Dallas Museum of Art and Heroes4Heroes

Well, it never ends, folks. Another busy weekend. On Friday, I'll be rolling down to the DMA to take part in an panel/forum about comics and technology. Then Saturday is the Heroes4Heroes show; and for once, it's going to be a live art event where the artists can make some scrillah. We'll be selling prints and original art as well as live arting thing. It's looking to be a good time all weekend, so come out if you're in the area. Check out the (more or less) official Space-Gun press release:


Late Night Art Bytes
March 20, 2009
Dallas Museum of Art (Tech Lab, Center for Creative Connections )
1717 N. Harwood St. Dallas, TX 75201
9:30–10:30 p.m
$10 General Admission (parking not included)
On Friday, Match 20th Jake, Matthew, and Luan will be at the Dallas Musueam of Art for Late Night Art Bytes!. Art Bytes is a forum for tech savvy creators to share their work with peers and the community. Each presenter receives 8 min. to show their work and engage in a short question-and-answer session. This month's session will be a focus on comic books and technology.


Heroes4Heroes
March 21, 2009
Poor David's Pub
1313 South Lamar St., Dallas, Texas 75215
7:00pm - 11:00pm
$5 at the door (parking not included)
Saturday, March 21st at Poor David's Pub will be a Heroes4Heroes live art|music show. H4H and ArtLoveMagic will be hosting a great night of live art and music. Artists will have original art and prints for sale at the show. Featured artists will be Mitch Breitweiser (Captain America, Hulk, Fantastic Four) and Eric ‘Ebas’ Basaldua (Witchblade/Devi, Darkness, Tomb Raider). Space-Gun Studios will be there kicking it live as usual and we'll have prints and original art for sale as well. Come check out the show and give support to our troops overseas.

STAPLE! 2009: Aftermath

[image: my point-of-view for the convention. More photos can be found on my flickr account and on Evan's account]

An interesting part of being in comics is the convention circuit, especially for those of us who are not established names. We run into a lot of issues that the pros haven't had to deal with in a long time. It's something you really don't read a lot about in those "How to Do Comics" books. Some shows are great from the drive to the convention center to the face plant on the bed at the end of the long weekend. Others are three days of constant, wretched abuse that lingers on for weeks afterward, making you ask why you even bother trying. On average, conventions are a mix of both sides of that equation. Like most things, there is a bit of good mixed in with the bad.

STAPLE! is great show for its size; and its size is part of why it's a great show. The show is big enough to bring in some really cool and creative people; but it is also small enough that you can actually get some time to talk to people. This is a great show for both fans and creators. Small-time guys can mix it up with the bigger names. STAPLE! especially does this well with its pre- and after- parties. The pre-party was a really relaxed and casual atmosphere. As an artist at a con, this is great because there is no way to talk to people at the actual convention. A comic convention is work, especially for those of us who pay to be there. With travel, table, and product costs, we can't afford to just stand around all day and talk to friends. And when i do talk to other creators, i try not to them too long because i know they're trying to do business as well. But the events before and after are really good at giving us a really relaxed atmosphere to just chat.

Though a great chance to talk to people, these events can really put things into a unique perspective. STAPLE! was not a Total Perspective Vortox, but it did give me a decent view of things. What i saw was a real clear indication of where I stand in the grand scheme of this industry. Though i was able to make some money at this show and had a good time with people, i could not shake this feeling of being out of place. It was as if i was a high school freshman who somehow got mixed in with the career professionals. This was especially poignant during dinner. Granted, these guys probably felt as awkward towards me as i do towards them. However, that really doesn't negate the fact that i recognize who they are and have seen their work on a national level; whereas a lot of times i feel like a glorified tracer. It's a real disheartening and crushing feeling; one that really followed me throughout the night. Combine that with getting lost going to the venue, the music being just a bit too loud, and the heat, i just wasn't in the right mindset to hang out at the after party. So i would like to apologize to everyone at the live art show for my distracted attitude towards you. I was the the point where i just wanted to go home and talk to a friend. I was able to alleviate some of that by hanging out with my sister (it was her birthday as well). Sadly the bar didn't carry any Irish cream so we couldn't do car bombs, but i think the shots of tequila were a good substitute. And finally getting on an art board helped for some reason. I didn't bring my A or B game and i was really struggling with it, but it was an odd cleansing process anyways.

