Happy Holidays from Dave Dorman & Some Cool Gifts to Share

Dear Friends,

If your household is like mine, Lucasfilm, Amazon and Apple retailers got the majority of your greenbacks this year. Santa was good to me this year and here’s a highlight of my favorite gifts and holiday cards:

I got The Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic, by Chronicle Books, a fine art book that also has lengthy descriptions on the creation of the game itself, not just the preproduction artwork. My son and I have been playing and are on Level 15 so far. It’s a wonderful game.

Me with my new Star Wars: The Old Republic art book

I also received Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, by IDW Publishing, which is the best book I’ve received all year. It is a beautifully made compilation of Toth’s early formative years as an artist, and it’s the first of three books to cover Toth’s career. It’s an exciting start to the series and I’m really looking forward to the subsequent volumes. The production on this hardcover book was just amazing and the material that the authors dug through and found to represent in this book was truly astounding, covering Toth’s formative work, both in comics and illustration. I highly recommend it. If you are an Alex Toth fan, you should also pick up my friend John Hitchcock’s book, which chronicles his correspondence and friendship with Toth in the later years of his life. It’s a real treasure. John is a master storyteller and if you’re ever lucky enough to hang out with him, you will see what I mean by that.

My Favorite Book in 2011: The Life and Art of Alex Toth

I was also happy to receive this Christmas card, postcard and trading card from our friend Kevin-Kim, TK-1023 in the German Garrison of the 501st. That was a nice surprise. (My son is in his new Star Wars pajamas from Santa).

My Gifts from 501st German Garrison Kevin-Kim, TK-1023

In other news, we’ve been working hard on updating my Facebook fan page. With the rate at which I’m getting friend requests on Facebook, I will have to split my time between my Facebook Fan Page and my Facebook personal page as I fear I will run out of spaces to add friends on my personal page. I do plan to maintain both, but please “Like” my Facebook Fan Page; we are working hard to get that page up to speed this year with decent graphics, contests, fan exclusives and more. We will be doing a Fan Page for my own creator-owned series The Wasted Lands and I will announce that here shortly.

In other news, I am very pleased with the traction my artist friend Dave DeVries is getting with his own creator-owned concept, The Monster Engine. His site went viral again this month overseas and people all over Asia and Europe are discovering him. This project is really deserving of a TV series, a movie and a videogame and I hope we see it happen in 2012.

Thanks, as always, for reading my post. I’m @DaveDorman on Twitter and I do respond to direct Tweets, and I’m an open networker on LinkedIn, so please connect with me there as well. I am happy to review your products online (tech, movie, books, comics, music, nerd and geek products are my sweet spot) and to do so, please write to WriteBrain Media, Attn: Denise Dorman, P.O. Box 417, Carpentersville, IL 60110 and put “Dave Dorman Blog Review” in the subject. If you need marketing, social media or PR advice, follow Denise @writebrainmedia on Twitter or “Like” her fan page at Facebook.com/WriteBrainMedia.

Dave.

Paging Morgan Spurlock:Anybody Connected?

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well and as always, I thank you for your interest in reading about my career. We are in the throes of planning my father-in-law’s 80th bday party this weekend, so the pressure is on to clean up my studio. Why can’t folks understand that artists need to be surrounded by STUFF?

I just found this interesting tidbit on Levine Breaking News:  

 ***Morgan Spurlock is to direct a fanboy dream. The new documentary, “Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope,” is being made in collaboration with Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles and Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull. The film, according to various reports, will follow seven fans from around the world as they make their way to the Comic-Con event in San Diego.

So…if you can reach out to the folks behind the film–and for that matter, “Attack of the Show,” and encourage them to include me, that would be cool. For those of you who don’t already know, I’m being honored as a “special guest” this year at  San Diego Comic-Con International. At SDCC, IDW/Desperado Publishing will also be launching my new book, “Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman,” which is 5 lbs. and 320 pages of my art, personal musings and personal photo album. I hope as many of you reading this as possible can make it out for the 5-day comics & pop culture love fest.

Additionally, I will be doing a live drawings during the Full Body of Horror’s Event on May 28th in Chicago at the Lucky Number Grill, “Drink and Draw.” This is great fun for horror fans, artists and art fans, as there will be numerous people dressed in horror costume finery, posing for artists. Here’s a link to this event: http://bodyofhorror.blogspot.com/

 I will also be exhibiting at one of my all-time favorite shows, HeroesCon, in Charlotte, NC June 4-6th. It is a true comic book convention, devoted to COMICS and not pop culture, for a nice change of pace. The show planner Shelton treats us all wonderfully. Even better, my Band of Brothers – Scott Hampton, Christopher Moeller & John vanFleet will all be there. I hope to see comic book retailer and author John Hitchcock, who authored the greatest book on Alex Toth, called “Dear John: The Alex Toth Doodle Book,” by Alex Toth and John Hitchcock. John Hitchcock has more hilarious personal stories than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. His photo should be adjacent to the word “character” in the encyclopedia.

On June 13th, I will be teaching a free storyboarding demonstration at the Commercial Artists Forum in Chicagoland, courtesy of my Webmaster/Designer, artist Colin Pritchard (Rocket No. 9) and artist Fotios Zemenides. Space is limited, so if you plan to attend, please connect with them through their FaceBook page or through their LinkedIn Group. I do need to throw out the caveat that storyboarding isn’t my favorite form of storytelling–I’m more of a single image guy– so I’m just setting expectations realistically.

On July 10th, I will be part of a local event, a mini Comic-Con at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL. You will see a lot of familiar names exhibiting alongside me there. If you can make it, we’d love to see you there.

And now, I need to ask your opinion on something: My wife suggests that you would like to actually see me paint the piece I’m doing for Star Wars Celebration 5.  To get this captured on video, I will need to ask the permission of Lucasfilm. Is there enough interest out there in seeing me do this painting from pencils through final brush stroke to invest in a videographer for 2 weeks? Please let me know your thoughts, okay?

Okay, I need to head back to the drawing board for now- I’m finishing up a piece for client Howard Feltman – and pretending to clean my studio.

Thanks for reading,

Dave.