headed out to the show today, some last minute prep here then I’m off to sign some books and network and what not for a few days. Strangely enough, I’m thinking 3 or 4 days of sleeping in and not doing ANYTHING are actually more attractive right now. But I’m sure that will change once I get going and start doing things out there.

I’ve got 2 scheduled signings on Saturday at the show, Hero by Night signing is at noon with creator and buddy DJ Coffman, and then the KISS 4K signing is at 1pm right afterwards with artist Tone Rodriguez and fellow colorist Nei Ruffino. Also I guess I’ll be part of some digital draw off, painting competition that Wacom is setting up there over the weekend. I guess they are setting up 5-7 Cintiqs for display in our booth, and we’ll be challenging competitors in some form of public humiliation and ridicule Actually, it sounds like fun. It’ll be nice to play around on a Cintiq and have what I’m doing NOT have to see print or meet a deadline for once. Should be a good time for all.

Need to get cracking here, shooting a commercial today as soon as the plane gets there, and I need to double check what I’m wearing because as the assistant director pointed out to me on the phone last night at 12:30 am (which granted was only 9:30 his time) I can’t wear white. So I’ve had to ditch the shepherd robes and go with something a bit more updated. I think I’ll manage. Better make sure my iPod is loaded up and ready to go, that my phone is charged, and that I’ve got enough to keep me busy on a 4.5 hour plane ride today.

Wheeee! Picture from the show to come next week when I get to it.

2008 is here, and I’ve gotten caught up enough with work, and taken enough time off to enjoy family and relaxation here, that I can look back on the great things that 2007 brought to me, and look forward to what this year has in store. I’m not a big list guy, but there will be lists in this post just to make it shorter. Get ready to scroll down!!! So first up, last year.

2007

Family wise we had a great year here really I think. We accomplished a lot on the home front such as: a new stone patio in the backyard, retaining walls around the burms behind our waterfall/pond area, put in a fire pit off the patio, planted more trees in the yard, got our basement almost finished, got the pool table set up and re-felted in the basement, painted both of the kids bedrooms (which involved a lot of hand painted silohettes and things on the walls, an entire wall of giant Kracken tentacles and a treasure map in my sons room, tiny little stars, custom shelving, borders and 4 different colors of paint in my daughters room) watched both the kids play baseball and softball and be successful, found time to fit in a real family vacation for the first time in a couple years, and generally just really made this house start to feel like it’s our home now instead of just being the “new house”. So in that regard things were hectic and busy as ever, but also fun and even relaxing at times.

I met a few people in 2007, that I’ve come to regard as friends as well. GOOD people first and foremost, and all of that has nothing to do with them working in comics, but everything to do with them just being real people without any sort of agendas or anything. Hard workers, and people that share a lot of things in common with me. People like Dan Forcey, Rob Richardson, Jason Maranto, Dale Mitchell (a.k.a Adam Black), Carly Wagner.

And lest I not forget my long time buddy DJ Coffman. DJ and I have known each other for a long time, but this last year I think we really started to become not only better friends, but a sort of Batman and Robin type of act. We share a lot of the same philosophies on life and family, politics and spirituality, and of course comics. I honestly probably owe a large part of my current happiness and success in comics to DJ. I was working as a colorist in the industry before I started coloring his Hero By Night book, doing various things at Image including a stint on Shadowhawk right before, but having him ask me to color HBN was probably what really solidified my financial situation enough for me to hone my craft, make more connections, and become good and fast enough to make a living coloring comics all day. I have had an immeasurable amount of fun working with him over the last year, creating an enormous body of Hero work, talking shop, bitching about things that seem lame and petty, and as stupid as it sounds…..looking to the future and dreaming. He has a lot of big ideas, and big goals, as do I, and I think I’ve seen enough of this industry at this point, to know that we have a real chance of making those things come to life some day.

