we, as the audience, have let them feed us Mulan and Ariel and even a revisionist Cinderella (which has got to be the biggest nod modern plot conventions than they have allowed in twenty years) complete with alternate character arcs and a more proactive main character.

And i still had a good time, despite all that I know about the company. Becasue they are just that damn good at what they do.

Wonder Con has come and gone...

... and I made about a 3 hour walk through with some friends. Its hard to show up at the conventions and not have a product that you can show to people, when deep down what you really want is to WOW everyone with something new thats been on your board. Ah well, I took the fisrt part of Pistoleras to show Mick Grey, inker on Promethea, and a great guy in his own right. He had some nice comments and very little harsh criticism. Heh, he's no help.

Saw my old college buddy Ron Lim and his phone pics of his kid. Didn't get too much time to chat with some of the other artists, but many of my old bay area buddies have moved to different time zones and I don't get the chance to see them as often. That is what San Diego exists for.

My good friend Steve Wyatt was also promoting his Super-Con in San Jose on June 2nd and 3rd and has a stellar line up of guests, including Marshall Rogers, who is still, in my opinion, the greatest Batman artist of all time. I hope to be able to get away to show up on the 2nd and have some booth time in artist's ghetto. For any bay area blog readers, this would be a great time to actually meet some of you. (I have a counter, and while I don't expect the guy in Korea who regularly reads, or the guy in Magill University of Montreal to show up, I know that there are at least a few of you out there...)

And for those days when your muse is lacking: Dani Draws has this great list of ideas to get free up the right side of your brain and think outside of those drawing blues. Feel free to make use of them what you will.