Bmore Into Comics

/

Eeeeeeep I'm so excited!

A couple of months ago I was chatting with Joey Weiser at Emerald City Comic Con about one convention vs. another and what our experiences have been exhibiting comics in different venues. He  described Fluke as a particularly fun show, which I've never attended but heard about -- it's a small, local show which is one day and primarily features local comics creators/students of SCAD. From there we commiserated about some of our small, beloved shows of the past (remember when SPX had it's own cute boutique bar downstairs?) which have since grown to epic proportions and lost their small, neighborhoody feel.

Now, of course, I LOVE that comics have grown and expanded their popularity base. One of my favorite con moments happened a few years ago, when exhibiting at Baltimore Comic Con for the first time. At that one show I witnessed  far more women, kids, and families than I'd ever seen in my 10+ years of going to shows. Comics were expanding, more people were checking them out, AWESOME.

And as awesome as this is, and in people finding their "in" to getting interested in comics (movies, tv shows, cosplay, etc) I felt like it might also be nice to have more frequent, casual shows in people's neighborhoods. Like Fluke, taking the idea of holding a smaller show, populated with local creators, and held in a local venue in the hopes that people who've not yet discovered the magic of comics might just wander into on a weekend afternoon.

So in other words ... what about having comics creators exhibiting their work in a bar??

Therefore I'm thrilled to announce the start of BMORE INTO COMICS, a series of local comics shows in/around Baltimore that I am currently organizing (harassing) local comics peeps and businesses into participating in.

 

 

The first one will be taking place Saturday, August 24th from 12 - 5:00 pm at Bad Decisions, an amazing bar in Fells Point which doubles in providing sophisticated, creative cocktails AND bacon. Yup, I didn't make that up. Sophisticated + bacon. The stellar line-up of creators will be:  Rafer Roberts, Danielle Corsetto, Melody Often, Howie Noeldechen, and Carolyn Belefski!

Here's the FB event page and click here to visit the website! (it's brand new, so pardon the emptiness). Tell your friends, bring your kids, and get ready to sidle up to a fantastic bar for a drink and some comics.

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]
[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

True Blood is True-ly Awful and I Love It

/

Lately a lot of people I've been trying to gossip about True Blood with are all "ugh, that show's gotten so bad" and "I just can't bear to watch anymore it's so awful"... "I hate myself just watching it" ....

WHAT.

It's ALWAYS been awful, that's why I LOVE it! I didn't know we could have a whole season of shirtless werewolves and people making out, but they've proved it possible again and again! And now this season, they only take 2 episodes to turn the Big Bad from being the worst dude ever for murdering Sookie's parents TO ... Sookie's new sex partner? Amazing.

Plus, how can you not love this guy --

Rutger Hauer materializing as a cross between Einstein and Betty White?? Even better than Kristy Swanson and Corey Feldman AND Andrew from Buffy on the vampire episode of Psych.

Also, Jessica bingeing on tween fairy blood - PERFECT. And it goes without saying, but -- PAM??

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Maine-iacal Vacay

/

Whew! Back from a whirlwind of vacations across states. What started off as an anniversary vacay in one of my favorite places, Rehoboth Beach, immediately led to Vacation #2, in Bar Harbor Maine. Now, since I'd only previously been exposed to Wintertime Maine in the past, it was refreshing to go and not need a parka or know how to walk on ice. Plus, y'know, it was gorgeous.

For once I remembered to bring my sketchbook along, and even did a wee bit of sketch-journaling. Here's an excerpt from my journal, regarding the disappointing whales that we never got to see (a wall of fog just happened to materialize every time we tried to go on the whale-watching cruise). Those jerks.

Since I also need to work on my figure drawing, I tried to snag a few body parts when no one was looking.

Oh well, at least Maine still carried the good stuff in its local store!

 

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]
[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Gods & Undergrads Book 3 News!

/

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!

 

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]
[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

It Girl Pin-Up

/

Recently I got to do a pin-up for It Girl and the Atomics, Round Two (here's Round One!) - the collected trade paperback by the stellar Jamie S. Rich. In stores this September!

After sketching out a couple of possible choices, I chose one with It Girl framing the picture.

