THE LONG ROAD

Its a long story so let me start at the beginning.

This past July I was at comic-con, where I picked up copies of Pat Morgan's awesome new sketchbook and 2 amazing sketchbooks by Rod Guenoden. The problem was, that I picked up many other great sketchbooks and didnt have space in my luggage to bring everything home. So - what I did was, pack these sketchbooks in a box, and asked John Nevarez to mail them out to me when he mailed out his sketchbooks (that I also ordered at the con.)

For those of you who aren't familiar with John, let me say this: John works over at Disney. He's an amazing artist but more importantly one of the nicest guys I have ever met. Soft spoken, humble and super friendly.

More than month and a half passes and no packages have arrived. John is going crazy over this, and so am I. I believe John when he says he shipped the stuff, but am frustrated that he cant find any record of shipping it (i.e. tracking #s.) Now, if John wasn't the kind of guy that I said above, I might have worried that something sinister was going on. But the thought never crossed my mind. In my mind - John had my full confidence.

Late last week we got a call from UPS's lost package centre. They found a box. It didnt have any shipper info, so we didnt know what package it was, but both John and I were optimistic it might be the missing box. At least one of the two boxes that John shipped. The other box was full of Johns two awesome sketchbooks.

Today one box arrived and in it were the Pat Morgan and Rod Guenoden sketchbooks. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. I had tried to buy Rod's sketchbooks last year, but he didnt have enough copies. For weeks now, I thought - oh great, I may never have these sketchbooks to offer people. The two pencil sketches shown are a sample of rod's work. Pat's book is the colour image with Whaleboy on the cover.(I love Whaleboy)

So what of John's two sketchbooks?

Two days ao, we got another call from UPS that they found another unlabelled box. We have no idea what is inside of that box, and when we called UPS today -they said the box was missing. They think it might have been shipped out. I am crossing my fingers. John offered to ship out a duplicate shipment (see I told you he was a great guy) but I asked him to hold out until we find out if this 2nd box shows up. Stay tuned for the conclusion..

If you want to see Rods or Patrick's sketchbooks, come by our sale next week at Seneca. Tuesday to Thursday Sept 19-21st 10am-5pm. for directions, etc..please email me.

TARA MCPHERSON

Just found out that the Art of Tara McPherson comes out next week. I can't wait for the book to arrive. Tara isn't as well known as she should be. A truly creative artist with an amazing colour sense. If you haven't heard of her or seen her work before i suggest you check out her website www.taramcpherson.com. Oh and if you would like a copy of the book, feel free to email me. it will be in this coming wednesday.

SKETCHBOOK CONTROVERSY

Let's talk artist sketchbooks.

Artist Sketchbooks have been around for a very long time, but the phenomenon of self published sketchbooks goes back about 5 or 6 years (as far as I can tell) to the first Mike Mignola Hellboy Sketchbook. Mignola sold the sketchbook at comic-con for $10, and soon after it was selling for upwards of $50 online. The following year at comic con, fans could find more than a dozen new sketchbooks being sold by various animators and comic artists. The number of new sketchbooks has grown exponentially ever since.

Remember -we're talking self published sketchbooks. Often, these sketchbooks are small photocopied or printed sketchbooks that an artist creates themselves.

Even though the production value isnt always the greatest - they're often worth buying because (a) its a great way to support artists you like (b) its a unique product with art that otherwise would never be seen. Since they're self published most of these sketchbooks come signed. There is no middleman. No big companies or distributors involved.

So why are these sketchbooks so expensive? It's not because they're signed. Its because they are produced in very small quantities. Usually the artists use the money to not only cover the cost of printing, but also to cover convention expenses (like renting a table, transportation,etc..)

About 2 years ago - Stephen Silver released the Art of Silver (note this was his second art book. The first was a black and white, comic sized sketchbook) that in my opinion -raised the bar of what an artist sketchbook could be. Since then, many artists have started producing sketchbooks with far better production values (eg. bob chiu, jose lopez, patrick morgan). Never the less, many others continued to print and sell the small copied variety. The artists that produce these tell us they do it because they are easy to make and can be made quickly just before a show or convention. Others do it, because they can print in small quantities and don't have to invest in a huge inventory that comes with using a traditional printer.

