Short post today for a change. Here’s two character’s done in the vain of Marvel’s Super Hero Squad. Daredevil and Nova.

Brent

This morning I woke to the sad new that my childhood comic shop is coming to an end. Tomorrow Is Yesterday, named after the first episode of Star Trek, was the first comic shop I ever went to. Opening in 1981 and located in Rockford, Illinois I would get to go buy comics there every month or whenever we filled a bucket of crushed cans that we’d cash in and have for an allowance.

When I was young the place seemed so large and packed head to toe with comics. I remember picking up the “Death of Robin” and a Frank Miller issue of Daredevil (I just thought the cover was cool).

Once I got in high school and was able to drive, I frequented the place more often and found myself getting exposed to more indie comics and master’s of the medium. It was here that I started getting a better appreciation for Jack Kirby through some cheap reprints. I also started picking up everything by this guy named Mike Allred, who was creating this really off beat comic called Madman.

After I moved up to Minneapolis I was exposed to so many more stores. We really have a great selection of comic shops in the Twin Cities. You really can find anything you’d ever want up here. When I’d come home I’d head back to TIY and while I still loved it, I realized they could only do so much with the store being located in Rockford, which has a small but respectable comic following. As the years moved along I could slowly see a shift in direction from the comics to the gaming. It was still a good store, it just wasn’t the same store I knew growing up. In November I went home for Thanksgiving and hit the store one last time. I had noticed almost all the new comics were gone. They told me it was due to a huge sale, but I had my suspicions a change was coming.

As of January 1st, under new ownership, the store will now be called Top Cut Comics. It seems the focuse will be more on playing cards games, and hold tournaments at the shop. This has been the case for a while and I wish the new store owners nothing but the best. I just hope they try to keep some of the comic product available to give new people a chance to discover the comic medium.

My favorite TIY memory ever was having a in store signing at the shop in October 2006. A true dream come true.

With the economy the way it is, and the print medium’s future not very bright, I’m sure this is happening to many comic fans all over. It’s a bummer but I really think with the success of digital comics on the IPhone, and the upcoming Apple Tablet are really going to revolutionize the medium.

It would still be nice to have that local hole in the wall store to escape to once in a while. Hopefully we can have it both ways.

Brent

Sorry for the lack of posting on the site. I try to at least get one post a week but last week was really busy. So far 2010 has been pretty exciting work wise which is fantastic. Some cool projects in the works that can’t be shown yet. The commission list is growing nicely so I expect some new pieces to post on this here site will be coming in no time. First off I wanted to send a link to a cool site called The Daily Crosshatch. The fine folks there were at the Indy Comic Week Mini Con a few weeks past and wrote up a nice report on the event. So please check it.

Also. while you wait for something new on the site I am making it up to you by posting a little tease of my Iron Man sketch cards that I did for the up coming Iron Man 2 sketch card set from Upperdeck. Plenty more were these came from so keep an eye out for them when it gets closer to the release of the film in May.

Brent

If you live in the Minneapolis area be sure to go out and pick up a copy of this week’s Vita.MN Magazine. I was lucky enough to do the cover for the annual winter guide issue. This makes it two years straight of doing the cover for this issue. I love working on Vita.MN. They are a great local magazine. Below is a step by step process from concept to creation of the recent cover.

1. This cover kind of had a quick turn around do to a holiday vacation on my part. I was told that the main focus of the article was going to be about extreme ice climbing. We wanted to use a crazy Spider-Man like angle on the main character. I did these two thumbnails and it was pretty obvious the one on the right seemed to work great for the text and logo on the cover so we ran with it.

2. After getting some great reference from my art director Leslie on ice climbers I started penciling. I wanted to do a fun sporty chic for some reason so we just went with that. I found some climbing reference of a younger woman sporting pigtails that I liked so it was added in. It helps cause most woman tie their hair up when climbing so this give her personality and also eliminates me from having to draw flowing hair to show it’s a girl and not represent the situation properly.

3. Final art went some what smooth. The only thing we needed to do was add a little more room at the bottom to show her foot. Color palette was decided early on. The only real trouble I had was with the ice. I had kept the same dark blue overlay color that is on the main character for the longest time on everything. It finally hit me to change the tone of the ice to make it seem A) Colder and B) Push the bottom of the ice farther down and give the environment some depth. I blame missing the obvious solution on all the holiday activity;)

I think the end cover turned out well. First time I’ve only had to draw one person for a Vita.Mn cover. Looking forward to doing more with them in the future. Now go out and start climbing some ice!
Brent

Recently while I was in Texas over the holidays I met up with the fine fellows over at the Half Hour Wasted Podcast. Brad and Frank are a great group of guys. They took my wife and I out for some fine “Tex Mex” before we flew back to the tundra of the Twin Cities. They recorded our conversation that really jumps all over the place. Thanks again Brad and Frank, looking forward to seeing you at the Super Show in Philly!
This past Wednesday was the Mini Indy Con over at The Source Comics and Games. It was a great event put on by the Source crew and they hope to make it a annual tradition. Here’s some photos from the show.

The start of the show and we already had a nice little crowd gathering for the artist.

Madman sketch.

A requested sketch for a cyber-duck.

A young guy asked to do a quick sketch on a t-shirt. Not sure who this guy is but t-shirts are always a fun yet tough surface to draw on.

A fun Hellboy sketch. Played with his goatee a little on this one.

A Rogue sketch for a young kid who seemed to really dig all the artist at the show.

Jimmy Johns break!

Drawing for a girl who was walking around the show checking out some indie books.

Someone saw a Dick Tracy I drew and posted online and wanted to see me do another one. Had no problem with that at all.

Old school Phantom drawing for current writer Mike Bullock who bolted too early before I could give it to him.

A really quick Spidey sketch. Couldn’t end the day on this drawing so I had to do one more.

This Spirit sketch seemed to do the trick.

This was the closing shot of the show. Turn out was solid the whole time. Thanks for everyone who came out and for the Source crew again for putting it on.

Brent