Now, this can be said for LIFE in general, but in comics, people can be really sensitive.  I mean, the nature of comics is that it’s very much an artists interpretation wholly and completely on the page and in the comic, so people are a little more sensitive when it comes to showing their work, after all, it’s THEM right there on the page so, and many feel this way, when you critique their work you are critiquing THEM.  That’s not actually the  case.  There is a difference. But that’s a different story.

My point is, even after you’ve broken in and your working, remember where you came from.  Remember there was a time when you wanted to be where X creator was at.  So DON’T BE A DICK to fellow creators and the people that are coming up in comics too.  It’s just bad and lemme tell ya, karma is a bitch.  It will come back on you.

All too many times I’ve seen creators have these massive ego’s that is just bewildering to me, I mean, it’s comics.  It’s not like you’re making billion dollar movies here and millions of people are hanging every word you say.  It’s…comics.  You can be ‘famous’ (which is funny to me) one minute and forgotten the next.  Seriously.  If you really look at comics history, the landscape is littered with LITERALLY thousands upon thousands of bodies from people that worked in comics for a very short time and moved on.  So why the ego’s?  Why be a dick to people like that?  It confuses me.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re all human, we have bad days, things go wrong, we don’t get enough sleep, having relationship troubles, it happens.  Just be aware of it.

So, yeah.  DON’T BE A DICK.  That goes for the ladies too. It’s universal.  Be good to one another.

You’ll get more flies with honey than with vinegar. Know what I mean? 

P.S. Oh, yeah, if I’ve ever been a dick to you or AM ever a dick to you, call me on it.  We’ll laugh it off.  :):)

Comics is a LIFESTYLE.

It’s not a job, or a career, or even a hobby.  A LIFESTYLE.  I say that because when the editors come ‘a callin’ it’s time for you to drop everything and get the work done.  Sure, sometimes a schedule can be worked out and adhered to, but for the most part it’s a go, go, go kind of thing.  But most of all everything else in your life STOPS and you have to do the job at hand to achieve what is needed for the job.
And that puts a strain on everything else in your life.  EVERYTHING.  Relationships especially.  IF you have any, because believe me, it strains those to the breaking point.

So don’t think it’s all parades and high-fives in comics.  There are no rock stars anymore, and there won’t be again, not like those 7 guys back in the ’90′s that shook up the industry.  Nope. It’s a 24/7 grind that requires focus and determination.

I say all of this because the biggest kicker I’ve come to learn over the last couple of years is that inking, in particular, is NOT a career.  Comics, if you do most of the work, say a penciler that inks their own work, or a comic strip artist that does everything, they can make it.  Barely, but they can make it.  Inking alone?  Nope.  Not if you have any, before-said relationships. I came into this backwards, I got married and started a family before I got into comics.  This is actually the opposite way to come into working in comics. The best way to  get into comics, if this is what you really want to do, establish yourself and start earning a regular income,  then start a family. Coming in from the backdoor, so to speak, I still have to work at my ‘regular’ job for a steady income and there’s really no way I can ever leave that.  Inking just doesn’t cover it.

SO, if there just so happens to be an up-and-comer that reads this (I doubt it) I’m just being as honest as I can.  I REALLY do LOVE doing this. Inking is what I think about MOST of the time.  I wake up wanting to get to my drawing board as soon as possible.  I LOVE INKING.  I love COMICS.   I don’t want this to be a downer, on the contrary, before you get into anything you should really examine it to make sure it’s really what you want to do. Like I said before, if this is what you really want to do.  That’s the question you have to ask yourself.

Over and over again.
Every day.

Years ago I met Bob Schreck.  I wanted him to see my portfolio, he had just started at DC at the time, and he started going through it and he says to me; “So, what do you want to do with your life?” That really shook me. Because I’d never thought about it.
Now I do.  Every damn day.

So to any one reading this, if you see me at a convention and want me to look through your stuff this is what you’ll get;

“What do you want to do with your life?”

