Signings, Museums, Birth of an Isz, and a Nemesis Cover.

Hey gang,


Afraid I needed to take a full month off from posting, and re-charge my batteries after the store signing. But, I do wanna THANKS EVERYONE of you who stopped by - wow, too many to mention by name!!!!  It was the best twohour signing (that turned into nine hours!)  - course that extra time was added by my doing few extra sketches which clogged the line, but we managed to get everyone in - signing and sketches, and my apologies for those who didn't make it in this round. ( if there is another 'round'... whew.. this one left me winded!)

Plus,  I was told that by sundown this line was almost wrapped around the whole friggin' building - yikes! So much for my stupidly sweating no one would show up. I'm always clueless about these things.  

Thanks to Dave Downy and his crew, the Signature guys were all cool and even my mom got a chance get a ring side seat to check these things out.  It all went beyond my wildest expectations, and I have all of YOU guys/gals to thanks for your endless patience.  Remember I got to sit on my butt and sign, while you guys had the harder job of standing in line! - For which I am eternally grateful.

But,  enough already. But, yeah... beyond awesome. ( not me, YOU guys!)

______

In other public news, here's some preview examples for how the Retrospective Comic Art Museum art book will look. Their printing a 96 page museum book which will catalogue all the pieces in the show. Kinda in four parts, 1) Marvel - DC stuff, 2) Maxx stuff, 3) Later Paintings and 4) Trout Antiques.  So an overview of all my crap. The size specs in this sample aren't right, this is just a rough John Butler is finishing as you read this.

However, still hammering out a NEW date for a Comic Art Museum reception ( which doesn't have to line up with the art opening)... maybe end of Feb? Or possibly into April. Stay tuned for a solid reception date.

______

Okay, enough plugging of stuff.  Back to throwing something else interesting to look at.

Here's an old drawing of an Isz I used on business cards i printed up back before i broke into comics.  ( thus the ink and brush) - Kinda silly as most editors I rarely met in person, only through phone or snail mail.

Also here's an old Isz story I drew for the Fantagraphic Comic called 'Anything Goes'.

This is as close to a phallic mythological of the birth of an Isz... long before it later appeared in the Maxx.

Still struggling with women's faces here.

Not so much a story as an excuse to shamelessly sticking Isz in the funny animal Critters comics. Even though Isz aren't really an 'animals', are they? Wandering Stars. Where ever I could plug him in.

Nobody seem to care, but back then...

...there wasn't much to say about something weird little thing...with no eyes and a shaft for a body, was there?

Just kinda.... strange looking thing.

Most of these Isz stories were reprinted in the two I Before E collections, but i though it might be cool to see these pages up close.

I also dug up these blue lines of the art  I hand colored too.


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And here's a old Nemesis cover.  I may have posted this before... not sure.

(above) is a splash page Moebius did in his Aedena Cycle story, which is what inspired my Nemesis cover.  (Sorry i don't have the black and white scan, just this Epic color reprint.) This awesome space ship Moebious did always inspired me as a teenager..

His kicks ass. All mine really has in common with Moebius's ship... is a slightly forced perspective.

The hot air balloons harken back to my 1800s fixation. I wanted to see how much if a city could be suggested by lights against silhouettes.

Also tried a suggestion of fog with some splatter.

My white out was almost like cake layers... so thick back in the old days. Now, it's usually caked on acrylic instead, but the same idea. Trying to fix by plastering on as much white as possible.

Notice my unusually hidden signature... tastefully worked into the art, rather than outlandishly large like it usually is? : )


And there we go.

Wow - I can see I have a heck of a lot of comments to reply too, haven't i?  : )

Thanks again,

to everyone...   for everything.

- Sam Kieth




 

Abstract Painting... that morphed into something else..

Here's something that I just started for fun...

Just dabbling with some Clear Gell...

This stuff is usually used with Golden Acrylics,which do interesting things with the Gell.

..but you can use regular Acrylics with the it too.

Pretty messy until it tries..

..but the up side you can tilt and work with the Gell while it's still wet. Get different effects by tilting and dripping.. rubbing...

...dragging the pallet can cause some sweet 'tracks' effects too...

so normally i'd quite right here..

but it occurs to me i might be able to work this into some cool textures...

...for a Nola page!  .. this Mom Logo on the lower left should do the trick.

I'll work in one a mom's face with the 'eyes that don't match on purpose'...  down at the bottom...

Now here's a rough version... I blend it a bit more below...

I think adding the panel borders ( even if their empty right now) - actually may *help* unify this page a bit, what do you think?

I like panel borders done digitally too...  but i did the borders right on the art look better, so the rough texture of the paint effects shows through. You may have to click on it to get closer and see what i mean.

So that's that. Now the easy part - i just need to add something to go INTO these panels, so it makes a story.


Wish me luck.

Sam



Btw... has anyone had any trouble posting comments? I remember a few posts back someone mentioned it i think.  Luckily the spam has not been to bad not a problem so far either.  Fingers crossed!

"Worlds Best Comics" Signing..

Hey Gang,


WORLDS BEST COMICS - Jan 12th Store Signing:   
 A good friend Anthony Leano was awesome enough to amp up some momentum for Dave Downey's store signing I'll be at Jan 12th, with a facebook page. Since I'm not part of facebook universe, I'll just pass the above link along.  I guess there'll even may be some dude from the CGC may come out witness signatures. I think comics are a little small for the whole 'signature authentication' thing myself, but if that's your thing... and he shows up to do it, go for it.  Just don't feel pressured if it's not authenticated, I'll sign it either way.

COMMISSIONS: 
 Some fans asked if I will be bringing, (or selling), art at the signing, I will not. Your only shot at buying  any art from me is thru the usual source: Albert Moy. Also I'm flattered.... and overwhelmed by the TONS of requests have flooded into Albert for commissions!  That's so cool of everyone to ask. But  heads up, the going price for an original piece is 1500 dollars for a single  figure, or 3500 for two figures and a colored background.  Now, I totally get if you don't wanna pop for this much. But it is the going price for what Albert's other artists get for personalized sketches.

If this is more than you wanna pay, no worries... just ignore the emails you've already sent.  However, if you still *are* still interested, can you hit him up with another email please? Sorry for any confusion.  


CHARACTERS I'LL DO (... or won't ) 
 I'm also responsible for some confusion about what characters I'd be willing to draw.  Here's the deal, but since I've done three Maxx's in a row (uuug!) .. on the last round of commissions?  Mind if taking a break from the whole Maxx/Julie/Gone stuff for a while? 

 Any *other* characters might be cool. Remember there's a ton of other characters out there too. But far as Wolvie or Maxx go.... I'd just like a break from those two dudes for now.


CHEAPER SKETCHES:  
 Lastly, I know there's tons of folks who fall in the cracks of just wanting a 50 - 300 dollar sketch. I'm afraid I don't have hand anymore to crank out tons of sketched at public appearances.  And I don't think it's fair for me to YOU if I to agree to a sketch at a store or convention, if if I won't have the time (or energy) to do later.  Like other artists, I only have so many 'lines' in me. I'd like to save those for the comics and my paintings.  Again there's tons of sketches floating around on ebay in the cheaper price ranges. If you have a blank comic cover, i'd be happy to do a quickie doodle for free on that.

 I hope none of this dampens your enthusiasm. It will be a blast to see everyone in person again, wither you have a ton of comics... or just one. Or of just wanna stop by and say 'hey', either is cool.

 That's about it... i'll try to throw up sone new art this weekend.

 Thanks to Dave, Anthony and everyone else for helping pull this sucker off.
  Sam