New Projects


While finishing up Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom, I've done a few small jobs here and there. Below is the pencil art for the second Tom Strong Deluxe Edition (which collects Tom Strong issues 13-24 and features some bonus material), scheduled to ship in April of next year. Above is the pencil art for a couple of covers for the Wildstorm books WildC.A.T.S. and The Authority which form one single large image when placed side by side. I have no details yet on which issues will feature these covers or when they'll hit the stands. I've posted the preliminary layout art for these covers on the art sales blog as well.
--C

Mid-Ohio Con 2009
This year's Mid-Ohio Con has come and gone, and now--weeks later--I'm finally getting around to doing a write-up on the show. Punctual as ever, that's me! For the second year in a row, I started off the charity on-stage drawing sessions, first thing on Saturday morning. Then it was back to my booth for all-day sketching and signing. I saw lots of familiar faces and several new ones, but the day was incredibly busy and passed by very quickly! As usual, the fans at the show were universally nice and friendly, one of the reasons I've always enjoyed this con! Xan showed up after work and got to socialize and do a little shopping before we headed out to dinner with friends at Dirty Frank's, a funky little restaurant in downtown Columbus specializing in really tasty hot dogs. Sunday saw me doing time all day at the booth again, busy enough that I never got to take a spin around the dealer's room--rats! Xan threw in the towel around 3PM, finally giving in to her nasty cold. I ended up going to dinner at nearby microbrewery Barley's with Renee Witterstaetter, Michael Golden, Steve Scott, and Joe Jusko. I stayed out too late, but I always love hanging out with Michael and Renee, and I haven't seen Steve Scott in a dozen years, plus I'd never met Joe, so the night was interesting and lots of fun! Lots of tech talk, good food, good stories and general geeking out was had by all. I have no other convention appearances lined up for the foreseeable future, which is good, as I have lots of work to do this winter (finishing up the last issue of Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom and starting a couple of other neat projects), but I'm sure I'll be back at Mid-Ohio Con next year and probably one or two other shows as well. In other news, the art sales blog is now finally up to date--I'm all out of Tom Strong pages after many years of carrying around that one last straggler from issue #35, and the unfinished pencil pages and prelims are almost all sold out. That's okay--I'm making new ones every day! I'll post new art for sale occasionally for the rest of the year, but I expect a huge amount of new stuff to be up early next year after Karl and I divide up the Robots of Doom pages. I still haven't offered up any pages from my Spirit story or the Deathblow job from last year, but those should be up for sale at the same time as the new Tom Strong pages. This week, I've added the cover sketch for the second Tom Strong Deluxe Collection and the 2009 sketchbook as well--check 'em out! --C











Finishing up the on-stage charity drawing on Saturday morning (photos by Ed Boren)



The Robot Monster gets in some pre-Holiday shopping on Sunday afternoon

The Sick of Moltar

Hey everyone! I have bronchitis! Truthfully, I was kind of excited to be diagnosed with bronchitis, because that meant I didn't have H1N1. I'm on a regimen of huge doses of antibiotics and have the Chris Rock universal cure, Robitussin with codeine, so I'm going to go back to sleep in a minute since the fever I have is keeping me from being clever enough to write more than this paragraph. Chris is feeling pretty nasty too, but he's as of yet undiagnosed. He seems to have a nasty cold, no chest stuff like me. Aside from the fun we had at Mid Ohio Con (my friend Steve Swanson let me read the Muppet News with him on his super cool podcast, the Muppet Cast! More info here or you can download the podcast on iTunes), I doubt we'll have much to talk about until Christmas thanks to this dumb illness. We even postponed celebrating our wedding anniversary, which was October 2nd. 7 years! I'd be excited if I could just stop coughing!

Mid-Ohio Con

It's time for Mid-Ohio Con again! I'll be a guest at Ohio's biggest and longest-running (29 years!) comic convention this upcoming weekend. The con is at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in downtown Columbus on October 3rd and 4th. Click HERE for more info. I'll be there all day both days, signing comic books, drawing sketches and selling original artwork. This year I'll also have one of those little sketchbook thingies full of character designs, layouts and previously unpublished pencil and ink drawings from throughout my career (below is the sketchbook's cover, the original unpublished/unaltered version of my Modern Masters cover art). Come by and say "hi!" and browse and shop. There are plenty of really good guests this year, everyone from comics legend Dick Ayers to guys whose work I grew up reading like Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, and Mike Grell . Michael Golden, P. Craig Russell, Ron Frenz and Barry Kitson will also be there, along with local creators Sean McKeever, Darryl Banks, Dave Aikins and Andy Bennett. Throw in a few Hollywood genre actors from Star Wars and Heroes and it sounds like a good time! See you there!

Update:
The 2009 Sketchbooks are now up for sale on the art sales blog!