In terms of work, 2007 was really a breakthrough type of year for me. This was the year where I really transitioned into coloring comics full time. The year started with wrapping up colors on the successful Hero By Night mini-series, started coloring the new KISS comic KISS 4K, which also allowed me to color the Guiness World Record largest comic book ever, doing some digital painting commissions, creating some card art for Fantasy Flight Games, working with some extremely talented creators on various projects…..Also starting with Wizard World LA, where Hero By Night debuted, where the KISS comic debuted, where I signed a lot of autographs and such, went to dinner with Scott Rosenberg (who was a real genuine and nice guy) and had a great time. I went to all of the Wizard World conventions this year, met some other great creators, publishers, fans and people in general. I met a lot of cool people and generally had a blast.

By the time summer rolled around I was busier than ever here. In May I started as the VP of Creative Development over at the new publisher Big City Comics. I had met Jeff Kaufman in LA, signed up to color one of his books shortly after, and then as his plans changed and we talked more and more, I decided to come onboard and help him coordinate things, find talent, and make the comics he was producing the best they could be. So here I was, trying to coordinate things with Diamond, design ads and promotional materials, color 2 Big City books, as well as the KISS 4K comic. It was a great experience, I learned even more about the comic industry, met even MORE great people, but I realized after a couple months I was really stretching myself pretty thin trying to be a colorist AND be on the editorial/administrative end of things for a publisher, and it was having a negative impact in my life (and on my health) I decided to step aside and continue just coloring for them after a period of a few months, and really focused myself on doing some outstanding coloring work on their Dragon Cross title, providing near painted pages at times for that first issue. Literally the week I finished the last page of Dragon Cross #1, a series of things happened rather quickly: first, my lucky 3 legged chinese frog who holds in i-Ching coin in his mouth and sits on the top of my desk had the coin drop out while I was dusting. THAT DAY, I got a call from my editor on the KISS comic, and was informed I had been let go as had then entire creative team on the book. Well, evidently I hadn’t put the right side of the coin back in the frogs mouth, so I immediately rotated that coin. I’m not sure which happened next, but I know that a check I had been expecting to come the week before, and NEEDED to get to me that week, didn’t show up. So THAT wasn’t a lot of fun, and again, the coin got rotated in my lucky frog. The next day, I had gotten offered enough work for the next 6 months here, and that frog hasn’t been TOUCHED since. All of that happened some time towards the end of August/beginning of September I think.

So as September got underway I now had several things going once again, had gotten back into a much saner schedule work wise, and the quality of life started to improve dramatically for me here. DJ and I were working on the new Hero By Night webcomic coming out 3 times a week, had started planning for the upcoming ongoing HBN series launching in December, I was starting work on an 88 page graphic novel, and things were going fairly well. October and November were much of the same thing, with a trip of WW Texas thrown in. As November close, I found myself finishing colors on HBN 1, steadily working on my graphic novel, and ignorant of what December was about to blow into the studio. One day, early in the month, I had just finished putting in about 8 hours here, it was around 4pm I got a call from my EIC over at Platinum, and was asked how many pages I could get one overnight for the KISS one-shot KISSmas special book, written by Chuck Dixon and drawn by Tone Rodriguez, I guess they had some problems with scheduling and stuff or whatever, and the book had to go to print the next day. Well I thought about it some, told them I could do 6 pages, hung up, thought about it some more, talked to my wife, talked to DJ, decided I could in fact probably do 13 of the 15 pages they needed for the right price. So I called back 15 minutes later and agreed to do 13 pages. I then proceeded to knock out all 13 pages, with the help of some VERY wonderful and reliable people who were able to flat for me, and low and behold from 5pm to 11:45 am the next day, I did indeed to get all 13 pages done, after which I proceeded to eat lunch, lay down long enough for the phone to ring 3 times, the dogs to go crazy and get absolutely NO sleep before heading up to the gym and coaching my daughters basketball practice for almost 2 hours. So I took the next weekend off basically, then did another 11 pages of my graphic novel, wrapped up the HBN webcomic for the month, started issue 2 of the HBN series, heard from an author in Ireland that I had colored a book for in late 2006 that my services may be needed for the remaining 5 issues of her story as she was working out the kinks in a deal with a major BOOK publisher and distributor for her series, then around the 18th got a call from my buddy Rob who informed me his book was going to be late if it wasn’t done by the 4th of January because they had a colorist drop out after issue 2. This was the Dragon Cross book I had to leave to take all the work I had signed on for at Platinum. Rob is such a good guy, I saw how issue 2 had turned out, I had just done essentially half a book overnight a week or so earlier, I still felt bad for HAVING to leave his book, so I agreed. Lo and behold it’s January 2nd, I was able to take time off to spend with family on Xmas and New Years, and I only have 3 1/2 pages left of issue 3 of Dragon Cross, and the whirlwind that closed 2007 will have come to an end. WHEW!!!!!!

