Mike Korpi

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!

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.