Wizard World Chicago

Well dear friends, it is that time once again. I will be attending Wizard World Chicago (June 26th-29th) for the 4th consecutive year. I always have a good time at WWC, and I'm looking forward to it as always. I'll have the usual goods (Black Books, prints, watches, original art, yadda yadda yadda), plus I'll be doing sketches and commissions and the like. I'll be sitting with my homeboys Greg Titus and Eric Jimenez. So holla atcha boy, y'all!

And some more art, of course. This is Ultradur, from a recently released set of Chaotic cards. Art and design by yours truly, colors by Emilio Lopez.

What I duz all day

Aight. So every con I've done in the last year or two, I always get the same question: What the hell have you been up to? Because since I'm not actively involved in the comic book industry and people don't see my name in a lot of places, a lot of people seem to think that I'm not working, or that I'm struggling or something. Well guess what kids, that is soooo, so far from the truth. In all honesty, my career has never been this good and I count my blessings that I've been able to be a working professional for almost NINE years. Crazy, right? The thing about it is, specifically in the last 2-3 years most of my focus has been in the animation industry. And unlike comics, the turnaround on projects is a lot slower, and ya just can't talk about stuff, it's all non-disclosure. And by the time I get to show you guys art, it's old news to me. But hey, c'est la vie.

My current gig, the job that I spend most of my time on, is Chaotic. I know I've mentioned it before, but just to recap, it is a cartoon and a card game. It's currently on Fox Saturday mornings, but that will be changing to the CW very soon, maybe already. My role on the property is as head card art illustrator. I get the descriptions, and then I design the characters and then illustrate them. The animators then take the card art and translate for animation.

I started this gig in late '05/early '06, knocked out the first set of cards, then took time off to work on Wolverine. I then came back in September of '07 and I've been working inhouse every since. It's definitely the most fun I've had on a job, and I'm glad I have it. And when I'm not working on Chaotic, I spend my other waking hours doing stuff for the new season of Ninja Turtles. Or Upper Deck. Or the odd online Spawn comic. And when I'm not doing THAT stuff. . . I sleep.

So there, full disclosure. No more secrets. Okay, that's a lie. I mean, I can't show my whole hand, right? ;)

Here's some Chaotic stuff you. The first card, colored by Tony Washington, the second by Emilio Lopez.

Batman Convention Jampiece

This piece was done a while ago, but I just got to see the finished version recently, and I figured it'd be fun to share. It's a bunch of artists, one to each character. From left to right, it's Batman by Dustin Nguyen, Man-Bat by Jim Calafiore, Batgirl #1 by Skottie Young, Nightwing by ???, Robin by Eric Canete, Alfred by Sean Chen, Commissioner Gordon by Chris Moreno, and Batgirl #2 by myself.

All Star Vinyl:: Alex Rodriguez

Designed by yours truly for Upper Deck. I did this about a year ago to the day, and it's finally coming to light. Out July 2nd.

Oh, and best believe there are more of these on the way.