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 . . .

Wizard World LA recap

hey everyone,

well, it was a great weekend. lotsa fun and a lot of great people came by.
thank you to all of you.


i went to the kids area once a day and did sketches for the kids that were at the con and hopefully helped them have an even more good time at the show.
me and my kiddos, my wife and my brother in law all had fun at the booth/table. there was a lot of excitement for my upcoming Captain Marvel series, so it was fun to share some new images with everyone and talk about it with the fans. everyone was super anxious and supportive of it.
thank you all so much! :)
my son got to have fun in the Guitar Hero competition, my daughter did drawings and helped protect the giant Herobear Plush so no one would sneak off with it. ;) we had a number of people wanting our mascot, but he is the guardian of my kiddos so i can't let this particular one go. maybe we'll make some official ones someday. :) all in all, it was a fun time . . .




there was also of course a bunch of amazingly talented artists and writers all around. i'm always in awe of the people around at conventions . . . .some friends and some that i got to meet finally. . . Darwyn Cooke, Dave Bullock, Daniel Bradford, Tim Bradstreet, Cheeks!, Danny Miki, Michael Golden, Jimmy Palmiotti, J. Scott Campell, Jeph Loeb, and plenty more.

i got to know Michael Golden at the Arizona Convention and he's been a great guy, really supporting and enjoying Herobear. i'm tremendously honored that he enjoys it. . .

Danny Miki was there too. he got to enjoy peeking at the Captain Marvel Transpositioning Decodifier . . .

also, friends from DC were there . . . Dan Didio and Bob Wayne( on the ends) and also, the amazingly talented Darwyn Cooke(yellow hat) . . .
finally, what would a convention be without Peter Parker and his girls. this group was walking around the convention saying hi to everyone. i thought it was a brilliant "group" costume. Peter and all his loves . . . aunt may, mary jane, betty brant, black cat, and gwen stacy. turns out they allllll love Herobear. who knew? ;)
anyway. . . all this babbling to say that i had a lot of fun this weekend and i wanted to say thank you to all the fans and new fans that came by. thanks so much!
some fans were wondering if we sell the Herobear and Sokmunster stuff online and i said, "Oh yess! i'll even autograph it for ya. " :)
so if you are looking for anything, please visit the Astonish Store for our books and stuff.
:)

all the best,
mike . . .
p.s. alsoooooooooooodon't forget to check out the Decoder give away from this convention that i'll be posting on the Shazam blog. also some other updates on things and lotsa goodness. :)

Wizard World LA 2008

hey everyone,

just wanted to let you know that i'll be at Wizard World LA this weekend!
hope to see you there. i'll be in artist alley, so here's my table/booth info . . .

ARTIST ALLEY: Mike Kunkel #2590

it should be a lot of fun!
we'll have lotsa Herobear and Sokmunster stuff. you can see the upcoming Lunchbags stuff. and alsooooooo, #3 of the Captain Marvel Decoders will be there and will be presented to a verrrrrry lucky fan.
:)
so please stop by!

take care and all the best,
mike . . .

Land of Sokmunster Magazine AD

hey all,
well, we were treated to a very nice surprise lately.
there is a magazine called COOKIE. it is a very fun family magazine with cool stuff for kids and parents. wellllllllll, they had an ad/article in the latest issue about kids clothes and stuff and in one of the full page pictures, they showed a couple kids in a library . . . and lo, and behold what are they reading???!
que dramatic music here . . . ;) they are reading The Land of Sokmunster.
we were blown away by this awesome surprise and have had a number of people seeing it and it has been really tremendous. we're very thankful for cool press!

more Sokmunster news coming soon. some of it coming from France . . . ;)

take care and all the best,
m . . .

Something . . . new and fun.

LUNCHBAGS
enjoy.
:)
all the best,
mike . . .

Phoenix Comic Con wrap-up. . .

well, i just wanted to say thank you to all the great fans that came by in Phoenix. it was an awesome Convention. so many great artists and creators there. my son and i drove out and had a great boy's weekend. it was the best time. we even got to meet Wil Wheaton, star of one of mine and my son's most favorite movies of all time "Stand by Me." Alec was blown away to meet Wil all grown up, because he's only known him from the movie. Wil was generous with his time and extremely nice. Stand by Me is also a huge inspiration for the way i tell stories about childhood and friendships and especially the tone of Herobear, so it was a
tremendous honor to share Herobear with Wil and get a chance to talk a little bit.




we also got to meet a lot of great fans of our Astonish books(Herobear and Sokmunster) and the upcoming Captain Marvel book. one fan at one of the booths nearby fell in love with Sokmunster and carried him around, and another fan showed off some amazing tatoos of Herobear. i was extremely honored by this.





one of the other fun highlights was getting to sit in the "Bandit." the replica car from Smokey and the Bandit fame. i love those movies. so silly and fun.




so, now coming up is the Atlanta Comic Expo and then it looks like Wizard World L.A. i can't wait to see more fans and talk and visit more. alsoooooo, if you haven't seen the fun goodness that was given away at Phoenix, please visit the Shazam Blog :)


all the best,
m . . . :)

Happy New Year 2008! :)

hey everyone,

i know it's been forever since i've posted.
i'm sooooooooooo sorry.

i've been so swamped lately.
from working full-time doing storyboards and design for Disney and Henson to developing 4 of my own projects at Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Sony, and Discovery to my working on my dream project Captain Marvel for DC Comics and then throw in family and a couple Holidays and ...WHEW! things have been a little crazy. :)

but it is now a new year and time to look at what is planned . . .

first up, I'm getting ready to leave Disney this month so that i can focus on some of the other projects. not that i'm not enjoying Disney, i just need to work on my own projects and i definitely want to spend a heck of lot moooooooore time in 2008 drawing and writing about lightning bolts.
;)
next, i'm planning my Convention schedule. the first two Conventions i'll be attending will be the PHOENIX COMIC CON(January 26-27, 2008) and also the ATLANTA COMIC EXPO (February 8-10, 2008)


that's it for now...more news to come soon.

hope you allll had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!
all the best,
m . . . :)

The Artist Within

hey all,

i wanted to pass along something cool to you to check out ...i recently had the privilege to meet the author/photographer for an absolutely awesome brand new book coming out from Dark Horse.
it is entitled "The Artist Within"
it is such a great book that profiles so many legendary cartoonists and comic book artists. wonderful pictures and small bios of people such as Sergio Aragones, Jack Kirby, Al Hershfeild, Big Daddy Roth, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, ... it is very inspiring and cool to see them all in there "studios." and actually it's helped me explain to my kids who some of the famous cartoonists are that i sometimes babble on about. ;)
anyway,if you get the chance, go and peruse it and you may find something for an early Christmas gift.
:)

all the best,
mike . . .

Newsarama Shazam Interview

hey all,

well i'm finally able to show some more of the artwork for Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam.
wahoooooooooooooo!
:)
i was very honored to do a NEWSARAMA interview.
please check it out and ALSO, don't forget to visit the new MAGIC OF SHAZAM BLOG for other updates and behind the scenes fun stuff.
:)
take care and all the best,
m . . .