I am sad to report that I do not have much to report this week. I know, I know – I’m sad, too. This week was a week of playing catch up, trying to get ahead on this book we’re working on, in addition to other projects. This week, I did finish up a T-Shirt design that you can check out here and here, if you’re into that kind of thing.

This week also saw me do some more warmup sketches. However, unlike weeks past, these I did digitally. I may turn these into a print or something at a later date, but you can check them out individually right here.

Also, I wanted to remind you guys and gals that this is the season of lovin’! In that vein, we here at MMP want to faciltate the nerd-love and are offering a GREAT DEAL on our Zombie Valentine’s Cards! They’re available here and here, so go get them before time runs out!

So, I don’t have much to say this week, to be honest. I am severely behind on the next Capt. Dan book (shocking, I know) because I spent a lot of my time out and about working on something really big that I can’t share yet. Murph.

So, instead let me share with you this:

HOBBITSES! I’ve recently been re-reading the Hobbit at night before I go to bed and for my warmups this week I decided (inspired by my friend, Robin) to draw some scenes from my favorite kid’s book. Yeah, I said kid’s book. I know a lot of people want to see great big Boris Vallejo pictures based on this book, but it was initially meant as a children’s book. So, I wanted to do some Hobbit sketches with my kid’s book style. I’ve re-read the Hobbit every year since I was 10. I freakin’ love this book. I might work these up digitally once I get caught up on the next Capt. Dan book, just for fun. Is this something you’d like to see? Let me know in the comments.

Well, that’s all I have for you this week, minions. Go outside and have an adventure this week. Keep in mind that you can get a hold of me on Twitter or Facebook or buy stuff from me at my Store! (Don’t forget the Zombie Valentines Card sale going on RIGHT NOW!)

I’ll be honest, today being Friday COMPLETELY took me by surprise. This week just sailed by without so much as a ‘by your leave.’ Just rude, I say.

Anywho, today’s blog post is gonna be short. It’s not that I don’t have a lot to say (because I do), I just can’t spill the beans on most of it just yet. Suffice to say that there are big plans afoot for MMP this coming con season.

One thing I CAN spill the beans about is that today is a pretty special day. (No, not Friday the 13th, altho it is that) Today is my mom’s b-day! Yay! A little while back, I wrote a post about my dad’s b-day and how he is such a big influence on why I do what I do. Well, my mom’s the other big part. While my dad may have inspired me with his work and ability, my mom was my main source of encouragement and drive. My mom drummed into me at a young age that if I set my mind to something, then I can make that happen and that’s been my guiding light for my whole life. It sounds cliche, I know, but it’s one of the few I put stock in. So, if you like what I do, make sure you thank my mom, because a lot of it is her fault.

“Onto the pictures, Monkey!” I hear you saying. Ok, ok. Here you go. These are the warmups I did this week.  (The Avengers pic was a little more involved than a normal warmup, but I liked where it was going, so I followed it.) For the most part, I’m trying to spend less than an hour each on these every time I sit down to draw. Again, if you have ideas for characters you’d like to see me sketch, let me know on my Twitter, FB Page or brand-spanking new Tumblr!

So, I have AN ANNOUNCEMENT! For the Valentines Day holiday we’re having a sale on all of our Zombie Valentine’s Day Cards. Yay!! I’m fixing the prices in both my Etsy and Storenvy stores and this should be live by about 2pm (Pacific) today!

So that’s all I have for you this week. I need to get back to work on the next Urban Wild strip and the second Capt. Dan Book.

Sorry I missed my update last week. As you know, I spent the last week and a half in Dodge City, Kansas (yes, it is a real place and not just a made-up old west town) with my In-laws, and updating a blog on the ipad is a pain in the buttocks. I did however get 13 pages (YEAH, 13!) of the next Capt. Dan book penciled while I was there, so that’s awesome! So, here I am – a day later than I’d have liked to be this week. Grr.

Oh well. So I know I missed the New Year’s bandwagon by a few days, but bear with me. I’m not much on resolutions, usually. I find them to be a pain to deal with and who needs the extra guilt everyday? Not I, says I. So, what did I do this year? I set myself a resolution. Duh. But, I think it’s one I can keep up and one that my minions may get a kick out of. I decided that every time I sit down to draw, I’m going to start doing warm-up sketches. Fully-inked 5×7 sketches on bristol board that I can take with me to cons to sell. I’ll take suggestions and requests on my Twitter feed everyday, so make sure that you check that out.

