More panels from a comic in progress!

Jack Davis Exhibit Opening & Signing

The Georgia Museum of Art hosted a really pleasant opening reception for its exhibit "Jack Davis: Beyond the Bulldog" last Sunday, November 4th. It opened its doors to visitors at 1:00pm, finding a small crowd waiting outside to meet Jack Davis himself, who made an appearance for the show. Davis was signing books starting at 1:30, but he went ahead a few minutes after 1:00 and sat at a table outside the gift shop once a long line formed.

Reassuring to see such a large crowd turn out for this show. I had several friends from the Athens and Atlanta area show up, including several of the generous people who loaned out original artwork for the show. 

The Georgia Museum of Art staff did a great job with making the exhibit look sharp. There's two full EC war stories lined up on walls across each other, "Tin Can" from Frontline Combat #3 and "Vengeful Sioux!" from Frontline Combat #15. Also featured in the show is the original cover for the spectacular Mad #27, the cover to Yak-Yak #1, several EC pages, some personal Civil War soldiers Davis did on his own, and several stand alone illustrations. It's really something to see these pieces in person. 

As the curator, I gave a talk to a pretty full auditorium of visitors, including Jack Davis and his family. It's one thing to give a speech in front of a crowd of people, it's another if the subject of the speech is sitting in the audience. I was approached to curate this show as a member of the Jack Davis Foundation and my standing as a comics person in Athens, but talking about Davis's career and technique was from that of a giddy fan. After the speech, there was a Q&A that went on for awhile, with Davis happily answering questions about his life. 

After the talk, he went upstairs to see the exhibit after signing books all afternoon. Davis grinned at the EC pages, which he probably hadn't seen since he handed them over to Bill Gaines for a check in the early 50's. Looking at the pages for "Tin Can", he told me Harvey Kurtzman, who did the layouts for the war titles, made him redraw the sailors caps since they were cut a very specific way. He and his family toured the exhibit, chatting about each piece. As he left, he said he really appreciated the show and that it looked classy. That meant a lot to me. 

If you get a chance to visit Athens, I hope you can make it to this show. It runs from November 3rd, 3012- January 6th, 2013. Free admission, although you'll look like a sport throwing in a few bucks into the donations box. 

Jack Davis show at the Georgia Museum of art!

I'm curating a Jack Davis show at the Georgia Museum of Art that opens today, but will officially kick off tomorrow with an appearance by Davis himself and a little talk about his work by me in the GMOA auditorium.

First off at 1:30 tomorrow, Jack Davis and Alex Murawski will be signing copies of "Jack Davis: Drawing American Popular Culture", which UGA illustration professor Murawski worked on. If you've never met Davis, here's your chance!

http://www.georgiamuseum.org/about/pressroom-item/jack-davis-and-alex-murawski-to-sign-books-at-georgia-museum-of-art

Next up at 3:00, I will be giving a brief talk about Davis's artwork. With such a prolific career, the focus will be mainly on his start at EC Comics and his transition into top-scale commercial art. How many other comic artist of the 50's would go on to do movie posters in a matter of years? Well, besides Frazetta?

http://www.georgiamuseum.org/calendar/event-all/patrick-dean/2012/11/04

If you miss tomorrow's events, the show runs from November 3rd-January 6th, 2013. It's a rare chance to see two full EC original stories by Davis, various other EC pages, the artwork for the cover of Yak-Yak #1, and the most jaw-dropping work of the show; the original of Mad #27. I could stare at this one for hours. Heck, I just might do that between now and the new year!

Ghost Convention comic panels in progress!

Color Pin-up details

Well, the rest of these are NSFW, so here's a few color drawings I did in awkward close-up mode.

Comic story sketches!

Stuff I'll have for sale at HeroesCon.

HeroesCon is this weekend. I'll be there this year in the middle of Indie Island with stuff to sell to all of you good, good people. What kind of stuff, you ask?

Big Deal Comics & Stories #10 and #11, each featuring book length stories, "Knocked 'Em" in issue 10 and "Sometimes I Think About You at Night" in issue 11. Both have hand colored hearts in each issue. Didn't plan for that, but both stories had hearts that needed to be in color.

I still have some copies of earlier issues of Big Deal Comics & Stories. These are mostly made up of comics that originally appeared in Flagpole Magazine years ago.

I'll have monster drawings for sale for $5 each. They're black & white on comic board, each in its own bag. It's like a bag and boarded comic, only without the lousy comic but a drawing of a monster instead. That's a deal. I'll also be doing $5 commissions through the weekend as well. 

FLUKE t-shirts! We have last years' design on the right and the classic brown one on the left.

FLUKE anthologies from past years. All full of good comics by good people. Me and Robert Newsome will be at tables AA-541 and AA-542.

Robert Newsome will have copies of The Atomic Elbow #1 and 2 for sale. They're great. Buy them.


So, please; stop by our tables. We'd love to see you.