Earlier this year I lost a good friend and Art colleague to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Pat Carlucci was a super talented artist, A great friend and most of all a great father and husband. To help his family, MANY of Pat’s art family headed up by Axebone have contributed original sketch card art to a very limited Pat Carlucci tribute card series, and they’re up for auction NOW!

Here is my first card up for auction -Witchyboo

and check out all the other wonderful cards here.

All proceeds go to the Carlucci family so please bid generously!

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I also just added some brand new sketch cards on the Store page!

Jesse James comics over in Glendale is throwing a huge Creators Appreciation day. Massive sale on Comics, top comic talent like Eisner nominated Tony Parker and John Layman. Local Talent Christian Vilaire, Tosh Delaney, Albert Morales and More!

I will also be on hand with Limited Prints, comics and original sketch cards, so Come on down and buy some goodies

Had a good time last Saturday at the #notatcomicon event, met some cool folks and hung out with my buds Ryan Cody and Daniel Bradford. Drew up some sketch covers for some folks. sketched some sketch cards and sold some Zombies Versus Cheerleaders. OOOH and i finally picked up “the 6th Gun” from Oni press, I’m a sucker for westerns and this one adds some really killer supernatural elements, I dig it so far.

Then i took my Girls out Sunday to see the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I really dug this movie, took a while for me to think about it and to like it though. It seemed to be written like a TV pilot. it started threads that would play out in a TV series really well but for a movie it just felt too left open somewhat. It definitely set up a really cool mythology and world though I would definitely like to see more films!

Here are a couple of pics from #notatcomicon event, I was really busy most of the time so i didn’t get too many pics…


Later Jammers

-BEN OUT!

THIS SATURDAY!!!
Dark Horse Comics has teamed with Comic retailers to celebrate #NOTATCOMICON day! A day for those smart and fiscally responsible enough to NOT go to San Diego’s Comicon, But still get nerdy and celebrate all things pop-culture.


Dark Horse Comics is pulling out all the stops to provide a party for comic fans who were unable to attend San Diego Comic-Con. The Red Bull Wing Team will be present with cars, girls and all sorts of stuff and RED BULL! There will be special live cell-phone feeds and online chats with the Dark Horse team at the San Diego Comic Con. We’ll have prize packages throughout the day and have local artists such as Daniel Bradford, Brandon James, Ryan Cody And Myself on hand to do sketches.

Among the prizes to be given away:

• Hellboy figure + graphic novel box sets
• Buffy Supernatural Defense Kits
• Star Wars Clone Wars graphic novels
• Umbrella Academy magnets
• Red Bull swag

and many more prizes to be given away!

Atomic Comics Mesa Saturday July 24th 11am to 3pm

Drawing up lots of card commissions lately and here are a few I really dig…

hmm…when it rains it pours i guess. Been dealing with some rather stressful personal problems lately and while its nothing I cant handle, it seems a good time for some folks to send me some rather nasty hate-mail and even Death threats. And I’ll admit it…I’m human it does sting at first but i usually move on from it fairly quickly. I mean you cant please everybody right? I don’t need to be liked by everyone but having specific words strung together, tailor-made if you will solely to hurt your feelings it makes you wonder about people…well Internet people at least. funny thing is the negative attacks just fuel me, I seriously get a creative rush knowing i can evoke such emotion from folks. that wears off quickly too though. So come up with some good ones guys i gotta deadline looming

Optimistic BEN OUT!

I don’t know about you guys but I’m really enjoying the summer this year, sure its super hot and i have a daunting mountain of work in front of me and an equal mountain of other stressful issues but dammit I’m getting to hangout with my daughter more, draw cool stuff and do some awesome events. basically all i really CAN do. My Dad is unfortunately going through a rough time with health issues and so all of my thoughts and prayers are focused on him right now, trying to not go nuts from feeling unable to help and generally staying positive.

Jesse James Comics in Glendale is having a huge Creators Appreciation day and Comic sale on Saturday July 31st, I will be there with prints and Sketch cards and Sitting alongside AZ comic superstars Tony Parker, Terry Tibke, Denny Riccelli, Christian Vilaire and Tosh Delaney. So mark it on your calendar folks!

