Kirby - New Zealand

[Eddy]

Hope everyone had a great weekend with Turkey day and all the shopping on Black Friday or as I like to call it, HD Friday!

Above, are more sketches from the recent New Zealand show where JJ was really in his groove doing sketch after sketch for fans! My favorite's the Harley Quinn sketch, but I also like how a fan asked for a self-portrait of JJ, just because they liked meeting him!

Back on the food tip, JJ introduced me to all of the different meat pies in New Zealand too, which we ate every day we were there. Mmm, meat pies...

Spider-Doofer

[Eddy]

A "doofer" is a piece of folded cardboard used to hold juicy burgers and it's even patented by Burger Fuel. Once you folded it together, it formed this little cup, so you could carefully eat your food without getting your hands too messy. Hmm, I wonder if they make one to hold pizza?

Anyway, each day at the New Zealand show, a few Burger Fuel girls would come over and take our order for their tasty, gourmet burgers, Kumara (sweet potato) fries and sweet milkshakes. Plus, they'd bring over plenty of doofers to keep ourselves clean.

The girls were always very friendly and helpful with their time and on the last day, one of the girls wanted a sketch from Jim, so he knocked out this great Spider-Man sketch on one of the unfolded doofers. Bam, instant comic fan!

With food on the brain now, I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and has a great Thanksgiving!

Nuñez - New Zealand

[Eddy]

After a short stop in LA, we flew 12 hours overnight to Auckland, New Zealand and went right to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes before heading over to the convention Saturday morning. When we got there, all of the convention guests were introduced on the main stage and welcomed by a traditional Maori dance, including a hongi, which is their custom of touching noses.

Afterwards, it was off to the top floor of the convention for our first signing of the day. I think we were all on auto pilot by then, but it was still fun being in another country and meeting new fans.

For most of us, this was our first overseas convention and, like Livio, this was only the second convention for Eddie Nuñez.

Just add water!

[Eddy]

I didn't have my video camera on me that day, but here are some work-in-progress pics of Jim sketching Joker. Obviously, one of the more popular and fun characters for him to draw because of his extreme personality.

The only color markers on-hand were ones you had to apply water onto, so Jim quickly laid some water on the page and sketched out the general shape of Joker's head in green.

After he let it dry a little, he went back over it with a black marker and added some red and white highlights for those finishing touches.

Including drying time, this sketch took about 10 minutes.

Ramondelli - New Zealand

[Eddy]

This was Livio's second time behind the table and he was doing sketch after sketch for the fans like an old pro.

Happy Birthday Joker!

[Eddy]

This one was done in Melbourne, Australia for one fan as a birthday gift for his brother. After I shot the video, Jim also went back to add some more pencil shading on the face too.

Not bad for a free sketch, huh?

A Tribute to Michael Turner

[Eddy]

UPDATE: Today's signing has been postponed due to local fires. A new date will be rescheduled soon.

Join us at Golden Apple tomorrow for a tribute to Michael Turner from 1:00-5:00pm. All of the following creators will be there to celebrate and honor Turner's memory:

Jeph Loeb
Talent Caldwell
Alé Garza
Joe Benitez
Frank Mastromauro
Vince Hernandez
Peter Steigerwald
Beth Sotelo
JT Krul
David Wohl
JJ Kirby
Oliver Nome
Eddie Nuñez
Joel Gomez
Marc Andreyko

Golden Apple Valley
8967 Reseda Blvd. (S. of Nordhoff)
Northridge, Ca 91324
(818) 993-7804

And if you can't make it out to the event, be sure to pick up a copy of "A Tribute to Michael Turner" to see more art and personal remembrances.

Deathblow 4 Life!

[Eddy]

Fans waiting in line usually open their comic bags to get something signed, but one dedicated New Zealander took off his shirt for Jim's signature. He quickly turned around to reveal a Deathblow #0 tattoo and wanted to add Jim's signature right underneath.

After that, he left the show to get it tattooed ASAP to preserve the signature as much as he could. He came back a couple days later to proudly show off the freshly-inked tattoo making him a Jim Lee fan for life!

Cheers, Mate!

[Pictured from top to bottom: Livio Ramondelli, Eddie Nuñez, Jim Lee, JJ Kirby, Sandra Hope and Joel Gomez]

[Eddy]

And we're back!

From cave rafting and jumping off a tall building to diving in the Great Barrier Reef and hugging Koala bears, it's been two non-stop weeks for us traveling overseas to New Zealand and Australia for back-to-back conventions thanks to the fine folks at Armageddon Expo! Tons of new faces and places greeting us along the way and we've got all the pictures to prove it!

Keep checking back to see more pics while we get caught up with work, family and sleep!

In Honor of Michael Turner...

(entry Oliver)

Hello everyone, here is a piece I did of Michael Turner's character Aspen for his "Tribute" book out today. Buy it, it's an awesome book! I would like to thank everyone at Aspen Comics for letting me be a part of this amazing project with the likes of Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Joe Madureira, J. Scott Campbell and tons of other great artists and writers that I admire and am a fan of. Michael Turner was one of my favorite artists and with "Fathom", especially that first arc, I feel he was one of the artist's that started the "widescreen, cinematic" trend and his attention to detail, especially backgrounds, has influenced me a great deal. My only regret is that I didn't get the chance to know him personally but the good thing is that he was such a prolific artist that I along with everyone else will have his art to enjoy forever.

Please go out and get yourself a copy!

Hope you enjoy:)