Happy Holidays!

I'd like to wish you all and your families a very happy and peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Here's a card I put together for the occasion.

I'll be posting all the greeting cards (in jpeg or gif formats) I receive from all of you, my dear comic book friends.

NEW Original Art For Sale Page!

The Original Art for Sale page on my website has just been updated, and now includes images of all the available art. Prices, however, are still the same as last year. The originals are from Bloodshot (Acclaim Comics) and Firebrand (DC Comics). Please, go take a peek. These pages make a great Christmas gift  for yourself or that comic book geek on your list.

Who's Your favorite Inker?

 FILL OUT YOUR BALLOT FOR THE 2010 INKWELL AWARDS!
ANYONE CAN VOTE!  TO VOTE PLEASE GO HERE!

For the third successive year the Inkwell Awards will post their ballot for voting online on the website on August 15 until one month later on September 15.  Anyone can vote whether they be a fan or an industry professional.  The ceremony will be sponsored by Wizard Entertainment and take place at Wizardworld: New England (Boston) at the Hynes Convention Center on the weekend of October 15-17.  It will be emcee'd by IA founder Bob Almond and the organization's Hall of Fame namesake, Joltin' Joe Sinnott, will preside as keynote speaker, and a question and answer session will take place with the award winners.  Other IA committee members and ambassadors will be in attendance and spokesperson Ms. Inkwell, as played by model Chrissy Cutler, will also be appearing at the event.

Black Panther Statue

Sideshow Collectibles Inc. will be releasing  a Premium Format - Limited Edition figure of Marvel's Black Panther, based on my original costume design. You can find more details on this item, here.

Arnold Friberg R.I.P.

A  living legend has passed away today!
Arnold Friberg, undoubtely Utah's premier visual artist died Thursday, July 1, 2010, at the age of 96, in Salt Lake City.
Friberg was celebrated for his work — set pieces, costumes, backdrops, etc. — on Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," his stylized renderings of Book of Mormon scenes, his painting of George Washington in "The Prayer at Valley Forge,"his series on Canadian Mounties for the Northwest Paper Company and the equestrian portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. (The only royal commissions ever granted to an American artist.)
Norman Rockwell once referred to Friberg as the “Phidias [Greek sculptor of the Parthenon] of religious art.”

Happy Father's Day!

Here is a beautiful Father's Day message for all you fathers out there, and please pass this on to any special dads in your life.
También disponible en español, aquí.

60 Years in Sweden

 I have recently released an exclusive interview,  which will be part of a special publication dedicated to the 60th anniversary of The Phantom in Sweden. The publication is produced by the good folks at the Scandinavian Chapter and will be presented at the Göteborg Book Fair ( Bok & Bibliotek ) on September 23-26, 2010.
For the occasion, I've also drawn a special Fantomen pin-up and taken some artistic license with the colors of  our hero's costumes which were made to resemble those of the Swedish flag.
In a few days, I'll be offering the original art of this pinup for sale to some of my regular costumers, on a private basis. If you wish to be included in my private costumers list, please email me directly.

R.I.P. Al Williamson

Al Williamson. American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy passed away yesterday at the age of 79. Born in New York City in 1931 before moving to his father's home in Bogotá, Colombia for most of his youth, Williamson is a member in what might be called comics second great generation who came into the industry at the latter end of the medium's Golden Age – a group that included Williamson's friend and collaborator Frank Frazetta.
His career began in his teens after the reestablished New Yorker began taking classes from "Tarzan" artist Burne Hogarth as part of what would become the School of Visual Arts.
Throughout the late 1940s, Williamson earned early penciling and inking gigs on various science fiction and western comics for smaller publishers like the American Comics Group and Fawcett Comics.
Williamson's star-making break came in the 1950s after his peers and future comics legends Wally Wood and Joe Orlando helped the artist become established at EC Comics. There, he drew many of the iconic publisher's sci-fi themed magazines including "Weird Science."
Science fiction would remain the artist's calling card over the rest of his career with the most striking examples of his illustrative prowess coming in the '60s when Williamson drew acclaimed issues of the "Flash Gordon" comic book – later editing the first book on "Flash Gordon" creator and boyhood favorite Alex Raymond – and eventually drawing the adaptation of "The Empire Strikes Back" for Marvel in the early '80s. Williamson also contributed to the comic strip medium with a run on Raymond's spy serial "Secret Agent X-9" along with writer and editor Archie Goodwin, whom he also worked with on Warren's classic horror titles "Creepy" and "Eerie." IDW will publish a collection of the pair's "X-9" work in July.
The artist continued to work in comics through the '90s as an inker for Marvel Comics with notable runs on "Daredevil" and "Spider-Man 2099." His final published work was a 2009 "Sub-Mariner 70th Anniversary Special" story, though that penciling effort had been completed ten years earlier.As of this writing, the cause of Mr. Williamson's death has not yet been disclosed.

2010 Sy Barry Luncheon

The 2010 Sy Barry Luncheon was held (as usual) at Sardi's Restaurant, in New York City, on June 5th.
More details and photos can be found on Ed Rhoades' website. (Click here)

T-shirt WANTED!

Here I am, proudly sporting the special edition T-shirt produced by Egmont for the Best Fantomen Cover of 2008. This T-shirt is a very special piece of my own Phantom collection. Somewhere out there, there are several other T-shirts with the Best Fantomen Cover of 2007 .(Also won by yours truly) Egmont has never sent me mine, (shame, shame ;-) and I would really like to get one.
Here's the cover image that should appear on the T-shirt:

If any of you has one of these T-shirts (with the 2007 cover) and is willing to part with it, in exchange for an original Phantom pencil sketch ( 8 1/2" x 11") please contact me. Thank you!