Spectrum Fantastic Arts

I am going to take a brief break from the Hobbit posts today for some shameless self-promotion. 

Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art was recently released by the awesome folks over at Underwood Books.  

I am honored to have 2 pieces that made it into this years issue, one of which, "Beowulf and Grendel," got a full page. 

I had the pleasure of meeting the book's wonderful directors, Kathy and Arnie Fenner, at the San Diego Comicon this year, at the Underwood Books booth. (I nearly perished when they told me I got a full page this time around.)  Also at the booth, I met Irene Gallo, the awesome art director at Tor books, who bestowed upon me both artistic wisdom as well as a Tor.com button. I also met and talked with Jon Foster, who is one of the best illustrators of our day and a great guy.  I also got to kick it with Donato Giancola and Gregory Manchess, both of whom possess uncanny powers.  Not only did I meet these people, all at one awesome booth, but the three of them went on to do a few live demonstrations that rocked my face.  It was hands down the coolest booth at Comicon.  It was a big, greasy cheeseburger in a vast wasteland of tofu.  

Our friend Kitty Mach helping us sell shirts so we could afford to travel home when the party was over.  Our booth, cramped though it may have been, became a central hub for young aspiring youtube filmmakers, ancient rock stars, science fiction stunt doubles, and a real live World of Warcraft army.

Speaking of the San Diego Comicon and awesome booths, Portland Studios will officially be back at Comicon for 2009. We have received our package, and we have our spot. And this year, we have four times the floor space! That's four times as many faces that will be rocked in 2009.  Four times the action! Four times the excitement! We plan on bringing giant robots and sentient bears to wow audiences. And, as always, we will be bringing a lot of new art and new stories about fantastic adventures in average places. For some more shots of Portland's booth from last year, as well as some video of us in action, check out Cory's blog.