A couple of weeks ago, my wife learned that an ex co-worker of hers passed away from many physical complications due to some health issues and some surgeries.  Not a good combination. And he was fairly young.  

His name was Christopher Pecoraro.  

He left behind a son with the same name and some great artistic talents of his own.  

My wife told me his son was a big fan of mine and she thought it would be great to hire me for a commission.   

You know my wife wasn’t paying me.  Lol.  

But she told me those that were close to him that Chris enjoyed many things, but one of his obsessions was DRAGONS.  They wanted something with him and dragons.  So, I thought how coo it would be to surf a dragon to Heaven and Chris’ Father in pure ecstasy enjoying the ride.  Make it happy.  Make it glorious.  It should heal as much as bring closure.   

Which I’m truly all about.   Let the work do the hugging. 

So I went to work on it.  And when I finished, what my wife saw in disjointed layers became the virtual hug I was looking for.  

I don’t get to draw dragons much.  It’s ashame.  Because I dug it.  And so did Christopher, Papa Chris’ son.  

I got reports of holding back tears, and laughing, to the surprise of how much I captured not just the look of Chris, but his spirit.  

That is the prime compliment to any artist.  It just makes us want to draw more.  

In comics, many artists have to be constantly annoyed over people who don get it critiquing your work.  In the real world, the people who SEE it, get it.  And when you’ve affected their lives with but an image, it’s the food that fills our stomachs.  It rejuvenates us as much as it brings joy to those who are the recipients of our alms to their personal pain or craving of imagination. 

The DEFINITION of being a DREAMWEAVER.  

SO, to son Christopher, through my wife Jennifer, I’m glad I was a conduit of joy in any confusion and grief you’re going through.  Be the man your father was.  Make him proud. 

Wrench the planet with your talent. 

And ride the Heavenly Dragon. 

These are comments that just makes you keep drawing. Especially from Chris William Pecoraro, Christopher’s son. 

And here’s the commission.  

Enjoy.  

Christopher in detail

I got a call from Eric Moran… Also known as The Smoke from his wrestling days…

COSPLAYER SUPREME.  So SUPREME, it seems he got Dan DiDio, executive Editor of DC Comics to make an actual character of him named Freighttrain.   This real life superhero does cosplay for the people of DoDECA Con every year since they’ve started.  But couldn’t do it this year because he was overbooked with his engagements,  and asked Myself, Joseph Illidge ( writer and editor of many DC comics books like The Batman and long time bestie) and Larry Stroman, who helped to create a comic called Tribe in the ’90’s and also worked on a slew of X-books for Marvel including Alien Legion….

…To step into his shoes at this bazaar, help some people get set on the right track by showing them all the ropes of breaking in into the comics biz.

And it was a touch odd at first after we got there.  Less on the comic front more on the COSPLAYER Circuit. But some great things came out of it,….. Joe, Larry and I got to know the people of the area.  And they were eager to meet us and eager to learn about the process of not just comics, but of finding out their own futures.

One of them being a really cute fifteen year old young woman who just may be taking her sophmore classes from her high school at M.I.T.   That young woman impressed me the most.  And blame me for going all “DADDY” on her and arming her with some knowledge on not being pressured by young men in a way that would make her lose her forward steam.

The treatment we got from there was awesome. And there’s media coverage with an article written about the occasion by a columnist named ALICIA STICE.

CONGRATS to TONI WESTBROOKS-TAYLOR and Husband for a successful launch.  They raised over 1100.00 to feed hungry families.  It still needs tweaking, but if they did a bit more and it’s cohesive too,  they’ll have a comparable con that could take on everyone.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/local-convention-gives-students-a-taste-of-geek-culture/article_03e944f5-c210-57e5-a85b-62c3ec4a931d.html

Check out the article!  And then some of the pics of me, Joe, Larry, and CosPlayers Dave Turner, husband to the Amazing Ivy Doomkitty and the beautiful Samantha Wolfe below!

So…. One of my business partners wants to do something nice for a friend. 

BEN.  

And she has a request that I turn him into a superhero.  Or a Supervillain!  They have powers too…!

The weird request comes next when she says her homeboy wants time powers. 

TIME POWERS. 

How the HAYUHLL do you draw “TIME POWERS?”

Do YOU know what they look like?  Maybe glowing hands?  Lit up eyes? Twinkly spirit fingers?

Incandescent light spewing from his mouth?

Eh.  

Thank God for computers. 

I did a little mix media with some elbow grease and BAYUHM!!!

Ben now has powers. 

Hallelujah.   

KRAKÓW!! 

The DoubleSplash was the rage of the 80’s and 90’s. Everyone “art-ing” in major comics wanted to have at least one book where they could drive their fingers into nubs drawing mega-images of the character they loved to draw. Some would have whole books with nothing but splash, DoubleSplash or even a triple gatefold.
I was one of those guys where DoubleSplash would be as far as I can go. Because I knew ME. LORD KNOWS that I would try to fill as much of those pages as possible and although you can LOVE to draw, there’s a sense of anxiety in accomplishing it.

Sometimes, unless you really have something to prove, you just want it to be over.

But the art of the doublesplash is purely to create a mimicked experience of a broader wide-angle shot of cinematic proportions. And I’m a storytelling kind of guy. It’s a great tool. Which means whatever it takes to tell the story, i’ll accomplish it. I stopped doing pinup style splash/DoubleSplash a long time ago. And because of that, I have to think more. And draw more.

This particular DoubleSplash came from the second installment of my 2 issue run on DC Convergence: JLA Detroit. This opportunity to finally get to draw these characters fulfilled a notch on the wish list for me. And that was a “What If?” What if I drew in the ’80’s with what I knew now? And these two books were an answer to all that.

This here is the snapshot of a scene about to explode. Where I come from, they call it “things about to break off in here”. And it’s a classic tension in comics and animation/cinema. So many things can go wrong opening it up to this scale, and if you’re a person who loves a challenge, you salivate.

The Justice League of Detroit vs. The Heroes of the Tangent Universe.

This took awhile, but I dug my teeth into it. Believe it or not, composition is the thing that took the longest on this piece. I needed this to be as close to my mind’s eye as possible. And you have to know how hard that is. It’s the bane of an artist’s existence. I must have redone the concept of the page(s) 5 times before jumping in on it. It was taking FOREVER. THE PROCESS can be unforgiving.

And then again….

So are deadlines. :).

This is pages 2 and 3 without the color of the amazing SNAKEBITE.

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