Forsaken Stars

Guest Art by Dora Gonzalez

I’m going to try to make this quick, but quick isn’t my strong suit–I imagined pumping out dozens of sketches over the Digicon weekend, and maybe a new page to start the week off right! Instead, I got two pieces done and somehow won a guest art sketch from the lovely Dora Gonzales–twitter handle @van_maniac, deviant art handle vanmaniac–of Weblight Dreams, a sci-fi fantasy horror comic–what luck! So I didn’t get the quantity of work done that I had wanted, but I’m pretty sure I came away from Digicon with a whole lot of quality. 

What follows isn’t a comprehensive review of Digicon, that’s just not possible, I couldn’t be there all 32 hours plus, so this is more a personal accounting of a few of the highlights for me.

Saturday–Inking FS/MCR Mashup

What I lack in tech set up and art speed, I make up for in socializing, because while I was wrestling with my webcam and chat settings and patiently etching every detail of inks on this Forsaken Stars/Danger Days Mash Up thank you piece for Nicole Sixx, twitter handle @nicolesixx_, for her efforts in getting the word about about my comic and being generally awesome, I met several cool folks and caught a couple great panels Saturday: Ran Brown of the end, blew my mind with her photoshop coloring tutorial;  Dan Monroe of Ye Gawds, Hushicho of Incubus Tales and Jon Grasseschi of Everydayabnormal provided an entertaining and insightful panel on the supernatural; and it was a thrill to webcam sketch next to Saiful Remy Mokhtar of No Pink Ponies because it was one of the first webcomics I came across when I was putting together Forsaken Stars online a couple years ago and it was great to hear he is updating again! I capped the night by catching some kick-ass live drawing by Aphex, twitter handle @Aphexangel, creator of Alembic Grimoire, “an online graphic novel steeped in dark lore and mythos from ’round the globe, all with a nice dollop humor along with Lovecraftian horror.”

Sunday–Live Drawing Clark for Mike

So if you love comics and don’t live under a rock, then you have probably heard of Mike Meyer, a Granite City man who was robbed of his lifelong Superman collection a few weeks ago. Ryan Fisher and Casey Curtis, creators of Digicon, encouraged attendees, participants, and anyone within twitter reach to create Superman art, email it to them, and they would print the pieces and send the resulting, hopefully voluminous care package to Mike. I decided to draw Tom Welling’s Clark Kent of Smallville for my gift to Mike, and set to work in one of the tinychat rooms. I got to sketch alongside Antoine Gagnon of The Drunken Fools, who was drawing a hilariously aged and drunken Superman for Mike and also to fit right along his drunken heroes series. He’s as funny as his comic and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was a really nice guy to boot. The Digicon Gods smiled upon me, and after an incredibly informative and comprehensive tutorial by Aphex on femaie anatomy, clothing and tennis shoes, I was asked if I would like to move once again, “to the big screen” and continue drawing my Superman–Clark–for Mike as a Live Panel. I jumped at the chance and was met by a warm and encouraging group of folks: Chryss Hart of Comic Action Roleplay, Hushicho, Dora, Chella Morgan of TDUGN, Casey and my girlfriend Ali, who was sitting patiently supportive throughout most of the two day event. I’ve only created a few pieces entirely digitally, so I really appreciated the compliments and cheering while I chatted about Smallville, how great the Digicon has been, comic books and inspirations like Freddy Mercury, Neal Adams and most recently, Ran Brown and Aphex!

After my time on the live panel was done, I had some pizza and continued working on Clark while also checking out Chryss’ Superman/Art Rage Live Panel. Some technical difficulties prevented me from getting back to the Digicon before it ended, but I was able to complete my Superman piece! It has been sent, along with my many thanks, to Ryan and Casey. And to everyone who participated in Digicon, thank you as well for being a part of such an enthusiastic and friendly community! And for those I didn’t get to meet, I bookmarked the Guest List and will be doing some serious webcomic reading soon!

Oh, and the panels were all recorded, so when they are made available, I will update this recap.

Peace!

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