STAPLE! 2010 (March 6)

[image: table map for STAPLE! 2010]

Space-Gun Studios is hitting the road again for this year STAPLE! the Independent Media Expo in Austin, TX. It is a great indy show with no dealers; it is all creators and publishers. There isn't a panel for the cast of Lost or a screening of The Ghost Whisperer; STAPLE! is about the love of comics. Space-Gun Studios will be sitting at tables 28-30 with our books from ICBW (if you haven't picked one up already). Sitting with us will be my girlfriend Ruby Caston, she'll have her sketchbook on hand for sale. I'll have copies of Gun Gals|Blade Babes: Vol 2 on hand, not many for this particular print run though. Hopefully I'll be able to get some prints done for the show too.

This year's afterparty will be held at Shangri La off of 6th Street. The STAPLE! afterparties are always great with music and live art; and all the proceeds from the the show will be benefitting a local community radio station called KOOP! Radio. Unfortunately with the location right off of 6th Street on a Saturday night, finding a place to park will be an adventure. Remember to bring some cash for parking.

You can check out my photos from our previous trips: 2009 | 2008

STAPLE! Facebook Page
STAPLE! 2010 Facebook Event

California Trip / Blizzcon 2009

[This is a mix of a recap of my trip to California and a convention report of sorts for Blizzcon 2009. Fall 09 was not a great time for me and I didn't get to finishing this post for awhile. If you are just looking for BlizzCon information, look for the bold "Blizzcon"below. Pictures from my trip can be found on my Flickr: California and Blizzcon.]

In the middle of August of 2009, I was able to spend some time in California with my friends for Blizzcon 2009. It was a great trip and something really welcomed at that time. A lot had been falling apart one right after another; and so it turns out taking some time out to collect myself was something I really needed. Sometimes stepping away for just a bit to catch your breath is necessary. I wasn't going to go because I couldn't get a ticket for Ruby, but she insisted. She told me that I needed the fun and that I should go; this is why I have such an awesome girlfriend. So in exchange she got my swag bag from the con. I also owe the trip to Nam and Kim, who helped with my way there and the Blizzcon ticket. They are the reason why I had such a great time out there.

The trip was awesome. [Funny Note: our plane to Cali was FULL of Blizzcon attendees. I saw dozens of WoW apparel, and even the senior couple in front of us were talking about their paladins. It was hilarious). Nam's cousin Kim let the group of us crash with her for the week. I hadn't seen her in years; back when she use to call me Looney Tunes (for reason I'll go into if you ask me, but the short of it is that people use to pronounce my name "Loon"). So being able to hang out with her was pretty sweet. Kim and our friend Nancy have been out in Cali for a while so it was great being having people who knew all the great places to eat around town. They took us to some of the best eateries I have ever been to; I want to go back just hang with Kim and Nancy and eat all day. It was that amazing.

Kim lead us on a tour of the Blizzard Campus. It was amazing; it is the ULTIMATE workplace. The environment was pretty casual but had a real sense of high, professional standards. Because we were with Kim, we got a slightly different tour of the buildings than the regular press people. It was really personal and we got a chance to really check out the place. The creative areas were exactly the environments I dream of working in. Being able to see these workplaces actually exists really helped my spirits and determination. It was a great month for seeing various workspaces and how they reflect the personalities that are involved (see Atlanta Road Trip! post). You can tell that the company works really hard but also has a lot of fun. Kim later showed us the DVD of their company-wide Rock Band competition. It wasn't a little competition in a break room. I'm talking outdoor stage, lights, fog machines, and costumes of a competition. Even the president of the company was in one of the bands. Seriously an awesome company.

The real highlight of the tour was meeting Trent Kaniuga. Kim had gotten wind that I am a big Kaniuga fan and led us through the maze of the campus to find Trent. He has been a big influence on my art style. Anyone who seems me draw can see it. Several times someone would look at my art and ask "Have you ever heard of a comic called CreeD?"; it's that obvious. I had brought all my CreeD books with me just in case I had the chance to run into him. I hadn't expected Kim to take us by his desk. I'm naturally an introvert so it was really difficult to not have it become an episode of the Chris Farley Show. Trent was really nice though and put up with my fanboy-ism. He's seems to be a really humble guy; and was nice enough to give us some of his mini-comics (i say mini-comics because of the size, these were full color books on some really slick paperstock) and sign my small stack of books. He told us of his first convention at the age of 16 or so. If I remember correctly, the convention was at a mall (I KNOW!) and his publisher was dressed up as Spider-Man trying to get people to come over to their table. He said it was horrible but amusing to look upon. I hope I didn't come across as too much of a fanboy.

