Don’t read too much into this.

I’m just being polite.

This doesn’t mean I want to get back together.

I just want you to have a nice birthday.

I’m sorry if this re-opens the wound for you . . .

Try to have a great birthday anyway . . .  

I am extremely hungry right now.  If YOU are extremely hungry right now, you should go to Sorto’s Top Bun and get one of these Bacon Cheeseburgers on an Absolutely Amazing Whole Wheat Bun.  You’ll be glad you did.  Even if you have to drive like 12 hours or take a plane or something. It’s worth it. Go there. Don’t bother telling them we sent you – we don’t want to distract them from making Bacon Cheeseburgers on an Absolutely Amazing Whole Wheat Bun . . .

This is not an advertisement. It is a plea for help.  Can somebody bring me a Bacon Cheeseburger on an Absolutely Amazing Whole Wheat Bun?

I’d go but the internet isn’t going to write itself . . .

Anybody? Anybody?  Buehler?

We are thrilled to present this conversation with NY Artist Jason Quinones already in progress – read to the end for your chance to win a copy his awesome comic book BEER AND COOKIES !

How old were you when you realized you were an artist?
As a kid i always loved to draw but i don’t know if i ever really thought of myself as an artist or seriously considered art as a career choice until maybe my first year of high school when it finally dawned on me that there were actually people out there in the real world whose job it was to draw comics all day, whether it be monthly comic books or daily newspaper strips. I loved comic books and newspaper strips but back then i had no idea as to how someone would break into those art fields and i was too scared and intimidated to ask anybody for help or where to start looking. My copy of How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way was my first step in trying to learn how to become a professional comic book artist.

Were your parents supportive?
My parents were always supportive of my art. Probably because they noticed i had no interest in anything else and they needed to nurture something in me that would get me out of the house after high school! But I literally never thought about college until the day after i (barely) graduated high school. I had no interest in art college’s like S.V.A or F.I.T so after about a year of goofing off i went back to my high school guidance counselors office to finally ask for some damn guidance of which they could only offer me a booklet listing off some trade schools. I flipped through it and there it was written, in a seemingly larger than life font to my eyes, The Joe Kubert School Of Cartoon and Graphic Art. The fact that the word “Cartoon” was in the school’s title was a HUGE selling point for me. I told my parents about the school and they helped to support me financially as i got accepted and drew my ass off for 3 long, fun, fruitful years. Years later, just for laughs, I showed my mom an X-rated cover piece i did for Al Goldstein’s Screw Magazine. She thought it was pretty funny and was actually quite proud of me, her son the pornographer.

What was your first paid job in art?
I wasn’t able to get paid for my artwork until after i graduated from The Kubert School. Shortly after graduation i was fortunate enough to land a job as an artist for a licensing company where i was hand drawing and inking Looney Tunes character art for boys and girls T-shirts and other clothing items that were sold in the Warner Bros. stores. There used to be a huge WB store on 5th Ave. so after the garments were produced and shipped off to the stores i could visit the store and see my artwork on display. That was pretty cool.

Who are your influences?
Artistically my influences first and foremost in the field of comics are both Frank Miller and Will Eisner for being so amazingly skilled as writers, artists and sequential storytellers. With comics like Will Eisner’s The Spirit and New York:The Big City and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City these guys were always pushing the boundaries of what the medium of comics can do and were at the forefront of helping to “legitimize” the comic book medium as an art form to be respected and not trivialized as being “just for kids”. Newspaper comic strips like Charles Schultz’s Peanuts, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes and especially Gary Larson’s The Far Side and all the creators behind MAD magazine were also huge influences, Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes for it’s art style, MAD and The Far Side for it’s humor. As i’ve gotten older i find my influences coming more from Independent comic book artists such as Bob Fingerman (Beg the Question, Connective Tissue, From the Ashes), Joe Matt (The Poor Bastard), Daniel Clowes (Eightball, Wilson, Mr. Wonderful) and of course the work of the Godfather to all these manic indie comic creators, Robert Crumb.

