Detective Comics #864 is on sale this week! Feels like it’s been ages since I did any covers. I’ve been producing really tight sketches lately, and for this one, I actually just enlarged it and printed in blueline. I did touch up the lettering and some figure rendering in pencil before inking, and the last minute addition of the leaves and moon really pulled it all together. Click on the image for the original sketch, inks and colors.

C2E2 turned out to be a solid, fun first-year show, and a wonderful opportunity to finally meet and talk to some Midwestern comics fans. It’s easy to forget that not everyone makes it to the big shows in San Diego or New York, and in the future I’m going to do my best to visit other parts of the country.  Artists Alley was spacious and comfortable, and I think the organizers did a fantastic job. I’m looking forward to next year (especially if it means I can eat more pork belly at Publican). Special thanks to Jill Thompson and all the fine folks at Threadless — we announced our t-shirt project and I can’t wait to see the shirts when we debut them at San Diego Comic-Con! Thanks to everyone who came to the table. The new sketchbooks and prints were a success! I still managed to get some drawing done too, and there were a bunch of doubles this time: 2 Kitty Prydes, 2 Black Canary’s (and if I hadn’t run out of time, 2 Mockingbirds – sweet!). It was a great start to the convention season! Next stop, HeroesCon!

Brave and the Bold #33 is on sale this week. After working on Greendale for more than a year, this is my first superhero book in quite a while. I’m trying to loosen up my inks, but it’s a slow process. Moving away from the dead line outline approach I was using before, I found some inspiration in newspaper strips like Friday Foster by Jorge Longaron and the really great Wonder Woman work by Carmine Infantino and the dearly-departed Dick Giordano, as well as other art by Jordi Bernet and Jorge Zaffino. I’m inking with the Namiki Falcon fountain pen, which feels wonderfully like an extension of my hand. The end results remind me a bit of Milo Manara, and I’m eager to see where more experimentation takes me. Speaking of experimentation, there’s an interesting little trick that writer J. Michael Straczynski cooked up later in the book to put you in the character’s POV, in the moment. When you get to the double page spread, trying folding the pages so the word balloon is whole (almost like a Mad fold-in). Let me know if it works! You can check out a 5 page preview at DC’s Source blog.

Chicago is! This weekend I’ll be at C2E2, and you can find me in Artists Alley at Table #R7.  I’m bringing my brand new sketchbook and some fancy new art prints, too.  Here’s my schedule — and stay tuned for a special announcement on Saturday at 2pm. I’m really excited for it!

FRIDAY, 4/16
3:15-4:15pm: PANEL – VERTIGO (room E451)

SATURDAY, 4/17
12-1pm: SIGNING – DC booth (#630)

SUNDAY, 4/18
11:30am-12:30pm: SIGNING – DC booth (#630)

I recently contributed these 2 pieces to the ImaginAsian fundraiser. Other contributors include Bernard Chang, Jerry Ma, and Larry Hama, among many others! The first image will be part of the permanent collection, and will be exhibited April 2-May 9 at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation in Lafayette, IN. The second image will be part of a series of auctions starting April 9 on eBay. All proceeds will go towards the purchase of Asian American Studies materials for the Purdue University Libraries.For the latest info and some of the contributors’ stories behind their submissions, you can follow the ImaginAsian group on Facebook.

UPDATE: You can find all the auction items here on eBay, including mine. New items will be added every few days, so check back often!