As for the Blizzcon itself, it was a freaking madhouse. I dubbed it LineCon as there was huge line for EVERYTHING. However I will give it to the Blizzard and the convention center that lines were really organized and everything really moved at a brisk pace. Example: to get your pass for the con, they had people checking paperwork throughout the line so when you get into the front it was all easy peasy, click, scan, boom! We never stood still for more than a minute. Except for opening day. The line to get in for Day One wrapped around the building. I heard people were there since pre-dawn (doors opened i think at 11). I'm so glad we got to crash with Kim in her hotel room. Finding a place to park would have been a nightmare.

The con was awesome and HUGE. The space was epic; which was needed to house the few thousand attendees, the booths, and the platoons of computers. Because of how the convention center is setup, everything was really easy to find. You really felt welcomed by Blizzard and they really showed their love for the fans. The panels were great for fans of any of the various franchises, the gaming areas were super sweet, and for the most part the attendees were pretty laid back. You can tell a lot of them were there as hardcore WoW players. But we were eagerly awaiting to get our hands on the Diablo demo. We went through the line several times, trying out all the classes. The Starcraft demo left me craving for more; and the WoW: Cataclysm demo reminded me why the game is so damn good. Our swag bag came with a little bottle of hand-sanitizer, which we used liberally after every demo.

Security at the show was pretty annoying, but nothing like the airport. They just had to check you bag every time you entered; but it wasn't an involved search. Just a quick visual scan and off you went. Oddly enough they didn't allow you to bring in drinks; even bottles of soda that you bought INSIDE of the convention hall. You could see the soda machine from the security checkpoint. I asked one of the security guys about it; he just shrugged and said he knew it was silly but it's a rule of the convention center. Luckily they had cash bars all over the place, which incidentally were cheaper than the hotel bar.

The concert was awesome and through the roof Crazy Train. People were already sitting down for the concert (which starts at 4PM) at noon. The Artists Formally Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain (aka TAFKAL80ETC) were great. They're an in-house band made up of Blizzard employees; which includes senior art director Samwise Didier on vocals and company president Mike Morhaime on bass. I only tell you this because it was surprising how many people didn't know who these people are. I mean, c'MON, they only make the games you love so much and play EVERYDAY. And how awesome is it for a bunch of game designers with essentially their garage band open up for the Ozzy Ozborn himself? The Ozzy show was a pure bedlam. They tried to keep the fans out of the aisles but the power of the Prince of Darkness drove the crowd to rush to the stage. The security just gave up and it was on from there. I was able to get about 20 feet from the stage, but it was like trudging through mud: just wet and smelly. The wet wasn't just the fans, Ozzy was throwing buckets of water at the audience. I had to leave. We left to another hall to watch it on the massive projection screens there. Ozzy put on a great show, but I think he was a bit thrown off by the fans. I mean, gamers are great people, but they do not have the absolute rabid ferocity of pure metal heads. It was wonderful show though and Ozzy can still rock the mic. He completely owns the stage.

Overall it was an [Awesome Con]. It was very well organized and you can tell they are having as much fun as the fans. The con was also filled with company swag, not only from Blizzard but from all the vendors as well. I brought home a whole goodie bag of stuff. Unfortunately everyone else wanted the same swag so there were a lot of lines for swag that had to be won via some sort of carnival game. If you are a fan of any of the Blizzard franchises, you should find a way to get to this con when they have it again.

So you want to be a freelancer?

Some of us freelance while in school, some of us freelance on the side of our main jobs, and some of us freelance full time. I freelanced full time for three and a half years; and I did it even longer if you count the side gigs I did during my college years. I’ve recently aquired a full-time position as a production artist so it looks like my corporate freelance days are over. So as I work through a whole other set of rules and proceedures, I wanted to write about some of my experiences as a freelancer and leave some tips that I've picked up over the years.

One of the main difference so far between working full-time and freelancing is actually social. As a freelancer, people are fleeting. Names are forever temporary; more than likely you’ll only deal with a small number of people at any given time. For the most part, I was always assigned to a single designer or art director. Most of my contact with the company was through this one person. I do the work, hand it off, and it evaporates somewhere into the company. It’ll come back magically with red marks from various hands from clandestine meetings that I never saw. This means I never see much of the company past the creative department. That would change once you get into long term assignments; but for the most part, onsite gigs will fall between one day to a month.

