Free Comic Book Day 2009

hey everyone!

it's Free Comic Book Day this Saturday May 2!

if you are in Southern California , please visit Collector's Paradise at www.comicsandcards.net



i'm honored to be signing there with a bunch of great people.
it should be a lot of fun!
there will also be a bunch of items up for auction that will go to the benefit the Hero Initiative, so check them out on EBAY.
hope to see you there!
:)
all the best,
m . . .

_________________

What is Free Comic Book Day?

Free Comic Book Day is a single day - the first Saturday in May - when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely FREE* to anyone who comes into their stores. *Check with your local shop for their participation and rules.

My Lunchbags Art Blog

okay, i started the Lunchbags Blog a year or so ago. but, then life took over and it just sat there.
well, i just started putting up the art... finally.
wahoooooo!
for those friends that have known about it for a while, you can stop bugging me about sharing them and also about a book. ;)
i'm starting to put it together as a full book finally. and for those that i haven't shared this with, here's the description from the Lunchbags blog . . .



What are LUNCHBAGS?
Yes, you can remember them from school. But what other goodness do they bring?
:)

Wellllllll . . . over the last 4 years or so, with no other purpose in mind than to bring a smile to my kids each day, I started something fun.
My wife was a librarian/teacher's aide at their school . . . soooooo, trying to be helpful every morning, I’d get up and make breakfast and pack lunches and snacks for all of them to help get ’em all outta the house and to school on time.

Sure, i can help get other people to be on time, but myself?
Hah!
Never.

Anyway, i started to draw a little something every morning on my son and daughter’s bags. It was never anything specific. Just whatever sprang into my head the last five or ten minutes before they left. I hoped it would be something to brighten their mealtime a little. Well, after a while, they were telling me that the other kids in their classes kept looking forward to what would be on their bags. Even the teachers were looking forward to them.
Nothing like a little pressure, huh?
;)
Heck, soon friends would sleep over sometimes on school nights, and they’d request a “lunchbag drawering.” And every so often, i’d even sneak a monster or something silly on my wife’s bag to share in the teacher’s lounge.
Well, all this got us thinkin’. We figured, why not share these silly sketches with everyone else. So i started to take photographs of them. At the beginning of the day, and sometimes if they thought about bringing 'em home, even at the end of the day all crinkled and smooshed. And, here we are almost 3 grades later and i’m still scribblin’ on their bags.

Now other fun stuff is going on with our favorite lil' bags. Sooon a wonderful new book collecting them all will be on it's way, and also we have been invited to a couple art galleries to have a showing of the Lunchbags framed in beautiful box frames.
Crazy, huh?

In the meantime, here’s hoping that you enjoy my Lunchbag scribbles as much as I have enjoyed creating them.
It’s a very special thing to be able to do something fun for and with your kids, for no other reason than to encourage and uplift them.

take care and all the best,
mike . . . :)

Just testing my posting from my phone. Wahooo...it works! :}

where the silverstein begins

a very cool book.
very inspiring and very fun to read about a definite favorite of mine.
mr. shel silverstein. ("where the sidewalk ends", "giving tree", "falling up")
go check this out when you can and go have fun being creative.
:)

all the best,
m . . .

Crazy busy!

hey everyone,

sorry it's been forever since an update. i'm still living off the Steelers Superbowl win...

;)

anyway, very busy these days. plenty o' work... 'cause for the last 4 months or so, i've been working away full time at Disney all day and then at night til about 2-3 in the morning on Shazam. and i'm trying to finish a separate side personal project of another book...

but ALSO lotsa kid stuff.

my daughter is playing club soccer and that is kicking into full gear with tournaments and such.

she truly loves the game and she is so much fun to watch play.

and, i just got back from a trip to Washington DC with my son and his 8th grade class.

it was a "history class" trip starting in Virginia and ending in NYC.

an awesome trip to remember.

one of the highlights was seeing Arlington National Cemetary and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

simply amazing.

of course, now it's back to work.

and the time snuck up on me and i meant to remind you all to not to forget to look for Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #4 on APRIL 1st!

there are some sneek peeks over on the Magic of Shazam site.

enjoy!

well, enough babbling.

take care all of you and all the best in everything,

mike . . .

