I’ve always loved old graveyards. As it turns out, so does my girlfriend. (We’d both readily admit we are a strange couple–even considered individually.) For myself, considering my love for antiquated things and my penchant for writing gothic horror (amongst other things), I find cemeteries quite inspiring, and indeed peaceful to stroll through. Equally, my girlfriend finds them calming, and has always enjoyed history of any sort, even that of the Weird N.J. sort of fare. As such, my girlfriend and I have talked about visiting an old graveyard together for some time. (Quite the spot for a date, I must say.) So, just two weeks ago, when we had an afternoon to ourselves, she took me to one such site: the historical Brookside Cemetery in Englewood, New Jersey. (Read more…)

I know most everything has been Chadhiyana, Chadhiyana, Chadhiyana lately (and with good reason, as I’m loving working on a graphic novel for the character). So, perhaps we all need a break for this week. (Maybe not? But let’s take for granted we do.) I was recently given permission by a few clients to share with you the work I’ve been doing for them, including that oft written about, yet-unrevealed book cover illustration I completed a few months back. So this week’s blog post is about the other work I’ve been doing behind the scenes between working on Chadhiyana and to show you that Chadhiyana is not all I’m doing (though, let’s face it, it’s a lot of what I’m doing, and I’m hoping to work on her more and more for many years to come). (Read more…)

I was going to blog about something else today, but on such short notice (this entry is going up a bit late in the day for me–I usually post at 7 am EST) it’s easiest to write about the foremost thing on my mind. Yesterday, being off from my teaching job for Spring Break, I played hooky from working on my writing and art and took a trip into New York with my lovely girlfriend and her little daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Read more…)

I don’t typically write about my job as a teacher. For one, I’ve only held a position as a full-time high school art teacher since September. What’s more, I try to maintain a certain level of privacy with respect to my personal life. I do break this unwritten rule occasionally. Most often, I do this for special moments or events I feel compelled to share, and this past Friday, one such event took place. (Read more…)

Until recently, I hadn’t updated my convention and show list for 2014 (on the Events & Shows page) in some time. This may come as a surprise considering I was an exhibitor or participant in an event nearly every month last year. This year is going to be a little different, at least for a while, and so today’s blog post is to give you some information about what to expect.  (Read more…)

If you’ve visited this site (jmdesantis.com) or chadhiyana.com in the past week, you may have noticed they’ve been down twice due to server errors. The first time was late Wednesday into Thursday last week. Then just yesterday the sites went down again in the morning. It seems to be a recent issue with the software I’ve been using on jmdesantis.com this past year and on chadhiyana.com since its launch. Why this is happening after a year of things running smoothly with said software, I haven’t the faintest idea.  (Read more…)

After experiencing a number of losses in the past few months, I am happy to announce some new life. Late last week my brother’s wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. (My brother, if you don’t know, was known as Teach back in our Game-Flush.com days.) Now, as Teach is my only sibling, and this is their first child, that means I am now officially an uncle! (Read more…)

I’ve been working overkill this week not only getting caught up on Chadhiyana: In the Company of Shadows, but getting ahead. I wrote about it in detail yesterday on chadhiyana.com, so I won’t go into it at length here. What I will say is that I finished the art for (the previously uncoloured) pages 29 and 30. I also put in the time to complete not only this week’s page 31 but next week’s page as well. So, I’m a little tired, but I’m happy to have finally gotten ahead of schedule (such as I had always wished to do since I first decided to take the graphic novel to the web). My hope now is this gain will be built upon, rather than it be a fluke. (Read more…)

I originally planned to post something about my comic art process today; however, things have been running behind on Chadhiyana: In the Company of Shadows (chadhiyana.com) the past two weeks despite my best intentions, and I didn’t have complete examples to show. I’m doing my best to catch up, and hopefully that will happen relatively soon. Though speaking of art and my process, I received in the mail yesterday a new device for my computer I’ve wanted to try for some time: a colour calibrator.  (Read more…)

In Memoriam
William “Bill” M. Baker
November 12, 1958 – February 20, 2014

I didn’t know Bill Baker a long time. We were first introduced at the 2010 New York Comic Con by a mutual friend and colleague, Mr. Mark Mazz (who holds the distinction of “discovering” me at the 2007 Big Apple Con). It was my first year exhibiting at that show, and I only spoke with Bill briefly then. Mark introduced him as a writer and journalist–but this was not just any run-of-the-mill wordsmith. Mark acted as though Bill was something of a legend and with good reason.

In that brief meeting, Bill spoke to me about his (then) upcoming book, ICONS: The DC Comics & Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee, and an acclaimed interview with Alan Moore. However, what struck me most about Bill was not his accomplishments but rather how humble and personable he was even in the presence of an unknown creator. I find very often those who have “made it” have little time for those who haven’t, but that wasn’t Bill’s way. I’m not the comic historian Bill was, so at the time I had no idea who Mark had introduced me to. However, over time, I learned just how legendary Bill was and not just as a writer, but as a person as well. (Read more…)