Montreal Comic Con roundup

Another Montreal Comic Con has come and gone. The show has ballooned from less than a thousand people only a couple of years ago to something like 20,000 people. That's great for the city and the show itself, but I definitely felt the growing pains this year. Sales were lower than last year, which were lower than the year before that. I think the show is entering that comfortable sweet spot for bigger guests, but it's becoming less profitable for fellows like myself.

Here's a sample of the sketches that kept me busy all weekend. Thanks to everyone that came out to see me and pick up some comics, pages, and sketches from me.

 Spoiler Robin

 

Spider-Man

 

Solid Snake 

 

The Spectre

  

Batman Beyond 

 

Shepard (from Mass Effect) Gangnam Style

The Spectre

Ariel (from Green Wake)

Speaking of Green Wake... Kurtis Wiebe won the Shuster Award for Best Writer on Saturday night! Since Kurtis couldn't be at the show, I accepted on his behalf. Very proud of him and very proud of the book.

Other highlights of the show included the three panels I did on Saturday; my own panel on Making Comics (the class I teach at Syn Studio), the Elephantmen panel with my excellent friend Richard Starkings, and the Ben Templesmith panel. Ben is a tremendously clever and fun guy, I had a great time chatting with him all weekend. I also had the great pleasure of meeting the tremendously talented Mark Chiarello and seeing the unlettered, uncoloured pages from Hellboy in Hell #1 (thanks to Christine and Mike Mignola for such an honor). I spent a bit of time with Darwyn Cooke and he told me some good news about upcoming Parker projects. Very exciting.

Back to business! Bedlam #1 is on its way and I'm supplying the letters for it. It's some of Riley's best work yet and I can't wait until its unleashed on the world.

Warm-up sketches

For the last two weeks or so, I've been taking suggestions for warm-up sketches on Twitter. It's been fun, and I've gotten some really great suggestions. Here's a bunch of them.

Dave Matthews as Batman (this is what got me started)

 Ace Hart (from Dog City)

 Zombies crawling out of sunken voodoo cemetery with a ghost pirate ship in the background (my nephew is the best)

 Hulk vs. Ikea

 Black Canary (some artistic license taken here)

 Mary Poppins of the Borg

 A Frankenstein's monster made out of other monsters

If you have an idea, tweet at my (@kellytindall) with the hashtag #warmupsketch and I'll select my favorite.

Montreal Comic Con roundup

Fan Expo, then two weeks on the road visiting family, then the Montreal Con! Whew!

Well, growing pains notwithstanding, the 2011 Montreal Comic Con was a fantastic show. I was busy nearly the entire show, and here's a few of the thirty or so sketches I did to show for it.

The Batman

Glob Herman  (on a date)

Venom

 Red Sonja

 Kratos sketchcard

 Red Lantern Hal Jordan (this kid's totally sweet name: Merlin)

 A wedding drawing

 Cheetah (running faster than Horse)

Hellboy (I love drawing Hellboy)

 And a caricature! A lot of people thought 'head sketch' meant 'caricature', and since I worked as a pro caricaturist in Calgary for six years it was not hard for me to get back into the groove.

The show was a lot of fun; I was seated next to the marvelous Tom Fowler so I was never bored, and I had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Sergio Aragones for a few minutes. Sergio is a hero of mine, one of the greatest cartoonists ever and a jolly fellow, and I did my best not to flip out while we spoke.

It was also lovely to see the great Stan Sakai for a moment, and getting to meet the legendary Diana Schutz and chat with her for awhile. Other friends such as Yanick Paquette and Ty Templeton also made things a lot of fun. Geez, I have a good time at this show. Thanks, everyone!

In other news:

• I am teaching a class on comic-book storytelling at Syn Studio here in Montreal. Classes run for ten weeks (Thursdays from 6:30-9:30) and start on September 29th, if you're interested get in touch with the gallery: http://www.galeriesynesthesie.com/

• As always, my weekly webcomic That's So Kraven! updates every Wednesday.

• Green Wake, the fantastic horror series I letter for Image/Shadowline, has a trade paperback coming out this Wednesday! It collects the first five issues and it's gorgeous. I can't wait for you to read it, and keep your eyes peeled for Green Wake #6, coming in October.

Fan Expo in Toronto!

Hey everyone!

I'm stoked as hell for the Toronto Fan Expo, coming up this week. It starts on Thursday at four and goes until Sunday at six. I am located at P060B, next to Wes Craig (and a load-bearing pillar). I'll be under my brand-new banner, you can't miss me.

I will have copies of the full run of Green Wake, Machine of Death, Proof 17, and my mini-comics A Vampire in Montreal and Stink to sell.
 

I will also have original pages from Proof and That's So Kraven! to sell, as well as a portfolio of both 9"x12" drawings and sketchcards. I'll be keeping a sketch list all weekend long. Here's what you can expect from my sketches:

I hope to see you there!

Joker Joker Joker

I love to draw The Joker. I'm thinking about having an art sale to raise some money for the impending birth of my first child, so to get back into practice I drew a favorite of mine.

The latest That's So Kraven! is online, check it out over here. Have a good weekend, everyone. Stick together!

Fan Expo update

I'm not going to be at Fan Expo this year. I had to pull out at the last minute. I will, however, be at the Montreal Comic Con on September 11th and 12th with Trina Johnson (my writer on Kraven!) and my friend Tim Sale.
Here are some sketches I'll have available at Montreal:

This is the sort of thing I do for my con sketches.  If you are interested in any of these (or you'd like a character of your own choosing) then come see me at the show. I hope to see you there.

Webisode Six of That's So Kraven! is online right now. Spiderman takes Kraven to meet his employees, and makes him a most beguiling offer. Stay tuned!

Toronto Winter Con roundup

 

 

 

  

 

Toronto was a lot of fun! Great to see Guy Davis, Ray Fawkes, Cameron Stewart, and Russ again. Lovely to meet Katherine from The Naked News, too (NSFW). Thanks to the organizers, the con went liquidy-smooth and the fans were particularly great.

Congratulations to Canada on their gold medal in hockey. I made it to the bar just as overtime started. Downtown Toronto after the victory was a sea of good vibes and smiles. Shame about the Nickelback though.

Back to work. See you again, TO.

Montreal Comic Con!

Here are a few sketches I drew today to loosen up for the con tomorrow. It'll be at Place Bonaventure and I believe it opens at eleven (?). Should be a lot of fun, come say 'hi.'






If anyone is interested in any of these drawings (and I have any left after the show) you can always email me at: kelly at kelly tindall dot com

All inquiries are welcome and appreciated.

November babies, Montreal Comic Con

Apologies all around for my radio silence. Working very steadily on a brand-new project that I hope to get off the ground early next year. I have not decided if it will be inkwash or watercolour paint... So, I have been practicing steadily with both to see what I can see.

Poison Ivy:
Hellboy:

And Batman, a present for my friend Quinton who works on the new show FlashForward. He is a top man. It's his birthday today, actually.
I will be a guest of The Montreal Comic Con this coming weekend. Do come around and say 'hello', I will have much to sell and I will be excellent company.