Whatta Game! :)

wow!
6!!!
'nuff said.
;)

STEELERS!

just a simple little shout o' WAHOOOOOOOOOO for the black and gold!

some of you may or may not know that i've been a diehard Steelers fan since i was a little kid.

surrrrre i'm a california boy, but i've always loved the Pittsburgh Steelers.

well, they fought a tough game yesterday against their HUGE rivals the baltimore ravens, and they were able to triumph and earn a trip to the upcoming Superbowl XLIII !! wow what a great game it was! so exciting!

wahoooooooooo!

:)

anyway, the ironic thing is that this weekend i will be going to Arizona as a guest of the Phoenix Comiccon and the Arizona Cardinals are going to the superbowl too, to play the Steelers. congrats to the Cardinals by the way. so i may not wear too much steelers stuff, but i'll certainly be proud 'o my team.

sooooooooooo looking forward to the Superbowl!

:)

take care and all the best,

mike . . .

Merry Christmas !

hey everyone,

i hope you all have a great Christmas and merry New Year!
:)
and, if you get a chance in the midst of your last minute shopping(i know i will be doing that) to visit your local comic store on Christmas Eve(since Wednesday is new comic day still ;) ) then don't forget to check out the latest issue of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!
i hope you dig it.

and i also hope you had a goood '08 and find yourself heading to an absolutely amaaaazzzzzing '09!

take care and all the best,
mike . . .

Some fun Sketch cards

hey everyone,

so waaaay earlier this year i did some of the Marvel Masterpiece Sketch Cards. it was really fun to draw characters that i've never drawn before. anyway, i guess they are out now, so here are some of the images so you know what your looooooking for.
i really hope you like 'em.
and lemme know if you find any.
:)
enjoy!
take care and all the best,
mike . . .

My friend Jason does coool books . . .

hey everyone,

i just wanted to encourage you all to go visit my friend Jason Lethcoe's new website.
Jason and i have been friends since high school. we've worked with each other at Disney and other studios. we live only about 2 blocks from each other with our families growing up together. aaaaaand we even share an office together. (gosh, it all sounds so "Frank and Ollie-ish", when i describe it. ahahahahaha) ;)
so, i guess essentially i'd say he's a pretty good friend. :)
well, he has been a director and storyboard artist and writer for many years in animation, AND recently he's been writing children's novel series' for Random House Books and Penguin Books. . . .Zoom's Academy, Benjamin Piff, The Mysterious Mr. Spines , just to name few. . .
sooooo, please take the time to go visit his fun lil' new website.
his books are totally all ages and so much great fun. check them out at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or your local book shop.
here's his site . . .www.jasonlethcoe.com

enjoy and send him a hello when you get the chance.

take care and all the best,
m . . .

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #1

hey everyone,

SHAZAM!
:)
well the fun day is here.
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #1 is finally in stores.
whew! i'm so glad to share this new book series with everyone.
DC Comics has been awesome and i'm having the time of my life working on this project.
please go check it out at your local comic shop, and i really hope you all enjoy it.
:)
and if you want any more info on it please visit all the fun Captain Marvel goodness at my official Shazam Blog.

take care and all the very best,
mike . . .

My Gym Partner is a Monkey

well everyone,

as i'm looking at all the stuff i've been working on, i realized i never put up any of the crazy stuff from Cartoon Network when i worked on Gym Partner. so here are some images from the show. some designs are from the ROBO-3000 episode where all the characters became robots and the other is for the SPIFFANO episode where they spoofed the Sapranos.

aaaaaaaaaaaand, please keep your fingers and toes crossssssed because for some crazy reason they've submitted my work for Emmy consideration for the show.
:)
maaaaaaaaybe i'll have good news next month when they announce the nominees.
maybe.
anyway, hope you all like. it was a very fun show to work on.
:)

all the best,
mike . . .

Fun Kid Stuff

hey everyone,
hope you are allll doing well and getting ready for a fun summer.
we've had a whirlwind of a year at the ol' kunkel homestead. it'll be nice to settle down and try and relax a little bit.
in fact, are some of the things that kept me busy here and there for my kiddos. from school to church to sports, they were images for all sorts o' different activities that they were part of.

anyway, hope you like. don't forget to spend extra time this summer relaxing and enjoying good company.
:)
all the best,
mike . . .