NC Comic Con Aftermath

Well, the 2013 NC Comic Con has come and gone. A big thank you to everyone who stopped by our table to chat and to those of you who purchased our comics and artwork. We had a great time visiting the city of Durham for the first time ever. We were amazed at the number of people that attended the show. Can't wait until the next time we visit North Carolina. 

Rachel and I ate the most amazing Chicken and Waffles after Saturday's show. I decided to take a picture of the happy wife enjoying her meal, when I suddenly realized that right behind her were Geoff Darrow and Frank Cho sitting at the bar. 

We had a little laugh about being so close to artistic greatness. I talked with Geoff at the show earlier in the day, but I got the impression he was in a bit of a grumpy mood, so I decided not to accost him at the bar. By the way, the chicken and waffles were the best meal ever. 

We were set up next to artist Doug Cowan! I've loved his artwork for a while without knowing who he was. He was really fun to talk to and he kindly traded a print of Wicket for a drawing of a Gijoe Laser Viper. 

He inspired me to do my own ewok drawing. 

We also set up next to author Pab Sungenis, who kept himself busy during the con by drawing "The World's Crapiest Drawings". He kept me and Rachel entertained throughout the entire weekend. 

NC Comicon Announcement!

Just got word back that Rachel and I will be manning an artist alley table at NC Comicon this November! 

November 9 - 10th

Durham Convention Center

301 W. Morgan St.

Durham, NC 27701

http://nccomicon.com

Interview with Lukasz Kowalczuk for Szlam.net

Typical beginning. Say a few words about yourself. 

I'm an illustrator and comic book artist living out of South Carolina, USA.  I've been a fan of science fiction, fantasy, and comic books since my childhood. The first movies I remember seeing as a child were RoboCop and Star Wars. The first tv show I watched was Doctor Who. Those early fictional influences gave me a life-long interest in drawing imaginary worlds. From the age of 10, my life's goal was to write and illustrate my own comic books. When I graduated high school, I studied Fine Art, Graphic Design, and Illustration at a nearby college. I then attended graduate school at the Savannah College of Art and Design where I earned an MFA in illustration. Since finishing my education, I've worked for the last 6 years as a freelance illustrator. I've spent the last two years developing several comic book ideas. So far, I have five stories in development that I would love to complete in the coming years. At the moment, I'm only showing two of the comic books to the public, "The Adventures of Death Elf and Woose" and "Skull Gun Bunny". Once I've finished the initial ten issue story line for each of those comics, I'll start finishing the other stories that I've planned and show them to the public. 

How would you describe your connection with G.I.Joe. Obsession? Love?

The G.I. Joe artwork that I've been doing has a deep emotional connection to me. When I was very young, my mother left my father and took me and my sister to live with her. From ages 5 - 18, it was very difficult for me to spend time with my dad. I had conflicting emotions about my dad, but he loved me deeply. When he couldn't see me on my birthdays or holidays, he would mail me G.I. Joe vehicles in the mail. I'd hear a knock at the front door and suddenly find a huge UPS package with a "Cobra Rage" Vehicle inside of it along with a card from my dad. The times I did get to visit my father, we would often go to the local toy store where he would let me pick out one or two action figures as gifts. Every time I see a G.I.Joe, it reminds of me of how much my father sacrificed to spend time with me. They remind me of the love of a father who would drive 10 hours every other weekend to spend a single day with his son. I decided a year ago, that I wanted to draw the Joes my Dad bought me when I was little, as a way to express my appreciation for what he did for me. 

Any signals of interest from Hasbro? Like "Oh, these fan arts are great! Work for us!"

Nothing yet. I've been trying to figure out who to contact at Hasbro to talk about licensing information . It would be a dream come true to work with them.  So far, I've simply been drawing the G.I.Joe characters for my own enjoyment, but it would be amazing if I could someday do some artwork that appeared on an official G.I. Joe product or comic book.

Do you collect action figures?

