Floating weightless..........

I'm sitting here tonight, my first night alone in the new place, having a few drinks. I'm listening to music and building inspiration. A lot has happened since my last post. I had a great comic show this year, did another FCBD at happy Harbor, I got a new job at an old place of work, and I moved in with Leeann. I lost my Grandma, gained a step son. I started a new pursuit in the form of Reflexology, and I'm working with my friend Steve on a new comic book. And I'm getting into better shape, both mentally and physically.

Tonight is a nice release for me. I've been very busy lately and have needed this. I miss Leeann tonight but i know she's having a good time in Red Deer. And I'm connecting with myself and my life again. My mind is flooded with images, sensations, emotions. I'll feed on these tomorrow as creative empowerment when Steve and I have our first meeting to discuss the new book. What he's come up with so far is good. Really good. I'm going to draw the living hell out of it and love every minute doing so.

I'm also incredibly stoked to be going to finally see Alexisonfire in August as part of the Van's Warp Tour. I bought tickets yesterday and can't wait!! I'm listening to their new single as I type this and it's sick. Go out and find "Young Cardinals" if you haven't heard it yet, it's well worth it.

I'm going to float away now, mission accomplished for the time being. Take care all............

A new year, a new (out) look......

Welcome to the still being improved blog of Richard V. Barkman!! As it's now 2009 and it's been far too long since I've posted on here (again), I figured a change in the scenery would be good! So what have I been up to you ask? Well, not what most people who know me would expect. I haven't really done much drawing lately, as my focus for it just hasn't been there. Instead I've been traveling a bit, going to the Dominican Republic just before Christmas for a nice all inclusive vacation. It was beautiful there, and the down time was definitely needed.




While I was down there, I took a lot of time to evaluate my life and come up with a focus for the next few years. I'm tired of being in the rut I'm in, as it's stifled my creativity in a huge way. I'm not overly happy with my day job (I work in the decal industry doing everything from bus wraps to window displays) as it has no future unfortunately. So I have decided to do something to give myself a future. This fall, I am looking into going back to school. My pursuit? I want to be an Acupuncturist! Now why such a change or a departure from the norm you may ask? Well, a few years ago I injured my shoulder really bad (doing decals) and was on the brink of needing surgery. Instead, I got to rehab my shoulder, and part of that rehab was the use of Acupuncture. And it worked amazingly!! I've seen the results first hand, and have been intrigued about it ever since.

I also believe that "alternative medicine", as Acupuncture seems to be labeled as here, has a huge future. And I want to be a part of it! I want a job I'm happy with, one that gets me excited to get out of bed everyday and go to work. And I want to learn as much as possible right now! So I'm looking forward to pursuing this further. And as soon as I have everything sorted out, I'll post it here!!

Now, as for my artwork and my pursuit of greatness in the field of comics, I'm still plugging away at it. But not like I have been in the past. Comics are a passion of mine, but I really can't see myself turning them into a career. I enjoy drawing as a hobby, but have found over the past few years that whenever that hobby becomes a job that I don't enjoy it like I should. So I will continue to draw and create when the time allows it, and when I get things drawn that I'm stoked about I will also post those here! So welcome to 2009 everyone, and for myself, I'm looking forward to a fresh start for my new future!!

Take care all.

An Update!

Hello folks! Since it’s been so long since I've updated, I thought it would be most appropriate to give you some excuses and something to tide you all over. Problem is, I have nothing! No excuses, just that we haven’t been doing much so there hasn’t been anything to tell you. But I do have something, and that's to tell you that today the drive for next spring starts.

I have secured a table in Artist Alley for next year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo down at the Round-up Center. I will be located at table A36 with my good friend Richard Grzela of 14u Comics. There will be some new books from our collaborated efforts, original artwork and pin-up’s for sale, and for all you who have been waiting a long time for it: issue 2 of The Sorrow! FINALLY!!You heard it here first! So mark down April 25-26, 2009 on your calenders and make the trip on down to check out us, as well as a number of cool guests that will be there. Check out the Calgary Expo site for more details. Thanks, and as always,

Take care all!

Some San Diego pics, and my first MLB game live!!

Hello sports fans! I'm back with a quick but necessary update to this blog o'mine! Since I'm still experiencing scanner issues I have no new artwork to post, but I do have some cool pictures from my recent trip to San Diego and Dallas to share with you!!!

