Sunday, December 11, 2011

Up, UP and Away - it's a SUPER Post !!

In all honesty, this really is a super post, and I'm exited to bring it to you. I wanted to share with you more of our great lineup of Mac and Trouble sketch cards from all around the globe.

Let's get right into it with a few cards from the lovely Elfie Lebouleux all the way from Le Mans, France...

Her great style sure made our two rascally cats come alive in these cards !

Elfie is a fine artist who is known far and wide for her fantastic portrait work on sketch cards. Her work has appeared in such sets as The Avengers, Luxura, FemForce, and many others - and most recently in Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Dungeon Dolls. More of her work can be seen here at this website.

Next up, Stephan Lynch from Perth in Western Australia, brings us a somewhat humorous, and rather unique view of our guys as hand-puppets in his own comical style !

"Dude... your hands are cold !"

Stephan's work has been seen in a few recent sets for the March of Dimes and Island Dreams. You can see more of his work at this website. We hope to see more of his work in many sets to come !

Lastly, we present some cards from that far-away place called Houston, Texas. LOL Here, we see some our guy's misadventures from the pen of William 'BJ' Kunkle...

William's work has appeared in the Island Dreams and the March of Dimes card sets, and he does quite a lot of personal sketch cards.

If you want to see more, you'll have to look him up on Facebook !

The only place to get these great sketch cards is as a part of the Mac and Trouble comic book campaign on Indiegogo. And as of now, there's less than 60 days left !

Aside from these great cards, there are any other great rewards including exclusive art prints, art commissions, original comic art pages, and many promotional items. You can find the link below...


Coming up next:
We're going to make an exciting announcement concerning the
Mac and Trouble comic and, a new project is on the horizon !
Stay tuned - same CAT time, same CAT channel !

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Today is a special weekend !
It's a FREE Pet Commission Weekend !


Any donation to the Mac and Trouble comic book campaign will get a FREE sketch card commission of your pet on an official "Mac and Trouble" Artist's Proof card !!


Check out the campaign below - and stay tuned for special new photos and art all weekend !

Thursday, November 24, 2011

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

Mac and Trouble are circling the kitchen - waiting for something to drop !

Here's something exciting !

Want a FREE sketch card commission ? Well you have 4 days to get one !!

ANY contributions made to the Mac and Trouble comic book campaign will receive a FREE trading card art commission of your choice...
Friday Nov 24 - Monday Nov 27

Go here to start:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL !!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

FREE SKETCH CARD WEEKEND !

It’s time for a...
FREE SKETCH CARD WEEKEND ! *
** TODAY – MONDAY ONLY !! November 19-20, 2011 **


Any contributions made to the Mac and Trouble comic campaign will receive a FREE trading card art commission of your choice – it can be comic characters, tv/movie stars, etc…

Friday, November 18, 2011

A Very Medieval Update !

Dragons and Dogs and Sushi... Oh My !
We've been invaded...

Starting off, my cards from the "Fatsa" set - a new comic book coming soon from Mercenary Art Studio.

Really a nice book, with great art.

A recent piece that's up now on Ebay...
You can almost here Linus on piano in the background !

Here's a few of the latest editions to the "Mac and Trouble" card set...

First up, Neil Mak... in one of his first sketch card appearances.


We're really honored that Neil is making his debut in our set. More of his work can be seen in the "Fatsa" set as well (at top).

Next, the crisp artwork of Isaiah McAllister...

Sushi I expected, but the 'stone age' ?! Awesome !

Isaiah's great comedy artwork can be seen in the March of Dimes sketch card set, as well as his "Bears vs Zombies" webcomic at this website. One of the funniest offerings I've seen in a long time.

One last thing - we've added a new Mac and Trouble puzzle to our comic book campaign page... you'll have to check it out !

Sunday, November 13, 2011

A few new pieces...

I wanted to share with you a few new things that I've been working on...

This first piece is of 'Magilla Gorilla' to be used in a new cartoon-oriented book from Jim Main at Main Enterprises.

I did the inks to the wonderful pencils of Joe Martino of Shadowflame fame.