Have you met any of them?
I did have the pleasure of meeting and speaking very briefly with the late great Frank Frazetta as part of a class trip with The Kubert School. We got a personal tour of the Frank Frazetta Museum with Frank Frazetta himself as our tour guide! Frank Frazetta is one of my favorite artists of all time in any medium. Frazetta tells better stories with a single image than most of today’s artists could do with 22 pages at their disposal. The opportunity to see his greatest paintings up close and in person was a truly amazing experience. As our group moved on to the next room of paintings i found myself momentarily walking beside Frazetta and got up the nerve to ask him something, anything. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of what i asked Frank as i was a completely starstruck in that moment. I’m sure his answer was brilliant though.

How do you pay the rent? Is your 9 to 5 job art related? What is the hardest part about working on licensed products?
I currently work full time in the heart of NYC’s fashion district as a Graphic Artist working with designers to create generic art graphics for boys T-shirts. I know the word “generic” makes it sound boring but it’s actually more creative than working with licensed characters like Looney Tunes or Spider-Man. In working with licensed character art properties there are strict limitations that the artist must adhere to from the licensor to make sure that we as artists don’t compromise the licensor’s product image. These specific limitations can create, artistically speaking, a difficultly stressful ” too many cooks in the kitchen” environment as the licensor usually has multiple, opinionated “cooks” in their corner repeatedly adding their 2 cents as to what, for example, Spider-Man should really be doing. With generic art, if the designer asks me to draw a robot monster i have a good amount of creative freedom to draw whatever kind of robot monster i want without it having to go through too many “cooks” before getting the final approval to go into production.

If you were tasked with saving the comic book industry where would you start?
I’d start with knocking out the guy who came up with the idea of wanting to call comic books “Floppies”. Comic industry folk strove long and hard to have comics be accepted as a legitimate art form and when it does finally gain it’s long overdue mainstream media respect somebody comes along and tries to label the medium with the most obnoxiously dismissive name ever: Floppies. Disrespectful names like Floppies aids in continuing mainstream America’s sad history of viewing comics as simply nothing more than disposable kids garbage.

Making the comic digital download more acceptable to the average consumer worries me. Maybe digital download is a good thing for smaller indie publishers to pursue as their titles mostly get lost in the tidal wave of Super Hero books but for “The Big Two” to actively pursue, promote and forcibly push onto the public this way of viewing comics seems detrimental to the medium to me. Would the fold out 4 page spread at the end of Frank Miller’s Ronin have the same IMPACT if you tried to view it on an iPad? Would even a 2 page spread work? It’d be nice if “The Big Two” actively pushed and promoted more the importance of their local comic book shops that continually supports and sells their books. I like the idea of what Mark Millar did with his promotion of the first Kick-Ass mini-series. He dedicated a few pages in the back of Kick-Ass to listing the names and addresses of the local comic shops that helped to promote and sell his book. I’d like to see Marvel and DC do more of that in the back of their books. I doubt these suggestions would save the comic industry from collapsing but it was fun trying to answer the question.

Do you work on a tablet or paper or both?
I still prefer drawing by hand using pencil (blue line or just a plain ol’ No. 2), pen and paper. I usually just rough out the idea of what i want to do in pencil or a ball point pen. Lately, I find a simple ball point pen more freeing in rough sketching in that i don’t have the luxury of stopping to erase a mistake or sharpen my pencil if the tip breaks or wears down. I just power through with it, continually drawing, until i see the lines come through that’ll make the piece stand out for me. After that, i either clean it up by laying another sheet of paper over the rough, placing both sheets on a lightbox to better see the rough underneath and drawing the clean line art version on top or i just lay a piece of tracing paper over the rough and go straight to inking it with a Sharpie or Micron pen. It depends on whether or not i want to take my time inking the line art to be a standalone piece or if the line art is just a means to an end to be cleaned up and manipulated in Illustrator after i’ve scanned the line art in. I used to do a lot of my inking with a Winsor Newton brush and Pelican Ink, which i loved, but inking in that style was too time consuming after coming home from a full day of work and the goal for me back then and now is to try and produce the best comic work i can do as quickly as possible. Either way, the line art will be scanned in for coloring, usually in Illustrator. I letter all my comic pages in Illustrator as well. I was playing around with a Cintiq recently at TekServe and it was an amazing tool to work with. It’s a little out of my price range at the moment but i wouldn’t mind having one at home!

