OAFcon-2026OAFcon-2026It was great to meet new fans of ICECUBES at OAFcon last weekend in Oklahoma City. The convention was focused on vintage comics culture which is something I really enjoy. I got to see great original art by the masters and even meet Thomas Yeates, Bob Hall and Sam DeLaRosa to share tips and tricks. Mr. Hall and Mr. Yeates even took time to do portfolio reviews and give me some extremely useful feedback on ICECUBES the Comic Strip! It was a great opportunity and I look forward to going back next year!Thomas Yeates of Prince Valiant and Swamp Thing. Notice the ICECUBES book next to him!Thomas Yeates original artICECUBES Art size comparison with Frank Thorne’s 1960s newspaper strip!
We sold a lot of ICECUBES Vol. 3 “The Stuff of Dreams!” copies and there are only about 60 left, so order yours now before they go out of print like Vol.1 and Vol. 2! Go to store by clicking here!
ICECUBES will be at OAFcon this weekend in Norman, Oklahoma. Leroy Brown will be signing books and you can buy original comic strip art as well. Look forward to seeing you there!
OAFcomiccon.com
ICECUBES-Peckinpaw-cover2025
Here is the painting of Peckinpaw for the cover of Vol. 3 “The Stuff of Dreams.”
It was painted using acrylics although I would’ve preferred doing it with gouache but I didn’t have any and a full set is pretty expensive. I like the feeling of a painted cover. You can still get the book while supplies last byclicking here.
ICECUBES-comicbook-store-past-issues
It’s always neat to find ICECUBES Vol.2 in the past issues drawers at comic book stores. Guess what? ICECUBES Vol.3 is coming out soon!
Here is a sneak peak at the color process for the new strip #367. This is just the ‘flats’ step which helps isolate the different color areas before applying more advanced painting techniques.
Recently, I sent an ICECUBES story to a French language comics magazine called “Spirou”.
Spirou Magazine featuring the Smurfs. Spirou is a classic cultural stalwart of European comics dating since before WWII. The magazine is perhaps most well known for premiering the world famous “SMURFS” along with other cherished European comics like “Lucky Luke” and “Gaston Lagaffe”. Spirou had an open call contest for a four page short story and I submitted an ICECUBES comic. While they did not select it to be published, it’s still fun to see the ICECUBES characters speaking French!You can download the entire story here, it makes for a good French lesson! >> ICECUBES in French
ICECUBES the comic strip 362 – previz
Hi wonderful subscribers, here is a color previz for the new ICECUBES strip #362. Note: this is not the final color which will be different on the final published comic. This is to show an intermediate step that happens before publishing. Color takes a few steps to finalize. This step is called ‘flats’ which then allows me to separate each color layer and work on them one at a time. There are a lot of hidden steps to get to the final published comic.
Here’s a really interesting historical interview on the topic of newspaper syndicated comics from an insider’s perspective. From Peanuts to Lil’ Abner, Family Circus and Prince Valiant, this was the golden age of newspaper comics.
Jud Hurd (1913 – September 14, 2005) was a syndicated newspaper cartoonist. His work included Ticker Toons and Health Capsules (United Feature Syndicate) for which he was awarded the National Cartoonist Society Special Features Award in 1978. For 36 years he continuously published and edited the quarterly magazine Cartoonist Profiles. Beginning with its premier issue in the winter of 1969 and ending 36 years later with issue 146 in June 2005. The magazine was a great insider source for professional syndicated cartoonists.
Russel Harvey is the son of Alfred Harvey, the founder of world famous Harvey Comics. With titles like Richie Rich, Dot Polka and Casper the Friendly Ghost, Harvey Comics was a staple of family friendly comics and cartoons for decades. Russel is himself a cartoonist, writer and standup comedian. He is a long time supporter and fan of ICECUBES and has graciously allowed me to post this video.
ICECUBES will be at OAFcon this weekend in Norman, Oklahoma. Leroy Brown will be signing books and you can buy original comic strip art as well. Look forward to seeing you there!
OAFcomiccon.com 
