a mirror image... : coloring

Didst thou ever want to be a pirate?

Jason Embury — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:31:00 GMT

I think everyone has wanted to be a pirate at one point in their life. Especially when you’re a child. Thrills, excitement, danger, sword fights, and all of the swashbuckling fun that goes with being a scallywag. There are very few adventures you can undertake as an adult that hold that kind of wide-eyed wonderment, and even fewer jobs you can wind up having that fill you with that enthralling sense of fascination. I’ve been very, VERY lucky the last 3 years of my adult life to have such a job. But I’m not sailing the high seas, raising a flag with a jolly roger on it up the mast, drinking obscene amounts of rum or pretending like I know how to handle a sword (well...that’s not entirely true, I do enjoy drinking obscene amounts of rum now and again) No, I’ve been coloring comic books and doing illustration and digital painting commission work, but mostly coloring comics. So while that can be a pretty exciting job, that allows you a lot more freedom and the occasional moment of wide-eyed wonderment, it can also at times be the thing that causes the kind of stress which drives you to want to drink obscene amounts of rum for one reason or another. Trust me on this. Taking into account all of the positive and negative aspects that come along with being a freelance artist, it is still almost like stumbling upon buried treasure when you come across a project that gives you freedom, enjoyment and offers you the opportunity to grow as an artist. So I was more than a little wide-eyed with wonder when I was given the opportunity to work on my next comic coloring project...... Neverland. THE Neverland, of Peter Pan fame. My absolute favorite story of all time. Everything that you ever dreamed of doing when you were a child, meeting Indians, giant pirate ships, rescuing maidens in distress, fighting pirates and fighting WITH pirates, living in a treehouse, mermaids, fairies, sword fights, danger, excitement, and lots and lots of FUN. Especially when you take into account the fact that THIS version of Neverland is going to be a darker, more twisted version of the classic tale, complete with all sorts of new interpretations on the characters we all know, and introducing some new ones as well. All of the things I love, and an opportunity to really showcase all of the strongest elements in my work. You can read more about the series here,

Neverland Interview

and yes....Captain Hook...... ....if you’re listening, I really DO want to be a pirate. :D

Custom Sketch card commissions are open!

Jason Embury — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:32:00 GMT

you can visit my personal blog for all of the details!

http://www.jasonembury.net/blog/

Virtual Comic book convention

Jason Embury — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:51:00 GMT

figured that I’d set up a virtual table for the upcoming Facebook Comic Convention in March. Head on over to my page and join up, Jason Embury’s virtual table for the Facebook Comic Convention.

not much time for that much rambling right now. Working on Take a Chance #5 right now, as well as starting colors for 1001 Arabian Nights: Adventures of Sinbad #9, cooking dinner and taking care of a sick wife, running kids to basketball games and practices, and trying to find time to get some gaming in still. Not to mention planning out the rest of my year so I can get some personal projects completed too. and boy is that Prince of Persia for PS3 is addicting for some reason (i’ve got to get back to it some time soon here), and I’ve found myself playing some OLD SCHOOL Castlevania lately on the Wii. Who needs sleep right?

Monday morning meanderings.

Jason Embury — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:26:00 GMT

forgive the spelling mistakes today. just finished an all nighter, literally, and I could care less about how many spelling errors I make right now. just wrapped up colors for Beyond Wonderland #4 with Nei Ruffino, Garry Henderson, and Blond (who came on at the last minute to save all our butts) The issue is made of complete AWESOME in my opinion, Dan Leister did an amazing job on the art for the book. Put on a pot of coffee for my wife who's waking up in about 5 minutes now, thinking of cooking a huge breakfast, and then crashing till the afternoon once these high rez files finish uploading. I probably won't take off the entire day today, I'll squeeze in another page or so I think likely as not. Strangely, not too tired right now, so if I can't fall asleep I may just stay up all day and dork around. this week, have to get the rest of our xmas shopping done, for the kids. I have a couple things left to get my wife, but I think we're planning on heading into town on Friday to do shopping. then I'll probably take the kids either Saturday or Sunday to pick up gifts for her. It's pretty apparent that I'm jumping all over the place right now too. It's been really refreshing to have so much work lately, regardless of how busy it seems I am. I'd much rather be swamped right now, than be out of a job like so many other people. I think I'm doing some good work too, at least it seems that way to me :D I'm pretty happy with what I've been cranking out, and I've been cranking out a LOT of stuff. The first issue of my Dabel Bros. comic, Take A Chance is out this month. Can't wait to get a copy of that and check it out, the art is fantastic, and I love the concept of the story (and the writing) K, I'm losing it, it's time to wrap things up, and get something to eat here, I'm starving!!!!!!