This year I attended the San Diego Comic Con for the 6th year straight, and although it was the most busy it's ever been I had a blast!! I attended some really great panels, met some awesome people both famous and aspiring to be, and brought home some cool swag! I got to party a few nights down there, mingled with friends from Edmonton and Calgary that I met up with, and even managed a trip to the beach. And I ate healthy and worked out!!! Crazy, I know. Some of the highlights of the trip for me were seeing the new Sideshow Collectibles 14 inch Darth Vader (finally), getting to scope out the new 25th Anniversary GI Joe figures, meeting Gerard Way outside the Eisner's shortly after he won for Umbrella Academy (in the washroom of all places, long story), and finally meeting Missy Suicide, founder of the famous Suicide Girls website. She was so nice and a really cutey in person! I also really enjoyed hanging out with the Edmonton bus crew for a few nights of debauchery, and I found it was really cool to see Calgary artists Riley Rossmo (Image's Proof) and Fiona Staples (Wildstorm's Authority: Hawksmoore) signing at the Image and DC Comics booths. Way to go you two! It was an awesome trip and I hope to get back down there again, maybe behind a booth myself! ;)



Darth Vader!

The Suicide Girls!

Squeak, Yours Truly, and Missy Suicide!

GI Joe goodness

I also got to spend a week in Dallas with my good friend Neil Erasmus the week after Comic Con! Neil is one of my closest friends and has been down in Dallas for a few years but unfortunately hasn't been able to make a trip back here to visit. And until this year I really didn't have a chance to go down to see him. But we more then made up for not be able to see each other with an incredible week long visit! Neil took me all over Dallas and really spoiled the hell out of me! I got to go to Six Flags in Arlington and went on a bunch of crazy rides (I think I'm getting too old for some of them!), I got to see the Kennedy Memorial in downtown Dallas, popped into several comic book shops including the famous Titan Comics, and spent several awesome days lounging in the family pool. And we needed to as the temperature was over 100 degree F everyday I was there!!! But the true highlight for me was getting to go to my first ever Major League Baseball game, which pitted the Texas Rangers versus my favorite team the Seattle Mariners!! And although the Mariners blew it and lost (they've had a rough year) the game was an awesome experience and I'm so greatful for being able to attend it!


Neil and I at the game!

It's bloody hot here!

Titan Comics

Drowning in the pool!

The Superman Ride at 6 Flags

Well, that's the update for now. I have some artwork to load, and with any luck will have it up in the next week or so. I just have to keep praying to the scanner Gods and sacrificing imaginary goats and with luck my scanner will work!

Or I could just get a new one. But where's the fun in that? Take care all!

More Marvel Masterpiece goodness!

Hello sports fans! I'm back with a long overdue update! I've been trying to find a balance between work, karate, my awesome girlfriend and my art and I think I'm slowly getting there. It's tough to do, especially during the summer, but I'm determined to get this thing updated with great artwork more frequently! So to get back on the updating wagon, I figured I'd start off by posting some more Marvel Masterpiece 2 cards I recently did for Upper Deck.

I got an email from Mark, the art director of UD asking if I would be able to help out with some more cards for the series since they were short. I jump at the opportunity and did another 25 cards for him. I would have liked to do more but we were on a tight 2 week schedule and 25 seemed just right for me in that time frame. I'll also be doing 50 cards for Marvel Masterpiece 3 in the upcoming weeks and I'm super stoked about that! But for now, here's the other 25 cards.





I'm going to try and get some images posted soon too from the upcoming story I'm doing with Richard Grzela and 14u Comics. Work and scanner permitting (my scanner hates me) I'm hoping to have this little gem done by San Diego this year, which I leave for on the 22 of July!!! Yay, I "heart" SD! I'm also in the process of working on a cool story idea presented to me by my friend Nick Johnson and also hope to get some images and more details on it up here for all to see. I can tell you it's horror based and will have tons of creepy shit for me to draw in it! It's a great concept and will make a heck of a good book!

And on a completely different topic, I just recently passed my belt grading in Karate and I'm now officially a Brown Belt! I'm super happy about this and can't wait until the fall to rock out in my new belt. That's it for now, so as always good folks out there:

TAKE CARE ALL! (now in capital vision!)

Oh man! Too much work!!!

Hey all. Sorry for the long delay in updates. I've been back at work in the crazy sign industry, as well as doing some more Marvel cards, tattoo designs, and Karate instructing like crazy!!! This last month has been insane! But fear not, I'm still around and still plugging away on stuff. I'm hoping to get a few of the things I've been working on loaded up here soon, but for now you'll have to make do with my words. My scanner is on the fritz and until I can get it working properly I'm out of luck with loading images for now. But bare with me, as I have some cool stuff I've been doing!

