Finally have our table assignment for GalaxyCon in Richmond! We’ll be at N10 (right by the food court.)
I couldn’t be more excited to get back into the convention circuit, especially with the comic crew. I’m so excited I made a little video showing off my Con Goodies that arrived on my doorstep today!
Subject: She Hulk (aka Jennifer Walters, Attorney at Law: Marvel Universe Earth 616)
First Appearance: The Savage She-Hulk #1 (Nov. 1979) by Stan Lee and John Buscema
Cameo: Deadpool (first appearance, New Mutants #98, Feb 1991 by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld) included to mimic the character’s similar fourth wall breaking tendencies.
Medium: Pencil, Ink, Gouache
Subject: Bo-Katan Kryze
First Appearance: Star Wars: The Clone Wars S04E14
Current Status: The Mandalorian seasons 2 and 3 played by Katee Sackhoff
Medium: Pencil, Ink, Gouache
Process:
Now that Southtown has a mild social media presence of its own (go follow the Facebook page in addition to his site for content and updates) the game of non-spoiler marketing has begun!
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the team and I will be at this year’s GalaxyCon convention in Richmond, VA at the end of March and one of the big projects we’ll have ready to go is a 5 page ashcan preview comic to get the ball rolling. It’s a small snippet from issue #1 to introduce a small handful of the prominent characters in the series.
Additionally, below are a few character sketches and studies to tide everyone over until the next info-drop 😉
The Spider Verse is strong. The main timeline for the Marvel universe (cinematic and print) is the 616 universe. Into the Spiderverse and (to a degree) Far From Home and No Way Home opened up the Marvel Multiverse to the general public.
One of my absolute favorite multiverse variants is Spider-Gwen. The universe in which Gwen Stacey received the spider bite instead of Peter Parker. She’s a punk rocker and a bad ass web-slinging hero to boot. She’s got her own graphic novels which I endorse excitedly in advance of the next 2 Spider Verse films on the way. Viva la Gwen!
Today’s addition to the Friday series is none other than Luna Lovegood. Easily one of my favorite characters in the entire Harry Potter franchise (despite being introduced so late in the series.) I’ll admit she was a bit hard to put together in the books. On the page she just seemed weird for the sake of being weird, even by wizard standards. Though the subdued quirkiness that Evanna Lynch brought to the films made her one of the more compelling characters.
It’s official for realz! I’ll have a table in the Artist Alley at this year’s GalaxyCon in Richmond, VA March 24-26! This year I’ll have some friends joining me as well, my writer and colorist for the comic book we’ve been working on the better part of a year. Josh is the brainchild behind Southtown, feeding me scripts and insights on the world he’s built, and Ally is a fellow artist, Twitch streamer, and acting colorist for the project.
In addition to our glowing presence, we’ll have original pages to skim over, sketch books, sticker packs, and hopefully a 5 page AshCan preview.
My own Fan Art Friday originals, prints, and previous years’ Inktober projects will also be available.
Next up! We’ve officially launched the SouthTown comic Facebook Page! We’ll be updating it with character sketches, finished pages, panels, and previews, release timeline news, and eventually the crowdfunding campaign to get these printed and distributed!
Around fall 2015 Amazon started targeting me with Leviathan Wakes, the first book in a series called “The Expanse.” I’ve been a longtime fan of sci-fi, specifically the “deep space” variety (2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon, the 2000’s Battlestar Galactica reboot, etc.) and naturally I can’t resist something with cover art as intricate and compelling as this…
Not long after I’d cracked the first book I discovered it had been adapted into a series for SyFy. Both the books and the show became an addiction very quickly (though I have yet to read the 9th and final book, appropriately titled “Leviathan Falls.”) Naomi Nagata is easily one of my favorite characters in the series and Dominque Tipper did an excellent job with all of her layers and complexities for the 6 season run of the show. Spoiler alert: I will be posting another Expanse character here in the near future.
It was around 1997 when my taste in cinematic comedy took a swift turn. Up until that point it consisted mostly of the SNL alum “Fat Man Fall Down” Adam Sandler/Chris Farley. That is, until I was introduced to the indie, dialog driven stylings of Kevin Smith. His ability to craft a specific brand of sympathetic man-child really drew me in (and to which I heavily related at the time, as the comic book collecting art nerd that I was.) Chief among my favorites of Smith’s IP progeny was Brodie Bruce from MallRats. Something about Jason Lee’s line delivery and his “devil may care, but maybe he does” attitude struck a chord and it became an instant classic for me, despite the less than successful box office performance.
While I don’t really relate so much with a number of Smith’s characters these days (as I’ve grown into a different kind of man-child, and a lot of Smith’s newer character work deals with fatherhood,) I can still look back on characters like Brodie and give a hearty chuckle at his misanthropic worldview through the lens of 90’s consumerism Have yourself a chocolate covered pretzel. You’ve earned it.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Week 2! So far so good. I’d like to think I have a decent enough back catalog to keep this up for at least a good while. In either case, thanks for sticking with it (or checking it out if this is a first time for you.)
I was recently turned on to the new(ish) Harley Quinn show on HBO and have loved every second of it thus far. The sly satire on the nature of Batman’s rogues gallery is nothing short of brilliant (ClayFace, specifically) while maintaining Harley’s penchant for villainy, and positing her as a sympathetic survivor of abuse. The long and short, Harley is nuts, and we love her for it.
Wil Smith Illustration 