--C

First New Tom Strong Page Hits the Web

The above image, a pencilled page from Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom #2, mysteriously appeared without any accompanying text today on the official Wildstorm blog, The Bleed. This is the first art most people have seen from the series other than the cover art for issue #1 which has been published in the Tom Strong Deluxe Collection Vol. 1 and the After Watchmen What's Next? version of Tom Strong #1. Looks like the promotion for the series is starting at long last...

--C

Goofy Stuff
When we watch a TV show or movie with a scene that takes place in a comic book store, Xan and I will usually scour the background of the scene for comics I've drawn. It feels a bit narcissistic, I'll admit, but I'm pretty certain I'm not the only comic book artist who does this...Anyway, many years ago, I spotted an issue of Legionnaires on a coffee table in an episode of Roseanne, and that was pretty much it for a while. Then last month, Xan and I spotted the cover of my Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye adaptation in the comic shop in the film Fanboys. See for yourself--it's the second comic down on the far left of the screencap below:




Today, while watching the second season of Big Bang Theory on DVD, Xan picked out the second Tom Strong paperback collection on a shelf in one scene. It's just to the left and behind Raj's head in the following screencap:




Again, a little self-centered, but it always provides a cheap little thrill. Plus, for all I know, this may be the only time anything of mine ever ends up on the big or small screen!

One final note for this post: I just updated my art blog, SprouseNet Art Emporium, so that it's current as far as what's still available after the Aviles festival. I lowered some prices on some pages and provided an art sales-only email address for easier purchasing as well--buyers won't have to bother with MySpace anymore. I'll also be bringing all of the art pictured to Mid-Ohio Con in a few weeks, so you can check out the artwork in person there.

--C

XIV JORNADAS de COMIC VILLA de AVILÉS

As I posted last time, I was invited to appear at a Spanish convention last week. Xan and I packed up and caught a plane to Madrid, then (eventually) on to Aviles, a city near the northern coast of Spain. The convention, which was actually a government-sponsored festival celebrating comics from all over the world, was unlike anything I'd ever experienced! We had so much fun! We met so many wonderful people--fans, festival staffers, other comics pros and even the mayor(!), and had so many excellent meals full of fantastic food and great conversation.

The town of Aviles itself was beautiful and very welcoming. We stayed in the old town center, full of ancient medieval buildings and loads of shops, cafes and restaurants. Our days began with a huge lunch at one of several local restaurants, followed by several hours of outdoor sketching and conversation at a cafe just off the town square(luckily the weather was amazing nearly every single day). Every day, one of the attending professionals had his or her own press conference and a presentation in the town's cultural center. At 10PM every night, we'd usually adjourn to the hotel lobby for a little more sketching and talking until the staff took us out for dinner--more food, lots of socializing, and often still more sketching. If we had any energy remaining after dinner, nights usually ended up with most or all of us hanging out in a makeshift bar in the festival's dealer tent, still drawing and talking. Even with all of the around-the-clock sketching, I still wasn't able to get to every fan who wanted a drawing. I hated disappointing any of the fans because they were all so warm and polite and very patient. I definitely intend to return to Aviles, so maybe I'll do better next time. I am happy to report that Tom Strong sells pretty well in Spain and seems to have a decent following.The series has been collected in hardcover albums much like the European comics albums I grew up reading, with paper and printing superior to that of the U.S. collections. I couldn't resist buying them all, along with a Spanish Ocean trade paperback. Anyway, on our final full day in Spain, the festival organizers treated us to a field trip to the nearby seaside city of Gijon, one of the most beautiful places either Xan or myself have visited, with fantastic architecture and breathtaking ocean vistas.

We'd like to send out a big "thank you!" to Jorge, German, Angel, Hugo and Roberto for inviting us, taking care of us and showing us such an amazing time!

Clockwise:

- the unusual architecture of the Madrid airport, where we spent an unexpected and unpleasant three hours

- the streets of Aviles

- I haven't been to a convention in over a decade where I didn't see someone dressed up like a stormtrooper, and this festival kept that tradition going!

Top to bottom:

- outdoor sketching at the cafe

- the dealer tent just outside the Aviles Cultural Center

- Spanish fans enjoying their comics outdoors

Clockwise:

- the town hall at night

- poster for the festival in the town square

- a local church we saw during one of our nighttime walks around the city

Clockwise:

- talking with my hands too much during my presentation in the Cultural Center

- signing and sketching

- Spanish Tom Strong albums

Clockwise:

- Meeting with the mayor of Aviles

- a local news photographer has me pose on the mayor's balcony

- the festival was city-wide--here a young girl looks at comic pages exhibited in the local shopping mall...when we saw these pages up close, we realized the poor girl had probably been scarred for life...

Xan & I spent a lot of time walking around the city taking photos of unusual storefronts and signage. Here are some of my favorites, clockwise:

- This store's name translates as "The King of Ham..."

