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CoMics ArTwOrk PhoTos iNFo GUeStBoOk sToRe LiNkS NeWs
After a long hiatus, there has been an update in the ARTWORK section of the site. Frequent readers of this here blog may have seen most of the 72 new images already, as I mostly post my artwork here first. There are even more pics uploaded onto the site that haven’t yet been integrated into the artwork galleries, but if you visit the FOLIO section and click ALL GALLERIES you can see everything that I have organised so far.
Gordon Clark and the guys at Wild Brain recently made an entertaining in-flight safety-video for Virgin America Airlines. I really like the pencil-testy look of it. Gordon styled the spot and designed most of the characters that made me laugh (I checked) and he also did the voice-over narration. I recently took a flight to LA and decided to fly Virgin just to see this amusing movie in action, but unfortunately the little TV monitors were not working on that particular flight. DOH!
Here is a panoramic photo taken at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney. I spent a very pleasant few days catching up with two of my dearest childhood friends, Peter Lawlor and John Dillon, as we all stayed at a beautiful property just a few minutes walk from where this picture was taken.
A five week trip to Australia seemed like more than enough time at the planning stage, but it was not nearly enough to do all that I had wanted. I had a very full social schedule in my home town; catching up with my family, comparing bald-patches and love-handles with old school-friends, attending family weddings and birthdays, a trip to the coast with all my siblings and of course all the stuff associated with a home-town Christmas and New Years.
All of that meant that I didn’t have much time left when I went to Sydney, where I also have many friends to see… There was a threatened Airline strike that would have delayed my outbound flight and I found myself hoping that it WOULD happen so I could get a few more days. But that was not the case, my flight left on time and I wasn’t able to visit some Sydney animation Studios, and do a bit of touristy travel stuff as I had originally intended.
My trips back to Australia are always primarily to see my friends and family, and consequently take me back to my old haunts. NEXT time I go to Australia I want to set aside some time to visit parts of the country that I have not yet seen. I am very well-travelled when it comes to other countries but my experience of Australia is mostly limited to the area between Sydney and my home-town.
Anyway, it was a great holiday, where I didn’t think of anything other than what was going on each day. I wasn’t able to access the internet for long periods, hence the lack of blog-posts over the last few months. Those will pick-up in frequency presently, though I don’t have any sketches of my trip to share. I didn’t do a lick of drawing the whole time I was away.
Happy New Year everyone. Let’s hope that 2008 is a good one.
Next week, Maverix Studios is hosting yet ANOTHER AUCTION. After raising money for many international charities, this time the Maverix crew decided to help a charitable organization in the Bay Area community, Glide Memorial Church. The proceeds from this particular art auction will support Glide’s Children’s Creative Arts Media Center. Past Maverix Auctions have typically raised $9,000-$12,0000 and it is hoped that a donation of such a size will make a huge difference to a small local charity.
The evening will include food, drink and music and, of course, artwork from local artists will be up for bid in a silent auction, with the evening culminating in a live auction for the most sought after pieces! This is a great opportunity to get an early start on holiday shopping while supporting a wonderful organization working with and for the under served children of our fair city. The theme of the show is INSPIRE: GIFTS THAT GIVE TWICE.
I have a busy week ahead, as I try to tie up a lot of loose-ends before I head off to Australia in December, but I will absolutely make time to do a few art pieces to donate to the cause. Then I hope to pick up some artwork at the show to give to family and friends for Christmas.
Check the MAVERIX BLOG over the next week for updates on donations as they come in. The fun all goes down on Sunday December 2nd from 6PM to 10PM. I hope to see you all there!
Looking for something fun to do in the San Francisco area on Halloween night without getting get shot? Then why not attend the MONSTER MOSH at the 12 GALAXIES night club?
This ghoulish extravaganza will be brought to life by the electrifying folks from B-MINUS COMICS (fearsome flyer artwork by B-Minus’ invincible Aaron Farmer) and and co-sponsored by both THE ONION (everyone’s favourite newspaper), and also by THE ISOTOPE (San Francisco’s best comics shop). Mix-music grooves will be spun by Dj SAM SUPA and there will be a rocking live set by TRIPLE COBRA . The hottest zombie sex-symbol in town, the ever glamorous Ms MONSTER (who is currently starring in “The search for the NEXT ELVIRA” on the FOX reality network) Will be hosting the MidNight costume contest. See you there!
One of my favourite things to do over the past few years has been to participate in the MAVERIX STUDIOS ART AUCTIONS. They have all been held to raise money for worthy causes, and the satisfaction in being part of one is many-fold. First of all, they are a fantastic prompt to make some original artwork that has nothing to do whatsoever with working for “the man”. Secondly, they are great social gatherings and gallery shows where I can see artwork made by my friends. Thirdly, If I get my check-book out and wield it wisely and boldy, I get to take home some of that inspiring artwork at bargain prices. Fourthly, they are wonderful ways to raise money for charity and the knowledge that I am part of that process creates a rosy glow that lasts for weeks. Lastly, because of all of the points raised above and more factors besides, they are one hell of a lot of fun to attend.