The next pieces below are a few sketch cards I've done for the "Fatsa: The Lord of the Dragons" set, being released by Mercenary Art Studio.


I
I
I
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I always try to do the 'oddball' characters when I do sets, just to be different LOL - and I was glad to see that they had a dog as one of the characters. His name is 'Brutus'.

Another recent piece is a PSC (personal sketch card) I did for Halloween...
Meet 'Spongebob Scarepants'... This is not yo' mama's sponge !

If you're interested in this original sketch card, please email me at rustyweb@aol.com. I also have glossy 4x6 prints of him as well.


Now for a few "Mac and Trouble" card set previews.

Here's some cool samples of Chris Thorne's wonderful sketch cards...
Capturing the silly cat poses we all know and love.

Chris is a convention favorite, and his great work can be seen in the "Walking Dead" and "CBLDF Liberty" sets (both from Cryptozoic) and the "Hammer Horror" set from Strictly Ink. His work on these cards has a blend of portrait and story book visions.

Next up is some fine work from J(ay)...

Cards with PURRsonality - LOL

J(ay)'s work can be seen in the "Island Dreams" set, "Painkiller Jane" set from 5finity, "Marvel Beginnings 2" and "The Avengers" cards by Upper Deck, the "March of Dimes" set, and many others. His unique stylings are a pleasant change from the norm, and shows the versatility of the sketch card market. Check out his website here.

These are just a few samples of their work - wait til you see the rest of their wonderful cards. We're lucky to have had them participate in this set.

Please check out all of the links above, to see more from the artists and subjects displayed here.

And, please don't forget to participate with the "Mac and Trouble" comic book campaign below. It's the only place to get "Mac and Trouble" promo/sketch card set, see additional art and collect some great rewards. Every weekend and holiday we're giving away a FREE sketch card commission for EVERY investment to the campaign - DON'T MISS OUT !

Saturday, November 5, 2011

It’s time for a...
FREE SKETCH CARD WEEKEND ! *
** TODAY – MONDAY ONLY !! November 5-6, 2011 **


Any contributions made to the Mac and Trouble comic campaign will receive a FREE trading card art commission of your choice – it can be comic characters, tv/movie stars, etc…

Saturday, October 29, 2011

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND !!

It’s time for a...
HALLOWEEN BONUS * FREE SKETCH CARD WEEKEND !
** TODAY – MONDAY ONLY !! October 29-31, 2011 **

Any contributions made to the Mac and Trouble comic campaign will receive a FREE trading card art commission of your choice – it can be comic characters, tv/movie stars, etc…


“We’re dressed up for Halloween… see some real pix of us in our costumes on OCT 31 !!”

To further celebrate HALLOWEEN - Trouble's favorite holiday - we'd love to show you a few recent sketch cards by the fantastic Daniel Gorman...




Each card a homage to a great comic book cover of the past. And all are gems

Daniel's work has appeared on sketch cards for Upper Deck, Cryptozoic, Breygent, and the March of Dimes, to name a few. His latest works can be seen in new issues of AC's "FemFrorce" comics... and you can visit his website here.

More art and some really exclusive photos of the cats celebrating HALLOWEEN will be seen in more posts over the HOWL-aday weekend !!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

MEOW is not a 4 letter word...

It's time for a
FREE SKETCH CARD WEEKEND !
* TODAY & TOMORROW ONLY !! October 22-23, 2011 *

Any contributions made to the Mac and Trouble comic campaign will receive a FREE trading card art commission of your choice - it can be comic characters, tv/movie stars, etc...
Samples can be found in the "Friday, October 7, 2011" blog entry.
Random people will win an additional signed card as a surprise !


Recent Mac and Trouble sketch cards...
Our first entry comes from Larry Jarrell, publisher of WTF Comics:
Mac and Trouble as a 'Dynamic Duo' (left) and a cool cross-over with Red Angel from WTF Comics...
 Our next entry comes from Johnny Segura:
I'm not sure that Trouble is that 'hip' - but Mac is, eating our favorite food: SUSHI !!!


