Matthew J Fletcher - Winged Monkey

2013.10.11 Comic Con, NYC

Prior to attending Comic Con, I had attended an Imax, 3D showing of the Wizard of Oz in celebration of the movie's 75th anniversary. The movie was in theaters for only 1 week. Even though I could probably recite much of the dialog along with the movie, I had to go see it on the big screen. Since it was not intended for 3D, there were no cheesy effects like throwing items at the screen. However the 3D helped bring out depth in many of the scenes especially in Munchkin Land, wher you could clearly see many of the Munchkin faces (after all these years I learned they used children to help fill in the crowds).

I had wanted to get at least one winged monkey sketch and Matthew J Fletcher did an excellent job on the Year of the Monkey FDC. Fletcher is currently the feature artist on Red Stylo Media's graphic novel the 7th Voyage... Fletcher has also illustrated The House of Montressor as part of the Poe Twisted Anthology, contributed sketch cards for Perna Studio's Classic Mythology card set and has been featured in Thunk Magazine...

Wizard of Oz FDC  1990.03.23 Hollywood, Ca

My lino-block print cachet of Dorothy (Judy Garland)

Wizard of Oz Day 1994.09.01 Chesterton, In - commemorative cancel

singed by Ray Bolger the Scarecrow of Oz

I thought the cover would look better if the yellow-brick road in the cancel were yellow, and I extended the design across the cover

Emerald City Station 2002.06.22 Aberdeen, SD - commemorative cancel

The Wizard of Oz is very popular as commemorative cancels exist for festivals held all across the country.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah!

Andy Price - Applejack: My Little Pony

2013.10.11 NY Comic Con, NYC

"C'mon, Ponies! Move it! You freakin' glue factories!

I got 20 bits ridin' on this!"

Andy Price is currently working for IDW on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, with writer Katie Cook.

Price has also donw license work for DC Comics, Marvel comics, Boom Studios, Innovation Comics (penciller for Quantum Leap), Slave Labor Graphics' Haunted Mansion (writer, penciler, inker) and Rittenhouse Archives,

 and WordGirl

Price is heavily influenced by comic book artists such as Don Newton (DC Comics: Batman, Captain Marvel and Aquaman in the 70s and 80s) and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (DC Comics: Superman and Wonder Woman). Price has an unhealthy love for Batman and an obsession with Nightmare Before Christmas..

My Little Pony was created by Bonnie Zacherle, developed by Hasbro and is marketed to girls. Starting as a line of toy ponies in 1983, the ponies feature colorful bodies, manes and a unique symbol on their flank. The Ponies were featured in their first animated special in 1984 titled My Little Pony and later retitled as Rescue At Midnight Garden. In 2012 IDW published the first Pony comic Friendship is Magic.

Price drew a very funny Applejack, a hard working earth pony in charge of family's apple orchard, watching the horse race on the stamp and cheering them on...

David G Hardy - Bride of Frankenstein

2013.11.03 Jersey Shore Comic Show, Forked River, NJ

I honestly do not remember who told me about David G Hardy, either Karl or Don who assist at the Hospice shows, about this fantastic artist. The first time David attended the Hospice show was the only one I had missed in several years. Seeing David's name on the Jersey Shore list, was the reason I made the trip. I had viewed his work on his site, which were beautifully rendered sketches of characters from old movies, Boris Karloff, Ingrid Berman, Elizabeth Montgomery and Ernest Borgnine as members of the Fantastic Four, and others. When I finally had the opportunity to meet David and his wife, and view the collection of drawings I was very impressed with the wide range of work and their friendliness...

I had picked up several first day covers that featured composers and I already picked up a sketch of King Kong on one of the covers. I had been looking for someone who could do justice to the Bride of Frankenstein (1935) beautifully portrayed by Elsa Lanchester, on the Franz Waxman FDC. Waxman is best known for the music he composed for the movie industry, including Rear Window, Rebecca, The Spirit of St Louis, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sunset Boulevard, Tara Bulba, The Bride of Frankenstein and others (all nominated for the American Film Institute's list of greatest film scores)...

