National Cancer Survivor's Day

My thanks to Paula Bauer and Torrance Memorial Medical Center for the invitation to speak at their National Cancer Survivor's Day celebration June 2nd, 2014. I enjoyed sharing my story and art with you all!

On to WonderCon!

No rest for the weary! After a full weekend at The LA Times Festival of Books last weekend, it's off to Anaheim tomorrow for WonderCon 2014! If you're going, please stop by and say hello. I'll be in the Small Press Area at Booth SP-19. Talent and amazing visual imagery will be in abundance thanks to Brett Bean, Stephen Silver, David Colman, Joe Weatherly Fine Art, Mark McDonnell, Gary Montalbano, Mike Hernandez, Tuna Bora, and Pascal Campion...just to name a few!

And if Burbank is your preferred hangout this weekend, there's the CTN Road Trip (part of the Burbank Arts Festival) featuring the art of loads more animation talent. I won't be there, but a selection of Daily Zoo prints and books will be available at the Center Stage Gallery, along with cool stuff from many other artists as well. They even have a free shuttle running between the Gallery and the Festival.

If you're in Southern California this weekend, there is no excuse for boredom!

And if you're at WonderCon this weekend, why not stop by The Daily Zoo booth (SP-19) and pick up a Munchasaurus Rex poster for a buck. Probably one of the best deals at the show!

Festival of Books 2014

My family and I had a great time exhibiting at The LA Times Festival of Books last weekend. Thank you to those who stopped by the booth to say hello and check out what's new at The Daily Zoo.

I was happy to temporarily hand over book signing duties to my son. I think he was happy about it too.

And here are a couple of book signing sketches from the Festival. See what you could get if you come to a Daily Zoo book signing?

Back to School

In the spring of 2011, I returned to my alma mater, St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin to celebrate the retirement and retrospective exhibition of one of my former art professors and mentors, Donald Taylor.

While on campus, they put me to work: drawing a caricature of St. Norbert President Tom Kunkel and being a guest on the college TV show, Conversations from St. Norbert College. Here are a few videos from the visit. The caricature is a short time-lapsed clip of me sketching (it had been years since I had drawn caricatures in a live setting, so please pardon the rust!).

Delaware: Presentation & Book Signing

Greetings! Just a quick note to let folks on the East Coast know that I will be presenting the story of The Daily Zoo and my journey with cancer at the 2013 Delaware Blood Cancer Conference hosted by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on Thursday, September 19th. This is an educational event designed especially for blood cancer patients, survivors, families, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.





This is a FREE event and is open to the public, however you are asked to register/RSVP by this Friday, September 13th. (Free breakfast & lunch too!)

If you are interested in attending, please see the conference's webpage here to register.

Hope to see you there!

What: 2013 Delaware Blood Cancer Conference
When: Thursday, September 19, 2013 from 8:00AM - 4:00PM
Where: University of Delaware - Clayton Hall Conference Center, Newark, DE

Comic-Con

Day 2664 - Cappy

Comic-Con starts tomorrow! I'll be at booth E-8 (towards the back wall near the end of aisles 600 & 700). Hope to see you there!

Here's a quickie done the other night as I took a break from Con-prep.

Lucca 2012 Recap: Pt 2

Here are more photos from last fall's trip to Lucca for The Ayers Zoo exhibition and Lucca Comics & Games. If you missed it, you can check out Part 1 of the recap here.

  

Over the four days of the festival, I had a great time meeting folks, signing books, and sketching their favorite animals. (My very limited Italian vocabulary consists mainly of food and animals.) 

  

I know it's cliche, but when signing copies of The Daily Zoo Goes to Paris a beret usually makes an appearance.

  

  

Another "French-themed" sketch for crewmember's copy 

of DZ Goes to Paris.

  

Sometimes I will get some rather unusual requests. This woman wanted a dolphin-elephant hybrid.

  

Each year, the festival has a Live Performance Area where artists are invited to draw and paint in front of anyone who cares to watch. On the last day of the festival, all of the works are auctioned off to benefit the local children's hospital. Here, the amazing Lucio Parillo makes it look so easy.

  

Michael Monte Moore at work on another of his fierce creations.

  

And, alas, I picked up some brushes too. It had been quite a while since I had used acrylics, but I gave it a go.

  

Here's the finished Croc-Ninja.

  

The live auction to find good homes for all of the Live Performance Area works created during the festival (and to benefit the local children's hospital of course!). Here, MCs Cosimo and Emanuele lead the bidding on a stunning Batman piece created by Greg Staples. 

  

I also had the pleasure of meeting the talented Paolo Barbieri.

  

My publisher, Design Studio Press, had two booths at the show this year, one each in the Comics and the Games areas. Fellow DSP artist/author Luca Zampriolo (a.k.a. Kallimity, creator of ABAKAN 2288) oversaw the booth in the Comics Pavilion.

Anthinea from Sicily; without her help the DSP booth would simply not function. Her competency is only exceeded by her charming nature.

  

Posing with fan Anna. 

Lucca crew member Gabriele does his best Moby Dick impersonation.

I also did a short workshop and demonstration with a group of kids in the Lucca Junior area of the show.

  

  

Even though art is a pretty universal language, I was still grateful that Anna volunteered her translation services. It's always fun to see kids get excited about drawing.

  

And that's a wrap!

From Lucca, I went on to do a few workshops with students in the mountain-top town of Zug, Switzerland, but that's for another time...