We are a year-round, geek and pop culture convention in blog form -- spotlighting artists, vendors, cosplayers and geek-themed nonprofits from cons across the country.
This guy! It has taken me a bit of forever to spotlight the fantastic work of all-around awesome artist Mike Maihack.
Mike is a graduate from the Columbus College of Art and Design who spends his time - as his bio says - "drawing pictures of cats, superheroes, space girls or just about anything else he can think of that might involve rayguns or serving tea." That, folks, is a sentiment that the cat-loving, sci-fi geeks who populate this blog can get solidly behind. There's not enough rayguns in the world. I have to settle for my wife's hairdryer.
Mike created a webcomic called Cow & Buffalo,and has contributed art and stories to books like Jim Henson's The Storyteller; Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities; and the Eisner and Harvey award-winning Comic Book Tattoo. But the work we know him best from is Cleopatra in Space, a webcomic he wrote from 2009-2012, which is now a graphic novel series published by Scholastic/Graphix. In it, a 15-year old Cleopatra has been whisked away from ancient Egypt and flung into the far-future where a prophecy says she will one day be the savior of the galaxy. So long as she passes school and avoids detention.
Pew Pew!
The first time we met Mike, Rosa scooped up one of his pieces of fan art, a Where the Wild Things Are print. Since then, we have bought Harry Potter prints, X-Men art and fan art from Miyazaki films ... admittedly, we go a little crazy for his work. It's hard not to, when every image evokes heart or playfulness or both. Much of his art involves female characters: his own protagonists, well-known superheroes and literary figures. And no matter how cute or youthful, each image also evokes smarts, toughness and a depth of personality. His work has recently hit a serious note with fans in the form of his Batgirl/Supergirl fancomics, which hilariously and sweetly paint the two heroes as pals - admittedly with different priorities.
This is the only Supergirl comic I can stand anymore!
A few years ago, I was finally smart enough to commission a piece. This Princess Leia image was for a tattoo I was, and am still, planning to get.
I find that I might overuse the term down-to-earth to describe some of the artists I have met since going to cons and since starting the blog. But there's a reason for it. Folks like Mike have always managed to be friendly, approachable and excited to talk with complete strangers about their work and their own fandom. It's part of why I keep coming back, frankly. I'm excited to visit his table again at Baltimore ComicCon - hopefully you will too - and in the meantime, check out his website.
At Awesome-Con we ran into one of our favorite artists, whom we had previously met at Baltimore ComicCon 2013. Tracie Ching is a
self-taught graphic designer in Washington, D.C. She is the Lead Designer and Creative
Director for the premier ultimate Frisbee apparel company, VC Ultimate. Additionally, she has produced licensed posters for some small-time, no-name properties
such as Star Trek,
AMC’s The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, and my personal favorite, Community. Her limited edition silk screen prints of
alternative movie posters are also massive fan-favorites. Jason and I must have spent a half hour, excitedly pointing out what movies she had posters of at her booth, you know in case she forgot!
Looking at her portfolio, it's no wonder some of the most massive franchises in geek culture seek her out. There's a brilliant quality to her vector work, where she combines the precision necessary to make photo-real images with a clear style and vision to make the pieces all her own.
Plus, her art epitomizes one of the things I tell people about geek and pop-culture conventions like Awesome-Con, even if you're not a comics, sci-fi or fantasy person, there is something for you. Tracie's vision is not restricted to the self-imposed walls of geek culture. She's got something for sports fans, classic book fans and if you're a fan of Scorsese films, you reeeeaaally want to check out her website.
Also she is incredibly nice. Which, when combined with talent is dangerous to my wallet.
Reasons I love my wife, #238:
She bought me a pile of Tracie Ching's stickers
Not quite this big, but still.
From Tracie's "Scorsese's Saints" series
A sneak peek at this year's Christmas present to my brother.
Visit her website (and buy everything!) And like her on the Facebooks.
When we visited with April Alayne at Baltimore Comic-Con, it became clear that she probably needed three or four booths, based on just how much she does and how good she is at it.
One look at her website, you can see how much that really is. Not just her pen or brush work on paper; she also creates classic-looking jewelry (often featuring her artwork in pendant form.) She up-cycles clothing - particularly vintage-style dresses, she also creates adorable pillowcases, designs tattoos, and she's a photographer and cosmetologist. (it's entirely possible I forgot about 30-40 other things she does)
It leads me to believe that someday she could be shooting photos of someone she did makeup for, who is wearing her designed clothing and jewelry, and sporting a tattoo she created...
