It's been a seriously hectic week for me, to the degree that
I'm posting this blog entry at 1:00 am Wednesday morning since it's the first
chance I've had to do it. But things are finally getting done and falling into
place, and I'm ready to roll out my weekly update. So let's do this thing...
MOTOR CITY COMIC CON
While I wasn't able to set up in this con's artist alley (it
fell on my wife's birthday weekend, and she'll always be my top priority),
Laura did encourage me to take a few hours for myself on Saturday to go see
some of the attending celebrities that she knew I'd be dying to meet. If I
haven't mentioned it recently, I have the best wife ever. No, stop what you're
about to say. Mine is.
There were only two celebrities I was dying to see. The
first one was actor Howard Hesseman. For those who don't already know, Hesseman
is best known as Dr. Johnny Fever from the 70's sitcom, "WKRP in Cincinnati".
Being the fan of his work that I am, I also loved him from
his appearance in the 1971 cult film, "Billy Jack" (as a hippie
improv comedian, a role he was born to play), and as the teacher Mr. Moore on
the 80's sitcom, "Head of the Class". Coincidentally, I'd been
developing a new comic book for the past six months that had a character that
was very inspired by Dr. Johnny Fever, so when I heard Hesseman was coming to
Motor City, it felt like the touch of fate. I whipped up this drawing as a
tribute to Hesseman's work...
And presented it to the man himself...
Hesseman was a lot like
Dr. Johnny Fever, exuding a cool, well-worn persona, world weary but with a
smirk on his face like he knew the score. He thanked me for the drawing, and I
thanked him for being the symbol of cool that I aspired to be as a kid. Yeah,
that's right, Fonzie. Dr. Johnny Fever's got you beat.
The other celebrity I had to meet was actress Patricia
Quinn, who played the mad maid Magenta in "Rocky Horror Picture Show"(1975).
I'd had a crush on her since I discovered the movie at age fifteen, so
meeting her was a must. I drew this tribute to her character from
"Rocky"...
...and happily presented it to her. She was the nicest lady,
and I was thrilled to finally connect with my favorite Rocky Horror performer.
COMMISSIONS
Due to pressing deadlines and other non-artistic priorities
(including a double dose of the 24 hour flu and a sinus infection that I still
haven't shook), I had a stack of commissions to draw that should have been done
two weeks earlier. However, I went balls out on them this week, and just
finished them up within a half hour of my writing this blog entry. Here is my
favorite of the stack--a request from a fan to draw Dead Duck and Zombie Chick
as kids...
And while this isn't technically a commission, this piece is
an art trade that I'm doing with animator Tom Bancroft (designer of Mushu the
dragon from the 1998 Disney animated film, "Mulan"). Tom had me draw
Captain America (his favorite Marvel superhero) and Mighty Mouse. For my
drawing, he'll be drawing me Medusa and Black Bolt from the Marvel comic "The
Inhumans".
That's about it for this week. I'm about to pass out as I
type this, and I don't want to crack my keyboard from the weight of my skull,
so I'm gone. Be sure to check out my Dead Duck web comic every Monday and
Thursday, and check back here next Wednesday for another blog update!
--Jay
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