Wintercon 2010 & Others

This Sunday, February 21st, I will be appearing at Wintercon 2010 at The Comic Vault in Chicago, IL. The event takes place all day Saturday and Sunday and features a rotating lineup of some very awesome Chicago artists/creators including Nino Mesarina, Tim Seeley and Tony Maldonado. There will be special promotions throughout the show. I will be appearing, as I said above, on Sunday the 21st from 4-6 PM.

I will be signing anything you'd like, from copies of GSD #0 and #1 (if you were lucky to get any of the early release, handmade Indy Comic Book Week copies from Brainstorm Comics in January), pictures, stuff, your buttcheek, etc. I will be of course doing as many sketches as I possibly can in two hours. I will also have a brand new limited edition print for sale. The print will come in three different color variations (blue/green, red/orange and black/gray/white) on 4 x 11, 67 lb. beige cardstock with a neat border. I'll also have a bunch of one-of-a-kind pen & crayon stickers for sale. And when I mean one-of-a-kind, I really mean it. Each one is hand-drawn and colored and will be the only one in existence. So come rummage through those. I'll also be selling whatever random sketch cards and portfolio stuff I have in my briefcase. I still have the old Spidey, Ghost Rider and Rorschach prints and I'm trying to get rid of those as I plan on having a new set for this summer's convention season. I, unfortunately, will not have copies of The Great Sandwich Detective #1 with me. All the copies I made for Indy Comic Book Week are sold out as far as I know. I am placing an order through Kablam for a large stock this upcoming week as soon as my tax return comes in.

So expect an early March widespread release of GSD #1. I will have issue #2 out by sometime in April. I will also have something special for Chicagoland comic stores for Free Comic Book Day in May. I will have more info on that as it unfolds.

So Wintercon will kind of be the early kickoff for convention season. I will be registering my table in the Artist Alley for Motor City Con (May 14th-16th in Novi, MI) in the upcoming week or so. I'll be joined by my Alex Ghost partner Aaron Pittman. Like I said previously, I will have a new set of prints, copies of Issues #0, #1 and #2 and I'm also working on a summer convention exclusive sketchbook. I also promise to continue my tradition of cardstock, wearable mustaches for you, your friends and random celebrities to wear throughout the shows. I also hope that by the end of the summer/convention season, I will have the Food Book near completion and ready for publishing.

I guess that's it for now. I will have pictures of the prints up as well as pictures from Wintercon early next week. I don't have an absolute ton of new art to show you but I'd like to share a poster I made for my roommate and myself's birthday party we had a few weeks ago. I think it's pretty rad.



High five power,
Dave

Indy Comic Book Week, Early Copies Of Issue #1

Sorry it's been a while. Things have been hectic. Issue #1 was completed and had an early printing for Indy Comic Book Week this past week. I was a guest at Brainstorm Comics where I signed copies and hung out all day talking all things geek with the staff and customers alike. Issue #1 hasn't officially come out though. I brought a very limited number with me just for that day. I am placing an order for a full stock this Friday for a tentative official release in a couple of weeks. Once I have a confirmation of my printing, I will make an official release date. So on that day, Issue #1 will be released at all stores that carry it. Currently, there are a few early copies left on the shelf only at Brainstorm Comics. So if you wanna get it ahead of the full-scale release, I suggest you hurry over there before they are gone. I'd just like to give a big thanks to Robert, Sean and Matt at Brainstorm for having me as a guest and a big thanks to those that came out and bought a copy and hung out. Ya'll made a big kid's dream come true for one day.

Issue #0 is currently out of stock at most places that carry it. I also currently have no copies printed. I will be placing an order at the end of the month for more copies so I can re-stock the stores (plus some other stores) in early February. However, after that, it may be the last printing of Issue #0 for a while.

At the moment, I'm figuring out my schedule of release for GSD. With the amount of work I put into each issue plus working a full-time job it's hard to make a deadline for myself. I may be implementing a bi-monthly release schedule. It sucks but it may be the only way to ensure that I have a set release schedule instead of a sporadic one. I'd rather have an even month between issues than have two come out back to back then release one three months later. Nothing is set in stone right now.

