Rich Faber - Illustrator

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

2011-10-13T10:02:00.000-04:00

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

Baltimore Comic-Con 2011

2011-08-20T01:42:00.001-04:00

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!

To The Dogs

2011-08-01T23:32:00.000-04:00

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

Kickstarter! Comic Book Diner Graphic Novel Project!

2011-05-26T00:21:00.000-04:00

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!

Free Comic Book Day 2011!

2011-05-06T21:17:00.002-04:00

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!

Klaus Janson - Hall Of Famer

2011-05-02T13:45:00.006-04:00

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).

Kids' Comic Con- Saturday, April 16th!

2011-04-15T23:38:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, just a quick blast to let you know that Comic Book Diner is going on the road!

John, Jamar and I will be exhibiting at Alex Simmons' wonderful Kids' Comic Con in the Bronx, NY, Saturday, April 16th. If you're in the area, and especially if you have kids, please stop by and see us!

Pickup Process

2011-04-11T13:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I intended to do this post a bit sooner, but life sometimes gets in the way. Sorry to anyone that's been waiting.

As I mentioned last time, many of my project go through a variety of iterations, from start to finish. Revisions are a huge part of the illustration and design process, and virtually every assignment I get goes through many stages to get the end result. I sometimes have to revisit an image up to 15 to 20 times! In this particular case, there were probably about twelve, but I'm going to just post a sample, for the sake of clarity. Some of the revisions were so slight, it's tough to even detect the change. So, here are the truck images:

I began with a pretty straightforward shot of a 1956 Ford pickup, above.

My client thought it was a good start, but wanted something a bit more cartoony. I added a warp to the drawing to give it a soft roundness, and made the grill a bit more "friendly" with the upturned look to it. Picture it as an abstract smile.

The client was happy with the warp, but wanted me to show a bit more of the side of the truck. She asked me to turn it just a little. Also, she wanted to carry the split on the hood up to the windshield, and change the grill. So, I got a chance to customize the truck a little, and suddenly my '56 Ford transformed into a '53 Chevy!

Next, I was asked to shorten the height of the windshield a bit. It's subtle, but if you look at the previous version, you can see the change.

Another minor change: I was asked to lengthen the hood, just a bit; stretch it a little. Again, a subtle change.

Finally, the sketch was approved, and I inked the final rendering. Here is the end result!

The illustration was used in an interactive kiosk at a children's museum in Texas. I'm not sure exactly where it is, so if anyone out there has seen this work, please let me know! Sometimes, work gets sent out into the ether, and I never know where it ends up!

Thanks for checking this out. tune in next time, when I go to the dogs!

Best,
Rich

A Little Teaser

2011-03-25T00:50:00.000-04:00

I'm going to do something I rarely do. I'm going to post an image which is a preview for my next post. I want to show the process by which I go from a rough sketch to a finished illustration for a project. This particular assignment, which I worked on a couple of years ago, is a very interesting example. I was asked to draw a couple of vehicles for an interactive exhibit, to be used in a kiosk at a children's museum in Texas.

I don't normally show every iteration of my drawing/design process, but that's exactly what I intend to do in my next post. I think most people will be surprised how many changes can be made to a single image during the design and approval stage. From start to finish, there can be many process stages that go into completing a finished illustration. I'll be more specific next time, but for now, I'll leave you with this, one image in a sequence of many:

I can't wait to show how many revisions there were on this project! I hope you'll check back for the follow up on this one! Until then, enjoy!

Best,
Rich

Social Networking- Follow Me on Twitter and Facebook!

2011-02-10T01:08:00.001-05:00

Just a quick public service announcement. As much as I'd love to update the blog on a regular basis, the reality is that my best intentions are often laid to waste by deadlines and family life. Therefore, if you're interested in seeing more of a frequent presence from me, the best way to do that is to follow me on Twitter, and/or check out my Facebook page. Both of them are linked on the sidebar of my blog, on the right. You can also just click this link for my Twitter account: http://twitter.com/rich_faber, and you can click here for my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/rich.faber.illustrator.

2011- Now what?

2011-01-18T20:36:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! It's been quite a while since I updated this blog, or for that matter, any of my homes on the internet (more on that later). While I haven't purposely stayed away, I haven't made any real effort to push my online presence lately either. After spending roughly the last two years laying out most of the details of my life online, I guess I've just needed a break from writing. I've been in a sort of rebuilding limbo, and have been trying to sort out my life, my career, and pretty much every other aspect of my world. I'm pleased to say, that after the traumas of the past couple of years, I finally feel as if I've found some equilibrium, and am now ready for the next big challenges.

So, now what? That's what I keep asking myself. I've worked very sporadically over the past couple of years, and most who have stopped by here know why. For those who haven't, a quick recap: my wife Traci died in 2009, after a 13 month battle with cancer. I have a little boy, and have focused much of the past year on spending time with him, and making sure he (and I) are making the adjustments necessary to go on. I've done a few client projects here and there, but have mainly been dealing with my private life. So, now, it's time to jump back into my career.

To that end, and to help further the purpose of this forum, as an illustration journal, I'd like to present a project I recently completed for my client, The LightStream Group. I was asked to produce their holiday card, after doing another interesting project for them in the fall. I'll probably show that one here at a later date, but they were very happy with the way it turned out, so they decided that they wanted me to do the card. I was given a concept and asked to present some roughs. What they were looking for was an image featuring an elf decorating their logo with holiday regalia.After a couple of rounds of roughs, it was decided that we'd go with a Rankin/Bass style. This is the first time I ever did something like this. I drew everything digitally, on my Wacom tablet, and really tried to emulate that specific stop motion puppet style. Here is the end result (and just in time ::ahem:: for the holiday season!):

The last image is to give you an idea of what the images of the elf at a larger size. Click on each of the images for a larger version. You can see the textures much better that way.

I had a great time working on this, and the client was fantastic. I'm hoping to get a chance to do more cards like this in the future. I might decide to do another blog entry on this one to show the process in creating the artwork. As this was my fist fully digital illustration (I do a lot of digital editing in my work, but this was the first ever fully digital rendering), it might be interesting to explore the process here. I'll give that one some thought.

In the meantime, thanks for checking this out. I'm going to try to keep the blog more regularly from here on, so please stop back soon. I have a lot of unseen artwork to share in the coming weeks, so hopefully, that will keep you guys coming back for more!

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One last note: I have a number of other places I can be found on the internet.

If you're on Facebook, you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/rich.faber.illustrator

You can also find the Facebook page for Comic Book Diner, the podcast on comics and graphic novels that I do with my buddies Jamar and John here: http://www.facebook.com/comicbookdiner

I'm also now on Twitter, so you can follow me here: @Rich_Faber

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back soon!

Best,
Rich

New York Comic-Con

2010-10-08T23:19:00.000-04:00

Really brief on this one. I'm set up with Jamar at the inaugural Comic Book Diner Booth at NYCC. Come see us at booth #432. John is right around the corner at booth #643. Hope to see you this weekend!

Best,
Rich

See YOU at Baltimore Comic-Con!

2010-08-27T00:48:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! This weekend is the always spectacular Baltimore Comic-Con. I'll be there along with my Comic Book Diner Tri-Hosts, Jamar Nicholas and John Gallagher. Appropriately enough, we will be at the Comic Book Diner All Ages Pavilion (I believe the program book lists us as "Kids Love Comics"), Booth 2401-2402. Please come by and see us there!

Additionally, I have a few pieces of VERY exciting news: First, John and I will be debuting our very first ROBOY RED GRAPHIC NOVEL!

Roboy Red: Nuts and Bolts collects all of the short stories we've done, as well as an all new sketchbook section, plus art tutorials and other fun stuff! We are very proud to be premiering this at what John and I consider our home convention. This Comic-Con Special Edition is an exclusive, with a very limited printing, so please don't delay! Come to Baltimore, and get it this weekend! This is the culmination of 8 years of hard work, and is just the beginning of big plans for our little boy robot! I hope you'll stop by our booth and check it out! We'll be easy to find. Look for Roboy Red (you might recognize the art) on the Comic Book Diner Pavilion banner:

If that wasn't enough, we'll also have another all new graphic novel at the show-- Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule!

John and I are very pleased to have this collection of the fun and funny three issue mini-series available as well. So, TWO brand new graphic novels by us at one show! How cool is that?!?

The other bit of exciting news is that we of the Comic Book Diner will be joined by our good friend Todd Dezago (Tellos, Perhapanauts, Sensational Spider-Man) as the hosts of the Baltimore Comic-Con's Annual Art Auction! So, if you're interested in seeing if we're capable of being as entertaining in person as we are on the podcasts (your mileage may vary), or if we fall right off the stage, here's your chance! It's all happening on Sunday. Check out the con website for more details, and show your support!

That's it for now, and as the sign says, I'll see you in Baltimore!

New Comic Book Diner - Roboy Red!

2010-08-23T21:30:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I've been VERY busy over the past few weeks. I'll have some news about that over the next few days, but for now, I just wanted to remind everyone about the Comic Book Diner, the podcast on the art and business of comics, that I "tri-host" with my pals Jamar Nicholas and John Gallagher. We've already done 8 shows! You can find us on iTunes, and at our own website, www.comicbookdiner.com. The latest episode is up, and it's one that we're particularly proud of! It features Jamar interviewing John and me about our process in creating Roboy Red, which ties in very nicely with...

Well, actually, I'm going to wait on that, as it's part of my news later this week. But, if you listen to the latest episode of CBD, you'll have a pretty good idea of what the news is. So, I hope you'll get over there and have a listen! Oh, and while you're at it, if you would be so kind as to rate the podcast on iTunes, and/or write a review and post it on iTunes for us, that would be great! We'd love to hear your feedback!

Thanks for reading... and for listening!

I'll be back in a day or so with more.

Best,
Rich

It's Gallagher!

2010-08-06T13:08:00.000-04:00

So, as promised in my last post, I've done another portrait, this time of my pal and yours, John Gallagher:

I used basically the same technique as I did for the portrait of Jamar, but I still think it looks slightly different stylistically. I think the portrait of Jamar is a bit harder edged, maybe with more of a watercolor feel, while this one seems more like gouache to me. Perhaps because it seems a bit softer; I can't quite put my finger on why. Of course, both are "painted" digitally over my pencil sketches. I'd like to someday get back to exploring this sort of work in actual real world paint, but for now, I'm happy to play around on the computer. The next portrait I do will be that much-needed updated self-portrait. I'll keep you posted.

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Speaking of John and Jamar, my fellow trihosts of the Comic Book Diner, I just want to make sure everyone out there is aware that we've been podcasting weekly. We are up to Episode 5, and just recorded the sixth show last night, so if you haven't checked us out yet, you have some catching up to do! Please be sure to check out what we're doing. We're having a great time, and talking a lot about the business side of working in comics. We get a little goofy at times, but we're also trying to be as informative as possible. All in all, it's both educational and entertaining. Or at least it is to us! Please go to www.comicbookdiner.com or you can find us on iTunes here, so please have a listen! The fries are on us!

I'll be back soon with more!

Best,
Rich

It's Jamar!

2010-07-16T09:36:00.006-04:00

Or rather, a sketch I did of him.