Initially, the choice of beneficiary charities for each auction, and the ensuing preparations, were made by Maverix Studios members themselves, but recently Maverix has been approached by friends to host auctions for charities that they have some connection to. Enrico Casarosa instigated the EMERGENCY auction held earlier this year and this most recent auction was initiated by Esther Pearl and Nate Stanton, and then organised by them and Maverix to raise money for the Alzheimers Association. Amazingly, the preparations for this show were done in a mere 4 weeks and yet the auction raised a staggering $13,842.
You just got walked on by Maverix Studios
Maybe as much as $6,000 of that total was raised in the live-auction. A Maverix Studios auction is silent for most of the 3 hours, whereby bidders write down their bids beneath each art piece. However, Maverix reserves the right to pull a few of the most contested pieces off the wall and use them in the live auction BIG BID BATTLE at the end of the night. So, even though you’ve secured the winning bid on paper, you may be obliged to battle it out even further LIVE. As auctioneer MIKE MURNANE hilariously explained to the first such thwarted paper-bidder, “You thought you’d already won this piece but you just got WALKED ON by Maverix Studios.” Thereafter followed a series of cut-throat bid battles.
The drama and hilarity of the BIG BID BATTLES has become one of my favourite parts of these auctions, and a large part of the reason for that fact is the MIGHTY MIKE MURNANE. Mikey is a natural born button pusher and his skills at goading are nowhere put to better use than at these events. He surely gouged another several thou out of the crowd last Saturday. It is also fitting that Mike be the auctioneer at these shows, seeing as how he was the beneficiary of the very first Maverix Auction held in 2004, to raise money for his eye surgery.
Bidding for FULL QUENCH
I had it in mind to finally secure myself a Rhode Montijo original. Even though I had won a Rhode painting at the very first Maverix auction, I soon after gave that painting to Mike as a gift and have been in dire need of replacement Rhode pic ever since. However, this time around, there a was a giddy frenzy of bidding the likes of which I’d not seen before. I bid on a SWEET Rhode piece in the live auction, battling one-on-one with Bosco, each of us topping each other’s bid by $25, until the price was almost $200 more than the paper bid, which had been held by Bosco. Then Ronnie del Carmen blind-sided BOTH of us; he jacked the bidding up by $75 to $500 (which was my secret top price) and secured the pic for himself!
Ronnie’s bold bidding strategy got a huge round of applause, from Bosco and I no less than anyone else, and I think his boldness set the tone for bids to come, because thereafter bidders really pulled out all the stops. Luis battled Vaughn neck and neck for Patrick Awa’s GUITAR WOLF piece and, with the bidding at around the $750 mark, Luis blew the opposition away by bidding $1000, to a HUGE cheer from the assembled crowd.
Brenda Chapman made the room gasp as she bid against a woman called JUDY, taking the bids from $400 all the way up to the dizzy heights of $3,500, for a beautiful painting by Steve Purcell, who sadly wasn’t there in person and therefore missed out on the massive ego-stoke of seeing two women fighting over him so passionately. The crowd loved the theatre of this battle, and Brenda had a huge smile on her face as the victor, even though she wound up paying a few thousand more for a picture she’d already won on paper.
I have to point out here that even these “high” prices are actually bargains for the quality of the work on auction. A mere fraction of what you would pay at a gallery.
Thwarted for a good cause
Last time I walked home with a huge swag of goodies, whereas this time I was beat out on most of the stuff I bid on. I was tipped to be one of the people to pull the bid-sheets off the wall, and in doing so I wasn’t as able to defend my bids on a few pieces elsewhere in the room, and the last 5 minutes are everything in the silent bidding. However, I was able to win a great print by Sho Murase, and I was very happy with the fact that my donated pieces raised a lot more money than any of my submissions to prior auctions.
Plus, even though I was denied in gaining many of the things that I had wanted, I was happy in the knowledge that I was thwarted for a good cause and my bids had at least forced someone else to pay some extra money to charity in order to be the winner. There are no sad faces at the end of a Maverix Studios auction. And if there was any sense of having to lick my wounds, I took that vibe with me to Mitchell’s Ice Cream and instead licked a chocolate dipped Mexican Chocolate Ice cream, served in a chocolate waffle cone.
Read some more reports of this auction, by Maverix Studios, Ronnie del Carmen, Enrico Casarosa, and Jeff Pidgeon, and also check out Carlos Baena’s PHOTOS (thanks to Carlos, Rhode and Ronnie for the photos seen here).
If you like the idea of this kind of auction but don’t live in the Bay Area, then why not organise an art-auction charity fundraiser for the holiday season this year? Scoop up some of the holiday purchasing budget in your community for a good cause, and walk away with some great artwork that you can give to friends and family over the gift giving season!
#2. FEBRUARY 4TH 2005: TSUNAMI RELIEF: $22,955.60 raised for the victims of the Asian Tsunami, with donations given to UNICEF, HABITAT FOR HUMANITY and SAVE THE CHILDREN. Participation by 80 artists who donated 220 pieces sold at the auction night and on a follow-up Ebay auction.