Which leads us to….2008

I’m not sure about doing resolutions this year, life is a spontaneous, ever changing thing. But I do have some goals for this year though, which if you want to think of as resolutions I guess they could be seen that way. In no particular order:

1- Find more time to create art for just me. I have a couple of projects I’m working on right now of my own that I would really like to find time to develop and produce. I also would like to find time to set aside for working in my sketchbook every day, for throwing around some colors in a traditional way (i.e. with markers or real paint)

2- Finish losing the weight I wanted to lose last year. I lost 15 lbs in 2007, I have about 10 more lbs to lose to get to where I wanted to be in 2008. I think I’ll get there by the end of the year though.

3- Become a better digital painter. I made some great strides this year, I really did. From taking 2nd in a Gnomon School of Visual Effects monthly digital art contest and winning lots of great training DVD’s, to painting my first comic cover (Dragon Cross issue 4) I have a vast amount of potential for growth, more than I EVER saw for coloring comics when I started. So I really want to take the steps to become an even better painter this year.

4- Learn a new software program. The likely candidate will be Painter X, however getting my hands on Maya or a similar 3D app would be nice.

5- Paint the elvish script around the decorative ceiling shelf in our living room for my wife, and include a large celtic/elvish design motif painted on the ceiling for her. I told her that I didn’t want to do anything this year but mow the lawn, however if this is ALL I have to do extra, then I can count myself lucky!

6- I have a comic coloring related goal I don’t want to mention really. I’ve established myself this past year as being undeniably GOOD and reliable. IF I can make as much progress this year as I did the last year and a half, I can approach being great I think. I know that may sound selfish, but I think all artists want to be more than just good, it’s in your nature as an artist. That’s all part of it though.

7- Make more connections. I made some great connections in the comic industry this past year, as well as in the digital art community, the concept art and gaming industries, and I want to further those connections this coming year. Being a freelancer isn’t easy, but having a larger pool of editors, publishers and potential employers that know your name is always a good thing.

8- I want to start to step back a bit and give my kids more freedom. NOT an easy goal, and hard to explain, but my wife and I have always been VERY involved in our kids lives, making decisions, coaching sports teams etc….. I’ve come to the realization though, especially as my daughter is in that pre-teen stage now, that we really need to start letting the kids, mostly HER, start to become more independent, and either succeed or fail on their own. I think we’ve done what we can to make them strong enough to handle things, and we’ll obviously still be guiding them, but the only real way to learn some things is through adversity, and learning to deal with that adversity on your own (especially when you get to be a teenager) They are both at the absolute top of their classes in school academically, they both have reading levels that are FAR beyond their grade level, and they both are good athletically as well. It’s hard being a parent, but I think if we don’t start to step back a little bit, that what will happen is that the kids will start to RELY on us to be there for them at all times, and the fact is, as a parent you CAN’T solve all the problems.

9- Relax more. Deadlines can be stressful. I need to actually eliminate some things from my daily routine here, and add some others in order to accomplish this. I’ve moved away from meditation a lot in the last year or so with how busy things have been, but I really feel I need to get back to that a lot more. I also need to do things like read more, find more time for family and doing brainless activities like watching TV, and playing some video games now and again, playing pool. Sadly deadlines drive your life as a freelancer, and living in the state with probably the WORST economy in the nation right now….you take whatever work you can, when it’s there. I’m extremely blessed to do what I do for a living, but I can’t be content. If I were to have to go FIND a job out in the “real world” right now, there is NO WAY I could find something that would pay me as much as I’m making now (which is kind of sad) There are just no good jobs to be had, so for me to be able to work from home, remotely, and for employers that are from all over the world, is really something of a miracle.

