Here’s some of the conventions (and a festival) that you can find Possum Press and Ultraist studios at this summer. These are the shows that have been confirmed as of today. Keep checking back for con reports and photos.
Click on the banners for more information on each show.
This one’s this weekend! (July 12-13, 2008)
Here’s the final inked version of my contribution to the Visions of an Icon exhibit, that was put on by the Shuster Awards, here in Toronto. And here’s a few photos of the actual exhibit:
Mike’s got a great flickr set of the show over at the Ultraist Studio Blog, here that you should check out as well.
And also, a big fat congratulations to Faith Erin Hicks, for her Shuster award win, for FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR - ENGLISH LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS.
Extra: Here’s two of the more notable contributor’s pieces. Here and Here.
I transfered the rough drawing onto an illustration board by rubbing pencil on the back of the rough, then retracing over the rough drawing, with the illustration board underneath, transferring the image to the board. After some fixes and adjustments, I’m ready to start inking. I’ll be tweaking and changing things right up until I have to send this piece away, but this gives me something good to start with. On this pass, I made The Possum bigger, and changed the angle of Superman’s foot. Looking at the drawing in the mirror will always reveal obvious weaknesses in your drawing, (Like Superman’s foot) that you would never see looking at it the way you drew it.
I find you always lose a bit of the “life” of the drawing when you retrace things, but sometimes it is necessary. Hopefully with practice, I can learn to keep more of the initial energy of the drawing, while still being able to correct some of the weaker parts. (It’s a learning process, which I have much to learn still).
I’m working on a piece for the “Visions of an Icon” show, put on by the Shuster Awards.
Here’s the roughs (and they are very rough with lots of mistakes, so don’t look too closely). I’ll post the pencils and inks as they are finished.
On a side note, my scanner isn’t working anymore. grrrrr. (it magically worked for about a week, then broke again). I don’t get it.
My scanners have been acting up, and getting progressively worse over the last year, until recently they were both scanning so light that I couldn’t scan anything. I have no idea what was going on, because it was 2 scanners, and I tried them both on 2 different computers and the same thing was happening. It was driving me crazy!! I haven’t been able to scan anything recently (hense the lack of drawings posted here lately). Today I had to scan something to email to someone for work, so I thought I’d give it another try, and if it was only going to be a crappy light image that you could hardly see, well then so be it, that was what they would get for now (it was only a rough drawing that I had to send). Well, I scanned the drawing without changing anything since the last scan I tried, and it came out perfect!…… So I tried scanning this strip that has been sitting here finished for a while, with no way of getting it on the computer……… and it came out perfect. (Supernatural forces are at work here folks). Did I mention that I hate computers.
All of the other Captain Smith and Broccoli Boy strips are here, if you wanted to get caught up with the story so far.
Progress continues on issue #4. This is me inking on page 3. Finally seeing some of the pages getting inked after looking at pencils for so long is exciting.
This is one of the cool things I came back from LA with, when I was there in November.
Some of you, who have kept up on your Possum News, may have remembered me posting about my brother Mike and My (and more important, Spy Guy and The Possum’s) trip to LA to be extras in a movie. Well here’s the movie. It’s called Superhero.
We spent most of our time on set doing sketches for the crew members. This is a sketch I did for Sara Paxton (the leading lady).
It’s slow going, but at least it’s going. I’m currently pencilling page 11. (Well, actually, I’m currently typing up this post, but page 11 is what I was just working on).
Here’s the links to the Planet Comic Book Radio interview I did last week.
Thanks again Javier, for having me on.
Are you an American? Have you heard of Ron Paul? (If you get your news from the mainstream media, you probably don’t know much about him). He is the man that the people in charge don’t want you to know about. He is my new hero.
Have you ever dreamt about having an honest president. One that has your best interests in mind, rather than their own? Would you like to not pay income tax? Have a currency that is worth something again? Be a peaceful nation, rather than a nation that polices the world, and invites hatred towards it? How would you like to be able to proudly travel with an American flag on your your backpack? (you may have noticed that Canadians wear their flag on their backpacks so they aren’t mistaken for Americans……. It’s not your fault. It’s your government’s foreign policy). Would you like your government to stop spying on you?
If you have ever complained about any of these things, then you have no right to, unless you vote for Ron Paul for President. If you think that you would be better with Obama, Clinton, Romney or McCain, then you deserve what you get. It won’t be pretty.
I’m scared for my children’s future, but we don’t have to be. Vote for Ron Paul!!
Take a few minutes to watch these clips, and learn who should be running your country:
Why is the controlled media so scared of Ron Paul? (9 min)
Ron Paul and Martin Luther King (9 min)
Candidates@Google: Ron Paul (1 hr 6 min)
Here’s to the revolution! God knows we need one.
Tell all of your friends about Ron Paul!
Want to listen to me make a fool of myself?
Get caught up, before Tuesday, and listen to all of the other great interviews hosted by Javier Hernandez, at Planet Comic Book Radio, here.
All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy.
Merry Christmas everybody, and God bless ya!
Yesterday, I penciled page 5.
No inks yet.
After burning myself out in October, I’m ready to seriously start on issue #4 of The Possum. I stole this power bar idea from Alec Longstreth (sorry Alec). From now on, as things get done, I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress of issue #4, via this nifty little rectangle. This is also a way to keep me motivated to get that thing up there completely red.
A few weeks ago, I mailed some Possum comics off to Serbia.
Here’s some animation I did a few years ago, on the Curious George feature by Universal, via Yowza animation, here in Toronto.
I posted my rough animation a while ago here.
About a month ago, I was contacted by someone from Dimension Films (The people who did the “Scary Movie” movies), and they asked if they could use Mike’s and My convention setups in their latest movie called “Super Hero“. They asked us if we wanted to ship our comics, signs, and t-shirts to them for use in a comic convention scene. We asked them who would be behind our table in the actual filming, and they told us, probably an extra. So we thought, “Why not us?”
So, we flew down to Hollywood for a week, with all of our convention gear, and were extras in the “Super Hero” movie. One thing is for sure, I’m not quiting my day job to become an extra…. 16 hour days of sitting around. We were treated pretty good though. They called us “vendors” instead of extras, which meant we were allowed on the set all day, instead of outside in the tent where all of the other extras had to sit until they were needed in a shot, when they would be herded in like cattle, then herded out once they were finished with them, and we got access to the good snacks and good coffee! We met a lot of really great people, and it actually felt like a real convention, as Mike and myself spent the majority of our days doing sketches for the cast and crew members, between waiting for them to shoot near our table. (I’d post some sketches, but most of them have the super heroes from the movie in them, and I think I’d get in trouble). I even sold a few t shirts too.
It will be interesting to see what comes of all of this. Our life size Spy Guy and the Possum cut outs made it into a handfull of shots, (a couple of them nice and big) and Mike and myself might be in a couple, but you never know what is going to make it into the final film. We’ll have to wait until March to see. (Look for us in the last sequence of the movie, during the “Hero Con” comic convention).
“Super Hero” looks to be in the same catagory as the “Scary Movies” and “Naked Guns“. It’s not going to win an Oscar, but should be good for a few (or more) laughs.
When I was at the Small Press Expo, in October, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Phil (one of the hosts of the podcast “Indie Spinner Rack“). I gave him the latest Possum comic, and Mike gave him the complete Spy Guy set. I also did a trade with Alec Longstreth (Phase 7). In episode #99, Mr. Phil, Charlito, and guest co-host Alec Longstreth go through their SPX loot. 
At the 15 min 48 sec mark, they get to their Possum and Spy Guy comics. Click here to listen.
