news

So, I get a  fair amount of emails. And it’s safe to say the most common question I receive is, “Can I get a print of [insert favorite illustration here]?”  Second would probably be, “Can you draw me [insert favorite character here]?” Lastly would be, “I just inherited a ton of money and want to give you some.”

And of course, I more often than not answer “yes” in all of these cases, but the processes and transactions involved are messy at best. NOT ANYMORE! Thanks to the invaluable help of Jake Alves, I now have an honest to God e-commerce shop that you can purchase prints, books, commissions and whatever else at. This is awesome!

The new Cow Shell Graphics Store, guys. Check it out! :)

Many of you probably know this already, but I’ll be at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend. I’m situated right in between the Kids Love Comics booth and Avengers Mansion. Yeah!

Also, I gave my site a good design overhaul and update yesterday. If you’re reading this via a feed, come over and take a look! This blog in particular received a pretty big makeover.

ALSO- I decided to start using capital letters when I write. I thought it was time now.

even though we just got back from north carolina,  jen and i are driving back tomorrow for heroes con! i’ve never been to this show before so i’m not really sure what to expect. but at the very least i hope to see some of you there! you’ll be able to find me in indy island at table 520. and here is a quickly photographed pile of some of the stuff that should be on top of that table.

EDIT: people keep emailing me about the stuffed Buffalo in that picture. he was a homemade gift from the multi-talented sally thompson so unfortunately he is the only one of his kind. sally, if you are reading this, i need a Cow to go along with Buffalo! :)

May 31st – June 4th is the second annual Gideon Media Arts Conderence and Film Festival in Ridgecrest, NC. This year there is a big push towards graphic novels (yeah!) and I’ve been invited to be on staff with Ken Raney, Art Ayris, and fellow parabler Ben Avery. In addition to a panel discussion, a graphic arts gala and some one-on-one time with the students, I’ll also be offering a couple of workshops- one on webcomics and the other on comic anthologies. These are both subjects I feel I know plenty about at this point, even though there are a gazillion more experienced creators in both those areas that might have a lot more to offer. The difference in this case is that all of the workshops and events at Gideon will have a Christian emphasis to them and (hopefully) give everyone involved a stronger insight on how we can use our creative talents to better serve the Lord. Gideon will also be the first opportunity to see Parable in full book form, since I’ll be bringing a few sample copies with me to show around (although that probably won’t be as exciting as watching me try to talk in front of a room full of people).

Gideon is still excepting registrations so if you’re interested in attending, click HERE to find out the details. And for more info on the Graphic Arts section of the conference, including Ken, Art, and Ben’s involvement, click HERE.

I hope to see some of you there. I think it’s going to be a really fun time!

i just got back from europe to find that parable is available in this month’s issue of previews! the order code is OCT084412 for it’s official december release. please make sure to let your local comic shops know to help us make sure parable is a great success.

jen and i’s european vacation was incredible. we saw and did a great many things and we have well over 2000 photos that jen needs to edit down before we can start showing people. i’ll see if i can’t put some sort of summary together by the time she gets that done but for now there’s a lot that both of us need to catch up on. ciao!

i just wanted to take a quick moment to mention that a few of my books, including adventures in sandwich making, are now on wowio.com- i believe the first successful e-book downloading site. this is good news to those of you that always wanted to buy my books but didn’t want to spend the money- because every book on wowio is free. yup! free! and yet somehow, i still make a little bit of change every time someone downloads something of mine. of course- i still appreciate those of you that buy a physical copy, but this is a nice alternative. so if you want to help out an artist and make sure he can keep drawing comics and other fun stuff- as well as assure that this great service sticks around- then go and download my books right now! just type in mike maihack into the search field. and thanks!

i’m back from my NY-MoCCA-Boston trip! and i had a great time. MoCCa is my absolute favoritest convention and the best part about it is meeting so many talented creators and seeing the work they do. there’s just something about the small press comic world that makes me feel so excited to be drawing comics. all i wanted to do when i got back was start creating things right away! unfortunately, jen and i got a Wii instead and have instead spent more time creating Miiis. ah well.

i loved meeting up with a bunch of the lbf guys there who i’ve never actually met in person till now. finding out how nice they all are makes me even happier to be part of such a great collective. but i see no sense in giving any sort of detailed convention report like everyone else who was there has done so much better then me. particularly dean here who created the best convention report ever. here’s a picture of me from it:

yes.  i lost.  the little twerp has super powers!!! also, jen threw a few of her own pictures on flikr if you’d like to see. anyhoo, i’ll be back there next year. thanks to all of those that stopped by!

i wish i had some sort of drawing to post, but this is really more of an “i just wanted to let you all know i did remember i have blog” kind of post. hopefully some new art later this week!