Dave Dorman Horror Art from Dance of the Demented WildClaw Theater Fundraiser

Dear Friends,

My friend and fellow artist Charlie Athanas posted this on Facebook, and I thought you might be interested to see a piece I did at a WildClaw Theatre fundraising event called “Dance of the Demented” in 2010. As you will note, I did a much looser style of painting here and I was pleased with the result. Let me know what you think of it?

Here’s the original photograph:

Colleen Elizabeth Miller, Model

 

And here’s the painting (a black and white version of it):

A Black and White version of my Horror Painting

And here it is in color (sorry for the angle of the image):

Color version of Dave Dorman WildClaw Theatre painting

And here’s an XCU on the face:

XCU of the face in Dave Dorman horror art painting

 

 

DAVE DORMAN STAR WARS CRIMSON EMPIRE PRELIMS FOR SALE: OWN A PIECE OF POP CULTURE HISTORY

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all who attended the HorrorSociety.com-sponsored horror art show MALEFICIUM last night at Kosart Effects Studios & Gallery in Westmont, IL and hung out with my wife Denise and me. From today through mid December, you can book a viewing by appointment only, so contact J. Anthony Kosar if you want to spend quality time surrounded in rooms full of art by me, Tony Akins, Charlie Athanas Kyle Bice, Brian Busch, Melissa “MissMonster” Curphy, Samantha DeCarlo, Ray Frenden, Aron Gagliardo, Ashton Gallagher, Tom Herzberg, Doug Klauba, Kenn Kooi, J. Anthony Kosar (the Boaris Frankenswine life-sized pig he did is off the hook!) Rich Kryczka, Joseph Larkin, Joe Lester, Darick Maasen, Matthew McCarty, Menton Matthews III, Aaron Miller, Bill Reinhold, Chad Savage, Jason Seiler, Tim Shumate, Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson and Bill Ystrom. There is SO MUCH gorgeous horror art, horror action figures and sculptures, it’s almost too much to take it all in, but all of the hipsters and cool kids are seeing it, so you should, too. There are prints for sale of the art as well and we hope you take advantage of this limited time opportunity.

I wanted to mention that the auction ends today for my Star Wars Crimson Empire pencil prelim, the artwork which is now on the cover of the Dark Horse Comics issue in your local comic book store. Here’s the link to place your bid and own a piece of pop culture history: http://bit.ly/tWZvlQ 

Dave Dorman's Star Wars Crimson Empire Cover Art Prelim, Now on eBay

My CAT WOMAN erotic girl art is also still up for sale on eBay, auction ending tonight as well – to view that, see my last blog posting or click here to place your bid! http://bit.ly/w09S8L

Today I’ll be painting all day, with the occasional break to see what you’re all up to on Facebook and Twitter, finally carving our pumpkin (we’re thinking an Angry Birds face design), and then watching “WALKING DEAD” tonight on AMC. FYI, I may be switching my personal Facebook account over to a FB Fan Page, which makes no difference to those of you connected to me, but I guess I lose a few pictures or something. No biggie. I have them all saved on my computer. It’s getting to the point where the 20 new friends per day are going to exceed my 5,000 limit for friends and once that happens, I don’t want to be hanging out on two different pages. If you want to connect with me on all of my social networks, here’s my 411:

Dave Dorman on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

Dave Dorman on FaceBook: http://fb.com/davedormanartist

Dave Dorman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davedorman

As always, I thank you for reading, commenting and taking an interest in my work. It’s what keeps me going and keeps me painting.

Dave.

Dave Dorman STAR WARS: COMICS Cover Art Front and Center at Barnes and Noble Today

Dear Friends,

Imagine my surprise and delight at seeing the new Abrams Publishing book, STAR WARS: COMICS with my cover art featured front and center at the Barnes & Noble in West Dundee, IL just now! Here’s the image:

DAVE DORMAN STAR WARS BOOK COVER at BARNES & NOBLE TODAY!

And here are some magazines I bought today – Imagine FX and HI FRUCTOSE. One-time comic book artist Kent Williams is featured in this issue of HI FRUCTOSE. Having moved on both personally and professionally from comic art to “fine art” or “low brow art,” this article shows us Williams’ art as what is truly inside him.