And since it was X-men Day last week I drew up quite a few sketch covers for folks and here are a few pics of my favorites…

That’s all for now folks, catch y’all next time.

-BEN OUT!

Well happy belated Independence day folks, I took some time away from the ole Computer to spend time with my family for the weekend. hope you all had a great time! I enjoyed some good BBQ, saw some fireworks And got some commissions worked on. all in all a good laid back kinda weekend.

The new X-Men #1 releases this Thursday (Thursday this week due to the holiday) and to celebrate Marvel will have variant covers for this bad-boy and One of ‘em is a blank sketch cover. Atomic Comics has therefore deemed it X-men Party day! I will be at two different Atomic Comics locations that day providing free sketches on these special Blank covers so come on down and see me ya little Mutants!

Here is where I’ll be…

Atomic Comics Mesa Location 9am to 3pm
Atomic Comics Chandler location 3:30pm to 9pm

And for the hell of it here here are some sketch covers i worked on, A couple from Avengers Day At Atomic and one from Phoenix ComiCon

Alrighty jammers, see y’all on Thursday.

-BEN OUT!

getting back to work on commissions this week. Going to Seattle last weekend lasted a tad longer than i expected. I’m also running a special on my current AE and AP sales, get a free full color PSC (personal sketch card) commission, $40 dollar value. With any purchase from my store page. I’ll only have this Bonus special up for a limited time so hit me up quick! SKULLJAMMER STORE

I’m pretty excited for this coming weekend, Phoenix Paranormal the group i co-founded with Bill Bailey has been invited down to Yuma Arizona to investigate the Yuma Territorial prison, The Territorial Prison was authorized by the Legislature in 1875. Ground was broken on April 28, 1876, and some of the prisoners were pressed into service to build their cells. The first seven inmates moved into the facility on July 1, 1876. The Prison held a variety of law violators, including the legendary stagecoach robber Pearl Hart. The Prison continued in operation for 33 years when, due to overcrowding, all inmates were moved to a new facility in Florence, Arizona. The 130 year old prison has many claims of paranormal experiences and Phoenix Paranormal is extremely excited to investigate these claims. We’ll have footage and finding on the Phoenix Paranormal website soon after if your interested.

Had a great time in Seattle this past weekend here is a quick photo recap

okay jammers, until next we meet.

-BEN OUT!

Whoa…Just found out a bit ago that the mega cool 5FINITY Productions polled their retailers and customers for the first ever “HIGH FIVE AWARDS” and here is how it played out…

Taken from the 5FINITY site…
The fans and dealers have voted and the results are in. Here are the winners of our first ever High Five Awards. The first place winners will receive a cool award and all of these great artists will be congratulated with an ad in an upcoming issue of Non-Sports Update. We love our artists!

Favorite Artist:

BEN GLENDENNING

Runner-ups - Axebone, Patrick Finch, Scott Rorie, Amber Stone, Frankie B Washington, Jason Worthington

Most Wanted (The “Who Needs To Do More Work With Us” Award):

MARK BLOODWORTH

Runner-up - Mark McHaley

Favorite Work:

DEAN YEAGLE’S MANDY SKETCH CARDS

Runner-up - Axebone’s Mandy Sketch Cards

Most Original:

FRANKIE B WASHINGTON

Runner-up - David Namisato

100% Effort Everytime Award:

FRANKIE B WASHINGTON

Runner-up - Ben Glendenning

Thank you to all of the artists that have worked with us during our first year! Here’s to at least one more, LOL!

WOW “favorite Artist”…cant quite wrap my head around it yet, the other Artists I work alongside on 5FINITY sets are some of the best Artists out there! The very consideration for such an honor is a bit beyond me, I just try to draw cards I would want and i think look cool the fact other people dig them this much kinda floors me. Congratulations to all of my fellow 5FINITY buds “High Fives” all around

Alrighty Jammers!

