Scary Chicago show, Wandering in New York and Kermit

Well I just finished up a piece for a show in Chicago later this month.  Got it finished right under the wire.  The piece is called- the Last Witch's Head at the Wall of the Man's Ruin, the show is called Grand Guignol II: Haxan- Satan + the women who love him.  You can see more about this show here.  And here is a little sneak peek detail shot of my contribution to it.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the opening of Haxan, Emily is putting on a horse show and I will be helping her out.  It should be a great show the list of artists is quite impressive.

I will be going to the New York Comic Con, but alas only as an attendee.  Kickstarter.com has graciously asked Tom and I to be a part of their panel on Fri.  We'll be talking about how amazing Kickstarter is and tell you how easy it can be to get money for publishing your own project.  I will also be making an announcement about the future home of Cursed Pirate Girl at the panel, and I might have posters to hand out too!  Here are more details on the panel as well as who else will be up there.
This will be the first time I've attended a comic con without setting up in... 6 years[?].  It'll be fun though that just means I get to walk around a bunch and actually see a show.  I'll probably go pester these two since they will have tables there, David Petersen and Katie Cook.  I will also be dropping off a limited edition sketch cover CPG to my pal Jimmy Aquino for his Comic News Insider charity raffle.  I'll try posting a scan of it just before I leave next Thurs.

The next show I will be setting up at is the NC comicon.  I had a great time last year and they said I could come back this year, so I am.  I like NC, you guys rock, you've been good to me in the past so let's hope the same goes for Nov.  Here is more on that show.

Here are some con sketches that I was able to complete from the Cincinnati Comic Expo and the Detroit Fan Fare.  Both of which I had a great time at.  For the Cincinnati show Emily and I were lucky enough to spend some time with the talented Tony Moore and his wife the amazing Kara Fairfield.  They were both really cool and welcomed us into their home, they might be giving Guy Davis a run for his money as the nicest person in the comic biz.  I'd love to see a three way nice-off, maybe at next year's C2E2... eh?  Anyway, thanks a lot for being so frickin welcoming!  Aaaaaand now here are some pictures, enjoy...?

What I had left from Baltimore

So this is a new one, I actually have finished all the sketches I had left over from Baltimore.  Thank you very much to everyone who stopped by the table or contacted me via email to commission these. 

Ironically I did all these while listening to the audio book of It.  That's such a cool creepy book.  I really have got to get an audible account.  So the next show I'll be at is the Detroit Fanfare show at Cobo Hall in just a couple of weeks.  I'll open up the list for con sketches the week preceding the con, again there will be 8 available slots.  I'll only take 4 before the show and the other half during.  If you're interested they will be $100 for something like you see here.  You can email me at talpasouk@hotmail.com.  

More sketches... overdue

Here's the rest of the con sketches I owe to people.  I hope this is the rest of them.  I will be opening another 6 spots for the Baltimore show.

post Comicon post... heh

Ok, last week was the San Diego Comicon.  As I'm sure a lot of you already know.  Highlights of the show for me [since I was stuck behind a table for the whole time] were-
   I got to shake hands and meet with Aaron Horkey [!!!!!] I think this guy is a genius and here's some proof.
   I attended the Eisners and saw a lot of people I sorta know win awards for being extremely talented, and one guy I really know win an award for being extremely talented and for what turned out to be a great idea.  Congratulations Mr. David Petersen and all those who participated in his Mouse Guard anthology book Legends of the Guard.  Which I had a lil story in myself I might add.
   I met Andy Serkis, whom I highly admire, and got to shake his hand as well.  I thought I did a pretty good job of not totally geeking out all over him.  I am happy his kids seemed like they really liked Pook [that's a character from my book and it is not misspelled, it ends with a "k"]. 
   Ooh I also saw Ron Perlman walk by as we were getting Pink Berry one night.
   Emily and I picked up a couple of great books [not so much comic related], I found a copy of The Twelve Dancing Princesses illustrated by K.Y.Craft and Emily found a great !! copy of Anderson's Fairy Tales illustrated by Harry Clarke.  Which I did not know existed.
    And just having a great time after the show every night with friends and going to great restaurants and eating great food.


 I had a great spot this year and met a lot of new fans, current fans, and surprised a bunch of people who had never heard of me before.  Here are a few con sketches I did over the week we were there.  Spoiler alert! to those I owe these to.

Queen of Hearts and Alice

forest demon

Victorian Emily

Kraken

 

Knight of the Omertas

CPG coat of arms

 

 

 

 

CPG fishing

 Over all SDCC was great!  Thank you so much Katie and Ryan for making the show even better and a lot closer.  I love doing that show and I'm always looking forward to it throughout the year.  It does take a lot out of you, I'm in day 3 of recovery.  Our plane left San Diego around 10:30 mon. night and we didn't get home until 11:00pm tues.  Still trying to work through all the con sketches that I owe people from previous shows. 

Now I have the Baltimore Comicon just up ahead Aug. 20th and 21st!  It looks to be a really great show and a much lighter con.  Baltimore is boasting such great guests as Stan Lee, Bernie Wrightson, Adam Hughes, Geoff Darrow and so many more.  Check out their site here.  I really look forward to this show every year too, it's in a really nice spot and has lots to offer.  Hope to see you there!

tentacles and skulls... spoiler alert for people who I owe stuff to.

