Dave Dorman Doing Live Painting @SDCC

Steampunk Girl Created at Reverie '09 in Dallas, TX

Dear Friends, 

When I’m at San Diego Comic-Con, I tend to get anxious because I’m not painting while I’m there. Painting is an addiction for me, and fortunately, I’m able to make a living doing it. So this year, I’ve decided I’m going to paint. I will do a live painting over the course of the 5 days that I’m there. Please let me know what you’d like to see me paint, and whatever the majority of people request will influence my final decision on what I’ll be painting. (Of course, if someone wants a commissioned piece, that will take priority, and I will be happy to work in my favorite size — 24 x 36– and ship it directly to the new owner at show’s end.) So, let me know if you want a hot Heavy Metal-style babe, G.I. Joe, Batman, Alien, Captain America, Buckaroo Banzai, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or something from my Wasted Land series, or even a brand new concept art design. 

For those not attending SDCC, Denise will be there to photograph the piece in phases and will post it here on my blog for you. The painting up above is what I created live during Reverie ’09 in Dallas, which was put on by Massive Black and ConceptArt.org. 

Dave Dorman Raising Funds for the Gulf Coast BP Oil Victims

I will know shortly if my friend Bill Paetzold can supply the giclees I want to sell to help raise money for the BP Oil victims along the Gulf Coast. I will post a link here once I can make it happen. I will send all money beyond printing and shipping costs to the financially challenged folks on the Gulf. As you  know, the Fort Walton Beach/Shalimar area in Okaloosa County, Florida was my home for more than 25 years, so I’m watching the situation with a heavy heart. Here’s an image of Navarre Beach, which was near my home, as of today: http://www.nwfdailynews.com. My longtime friend and the author I hired to write all of my Wasted Lands series, as well as our Bram Stoker Award-winning zombie book Dead Heat (Mojo Press), Del Stone Jr., is the Associate Editor of the Northwest Florida Daily News, and he handles the paper’s popular online edition.

Where in the World is Dave Dorman? My Summer Schedule:

Sometime in July – I’ll be on Dennis Miller’s radio show, raising awareness that my new book, Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman (IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing) raises funds for USACares.org, an organization that helps financially challenged military families. (As a former military brat, I can tell you unless someone is a trust fund baby, they’re ALL financially challenged). I am donating 10% of my earnings from this book directly to USACares.org.

July 10, 2010 – Signing all day at Gail Borden Public Library for Elgin, IL Comic-Con. Click here for details on the event. (A special thanks to Darlene Nauman for letting me know this local show was happening.)

July 22- 25, 2010 – I’m a “special guest” this year at San Diego Comic-Con. Look for me at my “Rolling Thunder” booth – that’s how we’re listed in the show guide.

August 12 -15, 2010 – Star Wars Celebration 5 in Orlando, FL.

You can always find me on my pop culture, comics & art podcast, “It’s Comic Book Day”, free on iTunes, and on Twitter, I’m @DaveDorman. Please follow me there, too, for breaking news.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope to see you all this summer.

Dave.

 

The Pensacola Film Festival Painting I Did

Dear Friends,

Many of you probably recall that I lived in  Shalimar, Florida for 25+ years, which is sort of in between Destin, Florida and Pensacola, Florida. Shalimar is almost like of a suburb of Fort Walton Beach.  It was the only “home” I’ve ever known for that length of time, growing up as a military kid. As you can imagine, I am watching the oil spill situation with a heavy heart, as those sugar beaches — literally bright white, powdery sand–are about to be hit by the ugliness of the oil spill.

My friend Tom Roush started the Pensacola TV and Film Festival, along with the help of Pensacola’s former film commissioner and a great supporter of the arts, Denise Daughtry. (A special thanks to the 501st Garrison down there for ushering me into the film festival that year…) For Tom and Denise, I created this piece, which they used as their promo poster a few years back. This shows the real color of the water on the “Emerald Coast,” which is how it gets its name.  Again, this is a rarely-seen look at some art that I created that didn’t really get released beyond our local film festival. It will be in my new book, “Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman” (IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing) as well. You can pre-order my new book here:http://www.amazon.com/Rolling-Thunder-Art-Dave-Dorman/dp/1600108229

Let me know what you think of this piece. For those who have often suggested/insisted  my wife Denise was the inspiration for this piece (Steve Baker), yes, it’s true.

