Read this awesome new Webcomic short by @SpaceGunStudios

Here's a fresh new comic by the Jake Ekiss & Paul Milligan of Dallas comix crew Space Gun Studios called Sun Dogs: Hard Deck. Click here to read the whole thing for FREE!

DON'T BUY ANY COMICS UNTIL THURSDAY NIGHT!

Ghostwerks Comics is invading Titan THURSDAY NIGHT from 7-9:30pm. This is in support of our CHAMPION OF CHILDREN project.

Titan Comics has generously offered to donate a portion of ANY purchase in the store during those hours to our cause. So even if you show up and just pick up the latest copy of Batman, you're helping us bring CHAMP back. Of course you can also donate to us direct, or buy a sketch or print from one of our artists, who will be there drawing live.

Come meet Michael Lagocki, Samax Amen, Corance Davis, and Khalid Robertson of the Ghostwerks crew. Plus other guest artists, like the brilllll-i-iant illustrator Kevin Steele. And enjoy music from local DJ master Rob Vik!

Comics, live art, good music and a chance to help us realize a worthy dream... what could be better?

Want to know more about Champion of Children - read here - http://www.facebook.com/notes/michael-lagocki/bring-champion-of-children-back/10150871835818459

Can't attend but would like to donate to the cause?
Go here -
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/815577875/champion-of-children-vol-1-im-known-as-the-champ-f 
GO!

Drink and Draw DFW: Nieves

So this is the last for the year! lets end the year with a bang and stuff. if you are one of the first 3 persons to show up to the meet up you will get a special prize...well maybe not special but a prize none the less. we have lots to celebrate. the end of a year. the end of a semester. the end of my life...no wait! so grab a pencil and sketchpad and a beverage of your choice and lets drink and draw! well i hope to see you guys there. this is me signing out! December 18, 2011 Sunday Time 6:30pm until 9:30pm

The Flying Saucer

14999 Montfort Dr, Dallas, TX 75254

Comicbook Couple #5: Daredevil & Elektra

Matt Hearts Elektra by Samax Amen

Comicbook Couple #4 Logan and Jean Grey/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix

Logan & the Phoenix by Khalid Robertson

Dope rendition of Marvel's #1 bad-boy and the girl he can't have. Holler at Khalid on Facebook, or hit his website khalidoscope.com.

Comicbook Couple #3 Batman and Catwoman by Joshua Boulet

Bat Love by Joshua Boulet

Josh Boulet is one of my favorite local artists and a good friend besides. His comics work is varied and impressive, with comedy, horror superheroes and arthouse stuff under his belt.Get familiar at JoshuaBoulet.com, tough guy!
-samax

Comicbook Couple #2: Bone & Thorn by Michael Anthony Lagocki

Bone and Thorn chaperoned by Smiley by Michael Anthony Lagocki

Hopefully you recognize the cast of Jeff Smith's awesome fantasy comic Bone. If not, you are totally sleeping and need to get your hands on this. But you should also familiarize yourself with Michael Lagocki, founding member of ArtLoveMagic and GhostWerks Comics. He loves comics and works overtime to develop and sustain a healthy art and comics scene in Dallas. Check out ArtLoveMagic.com or GhostWerks.com to behold the fruits of his labour, or get at him on Facebook!
-samax

Comicbook Couple #1: Danny and Misty

Danny Hearts Misty by Samax Amen

Ever since I drew the Iron Fist piece for this blog awhile back, I have wanted to draw Iron Fist again... and all my friends know I love Misty Knight... so the sketch theme right now is comicbook couples. Feel free to do yours. This will be the theme until I come up with a better one or get tired of it (or both), so you can expect more from me if no one else gets in on it... If you post one on Twitpic or link on Twitter, just use the hashtag #metrosketchual.

anyways, let me know what you think!
-samax

(p)REVIEW: "God Of Rock" by Paul Milligan

Rock is dead! Or is it? Not if the God of Rock, fresh out of retirement, has anything to say about it. With his trusty ax, his best girl and a few surprising allies on his side, the God of Rock must take on the forces of Anti-Rock and make the world safe once again for Rock, Rebellion and all that other stuff your parents really, really hate.
This God of Rock collection spans over three arcs, each one created on one 24-Hour Comic Day.

