Aurora Rise

This weekend I'll be taking part in two very big charity events here in Denver. The first is at 3 Kings Tavern TONIGHT starting at 8pm. You can find out more information about the show and the benefit concert we're putting on at the like here:  RISE!

I'll have these two pieces up that will be auctioned off at a later date in support of the Aurora Families by the Denver Comic Con.

The next big show is Saturday and Sunday. It's called Aurora Rise and it'll be at ALL C'S Comics! I'll be there on Saturday doing sketches and all the proceeds of those go to the charity for the victims in Aurora. So come on out and have a good time with us! Here's some more info:

I've donated this Johann Kraus piece for the silent auction:

Thanks and I hope to see ya there!

I can't tell one from another; I found you or you found me.

Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

You know the drill - music to accompany the blog post because the two are hopelessly intertwined for me. Although this one is a little different; it's my favorite Talking Heads song. It's one of those few rare songs that makes the entire world melt away. I just sit back and smile.

I was going to write a long ass blog entry but man I just want to let my work speak more these days. So here we go!

These three images are from my previously mention Spacegirls post. I put them up at a gallery show in June.

Business card design for my friend and amazing performer, Ann.

Finally a new portrait ... thing. I've been working hard with texture lately. I've fallen for graphite and watercolor. The Spacegirls were done with both but this is my first time coloring over it. Expect Midspace #2 to look a lot like this!

A couple of quick items - this weekend I'll be doing sketches at All C's Comics in Aurora, CO to benefit the Aurora shooting victims. Steve Niles, Mike Mignola & Matt Fraction will all be there as well so come on down and say hi! Here's some info: Aurora Rise I'll be donating an original Johann Kraus drawing from the BPRD for the silent auction. Having lived near that theater and frequented it a lot in my early days here that all hit way too close to home. So I'm doing everything I can to help them out!

Graphite & Sass

So yeah it's been a long old time since I posted! We've been hard at work on Midspace and a couple of other big rockin' projects! So for now you'll have to feast your eyes on one of three of my pieces from the gallery show this last month. I've been using lots of graphite lately because I love that texture!

So here ya go -- more to come soon!!

I got no heart 'cause a she-devil stole it.

So the time has finally come - announcement of pure amazing!

For the past year my best friend Nick and I have been plotting and working on our own creator owned book called Midspace! Being two nerds that love our space and dirty jokes rife with satire we just weren't finding anything on the stands that really spoke to that. Man there's SO MUCH that takes itself just way too seriously in the comics industry. And if I can just quote Jack Nicholson's Joker on that : "This town needs an enema!" Of course it all comes back to poop jokes... so we decided; ya know what? Screw it. We can do this just as well if not better than anyone else out there! And here we are!

Issue #1 hits on the first day of the Denver Comic Con on June 15th and we'll have plenty of books there and for sale at Bartertown Comics here in town. You can also email about copies and we'll get one shipped out to ya. Signed with a sketch of whatever Midspace character you want. Most everyone is on the cover...

Speaking of! Here's the cover for issue 1!

Sweet balls, huh?! Here's an interior page as well to get your brain going:

I did it all in black and white - the gray tones are all inkwash. No digital crap here kids. I wanted to do a space epic that had the feel of Bernet's Torpedo and McCloud's Infinite Kung Fu. Something a little more nuanced than your typical comics. Don't get me wrong, I love color and we'll definitely go all Ted Turner on this book someday with the color but for now I'm really happy to be working in black, white and ink wash. It's all about the texture for me. 

Anyhoo... so a couple of links will give you more of the skinny here!
Here is my page for the Denver Comic Con: Zak Kinsella I'll be in artist's alley all three days at table #123! We're right on a corner next to all the celebrity signings so maybe that'll mean I can score a date with Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead. Hubba hubba! Haha anyways come by and say hi. I'll be doing sketches, selling books and probably making sarcastic comments that will piss off plenty of people. 

