Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! My wife was worried because she only got me one gift this year (although she had some good stuff in my stocking..lol) But, dang, the one gift was simply AMAZING. She did really, really well. :-) Enjoy! Art by Pat Olliffe!

Awesome Art!

I have been a fan of Eric Basaldua's art for YEARS and have been working on getting a commission for a long, long time. This past fall my friend Jimmy offered to pick up one for me as the opportunity presented itself. This was one of Ebas' first attempts at using copic markers for an entire piece. I would never have guessed. Jimmy is a good friend, because since I was getting laid off, money became a bit of an issue and Jimmy let me get things in order before I paid him back. He also sent me this hilarious baby gift, a piece of art by Jeff Moy, featuring a little Green Arrow pestering Power Girl. My son Oliver was named after Green Arrow, so Jimmy got this for me. Thanks, Jimmy! Now I just have to resist the urge to buy another piece of art since I have things somewhat in financial order now... Ebas is doing GREAT things with commissions, as you can see here: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=43721

Yes.. I have an addiction to art.

Ever have one of those weeks...?

I tell ya...I have been trying to buy my wife's present for weeks. I'd call, they'd tell me it was there, I'd go to get it, then it isn't there. I look online and the store website says it is availeble the next day. I call and they say the inventory is wrong, but they are getting a truck the next day so I should check back. That has been the story every day for the last 2 weeks. The last few days I have called eery store in the Cincinnati area, and nobody has this thing available!! So now I feel terrible that I won't hae this to give my wife Christmas morning. It is really depressing because I think she got me something really cool.

It's been a good run.

Today was my last day at work. I was there for 10 years and 4 months. I was due to be laid off back in June in the 2nd wave of layoffs. Then again in July, and August. September and October too. Each month they changed their mind at the last moment and figured they needed me. today was the last day for everyone else except for the few people in the customer call center that they are keeping there. I think they'll be laying off some of them as well in January because they extended the Human Resources lady through the end of January. I have alot of fond memories from working there. I had been there pretty much my entire adult life. My badge picture looks like I was about 12. I know opportunities will present themselves but in the meantime I think it'll be nice for me to be home with Oliver. I do get a decent severance package and I am getting my vacation paid out so that will be nice. Otherwise I am trying really hard not to get too depressed about my situation.

Art Day (better late than never!)

I received a surprise package in the mail today. It contained my 2 commissions that were long past due. To be fair in the beginning I did ask for a couple changes to my request and he was happy to oblidge. He got backed up on work and fell behind schedule on many pieces. He was very good with responding whenever I inquired on the status and recently he promised me I'd have the art before the end of the year. I was probably a little too impatient, but I had been burned in the past by artists who took my money and ran. Anyways, here are my two pieces. Wonder Girl (Cassie) and Speedy (Mia). Enjoy!

Those were the days...

I was sitting at my desk at work the other day thinking about some of my favorite comics back in the day. I am losing my job in a week or so, so frankly there is not much for me to do while I sit in front of this machine. Some of my favorite comics back then were Batman/Detective Comics where Tim Drake had been introduced as the new Robin, and Ben Reilly had shown up as the Scarlet Spider. There is one major common denominator of those 2 books from 2 different companies, and that would be the uber-talented Tom Lyle. Incidentally, I came across his blog the other day. I had always wondered where he went, turns out he has been teaching at the Savanna College of Art and Design. I have seen some books on the shelf from him recently, from the DC title Vigilante. I usually flip through the book at the shop, but this version of the character did not really appeal to me. It was nice seeing Mr. Lyle’s work again though. The three Robin mini series he did at DC were some of my favorites. I remembered seeing the ads for the books and remember getting pretty excited. One of these days I hope to get a commission from Tom or a cool piece of his original art. I never have really seen much of his art on the market though. I hope he posts more on his blog, as I thoroughly enjoy reading about the insights of the world from the artists and creators whose work I love.

Update to Christmas list...

