Artist Spotlight: Henry Eudy

I met Henry Eudy at my first visit to Sketch Charlotte last year.  Sketch was much smaller when I first starting going to their Thursday night meetings at Showmars on 7th Street.  Henry was one of just a few artists there.  He was kind enough to draw in my newly started Pinky and the Brain sketchbook and a new friendship had begun. 

Henry tends, at least intially, to be one of the quieter Sketch members.  I picked up on his sense of humor through his animal sketches that he does during the Sketch meetings.  I got to know Henry even better when after hearing the SPX wrap-up podcast on the Dollar Bin, he brought me a stack of his mini-comics since I expressed an interest in diving more into the world of mini-comics.

To say Henry's mini-comics are funny would be a vast understatement.  His quirky humor blends well with his art style to create stories that most anyone will find something to laugh about within. My favorite mini-comic of his is Amateur Hour which is a diary style comic featuring vignettes of Henry's daily life.  It's "mostly autobiographical" which according to one of the strips gives Henry license with his stories.  I do love the interactions with his wife, Jennifer.  

Henry was included in last week's Spotlight on the Sketch Charlotte FCBD Anthology.  I couldn't include everything he sent me for his bio for that piece as he gave me three options to choose from, but I can include them here so that everyone can get a true appreciation of his self-deprecating sense of humor: 

• Henry Eudy was born of people of normal intelligence in Concord, NC. (This is quite an accomplishment for Concord, NC.) Despite an early start toward righteousness, Mr. Eudy has instead chosen the wayward path of drunkenness and oafishness that fully embraces the production of comical booklets. It's probably for the best if you don't encourage him by either visiting his paltry website at http://ohthehumanatee.com/ or, even worse, writing him at hank@ohthehumanatee.com.

• Henry Eudy rhymes with pooty and that's all you really need to know. He's pooty.

You can find Henry next week at Fanaticon in Asheville, North Carolina and at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 3-5.  Be sure to pick up some of his hilarious mini-comics or one the 2011 Anthologies from Sketch Charlotte and the Dollar Bin that he is featured.  If you're feeling extra awesome, pick up a sketch or two as well! 

Heather's FCBD Report from Heroes!

Free comics, free sketches, rows and rows of sale comics and beautiful weather, what more could you ask for out of your Free Comic Book Day?

It was an early day for both staff and customers as people were already lining up as the tables and sale boxes were being set up outside.  By the time ten o'clock rolled around the line was around the back of the building.  Heroes Aren't Hard to Find filled up fast and soon there were lots of happy faces with their hands full of free comics! It was nice to see the works of my friends in those hands, including the Loose Ends preview (I hope they all pick up the first issue out in July!) and the very first Sketch Charlotte Anthology.  I was also lucky enough to see a mother and daughter laughing together over the Sketch Charlotte origin story by Herc Petmezas and Henry Eudy.  It's also really cute to see all of the kids who don't even wait to get home to start reading their new comics.  FCBD is the place to start a lifelong love of comics. 

The artists started sketching around one and most kept drawing until after six.  I say most as Brian Stelfreeze was still working until after nine.  Brian's line caps before the official cut off time for sketches, but he continues working until that last person in his line has a sketch, putting as much effort and beauty into the last sketch as he did the last.  All of the artists worked tirelessly throughout the afternoon on a variety of subjects from the traditional superheroes to princesses to the fans themselves.  It's always fun to see what people are requesting.  I was able to get some sketches too, thanks to Shawn and Adam of the Dollar Bin for taking my Pinky and the Brain sketchbook around to Cully Hamner and Jay Potts.  I was also able to start my new Pippi Longstocking sketchbook thanks to the awesome artists, Chris Schweizer, Eraklis "Herc" Petmezas and Jackie Lewis for keeping my sketchbook at their table and working on it in between requests.  All of the FCBD guests will also be at HeroesCon and I hope you'll take the time to check them out!

There were rows upon rows of 25 cent and dollar comics for people to dig through to find great deals and great comics.  Collectors were digging from before the time the doors opened until the last lid was capped at the end of the sale.  Everyone from customers to artists to staff seemed to be having a really good time.  You can see for yourself by checking out my Heroes FCBD 2011 set.  I had a really great and exhausting time.  It was nice to see friends and make new ones.  I picked up a stack of free comics, including the ones I highlighed here and some additional ones that caught my eye. 

It's hard to believe that this was only my second FCBD.  Each year I get to check out more comics and meet new artists.  It's a really good way for someone who hasn't been reading for very long to get exposure to new stories and characters.  I hope everyone had a great FCBD!

