New shirt design

Hi there! Here's my new t-shirt design, to debut in October at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. This is the raw artwork so stay tuned for a glimpse at the finished shirt before the show.

I'm stupidly excited about this one, I just want to wear it. I hope you do too!

- Michael

Thank you Sergio Toppi

Whenever someone asks who my favorite artists are I say there are four, these four were love at first sight and I remember the exact moment I discovered each. Today we lost one of those four; let me tell you about the first time I laid eyes on the work of Sergio Toppi.

It was my junior year at art school, at this point I was becoming somewhat confident in the kind of art I liked and felt like I was becoming fairly well informed on what was out there at the moment. I already had three loves (I'll detail those other three at a later date). One day I was visiting Barron Storey's sequential class during a break, Barron always brings a stack of books from his library to share with the class. I was thumbing through them, I'd seen most of it before by now; when suddenly my eyes came to rest on this.

My hands flash out, I flip the book open and I fall. I fall head over heels in love. I can't really describe the feeling, best I can say is that I was consumed, I just fell into the pages. Nothing else existed, the class began again around me. When I came to my senses; I asked Barron if I could borrow the book. He looked pained, like I might be a toddler about to excitedly tear through the book with jammy hands, but after a moment's hesitation he said yes. The ride home was a blur as I poured over the book on the bus, the evening disappeared as I studied and studied.

I know I've been rambling, honestly I don't know how else to articulate my feelings for Mr. Toppi's art. Elsewhere you will find writings about Toppi's amazing page layouts and his mastery of line and texture. I don't have to tell you how amazing the art is, you can see that for yourself, all I can tell you about is the effect the art had on me. Toppi's books were hard to acquire here, Stuart Ng was the only place I could find them (Stuart is the nicest guy ever by the way). Every year I would pick up a few new Toppi books at which ever convention I found Stuart's booth at, I can't even read the books (they are in French and Italian) but they tell the story just as well with or without words.

This year has been brutal on the collective art wisdom of the world, but this one stings the most for me. Goodbye Sergio Toppi, thank you.

 

Chicago Comic Con!

Chicago, you're a cool place! Last weekend I attended my first BIG convention, Wizard World Chicago. It was easily my most successful convention so far in many ways.

There is a certain pageantry that goes with a big comic convention, epic voiced announcer riling up the crowd at the start of the day, intermittent hall wide cheering as Stan Lee walks in, legendary duals and photo ops with fictional characters come to life. I've been to these before, I've seen it before but it's something different to be fixed within it; just watching it go.
The joy of watching countless people united by the collective freedom of letting their nerd flag fly for a few days!

Some photo highlights!

You know your doing okay when all the Bat Girls buy your stuff!

My stuff about to head onto a Corellian Corvette to a galaxy far far away

 Two of the commissions I took on while at the show. Tons of fun to try and whip out something good on the spot.

I met so many awesome people last weekend, I still have a hard time believing that my work was eliciting such a positive reaction from people. Thank you so much for your support and kind words Chicago!

I also made many new art friends at the show, check out of their stuff at some of the links below:

Jason Keith Phillips of mayonnaiseandbread.com

Amazing web comic by Daniel Warren www.space-mullet.com
The awesome inking of Edmond Lee edmond.artistwebsites.com
My Bay Area colleague Jenny Parks http://www.jennyparks.com/
The off kilter cuteness of the Little Brass Bird www.littlebrassbird.com
My hosts for the trip, the truly excellent Tyrell Cannon and Tina Chan! See Tyrell's amazing comic work at www.tyrellcannon.com and Tina's beautiful Jewelery here http://tytinjewelry.blogspot.com/

I met many more but I can't remember everyone's links! Let me know if I missed you.

Again thank you everyone I met in Chicago, great people and an amazing place. My next show will be back home for APE in San Francisco.

Wet and Soggy for my one day out and about! Gee thanks Chicago weather!

Love,
Michael

The Darkness...

Hello!

A new piece I did for an up coming book, "The Darkness of the Womb" by Richard Knight. I don't know if anyone else has ever depicted a whale sized umbilical cord monster, I'm happy to be the first to bring this unto the world. 

-Michael

After Spectrum Live

Hey everyone,

I just had the most amazing weekend. It was full of excitement, nerves and lots of introspection but mostly it was full of love. It was Spectrum Fantastical Art Live and it was amazing.

As artists much of our time is spent holed up in caves; dreaming. We have imaginary friends whom we write to and sometimes talk to through an intangible network of tubes. This weekend I realized that all my friends are real; that my idols are amazing, kind people and that we all love what we do. Days later I'm still buzzing on this realization and even though I haven't had much sleep lately I can hardly keep my eyes closed, I'm still so excited.

Below is a quick photo log of the weekend. I didn't get to take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to, to busy being flabbergasted by the majesty of it all.   

 

Our humble booth.

 

Dealing with the pressure.

 

The just view outside the convention hall, Kansas City is full of these amazing views.

The Midland theater where the first ever Spectrum Awards show took place, jaw dropping.

Jack Stacks Celebratory dinner!

Colin, myself and Brynn in the last minutes of the show (Thanks Steven for the photo)

I want to thank the Fenners for making such a thing possible and for running such a smooth show!

Thanks to my booth mates Brynn Metheney and Colin Nitta for making every part of the experience so fun. And thanks so everyone who I met at the show for the support, kind words and inspiration. I hope to see you all next year.

Love, 

Michael

Spectrum Art Live!

Hi Guys,

Just a quick reminder that I will be at Spectrum Art Live this weekend. Armed with prints and some original art. I'll be sharing a booth with my esteemed colleagues Brynn Metheney and Colin Nitta. Please drop by and say hi! Its going to be amazing!

Flyer by Brynn Metheney