To The Dogs

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best,
Rich

Kickstarter! Comic Book Diner Graphic Novel Project!

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

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

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



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

See YOU at Baltimore Comic-Con!

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!

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

School Library Journal Interview From HeroesCon

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

Free Comic Book Day 2009

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

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

Portfolio Showcase: Animation Creation

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

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

More Roboy Preview Pages!

As promised, here are some lettered pages from the 2008 Free Comic Book Day story:





I don't want to spoil the ending, so I'm keeping the last two pages to myself for now. Also, I know the colors look a little garish here, but the print colors will look more like what I posted on Monday. I'll have a printout of the full story at the New York Comic-Con this Friday through Sunday, so please be sure to stop by Kids Love Comics booth #2242 this weekend for a peek! I'll spill some more details about FCBD, where I'm appearing, and some other tidbits next week.

See you in New York!

Best,
Rich

New York Comic-Con April 18-20

As promised, just a quick announcement to let you all (both...?) know that I'll be exhibiting as part of Kids Love Comics at the New York Comic-Con this weekend. The booth number is #2242. For further details, check out the KLC Blog.

And since this is a visual arena, here's a quick tease for our upcoming Roboy Red story for Free Comic Book Day:





If I can, I'll post more from the story tomorrow, or Wednesday. After that, it's off to New York! I hope to see you there!

Best,
Rich