Fantasy Question: Money is not an issue and you can do ANYTHING in the art field. What do you do?
I’d love to do more comic work similar to what i just did in my new self published book Beer & Cookies. Producing comics and cartoons that parody, satirize or just flat out, brutally make fun of comic book super heroes, the comic book industry and society in general because today’s society has no shortage of material to make fun of. If not that, then i’d love to be a rock concert poster illustrator. Another one of my favorite artists is the “low brow” artist Coop. His poster artwork is an amazing collection of voluptuous women, insane dudes, cool cars, weird monsters and vintage robots! What artist wouldn’t want a career just drawing that?!

What do you do besides art?
Obviously, i like to read comics! Whether it’s the super hero stuff or the indie stuff i’ll read whatever catches my eye on the racks. What comes to mind right now is Jason Aaron’s Scalped. I’ve been collecting it in trades since the first one came out and it’s an awesome series! Norwegian artist JASON (Low Moon, Athos in America) is also a great comic book writer/artist. His art style is deceptively simple and child like but it complements his ironically mature adult, noir writing style and sequential storytelling so well.

I read a lot of novels and essay collections as well. I just finished reading two books by Sam Lipsyte, Homeland and The Ask. Both books are dark comedies where the main character in each one is a downtrodden schlub trying to cope with his misfortunate life. The main characters in those books have mired themselves down into such a depressing reality that it’s ridiculously funny. I also enjoy creative writing whenever i can do it, writing jokes and comedic stories just for myself or for possible future comic strips. I enjoy going to the movies and twice i’ve tried setting up movie review blogs where i would write up very detailed movie reviews and analysis but then i’d go back and read my own stuff, think it was too long winded even for me and delete the whole damn thing! I’ve seen a lot of great dark comedies lately, the latest being the new Bobcat Goldthwait film God Bless America. I’m also a huge stand-up comedy fan. Whether it’s listening to stand-up comedy albums or podcats or watching stand-up comedy TV specials or live shows, i appreciate and respect their craft and all that these dedicated performers do. Me and my wife go out to see live stand-up whenever we get a chance to. My current favorite stand-up comic is Marc Maron. His comedy interview podcast WTF with Marc Maron is brilliant.

Are you appearing anywhere in the near future?
Sadly, as of right now, in the near future, no. Exhibitors tables are pricey if you don’t have a few artist friends to split the costs with you and i don’t have nearly enough friends sad face emoticon LOL just kidding not really. But I’m looking into securing some tables for a few local Brooklyn cons in November. If i’m not bogged down at my 9 to 5 gig working late trying to meet some insane deadline i’ll turn out for the Big City Dare 2 Draw event on Wednesday May 23rd at The Society of Illustrators just to do some life drawing and network so if you’re reading this and you’re in the New York/Manhattan area and you wanna come down i’d be more than happy to meet anyone. I’ll probably have a few books on hand to sell if anyone’s interested. If i do happen to land a table at a con in the near future i will gladly let your loyal followers at Geek Propaganda know!

Do you do commissions? How can people get in touch with you?
I am totally open to doing sketch commissions. I’m practically giving away FREE sketches right now! If you order a copy of Beer & Cookies i will mail your comic to you bagged, boarded and with one free, single character sketch on an 8.5 x11 sheet of paper inside. You can visit jasonsartblog.blogspot.com to order a copy of Beer & Cookies and to check out my current sketch work where i’m posting a sketch a day. Over at that blog you can easily locate the link to view Beer & Cookies preview pages and all the info you need to order a copy OR you can simply email me at jdqcartoons@gmail.com for any inquiries about comic orders or commissions. But if you ONLY wanted me to do a multiple character sketch of 2 or more (without exceeding over 5 characters) for you on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper i would have to charge you my current con prices of $10.00 per character.

(And I know jasonsartblog.blogspot.com is a ridiculous blog title but when i first wanted to create a blog my name and EVERY single seemingly clever domain name i typed in was taken. After way too many tries i typed in “jasons art blog” out of pure frustration and now i’m stuck with it! So there’s that story.)