Super Sweet Link: Seth's Interview with Chris Pitzer

Seth had the opportuinty to interview Chris Pitzer, the founder of AdHouse Books for the Heroes Aren't Hard to Find Blog.  Adhouse not only puts out some really great books (like Afrodisiac and Duncan the Wonder Dog to name a few), but Chris is one of the friendliest guys in the business.  If you have the opportunity to meet him at a convention, you should go by the AdHouse booth and chat.  He'll be at HeroesCon so be sure to stop by and pick up some AdHouse awesomeness. 

Chris talks about current and future projects in the interview with Seth as well as the new AdDistro end of AdHouse that's bringing some international works to American readers.  Seth and Chris also discuss what he looks for in new publishing projects.  There's a lot of good stuff in there, so go check it out for yourself and then check out the AdHouse gang at HeroesCon in a few weeks!

Seth's Free Comic Book Day Report!

For those of us on the retail side of Free Comic Book Day, the event is always an exhausting one.  This year's was no different, but as always, there was plenty to enjoy about it.  Moreso than previous years, this year I made a conscious effort to keep my eyes open, look around, and really take in the enthusiasm folks have for comics. It's hard to be too negative about the state of comics when you see little kids light up and laugh as they read their free books. I'm not entirely naive, and know that FCBD might be the only time all year that some people actually stop by a comics store.  That said, it would be smart for us who actively work in the industry (be it on the retail or creative end) to really appreciate days like FCBD. Not only do we get a chance to share our enthusiasm for comics with great crowds of people, but hopefully we'll at least gain a couple of new readers in the process.  After all, that is what this event is about.  

We can debate the finer points about whether or not the industry is really that inviting or accomodating to new readers young and old, but such arguments aren't going anywhere anytime soon.  We should make a conscious effort to really capitalize on the continuing popularity of comics films, and be mindful of the importance of turning new readers onto quality books. There is great value in discussing the critical value of comics, but sometimes it's important just to sit back and appreciate days like FCBD for the opportunity they represent. It's not everyday we get the opportunity to share our love of comics with large groups of people. Even when comics are really badly made, we're doing ourselves a great disservice if we only focus on the negative.  Why allow ourselves to dwell on and thus perpetuate the idea that bad comics are abounding, if we fail to see great art be it in the present or the past?  Tastes can change, appreciation of different styles might alter, but if we take anything at all away from FCBD, why not just allow ourselves to bask in comics joy?

     

Artist Spotlight: Sketch Charlotte FCBD Anthology Artists

If you are at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find in Charlotte, N.C., Richard's Comics and Collectibles in Greenville, S.C. or Borderlands in Greenville, S.C., you will have the opportunity to pick up and possibly meet some of the contributors of the very first Sketch Charlotte Free Comic Book Day Anthology.

A dozen artists came together to produce this excellent anthology and here's a little bit about each of them in their own words:

Eraklis “Herc” Petmezas Eraklis Petmezas graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design witha BFA in Illustration. In the years to follow he created art for numerous musical acts and quite a number of editorial illustrations. He also designed window displays for Borders Books and Music. Recently he worked on storyboards for Rich Barrett Designs and illustrated the Tell Tale Heart for Adam Smith Academy. He's had work published by Image comics, Arcana, and Asylum Press. His first love will always be telling stories. He is working on new comics as you read this. In 2006 he not only joined the successful 803 Studios but,it also saw him start SketchCharlotte, a weekly meeting of local artists in the Charlotte, NC area. Which continues to grow in membership. When he’s not drawing he conducts a Comics Camp for the Charlotte Library. He will gladly accept money in exchange for art, if you are willing to part with some.

Henry Eudy -Henry Eudy is a disreputable human being who primarily makes his living racing pigs at county fairs and arm wrestling hobos for pocket change. His recent foray into making comics is borne from a deeply invested desire to pull asunder the gossamer curtains of consensual reality and reveal to all mankind the gilded and shimmering fart joke at the bottom of the primeval well of humanity. He is kind of awesome [Editor's note: This isn't what Henry originally said, but he is awesome so I refused to leave in what he said]. Locate this rakish rogue at http://ohthehumanatee.com/ or write him unintelligible verse at hank@ohthehumanatee.com 

Jonathan Rosenbaum: I was born at an early age. And in those early years I developed the passion for art. I knew what I wanted to be at the age of 4. When asked by my mother, I told her, "Either an artist or an elephant". As years went by, I focused on the artist path. I went to a art college and studied Visual Communications while still taking a few illustration classes. When I graduated I was drawn to the burgeoning world of multimedia. It was 1994. I didn't get into the internets right away... it was just a fad... Compuserve and AOL were just too boring. But eventually I had to submit to the web. So for many years of being in technology, I needed to get back to my roots. As a hobby I started to write and illustrate some children's book ideas. I have an inventory of them, and I did some, got rejected, and kept going. Recently I have been illustrating more and have been going in the graphic novel direction... but more for younger kids.

