Comic-Con 2010.

Comic-Con was, as always, a feast for the senses. Had a great time. Below are a couple of posters the Nickelodeon booth handed out over the weekend. They were drawn by Fairly Odd Parents and Tuff Puppy creator Butch Hartman, and colored by me.

Also, I'm posting photos of a few highlights from the show, including Stan Sakai, Thor's throne, a one-of-a-kind custom figure from Kevin Eastman, Cheif from BSG, and Casey Jones holding up my drawing of Casey Jones (which is basically as gangsta as it gets).

Gallery At Nickelodeon

I and my fellow Fairly Odd Parents/T.U.F.F. Puppy crew mates are exhibiting art in this month's Nickelodeon gallery. If you're in the area and are so inclined, I think you can call the studio and arrange to check it out. It'll be up through Easter or so.

Also, it occurred to me while setting up for the show that, after sharing all the preliminary sketches of my Bebop and Rocksteady, I never bothered to post the final versions. So, here you go, only a year late. (And hey, if the TMNT is your thing, I've got prints of them, and Casey Jones as well, available in my store on crushcounty.com. Krang's next in the series, if I can ever get some time to finish him up).

2009 Comic-Con Rocked.

In 2006, I had the coolest Comic-con moment of my life when Matt Groening came up to our booth, bought a copy of our book, and asked us to sign it for him. I thought that was the ultimate, but this year’s Con once again reached insane levels of awesome for me.

On Friday night, the wife and I ditched our entourage and hit up House Of Blues to see Bear McCreary and his orchestra perform their eargasmic score from Battlestar Galactica. Yes, I'll wear the badge of "nerd" proudly: It wasn't Bone Thugs or John Legend, but this was, without a shred of doubt, the best concert I've ever attended in my life. Really. And what we thought would be a night of great music ended up being so much more; it became an evening of partying with virtually the entire cast of the show, including Admiral Adama (the incomparable Edward James Olmos), Col. Tigh and Anders (for both of whom I had the honor of purchasing an ice cold Blue Moon), Boomer/Athena (who was already so toasted she declined a drink, but did dance with my wife), Tom Zerek (Richard Hatch, the original Apollo), Admiral Caine, Callie, and Gaius Baltar.  I'm not one to get star-stuck, ever... but if you watch this show, you understand why this night was an exception. It was simply beyond cool.

But that's not all. This year, I had the extreme honor of meeting a gang of guys that - and I say this with complete honesty - were instrumental in inspiring a young fat kid to pursue his artistic dreams. The Mirage Studios gang, the guys behind the Ninja Turtles, made their triumphant return to San Diego for the 25th anniversary of the TMNT, and while it's a shame that it took me almost two decades worth of Comic-Cons to finally meet them, it was an incredible treat nonetheless. Every one of them - Dan Berger, Eric Talbot, Jim Lawson, Michael Dooney, Steve Lavigne, and Tristan Jones - were beyond gracious, even in the face of my obvious fanboyness (which, I hope, wasn't too overbearing). It's one thing to meet people whose work you've long admired; it's a completely different thing to find them to be outright warm, kind and welcoming (even though Steve did call me out for posting too many pictures of my puppy and not enough artwork). Maybe it seems silly, but meeting these guys means a lot to me (even more than meeting the cast of BSG), and it will go down as one of my greatest SDCC memories ever. My only regret is that I didn't bug them one last time to get a group photo with them all.  Thanks to all of them for indulging this guy.

Change Is Here.

Wow, blogosphere, it's been a minute. Happy new year.

"Change" arrived in a big way last week, and I'm not just talking about Socialism. I finally got around to getting myself fitted for glasses. This is a big deal for me... Sometime in the late 1990's, I developed a severe (and completely irrational) fear of anything remotely related to hospitals and medical offices. I have no idea why it happened or what brought it on, but as a result, I've avoided doctors of every variety for well over a decade. But in the last 3 weeks, I've forced myself to make it through 2 painful dental visits and an eye exam. That's change you can count on.

I don't really "need" glasses. Technically, I should wear them because my left eye is bad, but my right eye compensates for it so well that, for all practical purposes, my vision is perfect (I can read the smallest line on the eye chart with no problem). So needless to say, I was rather irked to find out that the glasses actually make me see worse. I'm told I need to let my eyes "adjust." That seems completely backwards to me, like breaking my legs so they can fit into crutches. 

Time Off...

Man. Have I been MIA or what? I had an wonderful month off in between seasons of The Fairly Odd Parents... I had dinner with friends whom I haven't seen in over a decade, took a houseboat trip with the guys, was a groomsman in the wedding of one of my best friends, cleaned my entire house from top to bottom (I'm a clean freak), and re-organized my garage. The only thing I didn't do was draw. Maybe I should feel guilty, but I don't. It was nice to "live" for a bit, and the time off was all too fleeting (I've been back at work for three weeks already). I'm currently working on a new show that I probably can't talk about yet, but I'll be back on FOP in a month or so.

Speaking of FOP, here's some stuff I did for last season (I'm the colorist - the designs are by our talented prop and character designers). This is just blog-filler until I get some new work done... I've got another Ninja Turtle itch to scratch, so I hope to have more TMNT-related illustrations soon.

Casey Jones Part 4 - It's out!

I took a trip to the comic book store on Saturday, which always makes me happy, and was greeted by a nice surprise. Tales Of The TMNT #49, the one featuring my Casey Jones pin-up, was staring me in the face. I wasn't expecting the book to hit store shelves until this week, so this made me extra happy! Eric gave me the OK to share the final version a while ago, but I wanted to respect the book and hold off until it was offically out. Since it's out, here ya go, the final version in glorious color...

Man, I still get all school-girly at the thought of being in a TMNT comic. Incidentally, next time you hit the comic shop, pick up an issue of Tales. It's the only TMNT book still published regularly, and not only do the guys do a kick-ass job every month, but they also use the book to spotlight new talent, which is awesome.

Hard 8 Vol. 2 Photos

So we officially debuted Hard 8 Vol. 2 at SDCC last week, and it was a great show. If you haven't yet purchased your copy, these photos should sway you.  Also, check out the special "Harder Than Hard" hardcover version. There were only 20 of these made, and about half of them are gone. If you're thinking about picking one up, do it before it's too late. Click here to order from the Hard 8 blog, or pick up the softcover version right here from my sidebar. 164 full-color pages for 15 bucks. 15 bucks!