Commissions Open!

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That's right, Summer's almost over (haHA Summer, don't let Fall hit cha on yer way out!) so that means Baltimore Comic Con and SPX are right around the corner! And because they're local (and precious) to me, I WILL BE AT BOTH. I hope you will all come visit me, but in the meantime, I've opened up my sign up sheet for commissions! 

  • Pencil (one figure) - $35
  • Ink (one figure) - $50
  • Pencil (two figures) - $50
  • Ink (two figures) - $75

Patreon patrons get discounts, o' course! $1 Patrons get 10% off, $3 patrons get 12% off, and $10 patrons get 20% off! 

If you're interested, shoot me an email and I'll put you down before things get crazy and I'm all bleary eyed at the convention spilling coffee on everything in my vicinity. ;)

Commissions Now Open & OTHER FUN NEWWWWS

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If you'll be at SPX, Baltimore Comic Con, or New York Comic Con in the next two months and want a commission, pre-order now! Then there'll be no muss, no fuss (no chance of me spilling coffee on the piece while drawing at the show) and I'll have more time to work on it. Just give me a holler, let me know pencil/ink, which character you want, and if you have a preference, please include reference photos! Once you email I'll give ya the paypal address for payment. All sketches will be 8 x 10 on Bristol, $35 for pencil (or $45 for 2 figures in pencil) or $50 for ink ($75 for 2 figures in ink). Yay! (Oh - and Patreon peeps get a discount - become a patron for that and other specials!)

PSST - speaking of SPX and NYCC, I'll be on some panels, yahoo! At SPX I'll be on the Creative Collaboration in Comics  Collectives panel chatting about forming Bmore Into Comics on Saturday from 12:30 - 1:30pm, and at NYCC I'll be on the Kickstarter 101: An Intro to Funding Your Dream Comics Project panel on Friday from 1:30 - 2:30 in Room 1A24.

Come visit!

In February of this year I decided to challenge myself by drawing a hitman a day (all taken from movies, comics, and TV shows). I've placed them all together (along with their memorable quotes) into this "Portrait of a Hitman" mini comic, debuting at SPX! I'll have it available in my store online, or if you're a $3+ patron, you'll get the PDF for free.

The coloring books are back from the printer and look faaaaabulous, I'm so excited about them. The book is still coming along, but check in with my Kickstarter Update page to see the progress as we move along!

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One Con Down, One to Go!

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Woo! Still riding high on the fun that was Baltimore Comic Con this past weekend. This show is still one of my faves, not just because I live in dear ol' Bmore, but because it's the most diverse con I've still ever seen. People of all ages, backgrounds, costumed families, roving packs of preteens - it's pretty special. I get such warm squishes from seeing all the costumed folks bond with one another - "Hey aren't we in the Avengers together? FIST BUMPS!"

I was spoiled by all the familiar faces who returned to catch up and chat with me, and by being across from Locust Moon and their GIANTASTIC LITTLE NEMO ANTHOLOGY. Holy god - have you guys seen that thing? On Friday I thought it was a prop, but on Saturday I dared peek inside. No book can be that big and gorgeous, folks - no book.

And I got a lot of sketches to do - MY FAVORITE. I noticed after the fact that I drew almost ALL my ladies with their arms crossed in front of their boobs. What's that about? Should that be my thing now??

Emma Frost in her scandalous non-outfit

So now that SPX is looming on the horizon for this coming weekend, let's talk table displays! I like to mix things up at each convention, but I also like to figure out what works and what doesn't. Here was my table display for Baltimore:

I'm thinking it might be a little ... cluttered. Am I bringing too many different things? I feel like I either need to reduce/streamline my books and prints and things, or at least group them into different sections. Usually I think less is more, but then I get paranoid I'll leave out the one thing people might want to look at.

As exhibitors/visitors to conventions, what do you guys prefer? If I come up with anything special before SPX, I'll post it here and see if it made a difference.

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Local Times and Sportscar Designs

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Hi guys, it's me! What have you been up to this summer?

After running around to different states the last couple of weekends (Boston 2 weeks ago, California 1 week ago), I'm finally here to stay! So here are some of the (exciting) things happening that I get to tackle now that I've got the whole rest of the local year ahead of me ...

