Jake Black Benefit Fundraiser

As many of you guys know, I operate out of Southern Utah. As isolated as I am, the comic professionals in the state are a pretty close knit group. We've all met at one function or another and we keep tabs on what each other is up to. A few years back I was privileged to meet Jake Black at a signing at Dragon's Keep for Free Comic Book Day. We kept in touch through social networking, chatted back and forth; call us Facebook pen-pals if you like. Last year we even pitched a book to DC together (although it seems that pitch never took roots). Shortly after our fruitless endeavor I also found out from Jake that he had a lump on his chest that turned out to be cancer. Jake has been fighting it for while know and is doing a good job kicking it despite scary set backs like pneumonia. This whole time I've empathized as best I could, prayed and offered words of support; but for the most part I've watched helplessly as someone who I consider a friend has suffered. No more! Thanks to some super swell guys like Bill Galvin, John Ortiz and the crew at Dragon's Keep in Provo we (the comic creator's of Utah) are gathering together to help raise funds for Jake Black.

The event will take place Saturday Sept 12th. Starting at 10:00am at Dragon's Keep (260 N. University Ave, Provo Utah, 84601) and the list of Talent helping out is huge! Guys like:

• Ryan Ottley the best monthly artist in the industry on such titles as Invincible and Haunt for Image Comics.
  
• Bill Galvin of Simpsons and Archie Comics.
  
• Derek Hunter the creator of Pirate Club.
  
• Howard Taylor the creator of Schlock Mercenary.
  
• Tyler Kirkham artist for TopCow on huge books like Spider-Man and X-men.
  
• Sal Velluto who's worked on more projects than the lot of us put together,
  

and several others including myself.

Its gonna be HUGE! So if you read this blog come join the fun and help out Jake! Dragon's Keep will be donating a percentage of the day's sales and artist will be donating various artworks to help raise funds. Hope to see you there! Bring your money and take home some good karma!

Here is a Link to the event: http://dragonskeep.com/dsk_cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=698&Itemid=31

My Trip to Disneyland... er I mean SDCC.

Well I took a left turn in Albuquerque on my way to San Diego (somehow I got off the 215) and before I knew it I was in Anaheim California?! Which ended up costing us an hour getting to the Con, but we got there and enjoyed preview night. We being Lynn Walker (inker of Ape Entertainment's Clipstick) and I. We met up with Derek Hunter of Pirate Club and "The Geek Show Podcast" fame. We talked a little about the podcast, Anime and other little what nots. Derek (at the time) was seated next to Ryan Ottley of Image Comic's Invincible. I let Ryan take a gander at my portfolio this year, in particular I showed him my homage to his Sea Bear and Grizzly Shark posts on his web site. Hopefully I'll be able to post the drawing soon. I have to get permission first, but with luck I'll be able to show it soon.