I collected action figures from age 5 - 20. I grew up buying and selling action figures at local flea markets in South Carolina. G.I. Joe and Kenner's Power of the Force (Star Wars) were the two lines that I really liked to collect. Once I went to college, I could no longer spend the time or money that I used to on my hobby. About two years ago, I had the sudden urge to buy more action figures, but I decided, due to my financial situation, to draw the action figures I wanted to collect, instead of purchasing them. If I had the money, I probably would have an art studio filled with action figures. 

Any other favourite series?

I've always had fond memories of Dino Riders and Bravestarr, two action figure lines from the late 80's. Exosquad for the 90's was also another favorite series of mine. I used to love the 90's kenner toy lines, especially the Terminator 2 and The Shadow movie toys.

Geek Wars are impressive. Are they your idea or are there any other artists drawing such "fights"?

I'm sure if you go to a website like Deviant Art, you'll probably find other people doing something similar to what I've been doing. Lots of people draw different characters fighting each other. The element that makes mine more interesting is that I try to design a poster around the fighting characters, and if I have time, I actually show the fight take place. The Geek Wars idea came from a friend's suggestion that I do a piece of artwork with Ben Kenobi vs. Gandalf. I liked the idea and made the poster one Sunday afternoon. I then posted it on Deviant Art and Facebook and asked friends to vote on who would win the match. After a week of voting, I drew the outcome of the fight. I took a break from making the posters when I started working on my comic books, but I have a list of 10 more fights planned out. I just need the time to finish them.

What would you say for Scrooge vs Duckula? (it's just popped out in my mind)

That's a hard question to answer. The way I see the fight going, Scrooge would beat Duckula black and blue, but eventually he would get tired of beating him up. Duckula, being a vampire, wouldn't be injured by the beating. He'd simply stand still and make funny comments. Scrooge would eventually loose his temper, throw down his walking stick, and walk away angry. Duckula wins!

Tell me few words about your own projects. How many of them you are working on now?

I have lots of ongoing projects. I work as a freelance illustrator, so my freelance jobs come first. When I'm not working on freelance jobs, my primary projects are writing and illustrating Death Elf and Woose and Skull Gun Bunny comics. When I'm not working on those, I draw the G.I.Joes. My goal is to eventually draw every classic Joe from the original toy line. I also have plans to draw my way through the Dino-Rider, TMNT, Pirates of Dark Water, Bucky O'Hare, Toxic Crusader, Bravestarr, and Exo-Squad toy lines. When I'm not drawing the toys, I'm working on the Geek Wars Posters. All that pretty much keeps me busy most nights. 

Skull Gun Bunny is finished and it's online for free. Do you think it's good idea to give it away like this?

What I've found out in the world of comics, is that unless people know who you are, they won't read your comic book. I'm a relatively unknown artist, so as I create the first couple of issues of my comic books, I'm going to make them available for people to read on my website. I want people to be aware of what I'm making so they know what my work looks like and how I write it. I've also found that by having some of my comics available for free, potential publishers can read my projects without having a printed comic in their hands. Less than a month after posting the first issue of Death Elf and Woose, I was given a very well-paying freelance project based off of the artwork from the comic. 

How many copies did you print? There is any way to buy it in bigger distribution or only from you and during conventions?

At the moment, I've been printing my comics in very small numbers and selling them at conventions as an exclusive product. I'm still learning the business side of making comics, so I'm sure my production methods will change in the future. Once I have several issues of my comics completed, I do plan on mailing them out to some larger publishers to see if they can help me produce the comics in larger quantities.  I'm looking into some e-commerce websites to see if they can help me set up a way for online customers to purchase and receive my work without shipping being very expensive. 

I asked about Hasbro. Any feedback from comic publishers, websites, etc.?

So far most of the feedback that I've received has been from fan sites and blogs. 