I've recently switched from using a Pentel Brush Pen to a Silver Ultra Mini size 6 brush with India Ink, which so far has been an adventure. I love the skinny lines I can get with it, although so far it's taking me a lot longer to ink anything. I need to poke around and investigate what other brushes people are using with their ink to see if this really is the best one for me. Here's how the inks came out this time . . .

 

And the final colors!

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

It Girl Pin-Up

/

Recently I got to do a pin-up for It Girl and the Atomics, Round Two (here's Round One!) - the collected trade paperback by the stellar Jamie S. Rich. In stores this September!

After sketching out a couple of possible choices, I chose one with It Girl framing the picture.

I've recently switched from using a Pentel Brush Pen to a Silver Ultra Mini size 6 brush with India Ink, which so far has been an adventure. I love the skinny lines I can get with it, although so far it's taking me a lot longer to ink anything. I need to poke around and investigate what other brushes people are using with their ink to see if this really is the best one for me. Here's how the inks came out this time . . .

 

And the final colors!

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Small Boob Awards: Cobie Smulders

/

I used to love me some How I Met Your Mother. You guys remember when that show was funny? When as a viewer you could delight in the witty banter between friends in a bar and marvel at the time-bending plot devices they used just to tell a simple story? Before everything got dragged down into the swirling vortex of a terrible, terrible plot device, i.e. Ted, i.e. the entire premise for the show.

One of my favorite things about the show was Cobie Smulders's character Robin and her Debbie Gibson-era Canadian heritage. Back in the beginning, her being Canadian wasn't just something they'd throw in for shallow laughs, but slowly peppered into her daily behavior to make her cool girl news anchorwoman get taken down a few pegs and become progressively more human. I loved Robin's initial descent into dorkery. And even though lately I've been hate-watching the last season of the show on Netflix (because most episodes are pretty bad), I was delighted to find one bright spot in an episode about Robin.

The episode starts off with an older Robin apeing Ted's typical opener of addressing his future children with a story he's going to tell. Robin starts relaying a tale to HER future kids of how she found out she was pregnant, and then not pregnant, and as the episode continues, she receives the news that, in fact, she can never HAVE kids. Once she realizes this she addresses the kids from the beginning with a "and that's why you don't exist" and they fade away. I loved that even though this was an upsetting discovery for Robin, her character has always maintained a lack of desire to have kids or to be a mother in any capacity. And even in the small amount of time when she thought she was pregnant, she held steadfast to that opinion. It was refreshing to see them let her remain that way when I'm certain many other shows would've had her character become "miraculously" pregnant at some point.

So here's to Cobie Smulders, who I look forward to seeing cast in more ass-kicking roles as that of Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers. But hopefully with more screen time.

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Gods & Undergrads Recap - this week!

/
Hi guys! So I've got some news to share for my ol' Gods & Undergrads comic. You know how it's been plodding along, one page a week for a while now? Well all that is going to change! Starting (later) this week, I'll be posting multiple pages per week, all on the same day. I'm not sure which day that will be, per se, my schedule will have to dictate that. This is all ramping up in preparation of FINALLY FINALLY getting my third volume printed up, yippee! I'm aiming for a release date of Baltimore Comic Con/SPX-ish (i.e. September). It'll contain the last two chapters of Gods & Undergrads and it'll be all in black and white. Sorry about the lack of color, but I figured it was more important to get it done and out for now. AND if I ever do a Kickstarter project, you know I'll be tempted to make it about one massive colorful G&U book.SO in ramping up for this week's chunk of pages, I've created some one-page recaps for each chapter of the story so far. This is a way for people to start reading or catch up without having to slog through all the back pages. Not that there's anything wrong with slogging through the back pages, I just appreciate that some of you may not have the time for such things.

So here's the recap for the very first chapter of G&U, Book 1, Chapter 1! Chapters 2 and 3 will be up in the next few days!

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Home again, home again

/

Whew!

I think I'm done for a little while. And by done, I mean I won't be traveling to exotic, far-off lands every other weekend. Now it's time to relax and make COMICS again! Hooray! So, sorry for the delay, but since I rolled back into town this week, all my Bonnie/Gods & Undergrads updates are going to be a wee bit late this week. Or "fashionably late", as I prefer to call them.