Larry Jarrell and WTF Comics can be found at this link.
Johnny Segura's work can be found here at this link.

Both of these artists have turned in wonderful work for the Mac and Trouble trading card set. Their work is greatly appreciated.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Comic Book Interviews (dot com that is !)

I am happy to say that I was recently interviewed by John Helmer at Comicbookinterviews.com where I talk about things I've done as well as the new Mac and Trouble project.
You can read the interview here at this link...
I would love for everyone here to check it out.
There's even a special offer for everyone at the bottom of the feature for some original art !

Thanks,
-Rusty !

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Sketch Card Flyer !

In an effort to further promote the "Mac and Trouble 2011" sketch card set, we'd like to show you this new 'flyer' which showcases a few of the beautiful sketch cards being randomly inserted into the sets.
Each set contains an original art sketch card - maybe you'll be lucky and pick up one of these...


Credits for these awesome cards are as follows:
(top row) Bianca Thompson, Russ Leach, Jason Shoemaker...
(bottom row) Rusty Gilligan, Jeff Austin, Beck Seashols, and Wu Wei...

All of these individuals are fine artists... except me - the 'taxi cab' among 'limos' - hehe.

I will attempt to provide links for all:

Of course, mine is my site for Mac and Trouble...

To support the project, and obtain one of these great sets to benefit animal charities, please see the ad below.


And, if you're interested in some original comic book
art - please see these pages listed on Ebay... thanks !

-Rusty !
It's time for a
FREE SKETCH CARD WEEKEND !
* TODAY & TOMORROW ONLY !! October 8-9, 2011 *

Any contributions made to the Mac and Trouble comic campaign will receive a FREE trading card art commission of your choice !

This promotion will run every weekend until Christmas !

Card samples can be found here at this site.

Thanks - we appreciate anything support that you offer :)

Friday, October 7, 2011

OMG - Commission Time !

Hiya all...

I've started accepting commission for the first time... and I'd like to extend the offer to you.

Right now, I'm offering Commission Sketch Cards for $7 - free postage, and they come with a signed mini-print for your collection.

You can see some samples here on my gallery page.

Here's a few recent cards to look at...

If you're interested, please send me an email at Rustyweb@aol.com  -or-  please message me on Facebook under 'Rusty Gilligan' (I have a cat as my profile pic).

You can choose from any character from movies or tv , comic books, real life, etc. With Christmas coming up soon, it might make a great gift to put someone on their own card !

All my best to everyone... more news coming soon !

-Rusty !
And please don't forget our Mac and Trouble book campaign below !

Friday, September 30, 2011

Today's Guest: Beck Seashols...

Since the time is growing closer and closer for the Mac and Trouble promo card set to be released, in conjunction with our comic book campaign on Indiegogo, I wanted to spotlight a few events in the making of the sketch cards.

Today we're spotlighting a great artist from the set, the lovely Beck Seashols, who's artistic talents are known by many in the sketch card genre.

The following pix were snapped during a recent webcasting of her art show... in this cast, we see her working on the Mac and Trouble sketch cards she's entering into the set.
The 'cheese' pic... gotta have one.

Playful Trouble.

Our favorite, the 'Star Trek' parody !

What makes Beck's show great, even above the fantastic art, is the way she interacts with her audience, always a blend of familiar faces and newcomers. The conversations are lively and flowing.

At right are the end results of the 3 cards above, with the rest of her great cards:

As mentioned before, Beck is no stranger to the sketch card market. She's provided beautiful art for such producers and sets as: Topps' 'Star Wars', Breygent Marketing, AC's 'Femforce', and many others.

She currently co-produces a web-strip known as "Sweeten Village" with her partner, Brad Duncan. This strip is all-ages, and a lot of fun. If you like baked goods and high adventure, this is your strip !
More of Beck's work can be seen at her website.

Thanks very much Beck for your great work, we hope to see even more of it in the future !

Sunday, September 25, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAC !

Wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the guy who always shows up in a tuxedo - MAC !
He's 2years old today !
The man of the hour - trying his best to smile :)

Right now, Mac's comic book campaign is being offered on Indiegogo, and hopefully, all of your friends will participate and grab some of the best comic and art swag ever seen... with more to come !!

