Hard to believe it’s convention season again! About to head out for HeroesCon this weekend, but I wanted to put up some of the sketches from the recent NY shows.  We’ve got a few headshots I did for fundraising at MoCCA as well as some pieces from the Big Apple Con. (If anybody else from MoCCA has scans of the sketches I did, send ‘em in and I’ll add them to the post.) Special thanks to Elan Bosworth from MoCCA and Allan Rosenberg from Big Apple for running things so smoothly.

For those of you going to Charlotte, I’ll be at table 631, right next to my good friends THE BLVD. I’ll have my banner this year, so I should be easy to spot. See you there!

Who doesn’t love Elektra:Assassin? Or Jennifer Beals, for that matter? Originally, this was going to be Elektra on a rooftop with dead ninja at her feet, but luckily I remembered that classic honeymoon suite scene, which allowed me to throw in some more comic references.

This was a blast to draw. After years of brush inking, it was liberating to grab a pen and just mess around. I think the brilliant source material inspired me to experiment and play with the look of the piece, and it turned out to be a great learning experience. I’ve still got a few more ideas for other album covers that I’ll get to soon.

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Here’s a preliminary character sketch for the piece I drew in Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, based on a concept by actress Kelly Hu and Mark Allen. In stores now, Secret Identities is the “first-ever graphic novel collection of original stories exploring the universe of masked marvels and caped crusaders from the perspective of the nation’s fastest-growing and most dynamic emerging community” (from the SI website). There’s some really wonderful work here from people like Greg Pak, Bernard Chang, Christine Norrie, Gene Yang and Sonny Liew, among many others. I’m really happy for editors Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma. They’ve put a lot of love and hard work into this and it’s great to see the attention it is getting and impact it has already made. Special shout out to The New Press editor Sarah Fan for introducing me to the guys!

There’s also a short documentary about the book at the SI blog. Take a peek and go buy a copy today!

There’s a series of eBay auctions beginning this week that I’d like to draw some attention to. I’ve joined a group of comic creators trying to raise funds for a friend’s hospital costs, and anything we collect beyond that will be donated to the HERO Initiative, a non-profit charity that offers assistance to comic creators in need. The auctions are under the seller name artfriends2009.   There will be some fantastic items from a stellar list of artists, including Adam Hughes, Amanda Conner, Nic Klein, Esad Ribic, Cameron Stewart and Darwyn Cooke.

I’ll be donating the cover artwork for Green Arrow & Black Canary #12, which is the LAST AVAILABLE COVER featuring full-body drawings of the title characters.  The rest are in collector’s hands already, so get it while you can. I’ll update this post with listings as they come online. These auctions are a great opportunity to support a worthy cause and pick up some nifty art in the process. If you’re feeling particularly generous, we’re also accepting donations at artfriends2009@gmail.com via paypal.

UPDATE: I can happily confirm that, after eBay and Paypal fees, we’ve managed to meet our goal and that our friend will be able to pay off his hospital bills. We’re thrilled and would like to thank everyone who donated items for their hard work and generosity, all the blogs and websites that helped us get the word out there, and of course, all the buyers who supported our cause during these uncertain economic times. Bravo!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the table this past weekend.  It was great to see all the double takes when people saw the Batgirl piece — look for more of that kind of thing this summer. I plan on laying low until Heroes Con in June (see the signings link), but that should give me some time to come up with a few more pieces. Thanks, too, for all the wonderful sketch requests.  Here’s this year’s batch!

Finally, some new artwork! I recently finished the poster for True Adolescents, an independent film making its premiere at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival in March. Starring Academy Award nominee Melissa Leo and mumblecore icon Mark Duplass, it follows our “hero” Sam, an aging Seattle rocker who takes 2 teenage kids camping and quickly finds he has to man up in the face of the elements. It’s a funny, charming and heartfelt movie and I’m looking forward to it getting the recognition it deserves.

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Just a quick update: I will be at the New York Comic Con next week.  You can find me in Artists Alley at table J18 and at the DC booth (Fri 2-3, Sat 1-2, Sun 4-5).  I’ll be doing commissioned sketches and will have some limited goodies, too. While we’re on the topic, check out the “signings” link for my upcoming convention schedule. See you there!