Frank Cho

My next two weeks…

In 2012, I left my job at a major think tank to pursue my dream of drawing comics. If you follow the blog, you have no doubt seen the progress I’ve made and the work I’ve put in to get better. Year after year, I built upon my skills.

For my Throwback Thursday tweet & Insta posts today, I talked about the amazing crossroad of luck and opportunity. In 2015, you may remember I had the chance to be on stage with the great Jim Lee, one of my comic idols growing up. I also lent the amazing Ed McGuinness my drawing pad. I received original artwork from both and was able to talk to them about drawing. I also got to meet Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos, 2 of the 3 artists whose work brought me back to comics (the third being Chris Bachalo whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting since). I geeked out pretty hard as a fan. I mean, how could you not?

However, I always wanted to be a creator. I kept drawing and learning. I’m thankful for an amazing support network that has kept me with jobs throughout the years. I’ve done commercial art, some graphic design and cartooning, commissions, concept art, and storyboards. I’ve made some web comics.

This year, Andy Nordvall and I put out Siren’s Song, available on Amazon , Barnes and Noble and any local bookstore by request. I did my first signing at the Comic Bug, here in Los Angeles.

Here are the next two things I’ll be participating in:

This upcoming Saturday, July 14th at Southern California Comics in San Diego, I’ll be joining an amazing collection of talent as we share our wares and prepare for Comic-Con the week after. If you’re in San Diego, I hope you can make it!

And, yes, this year sees me as a creator at San Diego Comic-Con. If you’re there, my schedule is above. Drop by, say hi and tell me you read this post!

I have a lot of people to thank throughout the years for this: my wife, Brian Stelfreeze, Steve Epting, Frank Cho, Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Victor Glover from VZAAge. Nathaniel Osollo, Adriano DiBenedetto, Neal Yamamoto, Andy Nordvall, Matt Jackson, Mike Korpi, Suzanne Land, Ben Evans, Mike Korpi, Eric Wilder, Carree Michel, Christina Jordan, Maddie Gygli, the Comic Bug, Terry Mayo, Jose Cardenas, Will Van Stone Jr., Jorge Urbina, Jonathan London, Kevin Schmidt, Ry Rocklen, Bonnie Burton, Cory Doctorrow, Lucienne Silva, Kat Rocha, Josh Finney and anyone who ever purchased any merchandise or stopped by to check out my work. There are so many more people to thank, but I’ll stop here and get back to work.

Fantastic time @BigWowComicFest ! Sketched @IvyDoomKitty during Frank Cho’s panel

Did this sketch of Ivy Doom Kitty during Frank Cho’s panel today at Big Wow Comic Fest in San Jose. This convention is awesome! First, my wife and I met Geof Darrow at his booth. Man, one of the highlights of my year so far! I was wearing a shirt filled with Miyazaki characters and, as it turns out, Geof Darrow is a Studio Ghibli fan! His art book had Totoro drawings! (Can you tell how excited I am?!) He signed three of my Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot books and even doodled in them. Wish come true!

Then, sat in a portfolio review with Dan Brereton. I showed him an incomplete portfolio and he was kind enough to look it over and give me some great feedback and advice on putting together a solid book.

Finally, I made it into Frank Cho’s life drawing panel featuring Ivy Doom Kitty as his model. He then took some of the sketches up with him to offer critiques and advice. To paraphrase, he said my sketch was pretty good and didn’t have much to say but he did offer a tip on drawing hands (check out the hand he drew! He signed my drawing too!).

It was a super day. I gotta thank my wife for spending part of her vacation doing this with me.