I rarely draw just for the fun of it these days. I find most of my time is taken with drawing for work, or I wind up spending my work time doing things for my various websites. Yesterday, I was proofing some comic book stuff, in my capacity as editor for John Gallagher's Buzzboy, and I went to the web to check to make sure one of the visuals was correct. When I found what I was looking for, one of the other things that came up in the image search was a picture of me with one of my trihosts from Comic Book Diner, Jamar Nicholas. I liked the angle of the shot (the photo was taken by your friend and mine, Mike Manley, so no surprise that it was well composed), so I decided to do a little sketch of it. I thought it turned out ok, so I took a photo of it with my phone camera, and imported it into Photoshop to clean it up a little (that, by the way, is a little tech tip. If you're on the go with your art, and don't have access to a scanner, but need to upload it somewhere, you can take a picture of it, and clean it up in Photoshop later. I actually do this quite a bit now).

Well, I got kind of carried away, added color, and an hour and a half after I began, I wound up with a completed color sketch. What's funny, is that generally, I do a finished drawing, maybe ink it, and THEN add color digitally. and even then, I use my tablet to color, fairly precisely. This time, I used a mouse, on my dining room table. I don't normally work this way, so this was a little rougher than my usual finished work, but it was also liberating. It kind of felt like working with watercolors, and I think the finished drawing sort of looks like a watercolor piece. Anyway, here's the sketch:

I'm going to attempt to do a few more like this, beginning with a much-needed new self-portrait, and one of Gallagher as well, as I'm thinking we might be able to use them for the podcast website. I'm sure I can do one like this of me, but I have a feeling John will be a challenge. Ironic, since he and I have been friends and colleagues for over eight years, and I sit right next to him at every show I do. We'll see if that translates into an accurate portrait. I'll keep you posted!

I'll be back soon, so stay tuned!

Best,
Rich

Podcast! Comic Book Diner

2010-07-06T22:19:00.016-04:00

So, I have a new endeavor, and it's related to my art, but it's a bit of a step sideways in my career. While I've been an illustrator for over 17 years, a little over 24 years ago, I was a DJ on my college radio station. I was only at this particular college for one semester, and therefore did not have enough time to really explore that avenue of expression, but the experience has always stuck with me.

A couple of years ago, my good pal, Charlie LaGreca, a fellow illustrator, and an alumnus of the DC Comics trenches, interviewed my collaborative partner, John Gallagher, and me at HeroesCon, in Charlotte, NC, for his Indie Spinner Rack comics podcast, which spotlights independent comics and their creators. John and I loved the experience, and we've had an idea brewing since then. It's not something we actively talked about a lot, but over the past couple of months, John has had a real desire to do a podcast of our own. Early on in the discussions, I mentioned that our good friend Jamar Nicholas would be a fantastic partner on this project, as he has a natural charm and wit, and has plenty of experience behind a microphone himself, as the emcee of the Glyph Awards, a ceremony at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. We immediately contacted Jamar, and he was on board!

About two weeks ago, we all got on the phone together and came up with a plan for what we wanted to do, and so, The Comic Book Diner was born!

Basically, John, Jamar, and I are the (as Jamar coined it) tri-hosts of the show, in which we discuss, round table style, the art and business of comics, both web and print, and the future of each format, as well as whatever related (and unrelated) topics come and go with the flow of the conversation. We each have a different take on things, as each one of us comes from a slightly different perspective in our careers. It makes for interesting listening. We're all pretty decent conversationalists, and we tend to amuse one another, and we're told, others as well, so I hope you'll stop by our virtual hangout and have a listen. Our first show is right here, so please click that link, and then drop us a line to let us know what you think. Our contact info is right on the CBD home page, or you can always drop a line here, or from my website. I hope to hear from you soon!

We'll be doing shows on a regular basis, so check back here for more scheduling info. I'll be sure to post whenever a new podcast is up, and when we establish what our schedule will be, I'll be posting that here as well. In the meantime, be well, and I'll be back soon!

Best,
Rich

PS: the awesome logos you see here were created by John Gallagher, our Designer-in-residence!

With 100% More Apes...

2010-06-30T22:35:00.010-04:00

...than my last post.

I've had a t-shirt idea rolling around my brain for the past few weeks, and did a little sketch last night to try it out on paper. I won't say what I have in mind for now, but I was thinking about the idea when I just happened to read my buddy Matt Wieringo's recent post, featuring his OUTSTANDING Planet of the Apes illustration. So, I was definitely more than a little inspired when I drew this.

I hope you like it. I also hope my idea is as clever as it first seemed to me when I came up with it. If it is, you'll see more of it here soon.

Best,
Rich

School Library Journal Interview From HeroesCon

2010-06-22T07:51:00.054-04:00

Well, it's been over two weeks since I returned from HeroesCon in Charlotte, exhausted but happy. The drive is about 13 hours from door to door (about 9.5, if you subtract all the stops a little boy in the back seat needs!), and after all the activity that goes with a con, added to things on the personal side, it's taken me a couple of weeks just to feel rested again. Therefore, I haven't posted anything about the show.

Fortunately, I had something in my inbox this past weekend that spurred me to write. My creative partner, John Gallagher, and I were interviewed about Roboy Red at the show by Snow Wildsmith (yes, that IS her real name!) for the School Library Journal, which is "The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens." Quite prestigious! You can read the interview here.

And here's a picture I took of Snow interviewing John:

One of the people I met at HeroesCon was Tim O'Shea, who is a blogger for the excellent comics industry blog site, Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources. Tim indicated in his con report that he thought his might be among the very last of all the recaps out there. I had to chuckle at the time, knowing I'd be far behind him! So, at this late date, rather than post a true con recap, I'll just post some pictures with commentary. Links galore to follow.

John Gallagher, at our booth.

Our congenial boothmate, the multi-talented Dave McDonald. Always a pleasure to share space with Dave! Check out his Vincent Van Doodle cartooning kit at his website!

One of only a few sketches I did at this show, the Golden Age Green Lantern. As you can see, it was for Fred, who was quite a loyal customer at the show. Thanks, Fred! I was very flattered that this one caught the eye of my friend Joe Staton, former longtime GL artist, and a sweet guy to boot! Joe saw it as he was walking by, and stopped to watch me draw. He was very complimentary, despite my insistence at pointing out all the things wrong with it. Thanks for the support, Joe!

More friends:

My friend and Baltimore Comic-Con organizer, Marc Nathan. When I showed him this picture, Marc said, "Wow, Rich, that's a great picture of you and your dad!"(Marc is only about two years older than I am) On another note, his show will be my next con appearance of the season. Even though *ahem* I'm not yet on the guest list. I hope Marc sees this! Follow the link to learn more.

Tom Bancroft is an incredible animator and character designer. He also is in fact, tall enough to be my dad! Years ago, I introduced him to a friend of mine who worked for a book publisher at the time. She was looking for an animation artist to do a book on character design. In this picture, Tom's holding the end result, Creating Characters With Personality. Follow the link and go pick it up! It's a GREAT book! Tom was gracious enough to write something really nice in my copy, and to do a little sketch in it for me too! A true treasure!

Here's another boothmate and pal, Franco, of Tiny Titans fame, with 30 Rock's Scott Adsit. Franco did a sketch for Scott (who I somehow managed not to have a chance to speak with, despite numerous encounters over the weekend), and asked me to take a picture of them together, so I've appropriated it for this entry. Sorry, Franco!

Ladies and gentlemen, Ron Garney! Er... oops... moving right along...

Hey, more artwork! I did this Swamp Thing sketch for a friend of mine, Danna Bremer. Danna is the wife of another pal, Bobby Timony who does a really fun book for Zuda Comics called Night Owls. You should check it out! I did this one to repay Danna's kindness. She took pity on me the first day of the show when she saw me lugging my entire con setup baggage into the Convention Center. She generously offered (insisted, really) to take some of the stuff off of my hands and assist me in carrying it all inside. Thanks, Danna! I wish the sketch came out better.

Speaking of sketches, here's a shot of John drawing Buzzboy for a fan.

Love and Capes creator Thom Zahler, doing his finest Kirk-on-the-bridge. I love hanging out with Thom. We shared some great meals this time, and had a blast. Looking forward to doing the same in Baltimore!

Jason Horn and Dean Trippe. Dean is a buddy of mine, and on our last day in town, the Monday right after the show, his son, Field, and my son, The Boy, finally met. It was epic! Field was wearing his Superman shirt, and The Boy was wearing his Flash shirt. As soon as they saw each other, they both immediately took off, racing toward the elevators from the hotel lobby! We actually got to witness a live, classic Superman/Flash race! I'd like to tell you who won, but it was an exciting photo finish! And ironically, they both moved so fast, nobody was able to take a picture! Ah, well. Perhaps next year!

My buddy, Matt Wieringo, with Franco, and the COOL Nova sketch Franco did for him! Matt LOVED it!

Kelly Yates, one of the nicest men in the biz (right up there with Mr. Staton).

Artamus Studios alumni, Chris Kemple and Chuck Wojtkiewicz (Chuck will be pleased to know I did NOT have to look up the spelling!). You can tell they really missed each other! I had some wonderful conversations with both of these guys over the weekend. Chuck and I hadn't seen each other in over 15 years, so it was so great to finally catch up again! Chris will soon be famous. Mark my words! He and I have talked a bit over the past few years, so we had a nice time talking shop. Always a pleasure!

Additional Artamus dudes, Rich Case and Jeff Parker, hamming it up at con organizer Shelton Drum's "Dead Dog Party" Sunday night after the show. Rich is a terrific guy and I always have a nice time seeing him at shows. Jeff is an old friend, and one night in the hotel lobby, he and I had a profound conversation that I will always remember. I'll just leave it at this: Jeff is a good friend, and I appreciate that very much.

Here are a few of the costumed personnel who graced the convention throughout the weekend:

These were great costumes, but I really love capturing these folks when they're not "on duty." Hence the following:

A couple of shots of Charlotte's nighttime skyline. A beautiful city!

The building on the far left in the first picture is the official con hotel, The Westin, where we stayed. You will not find a nicer place or a better hotel staff in that city (well, actually, I've only been there once before, so I'm not positive about that, but we really liked the place!).

One more shot of friends:

Suzanne and Matt Wieringo. Love this couple! We had a few meals together, but the most memorable was the day after the show ended. Suze suggested that we eat at the food court in the Convention Center, as it was quick, inexpensive, and easy. It was deserted! The perfect, quiet way to end a busy weekend. As an added bonus, we got to see this:

The day after. The leavings of a crazy weekend (please forgive the sloppy melding of two photos)!

As you can tell, it was a really fun weekend, and something I've really needed for a long time. Thanks to Shelton Drum and Dustin Harbin for putting on an excellent show, and for their hospitality. I also need to add an extra thanks for giving me a cool poster I've wanted for two years! Thanks, guys! Looking forward to seeing you next year!

If you've read this far, thanks very much! I'll be back again with more soon!

Best,
Rich

June 18, 2000

2010-06-18T08:40:00.004-04:00

I hope you'll indulge me one more time, in allowing my personal life to seep onto my illustration blog. Ten years ago, at just about the time I'm writing this, I was preparing for my wedding day. I wasn't a typical nervous groom. I was completely confident and happy; at ease knowing I had made a commitment to a woman who was my partner and best friend. It was, up to that point, the happiest day of my life (only to be eclipsed 6 years later by the birth of the beautiful boy she gave me).

Yes, today would have been the ten year anniversary of my marriage to Traci. I'm feeling a lot of conflicting emotions, as one might expect, but overall, I think it will be a good day. I'm going to spend the day with my wonderful father-in-law, who has been a rock for me, despite the enormity of his own loss, and my boy, the everyday reminder of the love she left me, and my constant source of humor and happiness in my life. The legacy that Traci gave me is not only encompassed in that boy, but in who I am today. I'm a better human being for having shared her love, and her positive attitude throughout her illness has helped to inform me about what's important in life. I would not be the man I am today, if not for Traci's love, support, and influence. I've become (or am becoming) the man she always wanted me to be. And that's a good thing.