Quick random thoughts for Thursday.

Jason Embury — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:07:00 GMT

Was a long day yesterday. Took my daughter to get her braces on yesterday morning. It was probably the LEAST stressful appointment I've ever taken her to for anything. She did a really good job of not getting too worked up, and she seems to be taking the right approach to getting braces. She likes them, and isn't all upset about having to get them either, which is a good attitude to have considering she has to wear them for almost 2 years :D She toughed it out at school yesterday, and is still a little sore today as well, but she's doing a good job handling it, and I'm proud of her.

It was a late night last night. Went to see the MSU/N. Carolina game at Ford Field with my son and his friend and his dad and brothers. Was a good time, and the kids had a blast. MSU got TRUCKED by 35 points, and they embarrassed Detroit, the auto industry, MSU and the LIONS on ESPN this morning when they played the highlights of the game, but the kids enjoyed going and staying up so late on a school night. My son was dragging this morning heading to school, and I won't lie, I'M tired myself this morning too. I took some pictures, and shot a couple of short videos as well.

I finished a painting commission yesterday that I've had for a couple of weeks, and it turned out good I think. I've got 4 days less to finish my Grimm Fairy Tales annual here, but I'm DONE with prior commitments and stuff now until I'm finished with the book, so I'm looking to knock pages out like nobodys business the next week here. Then I have 6 pages left to finish up issue 3 of Take a Chance, then I MIGHT be tackling Grimm Fairy Tales issue 35 before the end of the year as well. So things are definitely busy on the work front. Somewhere in there, I have to find time to take the kids xmas shopping for their mom too.

I need another pot of coffee today for sure, and maybe another piece of the AWESOME peanut butter/chocolate fudge my wife made. mmmm, mmmmm good!!!!

Monday morning musings.

Jason Embury — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:58:00 GMT

Was a busy weekend decorating the house, setting up the xmas tree and working here. Wanted to take as much time AWAY from the studio as I reasonably could with a deadline only 2 weeks away here. Still a few things on my mind this morning as I prepare for another LOOOONNNNGGG day in the studio here.

First off, I didn't get a chance to sit down and really express what I was thankful for this year, even though I may have done that in my head the last few days. So here goes...I'm incredibly thankful for such a beautiful, loving wife (even though when I say that out loud it always sounds like kissing up or sarcasm it's not, I genuinely mean it) I'm thankful for the 2 kids which have caused me to age prematurely, start losing my hair, turn the hair I DO have still to gray..just kidding. I'm incredibly thankful to have 2 very intelligent, well mannered (when they want to be) talented, loving children. It makes the difficult job of parenting that much easier, because everyone knows I'm unfortunately not the most patient person in the world, even though I try to be.

I'm also very thankful for the job that I have, even WITH all of the ups and downs that come with being a freelance artist. I'm afforded the luxury of working out of a beautiful home, having my own studio right off the upstairs living room, and being able to spend my days coloring comics, creating artwork and painting. It's been a hectic, rollercoaster ride of a year here, however I am looking at my 5th straight year of growth since I started freelancing, and I'm actually making more money than I have at any other job I've ever had before. It's encouraging to keep setting the bar higher and higher, and somehow finding a way to get over it. It's not easy by ANY means, but it is rewarding.

other things that I'm trying to file away this morning....I've got 14 days to get 41 pages of comics colored here for 2 different books, and a painting to finish before Wednesday. Lots of work. I can do it, but thankfully we got the house decorated for Christmas over the weekend, the tree is up, and all of that is out of the way. The only other real tricky part over the next 2 weeks is this Wednesday. Taking my daughter to get her braces in the morning (which won't be nearly as bad as she thinks), then am headed down to Ford Field with my son to catch the MSU vs. North Carolina basketball game which doesn't start till 9pm. Going to be a LATE night. Then it's JUGGERNAUT mode until I'm done with deadlines and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, a little time off this year for the holidays. I've got a staircase and railing in the basement that needs painting, and some other things I'd like to get done around the house, in addition to being able to just relax with the family this year.

k, time to get things going this morning, finish the page I started at 7:30 and find a groove.

