Terrificon was our BEST show this year and better than the three previous shows at the Mohegan Sun!  The new, larger expo center and increased everything, from creators to vendors to celebrities to customer traffic! We made out well on table merchandise, donations collecting, donation box fundraising (my pal Jim Starlin especially!), my personal success, getting to eat out each night with friends and WE HAD FUN! Promoter Micth Hallock has something great going on there and we're very fortunate to be back every year to take part in the entertainment and craziness!

This is the next show for me, now just a week from Wednesday when my flight takes off for my first trip ever to Salt Lake City, Utah (see link above in Newsflash announcements)! Sal Velluto and family are driving me about and putting me up for the night! We'll also be doing commissions together at the show! There won't be an Inkwell presence except for donation boxes and brochures and I might ask a couple of artists to donate something but otherwise I'll have my usual selection of Black panther comics, trades and apparel as well as my prints and some original art. Just less than usual due to the limitations of a flight.

Lastly, I was invited to the one day Uticon show in Utica, NY (link also above). Again, not only my first time there but a Bob-solo show (albeit with the donation box, brochures and maybe the signed Ms. Inkwell gallery book) but I get 2 tables here!! This show is run ONLY by volunteers and they have raised funds entirely to support the American Cancer Society. So I hope to see you in the northwest and the north east in September! There are no shows lines up after that until March so we're hoping for any invitations in that time so we don't have a 6 month gap.

Just today I was confirmed for space at the Fan Expo Boston Comic Con on August 10-12. As some of you may know, I attended that show for years early on but eventually boycotted it. Fan Expo bought the show last year and while I enjoy mom & pop shows over corporate ones, I wanted to give it a try since it's in my backyard (I live an hour away) and The Inkwell Awards only had one New England show that supported me and the non-profit, Terrificon in CT. We did well there so now we can try again. Senior Ms. Inkwell spokesmodel Hailey Skaza-Gagne will be joining me along with Jayke Clark, a recent Inkwell volunteer, who will cover the Inkwell table and be there for general assistance to us. This show takes place the weekend prior to the Terrificon show (August 17-19). But after that there are no shows lined up for months at the moment. But should anything new develop I will keep you posted here and on my Facebook page. I will have limited (10) New England Comics-authorized b&w prints of the Tick signed by myself and Mike Lilly as well as the limited to ten Batman/Catwoman Wedding color prints by Mike, myself and color artist Dave Ocampo from the Wedding Event from That's Entertainment on July 7 as previously reported here. All this and the usual comics, tpbs, original art, prints and merchandise (much of which is Black Panther-related) that I bring to most shows.

I'm rediculously late bringing this news and I apologize for that. That's Entertainment in Worcestor, MA hired Mike Lilly to put together poster art for a cosplay wedding event on Saturday, July 7. So Mike had me ink the work and Dave Ocampa color it. The first 100 visitors to attend got the print for free. I will have a few 11X17 color prints available for my next show signed by myself and Mike for $10. Or you can email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Since I had posted my public appearance info in the top left news flash area some changes were made in the show schedule. After appearing at the Art & Design High School in NYC event "Fanfaire" in February we had to drop the Big Apple Comic Con scheduled for mid-April because while key members of my non-profit had received a promise by the promoter at their last show a year ago and it was personally confirmed with me and the promoter at last August's Terrificon, we couldn't connect with him or his artists alley coordinator in February/March. Some folks just don't have the fortitude to say NO. I had hesitated for years from attending that venue because he struck me as unreliable and this only sealed the deal that my gut was right. Oh well, forward and onward!

Our next two shows in April are the following: April 7-8 is the Garden State Comic Fest: Atlantic City Edition. This is a new location for this show that we first attended last year at the Mennen Arena located in Morristown, NJ. The promoters Dave and Sal have been nothing but gracious and supportive of us and we are thrilled to be invited to Atlantic City and probably making it an annual Inkwell tour stop. Following that will be our first time attending the East Coast Comicon on April 27-29 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, NJ. And after that we only have two shows presently locked in for the year: Heroes Con June 15-17 and Terrificon August 17-19 at their new and larger Mohegan Sun convention center. But there is another new show in September that has invited me to attend but I have to wait for approval before announcing it. Like 2017, this is another exciting year filled with new locations for us and I will reporting new places and dates once I can confirm.

After the news item from January 14 about DK's Black Panther the Ultimate Guide two more books were released. This was my review for Color Your Own Black Panther on my Facebook timeline from March 1:

"I just received my comp copy of the "COLOR YOUR OWN BLACK PANTHER" coloring book from Marvel and, damn, am I impressed! I had no idea that these were the size of thin b&w trades at 60 pages! It has a diverse selection of iconic images starting with his Kirby/Sinnott debut in Fantastic Four in the silver-age through his Avengers covers, Jungle Action and Kirby solo series in the bronze-age through all the modern runs as helmed by Priest/Hudlin/Coates. Sal Velluto has 4 covers included where he inked himself and in addition we have 11 Sal&Bob combo images! Sal & I have always tried to produce art that would strongly hold it's own even if printed in b&w and this is the first time that is being showcased as some of our detailed work was disappointing when printed almost 20 years ago as a lot of the textural fx were obscured in print. Not only does this reproduce work by The King & The Joltin' One but also by Big John Buscema & Tom Palmer, Gil Kane & Klaus Janson, Mike Deodato, Jr., Alan Davis & Mark Farmer, Brian Stelfreeze & Karl Story, Andy Kubert, Kirby & Mike Royer, John Byrne & Dan Adkins, JRJr. & Janson, Ken Lashley, Doc Bright & Nelson DeCastro, Mike Manley, Mike McKone, Stephen Segovia, Kyle Hotz & Eric Powell and so many more! Even better, all the artists, including the INKERS are listed on the front credits page! The individual images are not identified, though, unless it's from a cover that they signed. *Special thanks & appreciation goes out to Marvel's Jennifer Grunwald, Caitlin O'Connell, Mark Beazley, Jeff Youngquist, Jess Harold and everyone else involved in this project and it's research efforts! *All-in-all, if you're an old or recent fan/collector of Black Panther and/or the artists this is a MUST pick-up IMHO. **AND AN OFFICIAL INKWELL AWARDS THUMBS-UP!

And on February 15 I commented about Black Panther: The Illustrated History of a King- The Complete Comics Chronology:

"I don't know if anyone had ordered/picked up this large 14.5"X11.25 hardcover book "Black Panther: The Illustrated History of a King- The Complete Comics Chronology" released January 9 from Inside Editions and authored by Dennis Culver but I finally got mine which I was interviewed for through a several Q&As email in the fall from Dennis and Katie Kubert. A snippet of it is used on page 93 which starts discussing/showing content from Priest/Velluto & my period on the series with many full page cover art and other large images ending around page 105.