I’m always on the lookout for new and different personalities to add my Neil Jam flair to, as they are a lot of fun to do. Here are a couple of my most recent concoctions.
On the left we have the main dude from Avatar, a movie I thoroughly enjoyed. Props to Hollywood for making a “big time” movie that isn’t a sequel, remake, or adaptation of some sort. A little originality can go a long way.
On the right is a bad guy from the DC universe called “Composite Superman.” I had never heard of this guy before I found him on one of my exploratory strolls through the internet. I think he might be more of an old school villain. As you can see, he is half Superman, half Batman, and has green skin. I know nothing else aside from the fact that he looks pretty cool.
As usual, these were made with markers and ink on 2.5″x3.5″ bristol board. Drop me a line if you’d like to call one of these your very own. I’ll pop ‘em in a little frame to make it official. Otherwise you can expect to see them at a convention near you or maybe in my Etsy shop. Word up!
I’ve decided to officially bump up production of the Neil Jam comic strip to twice a week. I’ll now be posting a new strip every Tuesday and Thursday. This feels like a natural next step, as we did pretty good with the old one day a week schedule. Of course, should the need arise, I reserve the right to post more than two strips a week, but you needn’t worry about that here. The point is that we’ll be officially getting more Neil Jam from here on out!
I spent this past weekend at my first ever holiday gift/craft show. It wasn’t as packed with people as I was hoping it would be, but it was still fun time. It was a very different crowd than i am used to, so every new customer was a customer I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I was the only one there representin’ for team comics, which made me feel quite special. The coolest part of the show had to be the venue. It was held at Arlington Park Racecourse, which felt kinda fancy to me (in a down home kind of way). It was probably the most interesting venue I’ve ever done a show at.
There’re still plenty of Neil Jam Icons to go around, and I’ve been adding more to my Etsy shop, with more to come in the coming days. So please, give the gift you know they want– an oddball Neil Jam rendition of their favorite pop culture character. Or maybe a Neil Jam book or something…
This weekend (Dec 4th-6th), I’ll be exhibiting in the Chicago area at the Holiday Lights Gift & Craft Fair. I’ve never done a show like this, but it looks to have some good potential, as people buy all sorts of random stuff for the holidays. I figure Neil Jam is as good a random gift as any! I’ll have plenty of copies of the Neil Jam book as well as a wide assortment of Neil Jam Icons and other artwork. Heck, I might even bring a Santa hat!
For those of you who can’t make it out to the show, there’s still plenty of opportunity to pick up some quality Neil Jam items for the Holidays. There’s a store full of books on neiljam.com as well as a selection of artwork available over in my Etsy Shop. I’ll be bringing a selection of the artwork with me to the show this weekend, so the Etsy shop may look light during that time, but I’ll stock it back up at weekend’s end, and will be adding new items in the coming days as well.
Happy Holiday’s y’all.
This Tuesday, November 17th, I’ll be on hand at Quimby’s Bookstore for the Pinstriped Bloodbath release party. Pinstriped Bloodbath is an anthology of gangland violence by Chicago area cartoonists. The stories in the book are inspired or based on real stores of Chicago crime from the 20’s and 30’s, and I provided a three page strip that fits in quite nicely.
The book was conceived and assembled by Jeff Zwirek, and as you can tell by the photos, he pulled out all the stops. This is definitely one high class, mega minicomic. The event is slated to begin at 7pm, so stop on by to say hi and pick up this gem for your cartoon collection.
Now that convention season is over I’m left with a bunch of Neil Jam Icons in need of a happy home. Before I go through the trouble of listing each one individually in my Etsy shop, I figured I’d just let you know about them here. These original art pieces feature a cornucopia of pop culture figures each depicted in the trademark Neil Jam style. They are made with ink and markers on bristol board and come in ready-to-display frames. The majority of these pieces are 2.5″x3.5,” though there are some that are 2.5″x3.”
The going rate on these is $12 for each piece, as well as additional shipping costs, and I’m usually willing to make deals for anyone interested in multiple pieces. And I suppose if you have a character in mind that you don’t see here I might very well be able to craft that up for you as well. Just email me to let me know if any of these strike your fancy or if you have any questions — neil (at) neiljam.com
Pikachu, Boba Fett, Superman, Dr. Mario, Princess Peach
Green Lantern, Winnie the Pooh, Spawn, Daredevil, Madman
Spider-Man, Sonic, The Spirit
Diehard, Katamari Damacy, Human Torch, Hawkman
Flash, Joker (regular), Joker (Heath Ledger), Captain America
Invincible, Yoda, Shadowhawk, Savage Dragon
Link, Jar Jar Binks, Tony the Tiger, Fire Mario, Sonic
Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Ninja Turtle, Mister Miracle
For a good ol’ fashioned comics fan, there can’t be any show better than SPX. The sheer amount of consistently high quality stuff on display from table to table boggles the mind. And unless I am crazy, it looked better this year than ever before.
And of course, there was a nook of Neil Jam stuff nestled in there among it all. I had all the usual stuff with me. In many respects this was a typical SPX– Great comics, great creators, great fans, and just a fun vibe all around. There are too many people to thank individually, so I’ll just have to send a shout out to the Neil Jam Nation as a whole. Thanks for the good time!
SPX 2009 fun fact: Did you know that on Sunday, the second day of the show, the temperature in the room was at frigid levels for the entire day? In a highly unprecedented move, the organizers cranked the AC so that this SPX would in fact be remembered forever as “Cold Con 2009.” Actually, I don’t know why it was so darn cold in there… But it was very strange!
Bonus SPX stuff: I took a bunch more photos, so head over to my Flickr gallery to check ‘em out.
This weekend, September 26-27, I’ll be in Bethesda, MD exhibiting at the Small Press Expo, or as all the cool kids like to call it, SPX.
I’ll have with me a selection of books, including the recently released big collection, and probably a newish mini of sorts as well. And of course, I’ll have a truckload of Neil Jam Icons mini artwork on hand, ’cause it wouldn’t really be a convention without them, now would it?
I’ll be sharing space with my pal Justin Madson. As you can see from the map, we’ll be situated all the way in the back corner of the room, taking up table A6 and half of A7. Being in the back corner of the room is bad in the sense that it is in the back corner of the room, but it is good in the sense that it should be easy to remember where we are– in the back corner of the room. So I don’t want to hear any excuses about not being able to find us!
It should be a good time. There will be a lot of good work on display in that room. If you are a comics fan and are anywhere near the area, you owe it to yourself to stop by. Tell ‘em Neil Jam sent ya!
This weekend, September 18-20, I’ll be exhibiting at Reactor, an anime convention in the Chicago area. I’ll have all the usual stuff with me (books, art, etc), so if you’re into that stuff come say hi. I’ve never been to this show before. That, coupled with my limited knowledge of the world of anime, has me a bit wary of it all, but I’m sure everything will turn out fine. The weekend after that I’ll be on hand at SPX, but I’ll talk more about that as we get closer to it.
