If anyone decides they want to seek me out at Dragon*Con we'll be in the Comics Artists Alley in the Grand Hall East of the Hyatt Regency. We'll be booth B18 and we're listed as William Tackett in the program for some reason. I'll be bringin' some original paintings including my newest two of my newest ones.
The only difference between me and [that other zombie artist] is that he's a hired gun. He only draws zombies when he is paid to do so whereas I (along with a bunch of other guys and gals) was drawing zombies a long time before I anyone paid me to do so. I did it because I was, and still am, a fan. I happen to be blessed because I now get paid to do what I love.
Next time you happen to chat with [that other zombie artist] ask him if he will still be drawing zombies when he is no longer paid to do so and then ask me the same question.
First off thanks to Fright Night Film Fest/ Fandom Fest for having us out last weekend. It was great seeing some familiar faces and meeting new folks.
I added some new events to my calendar. First off is the Northside Rock n Roll Carnival held this Saturday & Sunday in Cincinnati. A great time with good music, good food and good beer. I hear rumors that the Pickled Brothers Sideshow will be there Sunday. The booth will be manned...er, or womanned, perhaps, by my wonderful wife but I won't be there until Sunday evening. Why not? Because I will be in Olive Hill participating in an art show honoring my high school art teacher, Larry Carroll.
We added Dragon*con to our schedule as well as the Nashville Comic and Horror Fest.
A big thanks to Dave and the Con-tamination crew for a great show in St. Louis last weekend. Thanks to everyone that stopped by.
Just wanted to put out a couple things going on this weekend. First off I'll be at Origins Game Fair in Columbus this Thursday only! I won't have a booth but I will be at the Charcon booth helping promote their event coming up in October. Since I won't be selling stuff there I wanted to do something so I think I will be giving away a limited number of hand drawn sketch cards. The exact number is unknown because I'll just give 'em away until my pack runs out. Also, you have to actually stop by the booth. I won't be handing them out to any old Joe Schmoe. As for the booth; we believe that the booth will not be in the vendor area but will be out in the main hall. So stop by the Charcon booth and get some free shit!
We'll be leavin' early Friday morn for St. Louis for the always fun and entertaining Con-Tamination. The Fantastic Four will be there along with a Jason, a Leatherface, a Candy Man, a couple a barbarians, some zombies, a porn star and a jack-ass. Artists include myself, Johnny Bopp, Dick Starr and Joel Robinson. There's also some cool vendors like World of Strange. Come get screwy in St. Louie with us!
I know it's been a while but things have been pretty crazy but we just got back from Contagion in Omaha Nebraska and had such a great time that I had to dust off the old blog and write about it...I am also bringing back the Top 10 List of Things That Will Not Be Elaborated Upon.
First off I wanted to thank everyone involved for making out trip simply phenomenal. First year shows can have bumps and stops but from our perspective everything was pitch perfect. So kudos to the staff of Contagion!
Secondly, big thanks to the folks of the Omaha Chapter of the Zombie Research Society who were instrumental in getting us out there and took care of us. We owe you! Special thanks to Pat for taking the time to shuttle us around and show us the great city of Omaha.
Lastly, the attendees and fans we met were super nice and welcoming. Omaha has a great fandom community in place that really seems to be on the same page and works together to make things happen. Omaha could be a great destination to get your convention fix in the very near future...
We had a great time hanging out with the head of Zombie Research Society, Matt Mogk, and all the Omaha Zombie Research Society. On Saturday the ZRS presented Matt and me with some special art, caricatures by local artists. Mine was a zombification by Eric White who you can find at www.geekywhiteguy.com
We'll be settin' up Saturday evening to support our buds Pagan Holiday at the Second Annual Witch's Ball Battle of the Bands and Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder
The contestants are:
Curse Icon
Second Chance at Eden
Spires of Altum
Der Meister
Pagan Holiday
(they will appear onstage in that order)
If you aren't familiar with Bobby Mackey's Music World it is considered the most haunted night club in America. They offer tours of the basement which is pretty creepy cool
http://bobbymackey.com/
We'll be there from 4-9pm. See you there!
I'll be at Heroes Realm 1624 Old Paris Rd. Lexington, KY all day tomorrow. Just puttin' that out there...
Here's a big announcement to all my zombie lovin' friends in the Cincinnati area: You CANNOT afford to miss Fandom Fest Cincinnati this weekend, April 16 & 17! At the Radisson in Covington KY, $5 admission and and ass load of zombie related guests!! Including myself guests include two Walking Dead zombies, Walking Dead artist Tony Moore, '68 artist and Bump Creator Mark Kidwell, '68 and Heroes writer RD Hall. Not into zombies you say? How about Freddy vs. Jason artist Jason Craig? Horror not your thing? How about Kabuki and Daredevil artist and Eisner award winner David Mack? Not into comics? How about Jackass' Mike Holman? Not into Mike Holman? Playboy's Megan Mooney will be there. If you're not into drop dead gorgeous ladies I can't help you...
In related news; I just completed a Walking Dead piece for the show.
Maybe someone can explain this to me in a way that actually makes sense;
Independent musicians- Many musicians and bands go out and pound the pavement, playing gigs, making fans, and producing & releasing their own music in the hopes to getting a recording contract with a major label. And some actually become successful with any ties to a major recording label. There are even radio stations dedicated to indie and unsigned musicians. Indie music is accepted.