What inspires you?
Pretty much all the writers, comic book artists and illustrators i just mentioned throughout this interview! I mentioned briefly my admiration of stand-up comedians earlier. Comedians such as Bill Hicks, George Carlin and Marc Maron are a big inspiration to me in terms of coming up with issues to write and illustrate about through comics. Current events inspire me. When the state of Arizona introduced Senate Bill 1070 (A bill that would enforce cops the legal right to stop, detain and arrest anyone whom they believed to be an illegal immigrant through racial profiling) i wrote and drew a satirical 5 page comic wherein Superman interrogates El Dorado to find out if he is an illegal immigrant or not. That story’s included in the Beer & Cookies comic. Real life inspires me. Whenever i can i like to do auto-bio comics that are both (hopefully) funny and insightful. Good writers always say “Write what you know.” but that isn’t always easy because when you are writing from personal experiences you have to put yourself in a position of vulnerability, to go out on a limb and really put yourself out there. I did this one auto-bio comic strip titled “Unfortunate Conversations with My Mother” which was difficult to do but the few people who have given me feedback on my comic book have told me that that comic is their favorite one in the whole book. It feels good when you could produce something from a personal experience that resonates truth to others.

What do YOU want us to know about Jason Quinones?
What else is there to know? Haven’t i talked for long enough? If i come up with anything even remotely interesting about Jason Quinones i’ll be sure to let you guys know. Thanks for letting me talk your ears off man!

Thank YOU !

Hey readers ! Want to win your very own copy of BEER AND COOKIES by Jason Quinones?

Here’s how: Go to his blog and choose your favorite sketch of the day, leave a comment there and then email me at calmixx@geekpropganda.com to tell me you did. We’ll pick two random winners on June 1st and send them a copy. Woo Hoo ! The internet is AWESOME and full of PRIZES ! ! ! ! !

In Superman vs. The Elite, Superman’s effectiveness as a super hero
comes into question when a new group of super powerful crusaders,
known as “The Elite,” appear on the scene. As super heroes, the Elite know no bounds, and are more than willing to kill, even on a massive scale, to stop villainy — putting them on a collision course with the ever-ethical, yet preferably non-lethal Man of Steel.

George Newbern (Father of the Bride) reprises his Justice League
animated television role as Superman, and primetime television star
Pauley Perrette (NCIS) provides the voice of Lois Lane. Downes steps
in as Manchester Black, leader of The Elite. David Kaufman (Justice
League: Doom) also reprises his Justice League TV series role as Jimmy
Olsen.

The film is directed by Michael Chang (Batman: Brave and the Bold).
Bruce Timm (Batman: Year One) is executive producer, and Alan Burnett
(Green Lantern: Emerald Knights) is producer.

Oh. Okay. Thanks for clearing that up.

Give me a break.  I don’t know why they didn’t tell you while you were filming but you are clearly not playing some businesswoman looking to rise through the ranks of Wayne Tech.  You may not have noticed during the shoot, but you were seen hanging out with Bane and actually getting into one of his Tumblers.  Now it is certainly possible that you are NOT playing Talia Ah Ghul but. . . wait a minute . . . no.  No it’s not.  You see because the young girl who plays YOU as a child in the film stated that she was playing Talia Al Ghul.  So if your point is that at some point Talia changes her name to Miranda Tate then I will suggest that you start auditioning for some M Night Shyamalan flicks because that’s the kind of lame ass “twist” I would expect from his stuff.

That’s all for now,

Take care,

Calmixx

This is not going well. Just read this press release and make your own decisions. I can’t  promise to meet with you anyway as I’ll be working.

Stan Lee, Mike Deodato Jr., George Pérez, Greg Capullo Among 250+ Talented Creators Set For 2012 Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con, May 31 – June 3 At Pennsylvania Convention Center

World-Class Lineup Also Includes Harvey Tolibao, Phil Foglio, Carlo Pagulayan, Yanick Paquette, Greg Horn, Arthur Suydam, Michael Golden

NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA, May 8, 2012 – Whether it’s “The Avengers,” “Superman,” “Spider-Man,” zombies, vampires or just about any character ever, more than 250 talented creators at Artist Alley at 2012 Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con have probably drawn them. Fans can meet superstars like Stan Lee, Mike Deodato Jr., George Pérez, Greg Capullo, Harvey Tolibao, Phil Foglio, Carlo Pagulayan, Yanick Paquette, Greg Horn, Arthur Suydam, Michael Golden and dozens of others at the event, set for the Pennsylvania Convention Center, May 31 – June 3.

