This entry in our 'Spotlight On...' blog post series is about ....  

Erik Andresen, who I have been in contact with, off and on, for many years during the early years of his comics mail order and of course, mine.  We recently became Facebook Friends, and I realized that Erik has really been busy all these years!   So I asked him to share with my Blog on what he has done in recent years, and what's new with him.  Here it is in his own words:

"I drew a popular comic strip for my college newspaper. (The Arizona Daily Wildcat at The University Of Arizona). After graduating in 1989, I created my own comic strip syndicate and distributed my comics to college newspapers. At its height, my comic appeared in over 200 college newspapers, and was the most widely read college-only comic strip in America at the time. A book of my cartoons, “No Exit by Erik Andresen” was published in 1991 by Bean Avenue publishing, and is still available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0962811106/ref=dp_olp_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1255459588&sr=8-1

Even so, I was making more money trading vintage comic books as a hobby. I opened a collectibles store and drawing comics took a back seat to selling comic books.

My store did very well and one day, one of my customers wanted to buy it. By now, I was married and my wife was expecting our first child. So I sold the store and became a stay-at-home dad.

While raising my son, I also sold collectibles on eBay. I became a Power Seller and met many great entrepreneurs through the eBay discussion boards.

One of them is Bruce Hershenson, owner of a website called eMoviePoster.com. He knew I used to be a cartoonist, and asked me to draw cartoon ads for him. Each ad features Bruce as a different character, based on a classic movie genre. In one ad, he’s a jungle man, like Tarzan. In another, he’s a hard-boiled detective, like Sam Spade. The ads appear in Movie Collector’s World magazine, and also on his website.

Other people saw the ads and wanted me to draw cartoons for them. One of them is the wife of a vintage watch dealer. She couldn’t buy him a watch. He already owns thousands of them. She had me turn him into a superhero called “The Watchdude”, who fights crime after being bitten by a radioactive watch dog.

At his birthday party, the comic strip was turned into a giant poster, and attendees wore t-shirts with the comic strip on it. The watch dealer says it was one of the best birthday gifts he ever received.

Another one of my clients operates job expos in foreign countries, for professionals seeking work in America. This client believes that people throw away junk mail, but they’ll read a comic strip. The next expo is in Australia, so I drew a cartoon where a koala is talking to an employer, telling him about the expo. The comic was turned into a postcard and mailed to human resource directors all over the United States.

I think the internet has opened up some tremendous opportunities for cartoonists to apply their craft. There are thousands, maybe even millions, of small and micro business owners who are proud of their accomplishments and would love to have their story told in fun-to-read comic strip format. You can publish anything, anywhere for any audience.

The internet is also a tremendous place to learn. Facebook is such a vibrant, exciting community. I’ve been lucky to be able to interact with so many gifted and knowledgeable people from so many different walks of life. Some of my “Facebook Friends” are accomplished artists, writers, publishers and entrepreneurs who share their craft and offer valuable feedback.

YouTube is an incredible educational resource. You can find videos which teach you how to do almost anything. When I started drawing these cartoon ads, I needed to color them in Photoshop, and I had no idea how to do that. After a YouTube search, I found dozens of videos from professional comic book colorists which helped me get up to speed.

I turned a couple of my cartoons into YouTube videos, and I think that internet videos might be a great way to branch out.

The reboot of my cartooning career is still in its infancy. I’m grateful to those who have allowed me to learn from them, to those who have offered encouragement, and especially to those who have paid me to draw cartoons for them. THANK YOU!"    - Erik Andresen

Last week I became aware of the 'Wonder Woman Day IV' celebrations that were being held on both coasts of the USA.  One in Portland Oregon, and the other in Flemington, New Jersey this past weekend.  

So on last Friday, I blogged about the Wonder Woman Day IV, (click here for that post), and the activities that were going on at both locations, and the two separate charity auctions that were being held.

I've heard more back on the New Jersey location, so am presenting the above photos, courtesy of Amber Love, here in my Blog!

As you can see above, there were superheroes there in person!  Plus one of my favorite artists, Joe Sinnott - who I really appreciate inking a lot of Jack Kirby's pencils over the many years at Marvel Comics, (including many issues of my Favorite Series of all time, the Fantastic Four)!

Also, the many Wonder Woman and other character sketches that were for auction brought in a little over $5,000 for SAFE in Hunterdon, per Stacy Korn, co-owner of Comic Fusion.

Looks and sounds like a good time was had by all, PLUS a significant amount raised for charity at the New Jersey location for Wonder Woman IV.

(When I hear more of the Portland, Oregon location, I may blog about that here.)

To see more of what Comic Fusion did for Wonder Woman Day IV, please check the web site at:    http://store.comicfusion.net/wwsketches09.html  !

I've met Cassandra Petersen before at different comic conventions; when she is either presenting a program as herself, or when she is costumed as 'Elvira'.  

For me, Halloween would usually include some sort of 'Elvira' theme.  I lived in the Los Angeles Metro area for a while, which includes the period of time that Elvira started hosting the late night film shows.

I was also there when she helped transform Knott's Berry Farm into Knott's Scary Farm in Buena Park.

So yeah... Elvira has been part of my Halloween for several years in one format or the other.   And that would include comic books!  Both the DC House of Mystery series with Elvira, and also Claypool Comics' series - Elvira, Mistress of the Dark!  

Enough listening to me ramble on about Elvira... 

To see what Elvira is up to right now, please check this web site page of hers at:    http://www.elvira.com/home_2.html  !

Okay, I had to do it... I bumped the scheduled blog post for this morning so I could run this post instead!  

And No, I don't usually do that, unless it is something big!

So look at the top right of this blog post...

You are looking at a "Sneak peek at the cover to a book collection of the seven issue Rock 'N' Roll Comics series The Elvis Presley Experience - probably won't come out until around summer 2010"!

That's what I was told yesterday... and being an Elvis Presley fan, and a big fan of the rock comics / graphic novel format, I had to tell ya all of this upcoming graphic novel today!

Yeah, we gotta wait until the Summer of 2010, but I'll be looking for this one from Bluewater Productions!  It's definitely on My List!

My Thanks to Jay Allen Sanford who brought this to my attention!

Oh... and Jay is shown at the above top left with Stan Lee, holding a copy of the 'Contemporary Bio-Graphics' issue on Stan Lee circa 1991 when it was first published by Revolutionary Comics!  We are down to our last copy of this HTF comic book in our online store.  Plus, I don't know about other dealers, but we find it hard to keep any Revolutionary Comics publications in stock on bands that they covered during their publishing period.  Those were good comics and now many collectors of both rock music and comic books are busy looking for those!

Jay Allen Sanford is a pretty busy guy.  For more on what he is doing please check these web sites at:    

http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford
http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermus 
http://www.rocknrollcomics.com