10- Become a better person. Don’t get me wrong, regardless of the few people out there that may think I’m a jerk, I’m really a good person. There are certain things I want to work on though for sure. I think we probably ALL have this goal somewhere deep down, for some it might be buried in their sub-conscious, but the bottomline is just being the best person you can be. A better dad, a better husband, a better friend, a better brother, a better son, a better artist, a better citizen….that’s a lot of hats for any of us to where, and yet finding the BALANCE is the key. At 31 I think I’m just starting to get the right weights on each side of the scales, now it’s just a matter of adjusting the scales until they’re balanced.

Whew. That’s it I guess, probably some other things I want to do I’m not mentioning, I’m probably forgetting some things too. But in a nutshell, that’s pretty much it. I’d like to look back NEXT year at this time, and say that I was able to make progress on each and every one of those goals if not accomplish them outright. Hopefully everyone else can think of at least 10 things they can work on or strive for in the coming year. I’d like to throw world peace on there somewhere, as a lot of us would I’m sure, but working on being a better person will have to suffice as a write in for that one. Happy New Year everyone!!!

this morning I took in a copy of the new Hero By Night hardcover trade, a new issue 1 of the ongoing HBN series, and a KISS 4K Kissmas special book into my local retailer. The guys there were impressed with the hardcover for sure. They were also super surprised to find out there was so much more HBN content online for FREE to go check out. So as I’m browsing through the racks I see that the ongoing HBN series has a NEW shelftag on it like many of the DC and Marvel books surrounding it, and I also see they only have 1 left. VERY cool. I continued my browsing, ended up just getting 4 books, stuff I think is fun, stuff that I thought looked good for one reason or another, but mostly, there is a lot of fluff and a lot of just plain crap on the shelf.

2 of my books were all ages books, Batman Strikes (which I first started buying when Jai Nitz wrote an issue for them-because Jai is a cool guy and gave me my very FIRST coloring gig) Spiderman: Back in Black (All Ages-which is like a big GN of Marvel Adventures stuff, and has Fred Van Lente-whose work I really dig-as one of the writers), Superman/Batman #44 (which after READING it, is a good read, and the art kind of grows on you, so I’ll be adding it to the list of must buys for now) and an X-Men book, Emperor Vulcan or something (because again, I really like what Brian Reber and Raul Trevino did with the colors on this book) I’ll likely get a chance to read through them in the next week or two here. But geez…..300 books or something on the shelf, and only 4 caught my eye? I’m sure there are many more I would enjoy, but for me a comic is a complete package, if I’m not digging the ART, STORY, COLORS and the entire package, I’m not wasting my money on it. Maybe I’m too jaded in my older age of comic reading, or just too picky. Either way, I’m finding that getting singles every month is a harder thing to do for me as a comic book fan, than just buying trade collections of the stuff that is GOOD.

So I need to get myself in GEAR today, go shave, get a little work done before I have to go pick the kids up from school and then JUMP on work when I get home here. Lots of good coloring to go do the rest of the week (although I might skate off on Friday for a bit with the wife in the morning to go grocery shopping and whatnot before the holidays set in for real next week) Rule number 13 in life should be, “Only read GOOD comics”. that is all.

So yesterday I got 4 boxes worth of comp copies in here, 2 boxes of the hardcover collected trade of the original Hero By Night mini-series, a box of the first issue of the new ongoing Hero By Night comic, and a box of the KISS 4K KISSmas special one-shot.  I’m going to run through my thoughts on them real quick here.