For my art this week I figured that I’d go ahead and post my first few sketches.
Featuring Spider-man, The Huntress and The Goon and Frankie!

On the art front this week, I want to share a drawing I did recently. It’s of Jean Grey as Phoenix. I don’t do a lot of large-scale drawings anymore, but every so often I get an itch and need to scratch it. This is 11×17 drawn in ink. she’s not quite done yet, I might color her. I’m trying to start doing more sketches to take to shows, so if you have a character request, let me know (in the comments, perhaps?), and maybe your idea will make it onto the blog.

Be sure to keep checking out my new webcomic, Urban Wild, which updates bi-weekly.

PS – The last day for (as close as I can get to) Guaranteed Before X-Mas Delivery of stuff is Monday, Dec. 12. I’m mailing every other day in preparation for the holiday rush, so PLEASE get your orders in soon, so you don’t have to be mad at me when your posters/books don’t get to you before X-mas and your kids are all disappointed (that’s happened).

This weekend in Portland is a very special weekend: this weekend in N. Portland is Geek The Halls, a small 2-day geeky art show, put on by the PDX Browncoats. I’m very excited about this show, as this is our first official year showing there. (We were supposed to be there last year, but I got pretty sick right beforehand and couldn’t make it. It promises to be a ton of fun with a lot of the local nerd herd being in attendance, so if you’re in the area, please swing on by. This is also the second-to-last (maybe the last, depending on the application of another show) show we’ll have this year, so help make it a good one to end our season.

So, last week I debuted our FREE SHIPPING SALE that’s going on right now until 12/9 (GET ON IT!), where all you have to do is buy a poster, pendant or book and I pay your shipping. It’s all taken care of, couldn’t be easier. This week, I wanna debut some new products! YAY! As some of you know, Ashlie and I recently went crazy and bought another button  machine. It’s bigger than the old one, which means I can put arts on them that I couldn’t put on the tiny 1 inch buttons. WHICH IS EXCITING (shut up, it totally is), because it means I can do THIS:

Click me! Click ME!

Me Too! Click!

ROBOT BUTTON PACKS! I’m really excited about these. The picture really don’t do them justice. The buttons themselves are 1.5 inches across and each pack comes with 4 buttons. They are pretty durned cool, if I do say so myself.

So, those are neat. Onto the artworks for this week: This week, I got an itch to draw a new Propaganda style art piece and thought, “you know who’d be cool on a propaganda poster? DOOM.” So here he is. I like the idea of Dr. Doom as a world-dominating bad-guy, who thinks that he’s the only person in the world who can fix all the world’s problems, if only he were running EVERYTHING.

The Bots Buttons and the Doom print will be added to the stores after this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

So, I wanted to start this post off with something cliched like a Black Friday Deal or something, but thought better of it (that’s coming further down, I promise). Instead, I want to talk about you guys and gals and your awesomeness. As I mentioned in past posts, I recently decided to take MMP full-time. (2 months ago this week, actually) This wasn’t a rash decision and it wasn’t something I could’ve done even a year ago and it’s largely due to you, the Minions. Since I made the choice to strike out on my own, you guys have been awesome with your support, and I wanted to let you now how much I appreciate it. Without you I’d be back in my cube at my job, killing time until I got to hop a bus and go home. Brain dead and soul-weary, I’d be forcing myself to try to get ‘extra’ work done for our convention appearances, and it would be lacking. Since I moved to MMP, though, I’ve completed 4 new prints, which beforehand would have been a 4-6 month long process at least, started a new webcomic (which goes live on 11/29), and begun production on the next Captain Dan Book (not to mention all the awesome freelance projects I’ve been able to take on and other items we’ve been making).  And it’s all due to you. So, in keeping with the season I’d like to say Thank You to all of you.

And now, for the commerce! Last week, we released our Pirate Gift Pack and today in keeping with the holiday sales season, we’re starting our “Black Friday Shipping Sale!” It’s easy, just go the either our Store or our Etsy shop and buy a Large Print, a Pendant (or Keychain) or a book and I’ll cover the shipping (if you live in the contiguous US) and I’ll cover half of your shipping if you live outside the us or in AK & HI. Because I’m nice like that. All you need to do is place the order, the shipping is already fixed for you. So go ahead, you know you want to.

