For the past several months I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 with a new group of great players. As their DM (game referee) I had everyone make their characters out of lego minifig parts, so that when we enter the combat part of the game we have little figures to do battle. I thought since my current ongoing story line is so D&D inspired, that I’d share some photos with you. Here are some of the classic Monster Manual denizens they’ve had to duel with (or might in the future).

Beholder

Medusa

Mimic

Minotaur Skeleton

Lich

Warlock

Harpy

Cyclops

Mermaid

Centaur

Valkyrie

Roper

Green Slime

Skeletons with undead turning touch

Salamander

My cartoonist friend Jay Stephens made an awesome cartoon show called The Secret Saturdays about a monster-hunting family. Actually, they’re cryptid hunters. Cryptids are monsters that supposedly exist in our world, like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster. I only recently finished watching the now cancelled series. It blew me away with the awesome things they did with the characters over two seasons. There was a lot of growth and surprises while having a satisfying freak-of-the-week story for each episode. If you haven’t seen it, you should give it a shot, and by “shot” I mean several episodes because the larger storyline elements don’t become apparent right away.

The above image is from the Secret Saturdays’ comic that DC put out. I don’t actually own any of these comics yet, but I did buy the original art of this cover from Jay at TCAF last year. It hangs on the wall of my studio, above my monitor. I’m looking forward to tracking down these comics.

The other reason I bring up the Saturdays is that it was about a year ago that I realized that the mother character, Drew Saturday, actually looks a lot like Princess Christi. Jay and I were working on our projects in isolation from each other and don’t believe either of us was influenced by the other, but it’s weird the similar wavelength we were on. Black and orange jumpsuits with white blonde hair? Jay and I used to have our comics (Oddville and Princess Planet) run in the Toronto Star’s kid section so maybe some of osmosis worked its magic?

Last weekend’s Toronto Comic Art Festival (TCAF) was amazing. Great creators. Great organizers. Great audience. This was a panel I was on with my favourite and funniest comic friends, Jay Stephens, Eric Wight and Steve Manale. We made some comics with suggestions from the audience. The festival is getting really good at programming and making space for kids thanks to Scott Robins.

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As I mentioned in my last blog post, I will be at the Toronto Comics Art Festival this weekend at the Toronto Reference Library. I’ll be on the main floor in the Transmission X room (Learning Centre 2).

I will be doing a draw/talk on the Saturday in The Appel Salon–Novella Room on the library’s second floor with my favourite, funniest kids cartoonists friends.

2-2:45pm: I Made a Funny: Turn Jokes into Comics
Are you a class clown? Are jokes your thing? Join cartoonists Steve Manale, Brian McLachlan, Jay Stephens, and Eric Wight for some wacky hijinks as they help you brainstorm the funniest jokes ever and then make your very own three-panel, gag comic strips!

Also I will have some copies of my book of Pop Culture from a Parallel World of drawings I’ve been posting on my illustration blog.

On Mother’s Day weekend I will be at this event:

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival
Saturday May 7th, 9am-5pm
Sunday May 8th, 11am-5pm

@ Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St., Toronto, Canada
416-533-9168
Admission to TCAF is Free.

I will be doing hideous caricatures, selling stickers, prints and comics. If you’re in town, you should totally swing by! I’ll be in the TXcomics room on the main floor.

Japan Fundraiser update

Last weekend’s artist party raised $20,000 in donations to the Red Cross. I had a great time drawing beautiful ugly people and hanging out with artists.  Here’s one of the watercolours I donated for the auction:

and some of the hideous caricatures I sketched

And thanks to excellent photographer Paul Hillier for this great photo of me enjoying the day.

This Sunday there is a talented group of Toronto artists getting together for live art and silent art auction to benefit Japan. I’ll be there from 3-9 drawing, probably water colours. If you’re in town be sure to drop buy and get some good art for a good cause.

Sunday April 18, 12noon-12 midnight

Revival Bar, 783 College St.

I just got some totally boss stickers made up of the Princess Planet characters for you to play with. I will be selling them at Wizard World this Saturday and Sunday, March 19 and 20. Hopefully, I will also get some set up at the store should you non-Torontonians wish a set to brighten your binder.

This month I participated in two art shows. One was about Krampus, the evil yang to Santa’s yin. If you’re naughty he will whip you and possibly take you to hell in his basket.

‘Krampusnacht Art Show’
Dec 2, 2010 – Jan 10, 2011 at RESISTOR GALLERY
284 College Street 2nd Floor, Toronto

This was my piece

Then there was the show about NBA star Ron Artest. He has started a brawl with the home team’s fans, drank Hennessey at half time, wore a Jersey with the number of weeks Thriller was at the top of the charts, applied for a job at Circuit City to get the employee discount, won a championship with the Lakers and is auctioning off the ring for mental health charities. He’s the most honest man in sports. While everyone else is talking about giving 110% and capitalizing on their chances, he’s ignoring the script and being genuine. That’s why I chose to paint him with all sorts of colourful, weird and wonderful things coming out of his mouth.

‘Loveable Badass: Artists on Artest’
Dec 18-22, 2010 at NARWHAL ART PROJECTS
680 Queen Street West, Toronto

There was a lot of press for the show, and the man himself even showed up to see what the deal was. Press reports can be found here and here as video, here, here, here, here, here and here.

I got to talk to him for a bit and he was really down to earth and friendly. He told me he started out majoring in art but found it too hard so he ended up taking math because it didn’t conflict with his basketball schedule. I told him I started out playing hoops but gave it up for art and he laughed. “It’s all cyclical”. Me and one other friend used to have hoops up at the end of our driveways and played a lot of 1 on 1 and 21. While I love watching hockey I prefer to play basketball. Are any of you sports fans?

I hope everyone has a happy winter break whatever you’re celebrating, whether it’s Chanukkah, Christmas, New Years, Kwanza, or just time off work/school.

This weekend (Aug 27-29) I’m at the Toronto Fan Expo, probably the biggest comic/nerd con in the city, if not country. Drop by for a hideous caricature, print, sketch or down low (high fives are old news).  In other news, I just got back from a long weekend in Reno where I played mini golf with a two headed dragon.