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!

And now, the rest of the cards.

And here they are! The rest of the sketch cards I did for Upper Deck's Marvel Masterpiece series 2 card set. I had a blast doing these cards, but they really took a lot out of me!! My finger still has quite the lump from all the drawing. But it was a great opportunity to get to draw Marvel characters, as well as a nice bit of experience to help build up my resume. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do more stuff for Upper Deck and Marvel again in the near future.







Thanks for popping by, and as always.....

Take care all!

More Marvel Cards!!!

Here's a couple more cards I did for Marvel Masterpiece's 2. I'll post some more tomorrow, as well as an update on the crazy-fun 2 weeks I've had! I'm super tired right now though, and this is all I can muster up for the time being. So until later, take care all!

Bring on the Expo.......

This weekend is the Calgary Expo down at the Round-up Center. I encourage one and all to come on down and check out the festivities starting at 10am Saturday and continuing until 6pm Sunday night! This show is always a ton of fun, and I can't express how excited I am to be a part of it. I wasn't able to get 9 Doors off to print on time, but I did manage to put together a nice little ashcan of my story "Fairy Tale Sins". I have limited copies for sale, as well as some new pin-ups and sketches, so come on down and check out my booth (booth 806). As well, I think you should check out the works of my friends at VA (I have stuff out with them too!), Jonny Luu and Dan Andrews in Artist Alley, Fiona Staples and Andrew Foley against the wall in the Guests area, as well as everyone else you see! There's a ton of great artists, writers and celebrities at the show this year, and I know there's something for everyone. OK, enough cheap plugs! (I'm so tired, feel like zombie!)

In the meantime, here's a couple of the reason I'm tired, and that being the cover to Fairy Tale Sins (Ok, not done plugging yet!) and another batch of sketch cards. Enjoy, and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Take care all!

The cover says.......

Hey there folks! I thought I'd drop in and update this blog o'mine with the fancy smancy cover to my new book, 9 Doors. This book is sort of an unofficial follow-up to Never the Less, the ashcan I put out a couple of years ago. I really like the main character Alex Tossman (he reminds me of me, probably because he is me!) and wanted to continue to explore the character and see where his quest leads him. As well, I was looking to do some experimental story telling and this book is anything but conventional. So hopefully folks like it!

9 Doors will act as a set up for the OGN I've been working on, and with any luck will be printed and available for this years Calgary Expo. I'm not overly worries if I don't get it back by then, but it would sure be nice! I do have a back up book for the show, as well as some nice prints and a cool little experiment myself and my associates whipped up. There is also the stories I did for Vicious Ambitious in Gord Cumming's Mercy Seat Presents: Children are Cruel, which I'm really looking forward to showing off and recommend one and all pick it up. Show I'll still have a showing even without 9 Doors. If it doesn't make it back from the printer on time, I'll let you all know where you can pick up a copy to check it out. I'm really stoked by what I've done, and hope that you folks like it too.



9 Doors will also introduce everyone to the new face of Out of Mind Studios, R.E.M.I. the Robot! Welcome him with open arms, as he's cool and would like to be your friend!! And he's one hell of a cleaner. :D

Weird! Take care all!

My pin-up piece for SDCC 2008 Souvenir Book.

Here's a pin-up I've done for this year's San Diego Comic-Con Souvenir Book. Every year they open up the book to fans and pros submissions based on a variety of themes. Last year I jumped on the Star Wars train, and sent in a Boba Fett piece I'd done. This year, it's DOC SAVAGE! The Man of Bronze himself, in all his black and white glory. I haven't read any Doc Savage since I was a wee lad, and the movie didn't do much for me, but there's just something inherently cool about the guy. And since this year's themes were not a deep as previous years, I went with the one theme that struck me as being something I'd like to do. So here he is.





Feel free to bust my balls on the piece if you like. I did this up in about 4 hours, and I haven't been to bed yet so I'm a little out of it. So if it sucks, it sucks! If not, then cool! It just proves I can do things stoned on coffee and high on life!!

OK, enough of that. Thanks for stopping by, and as always, take care!

The Question!

I'm a big fan of The Question from the Justice League Unlimted TV series, and since I've been watching the seasons as I work at night I decided to do up a little pin-up of my hero! He's a little wacky, a little quirky, and a whole lot unbalanced, but he knows his conspiracy theories and he's usually right! So here he is folks! Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!

*Oh, and there are aliens everywhere, especially in coffee shops (and possibly Marvel Comics. SKRULLS!!) Ha ha!*

Take care all.

Zodiac Girl Pin-up.

