Baltimore Comic-Con 2008

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)

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

The Art of Sequential - Following Up

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

Free Comic Book Day - May 3, 2008

This Saturday, as I have for the past few years, I'll be appearing at Captain Blue Hen Comics, in Newark, Delaware for Free Comic Book Day. I'll be there along with my friends, Mike Manley, Jamar Nicholas, Scott Neely, and of course, John Gallagher. There will be some other artists there as well. You can check the Captain Blue Hen website for more specific details. We'll also be doing workshops, and a bunch of community outreach stuff. Joe Murray, Blue Hen's owner, always has a lot of great things set up for families. John and I will have two FCBD books to sign... Our Kids Love Comics anthology book, "Comic Book Diner," featuring a brand new Roboy Red story, Buzzboy, and a number of other all-ages stories from our KLC friends, as well as the FCBD issue of NASCAR Heroes (the covers to both books are below). It should be a great day, and I hope we'll see you there! If you're not able to make it to Newark, I hope you'll look for these two books at your local comic book shop:





Best,
Rich

NASCAR Heroes - Free Comic Book Day Cover Art (UPDATED)

There seems to be an automotive theme here lately! In keeping with two of my interests, cars and comics, I've been fortunate enough to be able to combine the two in my career. Here's the latest example:



This will be the cover to the Free Comic Book Day edition of NASCAR Heroes (follow the link for info about this comic series). Design, roughs, and layout by John Gallagher, finishing inks and colors on the figures by me, and the cars were rendered by Smiley Guys Studio.

I'll post some other new art soon, maybe even some non-automotive stuff! ;-) Also, more info soon on this year's Free Comic Book Day event. Watch this space! Thanks for keeping up with my work!

***UPDATE!***
I just received my copies of NASCAR Heroes #3, the issue that features the pencil art of the cars in the previous post. It's now out in stores, and you can get your copy by going to your local comic shop! If you're not sure where that is, click here: Comic Shop Locator. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention about those illustrations: I drew them in pencil (an "F" pencil, if you're curious), and colorized them digitally in Adobe Photoshop. Here's an example of what the original pencils look like:



And just for fun, here's a preview of the page as it appears in the comic:



I hope you'll pick up both comics. I can tell you, from my copies of issue #3, the quality of the printing is excellent, and I'm really proud of the work. Thanks!

Best,
Rich