In Memoriam - Kevin Smith

The Guild lost one of its own this past weekend. "Our Kevin Smith", as he was known to the group, was a good friend to many, a loving & devoted husband and father, and a tremendously talented and creative artist.

Kevin was introduced to the group by his good friend Levi Skeen, one of the founding members of the Guild, and was a welcome addition to the community. He even contributed the designs for 2 of our local 24 Hour Comic Challenge events, one of which can be seen here.

Kevin's death was senseless and tragic, and he will be missed by all of those who were lucky enough to know him. Our hearts go out to his family in this time of loss.

Free Sketches!

A reminder that we'll be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene this Saturday (July 2nd), drawing free sketches for customers - we should be there from 10 am till about 1:30 or so.

Lightning Comics has sales and events going on for the 4th of July weekend, so swing by on Saturday and check out the deals, and pick up a free sketch as well! Hope to see you there!

Spokane ComiCon!

Remember that Spokane ComiCon is this Saturday (the 21st) from 10 to 5, and the Guild will be extensively represented...

• The Guild itself will have a spot in artist alley, where we'll have copies of the Comicsmiths' Guild Anthology book available for purchase, along with a selection of prints and original art from members. At the Guild table will be Matt Nelson, Mike Lail, Josh Montreuil and Peter Foglesong.
  
• Levi Skeen will be at the Sketch Crew table in artist alley, alongside good friend of the Guild Ben "1314" Hansen.
• Jesse Acosta will be in artist alley alongside Amanda Robinson, another satellite Guild member from Seattle.
• Jeremy Whittington and Matthew Van Blaricom will be sharing a booth in the exhibitor's area, promoting their "SuperModels" and "Matt:IRL" comics.
• Jay Gunter will be at the QEW Publishing booth, promoting his new novel, "Left Hand Tree."
• Erik Thompson will be representing Wacom Technology, demoing products at their booth.
  
• And local superstars Lars Brown and Joshua Covey will have their own tables in artist alley as well.

There will be plenty of other local artists and Guild associates there as well, including of course, Guild member Nathan O'Brien, the founder and head honcho of the Spokane ComiCon!

Also there will be a Drink and Draw with special guests Dan Panosian and Dave Johnson on Friday Night (7-11 pm) at Cyrus O'Leary's. To RSVP and get more information, you can check out the Facebook event page here: Drink & Draw Spokane!

Hope to see everyone at the Con!

Free Comic Book Day!

This Saturday (May 7) is Free Comic Book Day, and the Guild will be present at local comic shops, sketching up a storm...

Members will be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene from 10:30 - 2:30, and then over at the Regal Riverstone theater from 4:30 - 6:30 drawing free Thor sketches for customers.

We'll also be over at Merlyns in Spokane from 11-2 doing free sketches for kids, as well as on the following Sunday at the same time. Along with sketches from the Guild, the Imperial 501st should be there from 1 -3 for photo ops and there will be a costume contest with prizes for kids and adults.

If you're not local, be aware that Free Comic Book Day is an international event, so you can check the FCBD website and find a participating retailer in your area. Otherwise, we hope to see you this weekend!

Guild Sketches - Green Lantern

Continuing to play catch-up with more weekly sketch subjects from Guild members, here are a few members of the greatest space-cops in the universe, the Green Lantern Corps! For this selection each person picked a character (sometimes more than one) to draw, and then sent the pencils to our resident inker Levi Skeen, who built a montage of them all and is now in the process of inking the big collaborative pic. We'll be sure to post it up here when it's complete, and until then...


Arisia, Soranik Natu & Tomar Tu by Jeremy Whittington


Guy Gardner by Nathan O'Brien


Kyle Rayner by Josh Montreuil


Rot Lop Fan by Zephan Osiris


Ch'P by Peter Foglesong


Hal Jordan by Joshua Covey


Jade by Matt Nelson


Alan Scott by Jesse Acosta


John Stewart by Erik Thompson

A reminder that you can see more art by Guild members at the deviantArt website - both at our deviantArt Group and at the members' individual pages. You can find the links to all of these on the left side of this site.

Novel Release - Left Hand Tree

Last night (April 2), Guild member J.D. Gunter hosted a release party for his debut novel Left Hand Tree at local comic store Merlyns. We had a great turnout, and Quenton Shaw (head of the publisher, QEW) even made the trip over from Seattle to manage the proceedings. Jay also did a live web-cast with a Q&A from viewers, which is now archived and available to view via the Ustream website, and is embedded below.