I don't have any digital pictures of our wedding, or course, but I took out our album to show The Boy this morning, for the first time. He will always have those photos, and her memory. I snapped a couple of pictures of the album pages, some of which I decided to share here. For anyone who wasn't there, it was a spectacular day, and the beginning of something truly incredible. I wish I could share this ten year anniversary with my beautiful bride, but I hope that wherever she is, she knows that we're happy, healthy, and doing well.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate our marriage than to spend the day with her two (other) favorite guys.

Peace.

HeroesCon!

2010-06-04T23:13:00.006-04:00

Things have been really hectic due to family events the past couple of weeks, and in the rush to go here and there, I completely forgot to post that I'm at HeroesCon! It's a great family friendly show, and I'm back for only the second time, but it's quickly become one of my favorite conventions. I really like this show, this town, and these people. So, if you're in the area and want to come hang out with me, you can find me in Artist's Alley, at booth AA-227. I hope you'll stop by to say hi!

More posting next week.

Best,
Rich

More on FCBD... and a Contest!

2010-05-14T11:10:00.016-04:00

This is the last Free Comic Book Day stuff until next year, I promise! My buddy Joe Murray, who owns Captain Blue Hen comics, where I did this year's event, sent me these pictures the other day. I thought it might be a nice way to wrap up coverage.

These are probably the views of me most often seen that day by people on my line... head down drawing, mouth open, talking!

I also wanted to link to a very nice write up about me. If you'll recall, I mentioned in my previous FCBD post that I had the privilege of creating the first image for someone's "leaping over stuff" themed sketchbook. Well, it turns out, this fellow, who calls himself "Doktor Andy" has a blog, and wrote about me drawing his sketch! Here's the link, if you'd like to read all about it from his point of view! Thanks, "Dok!"
_____________________________________________________

Finally, as I was looking though pictures to use for this post, I came across a picture I snapped on my cell phone camera. I was visiting my Mom a few months ago, and took a picture of a painting she has, that I did while in college. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I attended The School of Visual Arts in New York, as an Illustration major. However, before students were allowed to actually pick the major, we had to do one year of foundation art classes. We studied fine art, art history, drawing, painting, etc. The following piece was done in my painting class, back in 1990. The idea of the project was to study the Cubists, and emulate their styles. I'm not sure which Cubist I was trying to emulate at the time, as the memory is lost in the sands of time at this point, but I do know what I chose as a subject. the painting is below. I wonder if anyone can guess what I "cubized" in this piece:

Feel free to share your guesses in the comments. For the first person who guesses correctly, I'll send you a set of signed Buzzboy and Roboy Red comic books!

Along the same lines as the above painting, I also want to share an original iPhone drawing done by my little boy. It's an abstract as well! I think he shows promise, don't you?

I'll be back next week with more. I hope you have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich

BlueShift World

2010-05-13T14:51:00.006-04:00

Some look-at-me press: My good buddy Dave DeVries did a little write up on me, regarding some coloring work I did for his new graphic novel, BlueShift World. Check it out: http://forum.blueshiftworld.com/blog/?p=250 While you're there, click around the website. There's some really cool stuff to see! It's a science fiction story which takes place in the year 2061, after climate change has flooded the major cities of the Earth. Dave has told me a lot about the story, and it sounds like it's a really cool one, and a project he's put his heart and soul into, so please give it a look! Dave's team is incredibly talented, and what I've seen so far is very impressive!

Since I can't show the actual page I worked on, here's the picture of me he ran with the bio piece:

Dave also posted some images of my work there as well. I hope you'll follow the link to see! Thanks!

Best,
Rich

Free Comic Book Day Pictures!

2010-05-03T09:05:00.018-04:00

So another Free Comic Book Day has come and gone, and once again, Captain Blue Hen Comics turned in an incredible performance! From what I understand, roughly 1400 people came through the doors, most of them families with kids. And again, we artists spent the entire time sketching for kids and not-quite-kids-anymore-but-that's-OK. It was nonstop lines of people, and everyone seemed to have a great time. The CBH folks had their yearly food drive, and did very well for the community. This store and its people do so many great things that go far beyond just selling comic books, and that's only one of the many reasons I return every year. Thanks to Joe Murray, and his entire crew for inviting me to once again be a part of the festivities! Also, thanks to all the fans who came by to say hi, asked for my humble drawings, and who contributed to a terrific cause (or two or three!)!

Now, onto some art. I did a pretty good job of photographically chronicling the sketches I did. I recently got a new camera for myself, and am very happy with the clarity of the photos. This is a fantastic alternative to having to buy a portable scanner! It's also nice to finally have some new art to post, even if they're "just" sketches. So, here are some of the day's pieces:

A kind of sneaky looking Roboy Red. My first Roboy of the day.

This guy's name is Rico, and I was asked to draw him with a stick of dynamite. I'm not sure why, but I complied. I like the way it turned out, and had a good time drawing it. I should also mention that the pose was totally swiped from the reference provided (with apologies to the original artist).

OK, so this guy comes up to me, and says, "I have this sketchbook of characters jumping over stuff. Can you do something for it?" Uh, ok... So I ask him if I can see what others have done so far... "Um, well, you're the first artist I've asked!" Oh boy, talk about pressure! Well, I think it's a respectable effort, and it was cool to be able to draw a car in the shot! Please bear in mind that I drew this with a line waiting for me, so I didn't take as much time as I would have liked. I think the sketch has some issues, but I might revisit the pose another time, as I like the concept. It would be neat to see what I could do with it, if I had the amount of time I'd normally spend on an image. I'm grateful that the recipient thought it was cool!

Rich does manga! Of course, I have no clue who this character is, but it was fun to do the style.

This guy is an actor on some popular TV show, I'm told. I wish I could remember his name, or the show's name, but I suffer from television awareness deficiency these days... unless it involves Thomas the Tank Engine, Curious George, or the like, I'm ignorant. Maybe you readers can identify him from the photo reference under the sketch, and make a game of it! See? I now have an interactive, fun blog! In any event, I was asked to do a more realistic looking sketch, and this is what I came up with for the her. It was kind of fun to do a likeness in this venue. Not typical, as I'm normally asked to draw comic book characters on Free Comic Book Day... go figure!

I really like the way this chunky/clunky Roboy sketch came out. A little different than the way I usually draw him.

An oldie but a goodie. Steel was my first comics gig, back in 1993. Mike Clarke, who wrote this terrific piece about the day at CBH, requested this from me at the end of the day. I was happy to be able to stroll down Memory Lane with this one.

Jamar is ALWAYS camera aware. I swear, he looked up from drawing for just a fraction of a second, just as I took this shot, then looked right down at his sketch again. There was no way he could have known I was about to snap it. I'm going to begin calling him "Radar!"

My setup at the end of the day. The cup was actually used as a circle template on one of the early sketches of the day. I'd be foolish to keep a filled cup near my drawing area... ahem... moving on...

So, that's my wrap. It was such a fun time, and again, many thanks to everyone involved. This really helped gear me up for convention season, which is almost upon me. I'm looking forward to some wonderful shows this summer, all of which I'll alert everyone to here, in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'll have another art post coming up shortly, so please stop back soon! Thanks!

Best,
Rich

Free Comic Book Day, 2010

2010-04-29T16:10:00.007-04:00

Hey everyone. This Saturday, May 1, I'll be at Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark Delaware for FCBD from 12 noon until 5pm. I'll be there to help my buddy Joe Murray and his crack staff to promote comics for kids and do a little self-promotion as well. On hand, I'll have my comics, t-shirts (here and here), and maybe some original art for sale too! At past events, I've been known to do free sketches for kids, as well! From 2:45-3:15pm, my pal, hip hop cartoonist Jamar Nicholas and I will be teaming up to do a live Artist Workshop for the store and the Newark Arts Alliance. Details to be announced at the appearance. I hope that if you're in the area, you'll stop by to come and see me!

Coming soon: An ACTUAL art post!

Best,
Rich

Six Months?!?

2010-04-11T00:55:00.013-04:00

Wow.

Man, where does the time go? In looking at my buddy Matt Wieringo's blog recently, I noticed his sidebar details the amount of time that has passed since the last posting on his linked blogs. The link for mine said six months...! Again, wow. I can't believe I've been incommunicado for that long.

Once upon a time, this used to be an art blog, but life sort of took over. I've obviously had a lot of time to reflect on things, and have realized that there's a lot more I want to do than I have in the past; with life, in my career, and in my home life. While that is a big part of what I currently think about, I don't think it's entirely relevant to what I'm trying to do here on my blog. However, it is what's been on my mind as I've been attempting to rebuild my life.

So, in light of all that, I am considering this my unofficial blog relaunch. In the coming weeks and months, I'm going to get back to posting art on a regular basis. You'll again be seeing my Portfolio Showcase feature, showing past work, and I'll also be posting current work on my desk. I'd also like to begin showing a bit more of my work flow, for all of you process junkies out there. I'm not sure yet how I'll present that, but I'll try to be interesting and creative about it.

So, what have I been up to? Well, the short answer is trying to figure out what my life is now. That's a pretty complicated thing though, so I'll just say this: since Traci died, my focus has been purely on raising my three and a half year old son, and making sure he is happy and secure. Work has been completely secondary, and maybe not even that high on my priority list. However, I do have some projects coming across my desk, so I'll have new art to show soon, as well as a few smaller jobs I managed to fit in within the past few months.

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to post this "placemat art" I did for my boy at dinner yesterday. Lately, I've been drawing fun stuff to amuse him while we wait for the food to come in restaurants. Nothing fancy or good, but it entertains him, so it accomplishes the goal. Remember, this was art directed by a three and a half year old, so I was at the mercy of his whims, as well as the limited diner crayon palette! I hope you like:

See? Told you it wasn't great!

Overall, life has been good to me lately. While it's still difficult getting through certain times each day, I have to say I have the most incredible support a person could ask for, so I'm managing. At this point, I should take a moment to thank all of you who have been so patient waiting for me to post again. I'm certain that all three of you are kind and generous, and probably go out of your way to avoid stepping on ants. Seriously, I really do appreciate all of the words of encouragement from everyone over this past year. I'd also like to thank you for indulging me in my stream of consciousness in processing all that has gone on since last year. Sincere thanks to you all for being here for me, and for taking the time to post in the comments section(which is still open, hint, hint!). I hope you'll remain, and that I can offer some small amount of entertainment for you over the course of the coming weeks, months, and perhaps even years.

I'll leave you with this recent picture of me, taken a week ago, while on vacation in New York; my first vacation since before Traci was ill, almost two years ago. You can see the that I look like I'm at ease, and let me tell you, it had been a long time since I felt that serene. Here's me:

Have a great week, everyone! See you soon!

Best,
Rich

Baltimore Comic-Con

2009-10-10T08:29:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone. Been awhile, I know. I want to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support and the condolences over the past month... well, really, over the past several months. As anyone who's been reading knows, this has not been an easy year. However, with all of your thoughts and encouragement, it has made it all that much more bearable. Thank you all. Now it's time to move forward.

With that in mind, I'm exhibiting at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend. I wish I could have posted about this sooner, but life has been a bit crazy for me lately, as I'm sure you can imagine. Anyway, I'll be with the usual gang of Kids Love Comics creators at booth 2409. You can't miss it... this year it's the KLC Carnival, and we have a big tent! It should be tons of fun... which I really need now. I'll have my usual array of original comics art, t-shirts, prints, and comic books, so come on out to the show, and stop by to see me.