Quick random thoughts for Tuesday.

Jason Embury — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:32:00 GMT

I'm groggy this morning. I have a bit of a headache as well, which doesn't mix with being groggy very well at all. The good thing is, that I don't have to go anywhere today to get to work. The roads are a mess my wife informed me after dropping the kids off at school. So once I imbibe enough coffee this morning to actually start functioning I'll be set.

Flipping through a book I just sold on ebay as I was getting it ready to mail out, I came across a great little quote by Normal Rockwell. It went something like this, "Painting is like throwing a ball against a wall, it never comes back to you as hard as you throw it. So throw it hard!" Such sage like advice there.

Colored the cover for issue 4 of my Dabel Bros./Del Rey book Take a Chance yesterday, in addition to more pages from the Grimm Fairy Tales Annual. Superheroes and fantasy in the same day, it doesn't get a whole lot better than that :D I'm hoping to get a great deal of stuff accomplished today as well, since I was planning on taking all day Thanksgiving off. Which means I have to work that much harder before and after to make up for that of course.

I'm trying to ignore the news lately, as it manages to frustrate, depress, and anger me all at once. Hard to escape that sort of real life stuff though. What would help is if checks would come in the mail on a more regular basis. Speaking of just such a thing, there SHOULD be a rather sizable check in the mail today, which would make me happy. So I'm hoping when I walk the 100 feet down the driveway through the snow to the mailbox, there's actually a check in there. Because freezing your giblets off to get the mail, and having it not contain anything to warm you up like money (or the new Victoria Secret's catalog) feels like a waste, you know?

Alright, not a whole lot else on my mind, it's sort of cluttered still a bit, and as I said, groggy. I may have to make a second pot of coffee today after I get around here. It just feels like a 2 pot of coffee sort of day today.

Quick random thoughts for Wednesday

Jason Embury — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:37:00 GMT

busy week, busy MONTH coming up here. here's what I've got brewing inside my head this morning.

The new Cure album, 4:13 Dream, might be my favorite album in the last few years. It might be the best Cure album since Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me or Wish actually. Which is saying a lot because I'm a huge music fan, and I've loved a lot of albums that have come out the last few years. But I have a special place in my heart for Robert Smith music :D

It's dawned on me the last couple of weeks here, that the work I've been doing might not actually SUCK. Which is, you know, a GOOD thing. It's that time of year again where things are starting to get crazy, especially with kids and the holidays coming up. So to be doing good work, have PLENTY of work to do, and headed into winter which is a traditionally slow time for freelancing is a good feeling.

Starting to wonder, worry and think on what I'm going to get my wife for Xmas this year. Won't be anything NEAR like the diamond earrings she got LAST year, that's a given, but I need to get creative and find something that will get me those extra brownie points nonetheless. :D

k, lots of cool things to lose myself in this morning, like coloring this fantasy story for the Grimm Fairy Tales 2008 Annual for Zenescope, and also a splash page with the JABBERWOKY from Alice in Wonderland to break out the painting skills on.

