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.