Comic-Con 2014 Souvenir Book SubmissionS

It's that time of the year again... When I submit my entry for the San Diego Comic-Con International Souvenir Book.  This year, I decided to go with THREE submissions.  That was a first.  I might have done more, but these 3 took more than enough time to do.  There were too many good themes to choose form this year.  I knew the 75th Anniversary of Batman was gonna be one of them.  But the 30th Anniversary of the Ninja Turtles, and the 20th Anniversary of Hellboy came as a surprise.

This is the 4th consecutive year, I've submitted for the book.  I had previously submitted for the 2013, 2012, and 2011 books, and each year I got published.  This is the first year that I didn't slap the "Anniversary Year" on the image.  Previous years I had "50 Years" or what not... this year, I just went with a stand-alone image.  This was 2-fold.  One, in past years, it felt... forced, and it was awkward sometimes to put years on the image.  Also, I keep convincing myself that one of these days, the fine folks at SDCC will give me an Artist Alley table.  As I haven't heard from them yet, and it's getting too close to the actual event for me to produce some "original" work, I figured I'd just save these, and run them off as "prints" to sell at the Con.  At least then I'd have 'something' to sell.  We shall see...

Another thing of interest, this was the first time I allowed myself to make some rather drastic changes between what I had drawn on paper, and what eventually came out in Photoshop.  Almost all the art was tweaked a little (some cases a LOT) in Photoshop.  Fixing proportion issues, or some cropping, and just various things.  The most drastic of changes, was what I did in the Batman piece.  Once I had finally settled on my design, I drew it out.  I knew I wanted the murder in Crime Alley depicted, cuz that's when Batman is actually "born".  So I drew the murder, and took it into Photoshop.  I got as far as placing my "flat" colors when I realized... I did not like Martha Wayne AT ALL in the original drawing.  I kept trying to convince myself that it wouldn't matter as Batman was the focus of the image... but Martha Wayne just kept bugging me.  So I bit the bullet, and decided... I'd completely redraw her, insert her in via Photoshop, re-ink, and then color as if she'd been there the whole time.  It was the first time I'd ever make such a drastic change between the paper and the digital.  But, in the end, it was the right decision.

Here is the before and after of Martha Wayne.  Seriously, what the hell was I thinking with that first image?  I mean, SERIOUSLY!  I'm glad I convinced myself to take another stab at her.

Now, I sit back and wait to see how many (if any) of this years submissions make the cut... c'mon July!!!

UPDATE:  Only the Turtles made the cut.  Bummer, because I REALLY LOVED the Batman.  Ah well, I can sell it as prints. Maybe.

Comic-Con 2013 Souvenir Book Submission

It's April already?  What happened to March?  Why am I not posting on here as often as I did in... January... or 2011 for that matter?

Anywho, part of my absence was because it is once again time to submit artwork for the San Diego Comic-Con International Souvenir Book.  As you know I did this last year, and the year before.  And BOTH times I saw publication, Once at the head of an article, and the other a full page spread (though next to an ad and not something more important, like an article, but still... FULL PAGE SPREAD!!!).  So hopefully I'll see my art published again (and maybe in a prominent position again?).

This year there were many "themes" to work from. But I opted to go with the 50th Anniversary of the X-Men.  This was for a couple reasons.  1.) I wanted to challenge myself as an artist.  So picking a more popular theme, meant I'd likely have more competition for acceptance, and thus if I get printed, I can bask in glory of being awesomer than others.  (It's an ego thing).  2.)  I've had this exact idea for this drawing in my head for YEARS.  So seemed like as good of a time as any to draw it.  So yay!

I showed the image around to a couple of co-workers, and quite a few of them did not get that I was doing a "parody" of an iconic 1980s movie poster.  Granted I work with a lot of early-mid 20-somethings, so the cultural radar may have been off a bit, where as I was 3 (going on 4?) when the film hit cinemas, so it was naturally around in my upbringing...  so for those who might be as equally out of touch as my "day-job" co-workers... here's what I parodied.

I'm 99.9999999999% certain that next year's themes will include... the 75th Anniversary of... BATMAN!  I should probably start drawing that one... NOW!

Comic-Con 2011 Souvenir Book Submission

So those of you not familiar with the incredible awesomeness that is the San Diego Comic-Con International, let me give a brief summary....

IT'S AMAZING! YOU SHOULD GO!

But seriously... it's pretty sweet, 4 days of just geek culture and win.  Sure, it's become a bit too commercialized lately, but it's still an awesome place to be.  LOVE IT.  Anywho, if you're fortunate to attend you get a bag of free crap right when you get your pass.  Inside the bag is.. well mostly crap.  But there are usually to books.  One is the schedule of events, which I affectionately refer to as "The Con Bible".  But the other book, is the souvenir book.

In this souvenir book is a bunch of articles and art, relating to themes going on in the comic book industry for that year.  And these articles and art come from people, fans and pros alike.  Well...  one of this years themes was the 50th Anniversary of the Fantastic Four.  And they were taking submissions, and I'm artistically inclined so I entered this one in (minus my blog's watermark, of course!).  Click here to see the other choices.

Kinda dangerous choice, as I'm sure it'll be the bulk of their submissions, but I started working on it before they added more topics... I might of done a piece for Jeff Smith's iconic character, Bone, had it been available when I started.  Spy VS. Spy, also could have been fun.  I stuck with the Fantastic Four however.  I decided to be clever about it... the easiest way to not make into the book would have been to do a splashy pin-up (like everybody else).  Also, since they just killed the Human Torch in the comics, there likely would have been many "Rest in Peace" art for Johnny Storm, so i didn't want to go that road.  So I was like... I need to show the strength of the family bond, and still be bold and simple.  So, I decided to go for each of them grabbing each others arms, and formed the above art.  On a side note, this why I did the hand study back in January.  Then it was just simple Photoshop'ing of color, as per usual, and BAM!  My submission was ready.

Now I just have to wait and see if I'm fortunate enough to get published in the 2011 Comic-Con International Souvenir Book!