Staying in the Congress Hotel, one of the top 10 haunted hotels in Chicago, staying in room 1311, on the 13th floor. I kid you not. The 13 is knocked off of the elevator sign.

Dropped off my portfolio at Moonstone comics and got great constructive criticism from the owner of Moonstone and Amazing Fantasy Comics of Joliet.

Got portfolio reviewed at Zenescope comics and got great constructive criticism.

Dark Horse wasn't accepting portfolios for review.

Got one-on one review with Mark Chiarello the Art Director of DC comics with their open portfolio review panel and when he saw my Loxley Cover his instant reaction was "That's nice." Of coarse the version he saw had additional rendering on the smoke in the background and I changed up the flames a bit.

I dropped off my portfolio at the Marvel booth and I anxiously hold my breath for tomorrow when they post their list of who gets "in" for a review.

I'll post up my portfolio pages later to show you guys my most updated detailed page renderings that I'm submitting.

I plan to wear my own marvel drawn shirt tomorrow at con.....all I'll say is this....

Galactus found a whole planet of the symbiote that made venom who he is.....and I sharpied it on a white T- shirt "We are GALACTUS...WE HUNGER!!!"

So far no paranormal activity beyond my feet hurting like crazy and my room having "skin-e-max", my fiance' is not a fan. I'll keep you posted if I get all john Cusak in"1408"

Here's a forewarning I'm going to be posting 8 pics right in a row!
Please read the following if you plan to read the comic.

      I am an aspiring comic artist and this is not necessarily a solicitation nor an attempt to pitch an ongoing series. I was looking to build a body of work to perhaps land a spot penciling professionally, but I could never get enough steam together to finish any work. This whole project was an exercise pitched to me by a friend from college who played editor to the whole thing. He was also my knowledge base of both Cooper and Manson that I would fall back on incase my knowledge proved limited. He and I would like to let everyone know that this mini comic is not for sale, distribution, charity, nor profit of any kind. Please, understand that this is not a licensed portrayal of either parties and nor will be portrayed as such. It is simply a fan work that will be posted online for fun with this forward to ensure that everyone gets the right message. We did this because we're fans and loved the idea.
     Both of the performers are often revered as shock jock artists and never given their full credit of individuality. From my understanding Alice is his stage persona on stage only and uses shocking visuals to illustrate the realities of his message. Manson uses a similar technique but lives out who he is on stage and off. As the artist on this mini comic I will be the first to tell you that I'm not their biggest fan, but I am a dedicated fan. I know them well enough to know that despite their differences neither of them would condone the conduct illustrated in the 8 page mini comic we put together. We want the readers to know that this does not illustrate any real world hostilities between either party.
     The mini comic is simply a fan-made story to entertain that classic childish question, "Who do you think would win?" There for we are proud to admit we did not choose the ending. As fans of both parties, choosing one over the other would have implied a bias opinion and favoritism. We wrote the story to have multiple endings. I even tossed around the idea that Alice Cooper's daughter (the nurse in his stage performances) would stroll on stage and win in the last minute. With all the options in mind we left it to a simple coin toss. We even discussed what style of a coin toss: 1. Catch and reveal. 2. Catch and place on wrist and then reveal. 3. The common football rules. We settled on the football rules of letting it hit the ground without interference. The first toss landed with the current victor but it bounced off a box in my studio. So we tossed it a second time and when it came to rest on the same victor there was a lightning strike flash outside our sliding door instigating the decision was non-contestable.
     When writing the story we battled with whether or not we should use written dialog or lyrics from their music. I wanted to stay away from dialog as we already knew the subject matter of them fighting was against their ethics, so scripted dialog would just make it stick out more. The comic book style and aggressive nature of scripted words would just highlight the fact that these two are not grouchy "I'm gunna' get you!" type of guys. So the best words to use would have to be their own. Doing this added an artistic aspect to the writing as we could use lyrics that meant one thing in the song and put it out of context in our own comic. In the comic it would make sense but to any fan knowing the lyrics of the song it would stand out. We decided that this was still the best decision and stuck with it because it made it more meaningful. I would love to hear some of these songs meshed together on a stage! We wrote the whole story up to page 7 and wrote the two different endings. So if you think you see any well written fore shadowing hinting towards who might win, then you're looking too hard because it was there before we even knew the victor.  
Enjoy this work of fiction.

So far so good. I keep projecting an estimated time of arrival on the Alice Vs. Manson comic and....I keep pushing it back. It's still coming along. I have all the pages (8) penciled and I'm finally moving to the inks. I have 1 page inked!!!! Wooooh!
     As soon as human possible I will start posting the pages. For now we are still tweaking the letters and word ballons as they seem too large for the page. Does anyone know the font size of lettering in comic book format? 11x17 or 6x 10.25? Any idea?

So as we all know C2E2 is this weekend. We all know it's the re-vamp of the fail-con that was last years Chicago Comicon/Wizard World Chicago. We are also WELL aware by now that Jim Lee among other talented artists are exhibiting at C2E2. For those who don't know and probably should by now....I am a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Jim Lee fan!

C2E2 is no less than a 40 min drive from my apt. It is also paycheck weekend and a friend of mines birthday. So, I will be practicing self restraint when choosing to get off work at 7pm and go hang out with good company and drink in my Irish heritage.... insteeeaaaad of going to C2E2 and TOTALLY gush all over Jim Lee's booth!!!! LOL

It's sooo tough! He's in the SAME STATE! SAME COUNTY! SAME SMOG RIDDEN ATMOSPHERE!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Today my son turns 2! Hard to imagine that only 2 years ago I was still moping around my apartment not accomplishing anything with my artwork besides the occasional sketch and providing broken promises to friends.

     Here I sit with 4 commissions completed in the same week, 1 more major commission yet to finish, and 3 comic books I'm working on with 3 different friends.

     So, coming from Lead-Base in the next week will be my latest commission Alice Cooper Vs. Marilyn Manson! This consists of 7 pages of a knock down drag out. The final result will remain a mystery until the final page is produced!

The comics I'm working on is....wait...no. I'll save it. Don't want the industry stealing any of my ideas again. I'm watching you....THE INDUSTRY!!!
lol
My paranoia aside, it's been fun meeting a lot of you on deviant art. Thanks for the welcoming comments. I look forward to more comic art in the future.

Until next time, Happy Birthday Bowen and have fun art fans!