David proceeded to produce a beautiful pencil sketch, which captures Elsa's beauty. I could not be happier with the final results...

Hardy shared on his Facebook page that arrangements were made with the Boris Karloff Estate and Karloff Enterprises to work on several projects. Congratulations on a great achievement...

A nice writeup of meeting David G Hardy from Sabrina at Runnin' Down a Dream...

Janet K. Lee - Return of the Dapper Men

2013.10.11 Comic Con, NYC

Janet K. Lee has worked as a commercial artist, who is self-taught. She developed a layered art style soon after her son was born because it was portable and dried before a toddler could get his hands on it. After achieving critical acclaim as a gallery artist, Lee made her foray into illustration with the story "Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome", written by Alethea Kontis...

The Return of the Dapper Men, by Jim McCann and Janet Lee is a tale of a world between time, where children have played for so long it has become work. All the clocks have stopped at the same time. 314 dapper-looking gentlemen, with Bowler hats, rain down from the sky and set off to start the world again. Ayden, the only boy to still ask questions, Zoe, the robot girl all other machine hold dear and the Dapper Man "41" must discover what happened to make time stop...

I enjoy the concept of the story and I found Lee's style to be a fascinating blend of children's story and comic book art. I found myself going through the pages looking at the pictures and then going back and reading the story...

• The story won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album - new -  2011
• Nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens - 2011
• Nominated for an Eisner for Best Publication Design - 2011
• Nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Writer, Jim McCann - 2011
• Nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art), Janet Lee - 2011

When I approached Ms. Lee and presented my idea of a Daper Man in Uncle Sam's hat, instead of the bowler they usually wear, her response was "Uncle Sam is a Dapper Man"...  

David T. Wenzel - Gandalf the Grey

2013.10.11 Comic Con, NYC

David T. Wenzel's early career path led him to work at an advertising agency, followed by pencilling comic books. He won an Eagle Award in 1979 for Best Continued Story for an Avengers story arc.

Wenzel moved to illustrating children's literature in the 1980s when he illustrated Robb Walsh's Kingdom of the Dwarfs for Centaur Books. Wenzel would then provide the fully painted art for The Hobbit: An Illustrated Edition of the Fantasy Classic, written by Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming, published by Eclipse Comics, 1989. The collection was re-published in 1990 by Ballantine Books and is considered one of the most successful graphic format adaptations. Del Rey Books re-published the collection in 2001...

Wenzel with writer Douglas Wheeler adapted some of the Brothers Grimm's fairytales for NBM in 1995. In other publications, Wenzel has worked with writer Kurt Busiek on The Wizard's Tale (1998), with writer Robert L. May's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Grosset and Dunlap, 2001), Max Lucado's A Hat for Ivan (Crossway Books, 2004), the Little Bear series, under the direction of Maurice Sendak (Harper Festival, 2003-2004)....

Although the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were English Literature, I used the American Libraries FDC for this sketch because of the Libraries theme... I did not have any covers that I could otherwise relate to this fantastic sketch...

July 1998 the UK Post (Royal Mail) issued a series of stamps titled Magical Worlds, one of these issues featured Bilbo Baggins and Smaug from the Hobbit... Following the release of the movie, New Zealand Post Office issued a series of stamps in 2012 featuring scenes from the movie..

In 2004 the Royal Mail issued a series of stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings. New Zealand would also commemorate the story with issues in 2001 for the Fellowship of the Ring, 2002 The Two Towers, 2003 Return of the King and 2004 New Zealand Landscapes featuring scenes from the movie showing the beautiful New Zealand countryside...

JJR Tolkien was no stranger to stamps. Every Christmas from 1920-1942, his children would receive a letter bearing a stamp from the North Pole. The letter from Father Christmas would contain colorful drawings and tales of Father Christmas' travels and adventures. The envelope contained North Pole stamps and postmarks drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien. these letters would be collect by his d=children and published posthumously in 1976...