This week, I also want to share some arts with you. It’s been a while. Again thanks to you minions, I find myself with some spare time at night, so instead of rotting my brain in front of the tube, I’ve started doing some sketches and original art pieces again. Most of these will probably start appearing with me at conventions for sale, but if you happen to see one you want, let me know and we can work something out. This one isn’t finished yet, but it’s almost ready for inks. There are some problems with it that need to be addressed before I do that, though. But I wanted to show you something I’ve been working on. So that’s all I have for you today. Go out and have a nice weekend and I’ll see you again next week! – D

Sorry I’m late this week. I’m getting prepped for Portland Comic Book Show this weekend and I lost all track of time! I’ll try not to make a habit of it. If you’re in the area tomorrow, you should definitely swing by and check out the show. I’ll be there at tables 123 & 124 hawking my wares and sketching all day. I may have some special guests stop by and lend their sketchery as well, so make the trip!

So, remember last week when I mentioned a “special announcement” for this week’s blog? No? I am disappoint. Go back and re-read it. I’ll wait.

All done? Good.

So, this week, I am proud to announce that beginning Tuesday, 11/29/11, I will be the official illustrator of a webcomic called Urban Wild from Craigmore Creations! Ah! How cool is that!? Urban wild follows the adventures of Lorry the Raccoon and her woodland friends as they make a living in the urban jungle. I’m really excited about this! Most people don’t know this, but when I was in college, in addition to Graphic Design and Art, I also wanted to study Conservation/Game Biology. I took some classes, but opted not to go for the second degree because of the additional math requirements. Science, and animals and biology in particular, has always held an interest for me. So this project really marries a lot of my interests into one awesome package.

So for today’s art post, you guys and gals are getting an exclusive art preview! Yay! Let me know what you think! And remember to check out Urban Wild when the new season starts on 11/29!

Thing one: I recently quit my dayjob to work full-time at Monkey Minion Press. So, I am now a full-time minion. Which is both freeing and scary. Freeing because it means no more 1.5 hour-long commute on the bus every day, no more office, and all my time can be devoted to MMP and making new things to give you all. Scary because now I no longer have an excuse not to get new things done. Scary because I now have to rely on my ability to drum up work and new customers to pay the bills. But, if I didn’t think that I had the support of my minions, I would never have taken this step. So, I know we can do this, you and me.

So, since I quit my job, like I said, I’ve had time to make new stuff. New STUFF! And I gotta say, I’m pretty proud of the new stuff (If you follow me on twitter or on Facebook, you may have seen this). First up, October 30, 2011 is Women of Wonder Day (formerly Wonder Woman Day). As in years past, I decided to do a drawing for the charity auction. They opened up the rules this year to allow more than just Wonder Woman, but drawing Wondy for this just seemed right.

So, that’s it for this week. I’m going to try to start updating this thing at LEAST weekly, so check back next Friday, and see some more new stuff and a Contest.

Just messing with you, folks. You came here to read about what happened during my time at the big poppa Con, so let me regale you with tales & legends of my travels. (I’ll skip the vacation part of the trip, but let me just say, the Chula Vista Nature Center is kinda awesome and right next to the Motel 6 in C.V. where I stayed.)

Ok, so Preview night started off without a hitch. Ashlie and I were able to get in and set up with 2 hours to spare. It was FANTASTIC. I’ve rarely had a show start so easy. (Which you know if you are a regular reader of my con wrap-ups.) We got all set up and found ourselves next to Chet Phillips and his wife, who were both super awesome people to be next to, and Chet’s Art is GORGEOUS, go buy some. On our other side were the gentlemen responsible for Red Moon, which is gorgeously drawn, and while I didn’t have much interaction with them, they seemed like cool dudes with a beautiful book. Anyway, preview night: it was ok. Slower than last year, it seemed that there weren’t as many people there for Wed. night as in previous years, but it was good to be there. It amazed me how many tables in Small Press were empty on preview night, too.

