As promised, Cleopatra in Space’s first book is now for sale in my online store. $6. Free shipping. Get it now!

And I will have a bunch of brand spankin new Cleopatra in Space books with me! Fresh off the printer.

I’ll also have Cow & Buffalo books, lots of prints, Jen, some buttons and stuff… More than likely I’ll be drawing a lot of pictures too. This will be the first time I’ll have a table at SDCC as well as my first time exhibiting on the west coast. That means it’ll likely be the first time I’ll get the chance to meet a lot of you, so I hope you can stop by and say hi!

And here’s one of those process flash animations for it.

The book will debut at the San Diego Comic-Con next week (OMG) where I’ll be hiding behind table N-O5 in the small press area. Afterwards, I’ll be putting them up for sale online.

I will have a signed & numbered limited edition print run of fifteen for it at the con. Fourteen of them will be for sale at my table. The other one, along with the original b&w artwork, will be donated to Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find’s annual art auction which helps fund the show and maintain it’s awesomeness.

All signs are pointing towards this years show being the best one ever. I’m really excited. June 4-6, Charlotte Convention Center. Hope to see you there!

EDIT: I found out I’ll be at table AA-520, on the outskirts of Indie Island. Click HERE for a map that shows you exactly where that is, along with some photos of the above Cleo prints!

EDIT #2: The above HeroesCon print is now available in my online store!

And by “upcoming” I mean a few years from now (I have stories lined up for Cleo to last me a lifetime). But there are some elements to this piece that come into play as early as chapter 2.

This is the card I drew for Jen for Valentines Day. It’s our two cats, Ash and Misty, being typical Ash and Misty. Jen posted the card she made for me over on her blog.

Here’s a couple of sketches of Khensu I posted over at Cleopatra in Space. Anything Cleo related I’ll prob just post over there, but I might crosspost the occasional drawing or illustration here as well.

And lastly, my sister and bro-in-law had their first baby last week! A healthy, adorable, wrinkly little boy. So here’s a little sketch I did of my new nephew, Desmond S Tally, while I was over at their place seeing him for the first time.

I know it’s been a long wait for you guys, but I’m finally gearing up to begin the weekly adventures of Cleopatra in Spaaace in only two short weeks- starting Monday, January 25th. So make sure to bookmark, rss, follow me on twitter (whatever it is you wacky kids do nowadays to stay updated on important stuff) CleopatraInSpace.com so you won’t miss out on any of the action! For now, here’s a sneak peek at the first few panels from page nine:

I’m so excited to start sharing this comic with all of you!

well, i gave in and finally signed up on twitter. you can follow me here (if you want): twitter.com/mikemaihack

i think i’m gonna use it for art and comic updates, probably tweet about music and movies from time to time, maybe throw in some discount codes if i ever find the time to get a decent store up and running- but definitely, without fail, i’m going to make certain to let you all know what i’m eating for lunch everyday.

also, because absolutely no one asked for it, here’s a little sketch of cleo (and khensu).

i promise to continue her adventures in comic form as soon as i get caught up with the multitude of other stuff on my plate right now.

also, for the first time ever, i’ve decide to sell the original art for the above cleo drawing.  the price is $50 which includes shipping and a print of the colored version. if interested, just shoot me an email.  you can view the black and white line work HERE and if there’s a good response i’ll think about selling some more original art down the road. maybe even take the time to set up an ebay store or something.

for drawergeeks‘ giant monster topic today. :)

also, jen has posted our germany photos- or as we like to call it,  CASTLE DAY!

here again is some music to listen to if you decide to browse through.  this song will now forever remind me of watching the french and german countryside speed by as we traveled by train from paris to munich.

republic tigers – “buildings and mountains”

i might put a pause on these cleo posts for a little while until i can catch up on some pages. hopefully it won’t be too long of a break- there are some fun scenes coming up!

also- saw the incredible hulk last weekend and thought it was great. a really fun action flick with some essential comic geek out moments.  it’s not perfect but who cares.  HULK SMASH!  plus, i love this whole marvel universe that’s being built on the screen right now.  talk about early avengers movie hype!

my summer movie ranking thus far:

1. speed racer
2. iron man
3. kung fu panda
4. incredible hulk
5. narnia: prince caspian
6. indiana jones: kotcs

mocca, as always, was awesome.  it was great seeing friends and colleagues i only get to see once or twice a year- or every two years- or every once in a turquoise, polka dotted, square moon. ryan and trade were great table mates and we couldn’t have asked for a better section right underneath the air conditioner units.  especially right after all the doors in the place were swung open for a half hour while we all waited outside for the firemen to do their jobs.

met and hung out with a lot of old and new friends- and i hate naming names because i’m bound to forget somebody- but you all know who you were (and all of you can also confirm to how “elephant like” my memory can be).  but hanging out saturday was fun.  and dinner sunday night was a blast (kean and andy make a cute couple).  i wish i could have walked around the floors more (i was pretty much confined to my table) so it was nice to be able to chat and stuff after show hours.  how else was i going to enthusiastically promote speed racer? :)

i didn’t really realize it until i got back and tallied up everything, but it was also my most profitable con ever (thanks mostly in part to the art prints i decided to bring with me this year- i’ll need to get a shop set up for those soon).  reason enough to head back up again next year, but i would be planning to anyhow just because of the amount of fun i had. mocca is easily my favorite convention.  the people there are the best, the amount of quality work the exhibitors are selling is astounding and no one really has to tug at my arm very hard for me to have a reason to visit NY.  even if it is for a quick, kinda stressful couple of days.

so yeah- see you all next year!

still- yesterday i went to go see speed racer again (i know- i should be drawing cleo instead…), this time on imax, and loved it just as much the second time as i did the first. maybe even more. i can honestly see this movie becoming one of my all time faves, which is crazy since i almost didn’t even go see it at all. folks- don’t miss it on the big screen while you have the chance! especially the big, big screen. man, imax is cool.

i saw two movies this past weekend (actually three, but two in the theater)- indiana jones 4 and speed racer. and you know what? speed racer blew indy out of the water in terms of awesomeness. why is this movie not doing better?? i had so much fun and felt like i was watching something really special. the script was great, the characters were super developed, and the car racing was the coolest car racing i’ve ever seen. i don’t think i wanted to go home and play mario kart so badly in my life. there was just so much to love about this movie, all the way from the visuals to the message it was trying to tell.

unfortunately, in contrast, indy fell victim to a really bad script and a super, under-developed story line- and honestly- should never have been made. it was like an indiana jones movie for the sake of an indiana jones movie and just didn’t work on so many levels. i don’t want to go into the details, because they’re fairly obvious and most of you have either seen the movie already or will be seeing it soon. but i think this was a rushed project that was fun only in the sense of nostalgia for how much we all enjoyed its predecessors. i didn’t think it was all bad, but i went in with very low expectations and this movie met those.

the funny thing about the two films is that there are so many “wha–?” moments in both of them. but with speed racer those “wha–?” moments are instantly followed by a “haha! awesome!” while with indy they just leave you with your mouth hanging open wondering how someone thought that was good idea.

so- i know speed racer isn’t for everyone, (believe me- from the trailers, i thought it looked just as horrible as the rest of the world seems to think) but if you go in with an open mind- i think you’ll find something you haven’t really seen before. something fun and unique. something for kids and adults. something for artists and people just wanting to see some great action. something meant to be seen on the big screen. something raiders of the lost ark accomplished 27 years ago.

so, with june fast approaching and more movies on the way, here’s my ranking for favorite summer movies so far:

1. iron man
2. speed racer
3. narnia: prince caspian
4. indiana jones: kotcs

apparently cleo’s not the only egyptian queen zapping her way through the cosmos. now nefertiti is getting in on the action thanks to fellow tampa drawing buddy, keith patterson. do i detect a team-up?

seems like every time i get a chance to escape my regular drawing responsibilities, i only want to to draw cleopatra in space. which isn’t very often these days. so even though i’m doing my best to work on a little comic of her (yes- i am!), the process has been slow. today, instead of doing a little more work on another page, i decided to just relax and do something a little less uh… thought inducing- which drawing comics can sometimes be.

that said, i’ll be taking a little blog break for the next few weeks or so since there are some projects i really need to concentrate on. they are fun projects, so i’m looking forward to them, but they are likely going to suck up almost all of my extra drawing time. i should be back sometime in april. maybe sooner if i decide to irresponsibly break away from drawing comics again. :)