Scott Wegener - Atomic Robo

2013.10.12 Comic Con, NYC

Atomic Robo's adventures come from the creative team of Scott Wegener and Brian Clevinger. Starting as a 6-issue limited series by Red 5 Comics in 2007, Atomic Robo was nominated for a 2008 Eisner Award in the Best Limited Series category. Following the first series, Atomic Robo's adventures have continued...

Atomic Robo is a robot that possesses automatic intelligence, created by Nikola Tesla in 1923. Now a member of Tesladyne Industries Atomic Robo explores the fringes of scientific inquiry, responding to the paranormal and supernatural emergencies... One of my favorite story lines was issued in volume 7, in the aftermath of World War II Robo joins with a band of female mercenaries who use rocket-packs to stop a rogue japanese super-science counter-attack of America...

There are times when the opportunity dose not present itself for me to obtain a sketch on a FDC. Two such incidents happened this weekend. Fortunately I was able to get a couple of sketches of 2 other high flying characters...

Royden Lepp - Jet from the comic Rust

Another great title from Archaia - Rust, written and drawn by Royden Lepp is about a mysterious boy and a jet pack, involved in a World War where steampunk and robots are the technology used to fight the battles...

Geof Darrow - Rusty the Boy Robot

I was able to pick up thsi great sketch of Rusty from Darrow's series The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. Written in 1995 by Frank Miller and drawn by Darrow, the Dark Horse series was adapted into an animated TV series (1999-2001) which uses a different plot than that used in the comic... The animated series brought more depth to the characters back-story of Rusty as a replacement for the Big Guy, the robot champion of Earth, which is piloted by Lt. Dwayne Hunter. Rusty's inexperience requires guidance from Hunter and the Big Guy...

I picked up another sketch from Darrow while at the show, which is posted in Matt's Collection...

Three different characters with some similarity all bring me delight

Ramona Fradon - Aquaman

2013.10.11 NY Comic Con, NYC

When I found out Ramona Fradon was going to be at comic con, I made it a point to get a sketch from this matriarch of comics. Fradon, known for her work with Aquaman, is co-creator of Metamorpho.  Starting her career in 1950, Fradon landed her first assignment with DC Comics on the title Shining Knight, followed by drawing backup stories in Adventure Comics featuring Aquaman. Fradon is also credited with co-creating Aqualad. Fradon would also contribute art for Superman, Batman, House of Mystery, Gang Busters, Freedom Fighters and Plastic Man.  Fradon also put time in at Marvel comics on Fantastic Four and Girl Comics.

In 1980, Fradon took over the daily comic strip Brenda Starr, from Dale Messick continuing of the strip for 15 years... Brenda Starr was commemorated as part of the 1995 Comic Strip Classics issue

Fradon was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 1999.

I am always amazed that more attendees were not flocking to her table. They don't know what they are missing...

Amy Reeder - Rocket Girl

2013.10.11 NY Comic Con, NYC

Just got back from Comic Con and had a great time (I will be back there tomorrow helping to promote the Barnabas Hospice). My first post from the show features Rocket Girl from Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare. Getting this sketch was special, not juts because I enjoy stories about people with jet packs, but I had received my copy of Rocket Girl #1 on Wednesday as a supporter through Kickstarter. I have enjoyed backing a few successful projects, it is fun watching them take form.

Rocket Girl was funded June 7, 2013 and posted as a high-flying adventure comic by artist Reeder and writer Montclare. DaYoung Johansson, a 15 year-old cop from the future goes back in time (to 1986) to save the world... I look forward to the next issue.

Amy Reeder has previously worked on Fool's Gold, Madame Xanadu and Batwoman.  Brandon Montclare has written for Marvel's Fear Itself - Fantastic Four, Haunted Tank, Batman, Mystery in Space and many other titles. Together Reeder and Montclare produced Halloween Eve published through Image...

The stamp used on this cover features the Wright Brothers first flight commemorated as part of the Celebrate the Century issues of 1998. Otto Lillenthal made the first glider flight in 1895, in germany. Octave Chanute made the first flight with a hang glider in 1896, in America, and the Wright Brothers followed with powered flight by 1904.  I liked the idea of combining the beginnings of flight with a futuristic concept of the flight suit...