Thursday started off ominously as we got to the show about 15 minutes late (actually 45, I found out later, but more on that later). Chet told me that I didn’t miss much since most of the fans there that morning were just kind of running through Small Press to hit bigger booths. Eh. We got unwrapped, caffeinated and set up as people started making their way back through the small press area. Made some sales, talked to some people, had some fun chatting with Chet and his wife. Thursday was really slow sales-wise, when you think of it as the first full day of the show, but considering the fact that it was Thursday, it wasn’t really surprising. Thursday night Ashlie, Christina (Ashlie’s sister and our minion for the show) and I went to dinner with our friend Matt, whereupon he visited on us his knowledge and insight and we had a great time eating some Thai foods. We then went back to the hotel and slept the sleep of the just (and tired).

Friday, Ashlie and I got to the hall at 9am. Awesome, we were on time (or so we thought). Just as we got into the hall and were congratulating ourselves on getting there on time and talking about how we should do this EVERY morning, the con-voice comes over the intercom: “Attention exhibitors, the Exhibit Hall is now open to attendees.” WHAAAT?! the show isn’t supposed to start until 9:30! WTF? So, I hurry to my table (from Hall G to Hall B is a long way to speed-walk when your physical condition is most suited to sitting, let me tell you), and get unwrapped just in time for the deluge. There were a LOT of people there, yo. It was awesome. At one point in the morning an nice yung lady from LucasFilm animation stopped by my table and asked if I had any sample sheets she could take with her (mental note: I should have some sample sheets made up for future cons), I didn’t but she gave me her card, so that’s pretty cool. The rest of the day went by without a lot of incident. Sold some stuff, ran out of some stuff – Good times. Ashlie’s TMNT Hats were big hits, which was neat, and I have a LOT of photos to post of people wearing them. Friday night we went to the Famous Kansas City BBQ (which, apparently, is where the bar scene in Top Gun was filmed) which was delicious (if a bit sloooow) and saw the Worst Cartoons and Spike and Mike’s Animation Gauntlet panels after dinner (always a must-see).

On Saturday, we got to the show at 9am once again, thinking that maybe yesterday’s early open was a fluke. (We tried to be there early, but the Geeks in the Trolley prevented that by not clearing the doors when they got on, thus delaying our trip in)  NOPE. turns out that the Con opened early every morning. No reason why, but it did. Grr. Saturday was busy. Like busy, busy. Remember how I said that we ran out of some stuff? Well, I had to go get more prints. Luckily, I was able to get some printed and picked up pretty easily thanks to SD’s red line trolley. Neat. got back to the show just as it hit the crazy part. PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. I will never get used to the sea of humanity that is SDCC, no matter how many years I go. It’s nuts. Saturday was also the day I learned my second box of copies of “Captain Dan Takes a Day Off” (available now!) weren’t going to be there in time for the show. So that was fun – dealing with the Createspace guy while trying to talk to customers and fans. On Saturday I also met a really cool dude and awesome designer, Adam Levermore, who is someone I’ve been a fan of and didn’t realize it since he created the Serenity travel posters and BSG Propaganda posters. He was a really nice guy and we chatted for a while. Saturday was also Mythbusters signing day at the con and a gentleman who stopped by and bought our Muppet Busters prints came back to show that he’d gotten the autographs of ALL 5 Mythbusters on his prints. That was pretty awesome! Saturday night we went to dinner with my buddy Spencer, and talked to him about his new revolution in digital comics. Spencer is a very cool dude to hang out with, so dinner was way fun.

Sunday was busy, too. Although some of that may have been the loss of our minion, Christina, as she had to leave for the airport that morning to go back to DC. Sunday was largely uneventful for the majority of the day. We ran out of some of our prints again, but at that point I wasn’t willing to make another print run, so we took orders, and finished out the awesomeness that was SDCC. In the last few minutes before closing time, a couple of people came to the booth to buy some stuff, they were very nice and very complimentary (which I always appreciate). Once they were done with their purchase, they walked down the aisle and brought back a friend of theirs, a tall, bearded, red-haired gentleman in an Avengers Baseball Cap. While they were showing him what they got and pointing out my Keep Fighting print, I recognized the guy. The man standing no more than 5 feet from me was none other than Geek-god, Joss Whedon! I almost freaked. I looked at Ashlie and whispered “That’s Joss Whedon!” I asked him to come closer and, not wanting to make a big deal of him being there, just shook his hand and said, “Thank you. So much. For everything.” It was awesome.

And thus ends my SDCC adventures. It was a lot of fun, and I hope that I get to come back next year. To everyone who stopped by the table, thanks so much!

Next show – Kumoricon in Portland, OR!