If you contribute to the campaign, you will receive a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESENT just for Indiegogo contributors !! Please don't miss out - even the smallest donation will get you a cool reward !

An investment has already come in, so as a bonus on the campaign, we're posting another of Mac and Trouble's news strips! Check it out !

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Mac and Trouble comic book

Just a quick note... we've launched our campaign to fund raise for the comic, and we wanted you to join in !

Visit our campaign here and see exclusive art and info relating to Mac and Trouble and the various side projects involved such as the exclusive art prints, the Litterbox editions, and the Mac and Trouble promo set with the original art sketch card !

If you're a member of this blog, and contribute to the campaign, you'll receive a 1-of-a-kind original art sketch card, by me, of your favorite comic book, tv, or movie character !!
We're excited to have you be on the ground floor with us !

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Latest Card Art :)

I wanted to share with you some of the latest tidbits from the sketch card arena... some fun stuff.

**From the new Mac and Trouble card set, comes these sweet offerings, from some fine sketch card artists:

Artist Brian Germain worked up these cards...
Brian is the owner/creator at Dark Elf Designs.

Publisher Larry Jarrell crafted these nifty cards...
Larry is the publisher at What The Flux Comics.

These cards are "Kitten tested and Mac approved" hehe

I also wanted to extend my congratulations to Karie L. Parker, who drew a sketch card of mine from the Island Dreams packs.
Way to go Karie !

As always, please click the pix for a larger view - All links have been provided within the feature.

WTF (Comics that is...)

I wanted to pass on some of my latest works for WTF Comics...

**As an alternate cover to Red Angel #3, I inked this piece. The regular cover is a daytime theme - this is a dusky/nighttime variant.
Credits: Russ Leach pencils, my inks, Andrea Celestini colors.

**Next, from the Red Angel card set - here are the colored versions of the cards I worked on (info on this card set can be found in older posts here.
Credits: Larry Jarrell pencils, my inks, and Andrea Celestini colors.

And the cool Red Angel / Mac and Trouble crossover card...
Credits: Russ Leach pencils, my inks.

**Here's a sneak peak at a card from the set above, that was cut from the set...
Credits: Larry Jarrell pencils, my inks.

I couldn't go on without mentioning that the beautiful Erin Pyne scripts the Red Angel series. Her work is fantastic... I can't wait to see more.

Right now, WTF Comics is doing a campaign to create new books in the Red Angel line. Donations will earn the reader free copies of the comic, original art, and signed items. Check it out here.

As always, please click the pix for a larger view - All links have been provided within the feature.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Mac and Trouble - Sketch Card Heroes ??

Obviously, as an artist and character creator, you want to get your product known in as many ways as possible.
For me, it's "Mac and Trouble" - and I take advantage of as many avenues of publicity as I can.

In this case, I've been putting my current sketch card work to good use, and marketing the 'cats' as much as I can. Here are a few places that Mac and Trouble have popped up recently...

*First off, some lucky fan will grab this 2-card puzzle featured in the CBLDF Liberty card set from Cryptozoic...
(Trouble is TOO happy for words here LOL)

*Next, another collector will get a chance to find this 2-card puzzle in the Island Dreams charity card packs...
(They're showing their true colors here)

*Last, but not least, Mac made a special appearance in the March of Dimes "Be a Superhero for Babies" charity card set from 5finity...
(Trouble must've been chasing cheese and forgot to show up for this one)

Credit must be given where it's due... the top 2 entries above were originally penciled by series artist, Michael Mayne - and transferred to the cards, to be inked by myself. The bottom one is all me.

Adding more to the pile...

*The "Mac and Trouble" promo card set... The cats have been sketched by many artists for their own 4-card set, soon to be released.
(Mac: "Hey, we look good !)
credits: Michael Mayne, Terry Pavlet, and myself

AND...

*The Red Angel set... This new card set, soon to be released from WTF Comics, contains a special card of Mac and Trouble with Red Angel on the deck of her ship. (More info on this set is featured in the Sept 7 blog post here, complete with B&W versions of the cards mentioned.)
(Nice legs !!)
credits: Russ Leach and myself

As always, please click the pix for a larger view.

