Cloak and Dagger by Takeshi Miyazawa

Loved Takeshi Miyazawa's work and his redesign of Cloak and Dagger's costume in the Runaways series. This was a private commission so it's very close and dear in my heart.

X-23

So X-23 is a pretty new character to the X-Men universe. Essentially a female Wolverine introduced in the X-Men Evolutions cartoon and eventually adapted to regular Marvel U, like Harley Quinn from Batman, or Firestar from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.

I'm trying to get as many artists do this character in the "Weapon-X" form as a theme for my commission gallery. We'll see how I go. But for now, there's these two to start with. One from Humberto Ramos and the other from Billy Tan. Both former X-Men artists. Ramos from SDCC and Tan from Perth Supanova.

Haunting Ground / Demento 2nd Ed Benes Commission

My second commission of Fiona being stalked by Debilitas from Capcom horror game Haunting Ground (Demento in Japan), ink marker work by Ed Benes.

Demento / Haunting Ground by Ed Benes

A detailed pencil piece of Fiona being confronted by the villain Debilitas from Capcom PS2 game Haunting Ground (Demento in Japan).

SDCC 2011 report Part 3

Speaking of Dr Who, the US fandom is crazy! The line at Hall H was insanely huge, and even though I lined up about 2 panels prior, I still only managed to get in about 15 minutes late into it. Would have been great to see the Supernatural panel before it, but thats the price I pay for not camping out!

I discovered late on Saturday that one of the Free SDCC shuttles actually stop past the hotel next door to mine! So here's me getting lost on trolleys, paying $5 a day getting about, killing my feet walking thinking I could save a buck when there was free regular transport all along! Ahh, karma. What did I do to you...

The discounts were few and far between in the closing hours Sunday. A lot of stalls would not budge or discount for me I found. The leftover stock weren't that appealing to me but I did pick up some otherwise harder to find items. But some stuff I had my eye on Thursday/Friday were long sold. So if you see something you want, just get it. No point saving what, $10 when you'll regret it later.

Closing at 5pm on Sunday made it feel way too short. The other days where it ended on 7pm, I was actually feeling it was JUST enough time. But as soon as SDCC ended and everyone packed up, San Diego became like a ghost town. Everyone packed up and went straight back to their state. It was eerie. Just moments ago, the Total Recall car was there, along with the scale replica of South Park city, and in just a couple hours, total emptiness. It was depressing. But the party can't go forever...

Bring on 2012. I'll be ready for you next time Comic-Con!

Comic-Con 2011 part 2

Getting lost in San Diego was not fun. The trolleys were confusing and I should have known better than to hop on the first random trolley that rolled past. For those who don't know, San Diego has a small dedicated train system that went around the major parts of the city, called the trolley. About $2.50 each way. It only had about 3-4 different lines and it was just my luck I took the one NOT going back to the convention centre. Protip: research the trolley lines before you get on!

I heard everyone saying that Thursdays and Fridays at SDCC are the quiet days. Since everyone is supposed to be working. But I saw no difference. It's just as bad on the Thursday as it is on the Saturday. You need to dedicate yourself to a single goal for the day. Whether it's to watch that super-hot panel, or line up for convention exclusives. It's pretty much near impossible to do both without some form of backup or help.

For example, I dedicated my Thursday and Friday solely on getting art, and Saturday I was going to try for autographs and panels. The Saturday I literally walked into the panel room I wanted to get into. No lines nothing! There were about 2-3 panels before the one I wanted to catch. So I decided to bail on the room and get into a line for autographs. There was apparently a one in five shot of getting the lucky ticket. People around me were super prepped for it, they got like a group of friends or family all joining the line to help them out. So me on my lonesome, hah! But I gave it a shot anyway and failed as expected.

Killed an hour or so in that autograph line. So then I decided screw it, back to the room I bailed on to watch my panel. And lo behold, there's now this massive fucking line that wrapped around the building for that room. Protip 2: Don't try for autographs, stay in the fucking room. Unless you have help in the form of family and friends. Some tickets are even worse, with a one in 50 chance of scoring an autograph ticket. I'm looking at you Doctor Who...

Comic-Con 2011 report

This is my first time back to Comic-Con, my first time back to the United States since 1997. I remember it being a lot smaller, I remember the place having more room to move about. 14 years later and it's a totally different beast. Back then it just used barely 1/3 of the exhibition space one one floor. Now it's expanded to beyond all the halls and rooms of the convention centre. Even going to hotels outside and events being held on the park grounds across the road from the convention.

I'm no stranger to massive conventions. I attended Comic Market consistantly for the past 11 years. So I'm used being obsessive to the point of camping out, or waking up early. To be honest, Comic-Con isn't close to the obsessive levels of Comiket, but there are still dedicated people who will camp overnight for the Twilight panel. The campers for Comiket usually number in the thousands the night before. I was number 42 in line when I camped out to collect my 4 day pass on Thursday morning. And maybe around the 400's when I camped out for next year's tickets.

Now, it's supposed to be summer in the states. But it was COLD. The whole West Coast had that kind of cold air, but sunny weather. I lugged with me a massive amount of clothes in anticipation of a sweat-fest like Japan's summer.

So, Comic-Con... there were at least a hundred panels I wanted to attend. But the lines were so daunting. People were camped out for Ballroom 20 and Hall H in particular. And the lines literally wrapped around the building. I wasn't going to my first convention in years and just stand in line for the whole day. So my first 2 days were to ignore the panels and focus on getting commissions from the artists in attendance.

First thing on Thursday morning was to run into the artist alley. Problem was... the artist alley was about 50% empty. The doors to the hall opened about 9am, but the artists weren't supposed to arrive until 9.30-10am. So strangely, it was quite empty in the morning in that section of the building. The bulk of the people were heading to the panels no doubt, or going to the toy booths to pick up the exclusives. My Thursday was dedicated to familiarising myself with the halls. Of course, I left to dump some luggage back at the hotel and promptly got lost for 4 hours trying to find my way back...