Highlights from the Bo-Com-Con Pile

I have just read everything in this pile:



Let's just dive right in and I'll share my thoughts. Click the picture to access the large size, as usual. Starting in the lower-left corner and spiraling clockwise...

Sara Richard's stickers and Sketchbook. The fishing kitty now proudly resides on the protective case thingie on my MacBook. I never really mastered ink and brush, so I am in awe of Sara's beautiful line art. That, and the sheer amount of art she's produced.

A Schedule of Upcoming Guests/Topics on Sci-Fi Saturday Night. Someday, I will do a post about all the podcasts that have helped me keep sane while Photoshopping. "SFSN" is a semi-local 'cast and I have nothing at all bad to say about them because they love my rabbit illustrations.

Inbound 4: A Comic Book History of Boston. An anthology created by the Boston Comics Roundtable, and a fascinating read to boot. The old Mug-and-Muffin coffee shop has been immortalized for all time.The Tick Comicon Extravaganza. I am not going to get too crazy here. It is a comic about comic book conventions, and it stars Quincy's own superhero.

Fat Cat Funnies' Distracula. Speaking of Quincy, it turns out Fat Cat Funnies is based here. A local publisher! A wikkid local publisher, if you will! Awesome.

(Barely visible) Mouse Under Glass by David Koenig. Actually, this is the book I brought with me to read on the T. It's pretty interesting and I will review it and another "secrets of Disney" book I finished earlier soon.

"After Watchmen, What's Next? Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis!" That's how I'm reading the title anyway. There were similar abridged comics like this at the autumn Boston Comicon. The best of them had excerpts from all of DC's comics that could remotely be considered dark and/or edgy. At least with this one, I got to learn for myself what everyone else already knew about the Identity Crisis storyline.
Spoilers: Imagine sitting down to watch "The Thin Man", and suddenly in the first act, the film jump-cuts to the ending of "Seven". The actual "not so much sad as tear-out-your-heart-and-stomp-on-it" ending to "Seven". I'd like to be exaggerating right now.

"Penny Arcade" the books! "Trish why in the world would you buy collections of a comic you can read for free online?" Well, because there's something about a book. I always liked comic strip compilations (I will admit I was never really all that into "Calvin and Hobbes" until I found the first collection.) Mainly, it's because the sheer size of the "PA" archive intimidates me. Plus, the writer's comments on the strips are often hilarious. Glad to know I'm not the only person who looks through their old art and sometimes goes, "Oh dear Lord... tell me I didn't really draw THAT..."
(Cue the kind of music you hear in movies when Foreshadowing happens...)

The Boston Independent Film Festival schedule. While searching for their website, I learned that Boston suddenly has (at least) two film fests! As someone who enjoys nice things, I should try going to both. This festival starts next week, and some of the films sound fascinating. Wish me luck in convincing other people to go.

Various random business cards! I got to trade a lot of cards with people. Urchin Punch had a lot of neat stuff at their table, but sadly there does not seem to be much at their website yet. "Silver Circle" is an independent CGI animated science fiction film with kind of a cool origin story. I may have to dedicate an entire post to it later. The Angry Penguin is a little strange, but how could I resist that sticker? And it should surprise nobody that New England has it's own branch of the Ghostbusters and a Storm Trooper Garrison.

Donald Duck Free Comic Book Day abridged comic. I was intrigued by this for two reasons: 1) Free Comic Book day is in May. 2) This is a Halloween-themed story. It was too weird to leave.

And finally, my Pokewalker, which (it's hard to see) racked up about 51,000 steps... and I still don't have a gimmicky Surfing or Flying Pikachu! This makes me feel angry!

Ah, anyway. Overall, a great haul and a great time.

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At the Realm, there is a review of a strange thing I got at Disney World. If you stop and think about it, the Harry Potter series, much like "Star Wars" and "Avatar" (already!), has a lot to answer for.

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Sketch of the Day!
How about a completely random page?


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Post #200! Yay!!!

Welcome new readers!