Left Hand Tree is about a young child in unthinkable circumstances and the very dangerous man who is his only hope of salvation. It is currently available online from QEW Publishing and as an e-book from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can also read sample chapters at LeftHandTree.com.

Guild Sketches - Ultron

Here's some more art by Guild members, this time of the Avengers' nemesis Ultron, in a few of his various incarnations...

Matt Nelson


Peter Foglesong


Erik Thompson


Josh Montreuil


Wyatt Skeen (pencils) & Levi Skeen (inks)


Nathan O'Brien


Jesse Acosta

Guild Sketches

More art! Here are a few pics of Kim Possible & Ookla the Mok (from the classic Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon), plus one big piece of all the characters from that month...
Amanda Robinson


Peter Foglesong


Peter Foglesong


Amanda Robinson


Matt Nelson (line art) & Jesse Acosta (colors)

Levi Skeen

Guild Sketches - Quorra

Continuing to play catch-up on "weekly sketches" that hadn't made it up here on the blog, here's a few from a while back, of Quorra from the recent Tron: Legacy film...
Joshua Covey


Matt Nelson


Amanda Robinson


Peter Foglesong


Matt Nelson

Guild Sketches - Nightcrawler

Every month at our regular meetings, we pick 4 characters or subjects to draw - this is just a fun exercise to stretch our creative muscles, and see everyone's interpretations of the different topics.

Since most of our members are on deviantArt, we usually end up posting them there, where they can be seen at our dA Group. But since it'd obviously be a good idea to showcase them here as well, we'll start playing catch-up over the next few days, posting up some of the old Guild "sketches" that haven't been seen here yet. Starting with the X-Men's furry blue elf, Nightcrawler...


Amanda Robinson


Peter Foglesong


Jesse Acosta


Matt Nelson


Jeremy Whittington


Erik Thompson


Willow Tomeo


Josh Montreuil

CSG Anthology reviewed

Nicole Sixx of Comicbooked.com gives the ComicSmiths' Guild Anthology a review! Check out the writeup and the video!

http://ow.ly/4hIWS

CSG Anthology Volume 1 available online!

The Comic Smiths' Guild Anthology is now for sale online through IndyPlanet!


Within the next two weeks, we will be getting our anthology in the comic shops in and around Spokane, Washington as well! Keep an eye out for us!

Weekly Sketches - Little Lulu by Jesse Acosta

Last week's character sketch choice was Little Lulu, I incorporated the Little Lulu gang in a Halloween mock cover. Can you tell I'm excited for Halloween?


Here's a link back to my deviantArt page as well: http://nomadikk.deviantart.com/

Weekly Sketches - Red Sonja by Erik Thompson

Everyone's favorite female Barbarian. Pencil and Copic markers!

Link to his deviantArt page: http://madatom.deviantart.com/

24 Hour Comics Challenge in our local paper!

Here's a link to our local freebie paper, The Inlander, with a great article about this year's event:
http://www.inlander.com/spokane/article-15676-superhumans.html

Last, but not least, Jeremy Whittington and ally do an impromptu reading of his 4 page story in the upcoming Comicsmith's Guild Anthology. His story is called Super M.O.D.E.L.s

Weekly Sketches - Red Sonja by Jeremy Whittington

The guild is back on track with this week's character sketch, Red Sonja.
Here's a link to Jeremy's deviantArt page: http://jeremywhittington.deviantart.com/

Weekly Sketches - The Shadow by Erik Thompson

Erik's amazing rendition of the Shadow!
Link to his deviantArt page: http://madatom.deviantart.com/

24 Hour Challenge is Here!

Today's the day! The Comicsmiths' Guild will be downtown at Merlyns from 10am Saturday to 10am Sunday, doing our best to each create a full 24 page comic, start to finish, in 24 hours.

There will be refreshments for participants, raffles for awesome prizes and even a Spider-Man pinata! Are you up to the Challenge?

More information here: 24 Hour Comic Book Day

Weekly Sketches - The Shadow by Peter Foglesong

Catching up from last week's sketch subject...



My deviantArt page: http://piotrov.deviantart.com

Weekly Sketches - The Shadow by Jeremy Whittington

Again, just playing catchup for the last two weeks. Jeremy is not only new, but he's also blowing the rest of the guild away with his talent, persistence, punctuality, and speed!


Here's a link back to Jeremy's deviantArt page: http://jeremywhittington.deviantart.com/

Last note: There will be no weekly character this week, the crew is preparing for 24 hour Comics Day Challenge this Saturday, October 2nd! But we will be back on schedule next week.