Bridgit Scheide: I’ve always been drawing, and was kind of all over the place when I was a kid in terms of inspiration. I read a few comics when I was little, anything I could get my hands on, mostly Archie and Spiderman. I read lots of fantasy novels, like Dragonlance. I was into folklore, monster movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. I left most of that behind when I got into high school.

The summer of my junior year I went to a summer program called Governor’s School, for art. My professor was comic book artist Ben Towle, and he taught us about the art in sequential art. Can’t remember if he assigned us the book Maus or if it was an out-of-class book club kind of thing, but I just remember reading it in my dorm and being blown away. I was totally sucked into Spiegelman’s work. My love for storytelling was met the illustration medium I loved, and I realized that comics don’t just have to be about superheroes. (Though my love for those superhero stories came back as I started diving back into comics, too!) I probably started getting back into comics senior year, but was allowed to draw them for class the first year of college or so, haha! Sequential art wasn’t exactly encouraged for my high school senior art portfolio. So I just read them. I used to ride my bike to Heroes in the rain, haha! Those days were so sweet!

The comics I’m reading right now are Chew (that comic is GOLDEN! So clever and hilarious – that goes for both the writer and artist) and the most recent of the Witchfinder stories by Mignola. I just recently finished reading The Marquis by Guy Davis and man, he really knows how to tell a scary story! Those demons are terrifying. Sooo good though.Within the past year I’ve really been affected by Doug TenNapel’s work. I think he has a great way of including amazing messages in completely unique storylines. The characters he comes up with are so imaginative and fun. Also his inking has really allowed me to loosen up a bit in my own work instead of being so rigid. Stuart Sayger is inspiring in this way as well. As for construction of a composition, lighting, and figures, I feel like I could stare at anything by Mark Brooks for hours. (I think I might have, actually, haha!) Dave Crosland’s imagination is amazing. The Sketch Charlotte crew is super inspiring as well… it’s hard to be involved in such a collectively creative group of people without being influenced. I really love everyone in that group, they really make my week! 

Jerry Stanford: Jerry Stanford is the creator of Jet-Pack Jenny, currently wrapping up its second long-running storyline, Factor of 01 at carpaltunnelpress.com. This year he celebrates his tenth year working on comics and is pleased to be doing it in the company of so many talented artists. 

John DaCosta:   John Da Costa is a husband and dad to one of the best families on earth.  When he finds time, he enjoys several hobbies including playing guitar, learning carpentry and drawing an occasional stick figure fighting dinosaurs.  He combines all 3 in his story The Imaginox, a preview of which can be seen in the 2011 Sketch Charlotte FCBD offering.  HIs inspirations include Humberto Ramos, Sean Cheeks Galloway, Skottie Young, Mark Tremonti, Lenny Kravitz, David Crowder,  and Norm from the old yankee workshop.

Tom Davidson: Tom lives in East Charlotte with his two elder cats, Tabla and Maizie, and super scruffy dog, Olive. He is married to Yvonne, a fulltime yoga teacher. Tom is an art director for Belk, loves fashion, nail polish, hats, ties, shoes and accessories. He also has a passion for gardening. This year he became a beekeeper, and is a member of the Mecklenburg County and NC State Beekeepers Associations. When it comes to comics, Tom hates comics that look like stiff tracings from photographs that are overly colored and rendered. Yick. But he LOVES comics that spotlight cartooning and are FUN to read. Above all, Tom loves stories. Nostalgia. Timeless wisdoms. Laughing out loud, sometimes snorting. Things that go bump in the night. Anything that makes your hackles rise. And great food. C'est moi. 

Rich Barrett: I’m an art director with 14 years of experience in interactive design. In addition to being the Creative Director for Mass Transmit, an interactive marketing agency, I have my own website design company called Rich Barrett Design. The work I have done for myself and for various agencies over the years can be viewed at richbarrettdesign.com.