Magazines I Bought Today at Barnes & Noble

I want to give a shout-out to WARREN JACOBSEN, a fan and friend in Avinger, TX who brought me the t-shirt w/my Star Wars art on it that I posted a couple of days ago. I’m glad he granted me permission to publicly thank him. He reports that the t-shirt was actually at TARGET (at our house, it gets the French TAR-JHAY pronunciation) not Wal-Mart. He shared that this particular shirt w/my art was the only one sold out in the series. Here’s hoping someone at licensing in Lucasfilm is keeping track of “public sentiment.” No, I receive no royalties from the sales of the shirt, as it was a work-for-hire project, but it’s gratifying to hear it’s selling so well and fans still appreciate the art.

I am judging a children’s “healthy lifestyles, healthy living” art competition for kids ages 5-12 on behalf of Fox Valley Women and Children’s Health Partners in St. Charles, IL – the Top 12 winners will become part of the practice’s calendar that will sell to the public and raise money for the North Aurora Mother’s Club, so you Fox Valley families out there reading this, please send jpegs of your art (high res scans) to ddorman@fvwchp.com. The deadline for art submissions is November 15th.

I plan to write more over the weekend and give you some feedback on the AMON TOBIN concert I’m seeing tonight with my friend Charlie Athanas, as well as some other project updates.

As always, thanks for reading. 

DAVE.

Creator ,“THE WASTED LANDS.”

Which Comics Dave Dorman Bought On Comic Book Wednesday

Dear Friends,

As I write this, the TV is confirming the rumored death of Qaddafi and showing the graphic Al Jazeera footage. I congratulate the Libyan freedom fighters on this new chapter in their lives.

I feel it’s my personal responsibility as a comic book artist to help raise awareness for other amazing talent in the industry. Today I want to make you aware of Leinil Yu if you are not already. I bought  the comic “SUPERIOR” by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu yesterday (see image below) during my weekly trek to Dreamland Comics in Schaumburg, IL:

LEINIL YU ART ON COVER OF SUPERIOR COMIC

In my opinion as an artist and also an art director, I find Leinil Yu  to be one of the best comic book artists working in the industry today. His style is dynamic, he’s a great visual storyteller, and he renders every image with so much style. Other pieces he’s worked on (according to the back cover) include Secret Invasion, New Avengers and Superman: Birthright. I hope you check out his work and it brings you as much joy as it does me.

LEINIL YU COMIC - BACK SIDE

In other news, my good friend Charlie Athanas called me last night and invited me to join him for a really fun electronica concert tomorrow night – Amon Tobin – and I’m really looking forward to it. Here’s a link to Amon Tobin’s concert sampling, to give you a feel for his work: http://bit.ly/roDni4 

Below is an image from last Monday night during the fund-raiser for Chicago’s best horror theater group, WildClaw Theater, which was a lot of fun.

Charlie Athanas (artist), Doug Klauba (artist), Me, John Terendy (videographer)

And here’s a nice mini-review of my book “ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN” (IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing) by Alina Bradford: http://bit.ly/pmUNk6

If any of you reading has a young child, I recommend checking out the movie “Real Steel” with Hugh Jackman. I took my 6 year old this past weekend and we both really enjoyed it. Next up, we’re looking forward to getting the Captain America movie, coming out soon on DVD, to add to our collection because we both loved it in the theater.

Reminder: My Podcast through Michael Mennenga and Babylon 5 actor/producer Jeffrey Willerth’s Farpoint Media is http://itscomicbookday.com (there are a lot more episodes, but I’m waiting for the producer to catch up on edits) – it’s free on iTunes.

On Facebook, I’m Facebook.com/davedormanartist and on LinkedIn I’m an open networker: linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

On Twitter I’m @DaveDorman

As always, I thank you for reading!

DAVE.

Dave Dorman Updates on Horror Art and More

Dear Friends,

I want to say a special thanks to the Imperial Guards who protected me at Dallas Star Wars Fan Days:

The Imperial Guards and Me at Dallas Star Wars Fan Days 2011

And here’s Lando Calrissian’s Doppelganger:

Dave and Lando, Lookin' for the Colt 45!

