Nguyening It!
drawing
Thank you for keeping an eye out! #NguyeningIt
Help nominate me for the RINGO Awards! Click here and use the list below as a guide!
•Best Writer: Aaron Lindenthaler-RETRO
•Best artist: Don Nguyen-RETRO, Battle Grapple Rebel, Cthulhu Invades Wonderland, Holiday Spirits 2
•Best Inker: Don Nguyen-RETRO
•Best Letterer: Jérôme Gagnon -RETRO
•Best Colorist: Ellie Wright -RETRO
•Best Cover Artist- Don Nguyen-RETRO, Athena the Undying, Holiday Spirits 2
•Best single issue or story- RETRO
•Best presentation in design- RETRO
•Favorite hero- RETRO
•Favorite villain- RETRO
•Favorite new talent- Don Nguyen, Aaron Lindenthaler
If you’ve been following this blog, you know my activity on it has been very infrequent. I’ve been concentrating on work and other platforms more. I hope you’ll join me. I’m easy to find : @NguyeningIt on the most social media platforms.
I wanted to thank those checking in time to time & those here since the beginning. I went from doing daily sketches & wanting to be in comics to having some really wild experiences in comics.
One of the things I love doing is sketchcards and I’ve had the honor of being part of the inaugural Marvel Anime trading card set from Upper Deck. This year’s release is WandaVision. Check out this TikTok video for the entire set or visit my website to see all the randomly inserted sketchcards. I have 3 AP (Artist Proof) cards waiting for approval. I’m also into my next set but we can’t talk about that yet 🤫😉
I’ll be at a few events this year. Here are some coming up:
LatinX Comic Arts Festival in Modesto, CA 3/17-18
Rare opportunities
If you’ve followed this blog, you’ll know RETRO was started quite a while back. We began with storyboards. Aaron animated those into a motion comic short. We’ve now created a shortfilm featuring actor Reno Wilson (Mikev& Molly, Good Girls, Transformers movies) and a full comic book. The regular cover and the live-action variant look killer (I am biased though).
I hope you can join us this Wednesday at the Comic Bug in Culver City from 12-3 as we sign & promote. We’ll then head to the Manhattan Beach location to do the same from 4-7P!
So many things happening…
If you’re a fan of Wrestling & like things like Star Wars, Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, then Battle Grapple: Rebel is for you! As I type this, Battle Grapple Rebel is over 100% funded and working to hit 100 backers to get the interior pages colored. Click here to tag in!
I also did a movie poster homage for David Schrader & Tony Donley ‘s latest project called Cannibals on Mars. If you’re a fan of The Thing from John Carpenter or George Romero flicks, I think you’ll dig this comic!
Retro (yes, the one where I posted storyboards!) is coming back in full force as a comic book and live-action short film!
Visit us on Facebook or Instagram to follow & when we launch. Aaron Lindenthaler writes, I do pencils & inks, Ellie Wright (Immortal Red Sonja, Batman the Shadow) colors & Jerome Gagnon (Holiday Spirits, Cthulhu Invades Wonderland) letters. Actor Reno Wilson (Mike & Molly, Good Girls) plays our titular character in the short film!
Pablo the Gorilla #2: Dropping the Deuce is in its way. I’m working on getting over 30 pages roughed out & I’m currently at 32. I’m working on the ending and then I’ll be heading to fine pencils next. So keep an eye out!
Unreleased @PablotheGorilla pages #PerchancetoDream
I had the honor of being invited to join Ed Dukeshire’s Digital Webbing Presents 3. these 2 pages were originally looking to be released 2020/2021 as an interim short/prelude for Pablo #2. DWP is deferred to its anniversary year and I’m currently working on Pablo #2. So, I thought it’d be nice for anyone in Pablo’s troop to catch up a bit. 😉🦍🍕
#SDCC #ComicConAtHome original art giveaway bonus entry details😁
San Diego Comic-Con is a special event to many a fellow geek and nerd. As a fan and creator, it’s been a particularly magical place. For those that have been with me on this journey of making comics and breaking into comics, I appreciate you; especially, if you’ve been with the daily doodle blog since the early days.
