Donors Choose: Graphically Cool!

Donors Choose is a wonderful funding platform that allows teachers in underfunded public school systems to appeal directly to citizens for help in funding special projects. Since 2000, they have raised more than $100 million to fund classroom projects in public schools across the country, reaching more than 6 million students. Donors Choose is a 501c3 organization, meaning your gift is tax deductible.

My girlfriend, a grade school librarian, has launched a campaign to expand her school's graphic novel section. They already have a good-sized GN section—especially considering that the school is in a high poverty district. But her students, a mixture of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers, can't get enough of our favorite art form! To try and meet demand and increase her graphic novel section, Kerrie has launched a Donors Choose campaign. I'd love it if you could check it out:

https://secure.donorschoose.org/project/graphically-cool/960151/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=teacher_favorite_new_project_notification


From now until February 18, Donors Choose is running a matching program, Enter the promotion code HEART and they will match your donation!

There's a wide variety of all-ages comic material on the list, and I hope you will choose to fund the project. Any amount you can spare will help. As an added incentive, I'll give away some artwork!

If you donate, you will receive a receipt from Donor's Choice within minutes of making a donation. Forward that receipt (it includes the amount you donated, but no personal/financial information) to this address: stevebryantart at gmail dot com.

For every $10 you donate, I'll enter you in a drawing for the original art to Athena Voltaire: Flight of the Falcon #3 (pictured at the beginning of this blog post). The artwork measures 11x17 and is ink and brush on bristol board. In fact, it features some of the best drybrush work I've ever done! So if you donate $10 to the campaign, you're entered 1 time. If you donate $20, you have 2 entries. $30 will get you 3 entries, etc...

(I had considered contributing an original commission, but I have a backlog of folks that I plan to take care of later this month/early next, so offering an existing piece seems more fair).

Thanks for considering this! Hopefully, you'll join Kerrie and myself in inspiring a new generation of comic and graphic novel fans!

Remembering the Work of Joe Kubert

I must have been nine or ten when I first encountered a comic featuring a Joe Kubert cover. Truth be told, I thought it was some of the worst comic art I'd seen—and at that time, I considered myself an expert in the artform.

I'd been raised on a steady diet of Jack Kirby's statuesque demi-gods and John Buscema's powerful matinee idols. And most of my favorite work had been embellished with the slick brush lines of Joe Sinnot or Mike Royer, or occasionally inked with the lush rendering of Tom Palmer.

To my eye, Joe Kubert's work looked rough, sketchy and unfinished.

Flash forward eight to ten years: I found myself in my first life drawing class and experienced gesture drawing for the first time. Everything was about capturing a movement (hence the name, gesture drawing) and recording it. Motion, vitality and spontaneity were king.

It was around this time that the lightbulb went off.

What my untrained 10 year-old eye saw as "rough," was actually boldness. What I thought was "sketchy" was actually immediacy.  Where I had previously seen the work as "unfinished," I now saw it as fluid and dynamic.

From that point on, I checked out all the Kubert work I could find. I learned that he was more than just an expert at creating movement. Joe's compositions and storytelling were downright amazing.

I never met the man, but he was my guide on adventures on WWII battlefields, and through primeval jungles. Our expeditions took us from prehistoric earth to unknown galaxies in the far-future. And at every stop along the way, I learned something about art.

Thanks, Joe.

SDCC and Social Anxiety

Since I'm leaving for San Diego Comic-Con very soon, it occurred to me to address something that I experience every time I go to a convention: social anxiety.

I'm fine when I'm sitting at my table and interacting with people coming up and chatting. In fact, I love it. Small talk, comics talk, movie and TV talk, sports talk...I'll talk your ear off. But take me away from that comfort zone, and I clam up.

I suck at networking.

That's it; the bottom line. If I have to seek someone out,  I invariably worry about if they'll remember me (if I've met them before), if I'm blethering on too long or too much, if they're looking for an escape route...pretty much just worried that I'm imposing on their time.

