April 27, 2012... Books-A-Million

Andrew Charipar

Books-A-Million
738 Marsh Landing Parkway
Jacksonville, FL 32250

To the Owner or Manager,

I am writing this letter to inform you of an EXCEPTIONAL employee you have at your store number 486 located at 738 March Landing Parkway in Jacksonville, FL.

I was in the store Friday April 27, 2012 with my daughter around 7pm.  After finding a few new books to purchase (I am a huge fan of your Discounted Comic Book Trades and purchase 3-5 each week) I went to the front of the store to check out (I am sorry but I did not get the young ladies name who was working the register but I assume with the date and time I provided, that information should be easy to find) and I over heard a pair of belligerent customers talking down to the cashier.  They were upset about another employee who, in their minds, did not give them adequate attention (after listening to these two idiots, I can see why it would be difficult for anyone to assist them).  After berating the cashier for something that she obviously did not do, they threatened to contact the corporate office.  Then the man (the other idiot must have been his wife) said that they worked in retail and know how to treat customers.  At this point it was obvious to me that they were full of crap.  The man then told the cashier that BAMM was Books A Millions stock ID… like he thought that that info would intimidate her… and then he threw his money for the books he was purchasing down on the counter instead of simply handing it to the cashier.  This from someone who claims to know how to treat customers… and knows NOTHING about treating employees.

At this point I was truly disgusted with the way this couple was acting.  The cashier was nice, friendly, cordial and apologetic and they were ignorant idiots.  If they do contact your corporate office with a complaint, let it be known that a customer was standing right behind them and was truly impressed with the way the cashier handled her self and disgusted with the way the customer was acting.  I think this couple should have been ashamed for how they acted in front of someone simply doing their job.

I am a long time customer of Book-A-Million and frequent several of your stores.  I have never had a bad experience with any of the employees and think very highly of everyone I have met.  If these two idiots waste your time by writing a complaint… well I felt it was necessary to write and commend.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Andrew Charipar

Copy of this letter also sent to:
Corporate Office
Books-A-Million, Inc.
402 Industrial Lane
Birmingham, Alabama 35211

April 24, 2012... Superman

One of the last three commissions for the Super Wild Pig Show... Superman.

OK, I will freely admit it here... I hate drawing Superman.

OK, let me rephrase that... I don't hate drawing Superman, I hate drawing iconic characters.  I love drawing obscure characters that I can bring my own style to and bring a new interpretation to... but characters like Superman... in my mind, they are sooo iconic that its hard for me to do MY version of the character... same with Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, etc.

I liked how this one came out... much better than my first attempt.  That one SUCKED! and I may never post it.

just suckage, but this one come out pretty good.

enjoy
-Drew

April 21, 2012... Doctor Strange

To continue my "do it a little different each time" with my sketches over at Illustrious Bits Sketch Blog... Doctor Strange... as a chick.

Dr Stephanie Strange.

Hope you dig

-Drew

April 15, 2012... "making of" Green Lantern Professor X

and a little "making of"

April 15, 2012... Green Lantern Professor X

OK, this one I was rather iffy on since I did not know how to approach it.

Originally I figured to just do Charles.. then last night I thought "what is Professor X without his X-Men?" so I added the green constucts of Cyclops, Wolverine and Storm.

I think it came out pretty cool.

enjoy
-Drew

April 14, 2012... "making of" Iron Man vs the Mandarin

just a little making of.

enjoy

April 14, 2012... Iron Man vs the Mandarin

Another fun one.

Iron Man vs the Mandarin for the Super Wild Pig Show.

I went technical on Iron Man and then went "sloppy" on the Mandarin using just ink on Iron Man and grays on the Mandarin.

I like how it came out.

enjoy
-Drew

April 13, 2012... "making of" Indiana Jones

You may notice that I "fixed" the hat in the inking stage.

In the layout and pencil stage I just could not make it right... but I think I made it better.

The background was just a quick negative technique that I love.

April 13, 2012... Indiana Jones

This one was a blast.

Indiana Jones for the Super Wild Pig Show.

I still HATE my scanner cause it makes everything so much darker but if I lighten it up too much it makes it look like crap.  Just trust me when I say the original looks sooooo much better than my scans.

enjoy
-Drew

April 11, 2012... character design too

One more sketch for the night... Hero's Mother.

This is just a quick sketch I did tonight of Hero's mother.  She doesn't have a name yet and this design also represents Hero's kid sister Missy.  She will show up in the third or forth book (yeah, I'm dreaming here... thinking I might actually get three or four Hero books done, much less ONE book) but she's the spitting image of her mother so there you go.

More soon
-Drew

April 11, 2012... Grannie Ora

 This is the beginning steps for a new character for my graphic novel HERO.  This is Grannie Ora.  She's loosely based on a porcupine.

more on Grannie Ora and HERO soon.

-Drew

 

April 10, 2012... Harley Quinn... Bat-Family member?

This was a really, really late idea for Illustrious Bits Week 14... Harley Quinn.

What I did here was ask the question... what if Harley was a member of the Bat-Family?

I imaging her costume would be either black and red with her belt, cape and bat symbol yellow... or black and purple (like the new Batgirl) and her symbol red.  Since I am taking a break from color... I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks.

enjoy
-Drew

April 9, 2012... Spiderman and Wolverine

This is a commission for the Super Wild Pig Show for one of the guy's 5 year old son... hope he likes it.

Spiderman and Wolverine.

enjoy
-Drew

April 5, 2012... Thor

This was this weeks submission to the Illustrious Bits Sketch Blog.... Thor, God of Thunder.


I, of course, went in a little different direction.  Did somewhat of an original version instead of the tried and true Marvel Comics version.

I think I have decided that Illustrious Bits gives me the opportunity to try different things while at the same time trying something classic.  I was working on a new and different version of Huntress and Powergirl last week but ran out of time (it might still come one of these days) and thought, what a great chance to try something different... keep posted, more coming.

-Drew


PS after I posted the full grey scale version on Illustrious Bits... I did not really like it... I have to work on the colors of my sketches cause the white doe NOT look white in my scans and the more I screw with it, the worse it looks, at least on-line.  So, for this one, I posted it here in just black and white.  Still did not get the full affect of the sketch but, oh well.