Columbus Fun!

Had a blast this weekend in Columbus at the Wizard Ohio Con. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and picked up a copy of Apooka, we appreciate your support! Special thanks to Justin Castaneda for inviting me, (Justin is officially Dean Cain approved after this weekend). Pick up a copy of his new book Heart, it's fantastic! Picked up some cool art and books there as well. Even got some drawing done this weekend on a certain little zombie girl. Sorry for the short post, gotta fly. Stay tuned, more to come! Going to be a busy month, new projects, a honeymoon and then on to Detroit Fanfare!

COOL STUFF!

John Lennon-ish Sketch

CHECK IT OUT: STEALING SIGNS BY MARK PENXA

Just wanna say a quick "Congratulations!" to Mark Penxa on being highlighted by espn. If you're lucky enough that Mark is coming to your town be sure to check out his amazing art. Inspiring.

From Stealing Signs by Mark Penxa

Spring Show Update Part 2: More Motor City Comic Con

So in case you were paying attention, we're going backwards on the Spring show update. Starting with the most recent being Motor City Comic Con. The next update we'll be going back to New York for MoCCAFest and following that will be Chicago's C2E2. On with the show! So our day 2 (which was the show's day 3) was quite busy and exciting. Still buzzing from the previous day, especially the comment about Apooka inspiring a child to read a book, tired yet excited, we forged on. The attendance was really strong. There was a little more room so we had a chance to wander around and visit with some old friends ,vendors and making new friends. Then we had a visit from Flo, it turns out she approves of Apooka too. Thanks Flo! Finally the highlight of our day was getting a visit from Jimmy. It turns out Jimmy was the savvy young gentleman who purchased some Apooka books at the Detroit Fanfare Show (last Fall) and then left without them! We tried to track him down but Jimmy was long gone before you could say "bwains." So it was nice to catch up with Jimmy, he's a nice guy. Thanks again Jimmy! Thanks again to everyone who stopped by our table. Next stop: Kid's Read Comics - July 7-8. This is a free event. We'll have giveaways and you'll get to meet some wonderful comics creators. More on that to come, plus there will be a big cool announcement regarding Apooka, PLUS the rest of the Spring show update. Woohoo!

Spring Show Update Part 1: Motor City Comic Con

Hi everybody! It's hard to believe that Spring ends in less than a month, and a busy Spring it has been. Just thought we'd put up a quick update for Saturday of the Motor City Comic Con 2012. Sharing a table with Joe Foo and brother Mat Roll this year. Attendance this year is off the charts, could be related to that little Avengers movie that a few people may have seen. We rocked out some pretty cool sketches today. Apooka received the greatest compliment of all today. Someone told us that Apooka was the catalyst in getting their child to read. That's pretty darn cool. Here's some sketches and random photos from the day. Special thanks to Jesus and Gilligan for their Apooka love. Stay tuned. More to come. PS - since no one gave us any promo material for this event (ahem, Jerzy) we'd like to take a quick moment to plug Kids Read Comics! It's going to be a great event, and it's FREE. So please check it out!

Help my friend Kickstart his "Heart!"

Hi Gang! It's been a while since I've updated. Been busy paying bills and working on new projects and prepping for C2E2 and MoCCA. I'm also passing along a message from my good buddy Justin Castaneda, whom I will be tabling with at E5 at C2E2, April 13-15. Please check it out. The kid has a lot of heart. Get it? I made a funny! Wow. Tough crowd. Hi friends of Apooka! My name is Justin Castaneda and I am the creator of the When I Was Little picture book series. Mike and I met at the Space convention in Columbus, OH. We have been table-mates at comic conventions every since. Mike was kind enough to have me do a guest post because I have a new book project I am raising funds for thru Kickstarter. The way Kickstarter works is it funds creativity. It accepts donations to help creative people get their passion projects made. Artists, writers, and filmmakers can set up a Kickstarter campaign and by supporting them and their work, you get rewarded! For instance when you donate to my project, you can receive a signed copy, sketch cards, digital prints, buttons, custom art and a lot more. So the name of my new book is called, Heart. Heart is a story about love and acceptance. This book has been a labor of love for many years. I really believe in this book. It's been an idea birthed through the struggles I had growing up trying to find where I fit in. I had difficulty making friends and I thought for the longest time it's because of who I was as a person. I thought if I changed who I was I would find my place. It wasn't until much later when I learned all that was non-sense and the most important thing I could ever do was: To Be Myself. It's a bit more expensive to release a hardcover children's book than I had anticipated. I didn't want to cop out into doing it as a softcover, it's not meant to be that way. With the help of some fellow creatives that gave me an extra push, I started this Kickstarter campaign: www.kickstarter.com/projects/justin-castaneda/sharemyheart I hope you can help support the book and the message this book gives. I thank you for your time and consideration and thanks again to Mike for letting me post on his website!