Hardcover HBN trade-  Where to start.  This is admittedly my very first trade collection, or graphic novel, of any kind.  Thus I was prepared to be critical, as I always am when I see any of my work in print.  What I wasn’t prepared for when I cracked open that first case of books yesterday, was to be COMPLETELY blown away by how awesome it looks.  I have several hardcover collections already from Marvel and from DC, and I’ve seen countless others on shelves in comic shops and at conventions.  This HBN hardcover not only stands up there right next to anything DC or Marvel has done, but it surpasses a lot of trades that are out there.  I know that the ONLY collected work I own that is nicer, was the oversized Absolute Batman HUSH hardcover that DC put out, complete with that thick black cardboard slipcase and dust jacket.  The gold foil HBN logo is NOT obnoxious at all on this thing, and neither are the blue foil flames. The printing and design of the spine of the book is great, and will look wonderful on my shelf of books.  The interior page design and layout is spectacular.  Zach Pennington, and everyone over at Platinum Studios, REALLY, TRULY, did everything in their power to make this book beautiful.  Zach’s design work is wonderful.  They even included a cover gallery of all the covers from the original series without any text or logos on them, and used a previously never before seen version of the issue 4 cover that didn’t make the final cut.  Very cool stuff to see all in one package like that.  A nice introduction by DJ at the front of the book, of course the 5 pages of extra epilogue content we did just for this edition, creator bios, and a great ad for our ongoing series.  Kudos to everyone involved in putting out such a great product are in order.  DJ and I work hard to not only deliver great work each issue, but we’re continually pushing each other to do better.  I really feel that is evident from the time you turn the first page of this book, until you get to the last page of the epilogue.  It’s only getting better, and I’m extremely energized and excited to see this all come together in such a fantastic way.

Hero By Night #1 (ongoing series)- This won’t count as one of the first official reviews since I’m biased.  But, this book looks even better than just about any of the pages from the mini-series.  Lots of reasons I think for that, going back to how hard I think DJ and I push each other to get better, and how hard we push OURSELVES to not settle for good enough but to strive for maybe one day approaching something that resembles really GREAT work.  Thinking back, just doing pages, and more pages, and then doing webcomic work, and more webcomic work, and more pages over the last year, we’ve started to really become comfortable with working in the world of Hero By Night, and it’s starting to show.  When you turn the cover and stare at page one I think you become IMMEDIATELY immersed in this new book.  Starting with page 1 and continuing through page 4, you’re looking at this huge fight scene between HBN and a LAVA MONSTER deep in the heart of a volcano.  How cool is THAT?  And if that wasn’t enough action for you..well, one of the all time favorite characters from the Hero By Night webcomic, makes his first official debut in print.  It’s funny to think that characters makign their debut in an issue 1 already have a fan base, but with over 250 UNIQUE pages of full color work that we’ve done for the online webcomic in the last year, there is just this enormous backstory to this book already.  Tons of characters and plot lines from the webcomic that ALL tie directly into the books that are being printed.  I mean, there are now 110 pages of story in print, plus all the webcomic stuff….so what, close to 400 comic pages worth of material in about 12 1/2 months.  DJ alludes to it in his intro to the trade collection, but what readers and fans and kids that have been following Hero By Night, or might just be picking it up for the first time, what everyone is seeing happen RIGHT NOW, is a new hero being born.  Everyday for over a year I’ve spent a good deal of time, up to my eyeballs in Hero By Night.  I’m making a living now using things that didn’t exist when I first started reading comics, working on a superhero that wasn’t around then either.  But in the space of a year, there is so much story, history and nostalgia behind HBN, that it really feels like the character has been around forever.  I’m proud to say that I’m a part of something that is probably much bigger than DJ or myself.  These are stories that are telling themselves for the most part.  What our job is artistically, and we’ve often times reminded each other of this fact, is to let the story tell itself, to do what is demanded by the characters on each page, to not take shortcuts for the sake of taking shortcuts (for evidence of that, look back to the original webcomic of the HBN journals, sometimes as much as 4 to 5 hours being put into a DAILY webcomic the NIGHT before it’s supposed to be posted-and that’s just on MY end) I think part of what makes HBN so special to me, is the fact that the creative team of DJ and myself both believe in the same type of things when it comes to storytelling, and producing comics.  You don’t dictate what goes down on the page, the story and characters do, it’s up to YOU as a penciler, inker, or colorist, to do what is required of you by the story so that you add something to it, make it something more than just another comic page.  You won’t always succeed of course, but more often than not you’ll end up with something you can be proud of and you’ll know that you really have put your heart and soul into producing that page or book.  When I look at this first issue, I can see vast improvements on both of our parts, and I can say with confidence that we have both put our souls into this book, and it shows.  It may not be a book that is to everyone’s taste, whether it be the story or the art, but it truly IS a book that is FOR everyone who loves comics and who loves superheroes.