In addition to my web design career, I am also an illustrator with a degree in illustration from Syracuse University. I am currently working on my first comic book which I hope to eventually self-publish. My progress can be viewed at www.richbarrett.com/nathansorry/.

Julian-Marcus Blake:   Julian is a young, aspiring artist and mangoka.  He spent the first year of his life in the United States and then spent the next four years in the Okinowa region of Japan before returning to America.  This experience at an early age had a huge influence on him and how he sees art and comics today.  Julian's favorite artists are James Jean, Sam Weber, Chrissie Zullo, Sylvia Ji, Skottie Young, and Takeshi Obata.  His favorite comics and manga are Naruto, X-Men, Berserk, Wolverine, and One Piece.  Julian likes to draw to music by Shawn Lee, Tool, 36 Crazy Fist, Deftones, Lacuna Coil, and Silversun Pickups.       

Brandon Padgett: I'm a full-time marketing manager, and a part-time freelance illustrator. I specialize in black and white line art, mostly comic-related art. I produce a yearly sketchbook with fellow artists Mark Godby, Terence Hoskins and this year, our 5th anniversary, we're adding Henry Eudy to the mix! The 2011 version will be available in June and will make its debut at this year's Heroes Con. We're now taking pre-orders for books and personalized sketches by email request.  My portion of the book is generally comprised of black and white commissions that I've done over the year with a few special pieces thrown in for good measure!

Over at my blog, we're starting a theme of drawings that will lead up to the premiere of the sketchbook in June. The first topic is 1970's DC characters. All four of us will be participating, so be sure to head over and check it out! We appreciate any and all constructive feedback, and please let us know what you want to see. Who knows, your suggestion may get picked!

As far as the Sketch Charlotte FCBD Anthology goes, I edited and printed the piece and I also submitted a 2 page parody loosely based off one of my all time favorite movies. Originally created for the Dollar Bin Anthology, I had to resize the artwork to fit the specs for our book. Compare the two and you'll definitely see a difference! It's my first published sequential art, so it's raw in places, but I'm happy with the overall presentation. I never thought I'd delve into the sequential realm, but after putting this story together I'm hoping to do more in the future! You can follow me on twitter or check out my deviant art page!

Chrissie Zullo:   Chrissie studied art and illustration at UNC Charlotte. She sas worked for Vertigo comics, including doing the covers for "Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love" and "Cinderella: Fables are Forever", as well as sequential work for "Madame Xanadu" and "Fables 100".  Her favorite comics that she’s currently reading are Fables, MouseGuard, Detective Comics, Green Lantern, Zatanna, and she’s really anticipating Batwoman! Come out already! Chrissie’s art inspirations: James Jean, Winsor McCay, Alphonse Mucha, French and Japanese art history, Adam Hughes, Travis Chares, JH Williams IIIt. Her Anthology story is just a fun three page action comic that was a collaborative effort to pay homage to a love for the post-apocolyptic sci-fi genre.

Matthew Knapik: Matt (also known as Snaps) is a highly-excitable comic book store clerk with an infectious laugh and nervous energy to spare/  He recently traded in his drug and alcohol addictions for art-book and animation fixations He’s relocating to Burbank, California in late June [Editor’s Note: Boy! are we going to miss him in Charlotte!] to try his hand at story boarding and 2D animation...stay tooned!

Seth and I got to write the introduction for the book and we couldn't be prouder than to be included with such a friendly and talented bunch! I hope you'll pick up this book at the above locations if you get a chance.  In addition to the books being available, Sketch members will be at each of the above locations as listed:

Heroes Aren't Hard to Find

-Eraklis "Herc" Petmezas

-Bridgit Scheide

Richard's Comics and Collectibles

-Chrissie Zullo

Borderlands

-Brandon Padgett

-Terence Hoskins (Tee didn't contribute in this year's anthology, but he is an awesome member of Sketch nevertheless)

We hope everyone gets a chance to make it out to your LCS and pick up some great free books!

Upcoming Event: HeroesCon 2011

Is HeroesCon really a month away? Wow, how time flies.  HeroesCon will be the biggest show for both of us this year.  You will find Seth either at the Heroes Store Booth or on the convention floor.  He'll be hard at work both places! You will find me at the Information Booth just chock full of all kinds of information. 

As HeroesCon is such a big event (three days packed full of comic goodness), we'll be doing a series of posts, including, but not limited to a Top Ten List of Things to Do by both of us, and a Where to Eat at Heroes Con.  If there are any other HeroesCon topics you would like to see a post on, just let us on know in the comments below. 