I'm currently working on Issue #2 right now. I have the story outlined (the conclusion of the "No Crying Over Spilled Milk" storyline) and I started thumbnailing with hopes to start pencilling pages by next week. I may have this issue out by the end of February before I implement the bi-monthly release schedule.

With winter fully in effect, that means only one thing: convention season is only about 3 1/2 months away. I'm starting to make plans now. I'll for sure be back in Novi, MI this May for Motor City Con 2010. That month I may also be heading down to Texas with my good buddy Nino Mesarina for TableCon Texas. It's a toss-up between that and Staple Expo in Austin, TX. I'll be ironing those plans out within the next month. I'm currently on the waiting list for C2E2, so we'll see how that goes. Definite yes on Chicago Comic-Con 2010. There's one other bigger show I'm looking at as well. Plus the array of local shows and cons which I love just as much. So expect my schedule box to be filling up within the next couple months.

Wow, I've typed quite a bit. I hope everyone's holidays were great. I'm gonna get back to work on the funny books!

Be awesome & stay positive,
Dave

P.S.

P.P.S. The Sammich Tweets posting is currently down as Blogger is having some issues with their Twitter widget. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. To stay up to date, follow TheGSD on Twitter.com. Sorry for the inconvenience!

To Hold You Over

Until Issue #1 comes out at the end of the month, here are some quick snapshots to keep the faith.




Some cool events are coming up soon in Chicago. More info to come.

Dave

I'm Famous!

Panels On Pages interviewed yours truly along with Aaron Pittman and Andy Vanderbilt at Chicago Comic-Con back in August and they recently posted the video for it. There are a lot of great interviews with great creators but if you wanna skip to the beautiful faces, we're at the 5:25 mark in the video.



Riveting! We also took their Pop Rocks challenge and destroyed it (of course)!



Thanks again to the PoP crew for a fun time at Chicago Comic-Con!

Dave

Happy National Sandwich Day!

I apologize for the delay in updates. I've been very busy with work and life that I haven't found time to get on here and keep things up to date. I hope you all had an awesome Halloween and more importantly a great National Sandwich Day. I know some of you celebrated by going out and picking up an copy of GSD #0. I know Issue #1 had been very delayed and I apologize for that as well. I am trying to find time this week to wrap up the last few pages. Once that's done, I just need to arrange and letter and it's ready to go to print. I am planning some cool things for the release. I also plan to have this be one big release as opposed to Issue #0 where different shops got stock at different times. I'm going to make it a point to get it out to the stores prior to the release date so that they can all put it out at the same time.

I recently did an art demo for Montana spraypaint at the Dick Blick in Wheaton, IL. I had a blast demonstrating and painting in front of everyone. The crowd was so awesome. The finished painting is actually hanging at the store so you can go check it out there. You can even make a bid on it (I think). Here's a shot of the finished piece:


And this is what happens when spraypaint explodes all over your hand:

Skull hand!

As some of you may know, my good friends David Gruba and Rene Castellano just released a brand new book, Bride Of Wolfman. I had the honor of seeing pages and character designs for the book a while back and it's such a cool story. I definitely urge you to hit up your local shop for it. If they don't carry it, demand it!

Unfortunately I won't be a part of the new C2E2 show this year. But a lot of great artists are going to be on hand so you should definitely go out and show your support for local Chicago artists. I think my next show will be Tablecon which I believe is sometime in January. I will keep you all posted. As for now, I need to get some sleep!

High five,
Dave

P.S.
Oh yeah!

Chicago Comic-Con '09 Recap (For Real)

Okay, so there was a bit of a delay in my Comic-Con recap. I've been really busy with work and preparing GSD #1 (I got a lot of awesome things planned for the release). But finally here it is, my official CCC '09 recap. (This is gonna be a pretty long post because I have some other cool stuff to talk about after the recap).