Please check out the CBLDF -and- the March of Dimes. Both of these fine organizations could use your help.

More to come...

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Wanna Watch A Rerun ?

I've just completed 10 cards for the March Of Dimes charity card set entitled "Be a superhero for babies" produced by 5finity.
I decided to do old tv heroes instead of the normal superheroes, because I'm trying to work out a new style.
Here's 9 of the 10 cards I did:
From top left to bottom right:
Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Batman (Adam West), Robin (Burt Ward)
Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Green Hornet (Van Williams), Kato (Bruce Lee)
Herman Munster (Fred Gwynn), Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis), Zorro (Guy Williams)
Please click the pic for a larger version.

The 10th card is a special one, and I will debut it here in another feature.
And, watch for these and other great cards on Ebay soon.

5finity is a great card producer and can be found at their website here.
More info about the project can be found here at this link.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Some Recent Work... Back At It !!

Ok, after being sick and terribly busy for a while, I'm back at it - and I wanted to share some recent work...

First off - In preparation for my upcoming work on The Avengers trading card set (the 1960's British tv show) from Unstoppable Cards, I did this 2-card puzzle...
John Steed (left) and Emma Peel... The Avengers

Next - I inked a few cards from the upcoming Red Angel limited edition set soon to be released by What The Flux Comics. This set encompasses the series with some fabulous artwork from artists such as Russ Leach, Javier Lugo, Larry Jarrell, and Ashleigh Popplewell among others.

The pencils of Russ Leach (left) and Larry Jarrell (right).
Notice that Mac & Trouble are in the left card with Red Angel !!

Some more Island Dreams charity cards to show off now that the set is done (more can be seen here, in an earlier dated post)...


Since a lot of info was given in this post, I've included all links in the features, rather than at the end as I normally do.

More to come !!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Special Webcast

Tonight at 7pm EST, at the website below, you can see Beck Seashols drawing her Mac and Trouble cards live over Livestream.

http://www.livestream.com/beckadoodles2
This is a great opportunity to see a fantastic artist such as Beck - working on the card set that you're on as well.

Please show up to show your support and maybe you can win 1 of 2 prizes !!
And, if you have friends to invite - or the chance to post this somewhere - please do !

Thanks much !

-Rusty !

Beck's beautiful art can be found at this link !
And check out her great webcomic: Sweeten Village...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Red Angel #3 cover...

What The Flux Comics, the publisher of the upcoming "Mac and Trouble" series, asked me to ink the cover of Red Angel #3.
I'm always glad to do work like this, mostly because of the detailed pencils of my good friend Russ Leach.
(please click the pic for a larger version)

Russ' work is awesome, and he does a great job on the interiors too. Between his art, and the fantastic storytelling of Erin Pyne (the writer), this book is a real winner in my book. I can't wait for more.

Russ Leach can be found at this link, and, the wonderful Erin Pyne can be found here.
What The Flux Comics has a great site here...

I hope to be doing more work with them in the future. Work like this is very enjoyable.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Island Dreams card set...

I love doing charity work. Any time that I can help I will. So when the opportunity arose to do some sketch cards to benefit a hospital in need, I was there.

Marty Kuklinski, world famous DJ and sketch card aficionado, is the brain behind this set. Look for info on him here. From here, you can link to him and his radio show, see a vast gallery of sketch cards, and maybe catch a tune or two.

Here's a few recent samples from the set that I had done:



Some information on the charity involved: (this is a direct quote from the website)
"In 1999, WLRA and Advocate Hope Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois partnered together in order to raise money for the hospital's Family Assistance Fund. The Fund provides practical assistance to patient families who, through no fault of their own, are suffering severe hardship due to an unexpected illness and either social or economic deprivation. More specifically, the funds go towards paying for such things as critical prescriptions for children, overnight lodging, clothing, and groceries when these items are sorely needed"


To learn more about this great charity, and maybe how you can get involved, as well as the sketch cards and set info, please click this link.