I am the proud new owner of my friend, author Jay Bonansinga’s, new book (image below):

New Walking Dead book by my friend Jay Bonansinga

Jay and I were judges together last fall for the 10-Minute Horror Play Competition DeathScribe 2010 for Chicago’s critically acclaimed WildClaw Theater. If you’re like me, you’re already firing up the popcorn for the next episode of  AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

My art will be part of a wonderful horror art exhibit, Maleficium, at Kosart Effects Gallery in Westmont, IL, running October 29th through December 2nd. I will be joined by some top names in art, including Doug Klauba, Bill Reinhold, Charlie Athanas, Ray Frenden, Jason Seiler,  Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson, Tony Akins, Menton Matthews III and too many more to mention. I am hoping my Chicagoland friends will join us for the grand opening 6:30 p.m. to Midnight, which promises to be a great time with plenty of cool raffle items (including some exclusives from me) but if you can’t make it, you can see the art by appointment only until December 2nd. Just call 630.310.8353 to book a time.

I hope to have some more fun announcements for you very soon.

Thanks as always for reading,

Dave.

Thanks for the Birthday Wishes & Dave Dorman News

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you who have emailed or Tweeted or called today with birthday wishes. I stopped having birthdays at 39, but someone at AARP must’ve lost the memo. A special thank you to my G.I. Joe enthusiast/collector friend Joao, who even sent a special gift that arrived today that my whole family will enjoy. Joao came up from Florida to visit me last month and added some fun pieces to his G.I. Joe art collection:

My Friend, G.I. Joe Collector Joao Paredes

Last week I did a demonstration at Blick Art Supply in Wheaton, IL (a special thanks to Kevin Sandstrom for arranging this for me) during which I started a Boba Fett painting. I decided to do continue with the live painting demo during the Detroit show last weekend and the fans really liked seeing me work, so that was gratifying. Here is the painting I did (below), already purchased by a collector:

Star Wars' Boba Fett by Dave Dorman 9-2011

I was very happy to get my copy of STAR WARS: COMICS by Abrams Publishing this week. Here’s a picture of me with my new book:

Dave Dorman Star Wars Art on Cover of New Abrams Publishing Book

I want to remind everyone that next weekend, October 8-9, I will be at the Dallas Star Wars Fan Days Show and I hope to see many of you there. My friend Jose from Puerto Rico will even be attending, so it’s really pulling people from all over and should be a great show.

On Monday, October 10th, I will be attending the fund-raiser for my favorite horror theater group, WildClaw Theatre. If you can join me there, that would be great. Here’s a link: http://bit.ly/qESwCT  If you can afford to support amazing horror performances, please contribute to them.

WildClaw Theater is still asking for people to turn in their 10-minute horror plays for DEATHSCRIBE 2011, their annual international competition. If you’ve never attended this event, it’s a must-see. Chicago actors perform each winning play live on stage like an old timey radio show, with a foley artist, etc. It’s one of the most entertaining events I attend  and I look forward to it every year. A special thanks to my friend Charlie Athanas for introducing me to WildClaw Theater.

It was Charlie Athanas who gave me the heads up that my KLOUT.com score was at 70 this past week, which was higher than Trent Reznor’s or Olivia Munn’s. Mind you, I have no illusions that I’m a bigger household name than either of those pop culture luminaries, but it just goes to show you the power of social media. It is all due to the tenacious hard work of my wife’s PR firm, WriteBrain Media, who handles all of my social media and PR for me.

For those of you who read Imagine FX magazine, it’s one of my favorite magazines and I’m honored to be in there again for the newest issue during a quick chat with Editor Claire Howlett at San Diego Comic-Con this last summer:

Dave Dorman in 9-2011 Imagine FX Magazine

I thank all of you reading this for your time and interest in my work. If you want to connect with me aside from this blog, here’s how:

Facebook.com/davedormanartist

Linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

Twitter.com/davedorman

My Creator-Owned Series: http://wastedlands.com

My Wife & Publicist: denise@writebrainmedia.com

Email: dormanart@yahoo.com

Have a great week. I’ll be posting some fun art from my son this week, so forgive the indulgence. He’s just 6, to set your expectations, but he’s crazy good for his age.