I've always got a million and 1 ideas floating around in this cranium of mine, and sometimes I jump at one of these ideas and make them real. I've been wanting to do a pin-up style book for some time now, and this is the start of it. so here's the first pin-up from the as-yet-to-be named pin-up book I'm hoping to have out for the summer time. I have much to learn in this craft of mine, but I'm making strides and reveling in the process of it all. Hopefully this year marks the sprint to the finish line. Take care all, and enjoy!

My first couple Marvel sketch cards.

Here's the first batch or Marvel Masterpiece series 2 sketch cards I've done up. They got approved the other day, so I can show them off. Look for them to be random inserts in the card series, out later this year.





Take care!

More site stuff!

This is really just an excuse to keep this updated, by hey, what the hell! Slowly but surely, we're getting stuff done. I loaded a bunch of new sequentials and pin-ups to the Out of Mind Studios website (follow the link in my links section), and thought I'd load a couple of the bio pics I did up for Kevin and I. Unfortunately he's been sick for a bit, but once he's back on his feet he'll get the rest of the updates done on the website and it'll be ready to go. I also did up some new banners, and some other things, but I'll wait till they get loaded on the site to show them. For now, this is it!




I also have some cool things in the works for both the Calgary Expo on the 26th and 27th of April, as well as the Edmonton Collectable and Toy Show on the 20th of April (cheap plug time kids!!). Once I have a few things finished, I'll post them here. Take care all!

Out of Mind Studios is getting a much needed facelift!

Hey all. Just thought I'd post a quick update letting you fab folks who read this know that my studio (Out of Mind Studios) is getting a website face lift. That means more frequent updates to the site, a new list of projects we're working on, and more artwork!!! I've been working on new images and logos for the site over the past few days, and if all goes well the site will be up and updated within the next week or so. I'm excited because that means my studio is not dead, and I'm now getting to work on some projects I had put aside until I knew just what the status of OOMS was. So once it's up and ready to go I'll let everyone know. In the meantime, this is an idea for a knew mascot for the studio. He doesn't have a name yet, but we'll get him one. Take care all.

I'm creating again.

I sat up tonight, working on finishing up some of the pre-story stuff on the Dual Convergence book I'm working on. And then I got to work on an idea I've had brewing for a bit, with the goal of getting as much writing done on it as possible. Several pages later, I've got the start of something I feel could be the best thing I've ever done. When it's finished and ready to go, I'll post some of the art for it here. But I'm happy that it's started off strong, and I just needed to post something on here.

God I need to learn to sleep at night.

Take care all.

A sketch I did.

Here is a sketch I did of a character from one of my upcoming, forever in limbo stories that I hope to get out this year. Her name is Leah.




Take care all.

Pan pin-up-o-rama!

Trying saying it 5 times fast, you'll go insane like me! Here's a pin-up I did for fellow local comic guru Chris P., for his Peter Pan comic. It's a great retelling of the Pan, and when it comes out (which I believe will be in time for this year's Calgary Expo) everyone should buy a copy and check it out. Truly great stuff.


As for me, I'm loosing it. Seriously. I've been battling some health issues (both mental and physical) and a lot of what I wanted to get done for the Expo this year just won't happen. I've been struggling on a few projects I have, but I'm thinking things will smooth out soon. Or at least I hope so. I'll post some updates (if I make any) on here, until then: take care all.

Ch ch ch changes!

I'm thinking of changing this blog up a bit and making it an art blog as well as a life journal. I've had the bloody thing for what seems like forever and don't utilize it that much. So slowly over the course of the next few weeks I'm changing this monkey up! This is the warning shot. The next one's gonna hit ya! So here's a sample shot of the cover for a book I've got coming out soon. You can figure out what it's for if you'd like, cuz for now I'm not tellin'! Enjoy.

A little ditty about Japan. Part 1 anyways....

Halo again! Well, I said I'd do a Japan write-up, so here it is. I figure the sooner I get this out of the way the sooner I can move on to other writings.

I left for Japan on October 21st with my friend Charles, bright-eyed and bushy tailed (not really) and eager to set foot in the land of the rising sun (that parts true). After a long (12 hours) but thankfully uneventful flight, we arrived at Narita Airport in the afternoon on Monday the 22nd to start our 2 weeks of adventure. Thanks to sleeping most of the flight, I was energized and ready to tackle Japan! That wouldn't last long, however, as jet-leg would kick my butt, but I'll get to that.