A little catch up first.  The 25th of last month [June] was my birthday!  I spent it in Traverse City as a guest of the Cherry Capital Con.  I really like that show, it's a small show in comparison with Heroes but the folks that put it on and the volunteers take care of you.  The city itself has lots of neat features as well. Good restaurants, you got a couple of vineyards like Black Star Farms, it's right on the water, there's the casino [which I'm told was very good to a couple of the comic guests], and one of the best mom and pop style used/new book stores I've ever been to- Horizon Books [which Emily and I were very good to].  If you live somewhat near by I suggest you think about planning on attending next year, I know I will be.

Heroes Con went by as well and I had an amazing time in Charlotte.  Again, thank you so very very much to Shelton, Rico, Andy and the rest of the crew for letting me be a part of it!  That's another show that I will be putting on the "Must attend every year from now on" list.

Mad Eye Moody

So I'm sure you all know how friggin slow I am, and I apologize to all the patrons who I still owe drawings to. I did warn you... I'm not saying I'm not a jerk, but I did warn you.  Here are a couple of con sketches I've finished up.  This isn't all the con sketches I have finished, so if yours isn't up here, that doesn't mean I haven't started and or finished it.

Thestral

Older CPG

Emily and I just got back from celebrating her mother's birthday in a cottage she rented for this past weekend up north.  It was a cute little place right on a river [I don't know which so don't even ask].  It was about an hour away from Tawas MI. I know at least that much.  We arrived on Sat. just after lunch time and returned Sun. evening.  It was a short visit but turned out to be very beneficial. 

We love going to antique stores and there were a couple in town about 15 min. from the cottage.  We were practically rushed out of the first one because they were closing at 5 and we entered at quarter till.  Nothing quite remarkable in that store besides the large selection of antique farm equipment which Emily was drooling over.  The second shop had it's door wide open but the sign said it was also open until 5, at which point it was 5:08.  We inquired within and the gentleman replied "I'm still here so I guess I'm still open" and bid us to take our time.  It was at this store we came across the coolest thing we'd ever seen at a rinky dink little antique store.  And the best part was the price tag said $200.  We decided to sleep on it.  The next day it was the first thing we talked about and we both decided it was a MUST HAVE!  So after going to the beach in East Tawas we drove straight to the shop and made the purchase.  Anyway, here it is...
Pretty cool huh?!  We don't have a name yet but I'll let you know when we do.  This is our first BIG taxidermy purchase and we are loving it!  We just need a really good place to put it.

So here's one more image, a graduation gift.  Hopefully he doesn't follow my blog... :p  More fun with microns.  I had another pic I was going to put up that would have helped with the whole "tentacles and skulls" label but I was told I'd have to wait to post that.  So you'll be able to see a new T-shirt design probably after San Diego.  Which will probably be my next post. heh

Yesterday at the Antiquarian Book Fair

So by chance I remembered that there was an antiquarian book fair taking place yesterday at the Union at U of M.  I dragged my sister to it and proceeded to spend a little past what I was allowing myself to spend.  But can you really blame me [that's rhetorical].  I picked up a couple of books illustrating Napoleonic soldiers along with a couple of illustrated story books.  Of these last two, one jumps out and has indeed made itself my new obsession.  As far as illustrators go.  The book is The Brave Little Tailor and is illustrated by Olga Dugina and Andrej Dugin.  This duo has worked on only 3 other books, The Fine Round Cake, Dragon Feathers, and Madonna's the Adventures of Abdi.  There is also a large selection of illustrations from an Arabian Nights collaboration that I don't believe has come out yet, on their website.  Here are a couple of images from the Brave Little Tailor.

Inside the book it says that it took the duo six and a half years to complete the paintings that make up the book.  It's nice to hear it takes others a great deal of time to complete things as well.  This book has a lot of images that make me Extremely jealous and now I have to track down all the other books they have worked on.  I just wanted to share my find with you and encourage you to find this book and marvel at it like I do. 

June shows

So I finished the charity piece that will be up for auction at Heroes Con in a couple of weeks.  It's based off of a Hendrik Goltzius engraving from 1586 entitled Haratius Cocles, from a series he did of The Roman Heroes. 

original

my sillied up version

I'm really looking forward to this show.  Last year I had really low expectations due to it was the first time I was doing the show and the fact that I was all alone.  My fears were completely unfounded and I had one of the greatest conventions ever!  So don't let me down Charlotte... ;]  This year I will also be doing the show solo but at least I have an idea of what to expect.  Olympian is still working on the added incentive Kickstarter poster, so I don't know if I will have any of those available at the show or not.  You can at least bid on an original Cursed Pirate Girl piece and help make next years show even better.  I believe I'll even be on a panel this year.  So you should definitely come to that and watch me be real nervous, I bet if you look closely enough you'll see my heart trying to escape the cavity of my chest just like a baby Alien. 

The rest of June will be spent working ferociously trying to make up for going to cons and then toward the end of the month the 25th and 26th Emily and I will be in Traverse City for C3 or Cherry Capital Con.  A couple of things that need to get done that weekend... First a trip to Horizon Books [to spend a bunch of money] and then we will need to find a theater so we can see the extended cut of LOTR Return of the King.  The 25th is also my birthday.  You should come just to say Happy Birthday.  You should also come because they're gonna have a bunch of great guests. Besides Traverse City is frickin gorgeous and tasty, what could you want more for a convention backdrop.  Hope to see you at either of these shows.