I'll have my Comicon thoughts after they're organized. It is going to take me a long time to sort through my freebies, purchases, photos, sketches, and contacts. As always, I had a lot of fun and met a lot of really awesome people and exchanged lots of business cards with other illustrators. Illustration isn't a very social career choice, so anytime large numbers of artists get to talk face-to-face is fantastic. That feeling of nerdy belonging is very rare.

Plus, it's like Christmas 2 if you like to read.
To anyone joining the Blog after meeting me there, welcome! I'll be writing about drawing, animation, film, literature, and anything else interesting that comes up. For those of you standing, please hold on to the handrails throughout our journey and please stay clear of the doors! Por favor mantangense alejado de las puertas! 😁

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Sketch of the Day!
Finished piece, rather. Meet Smok Wawelski. Click the image for the "all sizes" option.

Boston Comicon is this weekend!

Yaaaay! Here is the email:

Boston Comic Con

IN LESS THAN 30 DAYS THE BCC IS BACK! April 10-11, 2010 Starring Jim Lee & Mike Mignola, and Sergio Aragones (JUST ADDED)!

REMEMBER we have a new location: The Westin Boston Waterfront (425 Summer St.). There are two Westin's in Boston. Make sure you go to the Westin Boston Waterfront.

Our guest list is mind blowing. Check it out...

Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, Eric Powell, Joseph Michael Linsner, Jim Starlin, Bill Sienkiewicz, JH Williams III, Billy Tan, Steve Rude, Michael Golden, Ben Templesmith, Skottie Young, Joe Jusko, Cameron Stewart, Mike Norton,and many more!

We are also happy to announce media guest Amber Benson who played Tara Maclay on the hit TV series - Buffy The Vampire Slayer!

As an added bonus Marc Chiarello, Art Director for DC Comics, will be doing on site artist portfolio reviews both days. Do you have what it takes to be the next great DC artist? Sign up at the show!!

And wait, there's more...

1. Sunday only there will be a costume contest and speaker panels featuring Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, and Eric Powell.

2. Exclusive signed limited edition prints for The Boston Comic Con by Joseph Michael Linsner and Bill Siekiewicz will be available at the show for sale. Get there early before they sell out!

3. BCC T-shirts featuring Eric Powell's The Goon and Mike Mignola's Hellboy will also be available for sale. We are printing only a small supply of these shirts, so get 'em while you can.

The Boston Comic Con is hands down the best comic book show in New England featuring over 21,000 square feet of comic book artists and vendors. The BCC is privately owned and is not affiliated with any other shows or promoters. We are dedicated to delivering the fun, magic, and excitement that's supposed to be a comic con. If you didn't have fun, we didn't do our job!
You won't wanna miss this! See ya in April.
'Nuff Said.
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Now, there is a bit of sad news unfortunately. The Comicbook Artists Guild does not have it's own table this year -- however, we're making up for it by hosting an event after the Convention. Come on Saturday afternoon for more information.
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Last Feederwatch Friday of the Year!
Had some laughs, did some science!
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
American Robin 2
Northern Mockingbird 3 (!!!)
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 2
House Sparrow 11
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Sketch of the Day

I was getting a little tired of the headlines this little guy was inspiring.

Welcome new readers from your tired (but very happy) hostess.

As usual, let's have some art (from last year, but still awesome) first. Click to go to the Flickr page and see the larger version.

I'll have my Comicon thoughts after they're organized. Heck, I am probably going to wait until after Halloween and devote the entire next week to it. It is going to take me a long time to sort through my freebies, purchases, photos, sketches, and contacts.
It was a very long and exhausting weekend in general, but I had a lot of fun and met a lot of really awesome people and exchanged lots of postcards with other illustrators. Illustration isn't a very social career choice, so anytime large numbers of artists get to talk face-to-face is fantastic.
I actually ran out of promotional postcards about an hour before I left - but that's definitely a good thing.
To anyone joining the Blog after meeting me there, welcome! I'll be writing about drawing, animation, film, literature, and anything else interesting that comes up. For those of you standing, please hold on to the handrails throughout our journey and stay clear of the doors. For the comfort of others, no smoking please. Thank you, and welcome to our highway in the sky!
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But because it's holiday-appropriate, if Mario and Princess Toadstool are reading, the "Twilight" features can be read here and here.
And if anyone still needs to find a costume for Saturday, I have some last-minute suggestions at The Realm.
I you have a Geocities website, you have until tonight to rescue it!

