Here’s a commission that got completed just in time for New York Comic Con. I finished a number of pieces over the last week, including the long awaited lettered states and remarqued editions. After ten years, they are all completed. I almost can’t believe it.

As of next week, I will be up to date on commissions for the first time since…well, I dunno. The only one I have left is an oil painting, but that is an open-ended work. I want to have it completed by the end of the year.

One of my favorite patrons, Ray, commissioned this piece of the character Malikai from a series by the late Michael Turner called Soulfire.

I used professional quality markers for this. They are great, but my set is drying out. I almost didn’t have enough to finish the job.

Tricky things those markers, and no corrections possible if you botch something.

I was able to scan most of my commissions before I left for New York, but won’t be able to post them until I get back.

I do have a few lettered states (volume II only) and a handful of remarqued editions that I will be able to sell later, but I won’t be taking any orders any time soon. I will let you know when they become available. I will ship the remainder of the books over the next few weeks as time permits. And I thank EVERYONE for their patience!

The only customer we were not able to track down was Devin Timothy Stevens. If he ever pops up, we will have to issue him a refund.

Out of nearly 1000 orders, I guess that’s not too bad, but I have no one to blame but myself for taking so long to get these books completed! I will not be doing this sort of thing again, obviously.

I will not have any limited editions for sale in New York. Sorry. I will have paperback GN’s.

c

Here’s one of the roughly two dozen commissions that I finally finished over the last couple of months. Aubrey Stallings kindly waited several years to get it! Nowadays, I finish them within twelve months or less.

The best way to make sure I get them done on time is to have people contact me several months before a show. With a 50% deposit, and a solid deadline, both the patron and I will be there and the job will be finished. It is so easy to procrastinate on commissions, especially when I have deadlines for clients.

At this year’s New York Comic Con, I had dozens of requests. The economy doesn’t seem to be hurting fans who want original drawings! Alas, I could not do any of them because my schedule is full, but I did give a few people a rain check if they asked me to draw something I liked. One person requested a Shade the Changing Man, and I will be taking that job on.

I’ll be posting a number of the sketches over the next couple of weeks. I mentioned I only had one left, but I forgot about a major Sandman piece I’ve been struggling with. That and a large painting are the last of them.

This also means the remarqued edition books and lettered states are completed. They will be shipped out in installments over the next couple of weeks and that will be it.

While I won’t be selling art on ebay and the like, I will let you know if I have time to take on any more small commissions. I may have time for a few before Charlotte Heroes Con, which is the only show I am scheduled for the rest of this year. If you are interested, please let me know at least two months in advance.

Come back over the next couple of weeks for more sketches. I get a lot of Legion of Superheroes requests! I hope DC Comics lets me have another crack at that book someday!

I’d almost forgotten: at some point in the dim and distant past, I was hired to be the new artist on a Tarzan comic, but it went under before the work could be published. I will see if I can find the sketches.

c

Hi Colleen,
I just wanted to let you know that I got my books in the mail today, and they are awesome! I didn’t realize that they had wooden slip covers- I can see what you meant about them being too big and bulky to bring to comic con! Really, they’re just so beautiful- I can’t wait to show them off to my friends. Anyways, I’ll see you on Saturday, and I’ll pay for the second book then. See you soon!

Best Wishes,
Sue

You’re most welcome, Sue!

Lettered state editions of A Distant Soil are about as rare as red diamonds.

I originally intended to do 24 (one for each letter of the alphabet) copies, bound in leather with hand laid in hand made marble endpapers and handmade custom boxes. For each book, I drew a full color character portrait. This I made available for $200.

That seemed like a lot of money back in the day, but it quickly became apparent that my retail price was too low. Shortly after beginning the project, the manufacturing cost on the books increased.

If I were to have them made to the same standards today, they’d cost about $500 per book just to make! To sell would cost $1,000.

