This month’s ANA sketch challenge is TMNT! As the token Canadian sketcher, the choice of character to do was obvious, the hockey stick wielding giver of justice, Davey Jones. His and Raphael’s relationship was one of the main reasons I liked the original books (not so much on all the derivations since). 
So here’s my entry into this month’s ANA Comics sketch challenge. I called it, a self-portrait as a member of the royal family in a deck of cards. Not only did I call it, I hated it. I’m not a caricaturist nor do I enjoy self-portraits. After many false starts and crumbled pieces of paper, I finally took a random scribble and said “close enough” and used it to form the basis of the bottom kind which led into a slightly more like me top king.
Fair enough, but why green diamonds? Glad you asked.
My daughter asked me as I was colouring it:
“Are diamonds red?”
“No, sweetie.”
“Can they be Green? I like green diamonds.”
“Not really, then they’d be emeralds. Emeralds are green.”
“What colour are diamond’s then? You said they weren’t red.”
“They’re a clear colour. The clearer the better.”
“So why are they red in your drawing, dad?”
That’s when my brain broke a little bit. Well green diamonds make just as much sense as red ones, so why not? The sketch challenges are meant to stretch you brain a bit, and this one did, just not in the direction I thought it would go is all.
Thanks sweetie.
That’s it, I’m done drawing this thing. I’ve run out of room and requests. I’ve sent it off to be coloured by my good buddy Anthony Hary. Take a look and find yourself and others that were at that con. I hope I put in everybody that requested to go in, there were many people asking to go in, I hope, I hope. Any last thoughts folks?
Pre-sales will happen before the new year! Stay tuned con-folk.
Rod Salm
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Most recent and updated version of the poster seen here. I’ve added lots of peeps from the con. Still some room and time left if you want in and want a poster. Msg me to let me know.
Thank you to all the people who cosplayed up for con and the creativity that you’re willing to put on display. It’s inspiring.
Am I done? You tell me. I know I haven’t gotten everybody I want to, let alone everybody that dressed up, but I’m still working on this. If you’re not in it and want to be, send me a message on Facebook or email me, at the links on the left and we’ll see what I can do. Tell me you would buy a finished poster and that will get me drawing faster than anything. Eventually, I’m going to print this as a poster (it’s about 24″x24″) and if enough people express interest in it, sell it online. For now, it’s a reeeeeally fun doodling exercise.
So it started with a flyer I did for the C4 convention we attended in October (by we I mean my family and I, my kids love helping out at cons). Wherein the DAYD crew are standing in line to see the featured guest, William Shatner. As seen here.
I had wanted to do a little bit of a crowd scene behind Death and the gang to show a vast lineup as I suspected correctly that there would be at the convention for the Shat. Time, the horrible ruler that it is, ran out, so I had to run with what I had finished. No problems, it was a good flyer and got a good response with my kids colouring them for lucky attendees. Afterwards, I went back and tried to add a detail or two as occasionally I do have some completeness issues with myself and artwork. So I drew a few, vague outlines of a lineup, but that wasn’t satisfying. So I drew some random people to front the vast crowd I envisioned. While nicer, I realized I needed some source photos if I was going to draw about 8 or 9 con people with vague crowd outlines behind them. Cartoonists draw crowds as a vague outline, not as a cheat (ok, maybe as a cheat sometimes), but as a way of preventing detail insanity. Well, like they say, insanity’s a slippery slope. I found a coupla great photos of the great people from the con that I knew so I added them. It was at that point I started kissing my evenings goodbye. See, I’m not exactly the fastest cartoonist in the West, some guys I know could’ve whipped this out in a matter of days. But not me. No sir. It’s been a coupla hours each week for six weeks now.
See you at the 2012 Central Canada Comic Convention (2012).
Just in time for Black Friday and Christmas, the Death At Your Door online store has launched. Go here to check it out!
Prices include shipping anywhere! And if you’re in Winnipeg , email me what you’d like, pick it up, and receive a massive 50% discount! That’s right, 50% off for pickup orders. BAM, your Christmas shopping is done. The mugs make great office gifts and the buttons (now a 6 button set!) you can keep for yourself (cause you know you want to). Offer good till the 24th of December, 2011.
And if that’s not enough, every order gets a removable Carl QR-Code sticker as seen at the last comic convention here in Winnipeg.
Cheers everyone,
RodSalm
Finally coming down from the great weekend I had at the Central Canada Comic Con (that’s C4 to you young folk out there). It was a wild, crazily fulfilling, ride that went hard for three days here in Winnipeg. For a comic like mine, I couldn’t have asked for more. Lots of returning friends and fans, so that was good to see, and introduce the strip to many new people. We sold lots of mugs and buttons, and introduced the con world to my version of Death.
For me there were many, many highlights, here’s but a few:
- Selling my mom’s handmade Jayne Cobb hat almost instantly AND taking orders for more.
- Meeting the people around me, some cool folks as always, and some very talented people.
- Hanging with Anthony and Kat from Minnesota.
- Hanging with my kids, they make me very proud at how good they are during these things. It can be a long day, and they ride through it like champions.
- Great costumes. I dunno, that’s probably why I love cons, the intensely creative people that are there in all forms, the one’s in costume most dominating the landscape.
Here’s some pics for you to enjoy, and there’s many more on the C4 Facebook fan page.
Thanks to everyone who came out and said hi. It truly makes my day when someone wants to talk about the strip and what it’s about. To me, it’s about friends.
Cheers,
Rod
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