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...

Baseball

As the Baseball World Series is under way, I thought I would continue the baseball theme with this beautiful sketch. Another eBay purchase, I have no information about the artist except the back of the envelope has the letters HRAS, and the signature on the front appears to be VTLC 89....

Looks like the Dodgers-Astros matchup is a good one, expect a fun series.

Baseball - Playoffs!!!

Baseball season is winding own for the year as the last round of the playoffs take place. The LA Dodgers are going to the series and the Yankees and Astros are playing tonight to find out who gets to play the Dodgers.

Since I am originally from Brooklyn, I would love to see a Yankee-Dodger World Series. The last time these two team meet was in 1981, with the Dodgers taking the title. These two have met in 11 World Series. Enjoying the season...

I picked up the above cover from an e-bay purchase, so I have no information on the artist. It is a hand drawn sketch of Andre Dawson, with the National Sports Collectors pictorial postmark from 1983. the cover is signed by Dawson, who played for the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins...

Kristen Gudsnuk - Henchgirl

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct

"Made it Ma! Top of the World!"

Kristen Gudsnuk is the creator of Henchgirl. The story of Mary Posa who is a member of the butterfly gang. The comic was originally published by Scout Comics (2015-2016) and ended the story line with issue #11. A trade was released by Dark Horse Comics in 2017.

I had several opportunities at previous shows to meet Kristen, but I was never able to fully connect with her. At TerrifiCon, I wanted to make sure I got the chance to request a sketch. James Cagney is an actor I grew up watching, because of my parents. Whenever one of his movies was on TV, we were watching it. An all around performer, Cagney was known for his many gangster roles, and I figured Henchgirl was the perfect fit.  It turns out that Kristen is a big fan of Cagney and portrayed Henchgirl in the Cagney role of Cody Jarrett in White Heat.  At the end of the movie, Jarrett is trapped by the police and decides to fight rather than surrender. The police fire tear gas into the building and gunfight ensues. Jarrett climbs to the top of the building where he is shot. He takes one last stand and yells "Made it Ma, Top of the World".

In her sketch Gudnsuk as Mary re-enacting the scene with her mother, the superhero Flame Girl looking on.

Kristen claims in an interview on Bleeding Cool, that her inspirations are Bruce Tim's animated DC universe, sitcom humor, Sailor Moon, Scott Pilgrim and her own life. She told me that was also was a fan of James Cagney, having written a school paper about his movies.

Ron Lim - Silver Surfer

2017.08.19 TerrifiCon, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Ct

Ron Lim's interest in comics began as a child, reading Batman and the Fantastic Four.

His first published work was on the in dependent title Ex-Mutants, from 1986-1988. He would follow this with work for Marvel Comics, given the job of penciling Silver Surfer, from 1988-1994. Lim also penciled most of the Infinity trilogy (Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade).

Lim would pencil Thanos, Captain America, Dragon Lines, X-Men 2099, spider-Man Unlimited, Sovereign Seven J2, Badger, Flash, Green Lantern, Stormwatch....

Lim has also penciled Sonic the Hedgehog for Archie Comics and Metallix for Future Comics.

Currently he is working with the comic adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures..

Ron Lim Art