Stan Lee

This past weekend I was at the Ace Expo, which made its debut in Albuquerque (that's right, I can spell it.)  The show organizers asked if I could do something special for the show, so I did a portrait of Stan Lee.  They wanted me to present it to him during his panel Sat morning.  I was dubious; this could be great or it could be awkward. But I went, waited in the wings and hoped for the best.  My friend and Albuquerque resident David (Brohawk) Williams called and said, "I'm on my way, I'm bringing my Spiderman costume.  You think I should wear it?" "uh sure" I said.
Moderator  Lloyd Kaufman, with a fellow dressed as the Toxic Avenger in tow, introduced Stan.  Stan commented to Kaufman "you have Toxey here, but I don't have Spidey!" I called Dave back, "get here as fast as you can!" 15 minutes later Dave walks in as Spidey just as Stan is talking about the character.  "Go, go!" I urged Dave, and up he went, to huge applause, hamming it up.  Kaufman then called me up on stage, saying to Stan that I had something for him.  "I was wondering when I was going to get an award or something!" Stan said.  It all went better than I had hoped.  He would have been polite in any case, but seemed to genuinely like it.
We got to talk a little the next day, and I'm astounded with the man's vitality, wit and enthusiasm.  He's like a human exclamation point!  The man will be 90 next year!  Great guy, great experience.

Thank You Lona J. Pidanick for taking these pics.

Back from The Calgary Expo!

The Calgary Expo show was a lot of work this year, but so much fun, and sprinkled with some nutty experiences.

 This year's exclusive was a big success and sold out.  In fact #85 of 85 went to none other than the Mayor  himself, Naheed Nenshi!  He seemed very much in his element at the show, he's kind of a cool geek.  Don't believe me? -check out his yellow All-Stars!  Smart, with a clever sense of humor, and refreshingly unassuming.   I enjoyed meeting him and wish we could have talked longer, but he's the mayor and kinda busy. 

The cast of the Guild came by and we gave them buttons that Yelena made, each button featuring a portrait of one of them. They decided to wear each other's buttons despite Jeff's objection: "I want mine!"

And here's Sandeep and me with Shat- ..okay, a guy who looked like Shatner.

Other cool experiences: Dinner with Neal Adams. A big thank you hug from Summer Glau.  Jealous? 

Less cool experiences: The poor kid who puked in front of my booth for about 10 minutes Sunday morning.  A neighboring exhibitor who played the same 30 second video, with the same cheesy music, over and over and over and...   

Thanks to Kandrix Foong and his crew who put on another great show.

And Big Thanks to all the Calgarians who were so kind to me and Yelena and made us feel so welcome.

Calgary!

The exclusive for this year's Calgary show.  100% Cintiq, baby.  These will be available at this year's show only, at booth #819.

Green Lantern

A year and a half ago I was asked by DC/Warner Bros. to do some artwork of the recently-cast Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern.  I was to stick to the classic Gil Kane costume.  I would have liked to do more, but I was several steps removed from the real decision makers; I'm not sure what got through.  Well, it was fun to be involved with a project this cool, and I learned a lot.  Below is the key piece I did. I worked out the drawing and initial tonal work on gray paper, then transferred it to Strathmore for the color work.

I hope the movie is good. I like Ryan Reynolds for the part (although I would have preferred Nathan Fillion.) I kinda dig the designs: the suit does indeed look like it's made from alien energy, but the way it extrudes from the skin, then cracks with light coming through is kinda horrible, like a Clive Barker character.  But still, there are lots of things I love about the movie so far;  at the same time, other things - not so much.  We'll see how it holds up through a viewing of the flick.

Sidebar!

Hey, I was interviewed on my favorite podcast, Sidebar.  If you haven't heard it, well you can start here.  It's a great show run by Swain, Dwight and Adrian.  They have a real passion for all sorts of art, and you'll find the interviews insightful -maybe even mine!

Check it out here:

http://www.sidebarnation.com/my_weblog/2011/05/jason-palmer.html 

Drawing on the Cintiq

My basic process is 3 steps: 1-underdrawing, 2 -tonal (transparent color) 3 opaque hi lights.  Over the last few years, I've been using digital tools to accomplish 2 and 3 with greater frequency.  I thought I'd try to do step 1 digitally as well, so I've been drawing my recent work: the exclusive prints for this years Phoenix and Calgary shows.  On hearing this, a few people half-jokingly called me a sell-out. Other's let me know that they knew these weren't real pencil.  Um, okay, I never said it was.  Anyway, I'm having fun with the new medium.  I find that I follow the same process path, I just get there faster.

 

Contracts

After clocking 2 decades in the Illustration business I can bitch about how 'things are going to the dogs' and stuff like that, right?  

Most contracts I've dealt with are simply written agreements, y'know, like the dictionary describes it.  While most contracts are still just that,  in recent years, I'm finding these crazy, asking for your first-born Faustian monsters.  Dealing with them is like dealing with a spoiled-brat, bad seed of a child, shrieking "Mine, mine, mine, mine!.."  With little or no equality or accountability.  The people writing these things really should know a thing or two about the business the contracts are intended for.  Perhaps thumb through Graphic Artists Guild handbook? 

Anyway here's just a few of the 'mine-mines' creeping into contracts these days:

Credit:

 'no credit for the artist, you can't even self promote with the art. 

Style:

    processes, procedures and/or techniques used…shall be the sole, exclusive property of…  That's right, how you do what you do. Do you really want to sign that over?

Legal Representation: 

If you have a problem with them, you must use their lawyers to represent you.  Never mind that it's not legal 

Of course it's all camouflaged in the legalese, but look for them.  Most clients will be fine with you simply crossing out the offensive parts, which is deal-able, but the fact that they would ask shows a profound lack of respect, I think.

To those of you who are considering using my services someday, but you intend to send me one of these word-diarrheas, Please, 

1: send it before I do the work. 

2: If I take exception to something, don't just let legal handle it, talk to me yourself.  Likely you'll find that I am more concerned with your best interests than the lawyer is.  Can you think of a situation that got better when lawyers got involved? 

Alright, hope that helps someday.

Meanwhile, here's a piece I did recently, all done digitally. in a process that I'm not signing over to anyone.