Also, the Harvey Awards dinner is tonight, where the winners will be announced. As a nominee, I'll be attending, and while I don't expect to win, I do know it will be a lot of fun to spend time with my friends. Please feel free to wish me luck anyway! I guess you never know...

I'm looking forward to today and tomorrow, so I hope you'll come by to say hello if you're in town. It's a great show, and the people are terrific. It should be a lot of fun.

And oh yeah... today's my birthday! In case you wanted to bring me a cupcake or something... ;-)

I'll be back posting soon. I have some new projects on the table, and I'll be able to show some new artwork in the near future. Thanks again for all of the interest and support. I'll talk to you all again soon!

Best,
Rich

A Moving Tribute To Traci

2009-09-15T08:42:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone. I'd like to thank all of you who have been sending along your kind thoughts. I really appreciate all of the sentiments.

I also would like to call your attention to a tribute to Traci that my good friend Steve Goldman wrote about her in his column on Monday. Here is the link: http://pinstripedbible.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/09/people_and_records_gone_but_no.html I'd urge you to go read it. He has some wonderful things to say about Traci, and equates her with my hero, Lou Gehrig. Very insightful, particularly since he only met Traci once. Thank you very much, Steve. You've earned my utmost gratitude for your kindness and friendship.

Traci's funeral is today. Her clergy call the service a celebration of her life, and I know that's what Traci would want. Please think of our family today, and make sure you give those you love a little extra attention today. Thanks.

Best,
Rich

Traci Wagner - May 23, 1967 - September 10, 2009

2009-09-10T19:53:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone. I know many of you have been wondering how we've been faring here at home, so I wanted you all to know that my wife Traci died peacefully at home this morning at around 10:45AM. The past few days had been extremely difficult, filled with pain and discomfort, so this is a blessing we have been waiting for.

Thanks to all of you who have been calling and writing. It's meant so much to me to know how much you all care. I know a lot of you out there didn't know Traci personally, so I thought it might be nice for you to see a couple of pictures of her.

I'll be taking some family time for a little while, and then figure out the rest of my life from here. I'll be back at some point in the near future with some art again. This has been a really long, difficult year, and I need to get back to the reason I started this blog: showing my artwork.

I hope my delving into the personal hasn't been too much here, but there's been very little work to speak of, and my fulltime job over this past year has essentially been taking care of Traci and our son. I appreciate your indulgence during this difficult time.

I'll talk to you all soon.

Best,
Rich

Please Help John Ostrander

2009-07-14T01:16:00.005-04:00

Back in 1998, I worked on a comic book called Quicksilver, for Marvel Comics. One of the writers on the book was a man named John Ostrander. John is a fantastic guy, and always treated me with respect. He's a terribly nice man, and deserves nothing but the best. Unfortunately, he's now going through some difficult times. John has glaucoma, which is an awful eye disease. My own grandfather had it, and as a result of it (and a few other complications) lost his eyesight. He was fortunate to regain it in one of his eyes, but the damage was permanent in his left eye (incidentally, this was the same grandfather who died of melanoma, the same disease my wife has. Sad coincidence).

In order to save John's eyesight, something that is necessary for him to maintain and continue his career as a comic book writer, he will need an operation. John's insurance will only cover a small percentage of the cost of the operation, so some of his industry friends are trying to raise money to help defray the cost. My family are no strangers to the high cost of medical bills, and we've received a lot of help from people and organizations within the industry. It's only right for me to try to help someone else in difficult circumstances too. To that end, I'm going to be donating some of my original art to try to help the cause. I'd like to ask anyone reading this to give a little something too, if possible. I'm sure any donation would help. For more information, you can click here. Heidi MacDonald also linked to this, but I thought you might like to see the comments section on her post on The Beat, to see what other industry people have to say about John.

So many of you have been so generous to us. I hope you'll do the same for John Ostrander. Thanks.

Best,
Rich

Bittersweet Harvey Nominee

2009-07-01T00:32:00.005-04:00

Earlier today (or technically, yesterday, as I'm writing this somewhat after midnight), the Harvey Awards, one of two of the more prestigious awards in the comics industry, announced this year's nominees. Shockingly, I was among them, in the Best Inker category, for my work on Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule. I've been working in this industry for over fifteen years, and this is the first time I've ever been in the running for any award, much less one of the most respected in the business. One would think that today would have been a particularly proud one for me, and any other year it would have been. However, as I sit here in my bed typing this on my laptop, my wife Traci is beside me, in a hospital bed. She signed herself out of hospice yesterday, in one last ditch effort to prolong her life.

Many of you who know me, or who have been reading my posts here, know that Traci is battling metastatic melanoma. It is well documented on this blog, as well as other places online, how tough a disease this is to beat. Traci was diagnosed in August of last year, in fact, a year later, to the very day that I discovered my good friend Mike Wieringo had died. Less than a year later, the doctors have told us that she needs to prepare for the end of her life. We don't know how much longer that might be, but time is certainly short.

So, dear friends, while it is indeed a great honor to be nominated, this is not something I can enjoy or savor. Not right now anyway. I hold no illusions that I might win, with such distinguished talent in my category. However, I do recognize how incredible it is to be in such esteemed company. I would like to wish all the luck in the world to all the nominees. I would also like to thank all of you have written or called to congratulate me.

For my part though, I don't deserve any award. That honor belongs to my wife. If anyone should get an award it is Traci, for her tenacity, courage, and grace in the face of the disease that will soon take her life. For that reason, I'd like to do something completely unconventional. I know many people who win awards dedicate them to someone, but even if I were to win, I'm not certain if Traci will be here to see it. So, I'd like to dedicate this nomination to my beautiful, brave bride. Nobody should have to go through what she's dealing with, and the least I can do is allow her one more moment in the spotlight.

Trace, I love you with all my heart, and this one goes out to you, PMK.

All my love,
Rich

The Right Formula (1) - Yes, More Cars

2009-05-29T00:59:00.009-04:00

Hey, I'm back, and it hasn't even been a month! How about that? Seriously, I hate that it takes me so long between posts now. What's going on here at home is so exhausting that it takes me a while to be able to clear my head enough to post something coherent.

In any event, thank you all for the messages and the notes of support. As I said in a recent post, cancer sucks, but it's much easier knowing how many of you are out there thinking of us.

As my title states, I'm still working, albeit infrequently. A recent job called for me to draw cars, yet again. As it's something I love to do, it's always a fun time for me when I can. This particular job was pretty challenging though. The client is actually a colleague of mine who was working with a major Formula One sponsor on a comic book featuring the new F1 car design. This particular design is not something that is intuitive to draw. It's unlike any cars I've drawn before. The lines on the car are very curvy, almost abstract, and it took a while for me to be able to master the flow of the design. I see a few flaws in it myself, but my colleague and the client were happy. I wouldn't mind doing more of this type of work. Anyway, here are the images:

This image was used for the comic book cover.

This one was the double page spread.

I think I might post some of the rough versions of these at a later time to give some insight into my process.

I'll have to get to that later though. For now, I hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be back here soon.

Best,
Rich

For Mike (And Todd. And Matt. And Suzanne...)

2009-05-19T18:15:00.005-04:00

Thanks to everyone who has written with encouraging words about my wife's cancer. We both appreciate all of the sentiments. Quick update on Traci, and then I'll move on to the latest piece. She's now begun a new clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania, and we're hopeful that the success they've had with this combination of chemo and another drug will also apply to her. Although her cancer has advanced quite a bit since the time I mentioned it here, she's hanging in, and with the support of family and friends, we're managing to keep things afloat, and stay relatively sane throughout this difficult time.

As to the aforementioned friends, Matt and Suzanne Wieringo are a couple of very good ones. Many of you know about my friendship with Matt's brother Mike. Since Mike died, Matt and Suzanne and Traci and I have become good friends. They are actually a part of our (ever-growing) network of support, and have been incredibly kind to us in the face of Traci's illness. They recently came to see us for a visit, as detailed on Matt's blog, and we had a wonderful time seeing them. They also did a lot to help out around here, even though they were only with us for a little over a day. I'd had a little surprise waiting for them for a few months, and was so glad I could give it to them in person.

First, the background. Last summer, I attended Heroes Con in Charlotte for the first time. I'd brought copies of my NASCAR Heroes comics, and gave one to my good pal, Todd Dezago, who also happens to have been Mike's best friend. Todd was flipping through it at my table, and asked me something that I still feel honored by to this day. Looking at the portraits of the drivers I had done for the comic, he asked me if I'd be willing to do a portrait of Mike for him. I was floored, as I had actually intended to do just that for him as a birthday present (we share a birthday, October 10th) that fall. It's nothing new for Todd and I to be thinking of something at the same time. It's happened many times before. We attribute it to the common birthday, but really, it's probably just that we have the crazy gene in common! Anyway, this was one time that I was actually surprised by what he asked me, and of course, I told him I'd be honored to do the illustration for him.

Todd sent me a bunch of reference photos of Mike, and I went to work. I finished up the following piece in November, and now have permission to share it here:

Todd told me I could mention where he's using it, so it's for the upcoming Mike Wieringo Tellos tribute book. That's all I know about it at the moment, but Todd will be issuing a press release at the appropriate time. As for Matt and Suzanne, when they visited, I gave them two card stock copies of the portrait, one for them, and one for Matt's parents. It's probably one of the most meaningful pieces of art that I've ever had the privilege to create, and Matt told me it's now hanging in a particularly appropriate place of pride for me, the guest room where Mike stayed when he visited Matt and Suzanne. I can't think of a more touching place, and I'm so pleased that it means so much to them, my very good friends. Thanks guys!

I'll be back soon with more new art. In the meantime, in light of the previous, hug your loved ones, and make sure they know what they mean to you.

Best,
Rich

Free Comic Book Day 2009

2009-05-01T22:28:00.012-04:00

Hi everyone. Sorry I've been away so long again. Once again, it's due to my wife's illness. I'll detail things a bit more in my next post. In the meantime, I need to let all of you know about Free Comic Book Day. For those unfamiliar, tomorrow, Saturday, May 2nd is FCBD. Many comic book shops around the United States will be participating. The event is designed to bring new readers into the hobby of comic books. To this end, many publishers print up FCBD versions of some of their books to give away at the event.

This year, like in previous ones, I'll be at my pal Joe Murray's store, Captain Blue Hen Comics, in Newark, Delaware, along with my friends Jamar (Detective Boogaloo, Grosse Adventures) Nicholas, Franco (Tiny Titans) Aureliani, Scott (Scooby Doo) Neely, Neil (Superman Adventures, MANY others!)Vokes, and a few others. Joe's store is a beautiful family friendly place, and the event usually brings in a LOT of kids! It's always a fun time, and I'll be there sketching for kids all day. In years past, we've done Buzzboy, Roboy Red, and NASCAR Comics for FCBD, but the economy being what it currently is, we have no new books for this year's event. However, I will be bringing my own personal copies of past years' books to have on hand. I'll give those away for as long as I have copies.

In addition, I'll have many of my comic books for sale, including Buzzboy, NASCAR Comics, Impulse, Bug, and a bunch more of my DC and Marvel Comics work. I'll also have my Roboy Red and Drama Queen t-shirts for sale. Pictures of the shirt designs below:

Last, I'm going to dig out some posters I've had from previous conventions and FCBD events. I'll give those away as long as I have them too.

I hope you'll come by to see me and the others this Saturday! Click here for all the Captain Blue Hen FCBD news. Should be a fun day!

I'll be back soon with new art, and some other news soon.