The other day my wife asked when I said a damsel in distress on a spidey piece what I meant.. You know what would be cool? If it was one of the current supporting characters, say Michelle Gonzales (Spidey's new room mate), Norah Winters, who is a new hot shot reporter in the comic, or Carlie Cooper, who is shaping up to be a love interest in the comic. Carlie is a police forensic scientist. Peter's supporting cast has changed alot in the last year, and if you ask me, it is for the better. I love the interaction with Peter and all these other women. When he was married to MJ I think it took some of the fun away from Peter as a character. It was fun reading about his escapades with MJ, Gwen, Felicia and all the others.

There are some really cool action figures too. Marvel Universe has some great new figures. Daredevil, Ms. Marel (2 figures!!!) and Warpath.

Also, Fringe season 1 on DVD would be cool, since I missed so much of it and heard it got really cool late in the season.

All I want For Christmas....

Well, it's getting to be that time of the year again, except this time, Oliver is here to celebrate with us. I am excited to buy him Christmas gifts, but I know he is too young right now to really understand, so the fun times will be in the coming years.

I thought I'd mention a few things that I would love to get for Christmas. There are always things off of my amazon wish list: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=2R6BN53Q4YSUM or http://tinyurl.com/yksh9k5 if the above link doesn't work. A few tpbs that i would love to have:

1. Gen13 vol. 1 Best of a Bad Lot

2. Gen13 vol. 2 Road Trip

3. Gen13 vol. 3 15 Minutes

4. Hunter Killer vol. 1

5. Madame Mirage vol. 1

6. Deadpool Classic vol. 2

7. Strange Girl vol. 2

8. Strange Girl vol.3

9. Strange Girl vol. 4

I know it is highly unlikely, but I would LOVE a commission from one of the following artists

1. Paulo Siqueria (http://www.comic-art-ink.com/Paulo%20Siqueira.html) Spidey saving a hot damsel in distress by Paulo would rock. Hm..or even Spidey VS Deadpool..that would be awesome.

2. Billy Tucci (http://www.crusadefinearts.com/index.php) his art is just amazing. Very clean smooth style. He would draw a great Supergirl or Wonder Girl.

3. Pat Olliffe (http://www.catskillcomics.com/Olliffe.htm) I bet he could do a great Spidey saving a damsel in distress piece, too.

4. Wellington Alves (http://www.comiconart.com/WellintonAlves.html) does great work, too. Would love to see him do a Spidey or Wonder Girl piece.

5. Gift cards for http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.comiconart.com/ or http://www.dreamlandcomics.com/html/index.htm would be great too.

I know finances are tight for everyone right now, and most of the stuff on this list isn't likely a good candidate to receive, but, it's all stuff I would love to eventually have.

Now...What do I get my wife??? I know this seems like a greedy post. Oh well. :-)

Puddles meets Oliver video

Pictures of Oliver on Facebook

There are lots of pictures on facebook. :-)
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=708942665&ref=name

Oliver is home. :-)

Introducing Oliver Bayer!

It was a stressful night last night. We were told that they would begin the induction process around 6am this morning. The doctors had gien my wife medicine to help her sleep and to help with the pain. About 3am they barged in and said they needed to do an emergency c-section. Eery time my wife had a contraction, Oliver's heartrate dropped. It was a major concern for the doctors. When they opened up my wife, the cord was around his throat and he wasn't breathing. His heart rate was going fine, but his respiratory wasn't. They rushed him over and hooked an oxygen mask up to him. They rushed him out of the room before we could really even see him. After awhile they said he was okay and he was in the special care nursery for a few hours. We finally got to bring him into our room and meet our little guy. He is so precious. He weighed 5lbs 12oz and is 18.25 inches long. I am a proud poppa. :-)

Mid-Ohio is next weekend...

and I can't go... Oh well. I was hoping that I'd be able to sneak away for a day and get a commisison or two, but with Gretchen being on bed rest, I just can't. It looks like it is going to be a great show. The guest list is awesome.

http://midohiocon.blogspot.com/

Barry Kitson, Ron Frenz, Billy Tucci, David Mack, and many, many more. Those are a few of the artists I'd LOVE to get something from. A friend is going on Sunday and offered to pick some stuff up for me, but by Sunday I am sure many lists are filled up. Beggers can't be choosers. Oh well. I sent my friend the list of above artists, and I am asking for a Wonder Girl. DC recently gave Cassie a new costume and it is a pretty cool one. I think she has gone through more costumes than any other character.. LOL.

