The 2012 Year in Review Special!!!

It's like when you go to a party, have a good time, and when your buzz is full on... all the booze is gone and you have to go home because its too big a pain in the ass to find somebody to go get more alcohol. That's what the close of this year is feeling like right now. Its was a good time but now it's time to stop for a while. Not all my references are "Booze, Party, Drinking", it just seems that way. Anyway this year was full of ups downs and some in-between but largely I think that things went pretty well. I think last year I wanted to do a "Year in review" special so lets get that going hmmm? Don't expect that many celebrity appearances. Conventions in 2012: After thinking that I wasn't getting into C2E2 AND CAKE it turns out that I made it in to both! One was a great success and one was a awful horrible FAILURE! Can you guess which is which? Speaking of Horrible, (god damn that's an awesome segue) I had an fantastic time visiting my second home Cincinnati for Horrorhound Weekend where I started up doing Zombie sketches for buzzed horror/monster fans in the Buckeye state while meeting that guy who always plays dicks in movies like Ghostbusters and Die Hard. A small but awesome show is the now de-funked (but renamed Appleseed Comic Con) Summit City Con in Ft. Wayne. Ah remember when I stopped on the way home from that show and bought a 20 pc chicken McNugget box, and ate the ENTIRE thing? No? Well, that may have happened. I ducked out on Wizard World this year,(due to my services as an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church) and it looks like that may have been a good idea according to my sources. Will I Wizard this year? Who knows?! I took a big ol' jet airliner to Washington D.C. (Steve Miller References? Really?!) and attended the Small Press Expo also known as SPX 2012! Its a solid show that always makes me want to sit and draw for days on end. I got to meet my underground comic hero DERF and get a sketch on a collection book of his "The City" comics. I managed not to make an ass outa myself that time so chalk on up for me. Halloween came and I showed up at the Elgin Monster Mash-Up the weekend before Halloween. Great idea for a show we just need to get a few more people to show up. Maybe next year? I wrap up my year in Conventions with the Days of the Dead show in Schaumburg IL. It was an excellent show with a ton of old friends and new people to meet. I brought my custom painted Corn Holes with me. Yea, I meant it to sound weird and uncomfortable so...yea. I said that I wasn't going to meet any "celebrities" this show but in fact I did the exact opposite. More on that later. I've got a whole bunch of shows on the calendar for 2013 that I'll let you know about as soon as things come together. I was a part of I'm approaching my Indiana stories in a different way this year, I plan on putting together several stories together before I release them. So that means longer waits between books (like that is something new) but the books will be shiny and slick and that's really what people want anyway. So I'll be working on other people's stories here and there and putting a lot more work into illustrations and prints as well as some new ideas for you to enjoy. The new year also has me dabbling in the world of podcasting. My good buddies and fellow artists from OK-Panic! have a great podcast called Guttertrash that I have sometimes participated in from time to time. Well now I will be doing some on the spot interviews in the coming year. If you want to hear a preview check out Guttertrash.net and look for episode # 208. This goes entirely against what I said last month about me never going to talk to celebrities due to my ability to come off like a massive loser especially if I admire their work. (oh man that Sterenko incident!) At the end of November I participated in a great event at a bar in Chicago called Atomic Sketch where myself and a whole bar of artists get together and draw whatever comes to mind. There are several of these things around town, but this was my first and hopefully will not be my last. Check out my links for more info. So there you have it kiddies, 2012 wrapped up in the longest blog post I have ever written. If you want to see some new product check out my ETSY page, and keep in touch on my Facebook & twitter and my blog. Any art requests send me an email and I'll let you know the deal. If you bought any of my stuff this year, thanks. And if you just walked on by well...walk by again and look into my desperate eyes and take pity. later guys I'll see you in January. This month's pics are a couple of commissions from the Days of the Dead show, new bottlecap magnets and something from the Atomic sketch party. Oh yea, spot that celebrity.

later.....(again)