There's so many great things to highlight about HeroesCon, it's hard to know where to start, but let's jump in with Indie Island.  Indie Island is a wonderful part of HeroesCon that groups all these amazing independent artists together on one part of the con floor.  There's way too many people to be able to list here, but I will mention some of my personal favorites:

• Wide Awake Press has a large contingent with Duane Ballenger, J. Chris Campbell, Jason Horn, Josh Latta, Brad McGinty, Shannon Smith and Rob Ullman.
• Sketch Charlotte will be represented by Rich Barrett
• Topshelf Comics will have Andy Runton and Rob Venditti
• Chris Schweizer will also be there with a gaggle of SCAD students in tow
• Also in attendance Pennsylvania's own Pat Lewis and Ed Piskor. 
• This will also be Dustin Harbin's first year strictly behind the table.  Did you know he's a Bronze Level Wappie?
• I'll also point out new favorites from FLUKE: Patrick Dean and Joey Weiser. 

While it seems like Indie Island is big enough to be its very own con, the Guest List outside of Indie Island is crazy full of artists and writers.  Again, there's way too many to list, but I will hit my highlights:

• Charlotte's own, Chris Brunner, Jason Latour, and Chrissie Zullo
• Two-thirds of the team that brought us one of my personal comic favorites, Thor the Mighty Avenger: Roger Langridge (that's Roger's Muppet Heroes above) and Matt Wilson (Chris Samnee, unfortunately had to cancel, but I hope he makes it next year.)
• One of my favorite comics couples, Adam Hughes and Allison Sohn (I'm just sad their sweet sheepdogs, Luna and Tonks won't be at the con). 
• Skottie Young, whose Oz art I adore, but I love his daily sketches on his art blog with Scott Morse even more.  I am disappointed that other commitments will keep Morse from attending this year.

From the publishing end of comics, Chris Pitzer from AdHouse Books will be in attendance as well as several of the artists under the AdHouse roof.  Top Shelf will also be there as mentioned above. 

In addition to all the wonderful guests and publishers, there will be exciting panels to attend, the Quick Draw Contests, the Art Auction, a great Small Press section and much, much more! There's a ton to cover so check back in the weeks leading up to HeroesCon for new posts. 

Seth's Fluke 2011 Report

If you haven't already read it I'd encourage you to check out Heather's detailed Fluke report here.  She did a great job of going over all of the great things we saw, places we ate, and awesome creative folks we encountered. I would've posted my Fluke 2011 thoughts last week, but a massive case of con crud hit me late Sunday night and stuck around most of the week. Hooray for antibiotics! Now I can write again!

I should start out by saying that our recent trip to Fluke was not only my first time there, but also the first mini comics show I've ever attended. Fluke 2011 also marked the first time in over five years that I've been to a convention solely as a comics fan. Since joining the staff of Heroes Aren't Hard to Find to Find and HeroesCon in 2007 I've gone to many conventions around the country, but always for the purpose of working at them. This isn't to say that I don't have my share of fun at cons, only that it's been a while since I've been to one just to enjoy it.

Fluke was indeed a great time, and I know Heather and I are both happy we made the trip. It was a lot of fun running into talented folks we knew (Henry Eudy, Chris Pitzer, J. Chris Campbell, Dustin Harbin, and Chris Schweizer), but equally fun for me to meet people I knew only through reputation (Josh Latta, Drew Weing, Patrick Dean, Jason Horn, Shannon Smith, and Andy Runton). Beyond that I can only say that there can't really be much wrong when a bunch of good hearted creative folks convene in a rock club to hang out, drink beer, and talk comics. That's exactly what I wanted to do there, and am happy that's how the event unfolded for me.

     If guess if I was writing my typical serious-minded post I would talk about the strong community vibe I felt and Fluke, and how refreshing it was to be around so many creative folks who seemed to be there for the experience as much or more than making money. After having been to big cons across the country, it was really nice to be at a con where the joy of comics making and reading was so clearly evident everywhere I walked. There was an atmosphere of inclusion throughout, and while the mini comics community certainly attracts its' share of similarly-minded folk, everyone there seemed to be honest in their love of comics.  The idea that a place exists where anyone can set up and sell their comics without discouragement was also a welcome sight.  I might not have responded to everyone's comics represented there, but I appreciated the fact that on that day all of us were there enjoying comics together. But before I get too analytical I think I just want to remember Fluke 2011 as a great time. Thanks to all the organizers and all the cool people we saw and met while there. Heather and I will be back and are already looking forward to Fluke 2012.