Happy New Year!

(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!

Back To Business - WWE/Cars

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