KISS 4K: Merry KISSmas one-shot- not sure where to start with this book.  A week ago almost to the day I got a phone call at 4 in the afternoon, and was asked how many pages I could color overnight, because the book had to be AT the printer the following morning.  I’m not entirely sure they believed me when I said I could do 13 pages overnight.  So after firmly stating I could, and convincing them that I wouldn’t let them down, I proceeded to sit down at 5:30 pm and not get up from my workstation except for a bathroom break or to get more coffee until 11:45 am the next day.  I worked straight through.  I owe some shout outs to a few people that helped me along the way by flatting a few of my pages, and by FINDING me a reliable person to do 3 of the 6 pages I needed done at the VERY last minute in the WEE hours of the morning.  So big thanks to Michael, Alex, Chris and Daniel.  You guys rock.  And you made me not only meet my deadline but look like a badass in the process :D  Taking that into consideration, I really don’t think that you can tell I did so much work in so little time.  The pages look GREAT.  Would I have made a few changes here or there if I had more time, you bet.  But it turned out great, AND the book was NOT late.  A large part of that is due to having wonderful line art supplied by Tone Rodriguez.  It was written by THE Chuck Dixon, and I have to say, I laughed my butt off a few times while reading it.  Chuck really paced this book out nicely, and it’s really a great read.  I would definitely recommend it for any KISS fan in your life, or for just a sheer fun read (since I colored the first few issues of the actual KISS 4K book, I will also say with confidence that this one-shot is a MUCH better read)

So to recap, the Hero By Night hardcover is GREAT, go buy one today, you can find them on ebay, you can buy them from the Platinum Store in a week or so, or you can have your local comic shop back order you one.  The new ongoing HBN series kicks BUTT, so go get your hands on that as well, and make sure to check out the HBN webcomic where we’ve got an absolute TON of stuff for you to read for free.  Have a Merry Kissmas, and all that jazz.  I’m headed to make more coffee, grab a few sticks of incense to burn, and get my butt coloring this morning.  If my new set of prismacolor markers come today in the mail, I plan on playing with those for a bit, and tonight, is buddy night with my son while the girls are out having fun.  Which means playing some pool, darts, video games, popcorn, coke, and maybe some more episodes of Smallville.

well, a couple pics, a WHILE ago now I was here (see below) in Philly for Wizard World. A blur of a trip, but lots of fun nonetheless.

after I got back, finished our patio out back (pictures to come soon) baseball game for my son on Monday, softball game for my daughter on Tuesday, baseball again on Wednesday, had some bad things happen in the REAL world this week as well, and of course…coloring. and more coloring, not to mention administrative stuff and marketing stuff for Big City Comics. My copies of KISS 4K number 2 came on Friday, and surpisingly, they look fantastic (all things considered) So last night, after a LONG day coloring, and my daughter having her first boy/girl pool party, what does my wife do when she comes in the studio at around midnight and asks that I turn down my music……doesn’t WAKE ME UP, but instead, takes a nice picture of what I look like after an 18 hour day, and being wiped out from allergy meds. You can say I’m either working HARD, or hardly working, and both would be an apt assessment of what’s actually going on here Need to remember to take my camera to Chicago and Orlando (and Baltimore if we do end up hitting that show as well)

So I’ve had something in the works for a couple weeks now, but all the details and legalities were finally worked out this week, and I can share what that something was finally.  I’ve taken a position with Big City Comics, a relatively new comic book publishing company, as Vice President of Creative Development.

Our first books are scheduled to launch in September or October of this year.  On the slate so far, Mario Gully’s creation Ant, will be moving under the Big City Comics banner (look for an official announcement from us at Wizard World Philly next week)  additionally we will be launching a fantasy comic called Dragon Cross, a VERY cool twist on the vampire mythos in a book called Tempest, and a cool supernatural thriller type of comic called Totem (also co-created and penciled by Mario Gully) We’re working to finalize and iron out wrinkles in a deal to bring another book onboard right now, more on that as things develop.
In addition to my duties as VP of Creative Development for Big City, I will also be coloring the Dragon Cross and Tempest books coming out.  So things are shaping up to be busier than ever here in the studio, but as I work through this lack of creative energy (and finish up our patio out back) my excitement is building, which bodes well I think.  I’m getting excited about Philly next week a little, we should have all 4 issues of Hero By Night at the show (at least I hope) as well as the first issue of KISS 4K which just came out this past week (colors came out great in that book I think, all things considered)  Also, with Hero By Night becoming on ongoing series later this year, my slate is pretty much full for the next year or so it appears.

