Bi-Coastal! My art is in both Image Comics and Sailor Moon tribute shows this month!

Two group art shows opened up this month, one in Los Angeles and another right here in New York City. 

Out in LA, the Moon Crisis 2014 Sailor Moon tribute show opened at the Rothick Art Haus to a massive crowd of cosplayers and fans. LA Weekly has some amazing photos from the event. I unfortunately couldn't make it to the show as trips to LA are expensive, but if you are in the area there will be a second opening for the show on August 9th, and then the show continues running until August 30th.After that, you will be able to purchase a print of your own from my Society 6 page or through me directly at my upcoming convention appearances.

The entire show is also on sale to the public, as you can see here.

You can see my piece all the way to the left on the end.

My Sailor Moon poster!

Back here in New York City, I'm also taking part in One-Shot Gallery's From Spawn to Saga: Image Comics at 22 show. The micro gallery is in St. Mark's Comics in the East Village, NYC- one of my most favorite neighborhoods in the world. My Ladytron piece is available for sale either at the store or over the internet via the online gallery.

Comics Alliance even gave the show a little shout-out!

I'm in The Atlantic talking about Bettie Page!

"Male Fans Made Bettie Page a Star, but Female Fans Made Her an Icon"

Hey neat! I'm in a major online news source talking about pinup icon Bettie Page like I'm some sort of expert on the subject. Heh. I was approached by the writer of the piece, Tori Rodriguez right before the holidays after she found my artwork, notably my Bettie-homage pieces and asked me some questions. Some of my answers were used for the article, some weren't. I figured I'd post the rest of the interview here. Def check out the article above though, it covers a lot of ground, delving into her past, the musings of other fans including the illustrious Dita VonTeese (whom I had an intimate run-in with back in 2012) and a review of the new documentary Bettie Page Reveals All!



1. How did you first learn of Bettie, and what initially drew you to her?
I first learned of Bettie as a teenager in the early 90's when I would go shopping at Tower Records and saw Bettie's image on lunchboxes and other merch. As a young goth, it was initially her black and white Irving Klaw era photos that hooked me in. All those boots and corsets and those iconic bangs. I've heard of her being referred to as the 'Marilyn for brunettes'.

2. What is it that you love about her/what does she represent to you?
As a pinup artist, her photographs are an invaluable resource. Her posing, expressions and choices in attire are what pinup art is all about. She can run the gamut of fun-loving beach bunny to whip-cracking dominatrix.

3. Any thoughts on why she appeals to so many women in general?
I think it's that she represents a freedom to express her womanhood in a very repressed time. Even though her outfits (or lack thereof...) aren't as shocking today as they were when they were taken, she owns it. I have several books in my reference library that feature her spreads from men's magazines back in the day, and how she unabashedly owns the outfits she wears is inspiring. No matter how over-the-top, or scandalous or even downright silly, you can see her rock it. Such confidence is inspiring.

4. Some women see Bettie as an alternative to unhealthy societal pressures to look perfect and behave in a certain way. Where do you think these unhealthy messages come from, i.e. who/what is sending the opposite message to what Bettie represents? (I know the answer to this seems obvious, but we want to hear fans' perspectives.)
To me Bettie was a gateway into subcultures like rockabilly and burlesque, which are very body-positive environments to women with ample curves who want to celebrate their bodies. From Bettie I learned about other pinup models and burlesque superstars like Tura Satana. From Tura I learned about the movies of Russ Meyer and from there I've monkey-barred into this whole wonderful world of showgirls and rhinestones and pencil skirts and cleavage, cleavage, cleavage. So I surround myself with these images of powerful women and try my best to ignore what the standard of beauty is that other people or entities try to push on me.

Little Asian Sweatshop on Heroes of Cosplay!

Holy craaaaaaap I'm so proud!!! My BFF Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop, whom I'm frequently work with at conventions and design for totally had one of her GLaDOS hair flowers on the teevee!

Chloe on Syfy's Heroes of Cosplay was totally ROCKING her GLaDOS hair flower in the confessional segments of the Emerald City Comic Con episode.

(Which I happened to design... ~__^ )

Eeeeh! It looks so good!!

You can get your own hairflower here!!

 

Did we mention it LIGHTS UP?

Check out Little Asian Sweatshop's etsy store for this and other awesome accessories!!!