Quick random thoughts for Monday

Jason Embury — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:13:00 GMT

going to drop some quick thoughts more frequently here as a way to sort of stay on track. so here goes. Mondays usually suck in general, but I’ve been plugging away at things all day today, and have accomplished a lot of things to make this particular Monday not suck quite as much. I’m semi-happy with that. I’ve been doing some great work the last month here, stuff that I’m actually pretty proud of. Just wrapped up a Mary, Mary short for an issue of Grimm Fairy Tales by Zenescope, and I’ve started in on the Grimm Fairy Tales 2008 Annual which is looking great so far if I do say so myself. Excited about this book, because it’s a fantasy type of story, and I’m at my best working in that type of genre I think. Raven Gregory has been a really GREAT editor to work with, and I’m glad he likes my stuff enough to keep throwing work my way :D Also finishing up the last half of issue 3 of my book Take A Chance from Dabel Bros./Del Rey, issue 1 is out next month and I’m super excited to see what that will look like in print. I originally colored that back in 2006, and this year I went in and sort of revamped each page just because I decided that it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the stuff I’m doing this year so it couldn’t possibly go to print looking subpar. I’m on my second pot of coffee here, it’s about 7pm. I need to get back into the routine of getting about 6 hours of sleep, maybe 7 each night, and maximizing my work time each day. I’ve finally got a steady work load for a while here and I want to keep on top of everything and keep myself busy all winter, and that isn’t accomplished by lazing around. I’ve decided that I’m going to land a coloring gig at DC Comics in the next year here, and now I have to start cranking out the work to garner that kind of attention :D Alright, have a cover for Herbert West #6 to make a TINY change to, and get that over to Raven here in the next hour. Also have to finish up the page I have going here tonight before bed, maybe do one more. BUT….Chuck is on at 8 tonight, and I love me some geek squad goodness (not to mention hot blonde spy chicks)

rollercoaster ride? or a mystical game of chutes and ladders?

Jason Embury — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:46:00 GMT

wow, I don’t know if my life is stuck in a proverbial and sort of mystical projection of a game of chutes and ladders the last 2 weeks or not, but it sure does feel like I’m on a huge game board right now, and the Universe keeps letting me climb up one of those ladders only to find myself sliding down a chute a day or two later. It’s been insane.

So I’m back to coloring things today, and REALLY focusing on painting and coloring this week. I’ve started the wheels in motion for my own large scale, undoubtedly overly ambitious, possibly completely unrealistic project the past few days as well. So far so good. I’m still ironing out the best way to present things and utilize the screen space as much as possible. I’m NOT the best web designer when it comes to implementing all kinds of code and stuff to make the most functional site. But I have been able to utilize iframes and some simple navigation and stylesheets as much as I probably can. Now it’s a matter of getting the updating and “look” of everything just right before I start putting up content. I have plenty of content to get started as well, probably a good 4 months worth of material already ready to go. I just need to find those extra few hours each day to fit in, and right now, they just aren’t there.

Been busy pursuing some other avenues here as well, I’d really like to try and shift more of my work online as opposed to being strictly a print industry colorist. I see lots of successful and semi-successful things out there that makes me think I can bring a lot of my own flair too.

for those of you that read the blog on a regular basis, I had been forced to make the decision to leave the coloring duties on Hero By Night last week. It was the RIGHT decision to make logically. One of those decisions that you make with your head and know is right. Well, over the weekend, seeing how upset my kids got when they learned I wasn’t going to be doing the book anymore….I made a decision with my heart. And sometimes, you need to listen to your heart instead of your head. This is one of those times I’ve realized. So thank you ALL, for your emails, phone calls, and kind words. It’s funny to me to have so many people actually CARE about me and to recognize my contribution to something like that. It’s not often that people in the print industry of comics care so much about someone as far down the totem pole as the colorist. Heck most companies STILL don’t include the colorists name on the covers of their comics. the interesting thing being, comics aren’t colored anymore really. They’re painted. So to ignore the fact that someone is in reality PAINTING work on a book, is a disservice to that artist really I think. And I really do appreciate everyone who not only recognizes my work, but goes out of their way to get in touch and tell me what a fan they are of my work. (and a little hint, for all you fans, you may be able to actually purchase prints and paintings of my personal work in a few months if you’re so inclined )

That is all. I need coffee, and I have some Hero By Night pages to color today

cracks in the walls, and holes in the floor

Jason Embury — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:10:00 GMT

Been a pretty shitty week. The digital canvas prints I had done arrived this week, and turned out TERRIBLE, so I got in touch with the printer and they made excuses about this or that, and are reprinting but I won't hold my breath. I'll have to just suck it up, crack out the tubes of paint and my brushes and touch up the canvas traditionally (which is going to take likely as long to do as it took to complete the ENTIRE painting in PS) YAY!

