Appearance: Teen Book Con in Houston!

Do you live in or near Houston Texas and want to meet me and a whole slew of other talented authors and artists? April 10th I'll be appearing at the greater Houston Teen Book Con with great folks like Jimmy (Amelia Rules) Gownley, Terry (Strangers in Paradise) Moore, and the Fillbach brothers (Maxwell Strangewell). The whole event is free with a keynote speech by Sharon Draper. Check out their website or Facebook page for more info. I hope to see you there!

Olympians Book 2: Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess out soon!

On or around April 13th, I believe, you'll be able to get your very own copy of Athena: Grey Eyed Goddess at your favorite bookstore, comic shop or etailer. In honor of this momentous occasion, and also as a nod to the new Clash of the Titans movie that just came out, here is a preview of one of my favorite pages from Athena, a wordless section depicting Perseus and Medusa. Enjoy!

Introducing the Fan Art Forum!

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Fan Art Forum! Got a drawing of your favorite mythological character? Want to see it posted online? Send me your drawing!

Starting us off is this wonderful piece by JP. JP is almost 13 years old, and is a huge Percy Jackson fan (me too!). He's been taking art lessons since he was 4 and wants to be a comics artist when he grows up (also me too!). Previously JP was awarded "Demigod of the Week" status at Rick Riordan's blog for this awesome drawing of Percy Jackson.

Here's JP in his own words talking about his choice for the Fan Art Forum:

"My drawing is of Odysseus, son of Laertiades, prince of Ithica. He is by far my favorite mythological person! Thank you so much for the opportunity to do this!"





Pretty cool, huh? If you'd like to see your own drawing here, please send me a scan of it (if you can) and a few words and we'll post it. I'd love to see your drawings!

Guest Artist Gallery: Reilly Brown--addendum

A couple of weeks ago, in Guest Artist Gallery of the Gods, I ran a drawing of Typhon by Marvel Comics artist Reilly Brown. Reilly has recently been working on Marvel's Hercules franchise with super-talented writer Fred Van Lente. When Mr. Van Lente saw Reilly's Typhon post, he suggested that Reilly send us this special "almost was" picture from Marvel's Incredible Hercules series.



I'll let the illustrious Mr. Brown explain:

"Hey George, Fred Van Lente suggested I send you the Kid Typhon concept sketch to put on your blog since we're not using it for Hercules. I thought it could be a good idea, if you want it. Use it, don't use it, whatever.
The concept was that in order to defeat Typhon, Hercules made Typhon drink water from the Lethe River in Hades, which erases the memories of dead souls so that they can be reincarnated as new people. Or something like that. Somehow that turned him into a child.
Anyway, it's a funny drawing, and that's really the point :P"

Pretty cool huh? Reilly draws some of the best kids in comics (and believe you me, it's very hard to draw kids well), including a recent run on Hercules where Zeus was transformed into a 5 year old child. I'm loving his Kid Typhon, with his cute little snake legs and all, and I hope that one day we get to see a version of the story he described above. In the meantime, Incredible Hercules's loss is Guest Artist Gallery of the Gods gain, and we can all bask in the wonder of... Kid Typhon.

Nothing to see here!

Progress report: Cerberus

Heracles, taking the dog for a walk. I'd hate to see the pooper-scooper for this guy, especially since with three heads, he can eat three times as much, if you know what I mean...

Guest Artist Gallery: Reilly Brown

Well, it's been awhile since I posted (due to intense deadline crunches on Glory of Hera), but I'm back, with another exciting installment of Guest Artist Gallery of the Gods, this time with Reilly Brown and his terrifying depiction of Typhon, last son of Mother Earth and scourge of the Olympian gods.



Here's what Mr. Brown has to say about his choice for the Gallery:

"I picked Typhon because he's the ultimate monster from mythology. He was bred specifically to fight the Olympians, and he's described as being so tall that his head brushes against the stars in the sky, and his arms reach from one horizon to the other. He has wings, snakes for legs, 100 arms and 100 heads of all different types of animals, who all shoot fire out of their eyes and mouths. When I read a description like that, it sounds so crazy that I want to see what it looks like just to understand what I'm reading about, and the only way to see a creature like Typhon is to draw a picture of him!"


Reilly Brown is the heavenly body around which the rest of the eclectic assortment of artists who make up Studio Outpost 51 revolve- he is their rock, their Alpha and Omega. He first came to fame as the penciler on Marvel Comics Cable and Deadpool series, where he co-created the bizarrely popular Bob, Agent of Hydra. He since has gone on to penciling duties on such books as New warriors and Marvel Apes.

Reilly's first professional brush with things mythological and Grecian was penciling the one-shot "Hulk vs. Hercules: When Titans Collide". That assignment lead to his work as a regular artist on Marvel's exemplary Incredible Hercules book, and more recently, a back up series featuring the Agents of Atlas (the best thing Marvel is publishing, imho). Continuing this trend, he's currently hard at work on Hercules spin-off Prince of Power: Amadeus Cho, about Herc's former kid sidekick who also happens to be the seventh smartest person in the world.

On top of all of his Marvel work, Reilly is hard at work on a mysterious project for the iphone that is so apparently top secret that I couldn't find anything online about it yet so I will leave you with this-- it's great, it's classified and you will want it. Nuff said.