I've had some great feedback from several G.I.Joe fan sites this year. The Comics Alliance website wrote a very nice little article about my Joes in the early spring. I did some Alice in Wonderland artwork that has recently been posted on several Alice in Wonderland fanpages and tumblr's. 

Plans for rest of 2013?

The rest of the year will be pretty busy. 

I'm getting the test print of Skull Gun Bunny in a week or two. Once I proofread that, I'll send the comic to the printers in September. I'll be doing several comic book conventions in the fall, most of which will be in North and South Carolina. I'm currently working on the page breakdowns for the second issue of Death Elf and Woose. 

My goals by the end of the year are to finish the second issues of Death Elf and Woose and Skull Gun Bunny, to complete another 10 - 20 Joes, to draw the X-men from the 90's cartoon show, and to finish my current list of Geek Wars posters.

Traditional last few words for Szlam.net readers :)

 Thank you for taking an interest in the geeky world of comics and action figures. 

Thanks and cheers, 

Lukasz Kowalczuk

Heroes Con 2013: Post Mortem

Heroes Con was just this last week. I was able to attend with my beautiful wife Rachel Mongin, an awesome writer friend of mine Mark Szaz, and with a bunch of other uber talented artists. We all had a blast.
I thought that I'd share some of the commission sketches and a few other pictures from the event.

A huge shootout to everyone who stopped by our Pretty Weird booth and spoke to us. It was great to talk to some many people who loved the comic medium. Thank you so much for your kind words and for your support of the arts.

For those of you who contributed to the "Idea Box", I'll be posting a tab on this website and our prettyweirdart.blogspot.com site with a status report on the project. I'll update the pages as the project continues to evolve. We had well over 80 people contribute their ideas to the project, and some of the ideas are incredibly entertaining. We even enjoyed the guy's who contributed drawings of large phallic symbols. We know your hearts were in the right place...

Anyways, you don't want to read me babbling, let's get on with the pics from the show!

Annihilator

Rachel Mongin's Black Widow

Darklon

Destro

Hulk

Rachel's drawing of someone's original character

Rachel's Scarlet Witch

An awesome lady who asked for a Catwoman sketch

Harry learns something he can't unlearn about the dementors...

This was an awesome commission! The guy who asked me to draw this Joe handed me his own sketchbook that held sketches by the original artists that worked on the Gijoe comics in the 80's!

Here's the artwork to prove it! My cartoon Joe is in the same book as Ron's version of the Joe! My artwork is just pages away from the guy who drew the Joe Comics in the 80's! Geekgasm!

Moon Knight Smack Down!

Rachel's Hedwig

A few of my mini prints

Rachel and Mark manning our booth like pros!

Our little set up of comics, sketches, original artwork, and mini prints.

The Pretty Weird Gang

Our loot pilfered from our fellow artists in artist alley.

Iron Grenadier

Metal Head

Rachel's Samurai

Targat

Voltar

Library Book Sale

The Richland County Public Library recently held their annual fall book sale. It couldn't have been a better event. My wife and I got up early, drove to the library where the sale was being held, and arrived the instant the doors opened. We spent a good two hours crammed in with a hundred or so people picking through the books for sale. I, being the dork that I am, instantly sought out any comic books that I could find, followed by fine art, theology, and history non-fiction books.

 I feel that I struck gold in the comic book categories. I had $15 on me and I picked up the following comic books as well as an extensive book on Salvador Dali and a book on fantastic surreal art by Italian Romanticists. My wife stocked up on a box or two of books for her 4th grade classroom. Afterwards, we had exactly two dollars left to our names, so we trotted over to the local comic book shop and purchased several .50 comics that we plan to frame and hang in our hallway among our family pics. All in all, it was a tremendous date. A beautiful October morning, comics, wifey, and thrifty shopping. Pretty much the closest thing to utopia on earth for myself. 