I wonder when Oliver will arrive. The doctors are going to try to get my wife until at least 38.5 weeks. She has an appointment tomorrow morning that I am going with her to. We'll get to see how big he is and all that fun stuff. Pretty cool...

New(ish) comics I have read

I went to the shop on Saturday and picked up a handful of stuff. This is what i got:

Batgirl #1: SPOILER ALERT: I am relatively unfamiliar with Bryan Q. Miller's and Lee Garbett's work, but I have seen Trevor Scott's inks before, and he does a fine job. I had a feeling I knew who was going to be under the cowl, and I was right. I generally enjoyed the portrayal of Stephanie Brown's character and her relationship with Tin Drake. I think Bryan and Lee are off to a great start. Bryan portrays Steph pretty well, placing her in situations where we get to see her in her civilian guise and her new Batgirl persona. I was glad he brought Barbara Gordon into the fold too, I hope as a sort of mentor and friend to Steph. I also hope we get to see a little more of Cassandra Cain in the book, too, or at least a little more to her story and passing her 'legacy' to Steph. Lee Garbett's art is a new favorite of mine. It's moody in the right places, pretty well detailed and he passed with flying colors when it came to portraying Stephanies various emotions. Not only that, but Lee is also a very nice guy, from what I gleamed from a couple email exchanges I have had with him. I am bound and determined to own a couple nice pages from this book by Lee. You can check out his blog, which has all sorts of cool stuff here: http://www.leegarbett.blogspot.com/ I recommend checking out this title.

The Red Circle: The Web and Inferno: Way back in the 90s, I really liked most of the Impact comics from the DC Imprint. I read The Shield, The Comet, a couple issues of The Fly, The Jaguar, and I know there were more, but those are the ones I read. I was psyched to hear DC was bringing a lot of those titles back, although with different characters. I didn't read The Web the first time around, but I thought the cover to the relaunch was too freaking cool to pass up. it doesn't hurt that it is written by J. Michael Straczynski (who I understand is writing all the one shots related to the relaunch...sweet!) Straczynski is an incredible creator. I never followed his television work, but I came to know his work from Midnight Nation Supreme Power and Rising Stars, which was one heck of a great book. He then went on to write some Spider-Man and Thor books as well. Anyways, I really enjoyed the concept of the Web that Straczynski came up with here. Roger Robinson and Hilary Barta did the pencils and inks, respectively. Always a fan of Roger's art. Hilary I am not as familiar with. As for Inferno, there were parts I liked and parts I wasn't too sure about, but we'll see what happens. Greg Scott did some nice work on the art though.

Other stuff... Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #2, Adventure Comics #1, X-Factor #47, Amazing Spider-Man #602 and #603 (MJ is back), Gen13 #31, which I haven't read that title in a long time, and I heard a new creative team was coming soon, but the cover was cool so I grabbed this one. Ultimate Comics: Avengers #1 and Ultimate Spider-Man #1. Both enjoyable, but I preferred the art styles of Bagley and Immonen on the previous incarnation of Ultimate Spidey. Maybe Lafuente's art will grow on me.

Enough rambling for now. Go pick up Batgirl and The Red Circle books!

Dream commission...