Pensacola TV and Film Festival Poster by Dave Dorman

For the Buckaroo Banzai fans reading this, I will be doing some more Buckaroo Banzai work in the next few months, and I will keep you posted on that. I will have my original Buckaroo Banzai paintings with me this weekend at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC.

Thanks for reading & please pray for the animals, beaches, people & their livelihoods on the coastal region,

Dave.

DAVE DORMAN’s PODCAST IS AVAILABLE TO YOU NOW!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all having a great week. I remembered to take the garbage out on time, so our garage stench won’t be knocking over the buzzards this week.

My big news of the week: Our FREE podcast chronicling comic book industry, art, and pop culture news, reviews & interviews is finally up on iTunes for all of you to subscribe to or download at your convenience.  The Web site that takes you right there to subscribe or download episodes is here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id373866909. The Web site describing the shows, etc. is http://www.itscomicbookday.com. Our production company is Farpoint Media out of Arizona, and we offer up a huge thanks to our audio engineer/producer Michael Mennenga for all of his technical support. If you have any comments, questions or guest requests for our show, please call our podcast hotline at 206.350.6326. We’d love your feedback.

The shows we’ve recorded thus far include Charlie Athanas (the artist for the first digital comic, “Shatter,” from First Comics), Scott Hampton (comic book artist, Simon Dark, Batman), Steve Smith (Editor in Chief, MonsterScene magazine, author and my best friend) Michael W. Kaluta (illustrator, Starstruck, Shadow) and Craig Elliott (illustrator/animator, Bee Movie, The Enchanted, Princess and the Frog).  If you are interested in advertising opportunities on our show, please contact my wife through email – denise@writebrainmedia.com and she will brief you on the various plans.

Movie Review: I just saw “Robin Hood” and if you, like me, are into visuals, go see it. The film is gorgeous. The story? Not so much. I was sorely disappointed in the writing, but the visuals made up for it.

The Oil Spill: This Gulf oil spill reminds me of the time I lived in Fort Lauderdale as a kid. We always had to check first before going to the beach to see if the beach and water were clear of the tar balls naturally forming from leaks in the ocean floor.  I wonder if it’s still that way.  Anybody know?

As an adult, I lived in Shalimar, Florida (greater Fort Walton Beach, in the Florida Panhandle) for more than 25 years.  I’m told by our videographer friend Steve Baker (of SB Video Productions) that so far, the beaches are still pristine and there’s no oil in the water there, so do vacation there if you can. It’s an incredibly beautiful part of the U.S. and I hope it stays that way. I know my environmentalist friend and author of many of my books, Del Stone Jr., will be the first one volunteering for beach clean up duty.  If you like great horror or sci-fi, do check out his work. He’s a wonderful writer and a great friend to me and my family.  He won a Bram Stoker Award for writing my book “Dead Heat,” about my character Hitch, a motorcycle zombie. Del and I were always ahead of our time. If only we had waited until this century to publish that book…

Cool Blog Alert: If you’re interested in reading comic book industry blogs, check out Chris Ryall’s blog: http://ryalltime.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/30-days-of-x/. He’s the Editor in Chief of IDW Publishing and quite an interesting guy.

Appearances: I will be at the “Drink and Draw” event at the Lucky Number Bar & Grill in Chicago this Friday at 7 p.m., doing live drawing.  The first weekend in June I will be at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. Please come by & say hello!

Stephen Perry Update: In other news, I read that two people have been arrested for allegedly being involved in the disappearance of my colleague, comic book writer Stephen Perry. If I hear more, I will let you know. I’m told his son is safe with his mother, and that was a relief to hear.

How to Connect with Me Online: As always, thanks for reading. Your feedback and comments are always welcome. I’m on FaceBook, and please follow me on Twitter: @DaveDorman. If you’re on LinkedIn, connect with me and my wife (Denise McDonald Dorman).  Neither of us will “IDK” anyone.

Dave.