As if that was a great thing, I pretty much may have to just swallow my pride and drop out of the upcoming exhibit I was invited to display at the end of May because I can't freaking afford to get any more work around to put in (the mixed media piece I damn near when into town to get my 40x36 canvas for and some other supplies on Wednesday is just going to be too expensive now to finish) So THAT has me pretty frustrated.

Also, I've had to drop 2 of my books, and one of them is something that I nearly and dearly will miss, Hero By Night. Not everyday that you get to work on superhero books in this industry, unless you work for Marvel or DC, and this was an amazing superhero book. The reviews we've been getting for the last year and a half have been nothing BUT stellar. Looking at major reviews sites, seeing the weeks books reviewed, and watching HBN be the highest reviewed book over stuff like X-men was a great feeling. Knowing how successful it has been online was even MORE of a jolt of cool. We really wanted to see it on it's OWN site, supported by ads, because that's how it could have made the most money, but just knowing that we've had more readers each month than stuff like Batman has been an enormously cool thing to be a part of. All the emails from fans, the interaction on message boards and comments with them, talking to dads and moms and kids and EVERYONE at all the conventions that LOVE the book...it's been a great thing. So yeah, my hands were pretty tied, and I was basically FORCED to make this decision yesterday. Doesn't help that DJ Coffman, creator, writer/artist and all around comic book guru, is probably my best friend. So to the Universe right now, I'm saying, "you damn well better have something better in store for me right now cuz THAT really sucked!" I'm thinking that what that something IS, is for me to focus more on my digital painting and to finally get around to launching my OWN project that I've been working on for a long time. I just don't know if the timing is perfect yet, because I'd like to pay my bills and mortgage this month before I start leaping off a cliff with something that has no guarantee of making me any money right away. I am going to focus more on that though, it's part of my new direction I want to take my work so maybe this was just the final nudge that was needed (even if it felt like getting SHOVED off the cliff instead of jumping of my own free will)

So now, my Dabel Bros. book is on hold as I wait for an inker to be found and get me pages again, hopefully it won't be an entire month, my only other book, Dragon Cross at Big City Comics, is going through some major changes as after issue 5 the co-creator and artist left to pursue other things, and they had to find a replacement and scramble to get things moving. So THAT book has been in limbo for almost 3 weeks now, not exactly sure when pages are going to start rolling in. Billy Dallas Patton is onboard as penciler though, so I AM excited to work with that guy, cuz I love his work, but yeah.....more waiting game.

Yesterday and ilkely most of today, will be spent scrambling myself. I have a lot of bad fortune to recover from here in short order, or things will just blow up by the end of the month. I need to find more work, bottomline. I know this, and knowing is half the battle right. The thing being, I can't wait 30 or even 60 days to be paid for said work. So most of the time I work on 50/50 terms, but the sad reality is that most comic publishers don't PAY on those terms, it's 30-60 days (if that) I've always prided myself on how well I perform under pressure (even though I secretly HATE IT) and now I'll guess I see if I can make magic under some of the most intense pressure I've been under in years here.

I need more coffee, and maybe a shot of Baileys in it today.

----------------
Now playing: <a href="http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/the+cure/track/letter+to+elise">The Cure - Letter To Elise</a>
via <a href="http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/">FoxyTunes</a>

Morning musings

Jason Embury — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:26:00 GMT

yesterday was a crappy day motivationally, until after dinner. Today, I'm completely jazzed. Been working away at wrapping colors on a book due next Wednesday, I'll likely be done a few days earlier at my current pace. Been inking pages here as well this week, and been burning some midnight oil to fit in some super secret project that DJ and I are pitching, I mean working on as well. ahem... needless to say, this project is pretty fun to be working on, and hopefully one day in the near future, we'll be able to start sharing a whole new universe of stuff with people. We're both pretty jazzed about the possibilities, and if I'm being totally honest....it's pretty top notch stuff. So today I have 2 more pages to get to from the Big Badz mini, if not 3, then I have a page to ink, and 2 more pages of pure AWESOME to start coloring, and a new website to start setting up too and doing graphics for. I'm glad that I'm energized enough today to tackle this stuff.