Quick update, I will be up in Seattle June 18th to 20th for Crypticon Horror convention. i will be there alongside 5finity productions Steven L. Frank signing and sketching advanced copies of “Zombies versus Cheerleaders” #1 from moonstone publications, i will also have some limited horror themed prints and plenty of sketch cards too! So come and see us you freaky horror victims…er…i mean Horror Fans!

So I have some brand new Skulljammer series two Sketch cards and in the spirit of Crypticon and All of the horror goodness…er…or is that evilness?…I have been drawing up some horror based cards that will be Available at the con. I get tons of questions about the artistic process I employ to produce sketch cards and if you follow me on twitter you’ve probably seen me work on several cards in real time. For those of you afraid of twitter (good call…evil EVIL things happen on twitter here is a quickie run through for my card process…

In the spirit of good ole Horror, I thought I’d work up one of my favorite characters “Pennywise” from Stephen Kings “IT”…

First up i lay out some very loose pencils, I like to use color leads (blue or red) because with the prismacolor markers i use for the colors, the pencil lines will be completely hidden in the End…

Then I go in with a thin lined 0.1 pigment liner drafting pen to tighten up the details and smooth out some lines, getting all the shapes to work right…

Next I go in with a larger pigment liner pen 0.5 (yeah i ink primarily with these pens) to give the subjects some weight and depth, It’ll look a little thick and odd at this stage…

Then when i layer on the colors the thick obnoxious lines get subdued. I layer on solid base colors then come back with various cool and warm greyscales to build shadows and depth on the figures. then finally a little touch up and outlining with a white gelly roll pen makes it all pop and that’s it.

there ya have it folks, if you dug this and want some more drop me a message.

-BEN OUT!

howdy folks,

well i did not anticipate being so swamped AFTER con but some good things came about and i gotta jump on them now. So i just now finished up my Phoenix con photo strip, gives ya a  good feel for what it was like. I’ll be back next time with a full written recap if y’all like. meanwhile take a peep below.

So I have to apologize, I did not have the time to update everyone that I was at Atomic Comics Mesa and chandler locations yesterday for Avengers day. I provided more than 50 sketches, mostly on the blank Avengers #1 sketch cover and had a generally awesome time hanging out with Albert Morales, Mike Malve, Jonnie Allen and the super awesome Atomic store crews who just plain rock and make me feel totally at home no matter what location I’m at.

Next Up is Phoenix Comicon May 27th to 30th that’s just a week from today!

I will be premiering My new creator-owned book “Tin Star Tex: Simple Man” with a limited special edition version of the book. 32 pages full color with a special cover by Eisner nominated Tony Parker and a sketch back cover, Limited to only 120 issues so get yours EARLY!

And along with “Tin Star Tex: Simple Man” I will have five Collectible buttons, One will be a giveaway, One will only be available with purchase of a limited edition book and the other 3 for general purchase at my booth, again these are extremely limited and i suggest getting them early.

I will also have limited Special edition 11 X 17 Poster Prints on hand ( See below in the Artworks section!)

And I have quite a few panels i will be speaking on, here’s some quick details…

Nuts and Bolts - How a Comic is Made : Thomas Healy, Jeff Pina, Daniel Bradford, Thomas Hall, Madame M, Benjamin Glendenning and others discuss the Nuts and Bolts of how they create comics.
Friday 12:00pm - 1:00pm (CC157)

Pirate Heart Ninja : The Guys from Fiction House Mafia lay out their new comic Pirate Heart Ninja.  Thomas Healy, Jeff Pina, Benjamin Glendenning, Bill Bailey, Shannon Bailey, Terry Tibke and Jake Bell gives us the inside exclusive on the making of this soon to be hit Anthology comic.
Saturday 7:30pm - 8:30pm (CC155)

The Importance to Social Networking! : Find out how Twitter, Facebook and other social networks can help your business and career. Ryan Cody,Matt Bennett, Terry Tibke, Benjamin Glendenning, and Scott Godlweski take you through the world of high tech to get the job done!
Friday 4:30pm - 5:30pm (CC158)

You want it you got it SKETCH CARDS! : 5finity productions lay it our for you from the beginning to the end and ready for distribution. Benjamin Glendenning and Steven L Frank owner of 5finity production as well as Terry Tibke, Ryan Cody, Andy Carreon, Celesta Krantz, and Jason Worthington.