Since I haven't been able to buy art for a long time, I have been dreaming about what kind of commission i would get if I could. When Spider-Man went through 'One More Day' and then 'Brand New Day' there has been a steady rotation of creative teams on the book, and they have all rocked, in my opinion. One of my favorite artists that has been featured has been Paulo Siqueira. http://www.comic-art-ink.com/paulosiqueira.html A very talented artist, and he has done more work that I have read than I realized. He has worked on Birds of Prey, Amazing Spider-Man, Black Canary and many others. One day I am going to get a great commission from him, with spider-Man (The wise-cracking Webhead), Deadpool (The Merc with a mouth!) and either MJ Watson, or the Black Cat. I am sure there is a hilarious piece that could be done with those characters. One day.

Just cut the grass...and I gotta shower...

Yo Joe!

Well, i saw G.I Joe today. It was better than I expected, but still cheesy in spots. It was chock full of action. There were times when Scarlett annoyed me. I really didn't care for the Riptide Scarlett thing. That kind of stuff (where certain characters have a particular history and then new creators do something different and way off kilter from the characters published history) kind of annoy me at times.

Overall, it was a fun film.

Ivan Reis commission... a long time coming (but awesome results!)

April 2008 a good friend of mine got me on Ivan Reis' commission list for the New York comic convention. Due to the craziness of the show, Ivan didn't get to my commission. Once he was home he was bombarded by deadlines from DC for the Green Lantern Blackest Night story (which is a huge event this summer). I had requested Wonder Girl receiving a Green Lantern ring. The results are the awesomeness you see above. :-) He really did a bang up job.

I have received another extension at work...

Yesterday morning the VP of the company came back and had an early chat with me. It turns out they want me to stay until September 4th. The downside is they aren't asking my boss to stay, so i am in an awkward position, since they haven't talked to him yet. I have to keep telling everyone that I am done August 7th until they do talk to him. It is a relief to me because that means I'll be working longer and closer to when Oliver is born. Yay!

In Memory of my cat Deanne

My sister called me this morning while I was on my way to work. My cat, Deanne, passed away last night while she was sleeping. She was about 10 years old. She was 3 when I rescued her from ARF. When I got engaged my sister took her in since my fiancee was severely allergic to cats. Turns out I was too, because once I wasn't around Deanne any more a lot of my health issues improved. For several years it was just me and Deanne in my one bedroom apartment. She was a little chunky, but she was as sweet as she could be. She chewed through my speaker wires and pooped on the carpet, but she was mine and I loved her. I am glad my sister was able to take her in so that I didn't have to take her to a shelter somewhere.

My sister thinks she had congestive heart failure and she died in her sleep, but she is in a better place now.

Guess I should write something...

I took the day off work yesterday since my wife had a doctors appointment. I really want to go to as many baby appointments with her as I can. She is 26 weeks along today. It is wild hearing the heartbeat and seeing the ultrasounds. We have been receiving lots of baby clothes from friends and family. It is awesome. We also have chosen a name. I thought we were set on a name but my wife started asking what I thought about other names so I started naming off the names of comic book secret identities... Clark, Tim, Hal, Peter, Orin, Kyle, Oliver, Roy and others. When I said Oliver my wife started to tear up and said that was perfect. So my son is going to be named after Green Arrow, which I guess is cool. We finished up our registry last week. I need to get busy and work on the nursery. I need to sand the walls and paint. My father-in-law and brother-in-law came oer and took care of the office for us, which is greatly appreciated.

My last day of work has been moved out until August 7th. We supposedly have a big order from a customer in China but we haven't received the down payment. Once we get that I was told they were going to ask me to stay longer, most likely until October, which would be perfect. I'd get 10 weeks of severance pay which would carry me through the end of the year if need be.

Due to losing my job and Ollie coming soon I haven't been buying any art. I have a couple pieces that are long over due. I found out a couple weeks ago that one of them is completed and is on it's way from Brazil. It's a Wonder Girl piece from the incredibly talented Ivan Reis. I saw a scan and hope to have the piece in hand in the next week or so. It is a gorgeous piece. Ivan really outdone himself with this one. I have been waiting for it for a year and a half, but that's okay as I have waited longer for pieces not near as nice and some artists have actually skipped out on me. Once I have the art in hand I'll be posting a scan.