As Gerard so wisely pointed out yesterday to me, all I needed was to have my tummy start rumbling for honey and I would be sure to find my way again, just like Pooh bear. Sorry, you have to have had little kids in the house at one point to understand the Winnie the Pooh references I guess :D

Lost in the shuffle.

Jason Embury — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:55:00 GMT

Been a strange couple of days here. I'm getting myself ahead of deadlines here this week, not sleeping well though. My thoughts have been greatly distracted by exploding planets, spaceships, dark alleys and lights in the night sky. Probably too much comic book information to process or something. Today is one of those days as an artist, where I'm questioning everything I've ever done, everything I'm trying to do, and everything I am doing right now. Not a good feeling as any artist will tell you. I keep coming back to the conclusion that I'm either destined to keep spinning my wheels and getting by comfortably, or that I'm destined for even greater things. However it's that unknowing, nagging feeling of uncertainty, that is hanging over everything like a giant rain cloud right now. Most days I'm firmly convinced that it's the "destined for something greater" route that I'm on, but days like today, I can't help but think that the path I'm walking on that is being obscured by heavy mist is in actuality the path that winds round and round itself with no beginning and no end. I know that's not the case, but I'm having a hard time processing it today. It's an overwhelming feeling really, and something that I can't really explain well, you either "get it" or you don't. All I know is that really good coffee seems to help, as does losing yourself in your work. I just wish ALL my work was easy to lose myself in. Back to hunching over the ol' Cintiq and hoping for a miracle today.

Crazy Deadlines

Jason Embury — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:07:00 GMT

No time for posting pictures from LA sadly. But yesterday I pretty much figured out my schedule for the next 3 months here. I've got 4 books I'm working on right now, and no spare time really. I'd be distraught, except I know I can get it all done, it's just a matter of convincing myself-which is what I did yesterday. So...hopefully by the end of July, I'll be able to scale back down to coloring just 3 books a month and focus some more on relaxing and painting again.

So on the agenda today, it's more nice hot coffee, I think a big Radiohead marathon, and coloring somewhere around 4 pages hopefully.