Charles has a wonderful friend named Yoko who works as an Air Traffic Controller at the airport, and she met up with us when we arrived and helped point us in the right direction so that we could catch the right train out of the airport to get where we were staying. Narita Airport is huge, and I was incredibly greatful that Yoko met with us to help us out. After getting our Japan Rail passes and purchasing a Tokyo Metro Pass we temporarily said bye to Yoko and got on a train bound for Asakusa, were we had a room booked at the Tokyo Smile Hostel. An hour or so later we arrived at the hostel, checked in with Masa, the cool dude who ran the place, and then set out for something to eat. My first true taste of Japan! The area around the hostel is busy, as Asakusa is home to several Temples, a thriving business district, and is also the home of one of Asahi Breweries office building. That's one of the most recognizable buildings in the area, as it has what looks like a giant golden turd mounted to the roof of the building. It's quite funny to see! Anyways, we left the hostel and headed back towards the subway entrances and over the where several restaurants and shops we located. Japan has a lot of tall buildings, as space is an issue, so everything is built "up" instead of out. And it's bright, with lots of colorful signage everywhere. It to is quite the site to see. After wondering around for a bit, Charles recommended we go for some gyudon (rice bowl meal), and what a great suggestion it was! I love GYUDON!!! It was the first of many Japanese dishes I had that I instantly liked. It's so good; rice with pan fried beef, covered in a delicious sauce, much like teriyake sauce. And it's cheap too, only 600 yen, or a little over $5. Awesome stuff!



Now this is where the jet lag kicked in. After we wondered around the area for a bit and checked out the Kaminarimon Shrine, one of the bigger shrines in Asakusa , I was starting to feel the toll the flight had on me and we headed back to the hostel. I was out cold in no time, getting rest for the next 4 days of Tokyo sight-seeing that lay ahead of us. So after a good nights sleep and a quick email check on the free computers the hostel offered, Charles and I set off for our first full day of touring Tokyo. This is also when I first encountered cara age, which became my overall favorite food in Japan. Something I never knew until we got there is that Japan has a lot of stores that we have here in North America, just with a Japanese twist. They have MacDonald's, Subway, KFC, Denny's, and 7/11 just to name a few, and all have a similar look to their NA counterparts, and even some of the same items, but mostly contain items which are anything but! Thankfully though, amongst some very weird but apparently appetizing (at least to the Japanese) delights there is food that a skeptical Canadian such as myself can enjoy. And cara age is definitely one of those things! For 120 yen, you get a kabob with 3 pieces of the tastiest little chicken bites I've even had! The flavor reminded me of honey-garlic chicken wings, without the bone. Sooooo good. But enough about that.



On this day Charles decided to take me to Akihabara, the nerd-geek-tech capital of Tokyo, and man was I stoked! I had read about Akihabara in one of my EGM gaming mags and knew a bit of what the area had to offer, and also knew that this may in fact be an expensive first day in Japan. And although I refrained from blowing a ton of cash, I still spent a bit. But it wasn't so much of what I bought, but what I seen in Akihabara that made it one of the big highlights of the trip and one of my favorite places to visit. This district is famous for having large gaming complexes, a multitude of comic and toy collectible stores, several adult store, and a 6 level technology based store called Yotoboshi Camera, which could best be described as a Best Buy store, only twice the size and 6 levels tall. Anything and everything geek can be found here, and it was very difficult to not drop a shit load of cash in this place. But quite possibly the weirdest of all attractions in Akihabara is their Maid Cafes. These are literally cafes where cute Japanese girls, dressed like maids, serve you your food and offer dining companionship to their clientèle. It quite strange to see, and although intriguing on a base level, I made the decision not to go into any, but to stare somewhat dumbfounded from a distance. From there Charles and I did some more shopping, played some video games, and decided to take a quick trip over to the Imperial Palace before dark to get some pictures. Unfortunately we got there just as the sun was setting and took some dusk pictures of the Palace, as well as some nice shots of downtown Tokyo as it lit up for the evening. Although we missed out on the Palace this day, we would get the opportunity later in the week to see it. Overall, day 1 was quite a fun experience with tons to see and do, and lots of stuff to take in. And although a vast majority of people are not bi-lingual, I didn't find it too difficult to communicate and get around. It also helps that Charles has a good command of Japanese, as well as a decent knowledge of Tokyo.



After getting back to the hostel and grabbing a bite to eat, Charles and I called it a day and decided to get some rest for another busy day. For on day 2, my inner child was allowed to come out and play, as we were off to Tokyo Disneyland! And what a blast that was!!! It's has a very similar layout to the Disneyland in California, only everything is Japanese! From the ride announcements to the food served, this was the first true day of culture shock for me. I think it's because we went to a place that is familiar to me, as I've been to Disneyland before. But never like this! Charles and I went on several rides, had a great curry meal in one of the many food halls at the park, took a ton of pictures, and did a bit of shopping. It was awesome, but truly made me realize for the first time that I was actually in Japan!



Well that's it for now. Part 2 will be up in a couple of days. Take care all.