Drink and Draw DFW: Decadence

yo. check it! i hope everyone here had a great labor day weekend. enjoying this cool weather and just enjoying life in general.

lets get this party started the right way. we has some drinking and drawing to do! the weather has cooled off and its football season so everything should be all right. i hope to see everyone out this sunday. as always the meet up starts up around 6.30pm and if noone is there just wait up a bit we'll get there soon enough.

if anyone lives in ft. worth and would like to recommend a place to hold drink and draw there please do so.

this weeks poster was done my me. jose ramirez, el che-che. pardon for the nude boobies with pasty stars on them. if there is a problem with this let me know. had to crudely get something together here. thanks!

Time	Sunday, September 11 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Location	The Flying Saucer 14999 Montfort Dr Dallas, Texas

WIN this original page from "Spider Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1"

Dallas-area tracer inker, heart-throb and all-around fresh dude Joltin' John Lucas (Conan: Road of Kings, Uncanny X-force) is offering up a page of the original artwork from Spider Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 (which comes out this Wednesday, August 31st) as part of his contest on Twitter

You could TOTALLY win this page!!!!

"Spider Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 comes out 8/31 and your's truly is the ink-slinger on the book." John let slide on Facebook... "So, in an attempt to get as many suckers, er, people to buy it as possible, I'm having a drawing. If you tweet me a picture of you holding your copy of the book, you will have a chance to win, free of charge and shipping, a page of artwork from that issue.
Tweet me here @himwhatjolts 
I'll make my completely random choice the following Sunday [September 4th]... Am I generous, or what?!"
Yes, John.
Yes you are...

-MetroSketchual

This week's Sketch theme...

In honor of the fact that local tracer inker John Lucas is working on one of the Spider Island books (where people all over Manhattan end up with Spider-man's powers), The Sketch theme this week (and until I get tired of it) is Spider Island-DFW (I know, DFW isn't an island... it's just a sketch topic, jeez...). So the idea is to draw DFW-based Spider-man art... c'mon, it'll be fun! Well, it will for me. I looooove Spidey (even though I'm not reading his books right now). I posted this old pic of a Spidey convention sketch I did long ago just so this post would have a picture, but I'll submit a REAL Spider-Island DFW piece later in the week!
So anyways, if you need ideas, learn what the Spider-Island thing is about on Marvel's website, then just pretend it's in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, etc and draw something sweet!
Fans can also submit pieces on Twitter, just use the hashtag #metrosketchual and I'll repost 'em here!

:D
-Samax
MetroSketchual

Drive Down to Austin Labor Day weekend and get some COMICS!

Here's a cool ad for one of my favorite shops, Austin Books. The ad is by the one and only Yehudi Mercado, author of the sweet graphic novel series Buffalo Speedway.

Check out some Sci-fi goodness: Peacekeeper by Erik Reeves

If you're not familiar with his work, Erik Reeves is an example of a largely unknown cartoonist whose stock is rising in the comics world. Besides being a go-to guy in the design world, Erik is carving out a niche in the Dallas comics scene with his self-published sci-fi-action comic, Peacekeeper: Old World Order. I snatched the preview below from the jaws of Indyplanet, where the first issue is on sale now.

DFW Cartoonist writes a great article on how to get new readers

A lot of lipservice is paid to "Gaining new readers" but I'm convinced that the major publishers don't really care about growing the overall readership. The majors mostly seem like they just want to take people who are spending more than they can afford on comics and convince them to spend a little more. And they are pretty good at it. But now that they have snagged the low-hanging fruit, let's try some actual marketing...

