SDCC 2007

Wow ...what a week! Spending the last four days at the San Diego Comicon is,was ,and always be an experience.A Mecca shall we say of all things that are related to pop culture.I've been attending for over 25 years,and it's grown from a small show to this must-see,must -be -at event.Exhausting?Yes.Bank breaking?Yes.Will I be there in 2008?YES!For the passed couple of years I've the pleasure of spending the week with two of my closest and best friends,Gerry and Tony.What a motley trio we are.But from my Star Wars post you already know how important these"gentlemen" are to me. We arrived Wednesday for Preview night (a three hour frenzy of wanting to be in ten different places at one time. The whole week I feel like I'm missing out on something cool).Checked into the hotel and grabbed a bite at Seaport Village.We then picked up our badges and waited to enter with the sea of humanity.We were finally let in and I ran into John Zander and his son Gibson.John is Doug Jones' publicist.Truly a nice guy.Wednesday was such a blur ,ii really don't know what I did first.I think i got tickets for the 300 screening that Warner Bros. was going to have at Petco Park on Friday.Than got some tickets for the Clive Owen movie "Shoot 'Em Up".I got in line to buy the Neca Leonidas exclusive figure.Bought a couple sketchbooks that were on my list.Than I stop by and stopped by to say "Hi" to the wonderful Mignola Family .I picked up the sketchbooks and prints that Christine Mignola had put aside for me.I've started this habit of collecting mike's prints and sketchbooks with the #333 and #666.(don't ask me why..i just do,and Christine is always kind and accommodating to put them aside for me.Thanks Christine!!!) Now,this next moment just blew me away...I next said hi to Mike and he told me that he had read my comments about his fantastic novel Baltimore on the Hellboy.com messageboards.I was shocked to say the least..hoping that all my grammar was correct.Mike was very gracious to me, saying that he was very appreciative of my comments. WOW!After I collected myself ,I went on to tell him what a great novel it was .As the release comes nearer ,I'll blog about this excellent adventure,that is called Baltimore.If it's possible,after this weekend.I appreciate the Mignola Family even more.I then stopped by the J.Scott Campbell table ,but that line was waaay too long.I then decided to see if my buddy, "Spyda" Maurice was around.Let me tell you how I become associated with my friend Maurice...

TRANSFORMERS

What a summer it's been...I've spent waaaay too much $$$ watching every blockbuster that has been released.Spiderman 3....was okay.Pirates...was okay.Transformers was GREAT!!! I think even after Harry Potter's big weekend,Transformers is the movie of the summer.I even saw it twice.Once with my kids(they loved it) and the next day again with my son.We saw it at The Arclight(formally the Cinerma Dome,for us oldsters)probably THE best place to see a movie.The reason why I saw it for a second time was because the Arclight had the actual cars from the movie.I thought that my son would get a kick out of seeing the cars up close.The cars looked great.I want that Camaro.Heck, I really want the Ironhide truck(if i only had an extra 100 grand sitting around ).Well here are the pix of the cars.Enjoy!!!

Urban Assault

I've been working on a t-shirt design for my buddy Neil's possible t-shirt business.This is not final ,but this is as far as I've taken it so far. It's still in it's prelim stage...

The Simmmmmpson's....

Off the Simpson's Movie site you can make your own character...here's my self-portrait!

Sketches

Well, I've had a lot sketches that have been laying around in one state or another.so, I figured that I'd "finish" them since I have a couple of days off.I just won a couple of advanced copies of Mike and Chris Golden's Baltimore off ebay(I cannot wait to read it!) and Mike's drawings of Baltimore have inspired me to do a piece.Along with the Ofelia and the GdT t-shirt design ,I have some prelims of my Baltimore piece.

Hellboy Animated:Blood and Iron Signing

Well , it was Father's Day weekend...and things on that Saturday were pretty hectic.We were celebrating Father's Day at my brother's house.Food needed to be purchased and cooked and little errands here and there needed to be attended to, aside from the usual Saturday madness.On top of all of this, there was a signing of the Hellboy Animated DVD of Blood and Iron at Dark Delicacies in Burbank.I didn't know if I was going to get everything done in time to make the signing.But it was Father's Day after all,and "I'm" a Father ! So this signing was something that I wanted to do .I wanted to go and support the creators of the DVD,who I have had the pleasure of getting to know through out the years.There was traffic on every freeway that I needed to take in order to get there.Needless to say, I made it!(an hour and a half late,but I made it).To my surprise there was hardly anybody there.The last time out for the release of Sword of Storms ,was a sell out!This was bad for the store, but oh so good for me!The first person I see is composer extraordinaire,Chris Drake.He is the coolest! such a great and talented person but also a big geek-fanboy like me.We talked about the Star Wars Celebration IV, and his upcoming projects.What a cool cat,that Chris Drake is!Then, I had great opportunity to chat with the writer of Blood and Iron, Kevin Hopps,another cool and funny guy.Next up was my friend, Mr.Tad Stones .What a great guy he is .He is and always be the same nice person that I first met years ago.I am so happy and proud of all his success and I hope that the DVD sales numbers are great for him ,so the he can produce another Hellboy DVD.and Last but not least, the great Mike Mignola and his lovely wife,Christine and their equally lovely daughther ,Kate.Mike is such a great talent and his art and writing also inspire me.I am truly an admirer of this talented man.Every chance I get to meet him ,I'm truly in the presence of greatness.Eventhough ,I will never be the great artist he is,he inspires me to continue to put pencil to paper.A true living legend!!! All the creators were kind enough to sign all the stuff I brought with me .And I even was lucky to get a preview glimpse at the new San Diego Comicon Hellboy sketchbook and print.Wow!I was also fortunate to get a sketch from Mike and Tad.What a great Father's Day present!Thanks to Mike ,Christine ,Kate ,Tad, Kevin ,Chris,and Del of Dark Delicacies.Also a special thanks to my wife for putting up with all my Hellboy madness!!!Happy Father's Day to ME!

