It was super cool when Mountain Dew featured the wild art of Stephen Bliss, Nathan Cabrera and Pushead (to name a few) on their Green Label Art bottles in 2008. While promoting their cool factor, they also helped promote what was once an underground art style to the masses.

Now, the Los Angeles fashion label, Ed Hardy, takes “art for the masses” to a whole new level. The art of French designer Christian Audigier (based on the designs of Don Ed Hardy) has been making it’s way across the world on t’s, sweatshirts, jeans and bags, and now reaches out to a place where no art has gone before (at least not to my knowledge)–Ed Hardy hand sanitizer. Yes, you can now keep your hands free from germs while still retaining your hardcore image. Gimmee five!

Large and Loud! Next stop on the high school graffiti tour is Andrew Hill High School in San Jose next Monday, October 6th. Scape Martinez is scheduled to appear, and if past experience is any measure, he’ll ignite imaginations and leave a ton of new ideas behind him.

Stay tuned for a downloadable version of GRAFF…coming soon!

–Mona

Click here to purchase GRAFF.

Visit Scape’s website to find out how to have him as a guest teacher at your school!

Click here for a free demonstration from the book!

The first annual Long Beach ComicCon happens next weekend, October 2-4 and IMPACT author Buddy Scalera will be there hosting several panels including Photo Reference: How to Use Reference to Improve Your Comic Art. Programming includes something for just about everyone, from writers to colorists to movie fans. Word on the street says that Andy Schmidt, author of The Insider’s Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels and operator of The Comics Experience, will also make an appearance.

Check out the complete con line up here.

Click here to check out all Buddy Scalera’s photo reference books.

IMPACT author Buddy Scalera will be in attendance at the Long Beach Comic Con next week. As the convention’s programming director, he helped plan all the education panels including an extra awesome one based on his three IMPACT books.

So if you stop by, make sure to check out Buddy’s photo reference panel: How to Use Photo Reference to Improve Your Comic Art starring Buddy, Darick Robertson and other top comic book artists. They’ll demonstrate how you can utilize photographic reference in your comic book art.

If you can’t make it to Cali next week, click below to check out Buddy’s books on photo reference for comic artists. He’s got everybody covered.

The yearly New York Anime Festival starts this Friday, September 25, in Manhattan. The show runs through September 27. According to its website the festival “features exclusive and extensive anime screenings, guests from America and Japan, manga, cosplay, video games, live-action Japanese cinema, fashion, food, and the cultural treasures that gave birth to Japanese pop culture.” So, basically there’s something for everyone there.

But, if that’s not enough to tempt you to the Big Apple this weekend, one of the festival’s guest of honor is Yoshiyuki Tomino who worked on Astro Boy—AWESOME!

Check out Jen’s piece on Vintage Manga—there’s a link to review some vintage Astro Boy.

I keep talking about Shojo Fashion Manga Art School because it just can’t be stopped. Author Irene Flores filled the book with every fashion style you can dream of, and shows you how to deck out your characters no matter what the season. It’s so much fun!

For even more fashion inspirations check out this new site where you can dive into a huge wardrobe and dress your choice of models. Find a cool look then jump back into Shojo Fashion Manga Art School to draw it on your character. So, put on your best designer hat, and pick up that pencil!

GRAFF author Scape Martinez sent me this picture of his visit to William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose.

Scape Martinez arrived at William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose only to discover several teachers already using his lesson plans for graffiti art.

And the word is that GRAFF lesson plans have already made it to classrooms there. (Personally, I feel absolutely gypped. There was NO graffiti in MY high school art class.)

Stay tuned for more free graffiti lesson plans and demonstrations like this one on Scape’s website! Click here to get the book and see what all the excitement’s about.

From GRAFF: THE ART & TECHNIQUE OF GRAFFITI, by Scape Martinez

Keep writing…

Mona

Character and casting information for the upcoming Green Lantern and X-Men: First Class movies is starting to leak. Much to the dismay of some fans, it looks like we can expect multiple baddies in Green Lantern. Although the details are unclear, Dr. Hector Hammond and Sinestro will both make an appearance. And actor Tim Pocock may or may not reprise the role of Cyclops in X-Men. Check out the full story on Green Lantern here and X-Men here.

Why wait for the movies to come out? Create your own superheroes and villains with Incredible Comics With Tom Nguyen.

An animated 3D movie of the 1978 children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs opens in theaters tomorrow. Early reviews are favorable and Mr. T plays the character of Earl the police officer. IMPACTastic!

Official trailer

Mr. T talks about the movie — he loves it and so should you

Artist Lisa L. Cyr’s book Art Revolution keeps getting rave reviews. This time, the online talk show SiDEBAR callout Lisa’s book as one of the three must-have books of the year. SiDEBAR features “four color conversations on comics, art and pop culture.” You can read the entire post here.