Need to get some things organized, and a couple things colored today despite the painful sunburn on my arms today.  I should know better of course, but even when it’s only 70 degrees out and relatively cool, you STILL should have sunscreen on if you’re outside all day.  Time to turn the air on almost, as the sun beating in through the window is really heating up the office, and it’s going to be a scorcher here today!

working my way through a small lull right now, watching a lot of Smallville with my son, and generally not working much more than 7 or 8 hour days the last week (and the weekends off) That’s all going to change rather quickly, probably starting this weekend unfortunately. Pages are starting to roll in for 2 books due before the end of May, and I have even more pages from another side project to work on as well.

People are saying good things about Hero By Night #2 though, Blake Petit over at Comixtreme.com made it the Pick of the Week this week, here’s what he had to say,
“In a week full of solid comics, but nothing truly mind-blowing, selecting a favorite was actually quite a chore. After much soul-searching, deliberation, meditation, prayer and Cool Ranch-flavored Doritos, I’ve decided this week’s trophy goes to Hero By Night #2. D.J. Coffman and Jason Embury’s miniseries about a guy who finds the hidden cache of a long-lost hero is original, refreshing, and a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a new look at superheroes without the doom and gloom, but with plenty of excitement and adventure, check out Hero By Night.”
It’s really energizing to get good reviews and recognition for such a fun, all ages book. Both DJ’s kids and my own are absolutely bonkers over HBN, to the point of bugging every day to know what happens next, when does the next issue come out….it’s great to see that kind of excitement in kids under 10. That’s exactly how I used to feel about comics when I was little. There is more Hero By Night news to share soon, but I’m waiting to clear up a few details first I think before I share how MUCH more news there is precisely.

Off to get working on some pages from KISS 4K issue 2 right now, while I ponder how rainy days suck the energy right out of you.

I did.  I was hiding out, mostly.  wrapped up colors on Hero By Night #3 last night.  whew…what a blur of a week.  the next two days are kind of packed to, but nothing quite as pressing.  I’ve got a really, REALLY, REALLY cool cover to color for Todd over at New Dimension comics.  It’s this amazing Ron Frenz Spiderman cover that Todd had done for him that is a recreation of Amazing Spiderman 252 (the first appearance of the black outfit Spidey in AMS) where Spidey is holding onto two guys (one which happens to be Todd himself) So I’m doing a traditional version, to match as close as possible the original AMS 252 cover, and one where I’m going to tweak it out and do my own thing with a full on rendered up modern version.  Then, I’ve got some other pages from another project to get started on.  Then a pirate themed bedroom that the wife and I are painting for my son this weekend, then need to get started on pages for KISS 4K issue #2 next Monday.  Not that I’m abandoning my poor little blog, just that I’m finding the time to spill my thoughts is evaporating slowly as I move into a very busy summer full of work.  Stay tuned true believers, because I WILL be sharing both versions of this Frenz cover when I’m done though, and we all know that you absolutely cannot miss anything related to Spiderman in his black costume (easily MY favorite Spidey outfit)

Well, I’m back. Wizard World LA was both an absolute BLAST, and at the same time extremely overwhelming I think. There were some great things, like meeting, talking to, and hanging out with all the wonderful people who work at Platinum Studios and the Drunkduck.com website, and then there was the horrendous parking situation on Sunday, the long lines and general disgusting, filthy nature of the LAX airport, at least the parts I was in (not that airports are the most sanitary places, but landing back in Detroit at Metro airport made that place seem like a PALACE in comparison)

