Now…in COLOR!
I just got in two of the three color versions of the Pittsburgh Comicon t-shirt art as mentioned in the last column. They were done by artist Koa Beam. Only the black background isn’t here. Which version do you like better?
Conventions a’coming! 2010, part one
I thought I’d put a spotlight my upcoming shows and signings in this entry. Right around the corner is the Boston Comic Con on April 10-11 at a new venue and a cast of thousands where I will debut the new Inkwell Awards brochure and 2010 Donation Book and my family will spend the Sunday with me. On April 23-25 I will make the annual roadtrip with Zeke, Alyn, and Bob to the Pittsburgh Comicon, which has become like a ‘home’ show to me. Not only did they have me contribute to the show’s t-shirt art inking over Glenn Klimeck’s image with Iron Man and Black Widow in anticipation of Iron Man 2 (I’ll post a color file if I’m sent one in a separate entry) but this is the venue that will introduce model Chrissy Cutler as the Inkwell’s spokeperson Ms. Inkwell. And don’t forget Inkwell Hall of Fame namesake Joltin’ Joe Sinnott! For Free Comic Book Day on May 1st I was invited to two different venues this year, (three actually but I had to turn down the last one) which I find amusing as some years I don’t invited anywhere;-) I’ll start off at the legendary That’s Entertainment in Worcester, MA, my second signing there to date, from 12 to 3 with I’m sure more yet to-be-announced guests, and then hustle on over to New England Comics in my hometown of New Bedford to share space with artist Juli Mayers from 4-6pm. I was invited to attend the Granite State Comic Con later that month on the 23rd and this will be my third? appearance there for the Proulx brothers at Double Midnight Comics. And lastly, after a four year absence, I will return to the magical Heroes Con on June 4-6 along with Ms. Inkwell and perhaps the largest contingent of Inkwell Awards members since the 2009 NYCC such as Bob Shaw, Jimmy Tournas, Nathan Massengill, Randy Green, Adam Hughes, Ethan Van Sciver, and Tim Townsend! Wow, what a plugapalooza!
Later I’ll discuss the second half of the year. If I have any strength left in me….
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Behold Bob’s Banners!
I’ve had two Inkwell Awards banners for a couple of years now but after over eighteen years in the industry I finally got around to getting my own vertical banner. My bud and fellow committee Inkwell Awards member Jimmy Tournas took some image files of mine and designed the two shown below. The Marvin and Gossammer image on top of both is from my pencils, inks, and colors and is available for sale as a print. The Panther image (also a print) was penciled by Sal Velluto and intended for our last Black Panther issue cover but it was rejected by Marvel but later fully rendered for a client as a commission (colored by Tom Smith) and subsequently used on a Panini Comics BP collection edition in France. I rejected the first one with Thanos and requested the second one with the BP cover art. This will debut at this Sunday’s March 7 North East Comic Con, co-promoted by Jimmy (with special guests Norm Breyfogle and Billy Tucci). So did I make the correct choice of banner in your opinion? And does anyone even know from what issue the Thanos panel came from or can identify the pencil artist to draw it? The first one to do so (issue and artist, not banner choice, USA RESIDENTS ONLY) and post it here will receive a signed copy of one of my sketchbooks mailed to them at no cost.
WIZARD/NEW ENGLAND COMIC CON TO SUPPORT THE INKWELL AWARDS!
I’ve been sitting on this one for agonizing months and today the announcement was made here at the Wizard Entertainment site. Inkwell comittee member Jimmy Tournas set this event in motion and much manly love goes out to him for that as well as Gareb Shamus, Peter Katz and April Wiggins, all of Wizard, for their interest, cooperation, and generosity.
And hell froze over!
I’ve resisted adding another social network after ComicSpace suddenly blocked my access and after I’ve been happy, but very busy, with Facebook. However, a recent job lead made me realize that it’s a business neccessity. So for those interested, I now have a Twitter account so you can stalk me to your heart’s content, all two of you. Just don’t expect me to be all tweety for a while~
Not quite convention photos…
…but these fan photos sat in my inbox for the last two years and I didn’t know what to do with them and now I do;-)
“Bob,
Hey. I’m a friend of Christos Gage. We met during a comic signing in Worcester earlier in the year. We bought 2 prints and my wife, who is a framer, framed them and we put them up in our kids rooms. They turned out so nice i thought you’d like to see them.
Thanks for the artwork!
Sean in Ct.”
Thanks a whole lot for sharing, Sean!
Inkwell Awards auctions ending this weekend!
On Sunday our first 2010 Inkwell Awards eBay auctions wave will wrap up after six weeks so check them out now while you still can, here! They will resume by late March for wave two so bookmark the page and check back later (or simply keep yourselves tuned in at casa Almondink.
Can anyone get me this poster?
I discovered this poster recently which include a Black Panther shot from Sal and my work from Black Panther#36 (2001) and, me being the completist that I am, I checked with my local retailers to see if they could get it for me and they regrettably could not. I’ve seen it on eBay but, honestly, I don’t have an eBay account anymore so that would be more complicated than I want going that route. So if anyone can get this for me please contact me and I can reimburse you via Paypal for the poster and shipping ($10 plus $6 rolled in a tube) AND I can ship you $35 or so in merchandise from my store or art from my rep’s site Comic Art House and I’d handle the s&h fee. Thanks!
Celebrating a decade of Inkwell goodness!
In 1999 I finally got my first computer, the first iMac model (tangerine for those who care) and within a year I had created my Bob Almond Inkwell thanks to the vital assistance of Craig Rousseau and helpful guidance of Christopher Griffen. Eventually I was able to ween off of the savvy tech guys and handle stuff solo. But as time went on my program hot old and outdated and I never upgraded. This led to my new operating system not being able to accomodate the program so I had to do all my updating on an old Mac G4 and use a flash drive to transfer the files to my Mac OS10 in order to fetch and upload the items online. This is why many of my updates in 2008-9 were so tardy and sporadic, thus testing my efforts to acchive monthly updates as stated on the site.
Enter the generous Rich Lane who handles sites for a living. He offered to use an efficient program that would not need FTP and help me rehaul my site which, left on it’s own, would have eventually collapsed in on itself. So now we have, on the site’s anniversay natch, an upgraded website as well as the old site archived for those nostalgists: the best of both worlds! For those sections that never need expanding, like the Sal & Bob Gallery and Altered Art Gallery, the pages are the original pages. For those areas that get the occasional updates like Special Features, once there’s an update, which could be in a month or in 2 years, we’ll create a new page for the new material.
Everything else will be self-contained new pages (Bio, Contributors, etc.) or slowly expanding sections like Credits, Weblinks, Store, Photos, etc. The lastest updated section, previously known as Gallery2, the commissions gallery, will now be simply the Commissions Gallery and you can check that out here on the 15th page (the previous 14 pages are accessible through a link on the page to the archived gallery section). So no more galleries one, two, and three. This site will always be a work in progress and things will still be getting tweaked in the coming weeks but for the most part it is now ready to roll and interactive as well. So kick the tires and give it a roll and let me know what you think!
The Conventions Photos Page is now live!
I have updated another section to this revised site, the Convention Photos page. You can check out the summaries and pics from the last three events I attended, the Pittsburgh Comicon, the New England Comic Con, and the Boston Comic Con.