Happy Halloween… badges?

Brian Keene CONvergence Badge

This was custom badge art I did for Brian Keene, the first year he visited CONvergence as a Guest of Honor. I do individual badge art fro all the convention’s guests, which is one of the things that helps the con make a unique impression on our visiting VIPs right away.

I always try to tailor the badge art to the Guest of Honor’s work, or something about them personally. It gets easier if I’ve met them or am intimately familiar with their work. When it’s someone I’m not as familiar with, finding the right image can be a real challenge! I’d met Brian prior to his first visit to CONvergence, but didn’t know him *that* well. I went for the center of the strike zone and did a zombie image, referencing The Rising, probably Brian’s best-known work.

Brian Keene Devil Slayer

Connie vs. Conqueror Worms

Here are some other badges I’ve done for CONvergence in recent years with a Halloween flavor.

Ambush Bug as the Shadow

Anthony Tollin is a comic book colorist who is associated with, among many things, Keith Giffen’s Ambush Bug comics from the 1980s. He’s also a historian of The Shadow in both radio and pulp incarnations, and is currently publishing reprints of The Shadow and Doc Savage. So a mash-up of Ambush Bug dressed as The Shadow seemed like a fun idea.

Bernie Wrightson badge

I’d been a fan of Bernie Wrightson for years, from Swamp Thing and his other comics work to his gorgeous illustrated edition of Frankenstein. This badge art references a joke Bernie got into an early printing of that Frankenstein book. The author’s page at the back gave a lengthy biography of Bernie, concluding with where he then lived along with his two dogs. About the author or the original novel it only said “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is dead and has no dogs.” I thought that was hysterical when I first saw it, and was disappointed to learn that later printings replaced it with a more conventional biographical blurb.

Connie enjoying Ludovico Technique

Robert Meyer Burnett, is a huge fan of A Clockwork Orange, and his production company Ludovico Technique is named for this procedure from the film. Poor Connie.

Emily Hagins badge

Emily Hagins is a remarkable young filmmaker who wrote, produced and directed her first film – a zombie movie – when she was 14 years old. She’s a few years older now and still going strong. She recently got her first theatrical distribution deal with MPI Media for her third feature film – My Sucky Teen Romance. When she first visited CONvergence, I thought it would be fun to place Emily among the iconic zombie-slayers.

Connie Mk 2 in Village of the Damned

And finally, in 2010 our convention theme was “Bad Guys,” and I placed our mascot’s evil sister Connie Mark 2 among the Children of the Damned for our “teen” registration badge that year.

The best laid plans

My apologies go out to anyone who came to Fallcon hoping to see me there and then didn’t find me.

Hospital Room (panel from Young Justice #6)

I’d had an infected scab on my leg that started to flare up on Thursday night, the night before my birthday. Friday morning I got up and my leg was inflamed, swollen, warm, and I was in pain. So my birthday plans were scuttled in favor of medical attention. My girlfriend Hal, the builder of this website, had planned to spend my birthday with me – and she did – but it certainly didn’t end up being the day either of us had anticipated. With her chauffeuring and my pain slowly getting worse, we set off in search of medical care.

The first clinic we went to only had two doctors on duty that day and they were both overbooked, and their Urgent Care facility didn’t open until 5pm, so they referred us to a second location that had an Urgent Care that had opened earlier. At that clinic a nurse practitioner took a look at my leg and saw I was going to need IV antibiotics and said they weren’t set up to do that there, and they referred us to a third location that was could cover all our needs and said she would call ahead with the information about my case so they’d be waiting for us when we got there. As it turns out we were unclear on which of multiple entrances/check-in desks we were supposed to report to, and even after that eventually got sorted out and we found the right place, it didn’t seem like any of the information had been forwarded and it took some time to be seen.

By the time I actually got looked at, it had been more than four hours since we first started running around and my leg was noticeably more red and swollen, the pain was noticeably worse, and I was running a fever.

The short version of the rest of this story can be broken down into good news and bad news.

The good news is that after a bunch of tests they cleared me of all the scarier things we were afraid it might be indicative of. It was just a virulent staph infection, which while serious was entirely treatable with just antibiotics, along with medication for the paid and fever.

The bad news is I ended up stuck in the hospital from Friday night through mid-day Sunday, which meant that I entirely missed Fallcon. I love Fallcon, and I’d been making and extra effort to gear up for this one with a new banner, new business cards, and I had really been looking forward to promoting my new gig on Young Justice (which I’d landed by the earlier MCBA convention Springcon, but nothing had come out yet), and I was looking forward to promoting this blog!

I also had two comics industry friends in from out of town for Fallcon, Mark Stegbauer and Steve Jones, who had planned to stay at my place. I didn’t get to see as much of them as I’d have hoped for , certainly, but they were good enough to not only visit me after Fallcon on Saturday evening, but then they picked me up from the hospital on Sunday and brought me home, so I wanted to give a shout-out to them.

The biggest thanks go out to Hal who not only ran me around until  I finally got some help, but who stayed with me through all the initial testing and until I was in my hospital room for the night.

So I’m home now, I’m fine, and I’m back at work. Now I need to start planning my next convention appearance, and hopefully I’ll have better luck getting there.

New banner at Fallcon

As I’ve mentioned before I’ll be at MCBA Fallcon this Saturday.  I just got my new banner which will be making it’s debut there, so if you are able to attend, look for it and look for me, stop by and say hello!

It’s always strange seeing my artwork blown up larger than the size at which it was drawn. Usually artwork is drawn larger than the size it’s meant to be seen. Of course, stuff blown up to banner size is meant to be seen from farther away, so it all balances out, but it’s still strange holding something in your hands with a face on it that was drawn at the size of a postage stamp that’s now several inches across.

Of course, this is nothing compared to the Connie banner I created for CONvergence which was 40 feet across!

New Banner

MCBA Fallcon is a week away!

Just one week to go until MCBA Fallcon, Saturday, October 15 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. MCBA is the Minnesota Comic Book Association and I’ve been a regular at their semi-annual convention for years.

If you’re in the Minnesota area, stop by and say hello! I’ll be sitting by my new banner (seen here), and I’ll be talking to fans, doing commission sketches, and selling comics and art.

Tickets available at the door for $8.00. $1.00 off with a canned food shelf donation. Kids 9 and under get in free.

Jones Illustration Banner

MCBA Fallcon!

Saturday, October 15 I will be at MCBA Fallcon at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. MCBA is the Minnesota Comic Book Association and I’ve been a regular at their semi-annual convention for years. I love the volunteers who run this show and it’s really a great time, so if you’re in the Minnesota area, stop by and say hello! I’ll be talking to fans, doing commission sketches, and selling comics and art. You can even wish me a day-late Happy Birthday if you see me there!

Tickets available at the door for $8.00. $1.00 off with a canned food shelf donation. Kids 9 and under get in free. (Seriously, bring a kid. It could change their life!)