Tag Archives: Mike Cavallaro

SHIRTS FOR A CURE @ NYCC

The SHIRTS FOR A CURE Project was established by punk-rock photographer Mark Beemer to help raise awareness about breast cancer prevention and to provide financial assistance to underprivileged women who cannot afford expensive breast cancer medicine and therapy.

Exclusive shirt designs are donated mostly by bands, with proceeds from sales going to support SFAC’s efforts. You can browse more than 150 different shirt designs at www.shirtsforacure.com. For a donation of $14 (plus shipping and handling) you will be helping someone who is in need as well as receiving an exclusive shirt from your favorite band.

But that’s not all.

Shirts For A Cure is bringing their fundraising efforts to New York ComicCon . Appearing at BOOTH #241, SFAC has a list of special guests including Gerard Way, Cliff Chiang, Molly Crabapple and Brian Ewing, and exclusive items for convention-goers who want to lend a hand to a worthy cause.

– Brian Ewing, one of rock music and pop art’s most prolific, iconic image-makers, will be on hand to sign 50 hand-screened prints designed exclusively for SFAC, at the SFAC booth #241, on Friday, October 14th, starting at 2pm, while supplies last. Brian also provides the red “umbrella girl” T-shirt design.

– Cliff Chiang, artist of the new Wonder Woman comic book series from DC Comics, will be appearing at the SFAC booth #241 on Friday, October 14 from 4 – 5 pm. He’ll be signing an exclusive $10 Wonder Woman print for the first 50 fans, with all proceeds going to benefit SFAC’s ongoing efforts.

Other contributors include:

– Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance frontman and the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award-winning writer of Umbrella Academy. Gerard provides the “white violin” T-shirt design.

– Molly Crabapple, the New York Times-dubbed “Downtown Phenomenon”, illustrator and founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School. Molly provides the “art monkey” T-shirt.

– Mike Cavallaro, Eisner Award-nominated comics creator and, as “Johnny X”, frequent collaborator with NJ punk legends, The Bouncing Souls, along with his own bands, Sticks & Stones and Zero Zero. Mike provides the “skull and headphones” T-shirt design.

Drinks For A Cure / iFanboy NYCC After-Party

– The folks at iFanboy have teamed up with Shirts for a Cure to throw an awesome party and help in the fight against breast cancer. Comic book superstars Kieron Gillen (Uncanny X-Men, Journey Into Mystery, Phonogram) and Jamie McKelvie (X-Men: Season One, Phonogram) will step up to the turntables to DJ, as well as iFanboy’s very own Ron Richards (DJ Ronxo), who will also be DJing a set. Proceeds from drinks will go to charity to help fight breast cancer! This has got the makings of yet another epic iFanboy party that you don’t want to miss!
WHEN: Friday, October 14th – 9 PM to close
WHERE: Idle Hands Bar – 25 Avenue B (between 2nd St. and 3rd St.)

MoCCA Comic Arts Festival 2011

Just wanted to mention that the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art festival 2011 is this weekend, April 9 – 10, at the Lexington Avenue Armory, 68 Lexington Ave (Between 25th & 26th Streets), New York City. More info HERE.

The “festival” is really a comic book convention which acts as a fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Hours: Saturday April 9th and Sunday April 10th 11am-6pm.

I don’t have my own table this year, but I’ll be sketching at the MoCCA table from 12 – 1 pm both Saturday and Sunday. All proceeds go to the MoCCA gallery.

Ben 10!

I should mention that CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #58 is out now, featuring a full-color cover by me and 17 interior pages that I penciled, inks by Dan Davis, story by Marc Bernardin.

It’s the first time I colored my own work on one of these stories, other than the covers. I thought it all came together pretty well.

A New York Story

Last night, attended the New York premiere screening of first time documentary film-maker Dan Makara’s “IRWIN – A NEW YORK STORY”, at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. The film is a portrait of legendary cartoonist Irwin Hasen, co-creator of “DONDI” and “WILDCAT”, and early chronicler of the adventures of “WONDER WOMAN”, “GREEN LANTERN” and “THE JUSTICE SOCIETY”.

I was a student of Irwin’s over 20 years ago at the Joe Kubert School, and it’s always a pleasure to see Irwin at conventions or gatherings like the one last night.

Also on hand were Jerry Robinson and Jules Feiffer.

Whether you know a lot about Irwin or not, the film is worth seeing for a glimpse of his own larger-than-life character. At 92 years of age, he still knows how to work an audience.

Congrats to Irwin and Dan for a job well done!

BEN 10 and CURSES, FOILED AGAIN!

Last year, May 2010, First Second Books published the graphic novel “FOILED”, my collaboration with writer Jane Yolen. Jane has written the sequel, “CURSES, FOILED AGAIN!”. I’ve thumbnailed the whole thing, and I’m now about 20 or so pages into penciling.

At the same time, I’m still penciling “BEN 10” stories for DC Comics’ CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK comic book series.

I like getting to bounce back-and-forth between the two. “BEN 10” has to be on-model with the design of the animated T.V. show it’s based on, while “FOILED” can be weird and loose. They both provide a nice change of pace from each other.

John Romita on Speed

A while back, I was posting quotes from interviews with comic book artists on my Livejournal blog. A lot of these are just comments that I found interesting in regards to my own experiences at the drawing table. Sometimes when you’re dwelling on the vast gulf between yourself and some creative giant, it’s interesting to also note the few small similarities and/or other details of interest. I’m going to transfer some of these to this new blog.

First up, “John Romita on speed”…

“Every time [Gene Colan] came in, we always got on the subject of speed and lack of speed, because Gene used to work until three in the morning, every morning.
“I said, “You know what? You’re asking the wrong guy because I have trouble, too. The reason I’m working 9-to-5 is because I can’t turn out enough pages in five days to pay my bills.” I could not deliver work on time. I could do five pages in one day, and then it would take me the next five days to do the next page. I could never tell. In fact, if an editor said, “Can you get this 10-page story done by next Wednesday?,” I couldn’t guarantee it to him. I used to say, “The truth of the matter is, I don’t know. I could get it done in two days or it could take me three weeks. I have no idea how long this is going to take me, because I have no regular flow that I can count on.”

John Romita
from a 2006 interview with Jim Amash