For now though, I'll update you all on the Seattle Comic-con I attended last month with my comic pals Chris Peterson and Nick Johnson. We left Thursday afternoon for Seattle for what would be a memorable road trip! The trip started out a bit sketchy, as we ran into a freak storm on our way out of town. Chris had just picked up his new car, and we were at risk of smashing it up thanks to the ridiculous amounts of slushy snow and crazy truck drivers on the Trans- Canada! But after a couple of nail biting hours we managed to get out of the snow and into clear roads and weather. The rest of the trip was a blast, with all of us taking turns telling stories and making fun of each other. It was a very fun road trip! We arrived in Seattle early Friday morning, thanks to Chris's unbelievable driving stamina. After catching a few hours sleep we ventured out into the downtown core to find the convention center and grab some food. We later traveled down to the pier area and took in some sites, got a picture of the Space Needle, and threw rocks into the bay! So fun!

The next day we headed out for the show! After stopping at one of the 20 or so Starbuck's in the area (that's no exaggeration either) we found ourselves at the Convention Center and got totally lost right off the bat. But thanks to a nice Convention Crew guy, we found our way. There was a really big line-up first thing, and that actually made me really stoked for the show. I figured if several hundred people were already lined up to get in that the show had to be good. And it delivered!

The show itself was amazing, plain and simple! I was very happy to see a huge amount of comic stars all congregated in the Washington State Convention Center! And they weren't segregated from everyone else as they were mixed in among the other folks in artist alley. Not only was it great for the fans to have such easy access to everyone, it was also great for the creators to have to opportunity to mingle and engage everyone as well. There was a fantastic line up of creators at the show, and many of them had lines that never let up! I was super stoked to meet and get a kick ass sketch from 2 of my favorite artists, Skottie Young and Dustin Nguyen! Skottie drew me up an awesome Pixie sketch from New X-men, and Dustin drew my pseudo alter-ego Grifter! And both of them had awesome sketch books available as well that I snatched up, and I must say they were fantastic purchases. Both guys were very friendly and a real treat to meet. I also got the chance to finally meet another chap I rather dig, and thats Mr. Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O'Malley. He was super cool, signed some books for me, did a cool little sketch of Scott in one of them, and was really cool to talk to.

I made some other really good purchases and got to meet some fellow Canadian creators down there, Trevor Frick and Camilla D'Errico. Both of them are really nice people and super talented, and it was cool to meet and talk with them! The Seattle show won me over big time and I'm definitely looking forward to next years show. Chris, Nick and myself had a blast on the trip and are thinking of setting up a booth next year to show off our stuff. The Seattle crowd is very comic friendly and showed a lot of support for indy books, so I think we'll do really well down there. 2009 here we come!

That's it for now, and I'll do what I can to get some images scanned in for my next post. Until then, take care all!

I had a great past 2 weeks, and now I'm going to Seattle!

Hey there kids! I thought I'd pop on and give a quick update before I dart out the door for my trip to Seattle with Chris and Nick of Vicious Ambitious. Were heading down to check out the Emerald City Comic-Con, and it should be a blast! As most of you know the past 2 weeks have been comic crazy, with both the Calgary Expo a couple of weekends ago and Free Comic Book Day last weekend. The Calgary Expo was a blast, as we got to hang out beside the crazy dudes of VA and watch them pie each other in the face! We also had a decent amount of traffic to the booth, sold some swag, and got to meet some cool folks along the way. I'll post a bigger update on the Expo later, as I'm just waiting to get my hands on some photos from the event.

Then last weekend I had the pleasure of being an invited artist up in Edmonton for Happy Harbor's Free Comic Book Day festivities. Jay, Shawna and the crew are always good to me when I come up for events and as always spoiled myself and the art crew with food, drinks and free comics!! I had the privilege of traveling up with fellow Calgarians and artists Fiona Staples and Steve Gervais, which made the trip an enjoyable one. Thanks guys! And thanks to Trevor, Andy, Bob, and Nessa, my fellow FCBD artists for hanging out and making conversation, as well as to anybody who stopped by for a sketch. We were doing sketches for Food Bank donations and from what I've been told we made a decent amount of cash and had a nice pile of food at the end of the day. So thanks again everyone!

I was also fortunate enough to meet and talk with Ed the Sock and Liana K., two Canadian Superstars!! They're really great people, and we had a blast getting to hang out with them for a good chunk of the day. If you ever get the chance, pop on over to their site and check em out! I found out they both share a love of comics, and Liana is super knowledgeable in all things geek. They were awesome! I even did up a sketch for her, and she really seemed to like it. So before I leave you, here's some picks of me with the crew, and Liana sporting her "Power Girl" look!






I'll be back next week with more updates. Take care all!