So I end up feeling like Paul Schaffer as Artie Fufkin in this clip from This Is Spinal Tap:

http://youtu.be/cv5FwzRBc_Y

"Hi. Steve Bryant, Athena Voltaire." [shakes hand]

[puke]

This even extends to seeing someone I've met before away from the convention (for instance, I think I've run into comic artist Skottie Young about a half-dozen times and just looked away...and there are a bunch more examples, too)—all because I don't know what to say, or am afraid of imposing on someone's time, or because I'm afraid of being embarrassed if someone doesn't remember who I am.

So that's it; my deep dark convention secret. I'm going to try and come out of my shell a bit more, and interact more this year...but I say that every year. We'll see if it happens this year.

However, I'll be in the Small Press Pavillion, M-14, if you want to stop by and spare me the anxiety. ;)

SDCC Sketch Preorders

Due to a ton of work, and being behind on a couple of commissions, I'm not taking preorders for artwork done prior to San Diego Comicon.

However, I am taking preorders (limited to 10) for $50 9x12 single character inked commissions that I'll draw at the show. First come, first served.

More examples of my work can be found here.

Email me to reserve a sketch.

I'll be in Small Press, #M-14. Whether or not you preorder a sketch, please stop by and say Hi!

Commission: Mary Jane Watson

Face it, Tiger...

I was thrilled to do a commission of Peter Parker's gal, Mary Jane Watson—especially when the commissioner requested it by specifying the year 1977 (I love Ross Andru's work from that period).

Ink on 9x12 bristol board.

I'm still accepting preorders for C2E2 in Chicago. I'm not sure if I'll be doing more than penciled headshots at the show (stagefright), so please consider lining up a commission before the show. If you're an art collector that prefers to have commissions done in your themed sketchbook, you can mail me your sketchbook and I'll be glad to bring it to the show.

If you're not going to C2E2, but want a commission, feel free to order one now, too!

PRICING

$45 for an inked single-character piece on 8.5 x 11 (or 9 x 12...depending on what I have lying around). Additional figures, email me for a quote. Plan on $5 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.

$80 for an inked single character piece on 11 x 17. Again, for additional figures, email me for a quote. And again, $5 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.

(ink wash added at artist's discretion...let me know up front if it's something you really, really, really have your heart set on.)

I've been having trouble with my gmail account, so please contact me at SteveBryantArt at Yahoo dot com

Accepting Commission Preorders for C2E2 in Chicago

I'm accepting preorders for C2E2 in Chicago. I'm not sure if I'll be doing more than penciled headshots at the show (stagefright), so please consider lining up a commission before the show. If you're an art collector that prefers to have commissions done in your themed sketchbook, you can mail me your sketchbook and I'll be glad to bring it to the show.

If you're not going to C2E2, but want a commission, feel free to order one now, too!

PRICING

$45 for an inked single-character piece on 8.5 x 11 (or 9 x 12...depending on what I have lying around). Additional figures, email me for a quote. Plan on $5 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.

$80 for an inked single character piece on 11 x 17. Again, for additional figures, email me for a quote. And again, $5 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.

(ink wash added at artist's discretion...let me know up front if it's something you really, really, really have your heart set on.)

I've been having trouble with my gmail account, so please contact me at SteveBryantArt at Yahoo dot com

March 1: Creator-Owned Comic Day!

I love the fact that there's an official day for my favorite kind of comics: creator-owned ones! So, naturally, today's entry centers on my book, Athena Voltaire.

A globetrotting aviatrix battles Nazis, occult science, and mythical creatures against the backdrop of the pulp era. It’s Indiana Jones by way of Hellboy, starring a Joss Whedon-style female pilot. The series originally launched online at the Modern Tales family of webcomics sites, and earned an Eisner Award nomination.

Below is a teaser short story, The Isle of Death. The "red" cover (above) is for a short that was featured in Double Feature Comics (you can read it in its entirety for a mere 99¢).

I'm currently working on a new AV mini-series The Volcano Goddess, as well as remastering the existing AV material (200 pages or so) into an Omnibus edition (also pictured above).

Contact me for more info on Athena Voltaire, or publishing/rights inquiries.