- ...and here's "The Royal House of Ham

- This restaurant sign seems to suggest that the Octopus you can order from the menu will pour it's own drawn butter, or perhaps that the bartender has tentacles...

Clockwise:

- a lunch of tapas and cider

- fellow comics pros Rodney Ramos and Renee Witterstaetter

- carved and painted seal in a park at the Cultural Center

Top to bottom:

- one of the many fine restaurants we enjoyed

- here are some of the festival organizers at dinner, including the wonderful German and Jorge

- and speaking of wonderful, here's Fables artist Mark Buckingham with the sketch he did for Xan

Top to bottom:

- fans and pros head to a local bar/disco in the wee hours of the morning

- comics letterer extraordinaire Ken Lopez and me

- Christine and Jim Cheung; Jim was one of the hardest working pros at the con, often sketching at dinner and long into the night

Comic pro guests, top to bottom:

- Mark Buckingham and Lady Buckhingham, the delightful Irma

- Doug Braithwaite and wife Sue

- Gary Erskine and his partner Mhairi with Hello Kitty and Rodney Ramos in the background

More pros, top to bottom:

- Fiona Stephenson and Dean Ormston

- Herb Trimpe and wife Patricia

- Scott Hampton and wife Letitia with Patricia Trimpe

Gijon, top to bottom:

- the harbor

- the lovely Xan overlooking the sea with German and Mhairi in the background

- German, Irma and other guests reach the top of the cliffs overlooking the sea at Gijon

More Gijon, top to bottom:

- local open air market

- just one of the examples of amazing architecture from this city

- a view of Gijon from the beach

--C

We're off to Spain!


Xan and I are packed and ready to go to Aviles in northern Spain today. I'm a guest at the convention you see advertised in the poster above, and I've heard nothing but good things about the con and the city, so I'm looking forward to it. Click HERE to go to the convention's website. I'll try to post some photos while we're there, provided our hotel has a good internet connection.

--C

More Art Added

I just received my share of the Andy Smith-inked pages from Number Of The Beast and I've added them to the art sales site, SprouseNet Art Emporium. The panel above is from page 18 of issue #6, which is one of the new additions.

My copies of the first Tom Strong Deluxe Collection were delivered yesterday--astonishingly early, as that book won't be in stores for another month. It's a nice-looking collection with previously unpublished extra material in the back, including my oldest surviving sketches of Tom, Tesla and Pneuman. It's very cool to have such a large chunk of the series (a full 1/3, the first twelve issues) in one book. Look for it in your local comic or book store starting Sept. 16. As a bonus, there's a tiny little preview of art from Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom in the back of the book...

Speaking of September, we finally received our tickets and itinerary for our trip to Aviles, Spain. We'll be there for a comics festival from Sept. 6-14. Come out and say "Hola!" if you're in the North of Spain that week!


Cover art for Tom Strong Deluxe Collection Vol.1

--C

Update - Art and More


I just added four new pieces of art to the SprouseNet Art Emporium site: the Tom Strong prelim you see above, a Midnighter prelim, and two pencil pages I abandoned/rejected from Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. I know--I still haven't shown any art from the series, but these rejects provide a glimpse of what's to come.

In other news, I had a good birthday at the end of last month. I had a fun night of pizza and trivia games with Xan's family--Xan's mom has a birthday the day before mine, so it was a double celebration. On Thursday, Xan showered me with excellent gifts: season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica on DVD, a brand new BSG "making-of" book, a rare Jason Falkner CD, and a great new art/messenger bag that I hope to be using for years! The bag has a compartment large enough for comic art pages, a padded laptop section, and about a million little pockets and holders for pens, pencils and other art supplies--I love it! The two of us then hit the road for a day full of geek-centric shopping, a long-standing birthday tradition for us. We started off by hitting a few local antique/vintage collectible malls. After the last post Xan wrote, it's probably pretty obvious what she was hoping to find! I enjoy browsing through these kinds of places because I often find cool unexpected treasures, from old toys and other collectibles to antique art supplies. Mostly, it's just good nostalgic fun--antique stores are in the Sprouse blood--my Dad's family has owned and run an vintage furniture and collectible store for close to forty years--and the look and smell of such places sends me right back to summer vacations in Charlottesville. Anyway, Xan ended up coming away with a great bracelet form a vintage jewelry dealer and I kept the Battlestar Galactica theme of this birthday going when I found an old lighter just like the one used by Edward James Olmos in that series. One of my few remaining hobbies is collecting sci-fi movie and TV props, so the lighter was a really nice discovery! Next, we hit some used music and movie stores for some more rummaging, then it was on to a dinner of enchiladas and tacos at a local Mexican restaurant. I hate being (ugh!) middle-aged, but birthdays like this one help soften the blow!

--C