Auction is live!

And going strong!

Please bid!

The auction

Hi.

If you're new, this auction is to benefit The American Red Cross, in helping the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. They still need our help over there, and this is just me and a few good (emphasis on good) friends in the comic industry's attempt to help out. Some of them had already helped, and a lot of people I asked donations from had already helped out by raising money and awareness to the cause. I was only late in getting my butt in gear because a) I'm really self-absorbed and if it doesn't involve me, I don't usually care about it, and b) my mom was late in telling me to do my part, so really it's all her fault.

Anyway.

I got quite a few donations of some really cool stuff, which I'll go into later. However, it kind of defeated the purpose of my original idea of combining all of the items into one big lot, given that, in order to get the maximum amount of donation dollars possible (oh yeah, 100% of the proceeds go straight to the cause) the winning bidder would have to be the biggest fan of too many varied genres, so I followed the advice of many and separated them into many different lots. I think a lot of prospective bidders also preferred that.

So I'm officially stupid.

I wanted to first of all thank all those who graciously made donations,

Eric Canete

Jo Chen and Jewel Staite

Kurt Wagner

Rebekah Isaacs

Humberto Ramos

Rick Remender

as well as my art dealer Jason Schachter, who is actually the one setting up the auction on ebay and had to catalog and scan everything.

He's also telling me we're going to do a promotion where if you mention the auction when purchasing any interior page I drew on his Essential Sequential art website we donate 50% of the sale to The American Red Cross as well, plus you get a 20% discount on the pages you buy. So thanks for that, Jason. Maybe run it by me before you decide on stuff like that next time.

This isn't everything though. There's still a few items like my X-Men #204 cover and Uncanny X-Men 495 cover, as well as a few awesome things still coming in that haven't been scanned in yet, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. We're going to be splitting the auction into two parts, with the first part starting EVENING of SUNDAY the 24th of APRIL.

Stay tuned!

Remender the Titan

Yeah, I'm sorry about the title. But it's 4:30 in the morning and I've been at my desk all day and all night.

Anyway.

I have to admit that I'd originally had my doubts about this storyline. I'm a huge fan of the incredible Garth Ennis Max run, so the idea of The Punisher becoming a Frankenstein's Monster-type thing really did not appeal to me. But way too many people were recommending it to me so I buckled and finally bought it.

Holy frig.

Okay, if you're familiar with Rick's writing, he has this uncanny ability to slip "holy crap" moments into a story without drawing too much attention to it, which could take a reader out of the story. He does a perfect balancing act of making the really incredible also believable in the context of the story, and that's the whole awesomeness of this book. It's a definitely MARVEL story while being completely true to the character of Frank Castle as the Punisher, which starts off with a "I can't believe they did that" moment gorgeously rendered by John Romita Jr. and plunges him face-first into the world of the Marvel Monsters. As a re-animated cyborg.

But you can bet your sweet a$$ it's still a Frank Castle story.

So in short, I loved it. And here, you'll have the opportunity to get a signed copy of the beautiful hardcover edition. You will not want to take this baby into the bathroom. Nope, this is the kind of BOOK book that you read in the study, in your robe, while carefully sipping on a champagne flute of Mountain Dew.

It's Frank Castle as Frankenstein's Monster. And it totally makes sense. You'll love it too, I promise you.

Yum-berto

Humberto Ramos generously donated this great page from his recent Amazing Spider-Man issue signalling the introduction of the new VENOM. A great example of Ramos's signature dynamic action and superheroic proportions, depicting the historic moment where Flash Thompson actually becomes interesting!

Yes, I was bullied in school, why do you ask?

Inside the Mind of Rebekah Isaacs

This donated collection from the insanely talented Rebekah Isaacs is a real treat.

First of all, I'm a huge fan of her artwork. As a person, she's truly evil, but the darkness of her heart and soul is more than made up for by her exquisite sense of craftsmanship in her art, from the masterful grasp of anatomy translating into the uncanny ability to convey body language both naturally and expressively, to her sense of design and being able to balance intricate detail with organic placement of open spaces on the page, all while being an exceptional graphic storyteller.