For me, i feel that STAPLE! was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory. I had a good time with friends, i was able actually make some money, and i got to hang out with my sister for a bit. But what lingers around longer are the negatives. That sucks, but it's just how things roll in this industry. Conventions are weird beasts to handle. Sometimes they're great and do what you want them to do; sometimes they smell the fear on you and will go for the throat.

STAPLE! 2009 (March 7)

[image: table map for STAPLE! 2009]

The band is hitting the road this weekend (March 7) for our first out of city convention of the year in Austin, TX. STAPLE! the Independent Media Expo has been running strong for a few years now. Their main focus is the indy scene; so there will be a bunch of new and cool books you won't be able to find otherwise. I personally love this show because of the environment that it has going for it. It's a small show about the books and the creators. It's not about finding limited collectibles, seeing Hollywood stars, or standing in line for an hour for a Jim Lee autograph; STAPLE! is about the love of comics.

Again this year they're hosting a live art auction at Red7 after the con featuring DJs and a performance by nerdcore hip-hop artist Terp2it; the show will be benefitting a local community radio station called KOOP!. The show last year was freaking awesome; the music was great and the vibe was totally laid back and hip. So if you're in the area, come on out; plus it's my sister's birthday and apparently she's never had an Irish Car Bomb. I plan to fix that as soon as I can.

Check out Space-Gun Studio in our first interview on Fanboy Video! This video is from last year's STAPLE! event as we were putting ourselves through the paces. Thanks to Scott and Luke for giving us the time to be pro on film. Don't mind the hat, i thought it looked cool.

Wizard World Texas: Aftermath

[image: my convention painting that was done at the table. Watercolor, gouache, silver paint, and ink on 300 Lanaquarelle.]

The Wizard World tour retires this year with it's final stop in Texas, and what a stop it was. Conventions have been a real drain on the finances: table, travel, food, product. Product is going to take a while to cover, but for the first time ever i covered expenses (table, travel, food, small purchases). I'm typically the one that makes the least amount of money if i make money at all. This is partially due to the fact that i am a dog zodiac so i tend to wander off. But as Evan said "We know we did good because Luan was actually at the table for 95% of the time. Can you imagine what would happen if it was 98%? I don't even want to think about it." It was that good; and the show was pretty good to all of us. We've been doing shows together as a studio for little over a year now, and i think we've done a lot over that year. I think this next year will be a good indication as to where this will be progressing to; and it's been a really good haul so far.

Wizard World Texas is one their newest additions to the tour and it wasn't bought from a previously successful convention (a la Chicago, Philly, LA). So they had to build this show from the ground up, trying to figure out what the market here wants. It's been an interesting evolution over the years, so there are always rumblings of them not having a show the next year. Their first year here they brought along the big booths and heavy names (Lee, Silvestri, Turner, etc), treating it like one of their big media shows like LA or Chicago. They had artist alley tucked away in another room, dimly lit and unadvertised. I think now they understand that people here in Texas don't want the big media glitz. There's a certain pride here of not being like LA or NYC: things here are bigger, stronger, and more easy-going. Over the years artist alley has grown immensely; and they have kept it to small press and independent artists. Gone are the models, small retailers (for the most part), and media people. It is truly an Artist Alley. The main reason i made the money that i did was because i had original paintings. Studio-mate Evan had the same experience and i think Tommy Castillo did bang-bustah his originals as well. People are there to look for convention sketches and original art. I think that's why the live art scene here has been booming lately.


[image: my live art painting for Heroes4Heroes Fundraiser. Watercolor, gouache, and ink on 300 Lanaquarelle.]

Heroes4Heroes had their third annual live art fundraiser on Saturday, and i think it went awesome. It was pretty cool to work along side with such great talent; the Space-Gun Kru ran really strong and turned a few heads. I feel that I need to bring my "A++" game to these sorts of events, this one in particular. The audience for the most part not as local as the other shows that we do. I feel that i am not only representing myself but my studio and the Dallas art community as a whole. Over the course of the last few years, I have identified myself as a Space-Gunner and a proud Dallas artist. So at this annual show, I feel that I need to step up and show that Dallas isn’t just a city of cowboys and corporate offices. There is a real thriving art community here, and we rock it pretty hard.

