Thursday, September 06, 2012

Welcome Back... Or, Who Was I Again..?

Hi, my name is Rich Faber, and I'm an illustrator. This used to be where I regularly (or semi-regularly, anyway) posted my work (like some of the images sprinkled throughout this page), my thoughts, and other miscellanea, such as appearances (which I will soon talk more about), promotions of my work, and a few personal observations here and there.

 As I said, used to be.


When I first began blogging, I was in my thirties, I was married, and had not yet tasted the joy of fatherhood. I was fairly prolific, had a great career, and was relatively happy with my life. That was back in 2006. Since that time, I have become a father, a widower, a member of the over 40 crowd, have sprouted many gray hairs, and have generally had a somewhat chaotic existence.

 I am not the same person I was six short years ago.



And who is, really?

I typically stay away from my personal life here on my blog, and try to focus on my career here. That has become a very difficult venture over the past three years though. I have had to put my career on hold, and focus on my family. Most people who have frequented this blog probably know that my family has been through a lot. My wife Traci, died on September 10, 2009, of metastatic melanoma, a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer. She was diagnosed in August of 2008, so obviously, those thirteen months were traumatic. And the three years that have followed have had their fair share of tumult too. Our little boy was a very young toddler when Traci died, and as you can imagine, I've focused nearly all of my attention on raising him in the years since.


So, if you've been wondering why I haven't been around lately, that's why. Which brings me to now. My life is in a series of transitions at the moment, most of them good, and my thoughts are turning more and more to who I was, who I am now, and who I will become in the very near future. I never thought that two decades into my career, I would be in a transition phase, but here I am. I am at a crossroads, and again, this is a good thing. I am at a point where I can again begin to focus on my career as an artist. I will spend the next few months updating and upgrading both this blog, and my main website, www.richfaber.com, which is where you can find the majority of my work. I plan to begin posting regularly again this fall or winter, and hopefully, by next spring, my career will be back in full swing, And I will have tons of work to show here!


That's the plan anyway.

In the meantime, I'd like to begin what will eventually be the relaunch of my career (and probably my life, in many ways), with the announcement of my appearance at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend, September 8-9. I will be at the Kids Love Comics Pavilion, which is presented by the Comic Book Diner, the podcast about comics and graphic novels I do with my friends and colleagues, Jamar Nicholas and John Gallagher (you can find us at www.comicbookdiner.com). At the Pavilion, we will have an incredible lineup of artists and writers who are well known for the comics and graphic novels they do, with the younger crowd in mind. Baltimore Comic-Con is one of my all-time favorite shows to do, and it's a terrific family event, so if you're in the area, or nearby, I hope you'll come out to join us at the show. It's one of the best, and I guarantee you will have a spectacular time! I hope to see you there!


As for me, please check back frequently. I do plan to update much more over the coming weeks and months, so if all goes well, there should be plenty to see and read in the near future. I hope you'll join me on my new journey!


As always, thanks for stopping by!


Best,
Rich

Thursday, October 13, 2011

New York Comic-Con - Booth 2933 (Comic Book Diner)

Hey everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be at New York Comic-Con this weekend, beginning at 4PM today, Thursday, October 13 until Sunday, October 16. Please feel free to stop by Booth #2933. Our booth, Comic Book Diner, is located just across from the Small Press area, and diagonally across from Artists Alley. Click this link for the floor plan to make it easy.


I'll be there with trihosts, John Gallagher, Jamar Nicholas, and our buddies, Thom Zahler, Bobby and Peter Timony, and Mark Mariano. A great bunch of folks, and if you're not familiar with any of them, you should be...check that Google!

Hope to see you in New York!

Best,
Rich

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Baltimore Comic-Con 2011

Hey everyone! Great news-- we made our goal at Kickstarter, so we have lots of pre-orders for Roboy Red, Buzzboy, and Leon! Thanks so much to all of you who have supported our work, from Jamar, John, and me!