Parking is always a fun adventure for a new gig. Sometimes it's fairly easy, just a big parking lot with some reserved spots. Other times they ask you park in one area and stay out of the "Visitor" spots. And the most fun times is when the gig is downtown, where finding a spot is all sorts of headaches. I try to take the DART rail when it was a downtown gig; most places are within walking distance from one of the stops. So on your first day, be sure to ask someone if you parked in the right area.

Dress codes will change from place to place. Some are very casual, some are a bit more business. For the most part you won't be needing a suit and tie as a freelancer. One of my agencies was fairly consistant with informing me of the dress code. However, if I don't have that information up front, I'd default to a polo and slacks both usually in black. I always wore my Vans instead of your usual business shoes. I just made sure they were always of a solid dark color. I never had anyone comment on them. I always kept myself fairly well groomed; nothing too outrageous. After the first day you can assess what the office policies are.

Over the years I developed a “freelance bag”. It was a dedicated bag, separate from my art bag, that I took to all my gigs. I added and subtracted items over the years; but anything that I put into the bag stayed in the bag. It just became a hassle to try to remember to take stuff out or put stuff in constantly. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: You everything you bring into a gig, you have to take with you at the end of the day. There was one occasion where I got an email after I left the office that the gig is over. I never got a chance to get back to the office for my stuff. And honestly, offices have the gamut of different personalities. You never know who's going to be slim shady; so only leave behind stuff that you feel you can easily replace.

Mouse: This is really important. You never know what sort of mouse you’ll be assigned when you come in. Sometimes the scroll button doesn’t work; or it will only scroll one way. For a while I kept getting mice with an actual ball instead of an optical. When you are on assignment for a single day, it’s much easier to just have one handy than try to find a spare one from the tech guy.

Notepad: You’ll be taking a lot of notes; and I mean a lot of notes. UserIDs, PWs, server addresses, file locations, phone numbers, extensions, meeting rooms, etc. I use a small 6x9, top spiral bound lined notebook. Finding scrap paper for notes can be a real hassle. Best to have one ready.

A Good Ballpoint Pen: Office pens are horrible and usually out of ink. The ones you find around the office are usually the scraps because the office manager is strict with handing out office supplies. I recommend a ballpoint because it can right on most surfaces and won't bleed through the paper. You’ll be filling out form for job spec and initialing proofs on all sorts of paper so it’s best to have something universal. Plus ballpoint ink will not bleed if it gets wet.

Highlighter: At every place I’ve worked, changes were always marked up on a printout. So i would mark the changes I did as I went along. Highlighter are the best for this because you can still read any text after you marked it. I do not recommend getting a yellow one. Yellow highlighters don't stand out on white; pink or blue really pops on the page.

Jump Drive/External HD: As a freelancer sometimes you don’t have access to email, some servers, etc. This is the best way to get your files around the office. You won’t always find a blank CD/DVD to burn to. Plus it’s a handy way for you to carry around your reference files and preferences. Though remember to double check with your AD about any stock photography/patterns that you would like to use. This include fonts; only use the fonts that they have loaded. Companies have a responsibility to show proof of purchase for any stock/font used in their designs. I only bring with me textures and patterns that I created myself.

Hand Sanitizer: The office is like kindergarten: it’s a freaking petri dish of germs. You’re in a small enclosed environment for hours at a time. Bathrooms, printer stations, etc. are used by everyone in the office. And as a freelancer you don’t get paid sick-days.

Headphones: My philosophy with headphones is the bigger the better. You’ll have audiophiles tell you that it’s about directional speakers or sound proofing or whatever. Putting on huge headphones is the office signal for “leave me alone”. There’s a lot going on in the office around you: meetings, office chatter, personal calls, TV talk, etc. As a freelancer, most of the time you are there to help out an understaffed department/team. So more than likely you’re going to be slammed with work. Being able to block out the world to rock and roll on InDesign files is probably in your best interest. Plus it’ll come in handy when you get stuck next to talkative co-worker. Ug.

Cash: I’m talking actual cash, dollah dollah bills, ya'll. I carry a small handful of change in my bag for the vending machines. Being able to grab a snack or a drink is always a good idea. A few $1 won’t hurt either.

