Well, this is really belated, but I wanted to report that we really enjoyed our last convention… FreeCon in Lawrence, Kansas.  We had a good time doing the usual selling of books and sketches.  Above, you can see a video by fellow exhibitor Bethany Leslie (that’s her selling the superhero aprons) that sums it up better than I ever could.  A lot of cool people were guests for this con.  Hopefully, we can do this one again next year!  Below are some sketches…

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ALSO… to try to make up for our last few weeks of website issues, we’ll be posting something new here every day for at least the rest of June!  It will be mostly new art, with some other stuff thrown in (including a contest!).  So make sure you check back often or just subscribe to our RSS Feed!

First of all… we’re sorry for the website issues we experienced the last couple of weeks.  Someone apparently hacked some malware into our site, and it took a while to figure out what had happened and how to clean it up.  Everything is ok, now… THANKS for your patience!

Anyway, here is a new drawing that Matt did of one of his favorite characters, Link!  This will be available as a large print at any of the conventions we are at.  Speaking of conventions, the next one up for us is PROJECT COMICON in St. Louis on September 18 & 19.  This is a new con which seems to be growing fast with lots of great artists.  Hope to see some of you there!

Free Comic Book Day this last Saturday at Hurley’s Heroes was a good time.  The free comics this year were quite good (I particularly enjoyed the Fractured Fairytales and Mouseguard ones).  We did a bunch of free sketches for customers and sold some books.  Jason and Nathan Hurley were great hosts (thanks for the pizza!) and the overall vibe was really cool.  I guess free stuff puts people in a good mood!  We made some great new fans that will hopefully be returning customers for the store.  There’s nothing better than sitting around sketching with cool people like Elton, Dusty, Randy Rustin, and Chad Hindahl. Can’t wait for next year!

(Photos courtesy Jason Hurley and Chad Hindahl.)

If you didn’t know, this Saturday is the annual day where you can walk into your local comic shop and demand, “Hey!  Where’s my free comics?”  All the major publishers put out special free issues on that day.

We will be setup at Joplin’s  own Hurley’s Heroes (at 10th and Maiden Lane) for the event, along with some other cool local artists.  We’ll have all our books and prints there, and we’ll be doing sketches for customers.

You should totally stop by and say hi… and get some free stuff!  See you there!

Here are a bunch of sketches Matt and I did for the con, either for display or as commissions for fans.  It’s a lot of fun working on toned paper with the white sharpie.

This was our third Planet Comicon in Kansas City, and once again it was a great show for us.  Matt, Elton, and I (along with my wife) all made the trip up there for the weekend.  One thing we noticed was how many returning customers we had this time… people who remembered us from past shows.  That was really great.  As always, everyone likes to get sketches…

Lots of great local talent was there.  I got a caricature from the talented Lee Leslie, which was dang fun.  Our good friend (and Batman artist) Jeremy Haun was busy sketching just across the aisle from us.  Amber Stone was doing her usual watercolor commissions for people once again, as well.  I got to meet the super nice Matt Kindt, and get a signed copy of his Super Spy book.  Just a great chance to hang out with some awesome artists and fans for a weekend… you can’t beat that.  Any of you that stopped by this time… THANKS for making it a great con for us!

In part 2, I’ll have some close-ups of all those sketches we did…

One of the biggest things we’re changing at conventions this year is how we do sketches.  For the first time, we are charging for them, but we’re also doing them a bit differently.  We now do fully inked sketches on colored paper and then add some highlights with a white poster paint Sharpie.  Above you can see some examples that Matt and I did before the con, and below some actual sketches that customers requested.  Everyone really seemed to enjoy the new format!

Hopefully we can do one for you someday!  (If you’re interested in commissioning a sketch, email me for details.)

Well, yet another HurleyCon has come and gone here in Joplin.  This year felt like a real step up for us in several respects.  It was the first time we were all four there all day (promoting books that we all four did big chunks of).  We needed two tables to contain it all. We had 18 different prints for sale this time (as opposed to 4 last year) and sold quite a few more.  We were approached by a promoter to be special guests at another con (more details on that soon!), and did about double the business of the year before!

