Tales from the Scratch Pad: New Comics, New Prints, New T-shirts = NEW YEAR

Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest,
Well depending on when I can get back this next month and half is gonna be some of the busiest time of the year for the kid.

Now the BIG 500 is always been a big deal for me because it gave me the chance to get my art work out to an audience that I hadn't had access to for a long time (if ever). Being able to make work and sell it appealed to me like nothing else and getting appreciation for the work that I had done even more so.

SO when this shows comes around I feel obligated to really bring my best work forward. But over the last year things and self perception of my work the art has changed how I look presenting my work now. The biggest difference is that I am mounting prints to the wooden panels rather than original pieces of scratchboard this time. It was pointed out to me that I wasn't thinking big enough to really make any money if I kept selling the original artwork and didn't have anything to show later on when I get another show -solo or otherwise.

With that in mind I took images that I ripped out during this inktober last month and adopted some of the better images I had rendered and put them to scratchboard and clayboard with color.

This way if a piece sold I still would retain that original with a much higher price and the reproduction would sell for the lesser price of what has been selling for the last couple of years. Maximizing the selling potential for me and allowing at the same time to be able to increase my prices for my work without any hangups (even if the pieces are the same size).

I've had a number of friends telling me and saying that I need to up my pricing on the artwork. I agree with most of it but it seemed to me that if I brought it up to fast it would turn off potential buyers. But the sense I have currently is that most art collectors and the way they are buying the work don't seem to have those issues as they once did in years past. The internet and society have changed the landscape how artwork is bought, traded and sold.
A artist has to adapt to this ever changing world.

The color work is something that is new to the work as well. Now I have in the past played around with the idea of adding color to some of the work but this time around I

decided to make it even more predominate in the work. Now some of this new work is mono chromatic in nature but there are shades that when scraping off the top layers of ink.
So I guess when you think about it time will tell.

ALONG WITH THE COLOR.....
I have been taking the color images that I have been doing and transposing those images to the t-shirt stuff I have gotten into of late. It's been fun but we'll see if I have a few more images to post before the end of the year. Checkout the tees up for sale here.

AND AS YOU WOULD HAVE IT.. the comics!
As I have now managed to get things worked out with Ka-blam Publishing for releasing my comic books on the web store like they should have instead of holding my books hostage so no one could ever see them.
At least that's the way I saw it. Bogus stuff but if there was going to be legal ramifications for not filling out some paper work I would be the sole individual to deal with it not Ka-blam.

Regardless of that the comics are now making me itch for getting the rest of Corrax the Seeker back out there and make a combination omnibus of Johnny Vega and Corrax the Seeker into one book. And possibly even the newer version of Corrax because he needed a revamping. I still have a love for that beaked headed hero.

The biggest issue that I have right now is the fact that the holidays cause some real issues with me getting any kind of response from them. The only one that I have had is that they received my w9 form. But nothing else. And of course this came around the time that Thanksgiving rolled around so I should have known better. But it is done and I do hope to have a link here soon for those older comic books and any new ones coming down the road.

My comic book dreams are never far from my mind. I love them dearly and owe so much to the comics that I collected as a child. Though in resent times finding a good comic to get behind and actually collect is a different thing all together.
I just want to give a medium something back that it has given me enjoyment and allowed me to expand my knowledge.

THERE WAS A CHALLENGE...
Issued out to me recently by one of my oldest friends about illustrating a wordless story much like Lynd Ward did back in the 1930's with a story I could get behind. I had a year to plan for this and handing over a manuscript over at the beginning of 2017.

War of the Worlds by Edward Gorey

This image is from a illustrated version of the War of the Worlds by Edward Gorey from 1960.

Darkhorse edition of War of the Worlds

The story has been illustrated numberious times over the years by artists and always the classical version of Well's story.

This time around the challenge that was issued to me was to adapt a story that I really liked.
I pick a story, a famous one too War of the Worlds. HOWEVER there would be a twist to this the story illustrated would be based upon the 1938 radio broadcast not 19th century story by H.G. Wells himself.
As far as I know no one has done that before.
SO I WILL BE doing some research on this topic.


The tripods near Big Ben Alan Bennett ©2013

I have downloaded the the CBS Radio recording of the War of the Worlds and listened to Orson Wells and the rest of the cast play out they're fictional alien invasion.

After listening to it I could see why there were so many people freaked out by it. And I can see/ hear the realism in the voices of the players.

It set a presentient that there would be warnings to general public that a faux broadcast would never totally be presented as the real thing. I think that this is where the other adaptions of this story differ.

And as always there are places for you to check out as well.
Etsy

Big Cartel

Storenvy