The roster includes internationally-known artists and writers as well as top local talent from the Philadelphia area.

In addition to Lee, co-creator of many of the most memorable comics franchises in history (“Spider-Man”, “X-Men,” “Avengers” and “Fantastic Four” among them), some of the notables attending are Deodato Jr. (“Amazing Spider-Man,” “Wonder Woman”), Eisner Award winner Pérez (“Superman,” “Gren Lantern”), Capullo (“Batman,” “Spawn”), Tolibao (“Green Arrow,” “Silver Surfer”), Foglio (“Magic: The Gathering,” “Girl Genius”), Pagulayan (“Hulk,” “Silver Surfer”), Paquette (“Wolverine,” “Weapon X”), Horn (“Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark,” “X-Force”), Suydam (“Marvel Zombies,” “Army of Darkness”), Golden (“X-Men,” “Daredevil”), Stephen Segovia (“Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates,” “X-Men”), Boris Vallejo (painter), Julie Bell (painter), Ariel Olivetti (“Cable,” “Punisher: War Journal”), Miguel Sepulveda (“Red Lanterns,” “JLA”), Carlo Barberi (“Deadpool,” “The Flash”), Ramon F. Bachs (“Batgirl,” “LoSH”), Nathan Edmondson (“Grifter,” “Who is Jake Ellis?”) and Alex Saviuk (“Spider-Man” newspaper strip, “The Flash”).

Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con, produced by Wizard World, Inc. (WIZD.PK), will bring together thousands of fans of all ages and dozens of celebrities and industry professionals to celebrate the best in pop-fi, pop culture, movies, graphic novels, comics, toys, video gaming, television, sci-fi, gaming, original art, collectibles, contests and more.

Top celebrities such as Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers, Thor), William Shatner (“Star Trek,” “Boston Legal”), Scott Bakula (“Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Quantum Leap”), Jeri Ryan (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Body of Proof”), WWE® Superstar CM Punk™ and Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness, “Burn Notice”) are also scheduled among more than 60 special guests at Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con.

For more on the event, including hours, celebrities, creators, vendors, VIP and photo opportunities, programming schedules, evening entertainment, autographs, sponsorship and volunteer information and more, visit http://www.wizardworldcomiccon.com/home-pa.html.

About Wizard World:

Wizard World produces Comic Cons and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate graphic novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, toys and social networking. The events often feature celebrities from movies and TV, artists and writers, and events such as premieres, gaming tournaments, panels, and costume contests.

The full event schedule can be found at www.wizardworldcomiccon.com.

***** SAVE THE 2012-13 DATES *****

May 31 – June 3 – Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con

After catching the new trailer in front of The Avengers I may actually have to go see this at an IMAX 3D theater.

There will be no posts on Geekpropaganda today as we are sleeping in preparation for the midnight premiere of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes !

Los Angeles’ Gallery1988 was host last night to a special reception that kicked off its gallery tribute to THE AVENGERS, hitting theaters everywhere at midnight tonight!

As you can tell from the picture above – they served AVENGERS CUPCAKES ! WOO HOO! ASSEMBLE AND CREATE AWESOME BAKED GOODS !!!!  More pics after the jump courtesy of Superherohype.com

Robert Downey Jr. said they were filming another scene after the premiere and it was true.

My source is being kept secret to save him from the FURY of Shield (See what I did there?) and I’m putting a picture of the scene after the jump. Don’t click it if you don’t want to know what happens after the end credits. ALL THE WAY AT THE END – NOT THE MID CREDITS SCENE . . .

Okay. Here you go . . .

Spoilers below

Seriously.

It’s not a joke.

Here comes the spoiler . . .

Trust me.

You’ll get it when you see it.