We got to hang out with the usual great local artists (Jeremy Haun, Amber Stone, and Randy Rustin), swap books with the super-talented Kyle Strahm, and get to know Brian Koschak, a Springfield artist who has worked with Jeremy and currently draws the Star Wars: Clone Wars comic.  All good people.

As always, getting to meet current readers (and make new ones) is the best part of the show.  Several of you commented that you read this blog or recognized Evil Ain’t Easy, which was pretty dang cool to hear.  These shows are pretty much the highlight of our year, and we’re glad that turnout was once again good!

I just wanted to remind all of you who live anywhere near southwest Missouri that our local comic book convention is happening once again on Saturday, March 6.  As you can see on the flyer, the usual suspects of great artists will be there and, as usual… free admission!

We will have not one, but TWO tables of stuff for you at this con.  As mentioned before, we’ll be premiering Random Ink #3 and Sketchings #3 there.  In addition to our nine books that are in print (6 comics, 3 sketchbooks), we will also have large prints for sale and free bookmarks!  We’ll definitely be doing sketches again.  Doing those and meeting some of you face-to-face is always the highlight of the show for us.

It really is a great con that keeps getting bigger and better every year.  So if you live anywhere within driving distance, you should definitely try to make it.  (You can find directions here.)  Hope to see you there!

Whew… another great con. “We’ll never forget this one.” That’s what I said many times this weekend. Matt, Laura, and I drove up in the rain Saturday morning, despite the predictions that KC was in for a snowstorm later that day. We got setup, and things were pretty slow for the first hour. But after that we were plenty busy talking to people, selling books and prints, giving away bookmarks, and doing sketches for everyone who bought something. Everyone was worried about the turnout, but the con was pretty full most of the day, even as the snow started to fall outside.

We were lucky enough to get to sit by Matt Hawkins and Kyle Strahm, two local comics guys I knew from the Comic Creators Network. Below you can see Matt, along with a sketch of him that someone requested I draw when they bought a book.


Matt was there selling a new book collection of paper toys that he and others designed called Urban Paper. You should give it a look. Check out the awesomeness below (the close-up shows the one he designed)!


Kyle Strahm was cool enough to do a Rebuker sketch for me in his style. Definitely the freakiest version of any of my characters anyone has done. I love it!

And our buddy (and fellow Joplin Sketcher) Randy Rustin was there kickin’ out some crazy watercolors…

Of course, there were a ton of great costumes there. I think Laura’s favorite part of the con is getting pictures of all of them.




The snow starting falling really hard. Apparently even Cobra Commander had to call and get a ride…

The craziest part of the trip for us was leaving the con and trying to find a gas station, some food, and our hotel. Even though we were on a main road, the snow was still piled up about 6-8 inches. We eventually got to our hotel, only to be thwarted by the tiny hill of the parking lot. Much pushing and shoveling ensued, and we were rescued by a well-timed snowplow. We collapsed and dried out in our hotel room, and Matt and I finished up some sketches that people were coming back for the next day.
Sunday was warmer and sunny… the roads were no problem. We arrived back at the con well rested, only to find it was even busier! This was weird since usually Sunday is dead compared to Saturday. A very good kind of weird.

I think our favorite part of the whole con was meeting so many of you there. The response to our books was really great… everyone seemed to find something that appealed to them. Here’s some of the awesome people who bought our stuff…

This lady teaches teaches middle school Social Studies, and her favorite character is Wonder Woman. So of course she requested a sketch of Wonder Woman teaching Social Studies. I think she liked it.





And hey, even Ash likes our books! How cool is that?

Here’s a closer of view of some sketches we did…

By Seth:

By Matt:

So, once again this was a great con. We sold way more books than we had at any other event. We took 300 bookmarks with us and came back with none. This will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.

If you were there and stopped by… we really appreciate your support and encouragement. And we hope you stick around!

P.S. A few of you never came back for your requested sketch. If you can email me your name and what you requested, I’ll snail mail those to you.