Another weekend = another show!

This Saturday and Sunday I'll be in Reading, Pennsylvania exhibiting at CGS's SuperShow:

The fine folks at Comic Geek Speak were some of the earliest supporters of VIETNAMERICA, so I'm honored to be participating for the first time in their artist-centric comic extravaganza. Now for some work:

This illustration is for my pal Michael Lapinski's comic Feeding Ground, a supernatural modern day thriller about werewolves and The Devil's Highway. I had a lot of fun with my twist on the book's dark tone and paying homage to the state of my youth. Being a fan of seeing other artists' work process, thought I'd share my own on this piece. Here's the initial sketch I showed Michael (always drawn at print size):

Then it gets enlarged and refined with blue pencil before inking, which for the most part I use this refillable brush pen which fellow cartoonist Leland Purvis turned me onto a while back. (I'm too impatient for dipping brushes, and this brush pen's size has a lot of versatility)

Next is adding ink washes (usually done on a separate piece of watercolor paper that has the line art lightly printed on it, than scanned and combined in P'shop):

And finally, P'shop colors. I try to limit my palettes and for this illustration, most important was capturing the beautiful and brutal heat of the desert, so it made sense to use complimentary greens to emphasize the sickliness and weariness of the traveler.

Gradually getting the hang of this "press" thing?

Here's a sneak peak at my contribution to a collaborative comic with Thi Bui that runs in the next issue of HYPHEN.

Sorry for the low res, but don't want to give too many spoilers before it hits the stands next month. I've been really fortunate to do various interviews recently to help spread the word with journalists, writers, fellow comics-connoisseurs, etc. Although I've tried to tweet them in a timely manner, seems I've missed a few so I'm correcting that wrong now and sharing the link-lovage:

I met with downtowntraveler writer Leslie Koch in an East Village cafe one afternoon and here's the result.

Journalist Ky-Phong called me up from Orange County after discovering the book and voila.

Ph.D. literature candidate Jade Hilde took time out of her busy course load to email with me for diaCritics.

And Dylan Cassard and the rest of the comicbookofthemonth crew just ran VIETNAMERICA through their gauntlet here.

On the road again...

Here's another recent spot for the OC Weekly about why a certain local police investigator won't be winning "employee of the month" anytime soon:

This weekend, in between eating at Voodoo Doughnuts and Screen Door, I'll be exhibiting at Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland:

It'll be my first time at the show, and I'm excited to get a taste of the fabled Portland comics scene. If you blink on your way in and out, you'll miss me at table G1:

Mo' comics, mo' fun, Mo' CCA (and something for mo'm-in-law)!

I'll be exhibiting this weekend at the MoCCA Fest, a great time and must-see for comic lovers near and far:

Unlike past years, I won't have my own table but will instead be at my publisher's. I'll also be at MoCCA's sketch table from 1:30-2:30 on Sunday (you can check out the entire roster of sketching artist times here). I don't know where I'll be located, but just look for the bald asian with this special edition poster comic/book jacket that comes free with every copy of VIETNAMERICA:

On the other side of the country, my mom-in-law just gave a presentation about comics and graphic novels for her local museum's docent program. She included VIETNAMERICA (nepotism is alive and well!) and asked me for a quick comic to introduce it in her slide presentation. Four hours later, voila:

I enjoyed the exercise in seeing what I could come up with in an extremely limited time frame (and knowing it was going to be seen for only 30 seconds took all the pressure off). Might actually try the 24-hour comic challenge one of these days...

How I interview for comic jobs:

By providing sample artwork:

I recently was approached by a publisher to be considered for a collection of Rwandan genocide survival stories. When I finished VIETNAMERICA late last year, I was so emotionally drained that the last thing I could imagine doing next was tackling another true story of family trauma and horror in the context of a violent war—much less a series of stories that examine and explore the various atrocities and outcomes of a human massacre witnessed within my own lifetime. But after reading the survivor testimonials recorded so far, I was so moved that I immediately wanted to throw my name in the hat for consideration.