Heads up! Livestream with CortesNYC on 2/12/13

Hey guys! I'm gonna be drawing LIVE on the internets with CortesNYC and TameekaTime next Tuesday night! Be sure to drop by and say hello!

CortesNYC’s livestream channel HERE.

Paigey bags at Little Asian Sweatshop!

 If you are familiar with my work and follow my blog/social media posts, you know that my best friend Fenny runs a little design house on the side called Little Asian Sweatshop that I frequently supply art and product ideas for. It's about a year old now and we've come up with some really awesome, fun products that have gotten amazing reactions. Even getting love from websites such as boingboing, sogeekchic and Fashionably Geek. It's very exciting, and I  love seeing my artwork on items that have functionality and go beyond something you see in a book or on a screen or put on your wall.
 We recently began branching out into designing accessories involving custom printed fabric from Spoonflower.com, starting with simple pencil/makeup bags featuring my artwork! So far we've got three Paigey bags available at the Little Asian Sweatshop etsy store- Luchadoras, Sailor Mermaids and UTZ Girl. But we plan on doing A LOT more, including new types and sizes of bags and eventually even toys and apparel once we figure everything out.

Sailor Mermaids!

UTZ girl bag!

Inside the UTZ bag is potato chip fabric!

Luchadoras!

GET THESE BAGS AND MORE HERE!!! (CLICKY-CLICKY)

Aftermath: New York Comic Con 2012

Made *quite* the splash this year!

Oh New York Comic Con, you and I have such a checkered past. You are the Catwoman to my Batman, the Fujiko to my Lupin- you seduce me with your delightful insanity and crazy outfits and promises of wild adventures only to totally burn me after I finally give in to the idea of us being together. If you weren't in my own backyard I wouldn't even consider us a possibility, as the cost of attending for an out-of-towner I imagine is ludicrously expensive. But yet- I've attended every year since you started 6 years ago and have seen you evolve from a total mess of Fire Marshall shutdowns and hand-written pro-badges to what may well be the first year you've finally gotten your shit together.

"All the world is waiting for yoooou---!!'

I attended this year's NYCC with not the highest of expectations- the show has basically become the east coast's answer to San Diego Comic Con, which though I've never attended myself, has notoriously become a total over-crowded mess less about comics and more about focus groups and test markets. Even the Artist Alley, which has been pushed further back into the corner every year, was outright separated from the con- to the point of no longer even being in the same building! I was outraged! Talk about a leper colony! How COULD they DO this to us?? Even when I got to the actual show on Thursday I had my reservations- bag checks? K-9 officers? Ha-RUMPF! 

Well, I must say- NYCC did eventually win me over. Sure the floor was insane and the seas of people you had to go thru to get from Point A to Point B made even the shortest distance an hour-long trip, but I have to say that what they did with Artist Alley was actually a pretty good move. By separating it from the spectacle of the main exhibition hall and giving it it's own huuge exhibition hall of it's own, Artist Alley itself almost became it's own show. It was easily the size of MoCCA fest or other smaller shows, plus the somewhat lengthy hike to AA from the main exhibition hall provided a nice filter of people who were at the show because they actually give a shit about the medium and those who just want to see cars, booth babes and video games. Not to say it wasn't crowded in AA, but it was def more manageable than everywhere else at the show. I definitely want to look into tabling at AA next year for NYCC. Hopefully I won't have the trouble I did two years ago trying to land a spot.

Wore my Wonder Woman outfit on Friday, which is always a good time!
(Photo: Steve Bunche)

Wonder Wooooomannnnn!
(Photo: Steve Bunche)

Since I was table-free and wandering the show, I figured I'd bust out a couple costumes as well. Friday I wore my tried-and-true Rockabilly Wonder Woman outfit that's always a crowd pleaser, though this was I think the first year I wore it while walking around. I found a corner in the hallway leading to AA that I chilled at for about 2 hours and got lots of pics snapped and even wound up on a news blog or two!! I also was easily recognized by lots of friends and saw lots of folks I hadn't seen in awhile. But awesome as the reception was for my WW costume was, I hadn't expected such an AMAZING a response as I got for the costume I wore Saturday!

Retro Power Girl!
(Photo by Bethany Fong of Comics Alliance)

My concept drawing of my Retro Power Girl costume!