Allow me to say a hearty hello to all of you who came by to visit me at TCAF, holy crapola what an amazing show that is. If only all comic shows were in libraries and all of them packed to the gills with amazing readers! So much comics love and excitement all over the place, I got really spoiled. Besides having a fun time catching up with my pals Tim Fish and Greg Lockard, I ALSO got to be part of an amazing podcast DINTERVIEW (dinner + interview, according to Becky Cloonan) with Paul Pope, Becky herself, Glyn Dillon, and Jimmy Aquino of Comics News Insider. Li'l ol' me, chilling with some serious comics heavy hitters, trying to keep my laugh from being a cackle and attempt to add something to the conversation. You can find that interview here, and Jimmy also posted a one-on-one interview you can find here!

 

Sigh. Such fun times! I'll be over here beaming, so in the meantime check out some sketches I did at the show:

 

 

 

Also, I created these little family seal drawings for some of my Gods & Undergrads characters. Once I clean these up a bit, I'll be selling them as prints.

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

TCAF This Weekend!

/
I'll be in the magical land of Toronto this weekend for TCAF, one of the most fun conventions I've ever had the privilege of going to! So for all you Toronto-rians out there, stop by and say hello! I'll be on the second floor, table 204, swathed by a TON of amazing creators, and tabling with Justin Hall (who's just been nominated for his work on No Straight Lines - you should vote for him!). Can't wait can't wait!

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]
[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Maximizing the Space

/

Ohhh it's table display time again! And this time, I fear, I'm a little squashed. Whereas I usually luxuriate my products across a six foot table space, I've got two conventions coming up (Stumptown and TCAF) where I fear I'll have to contain my madness to just three feet.

Thus, it's time for some planning. I start out by drawing a 3' long (half of an average 6' table space) x 2' deep space on the floor with some easily removable tape (you can also do this on a large enough table, if the person you live with doesn't violently object). Sometimes I fold up the tablecloth I plan on using and place it inside, to see if it clashes terribly with my books. But if I've used the same table cloth consistently without any problems (besides the occasional ink stain), I can skip using it.

Then comes the tricky part. It's not just about fitting everything into the space as you lay it on a table ...

 

But making sure to create levels of height in order to stagger appearance, catch the eye, and also - yeah - cram in as much stuff as possible.

 

And since I have a lot of books, this gets a little crowded. I am a comics creator who has not one, but THREE ongoing series (Bonnie N. Collide, Gods & Undergrads, Lipstick & Malice), as well as autobiographical short stories (Boobage, Go For the Eyes, Mall Model, Middle School), and a new graphic novel (Glitter Kiss), I'm usually at a loss for how to compile and present everything. Do I age off some of my stories and stop bringing them along? Or do I condense them into cute packages?

Lately I've just been doing the latter, because I enjoy dabbling in packaging. But I've found presenting them in their packaging makes people reluctant to pick them up and unwrap them. So, the convenience of bundling them together becomes moot as I end up separating them anyway in order for people to flip through them.

What worries me the most about my gaggle of books, prints, cuffs, is that it doesn't seem very cohesive when viewed in a cluster like this. I can only do so much with uniform price stickers and labels. Plus there is something to be said for a good dosage of negative space.

Fellow comic exhibitors/craters/viewers of exhibit tables out there, what are you doing to conquer this problem? What do you like to see in a table? I think for now I'm going to keep incorporating some height (courtesy of these fine crates from Jo-Ann's) and fretting a little while longer.

 

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Kick-Ass Women: Noomi Rapace

/

No, I've seen neither version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I'm not sure I ever will. Even though I've heard loads of great things about the character of Lisbeth and Steig Larsson's trilogy in general. BUT luckily I don't have to see the original Swedish film in order to check out Noomi Rapace.

First she showed up in Game of Shadows, holding her own against scene chewing Robert Downey Jr. and the loveably scruffy Jude Law, and THEN as amazingly ripped Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus. And though I've only seen her in two things, there's something about her cool, calm gaze that easily morphs into whatever she wants to be at that moment - serene, inquisitive, suspicious, dangerous. And with all that muscular, lithe power stored in her frame, you know there's nothing her eyes will tell you that her fists can't deliver. I can't wait to see her in more movies in general, and more action movies in particular.

