Mike Dawson Comics

A drawing of @DRUNKHULK, a very funny and popular twitter feed created by my friend Christian Dumais.

Christian is someone who I mainly know through the internet, though we’ve met in real life once or twice. I also frequented the SlushFactory message boards mentioned in the UGO interview, for many years.

I really kinda miss message boards. I love twitter and the like, but one thing that felt nice to me about message boards was the relative anonymity we had. I didn’t need to always post under my real name, because most of the board regulars knew who each other was even with handles. That was kind of a nice thing. It felt more comfortable getting into heated comic-book, political, and social-issues type debates. Nothing ever got resolved, but there sure were some epic flame wars. There was a little bit more freedom to say whatever dumb thing came into your head, without worrying how it would read to the outside world, or if it would stick with you on your Permanent Internet Record. I tried starting up new message boards, most recently on The Ink Panthers site, but there’s just no momentum for them anymore. Ah well.

I’m contributing the original ink drawing of this picture to the Soap Factory $99 Sale fundraiser, held this September in Minneapolis. It seems like a good cause, and I’m happy to participate in it. I’ve never been out to Minneapolis, but will be making my first trip there this November for the second annual MIX convention. I’m really excited about the trip.

The above pic is, of course, the iconic cover image of The New Warriors #1, which debuted in 1990. I can’t remember a whole lot about the series, but I know I followed it for the first few years of it’s existence (I think! — did it definitely last more than a few years? I am pretty sure it did…), mainly because I was trying to collect every appearance of the character Speedball. I don’t know why. I really don’t. He was a shitty character, his powers were stupid, and nobody ever seemed to come up with a good way to use him…

I think I have to admit to myself, the only reason I was collecting all his appearances was because A) he first appeared at a time when I was buying lots of Marvel comics, and B) he wasn’t so popular that he appeared all over the place and was hard to keep up with. He had 11 issues of his own book, appeared in the Damage Control limited series, and then occasionally popped up here and there in the Marvel Universe. It was way easier to collect every appearance of Speedball, than say, Wolverine or The Punisher.

I always loved Speedball: The Masked Marvel. The character they couldn’t seem to figure out what to do with.

I didn’t really finish coloring this, because my wacom started acting funny. I need to replace the nib in the pen, I think, but I don’t have a replacement handy, and won’t be able to get myself over to TekServe for another week or so. Annoying.

I recently bought this very-affordable piece of original art off of Joe Lambert:

While on the phone this week, I doodled an homage:

Does that count as something that can be submitted to the Covered Blog?

At the moment I’ve got a pretty nice home studio all setup. It got moved into the bigger bedroom in the apartment, based on the condition that the child is allowed to come in and play in here sometimes. Also, some of her stuff is kept here.

Just recently, I hung up a bunch of pictures that I’ve gathered from various cons and stuff over the years. It makes the place look nice. Here are photos:

This is the side of the room with the drawing table. From Left to Right are: a print by my friend Matt Crawford, lead singer of the band The Match & The Moth; a print by Jamie Tanner; a page of original art from Josh Cotter’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest; (TOP) a letterpress print by Ben Catmull; (BOTTOM) a print by Dustin Harbin (which actually has a little picture of me on it, which Dustin took the time to color in all nice like); and a picture by Ed Piskor.

Here’s the other side of the room, with the computer (a.k.a the side of the room I spend all my time on). Left to Right, here’s what’s up over there: two Joe Lambert pictures (one of them being the Commemorative 9-Year AdHouse-iversary calendar); a drawing my friend Alex Robinson made for me when I finished Freddie & Me; a print of a Kate Beaton comic about teenagers; a piece of original art by Vanessa Davis; and the same Jordan Crane print that I imagine every cartoonist probably has at this point, as ubiquitous as the Pulp Fiction poster was in college dorm rooms in 1995.

And that’s what’s Hanging Up!

I had time on my hands today, so I started clearing/cleaning out my home studio. I came across this acrylic painting that I did in college. It’s a panel from Debbie Drechsler’s series, Nowhere. Does this count as something I can somehow submit to that Repaneled blog?

This are the items I accumulated this weekend, thanks to the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, which I went to yesterday. Personally, I most enjoy buying prints or pieces of artwork at shows like this. I was very happy with the things I picked up along these lines: there’s a letterpress print by Ben Catmull, a silk-screen comic by Joe Lambert, and then a really large silk-screen done by Jennifer Tong. Then, the thing I’m most excited about for the weekend, which was a page from Josh Cotter’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest.

I drew this pin-up, which will appear in a future issue of the comic book series, Feeding Ground, currently being serialized by Archaia Comics. I believe issue #2 hit comic stores this past week.

The series is illustrated by my talented friend Mike Lapinski, and he was nice enough to ask me to draw something for them. He seemed a little surprised that the artwork came out looking like it did, but readers of this blog for the past week or so will know that I am all-about drawing and coloring in Photoshop at the moment. This picture was a helluva lot of fun to put together.

This is a few years old, but I was just thinking about Gelatinous Cubes today, and was reminded of it. It’s some fan-art I drew based on my friend (and Ink Panthers co-host) Alex Robinson’s short Lower Regions. I would love to one day draw a full-length Gelatinous Cube story myself, as I recall this was a fun picture to put together.

I think the best thing about being a voracious comics reader is being aware of lots and lots of great cartoonists who’s work I am totally into. The next best thing is that you can buy prints and even original artwork from many of these cartoonists at very, very reasonable prices. I have quite a lot of comics-art hanging up around the apartment. Here are some things that I’ve got on the walls:

Print by Matt Forsythe. I got this at TCAF two years ago.

Print by Phil McAndrew. I pointed out to Orli that the man has a big nose. Now she’s calling it “Big Nose Man”. I am worried I’ve just taught her to remark on people’s notable features.

Print by Onsmith. I actually got this a long time ago, at an SPX. I really like it, but I couldn’t find a great picture of it online. I bet there is one, I probably just have to look harder.

Original art by Vanessa Davis. This is called “Sleepies”. I just got it this week. I think I’m going to hang it in Orli’s room as a reminder of what she’s supposed to be doing in there when I put her in the crib (“Look at those ladies, Orli. They are being good and going to sleep”).

Print by Kate Beaton. I just got this too, and I have to get a frame for it before I can hang it up. This will probably have to go into my study, because of the cursing and all that. It cracks me up though. A very funny strip.

I’m going to SPX in early September. Not sure if I’ll be squatting at someone’s table, or just walking around. I am fine with either one. I am hoping to get another print or even more original art while I’m there. That’s one of the best things about those shows for me, because so many comics and books I can buy in one of the great comic stores we’ve got here in NYC.