George Vega - Alien

2017.11.19 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

When I am looking for artists, I always look over their work to help decide if I want to include them or what kind of sketch they could provide.. George decided to draw the Xenomorph from the Alien series, a great choice...

George had a book with some sketch cards, and this Captain marvel card pulled me in. 

2015 Upperdeck Marvel Retro Fleer set

George is an illustrator and graphic designer from the New Jersey area. He has provided sketch cards for Upper Deck Firefly the Verse, Alien, Marvel Gems, Marvel Doctor Strange, Marvel Masterpieces, Alien Anthology

Rick Leonardi - Batgirl

2017.11.19 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Rick Leonardi worked on various series for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, including Cloak and Dagger, the Uncanny X-Men, the New Mutants, Spider-Man 2099, Nightwing, Batgirl, Green Lantern versus Aliens and Superman. His first published work was for Marvel on Thor #303 (1981)

Leonardi has also worked on the feature film tie-in comics for Star Wars: General Grievous and Superman Returns Prequel #3

He is also co-credited with development of the black and white Spider-Man costume, worn during the 1984 Secret Wars mini-series, with Mike Zeck. With Tom DeFlaco, they created the Rose in The Amazing Spider-Man #253 (1984). With Chris Claremont, they introduced the country of Genosha in Uncanny X-Men #235 (1988)

Christian Mack - Pennywise

2017.11.19 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Christian Mack is a recent graduate of the Kubert School..

Link

Marat Mychaels - Moon Knight

2017.11.19 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Marat Mychaels is a freelance writer-artist having worked on Brigade, Grimm Fairy Tales, Notti & Nyce, Wonderland, Deadpool, Hawk & Dove, the Phantom...

Mychaels is the creator of the character Demonslayer. Jaclyn is pushed off a  mountain in Tibet and survives emerging as a formidable warrior for humanity against a demon horde. Her fiance, presumes Jaclyn is dead, so he cuts a deal with the devil and is transformed into a demon...

Mychaels drew Moon Knight for me, while everyone else was requesting Deadpool sketches.. I did not have a first day cover I felt was appropriate for Deadpool sketch, so we went with Moonknight..

Scott Koblish - Lady Jane

2017.11.18 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Scott Koblish is an artist and musician. He has worked for Marvel and DC Comics on various titles including Deadpool, Wolverine, Excalibur, Doom 2099, Punisher, GI joe, Iron Man, Disney Adventures, Wonder Woman, Brave and the Bold....

Scott chose to draw Lady Jaye, a member of the GI Joe: A Real American Hero toy line, comic and cartoon series. The character was original created for the GI Joe cartoon series produced by Marvel Productions in 1984. Her role on the team is covert operations specialist.

When I looked-up Scott's information I was surprised to find he is a singer-songwriter. Scott Koblish blog to listen to his music..

Michale Grassia - Merry Christmas

2017.11.19 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Merry Christmas to all!

Jerry Ordway

2017.11.18 NJ Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Although I have been a fan of Superman since I was small, I do not have many Superman sketches. When I had the chance to meet Jerry Ordway, I had to jump at the opportunity. I expected to wait, so I tried to get an early spot on his line.

Ordway was more than generous with his time, with each fan that requested a sketch. Although this made the wait fairly long, it was understandable as you knew when your turn came, he would take his time with you as well. He was very pleasant and drew sketches that went well beyond the expected Superman requests...

Jerry Ordway is a writer, penciller, inker and painter. His work includes DC Comics Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), Superman titles (1986-1993) the Captain Marvel graphic novel The Power of Shazam! (1994) and the ongoing monthly Captain marvel series (1995-1999)

Ordway has also provided cover and art for Warp Graphics, AC Comics, Charlton Comics, paragon Publications, Eclipse Comics, Image Comics (Wildstar), First Comics (Grimjack) as well as Marvel comics Fantastic Four, The Avengers and US Agent.

Ordway received the Inkpot Award in 1994, and the Inkwell Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award in 2017

Stan Sakai - Usagi Yojimbo

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct
Year of the Rabbit first day

Stan Sakai started his comic career through lettering (Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragon's and Mark Evanier) and illustrating The Adventures of Nilson Grounthumper and Hermy, which was influenced by Groo

Usagi Yojimbo, follows the story of Minamoto Usagi, a samurai rabbit living in the late-sixteenth century Japan, was first published in 1984 and has continued through 31 volumes. Space Usagi is a futuristic look at the descendants of Minamoto. Usagi Yojimbo has crossed over into several other comic storylines, notably the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Sakai has illustrated  the limited series book 47 Ronin.

The Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles presented an exhibit "Year of the Rabbit: Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo" July - October 2011.

Sakai has won numerous awards for this work including: Parent's Choice Awards, Inkpot awards, Eisner Awards, Harvey Awards and many others...