Like last year, SDCC is taking place online as #ComicConAtHome. That means we don’t get to congregate in person. One of my favorite things is attending panels and winning original art from my favorite creators (I know, I’m still and always a fan). It’s also attending panels to support friends. Although I’m not in a panel, I am in the Virtual Artist Alley and I am giving away original art again to celebrate SDCC &, hopefully, bring back a little of the joy of receiving art when attending a panel.
So, entering is simple. If you missed how, here’s a screengrab from Twitter:
Now for the bonus entry details! If your screenshot is from any of these panels, you get an additional entry:
Gaming in Graphic Novels: A Programming Match Made in Heaven!
Jet Off with the Orcs in Space Crew
Slaying Real Monsters & Building Communities Through Role Playing Games
Abolishing Traditional Ideas of Latinas through Latina Superheroes
For every dollar spent at my etsy shop or Bonfire store, that’s an entry. Just be sure to add a note with your social media handle so I know who you are!
It’s been a minute
Crazy how time flies! It was just a few years ago that I posted work-in-progress storyboard art for Retro. Now Aaron Lindenthaler and I are working toward finishing the first issue of the comic! Here is the regular cover for the first issue.
RETRO #1 Cover A (rendering may not be final)
Check out the trailer for the original short release!
What a journey!
I know I don’t post as often as should, but that’s a good thing as I’ve been busy with projects. I thank you for hanging around and checking in on my blog every so often. Your company is greatly appreciated.
As you know, 2020 has been wild to say the least. Most of the time, it has been truly heartbreaking. I lost a good friend before the pandemic hit. I think about him in particular now because the Dodgers are in the World Series and he was a huge fan. He was also an amazing artist and we would have had a lot more conversations about this year.
I had my largest convention schedule planned for this year but COVID-19 took care of that. It was going to be a lot of firsts for me. Surprisingly, other opportunities have presented themselves. As you know, I was honored to be a part of Gerry Conway’s Skulls for Justice campaign.
Since then, I’ve had the privilege of doing a sketchcard set for Marvel & Upper Deck’s Marvel Anime trading card series. I started posting them on Twitter & I guess someone in Japan found the Venom card already. I’m fanning out that I’m in a set where Peach Momoko is the headline artist. Insane! Here’s a look at all of my cards:
I’ve also been working quite a bit with my friend Mike Korpi. He’s an amazing writer and I wanted to bring his stories to life. You may remember we were in Wannabe Press ‘ Cthulhu is Hard to Spell: The Terrible Twos right before the pandemic hit.
We now have an opportunity for a comic book anthology hat trick. Our second and third anthologies are live now on Kickstarter. The first one is from the creator collective we belong to: the Sketchy Bug Group. The book is called Danger Arcade and features 10 stories by 21 creators plus pinups. Click here to check out the campaign! The cover is by Mike Penn from Heavy Metal magazine. Ed Dukeshire (from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers & Hulk) is doing letters for some of the stories, including ours! Our project was recently backed by BOOM! Studios as part of their 100 First-time Comic Kickstarter Campaigns initiative. We have 2 weeks left to fund and we’re almost at 50%! I hope you’ll consider it.
Mike and I are also in great company with a horror anthology that we’re a part of called Nightmare Theater. This campaign just launched today and is over halfway funded. It features a ton of phenomenal talent like Ringo Award-Winners Rylend Grant (Banjax, Abberant), David Pepose (the O.Z., Spencer & Locke, Going to the Chapel), David Avallone (Bettie Page, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Drawing Blood), Terry Mayo (Wicked Righteous) and many more. It’s insane. The book is over 200 pages! Mike and I have a story in it we’re sure you’ll love and I did a pinup.
I also did a pinup for my friend Steven Prince and his book Monster Matador! It’s also live on Kickstarter with only 5 more days left, if I’m not mistaken.
I hope you enjoy these amazing projects. If you support any of them, sounds off below and let me know! If you find any of my sketchcards, let me know!