Boston Comic-Con 2009 is this weekend! Also, Humbugs.

Yay yay yay!!!

(NOTE: This post pretty much repeats everything from the previous post about Bo-Com-Con, so here's cuteness. As always, click for big:)



Boston Comic Con - Saturday & Sunday October 24th & 25th. 10am to 5pm both days.
Admission: $10 per person each day. Children under 10 free.
Wear a costume and get in for FREE! Really, you have no excuse not to come in costume.
Where: The Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA
This place is a little hard to get to. It's probably easiest to take the T. Take the Green Line to the Copely Square station. Walk down Boylston Street, past Dartmouth and Clarendon Street, until you hit Berkeley Street. Walk down Berkeley, past St. James Ave., and The BBEC should be the large building on your right.
Alternatively, follow all the people in costume.

I will be at the Comic Artist Guild Table. As this is the weekend before Halloween, I will probably have photos to share later if I can take some discreetly. Come on down and get yourself a promotional postcard!

And it is also time to Thrill The World on Sunday! Go join a pack of dancing zombies near you.

AND, we've started seeing commercials for "A Christmas Carol". We've done enough harping on ugly animation, so I'll ignore that factor for now. I'm more curious about something my cousin and I discussed after seeing the commercial for the third time during the course of one twenty-minute long television program:

COUSIN: "Another movie based on 'A Christmas Carol'?! WTF?"
TRISH: "Yeah, how did this conversation go? 'I'm sorry, Rob, but they've already made A Christmas Carol into a movie.'"
COUSIN: "Ha ha, 'Oh, but what if we made an animated movie?'"
TRISH: "'There are dozens of animated Christmas Carols! And it is practically obligatory for every animated series to do a holiday episode that parodies the story too!'"
COUSIN: "'Aw, man... WAIT! Has anyone ever made a THREE-D CHRISTMAS CAROL MOVIE?'"
TRISH: "OMG you are a genius!!!'"

Addendum: A Bit More Boston Comic-Con Information.

From the official Email I just got. Everything in blue is added by me.

Boston Comic Con - October 24-25th!
Only one more week 'till The Boston Comic Con!!
Saturday & Sunday October 24th & 25th. 10am to 5pm both days. I'll be there both days at the Comic Artists Guild table.
Guest starring: Tim Sale (You may recognize him as the guy who does nearly all the art in "Heroes".), Walt Simonson (just added), Geof Darrow (Best known as one of the concept artists for the "Matrix" trilogy.), Herb Trimpe, Mike McKone, Khoi Pham, Cliff Chiang, Stephane Roux, Eric Canete, Jim Calafiore, & David Mack!
Admission: $10 per person each day. Children under 10 free.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! - Wear a costume and get in for FREE! Weee! I like this because it means you have no excuse to not go dressed as your favorite character (or whatever you come up with at the last minute.)
Where: The Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA This place is a little hard to get to. It's probably easiest to take the T. Take the Green Line to the Copely Square station. Walk down Boylston Street, past Dartmouth and Clarendon Street, until you hit Berkeley Street. Walk down Berkeley, past St. James Ave., and The BBEC should be the large building on your right.
Alternatively, just follow all the people in costume.
The Boston Comic Con is the largest comic book show in New England. Don't miss it! 'Nuff Said.
PS. Bill Sienkiewicz has been rescheduled to the April 2010 Boston Comic Con.

Aww, I was going to bring in that weird Santa Claus book for him to sign. Oh well, maybe next time.
I've been to Bo-Com-Con twice so far and have enjoyed myself each time. Even if you aren't a comic book fan, you'll find something interesting there for you. Just the opportunity to meet artists is enough of a reason to go, and there's a good mix of well-established professionals, people who are just starting out, and everything in between. And for those of you who heard the horror stories from this past year's San Diego Comicon, rest assured that Bo-Com-Con is much less overwhelming in scale, less about hyping the latest big Hollywood summer blockbusters, and more about illustration and meeting artists and having fun. The atmosphere is like a big party, and it is very family-friendly. You know how some communities host Open Farm Weekends so that kids can "learn where their food comes from"? Bring the kids to Comic-Con so they can learn where their favorite characters come from.