Best,
Rich

Back To Work

2009-03-29T00:35:00.008-04:00

Wow, it's been nearly two months since I last posted! I'd feel guilty about that, if I didn't have good reason. Many of you know that my wife Traci is in the battle of her life, fighting metastatic melanoma. Stage 4. Sucks. Truly. However, she's a battler, and although the odds are stacked, she and I are maintaining a positive attitude. She's mostly stable for now, and stable in this type of cancer is a good thing. We continue to fight, hope, pray, whatever works.

Immediately following the New York Comic-Con, Traci was admitted to the hospital for a scheduled treatment. I won't go into the details, but it was to be a very intense and difficult one, and she was scheduled to be there for 5 days. Unfortunately, there were some major complications, and it was very dicey for a while. She wound up being in the hospital for a total of 13 days, and nearly 4 of them were spent in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. You can imagine how scary that was. Once she was released, it was a long road back to relative good health. She's still working on it, actually, so I've been heavily involved with my family for the better part of the past two months. Work has been a low priority, and in fact, I haven't even thought about it much since January. Taking care of my wife and son has been my full time job, of late.

However, before all of that, I did have a few projects that I completed, and it's my intention to show them here in the next few weeks. Also, I plan to gear up for a new work push beginning next week. As my wife is recovering, I'm trying to get back to my normal routine, as much as I can. So hopefully (or tragically, depending on your point of view!), you'll be hearing more from me again on a regular basis.

So, to get the ball rolling, here is an illustration I recently completed:

It's the second assignment I've had from WWE Kids Magazine, and as with the first, working on it was an absolute pleasure. The Art Director I work with there is fantastic, and I hope to continue working with him. Anyway, the gist is that it's a quiz, and the kids are supposed to guess who the wrestlers are, based on their boots. I thought it was kind of a funny thing, with the bathroom stalls, and the interesting designs. It was certainly a challenge to not only get each of the designs for the boots down, but to make them all distinctive, as well as recognizable. No easy feat (no pun intended) when so many of them are black! The issue is on the stands now. For more info, you can check the WWE website, here.

One other note: I've sold a number of my illustration prints, but I still have quite a few available, if you're interested. Just scroll down to the post below this one for pictures of what's available, as well as for details, and info about how you can order. As a bonus, just to show me you're a loyal reader, if you contact me with the subject line, "Print Sale," I'll give you my convention deal pricing, plus shipping! Have to pay for those medical bills somehow! I will be creating a specific section of my website soon, where all of my for sale items will be available, but for now, I'm doing this the low-tech way. Contacting me from my website via email is the best way to do this right now, so please bear with me, as I get everything set up. Thanks.

I'll be back soon with more art. I hope you'll be here with me!

Best,
Rich

New York Comic-Con 2009

2009-02-04T00:14:00.018-05:00

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. work has been keeping me busy, but more importantly, life has too. My wife Traci has had a few medical issues since last time, all of which have been mostly resolved (sort of), but when dealing with cancer, it's never simple. Anyway, she's doing relatively ok, under the circumstances, and is embarking on a new course of treatment next week. Thanks to all of you who have been writing and commenting. I appreciate all of the moral support.

Now, as for the title of the post, the NYCC is this coming weekend, from February 6-8th, and I will be there. Thanks to the generosity of my colleagues at Kids Love Comics, I will have a table with them at booth #1930, and will be selling all of my various wares, to help raise money for my wife's medical bills, as well as a lot of other related expenses we've been incurring. My hope is to come up with enough to keep things stable for another month or two, and I'm hoping you guys that will be there can help. Below are pics of most of the things I'll have for sale. I hope you'll drop by to see me, and maybe pick up a little something. In addition to what I'm showing here, I'll have 15 years of original comics art for sale, including Green Lantern, Steel, Titans, and many others. I will also probably be doing some character head shot sketches, for those interested. The main goal is to raise money, so I'll be there for the entire weekend, and try to stay at the table as much as possible, so I am able meet as many of you as I can. Please stop by to say hi. Thanks!

Now, here are the images (they've all been posted before, but never in one place!):

The above are each 8 1/2" x 11" prints, signed and numbered. I'll have them on sale for $30 each, or any two for $50.

The two baseball prints above are 11" x 14" prints, also signed and numbered, and will be $50 each, or both for $80.

I'll have the two t-shirts above for $15 each ($17 for 2XL), and I have virtually every size. The Drama Queen shirt also comes in a periwinkle color as well as the dark purple shown. The periwinkle version is just in a few limited sizes, for the same price. All of my shirts also come in kids sizes.

In addition, I'll be selling signed copies of a lot of my past DC and Marvel Comics, and since it's Kids Love Comics, it'll only be the all ages material, but that includes, The Bug One Shot, Legends of the DCU #40-41, which I co-wrote with my buddy Todd Dezago, featuring The Atom (Ray Palmer version), JSA: Sins Of Youth, featuring the Junior JSA, and a couple of copies of Impulse. All of these will be $3 each, or any two for $5.

Sorry for this detailed shilling, but I thought it would be best if you knew ahead of time what to expect. I'll have more for sale at this show than I ever have had in the past, so I want to make sure there's something for everyone. Again, I want to raise as much money for our cancer-related expenses as possible. Thanks, as always for all of the support! I hope to see you in New York!

Once I return, I'll begin establishing a way to purchase my stuff from here on the blog, as well as my website. Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Rich

Someday, My Prints Will Come

2009-01-09T23:43:00.008-05:00

Or rather, yours will. But not quite yet. I know I promised to have ordering info for my new prints (see here and here) this week, but work got in the way. Which is good for business, but meant a slight delay in me figuring out how to create the Paypal ordering buttons. I'll have them both here and on my website soon, once I'm out from under my deadlines. In the meantime, I do actually have the prints in my possession, so if you just can't wait, and you absolutely have to have one, or better still, all of them, NOW, please feel free to email me (my email is in the above links), or leave me a comment with your email address, and I'll get back to you. Either way, they are available now, just not quite "officially" yet.

Now, I'll leave you for the weekend with a baseball tie-in. The below image was part of a series of ads I did a couple of years ago, featuring this little mouse as the main character in various scenarios. I'll share more at some point, but with spring training only a month away, here's the little guy swinging away!

(pencils by John Gallagher, inks and colors by me)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T00:14:00.009-05:00

(pencils by John Gallagher, inks and colors by me)

What a strange year it's been. I can't help but feel this was the worst year we've ever had (my family, that is). However, I also have to appreciate the wonderful things that have happened to us this year too. I've come to appreciate how incredible people can be, and have learned how lucky we are to have supportive and encouraging family, friends, and colleagues. Despite all of the bad stuff we've gone through this year, my wife Traci and I both feel extremely fortunate. We never expected our lives to turn out the way they now are, but life is funny like that. It'll continue to throw us curves, and we'll continue to try to make things better.

We're still living two months at a time, and next week is Traci's off week from chemo. She had her treatment this week, and it was probably the easiest she's had. No nausea, and she's been feeling pretty decent since then, so it's good for now. In two weeks, we'll find out the status of her cancer, with some new scans. In the meantime, we're going to just try to relax, and hope for a great new year. We're trying to remain optimistic.

So, again forgive me for "going personal," and thanks to all of you. Thank you for being here, and reading this. Thank you for stopping by to look at my art, and for taking the time to say hi (and I'll say it again, please DO use the "comments" feature. I want to hear from YOU too!). Thanks in advance for continuing to check in throughout 2009 (and beyond!).

May it be a terrific, happy, and HEALTHY New Year for all of us.

It'll sure beat 2008...

Best,
Rich

PS: The prints are in! I'll share ordering info next week!

Prints Preview (Part 2), and some other thoughts

2008-12-23T12:55:00.017-05:00

To the art in a minute...

I'm sitting here in the infusion center with Traci, waiting for her to get her chemo, and it occurs to me how truly blessed we are. Yeah, I know that seems weird to say, given that she has stage 4 cancer, but we both feel that way. There are so many people who have shown us such kindness throughout this difficult process, and I just can't help but feel ok. My grandfather, who also happened to have stage 4 metastatic melanoma (yeah, we've been through this before in my family), had a phrase he often used, and it's one that when the chips are down, my family often quotes; "It'll all work out." Simple but true. One way or another, it will, and we'll be ok.

On a somewhat similar note, my friend Stephen Silver, an accomplished artist and character designer, wrote a really nice piece that I thought was apropos of our current situation. Check out "Today"

In my last post, I mentioned the art auctions my friends put together to help us out. After I posted, another page went up (I believe the auctions are all now completed), so I also wanted to add my friends Ande Parks and Phil Hester to my "thank you" roll. Phil's a great guy, extremely talented, and very generous. Ande is one of my closest friends, and I've known him longer than almost anyone else in the comics business. Ande has done some stuff behind the scenes for which I'll never be able to thank him enough. Really, both of these guys are terrific! Click those links, and check out their sites!

Alright, enough of the personal, and on to the professional. Last time, I showed you some previews of my new prints. Today, I have previews of the final two (for now). I've had enough requests for my baseball work that I decided to have a couple of the vintage ones printed. Here they are:

The prints should be in this week, and I'll have specific ordering info here, when they're available. In the meantime, if you'd like to get a jump on them, please feel free to email me at (bear with me) rich(underscore)faber(at)comcast(dot)net.

Thanks, and in case I don't post again until later, I hope you all have a happy, healthy (please!), and safe holiday!

Best,
Rich

Prints Preview (Part 1)

2008-12-19T01:05:00.007-05:00

Before I get to today's post, I need to alert you all to something that a bunch of very nice people are doing for my family. Spearheaded by Drew Geraci, an inker I've known for many years, a number of very talented comics artists have contributed artwork they've done to help pay some expenses towards my wife Traci's illness. Drew's friend Mark Hay has placed several of those pages of art on eBay. Click here to view the entire auction.

Thanks to Drew, Mark, Andy Owens, Paco Diaz, George Tuska, Tim Bradstreet, Ethan Van Sciver, Paolo Rivera, and my old pal, Andy Kuhn for donating the art. Special thanks to Heidi MacDonald for the initial post publicizing the auction, and to all of those who have and will bid on the items.

As for my own work, in yet another effort to raise money, I've previously mentioned that I've decided to create limited edition prints of some of my work. My printer informs me that most of them have been sent to press as I write this, so I should have them available shortly. The first four prints I'm having done are of some of my classic subjects; black and white graphic portraits I've created over the past few years. Here's a preview of what they'll look like:

For ease of uploading, I've included them here as one image, but each portrait will be printed separately, and sold individually. I will probably do some kind of deal for those that buy more than one, however. I'll have more details here, once the prints arrive. I'll also be doing another set of prints as well, featuring a couple of my baseball subjects. I'll show a preview of those early next week. Please check back then to get the full scoop!

If anyone out there reading has a suggestion for the best and easiest way to create a click-to-order system for either here, or from my website (or ideally, both), please feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments for me. I'm looking for ways to keep the process streamlined for everyone. Thanks!

Also, this is as good a time as any to mention that I enjoy getting feedback, so please feel free to comment on any of my posts. Few people take advantage of that feature, but I do love hearing from people, so please say hello if you're reading. Thank you!

Thanks, as always for visiting.

Best,
Rich

Reading Heroes Cover Art

2008-12-11T11:25:00.010-05:00

Hey, it's some new art! But before we get to that, for those that have been asking via email, yes, I am having prints made of some of my illustration work. I'm in the process of having the samples printed for review, and once I go forward, I'll have all of the pertinent info right here, including pricing, and how to order. Look for that, plus images of the available prints, in an upcoming post (probably within the next week). In the meantime, I'd like to remind everyone, including those coming in late, that I still have plenty of comics art for sale, and now have a list available. You can email me for that list, and I'll be happy to send it along. Last, there are also still quite a number of t-shirts left, so if you need a holiday gift, it's your lucky day! T-shirts make awesome gifts! You can read all about this stuff, as well as the reason for the big sale (for those unaware), in my previous post, here.