Wizard World LA 2008 recap

Jason Embury — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:02:00 GMT

SO…I got in last night around 2:30 in the morning here. Wide awake, and not the slightest bit tired. Took a long, HOT shower for the first time in like 4 days, and was able to relax enough to get to bed by 3:30 or so. Didn’t wake up until noon today, which sort of put a crimp on me getting to work at 8am, but I’ve unpacked my bags, got things put in their places here, answered my emails, picked up my son from school, and am going to get most of my thoughts out here so I can get to work. 5 more pages to finish by tomorrow night, but I’m thinking of going all out juggernaut in a bit and wrapping them all up today then just sleeping in tomorrow again. Thursday- The flight out was great, after having to drive over and park in the overflow lot at the airport, wait on the shuttle to get me to my terminal, get through security and just BARELY catching my flight it seemed like. Gioy De Marco from Platinum picked me up at the airport, and got me over to where they were filming the Comic Book Challenge 2008 commercial in good time (and she’s NOT quite as maniacal a driver as everyone was telling me either) Or I’m JUST as crazy a driver and just didn’t notice it :D ) So once we were on location, the MIGHTY Dave Collins got me a sandwich while picking up some props (cuz man, was I starving by then) and the guys filming the commercial got down to bizness. Those guys did such a great job, it was really cool watching them work, the director Dave was awesome. And I sympathized with him, cuz he had a headache that kept getting worse throughout the night just like I did. I got to play this crossing guard, who dressed up as a crazy character called Crossing Justice, cape and all. I had fun with that once I got to wear the cape, doing all kinds of crazy Batman and vampire type stuff with the cape. It was a good time. The funniest thing was, that while I was standing out there in the street with the stop sign and big construction worker gloves on, people thought I was ACTUALLY directing traffic (in the middle of a 4 way stop intersection) it was kind of funny. Until the cop car pulled up, did a U-turn in the middle of the intersection and parked across the street. I went to tell Dave, “dude, if I get arrested, guess who’s bailing me out of jail!?” :D Turns out he was just visiting another house of some buddies or something. The UPS truck DID get kind of close to me as it raced by, and there was this whacked out lady driving around in an Expedition that regardless of the fact that I was standing with stop sign in the middle of the street, there was camera equipment set up all over, and I was directing her to just swerve slightly AROUND me into the next lane, looked like she had no intent of moving her car over and would be perfectly happy to just run me the hell over with her big gas guzzling BEAST of an SUV. She did end up going around at the last second, but that was funny. I mean, I had a CAPE on for crying out loud. What? She thought she could run over Crossing Justice? That vehicle would have BUCKLED and crumpled like aluminum foil if it had tried to run me over (at least that’s how I was seeing it in my mind) We then went back to the Platinum offices, met some more people up there and got to see them hard at work at 8 pm in their offices. I mean, half the office was still there at 8 at night, really busting ass on things, and making magic. It was so cool to see how passionate they all are, and to see how much they all LOVE their jobs. That’s how I am, and I really respect the hell out of people that work that hard at something because they love what they’re doing. A funny moment we had was when DJ and I went into their big board room, and sat at the head of their tables, and were just watching the film crew set everything up and watching everyone interact in the lobby together. DJ and I were in there, just talking comics, talking about plans we’ve got in motion, and just thinking it was a real cool place to have meetings (toys, video games, movie posters, statues all over the place) So we’re sitting there talking, probably looking like we were deep in conversation and Scott Rosenberg walks in with his pal Gareb Shamus (the dude who owns Wizard) Scott introduced us again, I’m pretty sure that I met Gareb last year in LA, and it was funny to hear him say that was actually the first time he had BEEN in the offices since WAY BACK when he was in there with Scott before they signed their lease. Those guys are really cool, because you can tell they’re just average guys like everyone else that LOVE what they do. So hopefully Scott didn’t think DJ and I were plotting a coup or anything :D Friday- A fun day to start the show really. Got to see everyone in action at the Platinum booth, moving their product. What a difference a year makes too. Last year at this time, they really had only 3 or 4 titles out, this year, there are tables worth of product, the HBN hard cover trades, singles from the original 4 issue mini-series of HBN, and the first 2 issues of the ongoing book, the GUNPLAY preview edition (which went over AMAZINGLY well with the crowd), The Weapon mini-series by Scott Koblish, Fred Van Lente, and Paul Mounts (probably my FAVORITE thing they’ve done outside of HBN in the last year) and just lots of cool energy flowing around the place. The guys at Mac Hollywood had some Wacom Cintiq’s set up there for us to play around on and demonstrate things, and I got to do some really cool painting stuff on there. Just quick little 15-20 minutes paintings of stuff like Batman and Spiderman, a quick little environmental concept painting, but it’s cool to have people that know how to use stuff like that just jamming things out as the crowd walks by, it makes the STOP and watch what’s going on, which is what it’s all about at conventions really. DJ and I had a Hero By Night signing at 1 that day, and we did a cool interview with The Weekend Gamer I think as well. Hopefully some of my comments don’t come across as me bashing on other BIG publishers of superheroes, because that’s NOT what I was trying to get at. The interviewer just asked me what I thought was the best thing about HBN (or something like that) and I told her, it’s the fact that he’s not an angst ridden hero