Jack Mandrake - Captain America

2016.07.09 Garden State Comic Fest, Morristown, NJ

Jack Mandrake, is a comic artist on the rise.. The son of Tom Mandrake and Jan Duursema, brother of Sian Mandrake.. Jack attended his first comic convention as an artist, getting a feel for the family business..

Jack is currently in school to help fine tune his artistic skills. I feel fortunate to be in possession of Jack's first convention commission, Captain America.

Chris Faccone - Goamla "Savage Conquest"

2013.03.30 Asbury Park Comic Con, Asbury Park, NJ

Goamla "I Want Your for Savage Conquest!"

Chris Faccone's style of art is influenced from a mixture of Bruce Timm, Jack Kirby, Dan DeCarlo and Frank Frazetta. Faccone contributes to the card art for Zoloworld and H8 Club Designs' "Warlords and Warriors"

The Barbarian Brothers' Savage Conquest  is a barbarian themed comic book.There is some great art, figures and comic pages on the Savage Conquest website. You can definitely see the Kirby influence in many of the drawings. I also see elements of He-Man, Conan, Sonja and others that dwell in the world of barbarian mysticism...

Faccone has also been a professional and award winning tattoo artist...

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"...  

Nikkol Jelenic - Power Girl

2012.11.11 Albany Comic Con, Albany, NY "I Want You!"

When I attended the Albany show, I had the idea of getting an Uncle Sam sketch. It was after all Veterans Day and I was coming from Troy, NY (the home of Uncle Sam) after I picked up my eldest son Mike, who attends RPI in Troy, just across the Hudson from Albany.

When I approached Nikkol Jelenic's table it was not for an Uncle Sam sketch, since most her work seemed to focus on women and vampires. After a brief discussion about what I was looking for Nikkol suggested Supergirl or Power Girl, since they both wore red, white and blue. I agreed to a Power Girl sketch and handed over an appropriate Marilyn Monroe FDC. When I picked up the cover I was greatly impressed, Power Girl was wearing Uncle Sam's hat and gesturing like the old man himself! More than I expected.

I also picked up Nikkol's book from PLB Comics - The Art of Nikkol Jelenic which features several short stories and variant cover Nikkol has done for PLB - Vegas, Baby, Vegas, (written by Josh Shockley), Fatal Fortune (written by Josh Shockley) and A Tale of Autumn (written by James Dufendach) and Voodoo Child (written by Josh Shockley).

From the back page: "As far as a medium of entertainment, comic books are one of my most favorite to indulge in. Being both a fan and creator, I have taken what I love in the writing and art from the books I collect and allowed it to shape my own work...."

Uncle Sam (U.S.) came into use during the War of 1812 and is believed to be taken from Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, NY, who provided supplies to the soldiers. Wilson’s packages had the initials E.A. – U.S., where the E.A. stood for Elbert Anderson the contractor for the shipment, the U.S. stood for the United States. However it is said that soldiers would started saying the packages came from Uncle Sam. In the 1850’s the term Uncle Sam had taken more meaning towards the United States itself. It was James Montgomery Falgg who would envision Uncle Sam in the famous “I Want You” recruitment poster of 1916.

There are memorials for Uncle Sam located in Troy, NY and in Arlington, Ma

Troy, NY claims to be the hometown of Uncle Sam. I picked up this Uncle Sam postcard in the RPI bookstore.

Cliff Chiang - Wonder Woman

2011.12.10 Wonder Woman -Uncle Sam FDC

Dewey's Comic City, Madison, NJ

Cliff Chiang is a graduate of Harvard University with a joint degree in English Lit and Visual Arts. Chiang has worked as an editor for Disney Adventures magazine, and as an illustrator for Vertigo and DC Comics pencilling titles such as Human Target, Batman, Dr. Thirteen, Beware the Creeper, Green Arrow & Black Canary, Red Sonja and Swamp Thing.

Chiang also worked on the comic adaptation of Neil Young's Greendale with writer Joshua Dysart...

Chiang is now working on the new Wonder Woman for DC Comics, providing the art and covers for issues 1-4, and the covers for issues 5 and 6...

Rich Buckler - Captain America

Rich Buckler - Captain America 2010.10.02 Wizard-Big Apple Comic Con, NYC

Buckler co-created the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25, and has drawn virtually every major character at Marvel and DC, often as a cover artist.

Buckler's first work was part of the 1967 King Features comics Flash Gordon with a 4-page story Freedom Fighters:Washington Attack Trenton.

At Marvel, Buckler would draw Fantastic Four, Black Panther and Spiderman. In the 1980's working alongside Roy Thomas at DC, All-Star Squadron would be launched.

The Uncle Sam stamp from the Celebrate the Century issue 1998, reminded me of the first All-Star Squadron issue with Uncle Sam dispatching the All-Star Squadron. I had requested the Star Spangled Kid, but Buckler was unsure of the character's look and without a reference could not reproduce it faithfully. Keeping with the Uncle Sam theme, I requested Captain America and received a for beautifully rendered sketch.

Buckler and John Romita are credited with the artwork for the Marvel stamp issue for the Incredible Hulk, and Buckler and Dick Giordano are credited with the artwork for the DC stamp issue for the Supergirl comic cover.