And I'm not sure if this is true or not, but IMDB is telling me that one of her favorite scenes was when Patricia Arquette beat the snot out of James Gandolfini in True Romance (which I mentioned in my comic Go For The Eyes as one that particularly moved me as well). Swoon!

Click here to check out the other Kick Ass Women I've mentioned so far!

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Small Boob Awards: Claire Danes

/

I feel like Claire and I are spiritually connected. Sure, she's immensely cooler and more successful, but we're the same age and both of us have small boobs. That's enough to bind us, right? When My So-Called Life was on TV it was so eerily close to what I was feeling and wanting to feel at the time. But in that paradoxical way, as it is when you're a teen, I loved and admired and hated it all at the same time. There were times when it was a bit too close for comfort, and then there were times when I was outraged my life wasn't as exciting as the adventures Rayanne was always dragging Angela into.

Claire was also Juliet when I was 16 and coming down from a Shakespeare high (though I was more into the 1968 film), Mirabelle in the movie version of Shopgirl, the book of which I adored, and in a zillion other things for which I give her mad props.

Anyhoo. Claire is immensely talented and I could listen to her ugly cry any day. Three cheers for Homeland!

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Three More Gods

/

As promised, here are the three latest editions to my Greek Gods series!

Hera's always a bit of a tough cookie to interpret. Wife of Zeus, mother of Hephaestus and Ares, perpetual scorned wife. Personally, I like to think of her as a dangerous multi-tasker. Sort of the ultimate conservative, political wife with the no-good but powerful husband. She's always painted (a bit unfairly) as nothing but a vengeful, jealous goddess out to punish every pretty little nymph this side of Olympus. But Hera, she's got her own thing going. She has the whole of Mount Olympus to run!

And now for her kids!

Poor Hephaestus. Judged from the start to be weak and useless, Hephaestus has proven his worth a million times over any other god on Olympus by keeping them stocked in armor and lightning bolts. Dude can make ANYTHING. Which is why, I guess as a reward, Zeus hooked him up with Aphrodite. Way to pay him a backhanded compliment, Zeus.

Because of course, here's who Aphrodite cheats on Hephaestus with ...

His brother Ares! Because what would the goddess of love be without the goddess of war? Ares has got to be the ultimate favorite child of a goddess who's constantly undermined by her husband - big, brash, ridiculously impulsive, destructive. Does it matter that he doesn't really think before he acts?

I can't wait to add more gods and goddesses! Let me know who you guys would like to see next.

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Goddess Transition

/

In my series of Greek God prints, while slowly adding more gods/goddesses, I decided I also wanted to update my Artemis print.

I always picture Artemis as an athletic redhead with brown skin traipsing through the underbrush. But something about this drawing (which I did years ago) always bugged me - she looked too friendly, her clothes were too bright, I dunno. Not to mention the fact that I suck at drawing shoes.

 

Here's the updated, broodier, more covert version. I like her much better. Like she's a secret ops goddess of the forest.

If you want to check out these or any of my other prints, check out my Etsy Shop for the latest and greatest. More gods and goddesses coming soon! (probably later today ...)

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]

Call for Commissions!

/

Now that show season is in full swing, I get to do one of the things I like best - commission sketches!

Now, I normally just do them at shows as people come up and order them from me, but this year I wanted to add another level. My next show coming up is the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon (actually, my NEXT show is CGS Supershow this coming weekend, but I don't have enough time to book commissions before that one. :( However, if you're GOING to Supershow, I will definitely still be doing commissions at the show!)

So if you're going to Stumptown this year and would like a commission from me, why not order one in advance? That way you can just swing on by and pick up your piece, rather than waiting and checking back and seeing if I've finally gotten around to it yet. The commissions will be on 5" x 7" Bristol Board, and they'll be $10 for pencil, $15 for ink.

Here's what a typical pencil sketch from me would look like ...

** The photo quality of these isn't great since I took them at shows with my phone. Basically, pencil = blue pencil.

And here's what an inked/graytoned one would look like ...

 

Here's the handy dandy Paypal button to order. Simply include a note with what you want the sketch to be, or you can always send me an email at lipstickisspress at gmail dot com.

Commission Sketch

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-4]

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-7]