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I will be at the big show in San Diego this week, sitting next to Cully Hamner and Frank Cho at the Big Wow Art booth (Booth #4093, near Lobby F). I will have my new artbook “Illuminations 2010″ available, as well as six new prints I made just for the show. Frank Cho and I have made a print together that we will have there as well called “Bathing Beauty”. If you have a commission from me to pick up at the show, that’s where I will be as well. Come by and see us all at the Big Wow Art booth.

Hello everyone, just in case people aren’t getting posts from my mailing lists, my commission list for this year is open. You can find all the information at http://www.art-bot.com/sketches.htm and if you didn’t get the email notification you can always sign up at directly for the list at http://www.brandobot.com/.

These are the comic shows I am planning on attending in 2010. You can always find updated information at my website by going to the “Convention Appearances” area on the right side of the main pages.

April 24-25, 2010
Calgary Comic Expo
http://www.calgaryexpo.com/

BMO Round Up Centre
Halls D & E
At Stampede Park
20 Round Up Way SE
Calrgary, AB, Canada

Saturday, April 24, 2010 : 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday April 25, 2010 : 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

May 1, 2010
Yancy Street Comics
http://www.yancystcomics.com/

Unit 709A
Gulfview Square Mall
9409 US Highway 19
Port Richey, FL 34668

Saturday, May 1, 2010 : 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

June 4-6, 2010
Heroes Convention
http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

Charlotte Convention Center
501 S. College St.
Charlotte, NC 28202

Friday, June 4, 2010 : 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, June 5, 2010 : 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday, June 6, 2010 : 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

July 21-25, 2010
Comic-Con International
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/

San Diego Convention Center
111 W. Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 : 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Thursday, July 22, 2010 : 9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Friday, July 23, 2010 : 9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, July 24, 2010 : 9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday, July 25, 2010 : 9:30 am – 5:00 pm

August 28-29, 2010
Baltimore Comic-Con
http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/

Baltimore Convention Center
One West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

Saturday, August 28, 2010 : 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday, August 29, 2010 : 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

And I will be at two European shows in the late fall this year:

September 14-18, 2010
Jornadas Del Cómic De Avilés

http://dreamers.com/jornadasaviles/

More Information Coming Soon!

October 23-24, 2010
F.A.C.T.S. 2010
http://www.facts.be/fa_index.html

Flanders Expo
Maaltekouter 1
9051 Ghent
Belgium

More Information Coming Soon!

This is it folks, time for the big show of the year. This year at San Diego Comic Con I will be sitting next to Frank Cho over at Steve Morger’s  Big Wow Art booth in the Artist Area of the con at booth 4903. It’s a big booth and sharing it with us will be a full compliment of talents, including Mike Mayhew, David Williams, Sanjulian,  Doug Sneyd, Travis Charest, Ernie Chan, Joe Jusko, Ted McKeever, Dan Brereton and, part time, Jane Wiedlin/Bill Morrison and Jason Eden.

I will have a number of limited prints, but the big draw will be the debut of my new artbook “Illuminations 2009″. I got it back from the printer a few days ago and it looks amazing. It’s 8 1/2 x 11 sized, with 52 interior pages in black and white and color showing not seen before art, including roughs and final pieces in all sorts of mediums. It will be signed and numbered, and limited to 1000 copies. The price will be $15 a copy. I will also have some copies of my hardcover artbook “Venus Overdrive” which came out last year. Here is the cover for “Illuminations 2009″, it’s slightly different from the originally posted art as everyone said I made her look pregnant.

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Also this year is something I’m really proud of, another collaboration between Frank Cho and myself. He created the line art, and I digitally painted it. It’s a print of Deja Thoris from the John Carter of Mars series, 14 x 24 inches, lithographed on a beautiful heavy stock. It’s limited to 300 copies at $25 each, numbered and signed by both of us. We’ll have packing materials at the show that have worked great for us the last couple of years. I’d recommend getting these early, we usually sell out by Friday or Saturday.

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So come on by and see Frank and myself and say “Hi” if you’d like to take a look in person.