Star Wars 30th Anniversary

Well,I've celebrated a lot of anniversaries..I've been married for almost 20 years and have worked for the same company for about the same amount of time.All very special and dear to my heart.30 years ago today a movie changed who I was and who I would be.That movie was George Lucas' Star Wars. I grew up loving comics(Batman in particular)and I guess that laid the ground work for the future "geek" that I was to become.But this movie,with its story and its special effects would change the movie industry and not look back.I like many others of my age,got to see Star Wars for the first time on the big screen. And the place to see it was the Grauman's Chinese Theatre,where the logo was painted on the side of the wall for as long as I can remember.I went on the 91 bus that took me to Hollywood.and on that bus with me were my two friends,Gerry and Tony.We met at school while Gerry and Tony were talking about star Wars on the playground.I just happened to walk by and Tony stopped me and asked if I had seen it.and so it began...seeing the movie 13 times at the movie theatre,ditching school to stand in line for hours to see the sequels...spending hundreds if not thousands of $ on toys and other stuff.It's been a wild ride that hasn't stopped.Today,My son loves Star Wars and pretty much shares my love for all things "geeky".And I still have the two best friends a guy can have.30 years later,me ,Gerry and Tony,still get our" geek" on at the San Diego Comicon.And hopefully 30 years from now,Crazy Grandpa Gary with his two equally crazy buddies Gerry and Tony,will be blurting out lines from Star Wars.Happy 30th Anniversary My Friends!!!

Pan's Labyrinth DVD signing

Pan's Labyrinth was released this past Tuesday.My friend,Doug Jones was signing copies at The Dark Delicacies bookstore in Burbank.My buddies Tony and Gerry accompanied me Tuesday to get their DVD's signed also.I had the pleasure of meeting up with a couple of the messageboarders that night.Master Wayne from the del Toro boards and Typhon24 .It's always a fun time to chat with Dave.He and his roommate have a fantastic comicbook that they are putting together.It's cool to see how jazzed he is about this great project.It was a great turn out this time around .That's great news for Doug .He truly deserves all the success that is coming to him.I had him sign my DVD and one for my new buddy Jake who is in South Korea,serving in the Air Force.I talked to Doug briefly about his six month Hellboy2 shoot and he was excited.He looked a little tired ,but that's totally understandable considering the schedule he's had of late.And it's only gonna get busier.He told me that at this years San Diego Comicon,will have a fantastic Hellboy 2 panel.He told me that He will be there along with Mike, Guillermo,Ron and Selma.I cannot wait.Hopefully Guillermo will bring a teaser with him.Anyway,it was a blast to catch with Doug .It's always a fun and cool experience spending time with him.

Free Comic Book Day with Mike Mignola

Spent Saturday at The Golden Apple for Free Comic Book Day with the One and Only...Mike Mignola.He was there to promote the new Hellboy series "Darkness Calls".It is some of his best work ,along with the fantastic art by Duncan Fegredo.Mike was there with his wife the always nice,Christine and their daughter,Kate.I went through the line with my son about three times to get all the stuff I needed to get signed for some friends.Mike was gracious enough to honor me with a ultra cool "Anung Um Rama "sketch(probably one of the best sketches that I have recieved from him)Thanks Mike... you are the BEST!!!

A cool dude who is named...David Petersen!

Spent Sunday afternoon at the Shrine Auditorium for the monthly Sci-Fi comic con.This months guest were Rutger Hauer and the man Mouse Guard's David Petersen. David was there promoting his new trade hardback book, Mouse Guard Fall 1152.It's a great book, looks beautiful inside and out .David's storytelling , beautiful art and coloring,make this book a must-have.Personally,he is one of the genuinely nice and approachable people.Aside from being so talented artistically...he's just an all around nice guy.I spent maybe 20mins. with him and his equally pleasant and nice wife,Julia.just chit-chatting about upcoming projects and their short stay here in L.A.We also talked about all the wonderful folks on the Hellboy.com Messageboards.i was there to obviously pick up David's book ,but picked up copies for my messageboard buddies SpydaWeb(Maurice) , Bandit37(Jake) and my friend,Bobby from Crazy Cat Comics.David was gracious enough to sign and sketch in our books , he also did a sweet Hellboy sketch in my Hellboy sketchbook.Basically ,the more people I meet whether it be from the messageboards or from the industry have been all positive.Sunday was just another positive and memorable experiece.Thanks David!!!

Self-Portrait

Bored at work...self-portrait on a napkin!

The Hourglass

Here's a sketch inspired by Pan's Labyrinth ...I call the Hourglass

Another Pan

Here's another Pan sketch done on a napkin while I was bored .