OK, so I promised new art! I've been very fortunate in my career to be able to work on a variety of things, and many of those intersect strongly with my personal interests. As many of you know, I'm a comics guy, and have been lucky to work on comic books for most of the major publishers. I am a car buff, and am one of the artists on NASCAR Comics, as well as having been able to draw cars for various other clients. I also love drawing likenesses, and have had a number of clients hire me to do portrait work. A few of those things (although no cars this time!) came into play on my most recent project. I'm going to be working on a comic book for the University of South Carolina. Former Olympic and WNBA basketball player, Dawn Staley, is now the coach of the USC team, and like me, has an interest in getting kids to read. While Kids Love Comics is my venue, Ms Staley does it through her own Dawn Staley Foundation. The University has contracted my client, Starbridge Media Group, to create a comic book about Ms Staley's efforts to promote literacy, called "Reading Heroes." Here's the cover:

I was given the rough layout by my editor, John Gallagher (who also provided the drawings on the rough), and I did the finished pencils, inks and colors. John did the design work and lettering. This project is really cool, and I'm looking forward to working on the interior of the book soon. I'll be posting that artwork as well.

In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about Dawn Staley or her Foundation, you can click here. I love the fact that I can work on stuff that helps promote reading, so this should be a great project!

Coming soon, I'll be posting some work from a few years ago that was inspired by The Incredibles! I seem to have a lot of Pixar connections lately!

Thanks for checking in, and I'll talk to you as again soon!

Best,
Rich

Back To Business - WWE/Cars

2008-12-04T21:17:00.011-05:00

But quickly, before that, I want thank all of you who have visited here in the past two weeks, and especially all of you who have reached out to me via email. I appreciate all of your kind thoughts, encouragement, and of course, the many requests for art. Thank you all. It all helps tremendously. I'm still looking for buyers for a lot of my art, taking orders for shirts, and accepting requests for commissions (although it may take a bit of time to get to some of that... bear with me, please), so please don't hesitate to write me. Last, thanks to Tom Spurgeon, who was kind enough to link back here about my wife's medical situation.

Now, as my title implied, I have some new work to show! A couple of months ago, I was contacted by World Wrestling and Entertainment (WWE) for a freelance project. It turns out that they have a kids magazine called (appropriately enough) the WWE Kids Magazine, and needed an illustrator who could draw cars, was familiar with NASCAR and has done comics. Apparently they did a web search, and found me! Which is great, because the art director I worked with on this project was probably the most professional AD I've worked with, and it was an OUTSTANDING experience! I'm hoping to get more work with them soon!

As for the actual project, I was asked to draw the wrestlers as cars, similar to the Pixar movie "Cars" (as you might have guessed), and place them in a racing setting (hence, the NASCAR connection). I hinted at this several posts back with a visual of the eyes of one of the characters (can you spot which one...?). So, here's what I came up with:

As I said above, this was so much fun to work on, and it was really right up my alley, in terms of combining cars and a comic style. I hwas very happy with the way it turned out, as was the client, but it was quite a challenge. It was a real learning experience, but one I enjoyed thoroughly. And if you're interested in seeing the work in the magazine, it's on stands RIGHT NOW, so hurry out to your nearest newsstand! You can see the cover (with a small inset of some of the characters I drew) at the WWE link above.

Please check back soon for some more new artwork. I have another sports-themed project on tap, and I've been authorized to post the image here soon! Stay tuned!

Best,
Rich

So Thankful

2008-11-27T23:54:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Just a quick list of the things I'm thankful for: My wife and our beautiful son; our families, and many, many friends; Traci's outstanding doctors and nurses; our health (Traci's cancer is currently stable!); our home; our careers, mine in particular right now; and all of the spectacular people who have reached out to me over the past several days. Thank you to all of you! I also need to thank the following folks, who have brought our situation to your attention: Steven Goldman, Johanna Draper Carlson, Heidi MacDonald, Rich Watson, Glenn Hauman, JK Parkin, and especially "The Roomies" (you know who you are).

I'll be posting some new art next week, so I hope you'll all return to see it! Thanks! I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday!

Best,
Rich

Personal Matters (or, Cancer Really Stinks!)

2008-11-18T18:09:00.023-05:00

Hi there. Due to the kindness of a good friend of mine, Steven Goldman, I'm guessing that some of you might be new here, so welcome! As a brief introduction, my name is Rich Faber, and I've been working as an Illustrator since 1993. I'm probably best known for my work as a comic book artist, having worked on such titles as (in no particular order) Green Lantern, Buzzboy, Titans, Steel, Adventures of Superman, X-Men, and many others. I also do the majority of my freelance work these days illustrating projects for a variety of clients, including the WWE, NASCAR, USA Networks, Scholastic, and New Line Cinema, among others. Normally, I showcase my work here, but today, I'm going to do something a little different; something a bit more personal.

Those of you who have visited here before might be aware that my wife has been ill. I've mentioned it here in previous posts, somewhat vaguely, because I'm not great at talking about my private life; especially in a place like this, where I've specifically established it to promote my work. However, now seems like a good time to break from that mentality a bit.

Back in August, my wife Traci was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. Yeah, it's a tough one, and while the diagnosis stinks, we're not the sort of people who give up, despite what statistics say. We hate statistics (well, except in baseball, where they're pretty useful!), and anyone who knows both of us will tell you that we're both really stubborn. I mean REALLY stubborn! Challenging diagnosis? Yeah, well, we'll see about that!

Traci's attitude is tremendously positive about all of this, and I'm trying to use my sense of humor to keep her amused... you know, when I'm not annoying her with all of the little insanities my life tends to bring. So we're not exactly laughing about all of this (well, maybe sometimes), but we're also not doing the "woe is me" dance either. We have a huge network of support, both family and friends, and that helps us get through each day too. Traci's been doing chemotherapy since September, and so far, she's tolerating the treatments very well. We're hopeful that we'll get some good news about the most recent scans.

So, mostly, we're good, in light of everything, but lately things have gotten a little hairy, financially. While we have health insurance, it's not covering everything. Medical bills and co-pays can truly be a drag. It's been tough for us to maintain our regular work schedules between treatments (and Traci's ensuing fatigue), doctor visits, and caring for our two year old son. So, as a result, our bank account is beginning to say, "Um, hey? Guys? What the HECK is going on!?" So we're looking for ways to generate more income, in order to keep afloat.

We're not in the habit of asking for money (or anything, for that matter), so I came up with a game plan (another baseball analogy. I'm sensing a theme) to ask for your help, and you'll get something cool in return. Everyone wins!

Here's what I have in mind: I have a backlog of 15 years worth of comic book art that I'd like to make available to finance some of the expenses. In addition, while I do have work on my desk, I'm looking to take on a little extra commission work (illustration, comics, etc.), and even more ideally, new illustration projects for clients. Ongoing work would be especially cool, but I hear we might have a little problem with our economy right now, so I'll understand if that's not feasible at the moment.

I can make it easy for anyone to make payments for either art or work, through my Paypal account. All you need to do is email me at rich(underscore)faber(at)comcast(dot)net (sorry about the format. Just trying to avoid "spambots," and I know you're all smart folks who will figure out my email address), and we can get the ball rolling. If you're interested in buying art, I can give you a general idea of what I have, and we can take it from there. I also have t-shirts available, which you can check out in this post. They're $20.00 each ($22.00 for XXL), which includes shipping. Orders to the USA only, please.

Oh yeah, I also came up with one last option too, just to make it even more accessible: for anyone who's not interested in buying or commissioning art, I'll also send out a signed comic book for any amount you'd like to contribute. I have a lot of my comic book work from over the years, and I can probably even do requests for specific signed copies, if I have them available. If you're interested in that deal, please use the above email address to Paypal any amount of your choice. I'll do this as long as I still have comic books with my work available.

The last piece of business I need to address is that my friend Steve, mentioned above, is also a survivor of malignant melanoma, and is an incredible inspiration to us. His kindness has included emotional support, and in an act of great charity, he's chosen to write about Traci and me in his latest edition of the Pinstriped Bible, a column he writes for the New York Yankees on their Yes Network's website. Here's a link to that column: Pinstriped Bible. Whether you're a Yankees fan or not, Steve's column is always entertaining, and a great read. He's a comics fan, a history buff, and always has an eclectic mix of humor, facts, stats where appropriate, and insight. It's never boring! Please take a few minutes to check it out, and give some traffic back to this good pal of mine.

Wow, that was a long post! If you're still here, I applaud your ability to stay awake. Thanks for bearing with me through it though. I hope you won't take my lame attempts at humor as meaning I don't take things seriously. It's just that in order to get through such a rough time, this is my way of coping. Also, if this post was too serious, it would have been waaaaay more boring than it already is! I know, because my first draft was exactly that, and even I had trouble getting through it! Anyway, as I said, yeah, the situation kinda sucks, but we're making the best of it. We're trying to laugh as much as we can, and stay positive. In any event, our goofy two year old boy won't allow us to get too down; he's just too funny! We know Traci is in extremely capable hands with the crack medical team working her case. We have every ounce of support we can get from family and friends, and are extremely blessed to have such an astounding show of good will and love from them. So, in short (not really), we have every reason to believe we'll get through this family crisis relatively intact.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this personal post. I promise to get back to art posting again soon, but for now, you have my sincere thanks for taking this all in, and hopefully, throwing some more good thoughts our way!

Best,
Rich

Election Day: Go Vote!

2008-11-04T01:29:00.008-05:00

OK, it's the moment we've all been waiting for: Election Day. I really don't do politics, but I don't see this as a political thing. Any of us who are eligible in the U.S. should be going out and doing what is our privilege and our responsibility. I believe this is the most important election in my lifetime, so I'm just using this forum (MY forum, actually) to encourage people do go out and elect a new president!

And yeah, I know it's an art blog, and so in keeping with the spirit, the above image is one I created to run as the backdrop for the cover to the retail edition of NASCAR Heroes #4. Here's how it looked on the actual cover:

Alright, well I'll see you on the other side of this momentous time for our country.

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Scary Self-Portrait (for Halloween)

2008-10-31T23:03:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone (I really wonder how many people see this, actually...). Thanks to everyone for the good wishes about my wife's illness. We have a lot of support, and hearing from everyone definitely helps keep our spirits up.

I also want to remind everyone that the deal I mentioned in my previous post for the t-shirts is still active. I'd really like to fill a bunch of orders, because, frankly, the medical bills are beginning to pile up, so we could really use the extra money around here. I hope that doesn't sound too much like begging, so let's just say it's more of a plea. Thanks for understanding.

Since it's Halloween, I thought I'd post something that is appropriate to the occasion. Then I realized I'd used up all of my scary illustrations a couple of years ago! So, in lieu of that, I decided to put something up that I've been told is a little scary. The original self portrait I had on my website (it's still in the portraits section)was a painting I did while in school at SVA. I always thought it turned out pretty well, so I thought it was a good piece to have on my website. However, when I began teaching several years ago, my students, who were kids (as opposed to college students) began to go to my website to see my work. Their parents did too, sometimes before the classes began each semester. Many of them would come into the first day of class and tell me they were worried that I might be mean, as the picture on my website was so scary. I was actually surprised to hear this, although I really shouldn't have been. Back when I was in school, I fancied myself to be kind of artsy, so I went for a piece that was a bit moody. So, really it was intentional that it looked that way, but it had been so many years, and I'd gotten so used to seeing it, that it didn't really occur to me that it wasn't the most... shall we say, welcoming portrait to have as my opening page!