Reclaiming the Punisher logo one piece at a time. @AskegardJeremy @Dameredbento @chuckypin @GerryConway
As I write this, there may be minutes left on Gerry Conway’s Skulls for Justice campaign. It’s raised over $76,000 for Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. To celebrate Pride and to reflect some issues happening right now in our country, some friends and I created a comic inspired by the campaign. Introducing Rook, our trans protagonist.
For those who may not know, Gerry Conway is the co-creator of Marvel’s Punisher character. The idea behind Gerry Conway’s campaign is he wanted to reclaim the Punisher’s skull from being used by law enforcement and the military. Considering they’re suppose to be forces of justice, you can see how using a vigilante’s emblem is troubling.
I read an insightful article by Charles Pulliam-Moore about how the Punisher logo couldn’t be reclaimed. I feel like at least we could try to chip away at it.
I want you to meet the writing team behind the piece:
Jeremy Askegard
Massage therapist by day, writer by all other times. Being black and queer means you don’t get a lot of representation in media. Granted there has been a lot more examples recently. I’ve made it my writer’s mission to continue writing about underrepresented people. I’m here to ensure that PoC and LGBTQ+ aren’t just a tending topic in media. But characters that you love and more importantly relate to, no matter your identity. Coming from a diverse city like Long Beach California, it’s easy to forget that not all homes are like mine. So I saw this as an opportunity to spread some empathy, understanding and compassion for people that we think are different but actually really aren’t.
Robin “Raven” Walker
Eclectic artist and educator, Woman of Color, and queer to boot. I have been a life long nerd, gamer, comic enthusiast, and when I was given the opportunity to work on a Punisher project, I could not have been more delighted. Punisher was one of my favorite comics growing up because Frank Castle did the right thing even when it was tough and brutal, that really taught me to be unflinching when it came to my own real-life struggles confronting things that should not stand. It’s been hard for much of my life to find protagonists of color, let alone lgbtqia+, so this comic feels personal, needed, and real. Not only am I working on a comic for a company I admire, I am showing a piece of my communities to the world , hoping to open a dialogue and bring creativity to diversity.
Chuck Pineau
Writer, editor, and token white guy for the project. Having grown up in a very rural setting it was strange learning from bands like Rage Against the Machine, and from the comics that I loved that there really was an imbalance in the system. As I grew older, family members came out and I supported them af best I could. When two of my children informed me that they were transitioning it added an entirely different dynamic to things. Now with two African-American grandchildren as well, it puts it all the more into focus for; Our world is so diverse, and we need to look into that imbalance now more than ever. The moment I heard of this amazing opportunity to take on one of my favorite heroes in my favorite universe, and to help so many other voices be heard, I HAD to jump in.
Me? You already know. 🤣
I hope you enjoy the piece.
Doing what I feel is the right thing #BlackLivesMatter #ReclaimthePunisherLogo @Gerryconway
So, two weeks ago I answered the call put out by Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway about a fundraiser for Black Lives Matter & a campaign to reclaim the Punisher logo from Law Enforcement.
Gerry reached out and asked to do a logo inspired by the Punisher skull, maintain the white skull on black background motif, add a red tear and incorporate Black Lives Matter. Here’s what I came up with & the response has been overwhelming.
Please visit the link above if you’d like to support.
Here are the process sketches for the design.
Also, check out this article from the Guardian! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/11/how-do-you-stop-the-far-right-using-the-punisher-skull-make-it-a-black-lives-matter-symbol
I’ve been making a bunch of art & I hope you enjoy it !
I’ve been posting primarily to IG & Twitter but I didn’t want to leave my longtime blogosphere people out. So, I thought I’d post some highlights here. I hope everyone is safe and well during this pandemic. Also, you can still pickup a free digital of Pablo the Gorilla at AltFCD or Alt-Free Comic Day until the end of today. If you enjoy it, don’t forget to nominate it for the Ringo Awards at Ringoawards.com for all applicable categories!
Now for some original art!
Nguyening It! 