Time to get ready to go to Coney Island.

I received a stay of execution...

My last day was recently moved from June 19th to July 3rd. But, the company is closed the 3rd, so technically my last day is July 2nd. It might get extended again, who knows. It would be nice for it to be extended a little loinger, since my little boy will be here in October. Yup, I am gonna hae a son! We hae talked about a few different names. I thought we were set on Nathaniel. Then it was Quinton or Nathaniel. I prefer Nathaniel, myself. I'd like a little Nate running around. Then I was teasing my wife about naming him after a comic book character, so I started naming off secret identities of characters. Spidey, Robin, Green Lantern, Green Arrow.. She started to tear up when she heard Green Arrow's secret identity. She won't let me say his name on here even thought she has told darn near everyone. Oh well. I am sure people are smart enough to look up Green Arrow (the older one, not the younger one) if they really wanted to know what the name was. So far everything is going well, mostly, with her pregnancy. I am excited. :-)

Another One Bites The Dust....

Well the wavering economy has now effected me drastically. After I got back from my trip to Germany I received a call from my boss and his boss. I was told that the plant I work at was closing in 9 weeks. My last day is tentatively June 19. This could be extended slightly based on circumstances between now and then but at the soonest it it will be June 19. You can read a nice brief article here:
http://www.journal-news.com/news/hamilton-news/milford-company-to-layoff-58-93492.html?printArticle=y

They told us that everyone that was currently with the company would have a position available at the 'mothership' in St. Louis. They went under the assumption that nobody would be interested in that so they didn't really have anything prepared to show you that as an option when you had your one-on-one with HR. I'll be getting a severance, but it would be really nice if I somehow managed to last until august because that would give me 10 years and therefore I would receive 1 more weeks severance pay.
Our baby is due in mid-October so in a way I guess this is sort of okay because then I can stay home with my wife and the baby for a few weeks. What I'll probably do is try to find one or two part time jobs and work 20-30 hours a week while I am getting my severance pay and throw it all into the bank. I will also use that time to do projects around the house, such as building a new fence, getting the nursery and playrooms ready among other things. In the mean time I will look for a good permanent job to start after the baby is home for a few weeks.

Last month I made the decision to stop buying comics to get finances prepared since our wages were slightly reduced (but at least our severance is based on pre-reduced wages). I was collecting a ridiculous amount of books (if you have checked out some of my earlier posts you'll see what I mean) but I think I may be able to convince my wife we can afford 5-11titles a month without it hurting us. I have my list narrowed down to the following:

Dynamo 5
Amazing Spidey (I am cheating since this is a thrice a month book..yay!)
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
X-Factor
Incognito
Hercules
Immortal Iron Fist (which I read somewhere was ending soon)
Deadpool
New Avengers
Dark Avengers
Captain America
Mighty Avengers (maybe)
Iredeemable
There are also a couple miniseries I am looking to finish such as:
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
Flash Rebirth
as well as a couple one-shots.

I think my best shot is to go to one of two local shops that are very close to my house instead of mail ordering so I can save money by shipping. Both of my local shops offer a pull/hold system with a 15% discount and one of them also offers free bag and boards which is a plus. I am not sure if the other shop does that or not, I didn't ask.

On top of everything else my wife and I have a nasty respiratory infection. I have been on antibiotics for a few days now. Yesterday was the worst of it as I had a fever of 100.2 so I didn't leave my house. Luckily I didn't miss any work. I just hope I feel well enough tomorrow to go into work. I need to save up my vacation days so I get paid for them all when the layoff takes effect. Good times!

Last of the pics for now (whew!)

More pictures!

These pictures are of a car made of recycled materials called a Trabant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Pictures (bored yet?)

More pictures!