Thursday, August 30, 2007

one week til baltimore...



so, besides the TWO new canson sketchbooks debuting at baltimore, i'll also have an exclusive print available from the fine folks at indigo ink (who, not coincidentally, did a bang up job on printing my sketchbooks... and most other sketchbooks these days! you rock, rico and gang!)

oh, yeah, todd and i will have a sweet little portfolio of the "lost" perhapanauts covers (check out his blog for some preview art)...


got several commissions to get through before the show...

and here's a few more mcdonald's pieces... gotta go watch the sox hopefully avoid a sweep in the bronx.





man, time flies...


-c

Monday, August 20, 2007

back from durham



so, ended up realizing (thanks, trish) that i'd regret not going to mike's service on friday. i'm glad i went and was able to spend time with mike's family and friends... and celebrate his life.

getting back into the swing of things here on a beautiful monday afternoon... don't have much else to share today ... but here's a few more of those happy meal packages...





-c

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

3 musketeers


david petersen sent a nice condolence note and in it called mike, todd and me the "3 Musketeers of the East Coast cons".

whether or not anyone else felt way, we certainly did... at any conventions we were at, we were practically joined at the hip, usually laughing at an in-joke that wasn't really funny to anybody else (although, given enough time we managed to get a few laughs... just ask his sister-in-law suzanne about some "bitty"). most of those shows, we'd also get together early (and make a side-splitting road trip down to heroes) and stay later, just to have the chance to spend time together. as much as we enjoyed spending time with all of our friends (and of course, mike had a LOT of friends... that's the kinda guy he was... just read the hundreds of messages being posted about mike) at shows like this, we'd selfishly just try and go off by ourselves for a meal or two. these shows were the only times we got to spend together all year (of course we'd spend hours on the phone talking about comics, tv, movies, sports, politics, life in general... but it wasn't quite the same), and i know we looked forward to these times for weeks beforehand... and talked about them for weeks after.

which isn't to say mike wasn't at the shows for the fans. from the start of show until close of day on sunday, there was always a line of fans waiting for mike, and he'd make'm feel like he was the lucky one to meet them. he'd sign stacks and stacks of books, talking all the while, never complaining... and rarely even getting up for a walk. he (mostly) stopped sketching at the shows because he never had the time to put pencil to paper with all the fans waiting for an autograph or a handshake.

i made no bones about the fact that mike and todd were clearly the superstars of the trio (the sting and stuart copeland to my "other guy in the police"), i was just happy to be along for the ride with my friends. humble to a fault, mike always made me feel like an equal, when i never even felt in the same league.

much has been made about mike being a nice guy (and he was... easily one of the nicest and most generous guys i've had the pleasure of knowing)... which made his wicked sense of humor even more funny (he could tell jokes that'd make bob saget blush)... often soft-spoken, he'd let loose with a joke that'd have the whole room howling and gasping for breath.

we felt like we were brothers... not by blood (we each have our own brothers that we're very close to), but by choice....

comics lost a truly great talent. we'll never get the chance to see more work from a true modern master.

i lost a brother... and my other brother lost a best friend.



and we lost our third musketeer.

we'll miss you, brother.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

mike wieringo

went to post this last night but realized i didn't want to be the one who broke the news...



i just got a call from todd.

he told me that mike passed away of a cardiac arrest.

he was only 44.

and easily one of the nicest and most talented, creative people i've had the honor of calling a good friend. he will be sorely missed.

Monday, August 6, 2007

mclegion!

so, after all these months, another of the big projects i did for dc creative services is finally out... happy meal stuff!

yup, if you head over to your local mcdonald's and get a boy's happy meal (since girls clearly don't like comic book stuff... ) you'll get one of 8 legion pvc figures (no girls, remember... 'cause boys probably think saturn girl's yucky) - packed in a wrap-around clamshell case with a trading card... with art by yours truly.

not much more to say except it was a fun gig (although, ironically, i ended up doing most of the job with supersize me running repeatedly on msnbc)... and its probably gonna be the most exposure my work's ever gotten (even if i didn't sign'm)...

here's the art for the 2 i managed to get the other day ...






and the baltimore show is creeping up pretty quickly, eh? should have the new 'haps convention special done soon... as well as my new sketchbookS! (that's right, BOOKS... not one, but TWO more canson volumes are gonna debut in baltimore... and quite possibly a new b/w volume)...






i'm sure there's more (like the sox, tv, etc) but i've got stuff to do...

well, back to work!
-c