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.

I was blessed to be invited by Marvel to the world premeire of Black Panther in LA for Monday January 29!  (Keeping this a secret since the 16thy was the hardest thing for me!) My wife Diane and I flew in the Sunday before for the first time to Los Angeles and roomed with my longtime art and BP partner Sal Velluto with his son Alex until we left Tuesday. As you can probably imagine, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! In the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard Sal, myself and our Plus 1s sat in a section with other fellow creators and their guests such as Don McGregor, Rich's widow Mila Buckler, Denys Cowan, Gerry Conway, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze and the man himself, Christopher Priest! This was Sal & my first time ever meeting the seclusive and brilliant scribe and we got to introduce ourselves but sadly little else as cameras were secured for the sake of squashing piracy and we tragically didn't see him at the after party. The film was OUTSTANDING, and I don't say that just because I got a special thanks credit in it. <pinches myself> For the full story and a plethora of pics you can check out my photo album on Facebook!

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR! Yes, sorry, I got sucked up into the holidays and with prepping for and attending final show dates the last 2 months. Some evens and odds:  Sadly, my Gallery section is still MIA as Rhys Evans, my Techno-God at Inkwellawards.com continues to work on it in his spare (ha!) time. It's been about a year and he says he's wrapping things up. Good thing because I have folders reserving 32 commission files to upload!

I am doing commissions on hand and would be happy to take on more. I am still inking for Ravesnake and there might be new work within sight from Kingstone so I'm in a holding pattern there. I just posted the presently confrimed conventions for the year but that list will surely grow. 

There's also a new DK Publishing book out that interested me and possibly some of you Black Panther fans: Black Panther: The Ultimate Guide. I noticed that it's smaller in size than past Marvel and DC editions and there's no longer a dust jacket but if that's what they needed to do to keep the price from rising then so be it. It's got a Foreward by master scribe Don McGregor and multitudes of art from numerous sources, incluyding Sal Velluto and yours truly.  My only gripe about these books is that they don't credit any of the artists for their printed work. DC volumes used to at least list all artists who's works werre included on the final acknowledgments page. Marvel doesn't supply a list apparently since it doesn't do the same. It's a hardcover at 200 pages for $24.99 unless you can get it discounted from your retailer in a backorder or find one at B&N Books or Amazon online. Happy hunting!

That's all I got for now but you're sure to hear from me next month when the Panther film is out. I've waited almost 20 years for this and I think it'll be worth the wait. Take care!

I thought we were done for the year with the newly-added New Jersey Comic Expo show in mid-November following our appearance at Rhode Island Comic Con the weekend before that as I recently announced. But the non-profit INKWELL AWARDS and I have again been invited to a new venue! Inkwell spokesmodel Hailey Skaza-Gagne & I will be appearing at ACE COMIC CON: LONG ISLAND, NY at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on December 8-10 with our usual display set-up. This venue is their first location for the expanding Ace Universe of Entertainment. Special Thanks to Spencer Beck who has been a HUGE support to our fundraising! That's a record 9 events this year for us! We usually only do 5-6 shows annually but there was more interest/demand for us in 2017. I'm even more excited for 2018 as we celebrate our 10th anniversary!