It is always a pleasure to see many of the artists and writers I have meet over the years at the conventions, Paul Castiglia and Fernando Ruiz at the Archie booth, Richard Clark, Erica Schultz and her husband. I was able to get Erica's M3 second issue with cover by Bill Sienkiewcz signed by Sienkiewicz.  Paris Cullins, Joe Staton, Joe Endres and Jesus Marquez, Jason Quinones, all who have provided me with great sketches in the past.

Ian Glaubinger - Mars Attacks Again !!

2013.04.06 Comic Geek Speak Supershow, Reading, Pa

Project Mercury - Alan Shepard FDC

Another gem from Ian....

Andrew Charipar - Mars Attacks Again!

2013.04.06 Comic Geek Speak Supershow, Reading, Pa

Andrew Charipar, founder of Misfit Corner Press, creator of the sci-fi drama comic Tales From the Cornerstone, co-creator of the sci-fi military comic Agents of C.O.L.T.  For Action Labs, Charipar worked on Glob World...

Charipar has been inspired by many artists, and found his passion for art from X-Men Giant Annual #9 with art by Art Adams.

Jan M. Velazquez - The Mummy

2011.06.18 Wizard Comic Con, Philadelphia, Pa

Jan M. Velazquez is a artist working with Inkbot.net on the comics The Blue Bullet, The Devil Dies Different, Crying Rainbows, Genesis and Zomboy...

Boris Karloff brought the Mummy to life in 1932 for Universal Pictures, with additional Mummy titles being produced The Mummy's Hand 1940, The Mummy's Tomb 1942, The Mummy's Ghost 1944, The Mummy's Curse 1944, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy 1955...

The Mummy would rise again as a series of movies in 1999 with The Mummy, The Mummy Returns 2001, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 2001, as well as an animated series...

The Living Mummy would walk through the pages of Marvel comics in 1973...

The Mummy Strikes, 1943, was the fourteenth adventure in the Superman animated shorts from Famous Studios...

Rich Torrey - Hartland

Rich Torrey - Hartland 1989

Another sketch on envelope that is not a first day cover. when I started collecting sketches I would send out post card size stock with my sketch requests. Rich Torrey was drawing a comic strip called Hartland. The sketch on card and envelope came long after I had sent the requests. The sketch on the envelope says "What Took You So Long?" the enclosed letter explains...

Very sorry in the delay in getting this to you. I spent the spring fighting with the syndicate, trying to save the strip from an untimely death. To no avail, King Features canceled it June 18th! They also delayed my mail and I'm just getting this now. Better late than never I guess. Here's the requested sketch, and I hope you enjoy it!

Best wishes.....

Torrey has been an author, illustrator and cartoonist, working for Highlights Magazine, KidCity (Sesame Street publication) and Inside Sports.. Besides Hartland, Torrey drew the syndicated strip Pete and Clete and currently works on children's books for Random House, Simon & Shuster, Golden Books, McGraw-Hill, Grolier/Scholastic, Harper Collins, and Innovative Kids

Torrey's dad is Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Torrey (NY Islanders - 4 Stanley Cups)

Mike Mongello - Adam Strange

Mike Mongello - Adam Strange 2010.10.02 Wizard-Big Apple Comic Con, NYC

Mike Monge is a freelance artist, illustrator currently writing and illustrating Jungle Women vs Dracula an Titans: Icons of Mystery through Supermonge Graphics.

Adam Strange was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, 1958 appearing in DC Showcase #17. Strange is an archeologist suddenly transported from Peru to the planet Rann by a Zeta Beam. There he becomes defender of the planet, fighting monsters with a space suit fitted with a jet pack for sustained flight and interstellar travel and ray-guns.

Adam Strange has been a member of the Justice League, R.E.B.E.L.S. and Seven Soldiers of Victory and has appeared in Mystery In Space, Strange Adventures and his self titled book...

Adam Strange is drawn on a World Columbian Stamp Expo cover with commemorative cancel for Space Day May 1992...