The the artists will be working on limited Phoenix Con Foil stamped edition “Zombies versus Cheerleaders” Sketch cards …AND taking questions.

Some folks will be leaving with the rarest of sketch cards and its “Zombies versus cheerleaders”!!!
Sunday 12:00pm - 1:00pm (CC157)

Brian Pulido: The Graves : Enjoy a screening of local Filmmaker and Lady Death creator’s  Horror Film “The Graves”. Donations for Hero Initiative will be accepted at the screening and we’ll follow it up with a QA with Brian Pulido and Benjamin Glendenning.
Friday 10:30pm - 1:30am (Hyatt Ballroom C)

Hope to see you ladies and gents there. Next up …

Here are the 7 Limited 11 X 17 prints i will have at the Phoenix Comicon this May 27th to 30th!!!

Thanks much jammers, Hope to see most of you at Phoenix Comicon!

-BEN OUT!

Heyo!

okay guys as promised i am back with some Art I will have for Phoenix Comicon at the end of the month…haven’t heard of Phoenix Comicon?  *click here* and get yer tickets quickly folks.

Okay so the first print i will have on hand is of IronMan. perfect timing since the movie is out Friday. I had a fun time earlier this year working on the IronMan 2 card set. I really wanted to come up with a look all my own for ole shell-head, so this is what i landed on for him, hope you dig it and these prints will be 11 X 17 full color, numbered and extremely limited. find them at booth #222 Skulljammer Productions.

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Bonus this week, My good pals Tone Rodriguez and Dan Wickline are in charge of the new comic series featuring Image icon character Shadowhawk ( #1 out TODAY go get a copy!) And mutual friend Tim “Hack/Slash” Seeley drew up a great gift Pin-up piece for the guys and asked me a while back to slap some color on it. so here is the pin-up featuring Shadowhawk kickin’ the crap outta Tim’s childhood creations Arm N’ Hammer.

Hope you dig the art update Jammers, I’ll be back soon with more art and upcoming goodies!

-BEN OUT!

FCBD Free Comic Book Day was wow…crazy overwhelming. I along with many other talented folks like Scott Godlewski, Terry Tibke, Raven Gregory and  Danae Frazier were greeted Saturday at Atomic Comics Chandler location by a massive crowd of families, I have NEVER seen so many kids, it was awesome. I sat down to do sketches around 11:30ish and didn’t get to look up till about 6:30ish. The sketch requests rocked too, its great to see kids really into classic comic stuff. I sketched Omega-red, howard the duck even an old skool Colossus, and then of course the expected current kid favorite characters like Spidey, war-machine and Deadpool sprang up a bit too. between us all I think we did well over a hundred sketches and made a good chunk of change for the HERO Initiative. very good FCBD, what did you guys do or pick up Saturday?

Next up for me on Events will be Phoenix Comicon May 27-30th, 2010 (Memorial Day Weekend) I will be at booth #222 with all kinds of good stuff and limited slots for commissions so see me early if you’d like to get one!

Then I’ll be attending Crypticon horror Convention 2010 this June 18-20th in Seattle. i will be there with 5finity productions signing and sketching “Zombies versus Cheerleaders” comics and sketch cards as well as “the Graves” DVD’s and some Horror prints I’ll have special for the show. if your in that area come see me!

So for a long while now i have been asked several times to provide some sort of process of how i do sketch cards, most are bugging me to do that live stream stuff but since I’m totally tech inept, I hope you guys are good with a simple photo strip run through…

And i will be having some original prints at Phoenix Comicon at the end of the month so i will be showing some of them here as we get closer to the show, first one is good ole Shell head, a kid favorite and hey perfect timing for the sequel, I’ll post it up later this week.

Okay guys Back very soon with more stuff, i plan to update often this month as we go into Con season…well MY con season

later Jammers!

-BEN OUT!