  • My next graphic novel (written/drawn by me and published by Oni Press) is ALL DRAWN! Now it just needs to be scanned, sent and VAMOOSH you guys will be seeing it soon! Can't wait!!
  • My comic 4 States 2 Months, which you may/may not have been following in its sporadic spot on my website, is now almost complete and will be available in print at this year's SPX!
  • Speaking of SPX, I will be there this year but FIRST I will be at Baltimore Comic Con at Table A-234!
  • And . . . oh right, I've got a wedding to finish planning! Expect some possibly-complainy blog posts about that to come.

As far as my trips went, my fiancee and I checked out Monterey Car Week for a few days (total lifelong dream of his to be basked in hot cars and foggy, perfect weather) this past weekend. Not being a car person myself - I see my car as IT BETTER LAST FOREVER rather than a stunning piece of engineering equipment - I was surprised at how enjoyable it could be for a spectator. I mean, yes, most of the car "shows" took place on gorgeous Carmel Valley golf courses, on breezy/sunny days, where all you do is walk around with your solo cup of wine and peer at the most beautiful vintage sports cars you'll ever see - so really, what's not to enjoy. My favorite part was seeing the crowd of fans - a perfect blend of fancy European men in tailored suits and old, chubby white men who dress like my dad. I overheard a lot of important conversations, but the people who really knew what they were doing were the wives who brought pop-up picnic tables stocked with wine, cheese, and camped out behind their husbands' cars for the duration. I was more than a little jealous of these women.

One of the things that fascinated me the most was the combination of colors and textures people chose for the exteriors/interiors of their car. So while my fiancee was snapping off engine pics and getting the full car in the frame, I was focused on all of these lovely combos:

Oh, but then I couldn't help but take a picture of this little guy too:

I love when form and function are considered and put together in such a fun way. You sportscar fans out there can have all the horsepower and torque you want, but throw in a good deep orange and some houndstooth pattern and I'm sold.

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Print Prepping Away

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The 2nd wave of con season is almost at hand! For me, I've got TWO local shows back to back in September (Baltimore Comic Con, followed by SPX), an appearance at New York Comic Con in October, and oh yeah that little local show I'm organizing in a bar on August 24th. What makes it extra fun is all the out-of-state traveling I'll be doing between now and then. Yippee!

Luckily I enjoy coming up with little crafty goodies I can sell alongside my comics, so here's a preview of some new things I'm whipping up for the fall shows.

Lately I love making these little hanging prints - i.e. prints that you can hang anywhere you want - on a bulletin board, a fridge, a rear view mirror, etc. In the past I've only done some of my animal prints:

So I thought, hey, why not do some Bonnie ones??

Since logistically I couldn't fit the WHOLE strip on my little wood flats, I've taken a couple of choice one-panel frames of some of my favorite moments. Here's what the back looks like:

Also, I'm making some regular ol' prints of Bonnie  - an 8 x 10 of Work Bonnie and a 5 x 7 Vacay Bonnie. Now I just need to come up with a Beast Mode Bonnie . . .

So if you're going to be around at either Baltimore or SPX, come by and check out all the Bonnie prints! And if you can't be at those shows, I'll let you know once I've put them up online for sale! :D

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Book 3 Pre-Orders!

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Woop! Getting all ready over here for the Gods & Undergrads book 3!!

It will be 122 pages, black and white, manga sized (that's 5 1/4" x 8"). Featuring the last two chapters of the series, sketches, plus a couple lovely fan art pieces from these cool friends/wildly talented folks:

The book will be released early September (round about the time of the Baltimore Comic Con / SPX back-to-back weekends in comics yay spectacular) BUT if you pre-order it now, you get a choice of one of three of these nifty little prints:

Each are 4" x 6", printed on Epsom Matte Ultra Premium Presentation Paper. PLUS if you pre-order, you'll get a free sketch IN the book of whoever ya want! Just drop me a line when you pre-order and tell me which print and which sketch you desire.

[button color="blue" size="medium" link="http://lipstickisspress.storenvy.com/products/2064451-gods-undergrads-book-3" target="_blank"]Pre-order HERE![/button]

 

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Gods & Undergrads Book 3 News!

