100th Blog...

Wow the big one double zeroes. I have written quite a few blogs here for a small little blog page and  I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time and read some of my little blogs, it means a lot to me, so thank you. For the 100th blog, I wasn't sure what exactly to write up, but I knew I wanted it to be a little more personal that what I usually write, and seeing how today is National Coming Out Day, I fiugred I could use this opportunity to bring everyone, all my readers and anyone who follows my art works up to speed on an important detail in my life.

I am a pansexual. Or as it's more commonly known, bisexual. But basically I don't really see gender or stereotypes and roles, if you look great and have an even better personality, well get me three beers and a mojito and call it a night. I make great breakfast in bed in case you are wondering.

But yeah, that's me. I like girls, I like boys. I like tomboy girls, I like pretty boys. I never wanted to tie myself down to anything really, and I realized this a few years ago and I spent a lot of time in secret and kept to myself. I honestly didn't feel I had to tell anyone, it was something I wanted to keep to myself. I never felt like I could come out and be accepted in some circles, it could possibly damage my relationship with a lot of my male friends. But finding a family that accepted me for everything that I am; silly, strange, poor, obsessive at times, etc. I felt that it only made sense to accept this part of me, and embrace it. Not to mention I want to know more about everyone I meet and I want to make a connection with my audience, so I need to be completely honest about everything in my life.

But to those who know me, is this really a surprise? If you think back, the signs were all there. And honestly thank you to all my friends and family who have accepted me and loved me through all these years and continue to do so. So to you I say this, we only have one life and we need to live that life to the max and love as much as we possibly can before it's all gone. Thank you again to everyone who is following my work and coming along this ride, keep chasing the storm.

Drop the Hammer

This past Saturday the Spent Pencils crew made an appearance at the first time show in Hamilton, Hammer Con. A super early morning drive for all of us was pretty rough, but what do you expect when you stay up late finishing up sketch covers. Me and Tea stayed up pretty late watching musicals and Torchwood while we worked away on sketch covers, it was an awesome night for sure and totally worth staying up. And seriously, I need more Torchwood in my life, it's amazing in so many ways. So little sleep and all, we came and set up, not really knowing what to expect from this one day show, but regardless of the circumstances we are always reading to work and show the world what we got.

The Spent Pencils crew was ready for a day of sketching with a great crew of artist; Daniel Wong, Gerard de la Costa, Paul Limgenco, Oliver Castañeda, Joe Bonsu, Nicholas R.Lukic, Rico Valdes, Marvin Mariano, Hugh Rockwood, Vince Sunico, Tea Medeiros and myself, ChileanStorm. The crowds came in early to see the show, meet the celebrity guest and check out the collection of different talent in the artist alley. The Hamilton crowd was really happy to get prints and sketches from all of us at the show, I even ended up selling out on a few of my more popular prints like Pokemon and Adventure Time prints. I did a commission piece as well which was a lot of fun, got to flex my cartoon muscle a little, it was a blast to do both of these.

But a big thank you to all the staff at the show, to everyone who came by our table, I am so grateful to all who came by and got some prints, it's awesome to see the smiles on people through our art. I hope the show did well enough for a weekend expansion next year, looking forward to coming back to Hamilton. The next Spent Pencils shows and events will be New York Comic Con and Pulp Comics anniversary show out in Niagara. Be sure to like us on Facebook to keep track of all our shows and get a chance to see the amazing art from all the artist in Spent Pencils. I will be updating plenty here on my blog and on YouTube, so be to follow all the different sources. That's all the time I got for now, keep chasing the storm.

Spent Does AVRO

This past Saturday, the city of Mississauga held the Doors Open event, in which many of the well known locations and landmarks in the Mississauga area had there doors open to the public. One of these spots was the International Centre out on Airport Road and was also the homecoming for one the greatest inventions in Canadian history, the AVRO Arrow. This fighter jet was way ahead of its time in its creation and was unfortunately shut down before they could ever take flight, yet remains a symbol of Canadian ingenuity and craftsmanship. To celebrate the return of the AVRO Arrow and to help educate the youth of today of this amazing piece of history, the Spent Pencils crew came together to create an amazing and fantastic comic book, The Legend of the AVRO Arrow.

With an amazing collection of artist in Spent Pencils, the best three came together to make this project a reality. With the art handled by Daniel Wong, the writing and the colour handled by Maddsketch and an incredible cover by the great Vince Sunico, SP brought out the best of the best. The book is handled with great care, with an amazing eye on the details from various location in Mississauga, the fighter jet and even the mayor is recreated perfectly in this book. The story follows two kids who are working on a school project and find out everything on the AVRO Arrow and find out the history and the mystery on the jet. You even get to see a small project on the last page as well, which is a great way to sum up all the information for the younger readers.

The event kicked off bright and early on Saturday, with many in attendance to welcome home the AVRO Arrow. After the opening ceremony and words from the mayor and other officials who helped bring the Doors Open event together. The Spent crew was on hand all day and went through 500 copies of the book, for everyone who came by to get a copy of the book, to the very young to the elderly as well, many who had work history on the jet as well. It was great seeing all the different reactions to the book, a lot of great feedback. We may have needed more books though, but that's why it's always good to come early to these kind of events. Truly proud to see this project come to life and seeing these artist get the attention from the city that all artist deserve. It's awesome to see the Spent Pencils family grow and expand into different communities and different mediums. 

If you missed the event but would like a copy of the book, check out Image Collection Comics, as well as Gotham Central Comics may have a few copies as well, not to sure. And also keep tuned for October, because we got a very busy schedule ahead of us this month, from Hamilton to New York city and back, we are going to be spent, but honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. Keep chasing the storm.