They had more and a traditional English Open Auction this time, with a stage for the pieces and the bidders were seated in front of the stage. It went fairly well for the most part; though i think how the pieces go up for auction could be more streamlined as a few pieces were forgotten along the back wall for hours. Understandably, they want to get the headlining guests up first/early as their pieces would carry more weight; but a few great pieces got less love than they deserved as the night got late. Though this is their third show and it’s only once a year so there will be kinks here and there to iron out as they find a system that works for them.

This con was a great way to end out the convention tour. The art show was awesome; the convention was really good to us overall. We all left with contacts and money in our pockets; there’s not much more you can ask for. It’s a great way to wrap up one year of shows. Thanks to the Wizard World staff, they were friendly in correspondence and in person as well. We’ve never had any issues with anyone at these shows. Special kicks out to Dave Hopkins and Paul Milligan for being cool convention neighbors; to Tommy Castillo for throwing down some veteran advice on me; and to Terry Parr and Amber May for just being cool and even shelling my pinup book at their table. And a huge thanks goes out to ArtLoveMagic for having the Space-Gun Kru be part of their setup at the live art show.

And now to find real work and replace all the art that I sold.

Photos
Wizard World Texas
Heroes4Heroes Live Art Fundraiser

New Paintings

This blog has gone too long without art. So here are some paintings that i have done recently over the last month or so. Sitting at home looking for work gives me a lot of free time to draw. Most of these will stay as is, some may get changed up between now and whenevers.

Elvis Costello: NYC
Ink and acrylics on 15x20 matt board (the rectangles are
photos that were already pasted to the board).

Painted Helen: NYC
Ink and acrylics on 15x20 matt board (the rectangles are
photos that were already pasted to the board).

Viet: Political (GIFT/NA)
Ink and acrylics on 15x20 matt board (the rectangles are
photos that were already pasted to the board).

These are ink wash, watercolor, gouache, and some metallic paint on 5x8 Cresent hot press. The Delirium piece was a gift to a friend.

Wizard World Texas & Live Art Show

[image: Wizard World Texas Location Map]

Well, with the Zuda competition and the lessons therein behind us, it's time to move on to other things. This weekend is the annual Wizard World Texas show in Arlington. This year they are co-promoting it with Texas Fearfest, so there is a fairly eclectic guest list. From Terry Moore to Corey Feldman to Dallas's own Vinnie Paul of Pantera. Weird, no? The dates for next year's show is TBA while all the other cities have their dates pretty solid; so it doesn't really bode well for the convention. I would be sad to see it go as it is THE biggest comic show here in Dallas. Co-promoting with FearFest is a pretty good move on their part. Texas has a pretty damn big horror scene for whatever reason. We'll see how it pans out for them.

The Space-Gun Kru will be set up at 2520 and 2530 a little off-center of the artist alley. We'll have a full spread of books and art for you guys; even with two tables between the four of us it's getting pretty packed really fast. I'll have my Gun Gals | Blade Babe pinup book and prints as well as the paintings that i have been doing recently. This is also an opportunity for you local folks to pick up a copy of Synesthetic for yourself.

Saturday night, Novemeber 8th at 7PM Heroes4Heroeswill be hosting a live art show at the Sheraton Hotel Arlington. Along with a myriad of pros that will be arting live, the Space-Gun Kru will be getting our art on with ArtLoveMagic and other local artist. Heroes4Heroes is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works directly with members of the United States Military, corporations, and the general public to provide portable media to active troops in order to boost morale and keep our men and women in uniform culturally tuned-in. They gather, organize, and send entertainment material such as comic books, DVDs, CDs, books, magazines, MP3 players, and game systems to our Heroes. This is a great organization that is doing their part to support the troops without having a political agenda. The live art is a free event with cash bars; what more do you need? So come on out, support out troops, and watch some wicked art get done live!

Fanboy Video Recap


Slideshow


Wizard World Texas
Arlington Convention Center
November 7-9, 2008
Tables 2520 and 2530

Heroes4Heroes Live Art Show
Saturday, November 8th
7pm Free Admission
Sheraton Hotel @ Arlington Ball Park

