As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I'm participating in the 2010 Michigan State University Comics Forum this Saturday, March 27th. It's been going on this week in the form of an impressive comic art gallery show, and will come to a head this weekend with professional comic artists on hand, myself included.
I will have a table at the Lookout! Gallery at MSU's College of Arts and Humanities, which is on the second floor of Snyder-Phillips Hall. I'll be stationed in the creator's alley (with my sidekick, lawyer and occasional roadie, Nick) from 11 am-5 pm. I'll be accepting commissions, selling prints, original artwork, original comic book pages, three rare collectible sketch cards, and will even have a VERY SMALL AMOUNT of Dead Duck copies on sale. As an added perk, I'm including an original Dead Duck sketch on the inside cover with each purchase. So if you haven't got a copy yet, this is a cool opportunity.
There will be an hour-long break from my table from 3-4 pm, where I'll be part of a comic creator panel discussion that will include Guy Davis (creator of "The Marquis" and illustrator of BPRD, both through Dark Horse Comics) and William Messner-Loebs (writer of "The Max`x" for Image Comics during the 1990's). I'm pretty certain the panel discussion will be in the same building and floor as the creator's alley. For further info, you can visit the event's website HERE or contact the event coordinator, Jay Jacot, at jay@comicsobscura.com .
I'd love to see some familiar faces at this event, particularly anyone from the Lansing area whom I rarely get to see. But for the bulk of you who will most likely have to miss it, I'll be appearing at The Motor City Comic Con in Novi this May, and will have more information about that in the coming month. And I will have some copies of Dead Duck to sell there, too, for those who really like waiting 'til the last minute!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Three months….
That's how long it's been since my last blog post. Some of you may have been curious as to my absence. Others were probably glad to not have humongous blocks of text to suffer through for a while. But at any rate, I'm back, with a recap of what I've been doing, and what's coming up…
As of this past January, Dead Duck is no longer being published by Ape Entertainment. This wasn't because of poor sales, and it wasn't Ape's decision. It was entirely mine. I just chose to amicably end my Dead Duck work with Ape, and Ape graciously handed back publishing rights to me. We still have a friendly working relationship and are working on various freelance projects together, but my primary focus is finding a new publisher for Dead Duck (which I'll discuss more below).
I've had a bunch of cartooning gigs since December, most being in the sketch card field. For those unaware, sketch cards are tiny little illustrations that an artist does for a particular trading card set. Typically, one original sketch card is inserted into a pack of pre-printed trading cards, so they're considered very collectable. In the past year, I've been fortunate to work on a set of Archie sketch cards for 5finity and a set of sketch cards based on cartoonist Dean Yeagle's character Mandy. More recently, I drew 105 original sketch cards for Topps Trading Cards' Star Wars Galaxy 5 series. You can view them all here:
This final block of full color cards were my return cards. Typically when you draw a certain amount of sketch cards for a company, you get to keep a few of them as part of your payment. You can then sell them off yourself to private collectors. Because Star Wars is such a popular franchise, I was able to sell my return cards immediately, and was able to put that cash aside for a trip that will hopefully provide a bright future for Dead Duck.
On Saturday March 27th, I'll have a table at the Michigan State University Comics Forum. I'll be selling artwork and will possibly be part of a panel discussion later that day. You can find out more information here.
In April, I'll be attending C2E2, a major comic con in Chicago. And no, this isn't the same con I attended last summer. That was Wizard World, a nice con, but smaller than this one. Waaaayyyy smaller. I won't have a table at C2E2, but will instead be walking the floor for a few days, trying to interest publishers in Dead Duck and possibly net some side work on other properties. I've already been talking with a couple publishers about working on some popular books, so hopefully C2E2 might be the place where such deals are finalized.
On May 14th-16th, I'll have a table at The Motor City Comic Con in Novi, MI. It will be my first time there as a professional, and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be selling prints, and taking commissions on original drawings and sketch cards. I will also be selling issues of Dead Duck, and will include an original sketch inside the cover with every purchase. So I hope to see some of you there.
So that's about it. More news as it comes, and hopefully in less than three months time. I've missed you guys.
Much love,
--Jay
As of this past January, Dead Duck is no longer being published by Ape Entertainment. This wasn't because of poor sales, and it wasn't Ape's decision. It was entirely mine. I just chose to amicably end my Dead Duck work with Ape, and Ape graciously handed back publishing rights to me. We still have a friendly working relationship and are working on various freelance projects together, but my primary focus is finding a new publisher for Dead Duck (which I'll discuss more below).
I've had a bunch of cartooning gigs since December, most being in the sketch card field. For those unaware, sketch cards are tiny little illustrations that an artist does for a particular trading card set. Typically, one original sketch card is inserted into a pack of pre-printed trading cards, so they're considered very collectable. In the past year, I've been fortunate to work on a set of Archie sketch cards for 5finity and a set of sketch cards based on cartoonist Dean Yeagle's character Mandy. More recently, I drew 105 original sketch cards for Topps Trading Cards' Star Wars Galaxy 5 series. You can view them all here:
On Saturday March 27th, I'll have a table at the Michigan State University Comics Forum. I'll be selling artwork and will possibly be part of a panel discussion later that day. You can find out more information here.
In April, I'll be attending C2E2, a major comic con in Chicago. And no, this isn't the same con I attended last summer. That was Wizard World, a nice con, but smaller than this one. Waaaayyyy smaller. I won't have a table at C2E2, but will instead be walking the floor for a few days, trying to interest publishers in Dead Duck and possibly net some side work on other properties. I've already been talking with a couple publishers about working on some popular books, so hopefully C2E2 might be the place where such deals are finalized.
On May 14th-16th, I'll have a table at The Motor City Comic Con in Novi, MI. It will be my first time there as a professional, and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be selling prints, and taking commissions on original drawings and sketch cards. I will also be selling issues of Dead Duck, and will include an original sketch inside the cover with every purchase. So I hope to see some of you there.
So that's about it. More news as it comes, and hopefully in less than three months time. I've missed you guys.
Much love,
--Jay