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)

November Updates

Holy crap! Halloween is over and we have moved into the fine dreary month of November. Most of my gloomy friends love this month and will probably be cranking out their Souixie and the Banshee, Samhain, and Peter Murphy records. I think that I'll go with Blue Oyster Cult and leave it at that. But enough about my classic rock choices and lets hear about things going on. I've got two events that I am a part of this month. First off is the FIRST Chicagoland Days of The Dead show in beautiful Schaumburg IL on the weekend of the 16-18th. There are a list of fun guests as usual but the one I look forward to is Lita Ford for no other reason than I had a GIANT poster of her in my bedroom in my young teen metalhead days. I however will not be getting any pictures taken with her because I frequently turn into a dork whenever I meet a "celebrity".(Even the minor ones. No offense Lita.) The "Sterenko encounter" killed all future signings/photo-ops. The next thing is a new one for me. I'll be at a Atomic Sketch event with my fine and twisted friends from Cheese Lord comics. At the Green Eye Lounge on November 29th, I'll be setting up shop and doing some drawing requests. Maybe having a few cocktails. There maybe a direct correlation between the amount of cocktails I have, and the quality and quantity of said sketches. But either way it'll be fun. And a big thanks to Jon Lennon for the invite. So check out the links for more info and be sure to watch my Facebook page as well. This month's sketches are a return to "The BLOB project 2012" and some art I did for Bucket of Blood Books and records benefit. go to :http://www.facebook.com/events/496081883765699/ for the deal. That's it folks, -later

October updates

October is my favorite month of the year and mostly because of Halloween. That's a good thing because I'll be at the ELGIN MONSTER MASH UP on the 26th and 27th. Not only will there be Indie and b-list horror movies but there will be a Zombie lounge, live bands and a burlesque show. Fun for the whole creepy family. I'll be in the vendor area selling my sketch cards, and turning people into zombies. This show I'll have some new monster prints and bottlecap magnets for you to check out. So if your in the area come by and bring me a cocktail. In other news the new revamped web page will be going down (or is that going up?) soon. I have a wonderful designer but she, like me, has an awful lot on her plate. So stay tuned here and check out my Testie (Etsy) page for new stuff to buy so my kids can have shoes for winter. This months sketches are Halloween based of course, Angry Pumpkin and the two prints that I'll have at the show next week.

September Updates!

Falling behind on my posts... September has got me heading out to Bethesda, Maryland to the 2012 Small Press Expo (SPX). I missed last year so I'll have some new (to SPX peeps) comics & art to show. It's always been a great time going out there, the quality & creativity of the books & art really makes me want to run home, lock myself in my basement and draw for weeks. So if you are in the area on the weekend of 15th, drop on by and say hey. I am at table * G6A * That's geeee-sixxxxx-eaaaaaaa. October has me in a Halloween mood so I'll be at the Elgin Monster Mash-up the weekend before Samhain. More on that next month. Check my links for info on stuff I like. I've been working on some comic stuff that is kinda' top secret in the sense I'm not done with it. But I'm also chugging away on new sketch cards and I managed to make my own SPX promo pic for various social networks. Later....

August updates!

It's a sure thing that summer is almost over because WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO is here. Sorry to say that after 7 years as a comic creator (something like 15+ years as a common geek) I will not be going to the show this year. I'll be back next year and all will be right with the universe, besides I've still got a couple of shows left for this year. So if you go be sure to stop by Cheeselord Comics as well as my neighbor from C2E2 Chris from Urbnpop.com. I got my hotel and plane tix for the SPX 2012 show in September so I'll be working on stuff for that next. This month more sketch cards featuring a cool devil and a dead hippy...Don't forget to check out ok-panic.net every two weeks to see what mayhem we've got cooking for you. later,

Vacation Pics?

Bath House? Abandon outdoor theater? Me acting like a Diety with my Deer Minions? All part of a good afternoon.

July Updates & Vacation Pics!

Summer is here and it's a dry wasteland as far as upcoming events. This gives me a chance to start some new projects and continue sketch cards for the upcoming fall season. I'm sorry to say that the CAKE show was a bit of a bust despite the high turnout. Good show but not a good match I'm afraid. Win some lose some eh? (I'm gonna' start using "eh?" a lot more.) Sometimes I need to share more than just updates on conventions and new art. I'm a person too and I want to show my "softer" side. This month in addition to some new sketch cards, custom painted bean bag games (watch for more of these this fall!) I'm sharing vacation photos from the scariest place on earth: Deer Forest in Coloma, Michigan. Welcome to Fairytale land, those dead eyes still haunt me. later, -kurt