The Ending Sound

Well, it was a long and actually hellish month, but the Zuda competition was officially over today at noon. After twenty-five long days, we ended up in third place. We took some pretty hard hits from the community. Doug got his story-telling ripped on and Evan's style really rubbed some people the wrong way; and i was pretty much ignored for being a simple letterist. Though it wasn't all bad news bears all month. We also got some real support from the community and even some pros as well; people were willing to engage in actual discussions over the comic and we all also got some real praise on each of our parts. And we held on to first place for half of the competition; and we dropped to only third place. And I am soundly proud of that as we did very minimal advertising. It was mainly a grassroots campaign on our end. In total, we spent about thirty dollars in internet ads and about ten bucks in flyers. Our marketing was emails, facebook, myspace, and message boards. That is probably why we didn't win, but i'm okay with that. I knew that the marketing is a huge part of their competition model, but going through it gave me a real understanding on how it works. And I'm not entirely sure how comfortable i am with that fact. Their number system is also really interesting; I'm going to see if i can get how many actual votes we got. I'm interested in seeing how those numbers compare to our views/favorties and emails blasts. I may be going through this again with my other studio-mates so I want to be better informed on what worked and what didn't. Ideally, being able to see what each action did to our numbers would be the best; but i'll probably have to settle for what i get from Zuda/DC.

All in all, it was a pretty damn stressful experience. I got a lot of love and a lot of hate as well. It was some harsh lessons about this industry. Nothing new per say, but a nice rehash of old lessons of life: a lot of hard work sometimes gets paid back with bupkis; and money talks. I grew up in a world of critiques; that's part of how i grow and learn. However, on this sort of platform, it's not critiques but reviews. Some reviews are very sound and in depth conducted by people who understand the craft and have valid points. Others are done by fans who only know what they like and will not understand anything outside of that. It's like dealing with an art director vs a client: one will tell you why something doesn't work and call you an idiot, the other will not like the shade of blue you're using and call you an idiot. Welcome to the internet I suppose. As Doug said, it's going to happen; especially when you're in the spotlight on such a large scale.

Though for pluses, you can meet some real genuine people and you do get your name out there on a national/global scale. And to a certain degree, you can see who among your friends really support you and understand the crazy amount of hard work you put into these projects. But that's a whole other subject; one that i would be willing to discuss over beers if any of you would like. Also, make sure you fully read the contract (which they freely posted on their website) so you know exactly what you're getting into. It is DC comics, so it's not a creative owned project as other webcomic deals. But they do have clauses for reversion of rights. Read over it, and if you're really serious about it, get a lawyer to read over it as well. It is a legally binding contract and it's always a good idea to have someone look over it for you.

And finally, serious thanks for all the support everyone showed. It's been along and turbulent journey; and i really do appreciate the words of encouragement and the faith you guys have in me in trying to make it in this industry. Thanks for believing in me and I will do my very best to make you guys proud. Special thanks to Titan Comics for letting us leave flyers in the shop, and to Zeus Comics who even bag-stuffed them for us. Both shops always show some real support for the local scene; so go show them some love.

Zuda: Hammer Sound

[image: banner ad for Hammer Sound; illustration by Evan Bryce, design by myself]

This month's Zuda competition features Hammer Sound written by Doug Wagner and drawn by Evan Bryce with myself on the letters. It’s a great step in the right direction for us; it could be the door that opens up a lot of opportunities for us. Though I’m going to need your help in opening that door. As I said, Zuda is a monthly competition. So I need everyone to go to Zuda, register (it’s free and the don’t spam you), and give your vote/favorite to Hammer Sound. If we win, we get to develop the story further and get PAID for it! What is up now is essentially a pilot; winners become a continuous update with a printed collection at the end of the story. And I can’t stress how cool that would be.

Hammer Sound
Zuda Page
Media Page
Facebook Event
MySpace Group

Hammer Sound has been in development for a while; Doug approached Evan about working on something together after being inspired by one of Evan’s sketches. Evan's art has come a long way since they started talking about the project. He’s worked really hard to get where he is and to help him with this latest project is a real honor. Zuda is a branch of DC comics, so this is a big deal/opportunity. Or it could be, it’s a fairly new program so a lot of it is untested. But the very fact that the story got picked is an indication of where his talents are going. And Doug’s writing is the hyper-fuel that feeds that fire.

As for my small part in this, I’ve really developed a kick out of lettering comics. There’s a real, gratifying challenging is trying to enhance the story without being too overt about it. Good lettering will go unnoticed, bad lettering will glare at you with the evil i. It’s taking all that I learned as a good designer and applying them to a field that I loved since childhood. Comic book lettering doesn’t have to be “comic book-y”, there’s no reason to not apply the same finesse that is used for high-end design concepts. At the core of it, it’s about using type to rely and enhance a message to the audience.

