Hellebration 2008

WOW! WOW!WOW!

What can i say?It's been a week of truly memorable experiences.

let's start at the beginning...back in 2004 ,I was lucky enough to attend the First Hellebration.Thanks in part to Maurice (Spyda).

like this time around...we (the fans) were treated like royalty.special treatment all the way.

Had an exclusive meet and greet with Guillermo del Toro,Mike Mignola, and Hellboy himself Ron Perlman.We all shared dinner at The Buddah's Belly in Hollywood.don't remember eating much.I think I was awestruck to be in the presence of my heroes.Tales were exchanged and fun times were shared.Here was the genesis that would be the start of my friendships with my fellow Hellions.I had met Rick Cortes briefly,prior to this dinner and have since forged a friendship that still still intact today.I think that other than introducing myself to Maurice that first time ,didn't have much interaction that evening.spent most of my time with Andrea and Paul Delaney my table mates.pictures were taken ,swag was given, and hugs were exchanged.Speaking of pictures being taken,a guy was there to save the day for me and take a picture of Me, Guillermo, and Mike.That man is the one and only Kirk Nelson.A man who still to this day is one of my buddies whose friendship i hold dear.

The next day we all attended WizardWorld..here's where I i got to know my buddy Maurice better we hung out pretty much all day.it was fun.we all stood in line to get autographs from Guillermo,Mike, Ron, and Selma(i think this is where Maurice's love affair with Selma began).

We then attended the press and preview screening on Hellboy.It was the drive down to the theatre that i got to know another of my dearest friends Helen Chavez and Pat Paone.We shared free refreshments and laughs during the screening.We all ended the evening with our very own private Q &A with del Toro over pizza and beverages at The Soffitel Hotel in Hollywood.I hated the evening to end ,but we all knew that it was bound to happen.we shared hugs again and vowed to keep in touch and to this day my friendships with all these fine folks are stronger that ever.

Babe Tour Part I

Those who know me ...know that i go to alot of signings....and i mean ALOT of signings.so the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy.It started last Saturday.My son and i are BIG Star Wars fans .Well at the weekly con that we go to there gonna be a coupple of people from the Star Wars universe....One of them was Ray Park,he played Darth Maul. and another one was a weird choice,( i guess the whole everyone gets 15 mins. concept is working here) was the Stormtrooper that said the "famous" line "These aren't the droids we're looking for" was there and he would tell anyone his story about his claim to fame.After a pit stop at home we left for the signing and premiere of the new Fox series Terminator:The Sarah Conner Chronicles.This was at the Golden Apple comics store(one of my favorite shops)Lena Headey(Queen Gorgo of 300, Summer Glau(Firefly),Tom Dekker(Heroes) were all in attendance.we got there just in time they had capped the line...but I know the owner and he let us in.Thanks Ryan!I talked to Summer(Cute!) for a bit and told her that I had seen her that week on the KTLA Morning News...she said that it was a weird experience because not only did she promote the show she sat in and talked about current events(something different for her)Then I talked to Lena (Cute!)...she was cool and signed all my stuff.It was a cool event except for the handlers ...i know that they are there to represent the studio and the talent but the body guards were kinda rude to folks and the stars were disturbed by the way the bodyguards were acting,,,still a cool event though.Last stp on our tour that day was a gallery opening for artwork inspired by Bruce Lee.I am a BIG Bruce Lee fan I grew up watching all the movies and tv shows.and would always do the whole Bruce Lee imitation"WAAA-TAH!"(yeah i know...I'm weird...my kids always remind me of that)The Gallery was cool and the reason for being there was to meet Bruce Lee's daughter ,Shannon(Cute!)..she was cordial and very attentive cool lady.She signed a print for me of one of the lithographs ..well that's week one...i'll post on week two in a couple of days

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.