By the time I drove home, slept and turned on the computer, the news of Stan Lee's passing was firmly on my mind, so I didn't get around to posting about Grand Rapids Comic con.
It was good. It was a fun show. I got a few commissions requests. I normally try to steer people away from getting commissions from me when at a show, because it's really hard to focus on that when there are crowds of people around. HOWEVER, at the time I was in an adventurous mood, and the few I got were of characters I am familiar with.
Lobo (below) has been one of my favorites since high school, and if you don't know who he is, but like violent anti heroes...track down the Lobo Christmas Special. You wont be disappointed. This turned out okay, although I would have liked to have more time to draw him on his motorcycle.
Next was a request for Cerberus. This book is the grand daddy, gold standard of independent comics. Dave Simm did 300 issues of it, was never late and they (at least the ones I read) were well done. I heard that towards the end of the series he went through a divorce and slipped into crazy town...and the book took some weird and uncomfortable turns...I'll have to research that, but it sounds like the whole thing turned into a thinly veiled hate-fest about his ex-wife (which I have no problem with on principal as long as it's well done. People used divorce and break ups and revenge as fuel for good stories all the time.) I'll try to track down the final issues and see if they had any merit.
and I got a request to add VooDoo Joe to this cover of The Walking Dead
My newsfeeds on Instagram have been FULL of really nice illustrated tributes to Stan Lee. And I just wasn't up to joining in, it was just bumming me out thinking about it. When I'd start to do something...it just felt...sad. Today though while working on ideas for something else I scribbled out this scene with the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, the Watcher and Galactus. Galactus and this event happened early in the Fantastic Four's series...issue 48? 49? Somewhere around there.
I think I'll do this one up full sized ( the sketch is about 4 x 3 inches) maybe it'll be cathartic.
Funny thing about the Silver Surfer, he was one of Stan Lee's favorite characters because he got to write philosophically through his dialogue ( the Silver Surfer being a very thoughtful curious type person). and yet...he's about the most boring looking character ever.
It makes me wonder, was it Jack Kirby ( the F.F.'s illustrator) making him visually boring just to be a wise ass because he knew Stan liked him, or was it Stan picking a boring looking character as a focus so that Jack had to draw something boring for hours on end every time the surfer was in an issue? ...I guess I can't ask either of them now.
I'll keep you updated on the progress with this one.
OH YEAH, I almost forgot. There were a lot of decent costumes, and cosplayers but this one was my favorite.
I think it was supposed to just be a gender swap of Skeletor, but I like to imagine that's his over bearing wife and he goes home and gets bitched at for being late or spending too much money on fancy death rays.
Later.
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