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.

It’s 2010 and I Have New Art on eBay!

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! We spent our holidays moving into a new home and studio, so it’s been hectic and I apologize for the delay in posting a new blog. Now we’re living closer to comic book artist Bill Reinhold and his artist wife Linda, which is nice, so we can all get together more regularly.

As you may already know, I am planning to attend MegaCon in Orlando, San Diego Comic-Con, and Star Wars Celebration V this year, so watch for me at these 3 shows for certain. We are conferring with Denise Gideon and Farpoint Media owner Jeffrey Willerth regarding the new podcast for 2010, so I will let you all know when this hits iTunes. We are planning to do it weekly and I hope that’s not too ambitious. We have some really fun guests lined up for the show.

Some of you have asked what I thought of AVATAR. I have to give it to you straight. The story was weak – a retelling of cowboys and Indians, but I did like the 3D work Cameron created. It was definitely worthwhile to see it on the big screen, so be sure to do so if you haven’t already. As our friend Charlie Athanas pointed out, you really have to retrain yourself in how to watch this film – focus on what’s in focus, and not be looking in the out-of-focus screen area for some monster to pop out, as we are all used to doing.

Last but not least, I am posting some new art for sale on eBay–Magic Card art, Highlander art, and a promo piece I did for the Weinsteins’ movie, “Arthur and the Invisibles,” so here are the links for all of you:

Magic Card Art
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270510254295&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Highlander art
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270510272133&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Arthur art
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270510274633&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Thanks for all of your comments. Much appreciated. I hope to revamp my everyday Web site in 2010 to better showcase my art. I recognize that it’s not where it needs to be.

Thanks for reading.

Dave.

Dave Dorman in Spectrum 16 and More

Hi Everyone,

As always, thank you for your continuing interest in my latest hijinks. As many of you have heard from the SoGoPro Podcast, I am working with actress Hilarie Burton, her partner and One Tree Hill producer Kelly Tenney and writer Nick Gray on a forthcoming graphic novel. The plans are starting to gel now, so the graphic artist they’ve chosen will be slingin’ lead on paper any moment now.

I’m still working with Denise Gideon, the moderator on the One Tree Hill and SoGoPro podcast, along with her colleague Andrea (forgive me – don’t know her last name yet but will soon) about getting my podcast moving along, so this has been a whirlwind week.

My Spectrum 16 came in the mail this week, and my full page piece of Damali Richards battling the tentacled creature is on page 81.

Watch for my interview in an upcoming issue of Imagine F/X magazine. When I have a solid date, I’ll let you know.

I want to thank everyone who reached out to me when I was on The Dennis Miller Radio Show. It was a lot of fun, and I appreciate all of your feedback. We were thrilled to raise more than $1k for USACares.org with the Transformers painting I donated to support Dennis Miller’s favorite charity. Yes, Dennis IS a great guy, even while off the air. My wife marvels that I’m the only person she knows who gets ALL of his obscure commentary. I’ve been a fan of his for probably 25 years, and I listen to him and Christian Bladt daily, so it was great fun to discover that he’s just as cool off the air as on. (Good thing he doesn’t overlap with Howard Stern!)

Thank you also to those fans who found me in Texas a couple of weekends ago during Star Wars fan days. It was great seeing all of you, many who were familiar faces. MegaCon has also asked me to be their special guest this year, and I look forward to some Florida sunshine. I’m hoping to get more involved in Chicago’s C2E2 as well, so watch for news on this. As always, I’ll be at San Diego Comic-Con. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.

I wanted to mention quickly, I saw “Astro Boy” with my son last weekend and it was a lot of fun, so check it out if you’re a longtime fan of Astro Boy like me. I finally sat through “Twilight” last week at my wife’s insistence, and it wasn’t half bad. I figured I’d better, since she will be dragging me to see “New Moon” (rolling my eyeballs as I write this) when it opens.

Again, I thank you for your interest and I hope to see you somewhere soon,

Dave.