COOOONNNNN!!!!!!

I will have a table in the Artists' Alley at the Great Lakes Comic Con February 26 and 27th in Warren, Michigan at Macomb Community College. I will be there with my collaborator for VIETMIME Tim Schaiberger, promoting (and hopefully selling) our Graphic Novella of the Mime. It's more novel than graphic, to introduce the world to the Mime (and with our time constraints, the best way to go right now).
  I will be doing sketches of Mime, caricatures, cartoon characters and super hero characters, as well as have some art prints to sell.  You can find info on the convention here, including directions, featured guests, ticket prices ( $10 daily) and other information!
I might even have the variant cover issue of POPEYE Comics Classics I did for sale!

Still alive!

It's been a LLOOOONNGGGG time since I posted, and I have some free time, so I thought I'd update.
  I'm still here.
  I still draw.
More to come as things develop.

CORRECTION

We WILL be doing the GREAT LAKES COMIC CONVENTION in February in Warren, Michigan at Macomb Community College! I'll be doing caricatures (like below), commission drawings, cartoons, comic book heroes, etc. as well as pitching our book and what-not!

MIME COMING!!!

  My comic partner Timothy G. Schaiberger​ and I are planning to be in the Artist Alley of the 2015 Great Lakes Comic Con this coming February to preview our story (created in 2004). For those of you who know us, you know what I'm referring to. I want it to be a bit of a surprise. HOWEVER, we still need to get it printed/published in time for the convention, AND we need to reserve our table ($$). We're trying a different format just to get our story and character out while I work on the comic book format version. 
  I am offering my services as a cartoonist/caricature artist to raise the funds needed to achieve this long-awaited dream of ours. You can contact me here if you'd like a sketch of your favorite cartoon or comic book character or a caricature drawn.
  If you'd like a small preview of the story's premise, click here

Feliz Cumpleanos` Bigote Maestro

Today is Sergio Aragones' 78th birthday!!!

My Quest For POPEYE

If any of you reading this know me, you know I am a life-long, hardcore Groo fan and Popeye fan. I've been drawing them since I was 7 years old. I read their books, collect what I can afford of their merchandise, etc. My lifelong dream (and I do have a few of those) is to professionally draw Groo and/or Popeye. Since Groo's creator Sergio Aragones and his cohort Mark Evanier have both voiced that if Sergio doesn't draw Groo, NOBODY does, I will never have the chance at the mendicant barbarian. But Popeye the Sailor has been published in recent years, beginning a regular new comic book series that unfortunately ended by its 12th issue, and then "Comic Classics" stories. These books are reprints of Bud Sagendorf's run on Popeye comics in the 50s on. Ok, so I can't draw a regular series. I tried and was not accepted. Well, the "Comic Classics" have variant covers to the issues, and have used artwork of professional cartoonists and fan art. FANTASTIC!!! I was sending samples and submissions since just before the new series began (I think it was 2011 or 2012) up until as recently as June. Nothing. I've been drawing Popeye since I remember drawing! I have studied him, the various E.C Segar creations as well as Sagendorf characters, and thought I represented the character well. That's what was looked for in the series, but I don't recall if I sent sequential art or not (sequential art is artwork that tells a story panel-to-panel or step by step, like a storyboard for a movie. THAT'S one of the biggest things editors and publishers look for in artists, not just art quality). But the variant covers wouldn't require sequential art! I love the character and try my best to show that through my illustrations. I don't want to veer from the classic style. Why mess with perfection (not my drawing of Popeye, the perfection that is Segar's characters)? Then I start to see the variants coming in for "Comic Classics" and they are WILD, abstract takes on Popeye. I find that I cannot do what they're looking for. I am not abstract. Don't get me wrong; I'm not bad-mouthing the covers that grace the covers. It's that they were NOT what I expected to see. The styles are beyond my wheel-house. I don't want to alter my vision of Popeye. I even TRIED to make some "wackier" styles, but they also were not accepted. I also can't get feedback. WHY am I not good enough? I've dreamed my entire life to draw for POPEYE, and when I was hipped to the news that the publisher was going to start a new POPEYE comic and they were looking for artists, I thought I'd be a shoe-in.
 You tell me, and I'm not looking to boost my ego, but what do you think? What is wrong with how I draw Popeye?

Slacking

Hey! Guess who's LAZY? THIS GUY!!!!! I've become an awful blogger. To be fair, though, this blog is about my art and my art career, and the last year-and-a-half has not been focused on art. BUT, I have been working on stuff, but mainly illustrations. If you would like to see what I've done lately, click HERE I WILL post the drawing I did for my favorite wrestler (I don't follow wrestling anymore, but as a kid and in the early/mid/late 90s I did) Rowdy Roddy Piper that I gave him at the Motor City Comic Con in May with two of my three kids.

Paint it, Nuttall

I've been hired to paint a portrait. I haven't painted since December 2013. My paints are collecting mold under my sink. Just a WEE bit nervous.

Trying to Meet a Hero

Here's the thing: I've tried for over 20 years to meet my heroes & inspirations. There's no thrill like coming face-to-face with the person or persons who inspire and have inspired you to do what you do. I have, through my abilties in art, met my heroes. I take great pride in that. I have accomplished all but one: the GREAT Jack Nicholson. I merely want to meet him face-to-face, for only a few minutes, and give him artwork I've created for him personally. He's always lit up the screen for me since I saw "Batman" at the age of 12, and around that time when my dad had me watch "The Shining" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". He inspires my art & made me want to act (but I can't, NOR can I memorize lines). ‪#‎HelpNuttallmeetNicholson‬ If I could accomplish this, I will complete my PERSONAL "Bucket List" (see what I did there?). This is why I want to campaign to meet Mr. Nicholson. Chances are, he'll not be coming to Michigan any time soon. It would require me traveling to California, or maybe Aspen. If know me, you know my passion for my craft and my fascination with Jack. If you believe in this, please help spread this around, and use the hashtag #HelpNuttallmeetNicholson Thank you.