This was the biggest find of the book sale. This is the very first graphic novel featuring the ninja turtles. It also holds the honor of being the very first comic book I ever checked out of the local library. It holds a special place in my heart. It's a object that I associate with the better memories of spending time with my dad and grandparents...and the less savory memories of my sister getting angry at me for not letting her read my comic book. She stole the book from me and found a mild profanity on one of the pages. She showed the page to my parents and promptly got me banned from checking out comic books from the library for the longest time....yeah...so good times and bad times. An awesome book. And it only cost me $2.

I'm not a big transformers fan. I liked the toys as a kid, but there's no love lost or nostalgia for them in my heart. I'm probably one of the few people who have more fond memories of the Beast Wars toys and tv show than the G1 toys and cartoons. That said, the artwork of this comic was interesting to me, one of the first transformers comics that ever caught my attention. Also a 2 dollar purchase.

My wife and I are huge Firefly fans, so of course I purchased this. $2 again....and cheapskates the world around let out a muffled "awwwwwww"....

I was introduced to this Batman comic while in undergrad. The entire story is told in watercolor paintings, an amazing feat in itself. What makes this book more important in my eyes is that the story deals with religious themes and the illustrator is a believer in the Bible. $2. 

The Asterix comics are the epitome of perfect sequential artwork, no way I was going to pass up this at a $2 price tag. 

Not a huge fan of the Clone Wars stuff outside of the CN animated miniseries that preceded the release of the final movies in the prequel saga. The artwork in this was just  a step removed from the awesome samurai jack inspired clone wars artwork, so I purchased it for a dollar. 

I'm a huge fan of Frank Millar's Sin City artwork. The crime noir and black and white grotesqueries found in these comics were a major influencer in my undergraduate years. I love the size and feel of these books as well, they simply scream out to you to read and prize the book as a cherished object. At $2, I was ecstatic to find this...my favorite find after the Ninja Turtles book.

Books A Million Sale

It probably seems like I've been purchasing a ton of comic books recently. Well, I have. I've found a number of sales, so when I can purchase comics at an affordable price, I'll stock up on them. I hadn't purchased any comics for about ten years until my last year of graduate school. Graphic novels were just too expensive when one is paying out the wazzoo for undergraduate school, working a job or two, and trying to maintain good enough grades to get into graduate school. When in graduate school, I found myself with a little more disposable income and I stumbled onto book sales. Our local Books A Million has a shelf of clearance comics that I've been visiting when I have a little expendable cash. The books below were purchased for $15 the other week, at 75% off the cover price. 

I love the main story in this book as well as the artwork. The story is perfect comic book material, outlandish and bizarre. It involves aliens, cows, circus freaks, and the Thing. The artwork is wonderful, sort of a Geof Darrow-light with nicer coloring than Hard Boiled. 

  

I'm not usually a fan or realistic artwork, but this comic's cover really grabbed my attention. The first short story in this book has a cartoon/realism aesthetic that I really enjoy. I wish I could emulate it.

I like the concept of this graphic novel. It tells a fracture narrative that builds up over a period of decades and then intersects with many comic story lines from the 80's that I remember reading as a child. Not a huge fan of the artwork, but the artist makes Mr. Sinister look badass and the story telling from a writing perspective has a great nostalgic hook. 

My Studio

The studio as it stands...had the in-laws over today for a visit and figured I'd snap a pic or two of the studio before I messed it all up again. 

Dorky Birthday Card Collages

Sooooooo....I like to make dorky little photo collages for my family member's birthdays. The collages aren't super great but I enjoyed sticking them together. I like the fact they aren't "picture perfect". My family seem to like them. My dad and I both like Tom Baker aka Dr. Who and the cat and puppies were the family pets. 

Artistic Inspiration: Graphic Novels

Books A Million recently had a huge sale on graphic novels. I picked up about 60 dollars worth of comics for 20 bucks.  I generally pick up comics because of their artwork and coloring, rather than their stories. I was really surprised to find out that some of these books had some really fascinating stories. I especially liked The Gauntlet's sympathetic take on the Rhino and the return of Silvermane.