In my new artbook for the year, I have a lot more process stuff in there this year so people cans see how I work. I am one of those guys who tends to try and put only my completed stuff out there as I like to put my best foot forward. But since people seem to like seeing the buildup, I thought I’d show a little more rougher stuff.

Here is the evolution of a cover I just completed for the Nova series from Marvel. I have the sketch, inks, and final stage, but no pencils as I forgot to scan them. You can see how the sketch changed on the cover after some feedback from the editors, that happens all the time, which is why I suppose they have you do sketches in the first place.

Here are some scans of a Conan commission I did at the Heroes Convention. I normally don’t have time to do much work at shows, but I was able to squeeze this one in. I have scanned the pencils, the partial inks, and the final inks for you to see. I do a lot of my work inthe inks stage as you can see, as I’ve been inking myself exclusively for many years now and have developed my own shorthand in the pencilling stage.

I just got back from the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC. What a great show, loved seeing everyone familiar and new there! Thanks again to Shelton and everyone else at the show for taking such good care of me.

I’ve added a bunch more convention appearances in August and September, so here is my new updated convention schedule for the rest of the summer:

July 22-26, 2009
Comic-Con International
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/

San Diego Convention Center
111 W. Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 : 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Thursday, July 23, 2009 : 9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Friday, July 24, 2009 : 9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, July 25, 2009 : 9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday, July 26, 2009 : 9:30 am – 5:00 pm

August 15-16, 2009
Dallas Comic Con
http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/dallascomiccon.html

Richardson Civic Center
411 West Arapaho Road
Richardson, TX

Saturday, August 15, 2009 : 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday, August 16, 2009 : 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

August 22-23, 2009
Mini Megacon
http://www.megaconvention.com

Orange County Convention Center Hall E1
9899 International Drive
Orlando, FL 32819

Saturday, August 22, 2009 : 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday, August 23, 2009 : 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

September 4-7, 2009
Dragon*Con
http://www.dragoncon.org

Marriott Marquis Atlanta
265 Peachtree Center Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30303

Friday, September 4, 2009 : 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, September 5, 2009 : 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday, September 6, 2009 : 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Monday, September 7, 2009 : 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

October 10-11, 2009
Baltimore Comic-Con
http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/index.htm

Baltimore Convention Center
One West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

Saturday, October 10, 2009 : 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday, October 11, 2009 : 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

The inks for the Supergirl commission, complete with batputer and the reason for the hearts. A fun piece to do.

Another commission piece, this time with Supergirl. The raw pencils and the start of the inks. There is a specific theme with this and a reason why she looks lovesick. The background will reveal all, the inks should be up very soon. This week should have a lot more art post.

I really goofed off today and saw two movies. That’s the benefit of working in comics and not having a real job, so “ha!”

Very different movies, but both great in their own ways. The first is Up!, which is from Pixar meaning you know it will at least be good if not amazing. Well, it was amazing. I saw it in Disney 3D, at 11:45 at night with a theater of teenagers, and we were all entertained. Once again, Pixar has layered a story with many different levels for all ages, and tied it all together with a big heart. The people who work there are the best storytellers of this generation in any medium I can think of. The 3D is growing on me, but it’s a gimmick that may become too overused. There were a lot of trailers for other movies coming soon before Up! and some don’t look like 3D will be adding much to them, if you know what I mean. Here’s hoping Hollywood doesn’t drive the whole 3D thing into the ground, but who am I kidding, they will.

The second movie I saw earlier with my friend Jimmy Palmiotti was called Drag me to Hell. Now, folks who know me know I don’t care for a certain type of horror movie. Slasher films and others in that ilk tend to have a lot of dumb people running around getting killed in interesting ways. I hate watching dumb people. I get incredibly annoyed with dummies in real life so I don’t like to see them in my entertainment, even if they do get offed by a maniac with a chainsaw. This is not one of those movies. It’s fun, gross, and campy, and just really well done. Beautifully written with Sam Raini handling that job and directing. He’s so good, I miss him not doing Spider-man movies. I like Spider-man just fine, but the last one was so bad I just think the series should stop and let Sam go do what so obviously is his true calling in films.

This summer has been pretty good for movies so far, I have high hopes for a few more coming out soon. But sitting at any movie beats working during a hot summer day. It’s good to be in comics!