#3. NOVEMBER 17TH, 2005. HEAL: $9000 raised for the CHARLOTTE MAXWELL COMPLEMENTARY CLINIC.
#4. DECEMBER 15TH, 2005. EARTHQUAKE RELIEF: $12,000 raised for the victims of the Earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir, with donations given to the PAKISTAN RED CRESCENT SOCIETY and DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS.
Over $40,000 was raised in 2005 at 3 auctions, and perhaps due to exhaustion there was an auction hiatus in 2006.
#5. MAY 20TH, 2007. EMERGENCY: $13,003 raised for LIFE SUPPORT FOR CIVILIAN WAR VICTIMS
#6. SEPTEMBER 29TH, 2007. $13,842 raised for the ALZHEIMERS SOCIETY.
Recently my good friend Rhode held a MAD HATTER’s TEA PARTY in Golden Gate Park to celebrate his birthday. This happy occasion inspired a large group of his good friends to once again put on silly costumes and go out in public to make even bigger clowns of themselves than they did at his 1970s Frisbee Party, held in the same spot a few years ago…
A costume party where nobody wears a silly outfit is a sad thing indeed, but fortunately Rhode has many friends who are happy to dress-up and act the fool (myself included). Many veterans of previous Superhero Parties and Clown Parties were in attendance, so both the silliness of outfits and whackiness of hats was assured. Just seeing the guests arrive in all their finery put smiles on everyone’s faces and got the proceedings off to a fine start.
A super-long table was draped with lacy table-cloths upon which there were fancy tea-pots full of sugary drinks, and plates stacked high with enough sweet finger-foods to make your gums itch. This fine selection of teeth-rotting delicacies kept everyone buzzing until Mrs. Montijo’s tasty, home-cooked food showed up, brought all the way from Stockton by the gracious chef herself, and accompanied by even more of Rhode’s family members.
A feature of Rhode’s get-togethers is the PARTY GAMES. I have to confess that, even though I am happy to make a spectacle of myself by wearing a bald wig, fake moustache or even a skin-tight hero-suit at a costume party, I am very shy when it comes to party games. I don’t know why this is so… Some traumatic episode from my childhood perhaps? A game of Twister that went awry? A suppressed memory of a Dominoes match that ended in bloodshed?….
In any case, the games at Rhode’s parties never end in bad feelings. In addition to the traditional PINATA, at this particular party there was an egg-toss, an imaginary potato-sack race, and a 3-legged race… and it goes without saying that the winner in each event received a dandy prize. GOOD TIMES. A spirit of whimsy kept the tea-party in the land of happy-vibes all throughout the day, right up until the evening when everyone went home tired, well-fed and happy… to vigorously double brush their tingling teeth.
Thanks to Chris, Grace, Kenn and Elaine for taking these great photos.
This picture was drawn years ago for my friend JOY who used to have a retro clothing line called FROCK & ROLL. (These days she designs under the label of HOT COUTURE).
The recent discovery of an old, water-damaged portfolio has prompted me to sort through my sketchbooks and stacks of scribbles and make a digital back-up of my older drawings (the newer ones have already been scanned at some point). I really SHOULD be doing a mini comic for Comic-Con but I am having the worst mental-block about it, which is what inspired me to sift through old drawings in the first place, looking for some inspiration.
One bonus of this spate of scanning, is that I have been updating and resizing some of the scans in the ART section of this site (for example this, this, this and that). Many of the images in my galleries were scanned years ago (as long ago as 2000) and were consequently posted at the tiny size required in the pre-DSL internet days.
After almost 7 years online, and 6 years doing this NEWS page, this is POST #200. 
My first website launched in Late 2000, initially as part of the MAVERIX STUDIOS site (until I got my own domain and hosting in early 2002). This NEWS page began in August 2001 and I made the posts by hand in HTML until I discovered BLOGGER in August 2003.
The ease of the Blogger interface meant that the frequency of posts went up from one per month to roughly one per week, and the focus broadened from merely listing updates to my site, to posting general ramblings about this and that. In March 2006 I moved to WORDPRESS and I really like the flexibility and features of this platform.
Here are some stats from my administration dashboard: There are 200 POSTS and 703 VISITOR COMMENTS, the most commented post received 32 comments. A whopping 15,418 SPAM COMMENTS have been caught since I installed SPAM blocking software in March 2006. The real-comment/spam-comment imbalance is pretty intimidating…
Speaking of statistics, thanks to all of you who come by once in a while and create a HIT in my VISITOR STATS (I am ashamed to admit how obsessively I check them; it makes me strangely happy). EXTRA special thanks to those of you who occasionally take the time to post a comment and make this blogging process a dialogue instead of merely a monologue.
Having my own little outpost on the web has given me a lot of pleasure and I think that being part of a worldwide art-nerd community is a large part of the fun…
Lately, I have been scanning a bunch of doodles, sketches and scribbles that I have done over the years. Here is one from last year.