Independent movies- Many filmmakers shoot their own flicks on shoestring budgets in the hopes of getting a shot at making a big budget movie. And some indie become blockbusters themselves.Why, indie films have their own film fests and awards ceremonies. Indie music is accepted.
Independent comic books- Many comic book creators toil at their craft in the hopes of getting some attention from fans and/or major publishers. Some creators leave major publishers to start up their own publishing ventures. Indie comics are accepted.
Independent artists- Many artists and illustrators are not attached to a single company but depend on freelance work. We are constantly looking for new markets and clients. Many of us go on to work for companies full time and many of us leave companies to freelance. Some of the most influential artists and illustrators were freelancers. Indie artists are accepted.
Independent authors- Considered by many the bottom of the barrel. The only reason an author self-publishes is because said author sucks and cannot get a "legitimate" contract with a "legitimate" publishing house. An author that has self published is tainted and can no longer be considered a candidate for "actual" publishing through a "real" publisher. Self published authors are dirtying up the waters and must be stopped by any means, preferably through humiliation or bullying. Indie authors are NOT accepted.
Why?
Hey fellow travelers! I know my posts have been few and far between but I'm an artist, not a writer. Having said that I want to see each and every one of you at Horrorhound Weekend in Indianapolis IN this weekend!
I've been a little slack but I wanted to give a heads up. We're setting up a merch table at the 13 Pagan Holiday 13 / Quiet Riot concert tonight at WALHILL FARMS IN BATESVILLE INDIANA! Be there or be square!
So I entered a contest to create a new superhero. The contest is sponsored by the Stan Lee Foundation, Todd McFarlane & Prismacolor. I know a lot of folks bitch and moan about comic books today so here's your opportunity to do something about it! Vote for me! All you gotta do is go here:
http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a20424afbff0e1a5bdc5c2afc9099d87/154
and click the blue "Vote with Facebook" button on the right or the green "Vote with SMS" button. Feel free to leave a comment and to share. All the links are there. Easy peasy!
Here's the really cool part: When you vote for me you are also voting for Rockstar Roni Jonah! Roni was kind enough to be the model for ZRU:7083 and she is perfect!
When you vote for me, Roni and ZRU:7083 this is what you'll get:
VooDoo Carnival is taking place at the historic Southgate House in Newport KY Saturday starting at 8 pm. Switchblade Syndicate, Pickled Brothers Sideshow and others will put on a show that won't be soon forgotten! We'll be set up along with other vendors and we'll have some brand spankin' new stuff to peddle. Any night spent at Southgate House is a good night. VooDoo Carnival will push it over the top!
In other news: We had a great time with the Lexington KY Comic Creators Group. Did some life drawing with a Silent Hill nurse. After that they forced me to sing for our supper and Heather and I gave a talk about art as a business. The postmortem report can be read here: http://lexkyccg.blogspot.com/2011/02/2011-february-01-postmortem-report-on.html Dinner afterwards with Jonathan and Justin Stewart was a great wrap up. Lexington is my place of birth and I really enjoy taking part in the arts and fandom culture there.
News of the self indulgent kind: I haven't added it to the calendar on my site yet but as some of you know we have been invited to Omaha Nebraska's Contagion: Outbreak Pop Culture Expo in June. Our trip will be sponsored by the good folks at the Omaha Chapter of the Zombie Research Society. We had the opportunity to meet a lot of these folks on our trip to ZomBcon in Seattle and I gotta say I'm really looking forward to this trip.
Speaking of...One of those good folks I mentioned, Lisa Bolton, did a super nice write up about my zombification art. You can read it and some of her other zombie related articles here http://www.examiner.com/zombie-culture-in-national/billy-tackett-zombie-artist
One more: Jessica over at Zombieslam did a little feature on my art and asked me to explain my process a little. You can read that here: http://zombieslam.com/?p=318
For all those that pre-ordered For The Love Of Monsters, those are being sent out! First round went out today and the last round will go out tomorrow. Thanks to everyone that had enough faith in me to spend their hard earned bucks on my project sight-unseen! I know they're a little late but there was a problem with the printer. Not sure what that problem was but books are here now. I couldn't be happier with the quality and I hope you guys are too.
Lastly, not leastly but a little beastly: I completed the art for Nashville's Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Fest where we'll be guests in May. I'm going to add some text for the official poster but in the meantime you can gander a bit at Famous Zombies Wolfman!
That's where I'll be tomorrow and I'll be talking about stuff. Y'know, stuff like the business end of art. And I'll probably talk about zombies and other stuff. Silent Hill nurses will be there too. We'll be doing some life undeath drawing too! All the info is here: http://lexkyccg.blogspot.com/p/jan-30th-2010-meeting.html Hope you can make it out. 1:30 to 4:30 at the Lexington Public Library's Beaumont Branch.
Haven't done an evolution of music post for a long while so I thought I would remedy that right quick. How's about some Gallows Pole?
Bella
John Jacob Niles - The Maid Freed From The Gallows
Raymond Crooke - Hangman, Slack on the Line
Leadbelly
Peter, Paul & Mary - Hangman
Kingston Trio
Odetta
Led Zeppelin
Alvin Youngblood Heart
Rootdogs
Great Big Sea
From the film Mr. Lonely
Unnamed band - The Maid Freed From The Gallows
I just got an email today and I wanted to give anyone that owns a domain to take note. This one is obviously a scam but the first one I received a couple months back sounded legit enough to fool me...I checked into it anyway. I don't remember the details on how they scam you but all you need to know is that they scam you.
Here is the email:
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