A big influence on this project was Todd Klein’s run on The Sandman. The different lettering for the characters really added to the their personalities and became a real integral part of the character’s identity. I wanted the robot to have it’s own particular identity; I hear his voice as a modulated British accent. Though I wanted to keep the corners of his word boxes round because I find him rather endearing and softhearted. Jonah’s size and shape demanded something with a heavy timber; so his typeface is a bit bolder than the rest. On the other end, I hear Polly as a soft, cute whisper. So there is a bit more open space in her balloons and the type is slightly smaller. Nothing that would be noticeable right away, but hopefully just enough for you to sense it when you read over the text. All the balloons are set at a small transparency; I think word balloons should set back a bit. Using start white makes them pop too much, hence the small decrease in opacity.

Granted, I’m probably one of the few people who put this much thought into lettering a comic. But that’s okay, I’m weird like that.

So GO VOTE FOR US~!

ArtLove 10.04.2008 Recap

[image: acrylic, ink, and others by the Space-Gun kru with assists from the lovely Emily and Erin]

Another great show at ArtLoveMagic this weekend. The collaborative arting went well enough, though the frantic pace kind of burned us out fairly quickly. It was our first time trying something like that, so there were some lessons to be learned. I think because we busted the paints out at the get-go, doing anything else was difficult due to dry time. Things got a bit muddy in some of the pieces for the same reason. We were able to salvage all the boards though; some were more successfully than others. But overall each of the six boards turned out pretty good. A few lessons learned, which is always a good thing.

Overall, it was a good show. My friend Erin rocked the open mic pretty hard. I’ve been bugging her to come out to one of these things ever since I ran across her musician MySpace page. She was a design classmate of mine from college; though I don’t think she was ever happy with the program. She was good, but you can tell it really wasn’t her thing. She graduated though, which says a lot about her visual talent and drive. But she told me she hasn’t designed a single thing since graduation. So when I discovered that she was extremely talented musically, I knew right away that this was what she really wanted to do. She got a really positive response to her performance, the second time she ever performed live. She seems much happier now, and I’m so happy for her. It’s always good to have a ‘safe’ fall back plan in terms of careers, especially in these creative industries. But you have to push your dreams and passions as far as you can. There is no reason not to, especially for people in our position: we’re young and stupid with no real serious responsibilities (house payments, children, serious relationships). This is our time to push forward and see how far we can go before it all burns out.

And mad, MAD props to my friend/cousin Nam, who was our merch-man as we painted. He was also our photographer for the evening as he was playing with his new camera. Photos can be found on my FlickR account.

ArtLoveMagic: 10.04.2008

The Space-Gun Kru (Evan Bryce, Jake Ekiss, Matthew Warlick, and
myself) will be doing some live art at the Mokah Lounge & Gallery this Saturday, October 4th in Deep Ellum. We'll be doing some collaborative pieces and doing some artistic musical chairs so it'll be interesting to see what we end up with. Also, we'll have on hand copies of the Synesthetic Anthology, a 140-page anthology that we put together with 20+ creators from the DFW area. Some of the other creators will be there as well so you can get a fat stack of autographs. We'll also have our prints, sketchbooks, and original paintings/drawings for sale as well. I will have copies of "Gun Gals | Blade Babes" there too for those of you who want to check that out. Come on out and check out the show; it's a great venue with a real positive vibe. I can't mention enough how much i really enjoy these ArtLove events. The atmosphere is really awesome; it’s a celebration of art on the street level without the highbrow artiste attitude. I'm also trying to convince my wonderfully talented friend Erin Gayden to rock the mic, so it's looking to be a great night.

Check out the my photos from previous events on my Flickr account.

Official release from ArtLoveMagic:
ArtLoveMagic presents
Open Mic and Live Art Show
Saturday Night October 4th

Join us for an inspiring night of art, music, and poetry. Live artists will be painting and drawing while special guests like poet Michael Guinn and musicians Faded Fools will entertain from the mic. Bring your poetry and music and share your light. Artists and performers will be selling original works and prints.

Mokah Lounge & Art Gallery in Deep Ellum
2803 Taylor Street, Dallas

8pm - midnight
$7 Admission
$5 BYOB

The ArtLoveMagic collective puts together amazing live experiences that tear down the walls between artist and audience.

ArtLoveMagic Website
ArtLoveMagic MySpace
ArtLoveMagic for your iPhone