A.I. Announcements for Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Greetings, Everyone! It’s been a few months since I’ve sent out an email update, and with all the springtime happenings going on I decided it was time to catch you up-to-date. Incidentally, there’s a bunch of new readers getting this email for the first time, so welcome!

As for those of you already subscribed to my RSS feed or keeping tabs on me via Myspace/Facebook you may have noticed I’ve been attending some shows lately. The next show coming up is the Motor City Comic Con, May 15-17th. For a recap of the other shows I’ve been at since the holidays, check out the links below.

Recent Event Recaps

• SPACE Recap – April 22nd, 2009
• MSU comics forum recap – March 30th, 2009
• Tails of Sparky – The release of a new Sparky book I contributed to.

TTFN!

E!

This is Mr. E! to Ground Control…

I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today…

For those of you who didn’t get the notice, I went to SPACE this last weekend. FYI, SPACE is the Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo, held in Columbus, OH each year. The last time I attended was in either 04’ or 05’—before all the $#@! in my life hit the proverbial fan—and this year (09’) was an awesome re-entry.

It began at 5am on Saturday with a bitchin’, four-hour road trip with my comic comrades from Lansing, Ryan Claytor, Jay Jaycot and Jonathon Gordon. Couldn’t ask for better company on a journey of this sort.

The show lasted from 10am-6pm on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday, and it was not only the best SPACE con I’ve ever attended, it was the most lucrative experience I’ve had at a convention to date.

Lightweight Setup

I experimented with a different setup this time, since the carpooling  posed distinct limitations on what we could collectively carry, and I think it may have helped in more ways than one. Instead of the heavy/bulky gridwall I’ve previously used to hang framed versions of my prints, I picked up a foam display from Staples and slapped the prints up with some double sided sticky tape.

Besides being lightweight and far easier to transport, it gave people a better view of the art. It’s a long way from perfect, but the nature of these shows is to constantly improve your game, so this time I think I met with success.

All-in-all it was a fun weekend. I got to reconnect with my buddy Steve Peters (creator of Sparky and Awakening Comics) and a whole host of other sequential artists–plus I met a lot of new folks—many of whom were attending SPACE  for the first time—huzzah!

Workin' on a Sparky Jam comic

Jammin'

Between promoting the Sponsorship Special, applying to SCAD, revising my site/portfolio, looking for work/grants/scholarships, dealing with the holidays and various other family responsibilities it’s been difficult to make much forward movement on my actual comics, but thanks to the prodding of Steve Peters I’ve popped out a few simple images of Sparky for some of his upcoming projects, so I though I’d share them.

Sparky Jam

This first one is the final panel to a jam comic with a variety of other artists; taken out of context it’s rather random, but once the whole comic is available you’ll get the idea.

Sparky Brown

This Charlie Brown version of Sparky I did for the cover of one of Steve’s upcoming books.

[View with PicLens]

This last one is part of another jam comic, but with a very interesting twist—every artist does three panels, based off of only seeing the previous three panels produced by the last artist. Nobody (except Steve) gets to see the whole thing until it’s completed. I was fortunate enough to be in the second place slot after a perfect setup by Max Ink, so I’m hoping this will snowball into an intriguing comic.

I’ll be sure to let you all know when these various images see print.