"Love is Allllll!!! / Love is AAA-AA-AAALL!!! / At the Butterfly Ball!!!"

Speaking of "Rupert and the Frog Song" got me thinking about another psychedelic staple of my childhood. They used to show this music video as filler almost daily in those wonderful, crazy early days of Nickelodeon. Now I was of course wholly unaware that this was part of a concert film (!) based upon a concept album (!!) based upon a picture book (!!!). That is like a perfect storm of awesome. I am Netflixing the hell out of the concert DVD.

(pause...)

OK, I am "Saved Queue"-ing the hell out of the concert DVD because they do not yet have it. (I always wonder why they bother listing things when that happens.) Oh well.
Enjoy the very 70's mind-screwyness:



I watched this for the first time in a long time at like two in the morning and amazingly, I didn't start freaking out until around the 1:42 mark. O.o
I love, love, love how those three salamanders are totally nonchalant about the Dio-Frog transforming into a hydra-plant-thing.----

Comic and illustration loving residents of the Westford, MA area: this weekend you have the good fortune of being able to attend something called Larry's Pop Culture Extravaganza. And if you live in Westford and can somehow have no desire to attend something called Larry's Pop Culture Extravaganza, I do not understand you at all.

Note that for now, I'll be adopting a twice-weekly post schedule. I need to concentrate on saving things from Geocities. At least now, I have a deadline: the last weekend before Halloween (October 26, for those who need a real date). Anyway, check for "new" (meaning post-dated and thus hilariously a few days behind on the news) posts on Tuesday and Thursday for a while.

I can't wait to cry hysterically like a little sissy again during "Jessie's Song" --- but IN THREE-EFFIN'-D this time!!!

Comic-Con International!

*sigh* Such are the perils of shuffling your scheduled posts around. I originally had this as a footnote to the next post, which was originally going to go up on Wednesday but got pushed back to Friday thanks to the "Let's Recast 'Futurama' For No Good Gorram Reason" debacle. Blame FOX. For everything.

Um, I mean, San Diego Comic-Con is this weekend! Woo-Hoo!

As you may have noticed, I usually focus on announcing conventions that take place in the upper-right-hand corner of the country (it's so that I don't have the "Ha ha, you can't go" song in my head), but this one's too important not to get a mention. I am unable to attend, due to being in the exact opposite end of the U.S. right now. But for those of you who can go, have fun, get your butt in the seat for the Disney Animation Panel tomorrow at 12:30 (Miyazaki!!!!!), and good luck dodging the Twilight fangirls.

Speaking of: Dear mainstream media. Girls enjoy attending comic book conventions. I know that, for whatever reason, this is very hard for your tiny minds to understand. But girl geeks who don't give a fetid pair of dingo kidneys about glittery vampires exist. And we are legion.

As far as the girls attending comic-con this year who do care about glittery vampires, a FARK commenter with the excellent screen-name Brigid Fitch said it so I don't have to:

"...The problem isn't women attending the con -- it's gaggles of non-fans swarming all over a con, sucking all the fun from the room. We'll never escape the Asperger's candidates & hygienically challenged portion of our ranks, but if you're stuck next to one, you can at least find common ground and have a reasonable conversation with them (if by "reasonable" you mean discussing the finer points of violating the Prime Directive, of course).
"But the Twilight fans aren't like that. They're interlopers. We couldn't care less about sparkly vampires and they haven't a clue what to expect at a ComicCon! They're there to swoon over Robert Pattinson, and have no idea who Ray Bradbury is, let alone why someone would give their right arm to be at his discussion panel.
"...It's like a school trip to a Yankees game: The girls know NOTHING of baseball, ask a lot of inane questions, and are only there because they think Jeter is hot. And whenever he's on the field, they squeal in that ear-piercing way that only 15-year-olds know how to. How patient would you be?"

