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.

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!

The Monster as Hero (Or, More BioShock Drawings)

I drew this ages ago but I never got around to coloring it. Keeping to a rigid once-a-week updating schedule means bringing a lot of unfinished drawings out of mothballs, shaking them out, giving them a quick coat of Photoshop paint and throwing them, unloved, out into the cold cold world.

I spend a lot of time thinking about villains and monsters. Some of my favorite media (Frankenstein, Hellboy, BPRD, BioShock 2, obviously Proof) feature monsters in leading man roles. The problem inevitably arises that the hero (conflicted about his role as a horrible monster but working for good) must rationalize his presence in a world that rightly fears him. It seems artificial; nobody I know walks down the street to fears that he/she is suddenly going to Hulk out and start throwing cars. It's unrelatable. The notion that it somehow boils down to 'fitting in' is laughable, too. A tyrannosaurus can't change its haircut and start working out in order to mesh with its chosen social subculture. (Although that'd be a sweet comic.)

The appeal of the monster-as-hero is obvious; they are fun to draw (artists love that), they are challenging to write (good writers love this) and they are excellent power fantasies (RAAGHH! BOOM! ROAR!). But, at the end of the day, it's always easier to massage the tropes if you pick a regular fellow who perhaps has a weird scar (Harry Potter) or the proportionate speed and strength of a spider (Scrooge McDuck). That way you can include lovely things like 'romance' (nobody wants to see Fin Fang Foom kissing anything), 'emotion' (besides, "Why do the villagers hate me?!"), and the 'redemptive arc' ("Does not killing this old man make up for totally killing that little girl?").

Anyway, I wrestle with this stuff as I try to figure out what's next for Archie Snow.

Here's Webisode Four of That's So Kraven!, my weekly webcomic with Trina Johnson, where we remove Raven-Symone from her own show and replace her with Kraven the Hunter. This week: Donna and Spiderman show down!

EDIT: Wow! The trailer for BioShock: Infinite was released today. Looks even more old-timey.

Calgary Expo roundup

The Calgary Expo was this past weekend, and it was a fantastic show. I lived in Calgary for eight years, so it was a great chance to re-connect with a lot of the fans that have made Proof (and Archie Snow) so much fun to work on. I had a great time with both Proof artist Riley Rossmo and Proof colorist Dave Casey, to say nothing of the tons of other friends I got to see.

I was a contributor to the art book this year: here's my piece. I got really used to saying, "I'm on page six!"

Some commissions I finished during the show:

Donatello

The Joker

Spidey

Hellboy

Zatanna

Little Iron Man

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.