Dave.

 

 

Turning One Lemon of an Evening into a Lemon Martini, Star Wars Style

So last night, I went downtown with my friend Michael Knight to meet my friend Charlie Athanas at the Gallery Provocateur, which was having their ending party for the Frank Frazetta Tribute Exhibition that kicked off during C2E2. My painting was in the show and I hadn’t seen it displayed yet.  I was sorely disappointed to discover that there were only a couple of actual paintings – the rest were inkjet print-outs on canvas, er, giclees, of the digitally created art. It was completely not what I was anticipating. However, my compadre Charlie Athanas has a talent for always pulling a rabbit out of thin air.

Charlie suggested that we go meet his friend—Steve Heminover–who is world-renowned for his laser shows. We ended up about 15 minutes away from Gallery Provocateur, in this unpopulated industrial area that was frankly a little spooky and unsettling. We pulled into this gated parking lot and drove into this space where doors closed behind us – a textbook James Bond adventure, right down to the technology and innovation laboratory where we ended up.

We entered the freight elevator, still guided by a disembodied voice telling us where to go and what to do. I had flashbacks to my Keith Moon incident when I was a bodyguard at the Capitol Center in Maryland during The Who concert (it’s in the first chapter of my new book, if you’re unsure of what I’m referencing) and then we ended up getting a tour of Aura Technologies, Inc., this huge tech facility.

Charlie, ever the king of understatement, nonchalantly mentioned that when he worked there in the ‘80s, Steve used to have the computer that generated the Death Star laser animation for the first Star Wars movie.  Now I was totally in my element, as was Michael, who may love Star Wars more than me, if that’s even possible.  Steve took us to pay homage to the historic technology relic.

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Athanas (L-R: Michael Knight, Dave Dorman, Steve Heminover)

The actual computer is entirely the wall behind all three of us in the picture. Steve briefed us on the technical details, explaining the computer  had 2.5 megabytes of memory and when they really pushed it, they could get it up to 10 megabytes with enough disc cartridges.Here’s a link to Larry Cuba’s YouTube video explaining how they made the sequence.

Steve was connected to Larry Cuba and the University of Chicago, which had the “Electronic Visualization Lab,” the very first place you could get a graduate degree combining art with computer science back in the ’80s. You have to remember, in those days, there was no access to computers of this magnitude unless you used a corporation’s computer after hours, or you had access to a university computer.

Charlie, a technology renaissance man in his own right, was doing music for the animations coming out of the Electronic Visualization Lab. His friends there—many early influencers in the prestigious art-meets-technology group SIGGRAPH — encouraged Charlie to explore computer graphics, and the rest is history. Charlie and Johnie Hugh Horn, plus a gaggle of friends, created the Ralph the Punk animated music video, which was selected to be part of the 1985 SIGGRAPH Art Show and the SIGGRAPH ’85 Film and Video Show world tour. The 1985 SIGGRAPH Art show also featured a piece from Larry Cuba, Calculated Movements, coincidentally enough.

Just for fun, here is the index for the ’85 SIGGRAPH Film and Video Show, Issue 22.

Issue 22 SIGGRAPH ’85 Film & Video Show
	PDI Animation Assortment Calculated Movements – Cuba Luminare – Sanborn and Winkler Growth III: Origin – Kawaguchi Mt. Fuji – Nakajima The Last Starfighter Excerpts – Digital Productions Nursery Song – Technofront Ralph the Punk – Athanas and Horn Precision Bathroom – Weil and Helman Flow Fantasia ’85 – Sasaki CFD Workstation – NASA Ames Telepresence Technology – Rappaport

My Thoughts on Thanksgiving Weekend

Dear Friends,

I have so much to be thankful for this year, I don’t know where to begin. I’m thankful for those closest to me–my wife, my son, my best friend Steve Smith, my friend Charlie Athanas, my in-laws who have helped me out tremendously this past year, Colin Pritchard of Rocket No. 9, Kevin Sandstrom at Blick Art Supply, the 501st, (especially Chris Spice of top-rated Star Wars site Sandtroopers.com) the great art directors and editors I’ve worked with this past year, and also for all of you who take an interest in my art and are the reason I keep doing what I do. I am thankful for my U.S. military family, for USACares.org and  for The Dennis Miller Radio Show who has been kind enough to have me on to share my projects and my military art passion project, Project 52.