I'm writing this from Baltimore, where I will spend the next two days at the Baltimore Comic-Con, which is MY FAVORITE CONVENTION! I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone at the show, so I hope you'll come by to say hi. We have a great lineup at the Comic Book Diner Kids Pavilion at Booth 2011. Click here for the details.


So stop by, and come see some really cool, fun comics!

See you in Baltimore!

Monday, August 01, 2011

To The Dogs

Obviously, I've been pretty busy lately, or it wouldn't have been over two months since my last post. A while back, I promised to show some of my newer work, so I'm finally going to keep that promise.

I recently completed some work for a client who was looking for some enhanced product illustrations. I can't say what the product was, but I am allowed to post the illustrations that were used to help sell it.

Lately, whenever I've posted my roughs along with my finished illustrations, it's gotten a decent response, so I thought I'd share my layouts for this job too. Here are the images:







I enjoy drawing animals, and I'm hoping to have more assignments like this in the future. In the meantime, I'm back to work on some new Roboy Red pages for the new graphic novel. I'll probably show those soon too.

Speaking of Roboy Red, I'd also like to remind everyone that we have a new version of the Kickstarter campaign to get pre-orders for the new Buzzboy, Roboy Red, and Leon graphic novels. On the sidebar of this page, to the right, you'll see the widget which details the tally of our progress. If you have a few seconds, and haven't already done so, I'd like to invite you to click on that link (or this one), and place your pre-order. As you'll see, there are a lot of great new incentives/rewards in return for your commitment to these projects. John, Jamar, and I appreciate all of your support, past, present, and future! Thanks!

I'll be talking to you all again soon, so stay tuned!

Best,
Rich

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Kickstarter! Comic Book Diner Graphic Novel Project!

Hey everyone. I've been so focused on outside stuff this month, that I just realized I haven't mentioned this here yet. We of the Comic Book Diner podcast, John Gallagher, Jamar Nicholas, and I are putting together a new all ages graphic novel project! We're collecting our recent Buzzboy and Roboy Red work, along with Jamar's Leon: Protector of the Playground, into one slipcased edition! This special edition will feature copies of all three graphic novels!

To do this, we've decided to go through Kickstarter.com to fund the books via preorders. Kickstarter is a way to get backing (funding) by the people who will ultimately buy our books anyway, and we're offering all kinds of cool incentives!

So, if you're looking for a great set to help build a library of kid friendly comics for the kids (and adults!) in your life, please check out the link to the right, or click below to see a video of what we're hoping to accomplish, and all of the details of this exciting new project! Thanks!



I'll be back very soon with more art! Stay tuned!

Friday, May 06, 2011

Free Comic Book Day 2011!

http://www.captainbluehen.com/wp-content/FCBD09_11x172011.jpg

Saturday, May 7, is Free Comic Book Day. As usual, I'll be at my buddy Joe Murray's comic shop, Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark, DE. I'll be signing and sketching alongside my Comic Book Diner buddies, John Gallagher and Jamar Nicholas, along with a bunch of other great artists! We'll also have some of our own comics and t-shirts for sale, so if you're in the area, please come out to say hello, get some free comics, and have a lot of fun! I hope to see you there!

Monday, May 02, 2011

Klaus Janson - Hall Of Famer

Here's something cool, that I've been meaning to write about for a few weeks:


I recently was given the honor of writing the introduction to my friend and mentor, Klaus Janson's page for the Inkwell Awards*.  Klaus was inducted into the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame, and I couldn't be more pleased for him! Klaus was instrumental in my development as an artist, and has been a good friend of mine for nearly twenty years. You can read my piece, and many others about Klaus here:

http://www.inkwellawards.com/?page_id=116

Thanks to Bob Almond for including me on the website, and more important, congratulations to Klaus on his induction!

*The Inkwell Awards are awards given for creative achievement in the field of inking in American comic books (from the Inkwell Awards website).