I’m going to forget some names, and MAYBE even get some wrong, as I’m still fairly exhausted and I think my body is a bit worn down after all the travelling, but it was especially nice talking to Scott Rosenberg (a very gracious, and fun guy, who you can tell loves talking comics and entertainment with you out of the same deep seeded enthusiasm and excitment that most comic creators have) Dan Forcey (who reminds me of a cousin of mine, extremely laid back, intelligent, down to earth and fun, real easy to talk to) Ann and Karlee (hope I spelled that right) both very high energy women with a wondeful energy for comics and everything drunkduck.com related, Matt (a VERY cool guy so I HOPE that I am remembering his name correctly, who basically organized the show for Platinum, worked his ass off, and showed DJ and I around the Platinum offices Sunday night on our way to the airport, and rightly deserved to sleep and be a couch potato on his day off yesterday) Jim, Howard, Randy, Brian…I know I’m forgetting some people but it’s seriously from a general sense of tiredness and exhaustion.
So what went down? a LOT. probably more than I can fit in here in the space and time I have today. I’ll share a few pictures though. I do have to get coloring the last 4 pages of HBN 2 in the next day or two after all.

this is what it was all about, one of many kids with their parents that came up and picked up the HBN comic. Kids generally seemed to go absolutely NUTS over the book and the character and as DJ can attest most likely, that is an AMAZING feeling. Now we know it’s not just OUR kids that love HBN.

Yeah, there were morning where I was THAT tired. 20 hour days leading UP TO the flight and convention probably lent themselves to my state of perpetual exhaustion, but we really had a great time.

The KISS 4K Destroyer edition. Yeah, it really was THAT big that I couldn’t get it in the shot with all the backdrop stuff. It was impressive, the books were all hand cut and hand stitched as well, which just boggles my mind.

The Hero’s Wall is what I’m calling this. Oversized movie posters of various covers and pinups from Hero By Night, the WWLA exclusive cover, the HBN WEBCOMIC pinup that we did to wrap up David Day’s first year as a hero, the cover to issue 4 and 3 respectively.

The Golden Apple Comics booth. Run by the amazing staff of Golden Apple comics, who were all very organized, polite, and enthusiastic the entire weekend. They probably don’t hear it enough by half, but I truly appreciated the hardwork and effort they put in to handling their booth, and the Hero By Night and KISS 4K signings and everything. It was no small task, and they all did a fabulous job, thanks to everyone there.

DJ Coffman standing behind the welcome desk in the entry way at the Platinum Studios offices. A seriously cool place.

Platinum’s office building, there offices comprise the ENTIRE 14th floor of the building, and were just as sleek and modern inside as the building is outside.

one of MANY areas in their offices where all the magic goes on behind the scenes. Covered in comics is a great way to describe the entire place. Everywhere you look, there is comic booky goodness. It has to be the single coolest looking office I’ve ever seen (and I’ve worked in plenty of advertising, marketing and design places) of course, that’s the comic book GEEK in me too, but seriously….the place is simply AWESOME.

so, that’s it for now, time to get into my day here and get cracking on some more coloring. Hopefully by tomorrow or Thursday I’ll have things back to normal around here, and be feeling 100%. What a trip. Oh and before I forget, while I was gone my issue of Imagine FX magazine came in the mail, nice little half page write up about KISS and their new comic, me and there is also some cool Hero By Night art published in there as well. Be sure to check out the magazine if you haven’t before, a great Mike Mignola interview is featured in there this month as well.

Trying to spread the word in as many places as I can, I now hit my own blog :)  I’m going to be in LA this coming weekend, for the debut of the KISS 4K destroyer edition, the Guiness World Record ceremony for the book, as well as the debut of our first issue of Hero By Night (with a special WWLA variant cover limited to 1000 copies) I’ll be in artist alley, tables 2208-2212 (one of those is going to be an 8ft table devoted to Hero By Night, not sure which one though) Also I’ll be appearing at the Golden Apple Comics booth at various times over the 3 days to do signings and hob nob with fans.  Our table is right next to all the drunkduck.com creators, because in case no one is reading the Hero By Night prequel webcomic that we’ve been running daily for the last 5 months leading up to the release of the print book, it has recently become the number one comic on their site of over 3000 comics.  So if you happen to be in town, stop by and say hi. I don’t make it out to THAT many conventions, especially ones on the West Coast, so it would be cool to meet people that I’ve worked with or conversed with, or to meet any fans of the webcomic and HBN (and even any of you KISS fans out there too ) in person if you happen to be hanging out. Hope to see those of you that can make it there.