Midspace has a page! So please click on it to become a fan! We'll be doing some contests for original art coming soon so keep an eye out there!

Midspace

Promote Your Page Too

And FIIIIINALLY we're going to be having a HUGE release party at Unit E downtown with Nick's band Glass Homes, The A.M. Pleasure Assassins, AND one of my favorite artists (Mike Allred) has his band The Gear playing too! That's at 9:00 p.m. Saturday June 16th at Unit E downtown so be there! We'll have copies of Midspace, art up on the walls to dig out and food / drinks to get blitzed with! 

And now that I've written this damn blog I'm going to go brain out to some Grand Theft Auto 4 because I haven't played X-Box in like 5 months. 

Cheers!
Zak 

Spacegirls

Later this year I plan on doing a pretty large size gallery show of my own. I've alway participated in gallery shows but never had my own. I just never knew what I wanted to focus on. Then the diarrhea mess that is my Facebook newsfeed came along to strike inspiration. Growing up a comic fan you're kind of inundated with dudes that just love drawing women with rockin' huge tits and in amazingly skimpy clothing, along with teeny waists and just ridiculous curves. Now, let's just get one damn thing straight... I love the ladies. No questions about that! But I also have my own taste, and let's be honest; any hornball artist can draw pinups with women in nearly nothing fighting demons, or monsters and shit. And I say fighting like... MAYBE slightly striking. A sort of hapless expression on them. Bringing that back to that Facebook... I get to see image upon image of women in pinups. Mostly with awful high school comic art - you know the guys still emulating the 90s Image art style instead of taking what they liked from that and making their own style out of it. And yes there's a huge market for that, but if you've ever had to deal with those people at a table at a con breathing their rotten breath around & talking about nipples showing through shirts you quickly realize it's one no one should have to be a part of. 

At least that's how I feel about it. I'm basically tired of softcore starring the X-Men or Alice in Wonderland. Yeah we get it, you're a pervert. Not my scene & I'm done with it.

So finally I said to myself, you know what? Fuck that! I've had the pleasure of having a rather consistent female fan base (which is super cool - I get some great conversations out of it!) so I wanted to do a series that would not only show off my tastes (Space bonanza!) but hopefully be something women could take home, put on the wall and feel good about in their comic book fandom. Another thing that came along that really inspired this was Beth Phoenix of the WWE. Last year she coined a phrase "Pinup Strong" and I really thought it was an awesome concept so hopefully you'll see a lot of that philosophy in the months to come of these. 

This is the first set of these in various forms of completion (I get them done when I have the chance *cough* slowly *cough*) and I want to add some more shapes and races into the mix. I'm planning on doing between 30 or so, having a gallery show and maybe doing a small print run as a flip book or something. I already have buyers lined up for them too so I'm pretty stoked. It's a personal project I've been wanting to do so I thought why not! So let me know what you all think!

zak

Until We Met.

YACHT - I Walked Alone Yeah we saw YACHT last weekend at the Larimer Lounge. Great show - lots of goofballs there! Loved every minute of it!

Anycrap - coupla things, if you will. Hard at work on these books and freelance so I have like zero time right now. Glarg.

Overcasters shirt - came out great! Band was happy with it so I was jazzed! Go see'em live if you live in Denver. They rock!

Overcasters Shirt by ~spicypeanut on deviantART

This is the playground I designed for a show in L.A. I should have a much better picture of this soon - it's HUGE... way too big for a scanner.

Squidground by ~spicypeanut on deviantART

And finally here's a page from our book which hits in June: Midspace.

Midspace Pg. 2 by ~spicypeanut on deviantART

And hey! A color panel!

Busy bee. More crap to post soon!
Zak

KatyGram vol 1

I have a character I've been saving for awhile. Something I work on in my Bristol sketchbooks. I was gonna keep her secret but she wasn't having it. So here's Katy. I'm gonna update her as Katygrams on my Instagram every so often.

Meet my Katy.