Alex Toth Doodle Book, San Diego Comic Con 2006 Sketchbooks, and more...
Above is a preview image from "Dear John - The Alex Toth Doodle Book" (image taken from www.newsarama.com)

"Dear John - The Alex Toth Doodle Book" is debuting at this years San Diego Comic Con. This book prints letters sent by Alex Toth to a fan named John Hitchcock over a long span of years. The book will contain many doodles and sketches by Toth. I only discovered Toth's work a few months ago but quickly came to appreciate his genius. Toth was a master, truly one of the greatest cartoonists of all time, famous for his comics work and more so even for his animation design work for many shows including Space Ghost and Super Friends. Sadly, Alex passed away recently. Like all great artists, he will live on not only through his friends and loved ones but through his work and through the countless people the world over whom his work has influenced in one way or another. You can order the Toth Doodle book from your local comic shop and probably on the web eventually.

Leinil Francis Yu Sketchbook 2006
Mike Mignola Sketchbook 2006
Bruce Timm Sketchbook 2006



My favorite thing about the biggest comic convention of the year, San Diego Comic Con International, is that amazing artists often debut excluisive self-published sketchbooks at the show. Mike Mignola, Bruce Timm, Arthur Adams, J. Scott Campbell, Adam Hughes, Leinil Yu, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Steve Rude and more all have sketchbooks for sale this year. I have never attended the con so I keep track of the sketchbooks that come out by checking ebay every once in a while. These books often go for high prices on ebay due to their often very limited print runs and availability. They usually have great never-before seen stuff in them so they are worth tracking down if you're a fan of a particular artist and can't make it to the show to pick one up at a regular price. I've already dropped a little cash myself on a few of this year's sketchbooks which I know I won't be able to get anywhere else for a good price. Some of the artists sell their books online after the convention at a set price which is nice. It seems ebay dealers make the most money on these books though. (Photos of sketchbooks were taken from various ebay auctions.)

Finally I wanted to mention that animation designer Daniel Lopez Munoz has just started a blog. Check it out here, http://daniellopezmunoz.blogspot.com/. I mentioned Daniel in an earleir post discussing his work in the book "Out of Picture". I am so glad that there is now a place on the web to view this artist's astonishing work on a regular basis.

More sketches coming soon. I just wanted to discuss these few items I had on my mind.