I especially thank all of you who have purchased my new art career retrospective and memoir book, ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN, by IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing, either for yourselves, or for a loved one as a holiday gift. Even if the book wasn’t mine, I would enjoy 4.5 pounds of art in hardcover to peruse over my mulled cider during the holidays.

Today I wanted to share another blog with you, written by my friend and fellow 501st member David Syczylo. David is the Snowtrooper who posed for me for this year’s Star Wars Celebration painting. He did an excellent job of explaining the poses, not to mention providing us all with a brilliant display he has created of my Star Wars Celebration prints:

http://www.djsyczylo.net/chronicles/DormanHoth/DormanHoth.htm

I hope you enjoy David’s blog as much as I did about how the Star Wars Celebration piece came about. The best part of this project? I have been very fortunate to get to know David over the past 6 months and he is a special person to me and my wife. You will never meet a kinder or more giving person. He drove all of the way to my home in northern Illinois from Indianapolis just to pose for me, and refused to take even  gas money. That’s the kind of guy David is. Ask him about his film career when you meet him. He has great stories.

Thanks for reading. More to come. I just did a Captain Marvel this past weekend for the very first time in my career, but I have to check with an editor first to see when I can post it.

Be safe this holiday weekend,

Dave.

P.S. I finally got to see “Walking Dead.” I’m hooked. What do you all think of it? Any of you watching? If not, check it out – let’s compare notes. My friend and fellow judge in the December 6th Chicago 10-minute horror play international competition Death Scribe 2010, Jay Bonansinga, is writing the novelization of the series and he’s an excellent writer.

HARVEY PEKAR and ME

Dear Friends,

I’ve had a lot of questions over the past 24 hours about Harvey Pekar – what did I think of him, did I know him, etc. So, here’s the scoop:

I met Harvey at a comic book convention years ago. True to form, he did his curmudgeonly schtick at the show, just like the person you saw on The Late Show with David Letterman. He knew my work and liked it. His wife approached me and asked me to do an entire Harvey Pekar comic book for FREE, because she apparently felt that I wanted or needed to hitch my wagon to Harvey’s star. At that point in my career, I had already won an Eisner, had a best selling art book with Ballantine, a worldwide fan base, etc. Also, while Harvey’s American Splendor comics appealed to those fans who enjoy that slice-of-life style of comic, they held zero appeal for me personally. Mind you, his wife approached dozens of comic book artists for free comics – not just me. So, while I enjoyed Harvey’s David Letterman appearances very much, I can’t say I was a true fan of Harvey Pekar. Paul Giamatti’s portrayal of Harvey in American Splendor was brilliant and spot on. If you’ve never seen this movie, put it on your NetFlix list or rent it at Blockbuster as soon as you can.

The David Letterman-Harvey Pekar phenomenon is yet another indication that having an abrasive, abrupt or odd duck personality will get you booked on talk shows in a New York minute, but those of us in comics who are merely pleasant or not somehow socially retarded in our talk show  interviews rarely have media “juice.” I’ll have to adopt some weird schtick to appeal to those producers – let me know if you have any kooky ideas for me.

My next posting will be my San Diego ComicCon schedule. I’m doing 3 different panels this year and as a featured guest, I have autograph signings slated a few times with the convention, aside from those at my booth. I am at Booth #4500 this year. Joining me will be artist Charlie Athanas, Blueberry/Star Wars artist Colin Wilson, his agent Royd Burgoyne and Australian indie publisher Wolfgang Bylsma.

As many of you already know, at San Diego ComicCon this year we will be unveiling my new book from IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing, “ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN,” and remember – 10% of my earnings from this book will go to USACares.org – the not-for-profit raising money for financially challenged military families. Comedian and radio personality Dennis Miller is their official spokesperson, and I look forward to promoting the new book on his radio show soon. The book will be in all nationwide bookstores as of August.