Marketing is a hobby of mine. I feel fairly confident in saying there is no marketing to speak of in the comics industry. Well, there is marketing to current readers, but not to new readers (or even lapsed readers). Right now, a large number of the general public doesn't even know that comics exist. I meet people and talk to co-workers all the time that are convinced that comics are not printed anymore until I show them a new one. Then there are people who insist that comics are not "for them" even though there are comics on just about every subject, for every audience. Marketing is important because it is the way you find out that you need or want something. The first step to reaching new readers is to let them know you exist! The good news is there is a lot of opportunity out there, and one of our local DFW area cats Vinh-Luan Luu of the mighty Space-Gun Studios crew has figured it out for you. Click here to learn something about gaining new  readers!

DALLAS COMICON IS HERE!!!

I heard the world was gonna end this weekend, so I figured I should be in the same building as Stan Lee. And just about all the local comics artists I know will be there too... so it's all good! Get the info here.

Drink and Draw 46: Cara a Cara Con el Diablo

All right Gents and Lady like beings. we got another session for the drink and draw! it is starting to heat up and we need to cool things down. so come chill with us and down some cold ones and do some scribbling. flex some creative muscle or just let loose and go with the flow.

i have announced this before but will emphasize here. the ABOSG's group has set up a sweet 10 dollar figure drawing sessions on tuesdays at Janimation near deep ellum for the next 7 weeks. they had a pretty good turn out and it was all practice. doing 5 minute quick sketches and so on. i highly recommend this for those that are having trouble with anatomy and for those who need to freshen up on your anatomy and gesture drawing skills and for those who just need to get some practice out of good habit. no matter what skill level you are you can always benefit from such sessions. i would like some drink and draw presence there. wickity wack! here is a link to the event info to get address and a little bit more info on it.

http://abunchofshortguys.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245%3Alife-drawing-2011&catid=943%3Anews-2011&Itemid=91

all right! now thats done with. this weeks poster was done by one who has not been with us physically but in spirit he lives inside everyone of us. and i aint talking about da jesus or allah or thor or what ever superhero you beleive in. i is talking about Terry Haller. dude donated his talented skills and time to bust out this poster for our little ol' drink and draw DFW group. terry runs the drink and draw chapter in milwaukee. so a tip of the hat to our bretheren up north. you can check out more work from him here.
http://brotherhaller.deviantart.com/

again thanks for the time and effort for creating this fantastic poster widening our pallet of style and talent that represents drink and draw.

welp! this was the last poster i had in the works. so if anyone wants to volunteer to draw a poster for us. just shoot me a message.

i also want to give thanks to everyone that has supported us through the past couple of years. drink and draw DFW has been going strong for over 2 years now! thanks for support. THAS NICE!!!!!

signing out.
jose ramirez. (pardon the grammar i didnt proofread.)

Time	Sunday, May 15 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Location	The Fllying Saucer 14999 Montfort Dr Dallas, Texas

Drink and Draw DFW 45: Liquid Sunshine

all right guys. so we will skip drink and draw on easter weekend and continue it the following week! so the next meeting is on MAY 1st.

sorry for the delayed message here. but i have been busy with some freelance and had no time to update the status on the next meeting.

ok. lets prepare for the summer heat by kicking it with the drink and draw crew!

this weeks. poster was drawn by fer galicia he is pretty slick with them pencils and markers. check out more of his stuff right heer at http://ferah11.deviantart.com/
boy spits them sketchcards out like no other! so thanks for your time, skill, and effort that you put into this weeks poster fer! its much appreciated.

Time	Sunday, May 1 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Location	the flying saucer 14999 Montfort Dr Dallas, Texas

PREVIEW-Dead@17 Vol6 by Josh Howard #inStoresNow

 Here's a preview of Dead@17 Volume 6: The Witch Queen by DFW cartoonist and rising star Josh Howard...

Sale on The Bramble Vine Cartoons Book - 25% off

I have an online sale going on now through March 31. My latest book, The Bramble Vine Cartoons, will be 25% off the cover price when you order online through Lulu.com. All you have to do is enter the code "SPLISH305" at checkout. This book is a collection of my single panel gag cartoons, 128 pages of weirdness and hilarity. If you can't make it to any of the shows I'm exhibiting at this year grab the book online for some excellent savings!

Nate Bramble - www.bramblevinecomics.com