Traveler’s Mug: Most offices will have some coffee around for free. One gig even had a free soda fountain in their break room. At the very least, all offices will have a water fountain. But they won’t always have cups for you.

Badge Holder: I’m talking about the one with a clip, preferably one that is retractable. If you do get a badge, two things are pretty likely. One: with security awareness on the rise, you’ll need to have it visible at all times. Two: you’ll need to scan it to get in and around the building. Having it on a retractable clip is easier than having it in your pocket or around your neck.

Tablet: If you can swing having one with you, I'd say do it. You'll never know when you'll be ask to do an illustration or a retouch on a photo. Having the tablet will make this much easier. You'll be able to grab the drivers from the website at any time. Whether or not you'll have access to install them is another story.

File Folder: Handy to keep all your freelance paperwork together like timesheets, NDAs, office policies, etc. Anything you sign, ask for a copy. Your paperwork is your own business, and you'll have to look after yourself. One freelance agency that I used had their own timesheet/invoice so I kept a few copies in there. On the actual folder I wrote the agency's main number and fax. Every office has different internet security, I never know whether or not I'll be able to get into my personal email to get those numbers.

Being able to handle yourself well and working at your best is really important as a freelancer. And the best way to do that is to be prepared. You performance on any given day will determine the likelihood of getting called back in the future. Plus the design community is actually very small. Having ADs and HR speak highly of you to industry friends will be a great help to your career and bank account.

ICBW: The Inside Story

[Photos can be found on my Flickr account and the Breaking Comics Facebook page. Feel free to tag yourself and your book on the Fb photos. NOTE: this posting was created a while back, I thought I had posted it before. I guess not.]

My last post was the very beginning of Indy Comic Book Week and I think it would be appropriate to pay it off with an insider's recap of sorts. ICBW started out with a flyer made by Kyle Latino and his concept of Deadline '09. It got passed from one creator to another before it reached us at Space-Gun Studios. Matt really jumped on the idea and bought the ICBW domain; and I took it upon myself to write up a posting for it. Though hesitant because we were essentially swiping Kyle's idea for Diamond's Skip Week, we moved forward as fast and hard as we could due to the amount of time we had. (Thankfully we were able to contact Kyle and he was actually happy that we were doing something with his idea. So much thanks to Kyle for letting us run on our own with this event.)

I was in California for BlizzCon at the time with friends including Nam and Kim, both of whom i give mighty and big thanks for helping me take the trip. And much thanks to Ruby who essentially made me go have fun. I'll try to get a recap for that trip at some point. Anyways, when the idea of ICBW was born, I was sitting on the floor at the coffee table with my laptop (given to me by my lovely girlfriend). The laptop isn't setup for work so I had nothing loaded on it in regards to graphics and fonts. I was lucky enough to remember that we had one of our projects still on the server; so then I had to wait for the 500MBs to download. While the zip file downloaded, I was trying to find the right words for the post, help Nam with dinner, play with the lovable dog, and come up with an idea for a graphic. I'm surprised it came out as well as it did.

The entry was posted and it was off to the races. The blog entry had a bigger reach than I had expected and the twitter hashtag started to spread. Paul was elected to come up with a logo, Matt worked up a website and found someone to do a proper press release for us, and Jake and I went to talk with Jeremy, the owner of Titan Comics here in Dallas. We met up with him for a brunch of sorts and this is where we got tricked, TRICKED i say! We went into the brunch hoping for two things: contact information for the indie friendly DFW shops, and an idea of what the retailers would need from us (as ICBW and creators). What we left with as a massive list of stores across the nation and various contacts for distributors, sales reps, and retail sites to send our press release. In that one talk over breakfast foods, we suddenly had a LOT of people to contact and a much wider scope to contend with.

At this point ICBW essentially turned into a tag-team match. During these four months we all had other projects to handle outside of running ICBW. I had just gotten the script for an educational comic that I was hired to illustrate; and I had a massive amount of pages to letter for Jake and Matt. Matt was doing side gigs to make the bills and he also had to finish up his ICBW book "Senryu". Jake wrapped up his educational comic, do ANOTHER book for them, and then immediately had to finish his script for "Solomon Azua" to begin production. As each of us tagged out to work, the others held down the fort as best as we could. It was pretty fast-paced and hectic four months with high levels of stress. There was a few moments were one of us played the role Ricky Morton, but we somehow got the hot tag and kept the momentum going. We all eventually finished our projects and were able to hit the triple dropkick on the final month of promotion.

