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: Crowley from the Prime Series Good Omens (also the novel by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman)
Subject: The Stalk
First Appearance: SAGA #2 by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Medium: Pencil, Ink, Gouache
Process:
Nothing takes me back to my early 20’s like a good ol’ Silent Hill game (to be fair they’ve all fallen off since the 3rd installment…) Even the first movie from ’06 was a pretty decent adaptation of the franchise. I’ll admit, the one thing that really spooked me to the bone was the ominous unnamed butcher with the rusted metal frame adorning his head and shoulders, referred to simply as “Pyramid Head.”
That lumbering gait, dragging that enormous cast iron meat sword behind him, slowly chasing you through unlit, labyrinthine buildings and alleyways is still the stuff of nightmares all these years later. Enjoy!
Another favorite character from The Expanse series, both on paper and the tv screen, Amos Burton is a definitive bad ass.
As of this posting, I have yet to finish both the final season of the show and the final book in the series. It’s been quite the journey from when I started the books in 2015. Amos always stood out in the core cast with his staggering loyalty to Naomi and absolute “fuckall” attitude toward any authority but himself. It would’ve been fun to see the completion of his character arc onscreen (as the Prime series only finished out the 6th book) but perhaps there could be room for another miniseries or movie to wrap everything up proper.
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 