Fantagraphics Warehouse strongman, Ajax salutes the Comic-Con and my camera. This was the second year Ajax worked Comic-Con and our second year without the riffraff crowd lingering around our booth and shoplifting our shit. Coincidence?

The Sultan of Shit, Johnny Ryan at the Buenaventura booth. I just read New Character Parade #2 and laffed alot. You should buy it so you can laff alot too.

Strange & Stranger scribe, Blake Bell mugs for the camera.

The AMAZING Kim Deitch personalizes a copy of Shadowland for a fan. There's not much more I can write about Deitch. He's the greatest! I really enjoyed and strongly recommend the simultaneous reading of Deitch's Pictorama and The Comics Journal #296. Very rewarding.  

Unlovable author-extraordinaire, Esther Pearl Watson and Bad Ass Mark Todd at their booth with a Popple !?

Mark Todd
fragments
new works
La Luz De Jesus Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
January 2nd - February 1st, 2009
artist reception Jan. 2nd 8-11 PM
www.laluzdejesus.com
www.marktoddillustration.com

Official announcement:

In this new exhibition Mark Todd shows an ever deepening interest in deconstructing comic art from his childhood. "The main difference between 'Fragments' and my last showing at La Luz de Jesus is that the works seem to be getting more abstracted and there is more collage elements working into the pieces on paper," states Todd who took his first creative cues from comic books and Star Wars. In this collection of works it is apparent that these two worlds of inventive fantasy still inform his art. Todd references the past, waxes nostalgic about it, and simultaneously lends his own post-modern sensibility to it by employing a limited palette, repetition, distortion and mixed media materials including spray paint, cel-vinyl, glossy varnishes and dusty stains. Todd lives in Southern California with his wife and fellow artist, Esther Pearl Watson and their daughter Lili, an avid artist herself. Todd also co-teaches with Esther at Art Center College of Design.

Opening tonight at Grass Hut in Portland, OR, a show from the artists of Yosemite Studios-- Souther Salazar, Seonna Hong, Mark Todd, Martin Rich, and Esther Pearl Watson.

If you like that Mark Todd "Captain America" piece you have to see the Secret Headquarters show in L.A. where Todd does interpretations of old Marvel comics covers. Awesome work.