COMICS 'R' US SIGNING RECAP

I have had two days of incredible fun at my signings at Comics 'R' Us.

First up, I'd like to thank Matt and Sue for hosting the event. It was a ball. Huge thanks also to Mitch, Troy and Mark for watching my back in the city store. One of the coolest things was that Troy was going down the line asking people what they were drawing and grabbing reference for me so everything was at my fingertips. This meant that instead of stressing what someone's costume looked like, I could get on with the job of making them look COOL.

So if you're in Melbourne and after comics, please go check out what these guys have to offer. Get any one of them into conversation and you're guaranteed a great time.

I was greeted with wave after wave of really lovely, enthusiastic people. What took me aback, was young Thomas Jones who sent me in two incredible drawings he did for me of Mr Fantastic and a manga person c/o Comics 'R' Us. He sent them in as thanks for a Captain America I drew for him at Armageddonexpo. That totally made my day! Thank you Thomas!

Ok, onto the sketches:

THE EXPLODING MAN: Here's Emo Petrelli going all explody on us. I believe this guy was an English backpacker who swung by Comics R Us on his way to Uluru (the rock not the 9th Wonders Elder God). A nice way to start the sketches.









SUPERMAN: This guy said I could draw whatever I wanted. Of course, it's Superman.

I'm so two dimensional. You're going to have to take my word that it's a good one as my hand got a little shakey taking the photo.

In his other hand he's holding a copy of Zxenith, a comic I drew 10 years ago in my early 20's. What a blast it was seeing that!


BOOM HANDS: I ran into this guy at Armageddon. He saw that I had my grey pen and asked for his Claire to be toned. It was great going back to this piece. He then asked for a Sylar in the style of my Peter. I had fun with this one.







SPAWN: Damn my shaking hand. I liked this Spawn. It had a really nice balance and composition to it.

You're just going to have to take my word for it. =)










ZATANNA: Ok, here's where I took it up a notch. The opening pieces were fun, but I was till getting used to my new pens (which were a bit hard - I normally like a soft felt tip, but I could have staked a vampire with this one). She's waa-aay stacked. But that's just the fun of drawing Zatanna.

This was my first highlight of the day. It just turned out really well.






BATMAN: This was fun. Again, I'm still playing with pens. This guy (Shane) was a fan of the current comics so I decided to do the black symbol on the grey front.











SUPERGIRL: Ok, now I'm pissed off that this one was out of focus. This one kicked total butt. It's rare that my chicks are better than my guys... but Zatanna and Supergirl came out really nicely. Notice that she's not as well endowed as Zatanna as she's like, 15 or something.

I also like the less shadows lighter feel to this sketch as opposed to the heavy blacks of Batman.








ANIMAL MAN: The boys make a comeback with Animal Man. I'm stunned by this piece. I don't know how long it took (I wasn't super-fast today as the line wasn't Armageddon-crazy long). But this Buddy Baker is the first I've ever drawn and I'm damn happy with it.

Thanks again to Troy for the reference for the costume!








SYLAR: This is Robb, who's studying drawing and wants to become a comic book artist. Him and I are exchanging emails and exercises to help speed him along the way. The Sylar I drew for him is ok. I started studying season 2 Sylar and got it confused with season 1 and it kinda came out a bit... conflicted.






ANAKIN SKYWALKER: Again, blurry, but I'm really happy with this! I had no reference, and hadn't seen the movies in about 3 years, but I just went for it. I think it came out just grand considering!










SANDMAN: Ok, I did a couple kick ass sketches that day. And this was one of them. I am SOOOO happy with how this turned out. Expression, character, composition and lighting all worked. It took no time at all, too. It just came out great. C'mon Neil, do another Sandman book. You and I, going one on one with the Dreamy one!









BATTLE DAMAGED CLAIRE: Sounds like some sort of action figure. This is Siobhan, one of my favourite fans. She got this drawn at Armageddon, and then asked if I brought a red pen if I would colour in the blood. Of course, I said, "Yes."

Click on it and take a closer look at her left shoulder. That's total gore my friends. It looks wet and dripping and chewed up. I love it! Red pen and liquid paper are my friends.


Ok, that's 12 out of the 37 (37?!!) that I did that day. Stay tuned tomorrow for the second third.

If you haven't seen the HEROES graphic novel, head out and support your local comics shop and grab one. It looks beautiful. The design and production is incredible. I hadn't seen my work printed out before. I loved my Roadkill and War Buddies stuff. But looking at my Death of Hana stuff really bothered me. It just looked like I had been tracing photos. I felt really dismayed as I hadn't been doing that. I'm going to have to adjust my style to make it look more like a picture and less like a photo. In response to my comment, a friend mentioned that's what he liked about it as far as HEROES was concerned - that it did look photo realistic.

COMMISSIONS:

I like having a project on the side, or running two projects side by side. HEROES was always a welcome distraction from the epic that is Zero G. But without HEROES work, I need a side project. People have been asking me whether I do commissions, and previously I said "No." because of the HEROES work.

But I'm hereby opening the gates. If you're interested, send me an email detailing what you want and what format (size and black and white or colour) at: grael23@yahoo.com and I will reply with the details. You can then make a decision from there.

SIGNING AT CLASSIC COMICS
Hey all, my good friend Giusseppe from Classic Comics ran into each other Armageddonexpo. He asked me if I'd like to do a signing at his store the Saturday after the Comics 'R' Us one. Of course I said, "Yes!"

So here's the details:

3pm-5pm

Shop 7, 50 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia

HERE is a map

Signing is free, sketches are $10 and sketchbooks are $15 (same as before).

So anyone who missed out on sketches at Armageddon, this is your last chance to grab one. Or simply come down and say, "Hi!".