Amy Ashbaugh doesn't hate my kids (The Mannings Report)

[Brian Manning]

Now that I got your attention, you have to read all this boring crap to see what I'm talking about...

Thursday:
We arrived at the Palladium warehouse after a failed attempt at napping, so I had only been able to grab a couple of hours of sleep, but they were fitful hours of interrupted sleep on the two separate flights out there. However I got a renewed burst of energy after walking in. We chatted for a while with fans and freelancers for a bit, and then they brought the food out. This was the first official meal where I broke my month-long streak of healthy eating, and it was amazing.

The other artists all set up their prints, goods and art supplies, but I somehow convinced Allen that we didn't need to bother with that for the VIP night, since most people are there to hang with Kevin, and listen to his panel talk. Needless to say, we felt unprepared (didn't even have a pen to sign books with).

Friday:
Day one of commission sketches and trying to make some money (A.K.A. the Paper Chase). We arrived in time to hear Bradshaw giving us a hard time about finally dragging our butts in (we strolled in around 10 with Burger King breakfasts in hand), but everyone seemed to still be setting up anyway, so we sat down and prepped our junk (we had originally intended to bring prints, and some buttons, but we never decided on the prints, and I was too lazy to get a button design to Ashbaugh in time to get them made). After hating on the other artists for a while (Chuck's crazy large paper, Mumah's wacky playlist, Bradshaw's crazy affordable original art prices, Apollo for showing up on time, and Ashbaugh for being more popular than us), we started doing commissions right away. A lot of great friends and fans had some great ideas for sketches, so it was really easy to just keep cranking them out because it was so fun. I don't know if anyone saw the sketch Issac asked for, but it was a picture of him as a GM and his buddy Joseph holding his head in shame with a thunderous crit roll on their group's infamous red d20. We kept that one out in the open because a lot of passers by were looking and getting a good chuckle from it.

One of the more memorable drawings was the one with all the artists doing a self portrait. Nick started the ball rolling, but I was too afraid to do something silly, so I just drew Allen and myself as misproportioned stocky guys, just so the height looked right next to the Bradsquatch.

Late in the day, after some discussion, Allen took on the challenge of inking a HUGE 11x17 wolfen penciled piece from Chuck Walton that one of the fans commissioned. The pencils weren't finished until late in the evening, so the inks didn't even start yet. We were all just shocked at the whole situation, since Chuck's pencils are SOOO detailed, and the pieces was freakin' huge! I asked Allen if he was going to start that night at the hotel, but his plan (which worked) was to ink it on Saturday, since it would draw a lot of attention.

[Brian Manning]

Saturday:
More sketches, more trash talking with the other artists, more talking with fans, and more autograph signing. I made Allen ink a couple of commissions before tackling the "Walton", but sometime after lunch, he did a couple of laps around the warehouse as a warmup, and started on the mighty task. He even skipped dinner, but I went with a group to the Texas Roadhouse for some steaks, but the long wait drove us away, so we ended up eating at a Chinese buffet. Got some more art done, and then did the artist panel discussion (Allen stayed behind slaving away at the herculean effort). Bradshaw started the whole thing off by passing a "classy note" that reminded me that we were there just to have fun. I feel like an uneducated half-wit after everyone named off classic historical influence after influence, and all I really had was American comics, and the other freelancers as my biggest influences. Afterwards, seeing the progress of the "Walton" inks there seemed to be a bit of buzz, and I felt like spreading the word like "Morpheus is fighting Neo!".

That night I got to join in on the game that broke Carmen's voice. It was a very family friendly theme, with lots of PG characters, but I won't go into detail. We were a group of rune weapons (good or evil) just devastating the area during our awesome battle, but Amy's "good" weapon had the highest body count (innocent, good and evil participants). She was such a menace, her own team was trying to take her down. Fun was had by all...

Sunday:
Allen finished the the inks, Kevin stole the image (to get a good scan of it), and we spent the rest of the day finishing up commissions, or getting addresses to send out the ones that weren't finished in time. We said our goodbyes to everyone, and headed to the airport. I was already bummed out the instant I put my bag over my shoulder, knowing we were leaving.

[Brian Manning]

Memorable moments:
I got to do a very memorable character commission. It was a D-Bee that bleeds off extra PPE into boxes that generate random items, and she tells morality tales to kids using a C'thulu hand puppet as the hero of the tales. It was a blast to do.

Bradsquatch is teh awesomest. As always, he's got a great personality, and I'm a big fan of his work. He showed us some stuff that he had been working on for over ten years, and my jaw dropped. I have never seen anything in pencils from him before, so when he showed us a few pieces I really questioned how much patience I have when doing art. His ideas are just plain out there, and they really get the creative juices flowing when I see them. I had to get him to do a drawing for my kids, and he did a fantastic job with only a bare minimum of description. I'm just glad he didn't add any torn flesh, or nudity . We also discussed an awesome project he came up with, so we're going to move forward with that as well.