So, all the people who ordered the books at $200 may have had to wait for YEARS to get their orders, but I finally finished them all off. I had a few copies of volume II left over and will offer those for sale someday, but there will be no more of any of the others. They really are beautiful, but even I don’t have copies now. I had to use my reserves to fill the last orders.

I listed a lettered state for future volumes on all the A Distant Soil GN limitation sheets just in case I was able to find another manufacturer. I doubt this will ever happen, if for no other reason than the days of my being able to take time to do sketches like this may well be over.

Those who were able to get their orders were very happy with their books, and even though it took forever, I am so relieved to be able to finish them off and ship them out! There’s only two more left to ship, and after I pack them later this week, I will post the art for them as well.

c

PS: Brian Holst: you have books shipping, too.

Another lettered state edition drawing in colored pencil, this one for Sue McLoughlin.

Things went very well at NYCC. I did better than last year with A Distant Soil graphic novel sales up a bit, which was heartening. Up by a third, I think. But it was nerve wracking, as most buyers were waiting for last minute Sunday bargains, so for awhile I thought I was going to get stuck shipping home boxes of stuff (nope.)

Here’s a con overview from The Beat.

I didn’t bring much to sell at the show anyway, since I knew I would have a very bad location (great for enjoying the show with friends and doing deals, bad for sales.) I also shipped the wrong box of art, the one with the Captain Atom pages and like works which don’t have much of a market, so comic pages didn’t move.

Still I had completed a number of advance commissions and everyone who ordered their drawings picked them up at the show, so lots of art sold in the end. I have never been asked for so many commissions before. I have raised my prices, but that didn’t slow down requests. I was unable to do them, alas, unless people asked in advance of the show.

I skipped most parties, but for the first time in my life, someone tried to hit on me AND a male companion simultaneously at the CBLDF gathering, which was quite a shock.

Rantz Hosely (who is attractive, yet married, I must conclude we looked decorative together) and I were talking quietly with one another at the bar when two very aggressive men approached us and asked, “Do you swing?”

While I stood there and blinked at them trying to process what had just transpired, Rantz quipped, “Sure, I like ’50’s music.”

Good times, good times.

At the DC party, I arrived very late and two men came to my table to sit with me.

Party crashers.

In short order, their ignorance of the event and what we were doing there became apparent as I tried to explain to them that yes, people really do draw comics with their own hands. Freelancers couldn’t get into that party, but by golly, these two dopes claimed their cousin got them in. They didn’t even look like they were the same species, much less cousins.

They asked “What’s this party for?” so that was a clue they had crashed it, see. It’s pretty bad when you don’t have market penetration at your own party. I got up to go to the banquet to get some food and they quickly gathered their things and left, but not before they had scarfed down some free eats.

Yes, I got sick again. I left the show early, and would have left even earlier had I not had a commission to deliver. The customer didn’t show until late on Sunday, and then I was out of there. Nothing major and horrible like last year’s bout with whooping cough, just annoying. And I sound like a frog.

There was one retailer selling buy one get TWO FREE graphic novels, and I did just that. I also bought an Aquaman doll from Tonner and I await delivery as they had sold out at the show. It was on sale 2/3 off.

Oh my God, it’s gorgeous. I’ll post a pic as soon as I have it.

Looks like conventions are the way to get uber-bargains. I am very much looking forward to Charlotte Heroes Con, because if the sales are anything like last year, I am going to have to back up a truck to the door to haul goodies away.

Bad news: very few vendors selling art supplies. Blue Line, where were you??????

c

I am grouchy after the annoying events yesterday, so for now, have a Doctor Strange pic – another convention commission – and I will back away from the internet lest I commit an act for which I may be arrested.

The Stoic philosophers never anticipated the rigors of the internet. Alas, Marcus Aurelius! Your lessons avail me naught.

Doctor Strange always makes me feel better, though.

I’d like to draw that comic someday.

Ah, the healing power of comics!

I think I will go read one right now.

You should, too!

Feel the power! Feel the power! Feel the power of comic book love!

c