"I Make Stuff Up."

Planet Comicon was fantastic! Unfortunately, I missed the first day of the show but Saturday and Sunday more than made up for it. Many thanks to Cal Pierce and Rob Davis for helping me get into the show with such short notice. I met some great people and got to hang out with friends that I don’t get to see that often including Abrahm Akin, who was kind enough to share his table with me. The size of the show was perfect. Unlike some other conventions I have been to, you could actually take a couple of steps without bumping into someone. I’m not sure if they planned this and restricted ticket sales or didn’t sell as many tickets as they would have liked it, but I’m sure it made it more enjoyable for the attendees. I hope I can make it back for next year’s show.

How are you guys and gals? I meant to post this earlier, but this month has been hectic and I just kept putting it off. Full disclosure, I’m a huge procrastinator; so much so in fact, that I’m using this post as an excuse for not doing something else I should be doing right now. Seriously, I could teach a class in procrastination. Enough about that though, this post is supposed to be about the FoCo Comics and Gaming Festival, which for the second time was put on by Colorado State University and Ram Events. Since the show had performed better than expected during it’s first year, they increased the budget, which enabled them to bring in some guests from out of state and they also moved the event to a larger venue on the CSU campus. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who came for the show considering that it was on a Sunday only.

Okay, time for me to get back to what I was supposed to be doing. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the fun I had at Planet Comicon…unless I end up procrastinating again, in which case it may be several days from now.

Stay Awesome! -TJ

Well, it’s been a few days since I got back from the Salt Lake Comic Con and I still feel like I haven’t recovered completely. It probably wasn’t the best idea for us to drive back to Colorado immediately after the convention was over. I’d originally planned to share some of the driving with my travelling companions but everyone else looked so beat, I decided to drive the entire way. We got home around 5 in the morning Sunday and I slept for over half the day.  

The convention was a lot of fun but there were still a few hiccups. Several members of the staff seemed to be confused as to where things were in the convention center and some people complained to me that they were stuck waiting outside for three hours to get in after the convention had already started. SLCC is still a fairly new con though, I’m sure they will continue to improve in the years to come.

Overall, I had a great time and got to meet a lot of nice folks while I was there. Salt Lake City seems to be full of them. -TJ

Check out my pal, Ulises’ variant cover for Captain America- Living Legend! It will beam awesomeness directly into your eyeballs!

When the Denver Comic-Con was held for the first time last year I thought the crowd that showed up was rather impressive. This year the crowd had nearly doubled in size. I was really pleased that the Artist Alley was in the center of the hall rather than off in a far corner or separate annex as it has been in some of the previous conventions I’ve attended. We sold more comics at this convention than any other to date and I’m sure that the layout had a hand in that. For the most part though, I believe it was the support of several friends and fans plugging our new book, WICKED AWESOME TALES, at their own tables and through social media -that made this happen. If you were one of those good folks, I just want to say: “Thank you.”

If you were unable to make it to the Denver Comic-Con this year and would like to purchase a copy of WICKED AWESOME TALES, you can get it here. -TJ

Had a great time at ComicFest 2013 last weekend! It’s small, as far as conventions go, but that is part of the appeal. Most of the talent in the Artist Alley is local so I got to hang out with some old friends, while making a few new ones as well.

Saturday night was especially eventful as it marked the last one my good friend (and amazing artist), Jeff Herndon, would spend as a single man. We commemorated this event with a low-key bachelor party which consisted of dinner and watching people in costume get-down at the Federation Ball.

Enough about my awesome weekend, here is a page from a short ghost story I wrote called “The Paranormal Consultant”. It will be in two different anthologies, the first of which you should be able to pick up at the Denver Comic-Con next month. Art by Jeremy McHugh. Lettering by James Gaubatz.

Several months back the editor of Excelsior Webcomics asked me if I would write a Black Bat story for them. At the time my knowledge of the character was limited. I’d only heard about him previously because of his similarities to Batman. After doing some research, I learned a great deal more about the Black Bat. One interesting fact was that the fins on Batman’s gauntlets were inspired by ones that the Black Bat once wore. However, Marvel’s Daredevil actually shares more in common with the Black Bat than the Dark Knight does. For instance, both happen to be blind lawyers that fight crime as costumed vigilantes and have unique abilities that allow them to see in the dark. The form of justice the Black Bat dispenses is of a much more lethal kind though, meaning the bad guys rarely make it to jail. Anyway, after my history lesson, I was really excited about working with this character. Here are a couple of pages from the story I put together. Enjoy!
Art by Lee Oaks. Lettered by James Gaubatz.