Rumor has it that my friends Tom Baxa and Mark A. Nelson will be sitting right next to me at the show, so this show will be even more fun than usual. Mark used to teach illustration at my wife’s alma mater, Northern Illinois University, and used my Star Wars: The Art of Dave Dorman book as his required text book for class. Those added book sales were much appreciated!

If you are looking for my usual San Diego ComicCon booth cronies, e.g., Christopher Moeller, Scott Hampton, John vanFleet or Durwin Talon, they will be in Artists’ Alley this year, and by the time of the show, I should have data on their exact booth #s to hand out to you, as well as a promo piece on Comix Academy, which we will do next year the week before the show.

As always, thanks for reading. Until next time,

Dave.

My podcast: http://www.itscomicbookday.com

Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/davedorman

Like Father, Like Son…?

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a great Passover and Easter holiday. We celebrate Easter,  and this year our son was the right age to appreciate it.  It was also my wife Denise’ s birthday, and I’m working on an art deadline, so it was quite the jam-packed weekend. I did manage to  catch “How to Train Your Dragon” with our son and we both give it high marks – be sure to catch it. The animation is wonderful.

I see my quote was posted in BusinessWeek today regarding how the iPad will affect the comic book industry. In my humble view, it will grow our audience for a new set of serialized storytelling fans who are not collectors, so a new audience is always a good thing for our industry. Here’s that BusinessWeek link for you: http://bit.ly/aK3O4k – my quote is on page 2 of 2. A special thanks to Charlie Athanas for finding it for me – our Google Alerts always show up way too late. Of course, special thanks goes to my publicist Denise Dorman at WriteBrain Media for putting it together for me.

For those of you who follow child development, you might have some insight to share with me.  I think that my son may have inherited some creative talent from Denise and me. He has an attention to detail and an ability to draw from memory, rather than copying, that I find remarkable. I just hope that I’m not seeing his artwork through “daddy goggles,” but here it is, and keep in mind, he just turned 5:

Perry the Parrot

Dave Dorman's Son Draws the World of SpongeBob

You can see here where he started to draw Mr. Krabs on the far right, and then bailed at the last moment, losing his confidence. I was particularly impressed with how he drew Squidward and Gary, and even remembered the antenna on Patrick Star’s little rock house.

In other news, if any of you are watching Celebrity Apprentice, like me, you must be left puzzling over how anyone ever voted such a smarmy and witless wonder as Rod Blagojevich into the Governor’s office here in Illinois, where I’m now living.  For the record, I didn’t vote for him. Basic skills, like typing, using a computer and text messaging, should be an assumption, not a struggle for someone in the Governor’s role.  It is frustrating to us watching how far clueless narcissism can go toward convincing people of someone’s competence.  Perhaps the next IL governor’s race should be voted on after watching all of the contenders in a similar reality TV program. At the very least, I want the next governor to know how to use a computer. It’s no wonder our state is bankrupt. I’m sure he couldn’t even open an Excel file, let alone analyze  it. This brings me to my next topic, which is, at some point, I’m going to apply to go on Celebrity Apprentice. This season, there are folks on there who, frankly, are not household names to everyone, yet they’re famous within their own niches. That pretty much sums up my fame, so I think I should qualify. I am an Eisner Award winner, which is the Oscars of the comic book industry – similar to a gold medal in the Olympics.  Like those Olympiads, I committed to my Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 + hours of hardcore training. I would certainly have nailed it as project leader  on any of this season’s creative tasks…

My wife Denise and I did record Episode 1 of our podcast, “Wednesday is Comic Book Day” with special guest Scott Hampton, and once I know when it’s on iTunes and posted on Farpoint Media, I will let you all know here on my blog.  I thank producer Denise Gideon and tech advisor Andrea Smith, two new media experts who do a superb job of leading the reluctant Luddites into the digital age.

There’s a major storm brewing here, so I will sign off now before the power goes out – it’s flickering and I don’t want to lose this post.

Thanks for reading,

Dave.