We broke up the time leading up to ICBW into three different segments; each segment had a different target market: creators, retailers, and fans. First we talked to creators who were interested in releasing their books for ICBW. This was mainly done through blog posts, twitters, and forum postings. Our goal here was to get everyone signed up for the blog and start posting stuff from their books. This created the momentum we needed to approach the second group: retailers. Tony Shenton really helped us out by posting our press release to his list of retailers. The online activities on the blog and twitter gave retailers something to look at as a means of gauging interest. So when we contacted each shop directly, they had already heard of ICBW from somewhere. With both creators and shops signed up for ICBW, we had a louder voice to get the word out to the fans. At this point the various news sites and podcasts started their coverage of ICBW. We had sent out our press release much earlier. But we didn't see much movement in terms of news coverage; which was expected. We found that information going out to the fans really wouldn't be effective until about two weeks before the event. Trying to keep fans interested for three months would have been near impossible to maintain. So December got flooded with interviews, reviews, and podcasts.

Much like our experience with Synesthtic, we were dealing with a wide array of personalities, attention spans, and intentions. Most were pretty understanding of our focused goal for ICBW and were easy to communicate with. Others had their own agendas and were ignoring everything we were putting up on the web. The headaches were few but they were pretty loud. We did our best to keep these out of the public light as to not taint the positive vibe we were putting forth with the event. The independent market is already stereotyped with the jaded, elitist creator; and we didn't want to have that sort of image represent ICBW.

I think because of this professional and positive attitude we were able to really gain a lot of momentum. This is the outcome of a very important lesson: people will treat you with as much respect and professionalism as you put forward. And sometimes you can super pro about a situation but the other party will still come back at you with a foul attitude. With a project this big and wide in scope, there is a lot of diplomacy involved when dealing with difficult personalities. I find that if you never stoop to their level, they will have no legs to stand on in future arguments. This is especially true in today's email environment where any heated exchange can be recalled with a simple click. And with the nature of ICBW, nearly ALL of communications was done via email. It's a tough standard to hold sometimes, especially with ignorant and stubborn personalities. But I think it is worth it in the end. ICBW was fairly well received as an event and as a group. Hostilities were kept to a minimum, bridges were formed, and we all benefitted from it.

Indy Comic Book Week

The other week Diamond Comic Distributors announced to comic shops that Diamond will not be shipping comics on the last week of December. That means on Wednesday, December 30th, there will not be any new comics on the shelf of your local comic shop. There has been some talk about Diamond's firm hold on the comic distribution industry, but I want to look past that and look at the opportunity this creates for small publishers and local comic book creators. This is a perfect storm that opens up those new release shelves for the independent community. We don't have to be set aside to the small publisher shelf for once and can stand tall in the spots that the big, national publishers usually take. Not only is this an opportunity for creators, it's a great opportunity for the reader as well. Instead of picking up their usual books, they can check out something new, different, and most likely something local.

So, I'm putting forth this idea to the comic book community. Let's turn "No Comic Book Week" into "Indy Comic Book Week". Creators, let's step up and put those books together. This is our chance to show the world that our books and creations can stand strong on those shelves as well as any major publication. It doesn't have to be a 22-page full color affair; it can be a small black-and-white ashcan. But it has to be new, it has to be a product of your own creation, and it has to be awesome. Then talk to your local comic shops about putting your book on those shelves for the week of December 30th. Comic book readers, go to your local comic shops and tell them you want to see "Indy Comic Book Week" on the new release shelves. Tell them you want to see something new and different on those shelves. Comic book retailers, show some support for your local creators by filling those new release shelves with great indy books and hopefully open up your patrons to something new that they would not have read otherwise.

Let's get the news out there guys. For you twitters out there, use the hashtag #indycomicbookweek to show your comics, your progress shots, and your support for creators and comic shops. This is a great opportunity so let's step up and get it done!

Dallas Comic Con August 2009 Recap

[the Ruby enjoying her weekend working with Titan Comics;
more photos can be found on my flickr account]

Mark and Ben really knocked this one out of the freaking part. The show was craaaaazy big for what it usually is. The crowd was seriously huge, especially for such a small venue. The J. Scott line wrapped around the civic center; which unfortunately cut us off from the main vein of traffic. Nothing against DCC, it's just how the venue is built. There's no real good way to handle a line that big there. Hopefully these bigger shows will keep up and they'll be able to move up to a bigger center. With CAPE on hiatus and WWTX getting canceled, the DFW shows were pretty limited this year. Though DCC really stepped up to the plate and delivered an awesome show.