with lots of complicated issues, he’s a regular guy that kids and adults can both relate to. I was getting more at the fact that he’s the sort of hero ANYONE can get into. HBN IS the number 1, yeah #1, superhero comic on the internet for a reason. Friday we spent relaxing at the bar of the hotel outside. Chatted about some interesting things, had a really drunk girl come up to the table out of nowhere, sit down and start talking to everyone. It was humorous. Learned a lot about everyone really on a personal level, and getting to interact with people like that and learn what their ambitions are in life, is really probably the COOLEST thing of all. It was great to sit next to Dan the man Forcey for instance, and listen to him talk about things like where he wants to be in 5 years, and get to know people like that on a personal level. Because really, in the end, what we DO for a living is nowhere near as interesting as learning about who we ARE as people. Maybe my wife and I will end up living in the same town as him and his woman in Argentina in 20 years and we’ll wind up meeting in a marketplace or something, laughing about how we both remember talking about stuff like that at a bar in LA 20 years beforehand. The way this Universe works you never know. Saturday- fun day all around. more playing on the Cintiqs. I had a signing with Tone Rodriguez, Nei Ruffino and THE Adam Black at noon for KISS related stuff. I worked on the KISS 4K KISSmas one-shot with Tone and Nei, and Adam is now doing all of the chores on the KISS 4K regular series which is being released completely online (with plans to collect all that content in trade form in the future I believe) That was a fun time, I hadn’t actually ever met Tone before, he seemed REAL cool. I’ve met Nei before in passing really, but talked shop about coloring comics and stuff for a while and she seems like a real cool person. I’ve known Adam for a while now, and I’ve been helping him with his coloring for a few months now. That dude is so talented, that once I think he realizes his potential, he’s going to blow up. At 1pm, right after that KISS signing, DJ and I had an HBN signing. I love seeing the KIDS come up to the booth with their HBN books, or come up to the booth for the first time, pick up an issue of HBN and just watch their eyes light up. I had a conversation with one little boy, must have been a bit younger than my son, maybe 6 or 7 years old. He picked up the first issue of the ongoing series, and was just so EXCITED by that opening fight scene between HBN and Elemento in the volcano with all the lava everywhere. I told him, “isn’t that awesome!? It’s just like at home when you’re hopping across the furniture to see if you can make it from one end of the room to the other so that your feet don’t touch the lava” He looks up at me and says, “YEAH!!!! I love doing that” His dad looks at me and says, he does that kind of thing all the time, that IS really cool. They bought like a whole SET of books and the trade. Not because I was pitching them a sale, or trying to pimp the superhero, but because they can RELATE to what’s IN the book. I used to do the SAME jumping from chair to chair to couch, to sometimes coffee table, when I was that age, pretending the carpet was this big vat of lava or something and if I fell off the chair or didn’t make that last jump, I’d fall into the lava or something. I’m betting that kids DAD did the same thing, and that is what I’m talking about with Hero By Night. It wows the KIDS, and it makes the grown ups who read it FEEL like a kid again, and REMEMBER what it was like when they were kids. It’s just such a cool thing to actually CONNECT with people like that at these shows. Because I know that there are people out there reading the book, or reading the online stories and material that’s put online, and feeling the SAME way. Lots of other great things happened on Saturday, that debut of Gunplay by written byJorge Vega, drawn by Dominic Vivona, and colored by Nei Ruffino, was absolutely HUGE. That book looks absolutely wonderful. Donald Faison from Scrubs, who was a judge for last years CBC, was there to sign books, and they gave all the proceeds to charity, which in my mind was a truly wonderful thing to do, it raised some good money and people seemed really jazzed about it. Talked with Alex Sinclair for a bit, I idolize that guy, but I try and keep it in check so he doesn’t think I’m some sort of stalker. He’s helped me out so much over the last couple of years, both directly and indirectly. :D Talked with Alp Altiner for a while as well, about his upcoming stuff at Top Cow, about matte painting, concept art, and what sort of things I should be working on to get into that sort of work. It was cool to hear him say that I had talent, so I know I’m not a two bit hack ENTIRELY now, and that made me feel really good. DJ and I had a conversation with Marc Robinson who we were familiar with from the digital webbing forums. Marc was a real nice guy, and it’s cool to see him starting to land some nice gigs now as well. He had some Spiderman pages from an upcoming book he’s doing at Marvel there to show off and they were off the HOOK. More importantly though, he’s been there, struggling like everyone, and he’s fought through it all and kept producing work. He’s got some MAD talent, and I really like to see nice people like that succeed. I wish him the absolute BEST. Scott took us to dinner that night, we had a good time talking all things comics and movies, but I also really dig talking about everyday things like family and stuff too. We both have daughters that are in middle school, have cell phones, boyfriends, all that stuff, so it’s cool to relate to people on those levels that you share a lot of things in common with, even when you work in entirely different industries and capacities really. It’s all creative work though in the end. Sunday-traveled. Airport, plane, car, home. Couldn’t get on standby, so caught the later flight after all. Today is catch up, with the family, with email, and with work later most likely once the kids are in bed here. It was a good time, but now I’ve got a LOT of work related catching up to do. I didn’t take any pictures the whole trip for once, so I may have to borrow of few from others as they get them up on the net and I get time. Whew!