The Maine Comic Arts festival is this weekend

Official website.

This is rather different from the usual comic book convention. There won't be any dealers to browse or publishers to throw your postcards at. It's more of an opportunity to meet professional comic artists and illustrators, local and otherwise, and listen to them discuss the field. If you're in the Portland area, you should go. I probably will be in the Portland area this weekend and... I don't know if I can squeeze it in... (Trust me, this will make more sense later.)

I also have more Pokemon to show you:

Not only do I have to figure out how to draw Rotom in this "realistic" style, I've also added a Gardevoir to my team (very nice if you hate Zubats and Tentacools.)
So... What do you think happened at the end of "Lost"?

Addendum: Regarding the question about Rotom's super-awesome alternate forms below.
You need an item called the Secret Key. Nintendo was nice enough to give this over their wireless service (meaning you didn't have to search in vain for a nearby Toys R Us) using the Mystery Gift option. Unfortunately, it was only available for a limited time. More information can be read about it here. There's still some hope; Nintendo ran the event twice, during different times of the year, after "Platinum" was released in Japan. Perhaps they'll give the North American traders another chance too?

Boston Comicon is soon! Like real soon! Like next weekend soon!

Shameless copy-pasta from the notice in my inbox:

ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS 'TILL THE BOSTON COMIC CON'S FIRST TWO-DAY SHOW ON APRIL 4-5!!!

New England's largest comic book convention grows even bigger as the Boston Comic Con announces its first two day show on April 4-5, 2009. Featured guests include...

Whilce Portacio - Mr. Portacio broke into the industry in 1985 as an inker on Marvel Comics such as Longshot and New Mutants. Before long, he gained wide acclaim as the lead artist for The Punisher, X-Factor, and Uncanny X-Men. In 1992, Mr. Portacio left Marvel with several other top talents to form Image Comics, where he created his own series, Wetworks. Currently, Mr. Portacio is working with fellow Image co-founder Todd McFarlane on the supernatural hit series, Spawn.

Jim Cheung - Joining The Boston Comic Con is Marvel "Young Gun" artist Jim Cheung, best known for his work on groundbreaking series such as Young Avengers, Avengers: Illuminati, and countless covers. Jim is a fan favorite of the superhero genre, world-renowned for his widescreen style.

Paul Gulacy - Multi-award winning virtuoso artist Paul Gulacy burst onto the comic book scene in the 70s with Master of Kung Fu and continues to amaze fans on series including Batman, Terminator, Star Wars, and Catwoman.

Mike Allred - Boston Comic Con is excited to announce Madman creator Mike Allred! An indie sensation for the last twenty years, Allred has gone on to create Red Rocket 7, the Atomics, and X-Statix. Additionally his work has appeared in the feature films Mallrats and Chasing Amy, in which Allred has a cameo as himself.

Dick Ayers - Living legend Dick Ayers, a veteran comic book artist with over six decades of work and one of the founding members of the Marvel bullpen, comes to Boston and will regale fans with stories of the early days of Marvel.

The Boston Comic Con is in its third year of producing comic book shows and is committed to bringing the best and biggest comic book show to New England. The Boston Comic Con hosts over 13,000 square feet of vendors selling comic books, toys, posters, and other pop culture memorabilia. The event will be held Saturday April 4 through Sunday April 5, 2009 at The Back Bay Events Center. Admission = $10 each day. Children under 10 free.

Link!

I'll be passing out my promotional postcards at the Comic Artists Guild table on Sunday only (I can only attend the convention on Sunday). Haven't decided what I'm going to wear but I can promise it probably won't be a silly seasonal sweater.

Feedawatch Frinday!
April 4/5 is also the last weekend of Project Feederwatch. Loads and loads of blackbirds of various species this week (Grackles especially but a few early-arriving male Redwings; you don't realize how much you miss their song until you hear it for the first time each year.) Blackbirds, for those who don't know, are a far more reliable indicator that spring is on it's way than those Robins, who are prone to playing in my backyard in the middle of a blizzard. And yes, there are further pairings.

Incidentally, is it just me or is this round of "Celebrity Apprentice" been astonishingly compelling?