Dave Bennett Cachetoons
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When Sakai saw me hand him the first day cover, he was well aware of them. He mentioned his good friend was Dave Bennett, who produces a series called Cachetoons. Bennett list himself as a cartoonist by day...philatelist by choice.

Bennett and his dad produced their first cachet for the 1987 Wildlife stamp issue

Arthur Suydam - Zombie Deadpool

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct

Arthur Suydam is the Marvel Zombie artist... His first published work appeared in Creepy magazine from Warren Publishing.

His work would appear in many publications including House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Epic Illustrated, National Lampoon, Penthouse Comix

Work as a penciller, inker and colorist in comic books include Batman, Conan, Tarzan, Predator, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight and other titles..

As a cover artist Suydam has contributed to Deadpool, Marvel Zombies, Dead Days, Batman, Wolverine, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Ghost rider, Thor, Spider Girl, Black Panther, Army of Darkness, Red Sonja and many others

Marvel Zombies was first created by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips in 2005. The success of the storyline would continue on through several series, with Suydam taking on the role of cover artist for most of the issues.

Suydam's creator-owned stories include Mudwogs an Mudwogs II, which appeared in Heavy Metal magazine. 

Howard Chaykin - Blackhawk

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct

Howard Chaykin, started his career as an assistant to Gil Kane. By 1970 he began publishing his own art under the pseudonym Eric Pave. He would move on to working with Wally Wood and Neal Adams. It was Adams who introduced Chaykin to the editors at DC Comics, who gave him single page fillers.

Chaykin's first major work for Dc was a 23-page story in Sword and Sorcery #1 with writer Denny O'Neil. After working on several titles, He would pencil stories for Marvel featuring his own creation Dominic fortune, as well as Cody Starbuck for the independent Star Reach comic anthology comic.

1976 Chaykin landed the job of penciling Roy Thomas' adaptation of Marvel Comics Star Wars. He would also pencil and/or write stories for Micronauts, American Flagg, The Shadow, Black Kiss, Twilight (with artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez), Cyberella, American Century, Blackhawk, Challengers of the Unknown, Phantom Eagle and many other titles...

Chaykin was one of the writers for the 1990 television series The Flash, and the 2001 first season of Mutant X

Inkpot Award 1977

Joesph Inga - Liberty Belle

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct

Joe Inga is a fireman from New York, who loves to paint and draw with a focus on fan art and items from the 80s and 90s...

I was looking for an artist to draw the 1940s character Liberty Belle, for a Liberty Bell first day cover. When I passed Joe's table at TerrifiCon, I was impressed with his cartoon style. As a fan of the older style drawings techniques, the clean line and sometimes exaggerated features, I knew Joe could provide the sketch...

Liberty Belle was Libby Lawrence, whose powers of speed, strength and stamina were associated with the ringing of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Created by Don Cameron and Chuck Winter, Liberty Belle's exploits took place during World War II, appearing in Boy Commandos and Star Spangled Comics.

Liberty Belle would become a founding member of the All-Star Squadron, in 1981, written by Roy Thomas

DeviantArt

Tom Lyle - Airboy

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct

Tom Lyle became a fan favorite working on Starman for DC Comics and the first Robin limited series, with Chuck Dixon.  Lyle is credited with co-creating the third Electrocutioner, with Dixon for Detective Comics in 1992. Other titles for DC include Green Lantern, Batman, Teen Titans

Lyle has also penciled issues for The Comet for Impact Comics; Blood of Dracula for Apple Comics

For Marvel he created the character Annex, for The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27, with Jack C Harris. Lyle also created the original blue hoodie and red spandex costume worn by the Scarlet Spider. Other titles for Marvel include Punisher, Daredevil, X-Men, Iron man and Warlock

My goal in meeting Lyle was to obtain an Airboy sketch on a Snoopy first day cover. Of course Snoopy is featured in his World War I pilot guise getting ready to fight the Red Baron. Lyle provided pencils for The Air Fighters Meet Sgt. Strike Special (1988), Airboy (1986) Airboy Archive (2014) 

Airboy is an aviator hero, originally published by Hillman Periodicals, 1942. The character was created by writers Charles Biro and Dick Wood and artist Al Camy. The character returned to the comics during the 1980s written by Chuck Dixon for Eclipse Comics.

The original Airboy was assisted by a Franciscan monk Brother Francis Martier, who created a maneuverable prototype airplane that can flap it's wings like a bird. Airbus named the plane Birdie, and together they assisted the Allied Forces during the war. Lyle made it a point to include Birdie in the sketch...

Dave Fowler - Frankenstein

2017.04.29 East Coast Comic Con, Secaucus, NJ

Dave Fowler is a freelance and sketch card artist. He started his art journey at a young age, but put down his pencil for other adventures. After two decades, his inspiration returned and his career revived. Since then he has produced sketch cards for Topps, Walking Dead, Star Wars, Upper Deck, Unstoppable Cards and Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2...