Overall the show was pretty good to the studio. I was hopped up on no sleep and Red Bull the first day so I was up and about more than I should have been. Sorry to anyone if i seemed a bit spastic; there were a few things i wanted to accomplish at the show so i was running all over the place. I really should learn to stay at my table more; i'd probably make more money and have a more productive convention. Though honestly my summer was wrecked due to trying to juggle so many things at once and scrambling for work. I'm just not use to handling so many different aspects of my life. So I did not get as much as I had wanted to for the show. I couldn't replenish my pinup books and business cards so I rolled in pretty empty handed sadly. I did get three new prints done, but they didn't really raise any eyebrows. It's great being listed as "guests" but when you're not a big enough name to draw in the crowd to you, you have to put yourself out there to meet the crowd. Though I HATE doing the hard sell to any convention goer cause I hate it when it is done to me. It's that fine balance; and honestly it's easy to promote the studio as a whole, but when it comes to promoting myself, i freaking suck at it.

DCC was in fact a good final show for the year, and it came at about the right time too. Once you start hitting the fall it's really time to wind down the traveling and wrap up the year. With that said, I am about to head out to BlizzCon in California within the hour. Thankfully it's not a working convention so hopefully i can just relax for the weekend and come back a bit refreshed. And i'm helping out Ruby with her mom's retail table at AnimeFEST. So busy. As the mantra goes, next month will be less busy. Sadly, it's always next month.

Atlanta Road Trip!

[The helpful GPS. Rest of the photos are up on my flickr account.]

This past weekend Jake, Evan, and I took a road trip to Atlanta, GA to visit Gaijin Studios and other friends in the area. It was a looong drive, about twelve hours. Good to know that i can take a trip with the guys and not kill them during the trip. Luckily I was able to sleep for most of it as with how short i am, i can lay down in the backseat somewhat comfortably. Which worked out on the way east as i was able to wake up about mid-day and do a shift in driving. We were on the road from dark skies pre-sunrise to dark skies post-sunset.

Everyone at Gaijin gave us a warm welcome and let us putter around the studio for a few days. I hope we didn't get in the way too much as they all had a lot of work to be done. Just being around them was a good vibe though and it helped bring up my spirits a bit. It's been a rough few months and being around that sort of environment really gives me a good outlook on things. We also visited Sam at Radical Axis, where they do Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies. Getting to meet Sam in person is really awesome. I wish we had more time to hang out with him but his weekend was pretty booked. Tom and Casey gave us a quick look at Studio Revolver which is a pretty wicked work space. They're great guys, it was nice to finally meet them in person. Being able to put a face to a screen name really helps my later years memory. Tony and Sarena hosted an afternoon lunch at their place out in the sticks. It wasn't too far, but for me that 's a lot of hills and trees. Seeing Tony's home work space was great; he has an awesome yet simple setup. It was a great afternoon of food and friends. Getting to know Karl a bit more was hilarious; though his description of Fallout 3 and its expansions will lead me into finally getting the game. Which will also lead me to doing NO work. Anyways, we also got to see Little 5 Points with Dwight from the podcast Sidebar. We met up with Swain briefly but something came up last minute. They're great guys with a wonderfully insightful podcast. We ate at The Vortex which offers absolute monsters of a burger. I think I'm still digesting it.

We did the figure drawing session that Gaijin hosts at their studio. It's a great thing to have done, especially with the guys there to give crits and input. For one the 20min poses, i didn't even bother drawing and watched Brian work. Just watching him work was educational, i just wish i was across the room to see Tony work too. If any of you are in the Atlanta area, you should be hitting this up every week. I am jealous that we don't have something like this in Dallas.

All in all, the trip was great. Seeing everyone's work space was awesome; but honestly what I found interesting was seeing a glimpse of their home life. All people talk about in this industry is the heavy work grind, deadlines, and editors. But what about the family, the kids, and the friends? Everyone i met this weekend i had already looked up to as a friend and professional, but now i have a newly gained respect for them for also being such wonderful and dedicated people. Having to work 14 hour days is grueling enough, but having to also be a husband and a father on top on this is an amazing feat. It's something that we rarely hear about and should really be aware of, especially for those of us trying to make it in this crazy industry.

Thanks to everyone I met on this trip, you made it freaking awesome!

