New York Comic-Con 2009

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

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!

(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

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)

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

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

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

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!)

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!

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)

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

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

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

Albert Einstein - Finished!

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

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

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

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)

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

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