Convention season is coming up, and one project I plan to complete beforehand is a one volume edition of the story that was serialized in issues 14, 15, and 16 of the Neil Jam minicomic series.
This story is approximately 50 pages and features quite the array of characters from the Neil Jam universe– several of which have yet to appear in the web strips that are currently running on neiljam.com. At any rate, the real kicker is that I did not properly save the pages on disk, and since my then-computer died a tragic computer death, I now have the fun task ahead of re-scanning each and every page. Yay!
Though the story was titled Neil Jam Planet, I think I would like to change that– Probably something along the lines of Neil Jam “Something or other,” so let me know if y’all have any ideas in that regard. Maybe I’ll award you with a no-prize or something cool like that!
As I was watching the Olympic figure skating competition last night I was reminded of this fun little “jam” piece I drew with Kevin Huizenga a good while back. In case you’re not familiar, Kevin is held in pretty high esteem among fancy comics lovers. It’s a wonder that he’d actually agree to draw such a thing with a lowlife like me!
At any rate, the piece features his signature creation Glenn Ganges skating along with our beloved Willis. I have no idea why we decided to draw them skating like this, but I think it turned out kooky enough. USA! USA! USA!
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.
