Art Show!

I go to a lot of conventions. Not a ton, but a good amount. As long as I've been reading comics though, I didn't start going to conventions until last year. One of the best things about a convention is original sketches. You get your favorite comic book artists to draw an original picture for you of pretty much anything you want. Here's all the stuff I've gotten so far.

Dallas Comic Con 2011

Dallas Comic Con 2011 was my first convention, so I spent way too much money on sketches. I did though end up with some really great stuff. The Matty Roth (DMZ) sketch by Kristian Donaldson is absolutely killer.

Invincible by Joe Eisma

This was the first sketch I ever got. Joe Eisma is the artist of Morning Glories at Image Comics. This is a really big sketch and looks great in a frame.

Daredevil by Michael Lark

Michael Lark is also a Texas native, but his comic work has been huge. He drew the entire run of Daredevil with Ed Brubaker and did a ton of work on Gotham Central at DC. This isn't one of my favorite sketches and it just seemed like he was in a hurry.

Captain America by Mitch Breitweiser

Mitch Breitweiser is one of my favorite Captain America artists, so when I had the chance to have him draw Cap for me, I couldn't pass it up.

Matty Roth (DMZ) by Kristian Donaldson

Kristian Donaldson is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists. He's a Texas native and has done work with Brian Wood on DMZ, Supermarket and their new series at Dark Horse called The Massive. He also has a great book out at Vertigo Crime called 99 Days. This is absolutely my favorite sketch that I have. The way he used a border on the page just blows me away.

Jonah Hex by Jimmy Palmiotti

This was a quick sketch done by Jimmy Palmiotti on the cover of an issue of Jonah Hex that he was signing. I think he did this for pretty much everyone that brought an issue to get signed. Still really cool though.

Dallas Fan Days 2011

Lariat and I spent 1 day at Dallas Fan Days 2011. It wasn't the greatest convention as it's main focus was on Star Wars and there were very few comic artists. We did however find a guy selling really cool prints and also saw Brent Peeples.

Rick (The Walking Dead) by Brent Peeples

This is such a cool sketch. When we saw Brent Peeples sitting with a giant Last of the Greats poster behind him, I had remembered seeing that book on the shipping list for the next week. So, I gave it a shot and had him draw me the main character, Rick, from The Walking Dead. Little did I know that Last of the Greats would soon become one of my favorite books. This is a fairly simple sketch, but I love the extra detail in the background.

Captain America/Red Skull (print) by Chris Fulton

Chris Fulton is a really talented artist out of Dallas who is also a tattoo artist. He does stuff like this and sells it at conventions. He doesn't do any actual comic book work, but I think he should. This is such a cool picture.

Wizard World Austin 2011

Wizard World was my first mid-sized convention. Tons of big names and for me it was great because there were so many great comic creators there. So many in fact that I had to chose just two people to get sketches from. Below are two really great sketches, but they do illustrate the difference between a $40 sketch and a $60 sketch.

Cassiday (Preacher) by Rob Guillory

Rob Guillory is the artist of the very popular book at Image, Chew. This is such a cool "chew" version of one of my favorite comic book characters ever.

Hellboy by Yanick Paquette

The level of detail here is crazy. I love the monster in the background. Yanick Paquette is the current artist of Swamp Thing at DC.

Boris Karloff Frankenstein (print) by Unknown

I picked up this print of this incredible Boris Karloff Frankenstein piece at the convention too. So cool.

Staple Independent Media Expo 2012

This convention is actually going on today as I type this. We were only able to go for one day to this con, but that was plenty. It was a really small convention, but super cool, because it was all independent. Tons of mini comics and other really cool indie comics.

Ninja Turtle by Kevin Eastman

Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was at the convention. He was doing these cool quick turtle sketches on everyone's books.

Drake Sinclair by Brian Hurt

This is a really good sketch for being completely free. Brian Hurt is really good and I love the Sixth Gun, so I'm glad to have the main character on my wall.

Animal/300 (print) by Kennon James

I just happened upon this and had to have it. So funny and so cool. I can't say that I'm a huge 300 fan, but I love anything Muppets.

That's it for now. We'll be hitting at least a couple more conventions this year, so expect more. We will for sure be going to Fan Days and Wizard World. No Dallas Comic Con this year since I will be getting married the same weekend.