So I finally updated it with a new self-portrait and relegated the original to the aforementioned portraits section. Here's the original. I'll let you make your own judgment about whether it's "scary" or not:

Happy Halloween!

Best,
Rich

10/10

2008-10-10T12:40:00.000-04:00

12:40 PM. That's what time I'm posting this, and what time it was 40 years ago today.

I don't normally talk much about my personal life here, as I consider this more of a forum for my professional work, however, I'm making an exception today. Along with my good friends, Todd Dezago, and Mike Penick, today is my birthday.

And yeah, I'm 40.

Which is totally fine.

In fact, I was actually looking forward to it. We were going to have a big party, and just have a great time. I mean, how often do you have such a momentous birthday? If you're lucky, every ten years or so, for roughly 70, 80, 90 years...?

Well as often happens in life, this year we were thrown a bit of a curve. As I've alluded to here in a previous post, about two months ago, my wife was diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening disease. I won't go into specifics here, for the sake of her privacy, but suffice to say that it's a difficult battle, and one that requires a lot of time and energy. Time and energy is tough enough in good health, when dealing with having a very active two year old son, but made even more difficult by our present circumstances. Anyway, now you know why my posts have been infrequent.

However, I don't want anyone out there to believe we're sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves. Quite the contrary. In fact, we're actually learning a lot about how blessed we are. We have an incredible support system: loving, caring families, incredibly generous, wonderful friends, outstanding colleagues, and a hell of a lot of hope. We're also keeping our senses of humor when possible. As I said, we have a 2 year old. It's hard not to!

I'm writing all this as sort of a reflection. I figure 40 is a good time to take stock. My life might not have taken the turns I've expected (whose does?), but aside from my wife's illness, I really can't complain. Despite what we're going through, I feel like my career is on a new upswing. I have work I care about, and am doing things with my work that helps others as well. I feel a sense of purpose as I haven't felt in years, both personally and professionally. It's a tough haul here, but we move forward every day. I suppose we all do, eh?

Ok, so all that aside, this is still an art blog, so in that vein, here's a small glimpse of part of my current project:

It might look a tad familiar, but it's not what you think it might be. All will be revealed soon. Sorry to be so vague, but until this sees print, I won't be able to say more.

One last thing: the shirts in my previous post did really well at the Baltimore Comic-Con. I still have plenty left though, and I'm still offering them for sale. If you'd like one, please email me through the "Contact" link on my website. I accept Paypal, and they cost $20.00 ($22.00 for XXL), which includes shipping. Orders to the USA only, please. I'm trying to raise money to help with medical bills, so as an added incentive, anyone who orders a shirt will also receive signed copies of various comics I've worked on (while supplies last).

That's it for now. Thanks for indulging me with this post, and for continuing to check in. I'll post again soon.

Best,
Rich

Baltimore Comic-Con 2008

2008-09-23T00:26:00.009-04:00

This weekend, September 27-28 is the Baltimore Comic-Con, one of my favorite shows. I plan to be there all weekend, at the Kids Love Comics booth. I'll have many of my kid friendly books for sale, including some classics from throughout my career. Those titles include the Bug One-Shot (Marvel), a couple of issues of the late, lamented Impulse (DC), Legends of the DCU, Sins of Youth, featuring the Junior JSA (DC), and possibly some others. In addition, I'll also be selling my Roboy Red shirts, as well as the brand new Drama Queen shirts. Here's what they'd look like if they were flat and made of paper:

Fortunately, these are beautifully screen printed, and I'm very proud to have them showcased at our booth!

Also, as usual, John Gallagher and I will have all the Buzzboy and Roboy Red books for sale! If you haven't gotten them before, now's your chance!

I hope I'll see you all there this weekend!

Best,
Rich

Status Update: Still Here. (and a podcast)

2008-09-12T17:19:00.011-04:00

I apologize for not updating in a while. Unfortunately, my absence has been due to a family illness. I might continue my sporadic posting for a while, but I'll try to keep up when I can. The near future should bring a whole batch of new artwork, so I'll share it as time allows. Thanks for your patience.

As those of you who keep up with my ramblings here know, back in July, I attended Heroes Con, in Charlotte, NC. While there, I ran into an old friend, Charlie LaGreca. Charlie was a production artist at DC Comics back in '93, when I first started working in comics on Steel. I used to go into the office back then to deliver pages, and sometimes, I'd work there in the production department. Charlie and I hit it off, and became good friends. Actually, he is directly responsible for me meeting my wife! Long story short is that he and I talked for such a long time one evening, that I missed a few trains to get home, and wound up meeting my wife on the train I took. If Charlie didn't have the gift of gab, I would have gone home as scheduled, and I might still be single today! Remind me to tell you the full story someday. It's a good one!

Anyway, I told that story because it indirectly relates to today's post. So, on the subject of Charlie's ability to converse, he now does a podcast (among many other things! Check his website, and don't worry about the fact that he spells his name wrong!) about independent comics called Indie Spinner Rack. Charlie has been trying to get John Gallagher and me on his show for a few years now, to talk about Buzzboy and Roboy Red, but our schedules never synched up. Fortunately, the laid back nature of Heroes allowed us that opportunity. It was a lot of fun to do, and I have a link! Here you go:

http://indiespinnerrack.blogspot.com/2008/08/indie-spinner-rack-issue-136.html

If you just want to hear John and me talking with Charlie, our section begins a little more than halfway through. However, it's a cool show, so you might want to listen to the whole podcast (for those that are reading this because you like the kids comics we produce, please be advised that although John and I always keep it clean, there is some PG-13 language in some of the other sections of the podcast. Disclaimer mode off).

I hope you'll take a little time to listen in. We enjoyed doing it, and hope Charlie will have us back again sometime soon.

Have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich

Albert Einstein - Finished!

2008-08-15T16:07:00.006-04:00

I had almost two hours to kill in a waiting room this morning, so I brought my art supply toolbox and the Einstein piece that I showed in progress last week. It was nice to be able to relax with my artwork for a change, rather than having to do something for someone else on deadline. This was one of those rare occasions when I could just do my thing, with nothing else in mind. I usually pick at my work, and make small adjustments even after it's "finished," and right now I see some things I could have done a bit better. However, in this case, I think I'll let it stand as is.

You might notice the increased details, added contrast for depth, and especially, that I fixed that wandering eye Albert had in my previous version. I don't have the opportunity to do ink washes very often, so this was fun!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich

'Ringo - One year later

2008-08-12T19:02:00.006-04:00

Well, it's been a year since our friend Mike Wieringo died, and I wanted to make sure I marked the sad anniversary, without being maudlin. So, as Mike would say, "just a quick one today..."

I finished this sketch literally about 3 minutes ago. It's just a quick visual impression I have of Mike.

Despite my looking at a couple of photos, I know it really doesn't look like Mike, but it feels "right" to me anyway. I hope it does his memory justice.

We all still miss him.

Best,
Rich

In Progress: Einstein Portrait

2008-08-02T00:59:00.007-04:00

Last November, my wife and I had a little weekend getaway on Shelter Island, which is a small island just north of East Hampton, NY, on Long Island. While there, I began this ink wash piece of Albert Einstein. Ironically, this was created within miles of where Einstein spent a number of summers.

However, that piece of information never crossed my mind until just this moment, as I was trying to think of something interesting to write. On that note, here's the work:

I plan to add quite a bit more contrast and depth to it, and I'm hoping that by posting it, I'll force myself to commit to completing it!

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Herding Cats

2008-07-25T15:34:00.004-04:00

A few years back, I was approached by a potential client who wanted me to create an image based on a phrase, for a book on business terminology. While the job ultimately didn't happen, I was fairly happy with my interpretation. I'm never 100% satisfied with my work (and hope never to be, to allow for growth as an artist), but I think this worked reasonably well. The phrase was "herding cats," as in, it's tough to get everyone's thoughts going in the same direction on an assignment. Hence, it's as difficult as herding cats. Or something like that. Anyway, here it is:

I'm missing San Diego's Comic-Con this weekend, but I'm happy to be home with my family for a change. So, I'll be enjoying this weekend. Hope you all do as well!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Another Car (Going Waaaay Back)

2008-07-19T00:01:00.005-04:00

Things have been pretty crazy here, so I need to keep this brief. This piece is yet another car, a BMW M1. I was reminded of it because while this car looks pretty modern, it was actually a 1979 production model, and BMW is doing an updated version of it. I read that in a car magazine, and the new car is pretty cool. Anyway, that's not why this goes way back. The reason is that the photo I referenced is one I took at a car show around 1982 or so. I'll let you all in on a little secret: the following illustration, while updated in 2002, was actually drawn while I was in high school, nearly 15 or so years before that! I think I originally drew it while a senior, which would put it circa 1985-86! When I was redoing my illustration portfolio in '02, I decided that the drawing was still strong enough, and with a few small tweaks, professional enough to use. I still like it anyway, so here it is:

The original piece is around 3 feet long, and was a real bear to scan! I hope you like it.

Have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Baseball in Pastels

2008-07-11T17:01:00.005-04:00

This one is a pretty old one. When I was attending the School Of Visual Arts back in the early '90s, one of my assignments was to create a collage from pictures found in magazine ads, then recreate the entire collage in pastel. This is from my foundation year, which was 1990, and as you can see, I leaned toward photorealism, even then. This particular piece is a detail from a larger work. The original pastel is about 24" x 36," with this detail being around about 12" square. The ball itself is around 8" wide, so it's fairly large.

I don't think I've worked in pastel since then, but I have a lot of pieces I did in my illustration classes, and I really enjoyed the medium. I might have to try my hand at it again someday, although the mess from the pastel dust always drove me crazy...! Oh well.

I hope you have a nice weekend. I'll be back next week with more art, and hopefully, my HeroesCon report.

Best,
Rich

The Art of Sequential - Following Up

2008-07-10T16:59:00.007-04:00

Last month I posted about this juried exhibition in which I was invited to participate. As you'll see from the previous post, I entered the sequence of pages I drew for NASCAR Heroes. The exhibition was co-curated by my friends Rich Harrington and Jamar Nicholas, and the juror was another good friend of mine, Mike Manley. Mike wrote up his observations about the afternoon here, so I'm going to just give the highlights of my time there.

Despite the fact that this show was judged by a buddy, and curated by two other friends, I really didn't expect to win anything. Mike is a discerning art critic, and is not easily impressed. After 15 years of friendship with him, I know this intimately. That being said, he is one of the first people I trust with critique about my own work. He's a phenomenal artist, and I completely respect his opinions.

Which is why I'm so humbled by the fact that he selected my work for an Honorable Mention! That award really means a lot to me, particularly as I know Mike's standards. In reality, the award should also be credited to my partner-in-art, John Gallagher. John provided the rough layouts, and while I did the drawings, he did a lot of the really hard work, making sure the story was being told in an interesting way.

Jamar and Rich really made the event fun, and I want to publicly thank both for their invitation to participate. I can't wait for the next show!

Ok, I also have pictures to share from the day, so here they are:

Jamar, Rich, and Mike announce the awards.

Rich, Mike and Jamar looking smooth!

The guys ham it up, after they've handed me the certificate.

The award, and my artwork.

Jamar and me posing with the pages.

It was a fun time, and I hope I'll have the honor of participating in the next show!

Check back soon for my overdue report about Heroes Con.

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Animation Creation

2008-07-04T11:25:00.002-04:00

I was trying to think of something a little different to show. I've played around a bit with some very basic animations in Photoshop and Image Ready in the past, but I don't think I've ever posted them, so here's one I thought would be fun to show.