Whether watercolor, acrylic, ink or ... I dunno ... mashed potatoes and hair clippings, her work makes a statement: classically beautiful, twisted and dark or gorgeously strange. Her ink work is almost photo real. OH RIGHT. I almost forgot; she makes three-dimensional art using shed deer antlers. Oh, and it's even cooler than it sounds.
What did I tell you?!
Slumber Jacks!
Well, of course I was going to find a Wonder Woman to
post here! And it's a whole lot of awesome!
If octopus hairdos start to catch on, this will be why.
At the convention April was sweet and friendly with a great sense of humor. Rosa got a sweet sea monster pendant. If you're reading this while it's still holiday season, you may not have to shop anywhere else.
This friendly fellow is Chris Hamer, an Atlanta-based artist we met at Baltimore Comic-Con.
A tireless creative mind, he has a massive library of digital art, paintings and mixed media work you can find at his website, Urbnpop.
His sometimes-sketchy, stylized lines make established pop-culture icons come alive with personality and dimension.
Vader is not pleased.
And by incorporating and sometimes distressing photos, book covers and paintings he creates an unexpected depth and coolness to his work.
We're fans of pinup. Scratch that.
We're a little fanatical about pinup around here.
It's fun when artists can combine pinup art with comic book and geek culture. We've covered artists such as Erica Hesse and the 1800s burlesque pinup of Michael Dooney and we're big fans of Baltimore Comic-Con staple Paigey. Maria Danalakis brings something fresh and cool to the genre. (Is sexy and flirty also allowed to be cute? Looks like it!) She is a designer of children's wear and has an extensive gallery of greeting and birthday cards. She takes that talent for clean, simple and playful design into her pop culture artwork as well.
"I memorized all of these books!"
I got to her table late on the second day of the Baltimore Con, which was a big frickin' mistake! But missing her would have been a bigger one. There was a lot to take in, including pinups and alt looks of some of my favorite comic book characters. I was trying to come to a decision when the PA system announced that I had been employing poor time-management skills and fifteen minutes to wrap it up, because there was still a T-shirt I needed to get. I think that's what the lady literally said - it was an oddly specific PA message.
Luckily for me, among the merchandise was a sticker sheet (seriously, how cool is that?) of my favorite DC ladies - pinup style. Easy decision. And I came away much happier than I did from the T-shirt purchase. Now I have to figure out where to put my stickers ... I don't have a trapper-keeper anymore.
If you don't love 50s pinup cheerleader Supergirl,
I'm not sure I want to know you.
It's been two weeks since Baltimore ComicCon and the one-year anniversary of our blog. I started the summer with a small dose of writers block, but happily, we are back.
Until recently , I only had a loose understanding of who Zatanna was. (magicial's assistant...? burlesque performer...?) In fact, a year ago, walking around Baltimore ComicCon, I am not sure I could tell the difference between a Ms. Marvel, Black Canary or a Zatanna costume if it wasn't for the top hat.
Since then, I have scooped up and read a metric ton of DC comics, both old and new and am now aware that Ms. Z is one of the most powerful magicians in that universe, who can pretty much make anything happen magically - provided she can say the command backwards. (like some sort of magicians' field sobriety test.)
Most recently, however, our top-hatted hero has made a habit of pissing me off as the one playable character in the superhero fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us whom I can not beat anyone with; yet anyone who plays her against me can shut me down in like 90 seconds. And because she is voiced by Lacey Chabert, I can't help but think of Zatanna as a member of the cast of Mean Girls.
Zatanna, stop trying to make "fetch" happen. It's not going to happen.
Cosplay character trends are a crazy thing. A year ago, I saw at least a dozen each of Harley Quinns and Poison Ivys. But this year, it was Zatanna who ruled the day. let's have a look.
No jacket.
Advantage: Full range of motion when casting spells.
Disadvantage: Chilly arms!
She's warmer now. Love the tails!
But what collar is this bow tie attached to?!
Zatanna has gone rogue, chilling with a pack of DC lady villains.
(and one of the coolest Riddlers ever)
Beautiful! But when tempted to stare at a
magician's cleavage, remember that she can
turn you into a frog!
More villain chillin'. This Z is hanging with a
steampunk Catwoman.
Power couple!
teprac neerg ylgu!
No top hat? No bow tie!? This Zatanna is terrib--
Ohhhh. Yeah. my bad. I'm still not good at this.