Of all the years I've gone to Wizard World Chicago (now dubbed Chicago Comic-Con), I've never been part of the show. I've gone and bought tons and tons of crap and hung out in the Artist Alley, either talking to artists I knew locally or drooling over original artwork some other pros. But I never had a table until this year. Best way to put it was I was extremely excited and very unprepared. The con always seems to sneak up on me and pair that with my recent move, I totally didn't have time to do everything I wanted to do for the show. But I had a wonderful time nonetheless. This year the big three didn't show up so fortunately for us artists, that meant the alley was flooded with con-goers all weekend. It was really awesome to see the convention being about the artists again. We met a lot of great people over the weekend. I'd like to thank everyone who came by and gave us hugs and high fives and bought our stuff. If you happen to come across my blog and you bought a sketch or painting from me, I'd really really appreciate it if you could send me a scan of it as I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of everything I did that weekend. I'd love to put it up here! I do have some pictures to share though. So check em out below. This weekend was a blur of drawing, people in costumes, us dancing to mariachi music, convention pretzels, underpants and insanity. To sum it up, greatness. I'd also like to thank all the artists and creators we met this weekend who gave kind words and hung out. The comic community is really awesome, especially the one here in Chicago. I guess I thought I had more to write but I guess not, haha. So check the pics out and then I'll have some more to say after that.

One of the happiest moments of my life.



I don't think I'll ever get sick of painting Spidey.



Galactus neither. This was the point in the convention when I ran out of sketchbook paper and started painting on paper towel from the bathroom. I think it looks nice.



This was an old practice sketch from my portfolio. I do a lot of exercises where I'll make a vague shape and then attempt to turn it into something. I really really liked this piece.



We found Sandman in the garbage can by our table and decided to class him up and make him our mascot! He's in my closet at my apartment as I type this. Expect to see him more often folks.

That was exciting wasn't it? Shake your head yes. There you go.

As I said before, I am still finishing up The Great Sandwich Detective #1. It's almost finished and I'm setting it up for a mid-September release. It's turning out really awesome. I'm sorry it's taking so long but there's a lot that goes into it and like I've said a million times before, I don't always have the time with work and everything. But I do have some awesome promo stuff in the works for the release of the issue that's gonna be a lot of fine. I also plan to release this on a fuller scale as opposed to the staggered releasing I've unfortunately had to do with Issue #0. I've gotten some copies into some stores in the city. You can pick a copy up at Challengers as well as Brainstorm (which is sadly closing in October, so please go there and buy a million things!). I still have to stop by Chicago Comics and Quimby's. And I also still need to mail some copies out to the suburban stores as well as the out-of-state stores. If you know of a store that would carry GSD, please please let me know. I don't care what state it's in, I'll send some to them. But for Issue #1, all the stores that carry GSD will all get copies at the same time. I promise. Keep checking back for an official release date.

The Size Matters show at The Nerve Gallery in Oak Park has recently wrapped up. I was very honored to have my work hanging there. I still have the paintings so if you are interested in purchasing one (or all) of them, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. They are $40 each (plus shipping if you're out of state or far from me). I'll probably throw some free copies of GSD in there for you as well. So hit me up. The next show at The Nerve Gallery is tentatively September 5th. They'll have more info up soon I believe. This show is a tiki theme complete with a tiki bar and bands playing. I will be debuting three new pieces at the show. I will post the info when I get it. I'd love to see you all out there!

A big plus of Comic-Con weekend was I got to see my good friend and Alex Ghost partner Aaron Pittman. Aaron's work has gotten so much tighter and even more astounding. He has some awesome projects and prospects coming up so you should keep an eye on him. We're also going to be getting back to work on Alex Ghost soon. The new pages are amazing. And we're also working on a super secret pitch for a new book for one of the big three. We'll talk about it more another time but it's really really cool and we're hoping it can work out.

I guess that's it for now, thanks for checking back with me.

Dave

P.S. There will be some sneak peek shots of Great Sandwich Detective #1 up this week. Please hold back your excitement.
P.P.S. I've added a direct feed of The GSD's Twitter page. Now you can see up to the minute updates of events as well as what stores have GSD in stock!

Chicago Comic-Con 2009 (Briefly)

Hey all, sorry it's been so long since I've updated. Chicago Comic-Con was a lot of fun (and went by wayyyy too fast). Anyways, I'm just stopping in real quick to update and let you all know I'm still around and so that if any new people to the blog come by, they don't think I never update this thing. I will have a more detailed recap of the convention with pictures either tonight or tomorrow!

Dave