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I've mentioned before that I'm spending the month of July spiraling down the (eek, ever increasing) page count to finish up the 3rd Gods & Undergrads book. Now it looks like it really IS all coming together - heh heh, sure there wasn't any doubt - and it will be available in time for Baltimore Comic Con, SPX, all those good things. I.e. Fall time, where I for one will be happy to be done sweating and wearing shorts.

This book will contain the last 2 chapters - all about death, hanging out in bars, Hades, weird glowstick hand powers, boy trouble, and Lelaina's descent into ... well I'm not going to ruin it for you! Plus I'm going to throw in some extras at the back of the book like character sketches, inspirations, and a few guest artists, to boot!

I'm pretty excited about it so I wanted to give everyone a STAY TUNED STAY EXCITED YAY!

And once again, if you'd like a refresher to the comic without actually reading all the pages of it again, check here for the cute one-page chapter summaries. And if you DO want to read all the pages from the beginning, I've added a wee Introduction page in an attempt to organize this ginormous comic into something that makes reasonable sense.

So until then, I'll keep putting up chunks of pages every Wednesday until the STARTLING CONCLUSION. Eeeeeeeee! I'm going to come up with some fun gift to give those of you who pre-order. Stay tuned!

 

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Selling Comics, Big Easy Style

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I'm currently reporting from a blank room full of piles of my belongings, hunkered down on two boxes of comics inventory. That's right, I'm all moved into my new home! Woo! Now, my next challenge is locating all of my stuff. And/or finding places to put them that make sense. At least my cats have come out of their litterbox, where they spent moving day smooshed together in mutual horror at the new enviornment and all the crashing around of the movers. It was the cutest truce I've ever seen in Kitty Land before.

Anyway, I wanted to take a minute to recap about my super great weekend trip to Wizard World New Orleans last week and share all the fun commissions I got to draw (if you follow me on Tumblr or Instagram, you were already inundated with these during the con!) Since I seldom do big shows I wasn't sure what to expect. Plus, being in New Orleans my table helpers/manservants were sure to be scarce at the very best (the lure of bloody mary's and the French Quarter is not something I would begrudge them succumbing to). WWNOLA was a nice, spacious con. It wasn't so choked with people that you had trouble getting around, yet there was a constant stream of attendees. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly enthusiastic and supportive about comics. Once again, as with other big shows like Baltimore Comic Con, I was pleased to see so many families there. Especially families who dressed up as teams of superheroes. I love the potential embarrassment of family superhero costumes, but honestly a lot of them were really pulling it off. Normally I don't get too jazzed about celebrity appearances either, but I have to say that walking in behind Kevin Sorbo and having Michael Madsen in my line of sight for most of the convention was pretty sweet. I wandered by the Walking Dead actors too, but sadly didn't get to glimpse any of the Star Trek folks. But hey - Patrick Stewart will be at Emerald Comic Con, so maybe I'll get another chance!

On to the drawings!

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Weekend Warrior

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Whew! Quelle weekend! First things first - I'm starting to transition stuff over to a new Etsy store (one that has a more reasonable name than "Artemna", which is what my store is currently called), and I just placed my Mad Men Greek Myth prints up there! In a couple weeks there'll be nothing left in the Artemna shop, so come join the party over at LipsticKissPress!

I've got loads of news and updates and fun. But allow me to take a moment to gush about how wonderful all the people were who came by to stop and chat and purchase things at my table at the Baltimore Comic-Con were this weekend!

I usually don't like to harp on the fact that I'm a woman making comics (*gasp*!) but luckily for every douchebag that comes up to me and ridicules my stuff (especially Boobage - mature, right?), or asks me if I'm the comic artist's girlfriend, or just wants to take a picture with me but not read any of my stuff ... there are families, dads, moms, kids, teachers, fellow comickers, and comics fans who come by and make it all worthwhile. They tell me they identified with one of my awkward stories, enjoyed the gore of my assassin comic, or are as much of a Greek Myth nerd as I am. And that just puffs me up with happiness and makes me want to do so much more. So thanks, everyone!

The Greek God wrist cuffs were a HUGE hit, I'm so thrilled! I have more gods and designs and plans to do custom orders soon, so stay tuned!

In other upcoming news, Bonnie will resume updating next Wednesday, August 31st. Mark your calendars! And look for Gods & Undergrads to resume soon, too.

Now - on to the sketches I did this weekend!

As always, if you'd like a commissioned piece of artwork, contact me and we can chat!