COMIC-CON!

cover art for Hard to Swallow comics vol.2 #1

So i am still hoping to get this thing done for sdcomicon next month. Just finished the front cover art… it took a while to come up with an idea I liked. I am working on the logo and the final interior pages now.

I am also considering advertisers to help with printing costs. Anyone have any ideas? Anyone want to donate or sponsor a page? Buy original page artwork from the book?

Hard to Swallow comics, vol. 2

So I have been hoping to get the first issue of volume 2 of Hard to Swallow out by Comic-con in San Diego this summer. It may still happen, depends on how fast I can work. If not, the fall back plan is for the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco in the fall. This here is the back cover, featuring the characters from the story “Code Blue”.

Inkslinger's Ball and Dead Rats

Hollywood used to have it’s own little tattoo convention, the Inkslinger’s Ball. The convention was at the Palladium on Sunset bd, and I have no idea why it doesn’t happen anymore. It was nice to have a local tattoo convention, now we have to get out to Long Beach, or Anaheim, or even Pamona. Not that I really go to many tattoo cons.
I went to the Inkslinger’s Ball a couple of times. The first time was in 2001, just days after 9/11. The attendance was supposedly a little down because no one was flying then. I had driven up from San Diego (where I was living at the time) with my friends Dave Gilstrap and Brian Franey. It was fun, tho Gilstrap, whose ethnicity is something of a mystery, got hassled by some skinheads. In the contest, Gilstrap got 3rd place in tribal with the work I did on him.
My favorite thing about that day was the latex rat I bought. It was cast from an actual dead rat. It even had a few hairs stuck in it! It was the realest looking fake dead rat I have ever seen. I took it to work. I left it in the storeroom by the refrigerator. Soon the ditsy counter girl went for some coffee and boy did she scream. I think I lost points with her that day. I kept it by my station, but clients were getting to freaked out by it. So I moved it to my car. I left it in that little gully between the seats behind the shifter, where change collects. I forgot about it. People would lean in the window to talk, or first time passengers would at some point stop talking… I’d look over and see a look of horror on their faces- they’d found the dead rat.
Ah, good times.
So with in a couple of years the poor thing had deteriorated to small pieces from the heat of a car interior in southern California. Grud, I miss that rat. I wish the Inkslinger’s Ball was still around. I’d go look for another one.

Fake Dead Rat, Rest in Peace.

SD comic-con '08

Hey all, I just returned from working the San Diego Comicon, plying my wares, doing a timeshare table space with Steve MacIsaac. It was pretty fun, sold some prints, t-shirts, and of course some comics. Made some new friends and caught up with some old, and bought a load of comics, mostly some 2000AD stuff which is hard to find these days, so I stock up at their comicon booth each year. This is the first year I’ve worked this convention, I’ve volunteered and done signings at Prism’s booth, but this year Prism got a double-booth and sublet time-shares out to a bunch of us to set up mini-shops. It was a good, busy time, but now I must catch up on some SLEEP!!!