Chuck is probably the most humble guy EVER, and he really charges too little for what he's providing with the commissioned sketches. Fans were getting a great deal on his original art. Seeing him collaborate with Allen was CRAZY! Mumah also took a couple of pieces to ink, so I'm dying to see what he does with Chuck's pencils as well.

Mike Leonard seemed to always be dissapearing, so I'm guessing he was running/playing games, but whenever he was around, it was fun talking about Venture Bros, Alien vs Predator and other goofiness. I know he felt out of place at the table with us, but c'mon, I've never done any covers, and we all work with the same tight deadlines. It's not like Kevin is using him as a last resort.

Mumah, as usual, brought some killer prints, including the amazing Rifts 20th anniversary full color poster. Not to mention the Pink Cyber Bunny O' Doom (fully statted out on the back by Branden Aten), that was busted out in less than a week. His playlist (that was playing during the slide show on his computer) was cracking us up with how wild and varied it was. Apparently we missed a crazy story on Friday night when he and a group of others went to dinner, but I'm sure he'll explain.

Dudley showed up in full force with his crew, and of course started cranking out artwork like a machine. Mike Majestic showed up with him, so it was cool to meet him as well. They had to squeeze themselves into the artist self portrait image, but they fit in like there was always room for them. I wish I could have hung out and talked to them more, though. At that point we were already flooded with commissions.

Apollo was drawing constantly (he's obviously a popular guy with a TON of work published), but I was still able to get him to do a drawing of Ben 10 for my kids. He absolutely KILLED IT! My kids are gonna flip when they see it. I hijacked his Wacom tablet at some point, but I didn't have enough time to do a goofy drawing before he came back, though.

Amy Ashbaugh was able to squeeze in the time to do a great drawing for my kids, but I'm guessing that's because I showed her a picture of them pretending to be zombies (but I guess paying ahead of time helped too). I'm happy to say that she doesn't hate my kids. Last year she had buttons, and we gave her a hard time about that, but this time I planned on bringing some (she was going to make them for us), but I'm lazy. This year, we gave her a hard time about her electric drafting eraser, but I'll probably get one soon. ALso...ClearBags.com (I think she was sponsored by them NASCAR style or something ). And in case anyone games with her...good or bad, she's dangerous.

I really wish I could have hung out with the writers and fans more, and I really wish I could have jumped in on that Ninjas and Superspies/Dead Reign game that was running on Saturday. There's just not enough time during the Open House. Time was flying like crazy the whole time we were there.

[Jorel]

It was a pleasure to meet you and your brother. You guys are very down to Earth as well as pretty cool. Thanks for taking the time to talk to the fans.

Peace,
Jorel

[Brian Manning]

Awesome, thanks! It was fun talking to you guys, now I'm contemplating letting my kids watch Total Recall on SyFy. Actually they watched Terminator 2 and Predator on AMC. Not to mention, Goonies...wow that was much different than I remembered as a kid.

[Jorel]

That is what I'm talkin about. Conan movies next. You just have to stand in front of the TV for the few sex scenes while fast forwarding through them. Teach the youth. As long as your the one explaining it to your kids how that guys head melted in Raiders. Prepare them. My daughter loves Goonies. She's partial to pirates and kids finding treasure.

[The Dark Elf]

Goonies is one of my favs! Its awesome. I have the truffle shuffle video as one of my mates ring tone/video.

After the watching the Tigers game I thought I could not be a twins fan - but the Manning brothers were cool. Nice to have met you both. great work!

[Elly_G]

Memorable moments:
I got to do a very memorable character commission. It was a D-Bee that bleeds off extra PPE into boxes that generate random items, and she tells morality tales to kids using a C'thulu hand puppet as the hero of the tales. It was a blast to do.

...And I am so in love with it. The picture is framed and on my bookshelf next to one of KS's sleeping dragon sketches.

One of the best parts of the weekend was getting to see all the artists, and you (no matter how tired I knew you must be) always had a smile. Thank you again for the awesome commission, I can't wait to get the information to you for the other scetch of My husband and my PC's.

Elly_g

[Brian Manning]

Jorel,
Yes, I must teach my boys the "Riddle of Steel"!

Dark Elf,
LOL, nice use of Baseball. Thanks, we had a lot of fun, and it was great meeting everyone. I'm just glad that you guys didn't see our actual stuck-up pseudo-celebrity personalities.