Trying to keep up with this…here’s some fun pin-up work.

Me and Kelsey Shannon again.  My favorite so far.

First time inking Brett Booth.  It’s harder than you think.  This is not the published version, Mark Irwin inked (brilliantly) the published version.

Well here we are 2014.  Still no flying cars quite yet but…

So I’ve kinda been doing an experiment over the last year with Facebook and Twitter, the new messageboards of old as I see it and I’m not really impressed.  They can be very infuriating as people become more and more ‘sociable’ online, sharing every minute detail of their lives.  Not to mention the fact that FB and Twitter do NOT allow you complete control over your account.  Did you know that you cannot DELETE your FB account?  At all?  You can only disable it.  I don’t like that.  I want complete control over an account that I start somewhere.  So with that, I’m going to start posting more here and updating my other various hangouts more.

http://emperios.deviantart.com/

http://marcdeering.tumblr.com/

http://instagram.com/

So on to the art stuff.

I just finished an Annual that’ll be out at the end of this month with Diogenes Neves, it’s the World’s Finest Annual #1.  Prior to that we did some issues of Supergirl that were alotta fun.

I’ve done some other fun pin-up stuff with Kelsey Shannon again.

A fun Supergirl pin-up over Yildiray Cinar

Some Justice League pages over Doug Mahnke

And a Cerebus.  Because why not.

There’s been alot more this past year, mostly a huge hodge-podge of random stuff which is why this year, I’m really focusing on getting regular work.  So we’ll see what happens.  See u next time. 

Some of my latest work.

Green Lantern #20 inks over Doug Mahnke.

Supergirl #22 inks over Diogenes Neves

Blackacre #6 and above with inks over Wendell Cavalcanti

Here’s a few new things.  2 commissions over Scott McDaniels.

Here’s a hodgepodge of some fun stuff over Doug Mahnke.

And finally, a tryout piece for the Hawkman inking gig over Joe Bennett.

I did get the Hawkman gig and it’ll be right as the series ends with #20. 

Does anyone really surf blogs anymore?  It’s all Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Deviantart and whatever other social media outlet there are.  Oh, well.

Here’s an art dump.

Some are published work, some are commissions and some are for fun.  You’ll find Mahmud Asrar, Fernando Pasarin, Scott McDaniel, Lee Ferguson, Chriscross, Jim Lee Andres Guinaldo, Pete Woods, Doug Manke and Adam Kubert pencils in here.

See you next time!

First things first.  I’ll be set up at AA-711.  Sandwiched inbetween Jonboy Meyers and Mark Morales!

HEROES CON!!!

30th Anniversary!

It’s THIS coming weekend.
June 22 -24

Charlotte Convention Center
501 S. College St.
Charlotte, NC 28202

See you all there!

Next up is the big announcement of what the hell I’ve been working on.  Smallville Season 11.  The introduction of Batman to the Smallville universe.

We’ve been getting a lot of press about this and here are a the links; Comics Alliance; Robot 6; Robot 6 again; Newsarama; TV Guide; The Beat, and Bleeding Cool.

*whew*

Next up is some art. 

Pencils by Mick McMahon

Pencils by Larry Christmas

Pencils by Kyle Hotz

Now to get ready for the con.

Here a couple of playthings with pencils by Sean Galloway

Pencils by Clayton Henry

The next three are done over Sunny Lee’s pencils.

MIRANDA MERCURY GARNERS FOUR GLYPH AWARD NOMINATIONS!

The nominees for the 2012 Glyph Awards — honoring the best comics by and about African Americans, have been announced, and I’m excited to share the news that Miranda Mercury scored four mentions in the following categories- Story of the Year, Best Writer, Best Artist, and Best Female Character.

Congrats to our fellow nominees and my creative team as Miranda continues to build momentum months after the book’s release. More to come and our girl is in great company this year. Full list of nominations is in the link above.