Triumph & Torment page 37

Triumph & Torment

The Triumph and Torment page by Mike Mignola and Mark Badger should be here  in a day or three. It has come over the ocean and went from NY toMA (?) and is now headed south again here to NJ. I'll show you when it gets here. I already own this one below, so now I will have two!

The new page is not an action page, but still a great new addition.

MOCCAfest 2018

Today was a good day.

I spent a few hours with my daughter, picking her up at Pratt Institute and going to the MOCCAfest to see Guest of Honor Mike Mignola.

I was pretty proud of myself, I asked a few questions that ended with Mike talking to my daughter about creating art and vulnerability and chance taking and the never-ending quest for a style. That was a few minutes but it was basically the reason I went to the whole thing. I took her by Xaime Hernandez' table but he was not there; I had a whole other lecture planned on inking and linework that I had hoped to induce Xaime to give!

We went up to the gallery that they had and she was really impressed by the Migola pages/covers on display there. They had about 15-20 originals framed on the wall and I gave her a little lecture about how Mike likes to balance his blacks and whites within an image. It was easy to find examples of it in the pages although he does not do this as much as he used to from what I can tell; or perhaps it has evolved to a more subliminal execution. So that was a lot of fun, enjoying comic art with my daughter.

We also talked for 5-10 minutes with John Leguizamo and I bought a hardcover GN, cover price $24.95, for $40. He signed it to me and my daughter and we had a great talk. My daughter was really excited afterwards, saying "I can't believe I shook his hand" and I was a proud father when she said she didn't know what to say to him but "you just talked to him no problem".

So yeah, a good day all in all. I bought those three illustrations above and if Mike had taken credit cards I would have tried to buy the whole portfolio. Seriously.

Thank you to Mike Mignola for the nice talk. And to Ghetto Freak John Leguizamo as well, although you owe me $15 mother fucker!

Triumph & Torment page!

It has been a while but not too much has changed. I am still in pursuit of The Fifty in my comic art collection but have purchased one or two pieces that might not make it. Those old habits are hard to break.

I have been spending most of my hobby time selling a large collection of comics that I purchased from a gentleman in town. I got them in the first half of 2017 and am now slabbing some of the more valuable ones. But all the effort and time of the comic selling is to generate cash for comic art purchase and when I saw a page from Dr. Strange/Dr. Doom Triumph & Torment available, even at a bit of a premium price but not all that high given it is Mignola pencils (and I love the Badger inks, not as much as I love Mike's own inks but they are still groovy to me), I decided to jump on it.

I am doing 3 payments so I won't show it off yet (the ol' jinxy thing) but you'll see it in two months (or earlier more likely).

Otherwise, just waiting to plant the peas in my ever expanding garden. The garlic is growing though!

FEED THE WORLD ONE GARDEN AT A TIME! VEGGIES FOR ALL CAMPAIGN!

This summer I will be donating fresh produce from my garden to the local FISH food pantry. They have a small section for fresh produce and would welcome more. We talked about community gardens, and that is still a goal of mine, but I would like to start with a far simpler approach. I am going to grow one or two extra plants in my garden specifically for donation. I am thinking a tomato plant and a kung po pepper plant; I have not yet purchased my plants for this season so it is still up in the air a bit.

http://bgwdesigns.com/vegetable-donation/

I would like to encourage other gardeners to consider growing one extra plant and donating the produce from that plant to a local food pantry.

http://bgwdesigns.com/vegetable-donation/

I would also be willing to act as a middleman between you the grower and the food pantries by gathering produce along the Route 1 corridor from Rutgers University in New Brunswick to Trenton. I may also be able to arrange a drop off site at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

http://bgwdesigns.com/vegetable-donation/

The woman from FISH in Dunellen said I couldn’t possibly provide too much produce for her to use! Let’s prove her wrong!

http://bgwdesigns.com/vegetable-donation/

If you are interested in having me pick up produce from you to bring to the food pantry, please email me at fedres@optonline.net

http://bgwdesigns.com/vegetable-donation/

Rudy Nebres Commissions - Helping Out a Local Artist

I have been running into Rudy Nebres for over a decade now. I think that I first got a con sketch from him at a show in Secaucus NJ, a Horror Chiller Theatre show I think. I do remember seeing an older woman from behind and being highly impressed; when see turned around and was revealed to be actress Tonya Roberts I knew why she was a star. But I digress.

It wasn't long before I realized that I lived fairly close to Mr. Nebres and when he invited me into his home to pick up a commission I decided that something was not right here. I was living within 10 minutes of a major comic book artist and even the local comic shop had no idea he was there. Relevant to this situation in my opinion is the fact that Mr.Nebres has no internet presence and no interest in changing that. I decided that I should do something about what I perceived to be an over-looked aging artist who was ready and able to produce excellent work right now but seemed to me to be lacking opportunity. I eventually wrote him a long letter offering to assist in the selling of his work in a variety of different scenarios but he never replied.

Then last year I saw him at a show. I was wearing a shirt I had made of the Doctor Strange vs Dracula commission he did for me and when I showed him the shirt he remembered the letter. I explained that I was fine with him not replying and I was only offering to help if he wanted...that it was all good either way. But to my surprise he told me that he would like my assistance in handling commissions; he explained that he had no less than three other people selling art or commissions in some capacity or another but that we could work together in a limited capacity. I thought that was great.

And now that I am into it a little I find that I have a lot of thoughts on the matter. So maybe I can share them here on my blog. I have been writing quite a lot in some of the emails to people interested in getting a commission from Mr. Nebres and will share some of that content in the next few days. I will also hopefully show the first finished commission that Mr. Nebres has done with my facilitation; that is en route right now and the owner should have it Tuesday. Maybe he'll let me share it here soon after.

But the process has made me think quite a bit and although some of these thoughts are best kept to myself I think sharing some of them will be productive for me and maybe help me better assist Mr. Nebres. So check back often if you'd like to see examples of Rudy Nebres' current chops or hear tales of how I handle the process of getting his commissions out to his fans. (I get to talk to this guy about art on a regular and specific basis!)

See you soon!

Third Annual Birthday Sale

Wow. It has been a while apparently.

Well, I am having another sale of original comic art for my birthday. Although this year the proceeds are not going to more art (well, not ALL of them) and instead to the family vacation in Hawaii in a few weeks!

So hop on over to http://www.bgwdesigns.com/doctorstarman to check out the sale! Some very good art available including pieces from my that collection that I have not offered before.