Included in this auction is a wonderful and impressive double page promotional piece showcasing the entire DV8 team. However, for me, just as impressive from Rebekah's donation would be her behind the scenes stuff which she also included.

These character designs, along with a full issue's worth of layouts for DV8 issue 8, allow you to take a look behind the curtains and see a true artist's thought processes in developing great characters with personalities and physical idiosyncracies, and using those characters as pieces visually acting out the story in a comic book. A must have for any fan of the medium, or any aspiring comic book artist, or any fan of the awesome Rebekah Isaacs.

But seriously, I hear she eats children or something.

Check out her artwork HERE, and follow her blog HERE.

Firefly's KAYLEE by JO CHEN, signed by JEWEL STAITE

A beautiful piece drawn by the awesome Jo Chen, who drew Kaylee on the cover of the Firefly comic book published by Dark Horse Comics, and signed by the artist. So what could make this a more perfect piece for die-hard Firefly fans? How about it also being autographed by Jewel Staite herself, AND kissed leaving a lipstick print directly on the page?

Only downside is that you're left feeling jealous of a piece of paper.

Made possible by the generosities of Jo Chen and her exceptional talents, and Jewel Staite, who until now had promised herself she'd only go to first base with Zagat-rated dining establishments.

Eric Canete's Wildcats Double Page Spread!

This piece is huge. And Eric is a friggin' genius. There's nothing else that needs to be said, really.

Except this.

Ask any working comic book creator today to name the artist whose brains they would most want to eat to steal their drawing powers.

The name "Eric Canete" would get you even odds in Vegas. I am not even exaggerating. It is no surprise that he has some of the biggest names in comics included in his huge fan base. I hear Jim Lee cries himself to sleep in the corner of his bedroom closet every night while muttering Eric's name like a fever-induced mantra.

I know I do.

And not just at night.

X-Force #26 pages!

These are only 10 of the 23 pages of the entire issue included in this lot. The rest will hopefully be posted on the ebay auction page when it goes up. It was an incredible honor getting to depict this event, one that I found extremely humbling, which was odd given that it was a fictional character and all.

Getting close!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been a little under the weather, plus I still haven't done my taxes. Plus I have a day job. Crap.

To get up to date as to what's been going on, please go here!

Anyway, donation offers have kind of just stopped dead after the initial wave, so I thought I'd do a final plea right before the go-live of the auction. I've also received quite a few offers that haven't been fulfilled yet, due to people's busy schedules, so I don't want to jump the gun and talk about them quite yet, plus I don't want anyone to be disappointed if they don't come through before the deadline.

However, I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and make this an annual thing, every tax day. My regular charity cause is The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and has been for over a decade now, but I never really do enough. So any items left over will rollover to next year.

-----------------------------

Sorry for the delay!

Some more updates: My art dealer Jason is going to be helping me on this auction. He has all the pieces, which now include some stunning artwork from genius artist Eric Canete!!!, and will be putting them up on eBay NEXT week. We have received a lot more than we originally thought we would, and I realized a little too late that starting a major project like this on tax day only makes sense if YOU've done your taxes beforehand. Which I still haven't.

So the timeline is this: MONDAY, or actual Tax Day, I'm going to announce and show everything we have available for auction, and it's a lot. That way people can actually anticipate and prepare for what they want to get, hopefully. Then the auctions themselves will start that week.

Given the volume of stuff, I'm not sure if the incentive idea with one big package being auctioned is feasible at the moment, so we might have to just do them all separately. I think this will also help generate the maximum amount of money fo everything. We'll probably stagger things a little bit as well, so there's not too much being auctioned off at the same time. But everything we have, and probably start dates, will be shown on Monday.

Thanks! Please email me at mikechoirants at g mail if you have any questions!