The Labyrinth has been selling self published sketchbooks going back to that first Mignola sketchbook. Often times, we are able to negotiate a wholesale bulk rate with the artist so that we can afford to sell the sketchbook for about the same price as the artist was charging. Some artists (usually comic artists) choose not to wholesale. In these cases we are forced to mark up our prices in order to to make it feasible for us to dislay these great books.

The reason for this post is that we recently found out a customer was under the impression that we photocopied and then sold sketchbooks. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Every sketchbook The Labyrinth sells is an original item created by the artist. In our eyes -the artist is King. We respect them, and would never ever copy their work for financial gain. By selling self published sketchbooks, we are showing support for those artists which our customers love. Believe me, if we were selling copies, the prices would be much much lower.

ON A HAPPY NOTE: We just got our first shipment of Glenn Villpu Life Drawing Manuals and Quick Sketch Sketchbooks. They are truly cool and should be of interest to anyone studying life drawing with animation in mind. Check these out for yourselves at our next sale.

FINAL FANTASY & MORE

Just a short list of books that arrived last night.

ANIME BOOKS:
1. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Art book
2. Tsubassa art book
3. Deathnote -2 different art books
4. Metal Gear Solid -2 different art books
5. Mai Hime art book
6. Lineage Art book
7. Bleach artbook boxed set
8. Nartuto Artbook
9. Gothic Lolita Bible #30
10.Trinity Blood Artbook
11.Ragnarok Online Artbook
12.Gundam Seed Destiny Artbook

NON-ANIME BOOKS:
1. New RAGNAR - Vernaculir
2. New RAGNAR - Kings of the Road
3. Art of Josh Howard vol 2
4. Cartoon Modern
5. Bone Collected (fat one)
6. Absolute Dark Knight
7. Black Razor
8. Boris & Julie Bell HC

and lots more coming soon.

FanExpo Sept 1-3

Wow it's been a long time since the last post. sorry, wont happen again. So what's new you ask? Well since my last post, i've been to San Diego where i picked up a lot of new sketchbooks. I've also been to Paris France, where i placed orders for a bunch of really great new BD titles.

Our next event will be FanExpo at the Metro Convention Centre Sept 1-3. As a result of all the new stuff, we've expanded the art book section of the booth. If you havent seen us in a while, you will be pleased.

Some NEW sketchbooks include: Chris Sanders,John Nevarez,Stephen Silver, Dean Yeagle,Piere Alary,Jose Lopez, Robin Mitchel, Louie Del Carmen, Jim Lee with wildstorm crew,Leniel F. Yu, Adam Hughes, J.Scott Campbell, Bobby Chiu, Robert Valley (gorrilaz,aeon flux), Derek Thompson (pixar) and several others.

We also got in a bunch of great French BD, some terrific Anime Art books, and if all works out several computer animation/concept design books that you got to check out.
Come by the booth to see all the stuff.

NO STORE

So the bad news is NO Store. Yeah, we tried for a store, but came in second with the landlord picking another retailer. What can you do?

The good news is we'll have a lot more free time on our hands than if we got a store. Owning a store doesnt just cost a ton of money to rent($50k-80k a year), but is a huge time commitment. So Yay!

Other exciting news - I am heading for Comic-Con on Wednesday. Can't wait to get my hands on all the cool new sketchbooks. We already got books coming in from several artists, but you never know what you're going to find at this show. If you hear of anything, or want me to look out for it for you in San Diego, please email me.

We've also got a large shipment of French books coming in soon. Very excited about that!

STAY TUNED: I'll be announcing a downtown book sale shortly. It will be free admission -so you can see all the new books from San Diego, etc..

FREE ANIMATION -TEX AVERY & MORE

So by now you probably know of my professed love of youtube, but here's another blogger with an awesome list of full length animated cartoons you can find on youtube.

click here to see list