Joker: Golden

Something i worked on during some slow times during the recent Dallas Sci-Fi Expo. I haven't unpacked my convention bag in a while so i have all my paints in it still from the last Heroes4Heroes live art show. Just mucking around, most of the paints were applied with my fingers as i really didn't have my proper brushes or water. Sadly the gold doesn't show up very well in the scan.

Acrylic paint, ink, prisma markers on bristol.

FCBD 2009: Recap

[image: the Kru at More Fun Comics in Denton; photo by Ruby Boiko Caston]

The Space-Gun Kru spent most of the day at More Fun Comics in Denton. It's an satellite store of Keith's comics; and use to be called Treasure Isle. I don't understand why they changed the name or didn't just call it Keith's Comics Denton, but whatevers. The shop is really cool though a bit small right now. They took over the spot on the square pretty fast so they only have the front half of the shop fully running. Which means we were pretty cramped in the back of the store. It's a good place for one or two people, but having the four of us was pushing it. Ah well, live and let learn i guess. It was a fun day; we spent it drawing up free head sketches for people and stayed dried as the skies opened up and freaking POURED down rain. We made some scrillah but not much. I didn't expect to anyways with the event being what it is. It was just a good excuse to get out of the house to do the comic thing that I love so much. Thanks to the guys at More Fun Comics for having us in store and thanks to everyone who dropped by.

Anyways, photos are up on my Flickr account; most of them taken by the lovely Ruby who was hanging out with us that day.

Art Byte and H4H/ALM Recap

Well, the Art Bytes forum at the DMA was an interesting evening. It was essentially a convention panel format with people chatting about our craft and whatnot. I really like what they're trying to accomplish and really do like how they branch out from the traditional mediums of art. Sadly there is a huge deficiency of time for the evening, especially when there are more than two creators on the panel. By the time it was my turn on the slides, we were already about an hour over the allotted time. That unto itself isn't a big issue as the room schedule was free until closing (midnight). But because the forum started fairly late (9:30), at about 10:30 people are leaving for the evening. Luckily most of my presentation was about technique and form so i was able to rush through it real quick; sadly it was presented to just a small handful of people, most of whom were still there because they help run the event. The event itself is pretty cool though; Hopkins is a great presenter and Kristian showed some neat benefits to Manga Studio. It's a great way to spend an evening; they just have a few things to iron out before it run smoothly each and every time. Though I was introduced to a great bar/grill called Snookies; good place to grab a drink and it has really good bar food.

[image: my painting from the Heroes4Heroes\ArtLoveMagic event; more pictures on my flickr account]

The Heroes4Heroes\ArtLoveMagic show was a good turnout for what it was; I honestly don't think it advertised as much as it could have been. I didn't see much outside of a few websites and the usual Space-Gun blasts; granted, I'm not on the Twitter so maybe that's how people did it. I was going into the show in a funny head-space due to a jacked up sleep schedule and other personal issues. I essentially woke up in the afternoon and had just enough time to do a quick posture layout on a board and pack art supplies before heading out the door. Things like that is really off putting and messes with the mojo. It's difficult to rev yourself up for these events sometimes. Yes, they're fun and it's about having a good time, but you don't want to completely phone them in. I want to bring my A-Game as much as I can as to represent myself as an artist and as a member of Space-Gun Studios. Typically I try to roll into these things with a very Jeff Bebe swagger and kick as much ass as I can. You can sometimes spot me before the event bouncing around trying to hype myself up for these things; as a natural introvert, i have to fight the urge to say "Fuck it" and go home. This is especially true for the more comic book related shows as the people there are more of my peer group; which makes it doubly more intimidating. However, once the show started up, I was able to rock on through the evening and produced a piece that I could actually be okay with. I'm hoping to do a second pass at my painting as I had forgotten my reference material at home and could not remember the 'pacifics of the costume. Highlight of the evening was getting nearly all the artists to jam out on a huge board that David from ALM brought. It was a blast; we even got Elizabeth Breitweiser (colorist for Skaar: Son of Hulk, Fallen Son: what if, and Captain America: Zero Point) to jump in on the board as well.

[image: the night's jam piece]

Overall, it was a good evening. Things started out slow for me, but I was able to ease into it eventually and was rocking by the end of the evening. I think this will be the last of the live art events that I'll be doing for a while. 2009 is looking to be an interesting year and honestly, i need to shift my focus on myself and my own work. I've been meaning to write something up about that; maybe next time.