Elly_G,
I'm glad that you loved it. I had a lot of fun drawing that one, but I was nervous about inking it, since my hand was sort of shaky that morning from too much sugar consumption from the whole weekend. Also, yes we were exhausted, but everyone was smiling, so it was infectious. Not to mention, I'm generally in a good mood, and don't realize that I'm smiling as much as I do. (not my actual smile).

Yes get that character info to me when you get a chance, considering you've already paid for the commissions.

[mumah]

Here's my inks on Chuck's first piece. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3862547&id=325723414311

[The Galactus Kid]

Memorable moments:
I got to do a very memorable character commission. It was a D-Bee that bleeds off extra PPE into boxes that generate random items, and she tells morality tales to kids using a C'thulu hand puppet as the hero of the tales. It was a blast to do.

...And I am so in love with it. The picture is framed and on my bookshelf next to one of KS's sleeping dragon sketches.

One of the best parts of the weekend was getting to see all the artists, and you (no matter how tired I knew you must be) always had a smile. Thank you again for the awesome commission, I can't wait to get the information to you for the other scetch of My husband and my PC's.

Elly_g

And you TOTALLY rocked gettig in character with the ferral biotic, Ramirez!!!

[Elly_G]

Ramirez was awesome I took out my splicers book when I got home... thanks for getting me interested in it!

[Brian Manning]

Here's my inks on Chuck's first piece. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3862547&id=325723414311

Man you and Allen are crazy for taking that challenge on. What did you use to ink this?

Also,
I can't believe I forgot to mention all of Shinitenshi's baked goods. Considering I ate a ton of them, and even forced her to go out to her car and get some more on Sunday, just because I was craving a brownie. it was all delicious, and by some miracle I only gained two pounds that whole weekend (that has already been resolved, though).

[mumah]

I used a micron .05 and .01.

[Brian Manning]

Even with those large areas that you had to fill in? You have some serious patience. Like Freddie Williams II when he was still using Microns with such black-heavy detailed pieces. Was this tough to do, because it looks like a huge task to commit to.

[mumah]

I did have a brush pen that I can't name at the moment for the larger areas, but the darks aren't that heavy. I'm embellishing a bit more on the second piece because I think it needs it a bit (I talked to Chuck a bit about his lack of highlights and shadows, which is just about the only criticism I can give the guy, damned skilled bastard.) Also, the piece he gave me wasn't quite finished. I should have that posted over the weekend.

[Premier]

Indeed The Mannings!

I must say I look forward to the annual/bi-annual POHs to seeing you guys! Talk about humility, charisma and skillset, you guys are AWESOME! You guys come all the way from Vegas to Detroit EVERY time with smiles ablazed and hearts of gold, keeping the mad inhuman Mumah in check upon occassion, cranking out quality illustrations each day! Talk about Devotion & Support, You guys really are AWESOME!

Anyone who meets "The" Mannings are always hooked to return, asking for more art and enjoying the convo, wondering what they missed! Brian your pencils and compositions are sick! I saw you bang out art like it was breathing. You keep me looking over the shoulder seeing how to crank out work at such phenomenal levels. And if that wasn’t bad enough you hand an illoe over to Allen (the Ink Machine 8.0) and he brings things to life even more so. The awesome/brilliant way he inked that Wolfen commission and how fast he did it, made me feel like dang, I didn’t do enough to that piece! Next time, next we’ll fix’em up something. Hmmm… Bigger paper, more details, more varying textures, more components, yeah… yeah… yeah… I’m seeing it now, a poster piece that will blow the socks off of ANYONE! A battle scene on Rifts Earth between Gargoyles and NGR/Coalition, A GB in the mist of a War between an elite group of armored Werejaguars vs Scythe Vampires, Mechanoids boarding a Star-Elves frigate withe Armored Elves ready to repel, Mann... something brews this way and it ain’t gas.

As to the challenge that Allen and Mumah have taken upon themselves, man… hats off to them both for I was blown away at the final delivery of each illoe. You guys have indeed joined company with Ka Xiong, Mark Dudley and Chris Brown (don’t start the Rionna banter please…, smile) the only other Artists that have “successfully” inked my work.

[Premier]

I did have a brush pen that I can't name at the moment for the larger areas, but the darks aren't that heavy. I'm embellishing a bit more on the second piece because I think it needs it a bit (I talked to Chuck a bit about his lack of highlights and shadows, which is just about the only criticism I can give the guy, damned skilled bastard.) Also, the piece he gave me wasn't quite finished. I should have that posted over the weekend.

Hey Mumah, let me see it before you post it as I would like to get Slappy's stats on it and "possibly" post it on the Splicers forums. Its a good time to drop something their way and what your working on is perfect timing for whats to come. Keep it wicked and dark to preserve the atmosphere for that one.

[mumah]

Can do. I'll try to post it tomorrow evening (Saturday.) PM me with the email address you want me to send it to.