This is the first one I ever did, with the help of my good friend Howard Porter. Howard walked me through the step-by-step of creating an animated gif, which I then used to do, well, a step-by-step... of how to draw Roboy Red. I posted the original tutorial a while back. Here's the result of this experiment(click the link below the screenshot to see the animation):

http://www.richfaber.com/Howyagonna_Roboy_animation.gif

Obviously, I'm no pro at this, but it is something I plan to do more of, and as I do them, I'll post them here.

I hope you all (both...?) have a very happy and healthy Independence Day.

Best,
Rich

Independence Day

2008-07-04T10:58:00.007-04:00

Ok, I know you've all been just clamoring to know where I've been the past two weeks, right? Um... hello...? Is anyone still there..?

Just kidding. Sometimes I wonder if anyone beyond a few people actually read this thing. I think my Mom does. Maybe my Dad too. Oh well. I guess I'm just feeling a little dependent today, which is ironic, since it's Independence Day!

Anyway, my family and I just returned from a two week vacation tour of the south, seeing friends in Raleigh, North Carolina, moving on to HeroesCon in Charlotte, then onto Baton Rouge, LA and Hammond, LA to see some of my wife's wonderful family, a couple of side trips to New Orleans, where appropriately enough, my son threw up (not for the usual reasons people barf in NOLA), and then to a town near Nashville, TN, where we stayed with our friends, Scott and Donna Sava, he of the terrific Dreamland Chronicles. From there, it was home, through western Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and finally back to Pennsylvania. Whew! That's 3000 miles of driving, and I'm still exhausted, even after two days of being home.

So, all that to say that I'll be posting more frequently soon, including the follow up to the Philadelphia Sketch Club event, as well as a report on HeroesCon with pictures. I hope to get to that this weekend, but please forgive me if I catch up on sleep instead. My intentions are good. One thing that will be up in the next few minutes in a new Portfolio Showcase. I had extremely limited internet access while away, so I wasn't able to post my regular Friday offering. I should be back to doing that each week now, and for the foreseeable future.

For now, I'll leave you with this flag image I created for the background of the cover of NASCAR Heroes #4, out in stores now:

The image was created completely digitally, using the pen tool in Photoshop.

Hope you have a great holiday weekend!

Best,
Rich

The 'Ringo!

2008-06-18T00:10:00.007-04:00

I'll be in Charlotte, North Carolina for HeroesCon this weekend, where I'm going to have the opportunity to participate in something unique and wonderful. Here's the press release, with all the details:

Mike Wieringo Scholarship “The ‘Ringo” Announced

Wieringo’s Friends and Family to Host Special Fundraising Booth at Heroes Con

CHARLOTTE, NC (June 16, 2008) When Mike Wieringo abruptly passed away last August, the comics industry lost more than a great artist and creator – it lost a friend. Now, Mike’s family has teamed with the Savannah College of Art and Design to create The Mike Wieringo Scholarship or “The ‘Ringo” to help keep his spirit of generosity alive.

Created by Mike’s brother Matt and his sister-in-law Suzanne, the ‘Ringo is designed to help provide similar help to artists at the Savannah College of Art and Design or SCAD. Domestic and international students with have a minimum 3.0 grade point average who demonstrate financial need and display a serious interest in pursuing comics as a career are eligible. The scholarship will take effect in the artist’s second year of classes, and is renewable for up to two additional years, provided the student continues to meet the criteria.

The recipient will be chosen from three finalists determined by the college in a portfolio review by Matt and Suzanne Wieringo, along with a rotating group. The ultimate goal for the ‘Ringo is to raise enough funds so that it can cover a full year’s expenses at SCAD, approximately $30,000.

Toward this end, a table staffed by Mike’s family and friends will be set up in his traditional spot in Artists Alley at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. Heroes was a big part of Mike’s life and career, and was the industry event he most looked forward to every year.

The table will raise funds through donations and the sale of remaining copies of Mike’s sketchbooks, copies of comics featuring Mike’s work, selected pieces of Mike’s original artwork, sketches by Mike’s friends in the industry who will be appearing at the booth, and items donated by other comic professionals. Pros appearing include Jeff Parker, Rich Faber, Craig Rousseau, Todd Dezago, Mark Waid, Cully Hamner, Richard Case and more to be announced.

“SCAD is one of the most impressive programs in the world to focus on the medium of comics,” says Jeff Parker, creator of The Interman and Agents of Atlas, who worked with Mike at Artamus Studios. “I’m pretty sure Mike would have loved to have attended such a place in his student days. It would make an excellent legacy for him if we can grow the Ringo scholarship into a launch pad for the future greats of comics.”

Despite his success on such books as The Flash, Fantastic Four and his own creator-owned Tellos, Mike Wieringo never forgot what it was like to be a struggling creator. For many up-and-comers, Mike served as a mentor and friendly voice, whether it was providing free covers, advice, or just the encouragement to keep going.

With your help, the Mike Wieringo Scholarship can continue to grow and help a new generation of creators get the training and connections they need to start their careers. Mike’s talent, enthusiasm and generosity inspired many in the comics industry to be their best as both creators and as human beings. With your help, Mike will continue to be an inspiration for creators in decades to come.

I'm very pleased and honored to be included in this incredible tribute to the life of my friend Mike. For more on how this came to be, please check out my friend (and Mike's brother) Matt Wieringo's blog here. This one really means a lot to Matt, obviously, so go over there, leave a comment, and show your support! Thanks!

I hope I'll see you in Charlotte!

Best,
Rich

PS: For those wondering about the Philadelphia Sketch Club event, I'll post some pictures and news soon!

Juried Exhibition Alert!

2008-06-14T16:14:00.009-04:00

In my previous posts, I've neglected to mention that my sequential work for the NASCAR Heroes comic book has been accepted in the Philadelphia Sketch Club's Annual Juried Exhibition of Sequential Art, "The Art of Sequential." This is the second PSC exhibition in which my work has been accepted, and the last time I won in my category! I'm not sure lightning will strike twice, but it'll be fun to find out. The reception is this Sunday, June 15 (yes, it's Father's Day). If you're in the Philadelphia area this weekend, please stop by. You can find directions to the Sketch Club on their website, http://www.sketchclub.org.

Oh, and here's one of the pages that made the show:

I hope to see you tomorrow at the Sketch Club!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Feeling Super

2008-06-13T23:49:00.007-04:00

Ok, I'm back onto the Portfolio Showcase kick, so here's something I did a few years ago for a client. They were looking for something "Super" looking, if you catch my drift. I'm sure you will, once you see the images. Anyway, I had to put the character in a few poses, and here's the initial shot:

I've included the final inks here, and with the flying pose below, I also wanted to show a variation on the outstretched arm. The client asked for the arm to be raised a bit from the pencils, so that's what I did. Here's the final inked version:

... and here's the original pencil rough:

Finally, I was asked to create some variations on the facial expression from the original pose. Here's what I came up with:

I really enjoyed this job. I always love being able to work on character designs, and am actively seeking to do more at all times. If anything new comes up, I'll be sure to post it as well.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend, and happy Father's Day to all those Dads out there!

Best,
Rich

In Progress: 1959 Ford Thunderbird Sketch

2008-06-06T22:37:00.004-04:00

Since my blog seems to have become "Portfolio Showcase" all the time, I thought I'd do something just a bit different this week: an in-progress sketch. I rarely show my work before it's finished, but I thought this might give a little insight into how I begin my process. The sketch below is how I begin most of my car illustrations. I generally begin with a rough of the car, and refine the sketch to something resembling the actual car. This is an example:

Believe it or not, this will eventually become a fully rendered photo realistic car illustration. It might take a while to do this one, as I have other work on the table, and this is a personal piece. However, I will share, and I'll post more progress as I go.

Have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Bugged!

2008-05-31T01:04:00.006-04:00

Back in 1997, I was hired to ink my very first Marvel Comic, called "Bug." for those who might not be familiar, Bug was a Micronauts character, and while Marvel no longer had the Micronauts license at the time, they still retained the rights to any characters that weren't toys, and were specifically created for the Micronauts series, published some years before by Marvel. It's a long convoluted story, of which I'm sure you can do a search on to learn the history, but the bottom line is that Marvel got to keep the rights to Bug. Lucky for me! Not only was it a fun comic to work on (one which very few people even know exist. I think I might have more comped copies of it than were actually sold!), but it also marked my first work with my now longtime buddy, Todd Dezago. It was a heck of a lot of fun to work on, and I really enjoyed inking my other pal, Derec Aucoin,who is now called Derec Donovan (another long story). The drawing below is NOT from that issue, but rather, a fan-requested sketch. If anyone is interested, I'll actually have copies of Bug, as well as some original art from the book, for sale at Heroes Con next month in Charlotte.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the drawing:

Speaking of conventions, while I won't be set up at a table, I will be tooling around at Wizard World Philadelphia this weekend, so if you see me walking the floor, feel free to stop me to say hello. Unless I'm in the men's room. Then you should wait. ;-)

On that charming note, have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Ice Sculpture Design

2008-05-25T12:13:00.004-04:00

Just a quick one today. I missed Friday, due to my wife's birthday, but I wanted to be sure to post something for the week.

Three years ago, my grandfather turned 90, and my family had a big surprise party for him. My mom wanted to do an ice sculpture for the party, based on an old photo of him, so she asked me to come up with a design. Here's the sketch we sent the sculptor:

This sketch is based on a photo of my grandfather in front of a 1933 Ford, and because of the nature of ice sculpture, I had to pare down the details, in order to make it easy on the sculptor to work out the construction. This sketch is also actually the basis for another illustration I plan to do sometime. If I can find the pictures of the ice sculpture itself, I'll try to post that too. Enjoy the rest of this long (at least here in the U.S.) weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: MinoriTeam

2008-05-16T15:49:00.012-04:00

Back in late 2006, my pal Mike Manley was working on a cartoon called MinoriTeam, for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup. It was a politically incorrect take on superheroes, and the character designs were based on Jack Kirby's Marvel Comics style. As production progressed, it became clear that there was more work than Mike was able to do, and he recommended me to work with him on the show. It was my first time working on a cartoon, and it was a terrific experience. Although the content was definitely not for the kiddies, it was work that I'm still proud of. My job was to take the pencil drawings of characters and other assets, and not only ink them, but redo them a bit to get them "on model." This meant that any design that didn't look like Kirby had drawn it, had to be redrawn to capture that Kirby flavor. I can't tell you how much fun this was, and it was an incredible time of training for me. My output had to be fast and prolific. I did about 80 illustrations each week! The drawings were then scanned and sent in to be animated using Adobe's Flash program. I've since done a bunch of other jobs in this way, although in those cases, I generated the drawings from start to finish, but none has been seen by so many people. Anyway, enough talking. Here are some of the illustrations I worked on (I should be clear, and tell you that I didn't generate the original drawings, but I did redraw a lot of them. These are some favorites):

This character was the toady of the main bad guy (sorry, I don't remember a lot of the characters' names)

A nice group shot of the bad guys.

The above two are obviously a Frankenstein's monster/Hulk type. He was also a bad guy. Love the Hawaiian shirt! I love the look of this character, and truthfully, I didn't do much to the pencils, as I thought they were really well done as they were.

A stuffed killer panda. I don't know either...

The above three images should give you a basic idea of my process. On the left are the pencils I was provided, and on the right are my inks/finishes. A lot of the changes are somewhat subtle, but I think you'll get the overall idea.

Well, that's it for now. Have a nice weekend! I'll be back next week with more neat stuff, and maybe even an announcement!

Best,
Rich