Saturday I wore my Retro Power Girl costume, which I had been working on for the past month and had been planning on doing since right after my wedding last year. Why my wedding? well- the dress, you see, is actually my *wedding dress* repurposed for the costume! And there must have been some leftover bridal mojo left in it, because the reception for my outfit was a bananas! I really wanted to wear another superhero costume in the same vein as my WW outfit, and seeing as how PG and myself have some similar... endowments, she seemed a logical next choice. However, not wanting to wear her actual costume as I don't want my ass hanging out, I opted for a retro version and once I incorporated my wedding dress into the costume it def took a Marilyn Monroe turn. Which is is a look I've played around with before. It was pretty funny too, as I didn't wear my glasses or contacts and had my normally black hair under a blonde wig- a lot of people didn't recognize me! So I had to go up to my friends and say hello- and only then did they realize it was me. Which was pretty fun! Everyone loved it! I couldn't have been happier- I felt like Cinderella! ^_^  Quoth the ever-awesome Chris Sims on Twitter (who's movie reviews on Comics Alliance are SO getting a TILT entry...): ".@PaigeyPumphrey's pin-up Power Girl outfit got into Best Cosplay Ever like five times this weekend." Like here, oh and here! Which I have the fantastic Bethany Fong to thank for, I was lucky to run into her so many times over the weekend and talk about how cute our outfits are. Me n' her- kindred spirits. I also managed to get on The Beat thanks to my friend Torsten! Probably my top NYCC experience however was getting to spend some time with my artistic hero AMANDA CONNER- who LOVED my costumes and even invited me to chill behind her table with her a bit. So beyond thrilled to have spent some time with her, as a fellow female comic artist she is like my Michael Jordan. ^_________^; Many thanks to Steve Bunche for helping out with this spectacular meetup!

 I may look cool as a cucumber her, but inside my
fangirlish 'squeeeeee's are DEAFENING.
(Photo: Steve Bunche) 

Me with Amanda's version of Power Girl!
(Photo: Steve Bunche)

So yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by how well NYCC went this year- even though I couldn't make it out to any after parties aas I was too poor and tired I still got to spend some quality time with almost everyone and meet some new friends and fans.

Milestones

Summer 2007
My first summer as a New Yorker

On this day 5 years ago I moved to NYC to live with the man I love, carrying out one of the single best and scariest decisions of my life. It was scary because the risk was so high. If it all went well- I'd be living a dream come true. I'd be where I belong. But if it failed, I'd be chewed up and spit out and would have marked the second time in my life I had to crawl back to the primordial suburban ooze from whence I came. I had never lived on my own before. To go from the safety of my parent's basement, tucked away in a Maryland suburban cul-de-sac to the biggest, brightest, craziest city in the United States. The mythology of it makes my head spin. The city where songs have been written, movies have taken place, shows have been filmed, universes have been built upon. I have had a love affair with New York City since the first time I visited in high school for some art field trip. We only went to the Met and saw the Rockettes, but God, I wanted to stay. Thank God we didn't go anywhere near the Lower East Side. I'd have run away with the gutter punks. One of the times I went during Kubert School I kept one of the subway tokens I didn't end up using and strung it on a shitty shotbead chain around my neck. Almost like a promise to myself. Or some sort of totem. That was 1999. I rarely took it off. I thought I lost it while attending Dragon*Con 2004 and was so unbelievably upset. It showed up again though and it is one of my most precious pieces of jewelry. I still wear it everyday. Moving to NYC has allowed me to pursue my dreams of being a career artist in ways I would have never dreamed possible. This city has enabled me to make connections and friendships with amazing, creative, DRIVEN people who continue to inspire me. Had you told me 8 years ago that my life would be as it is now I'd have laughed in your face. I had thought the most I could hope for was getting full-time at Hot Topic and a studio apartment behind the local Target with my burnout boyfriend at the time who I had to MAKE get a job at Starbucks. My sole confidante was my supposed best friend, who sabotaged any attempt to better myself at every turn. It's a testament to my gumption that with all the setbacks I suffered at her hand that I still emerged as driven as I am. I was told on a daily basis that I was wasting my talents. Spinning my wheels in the mud. That there was more for me out there. Moving to New York was the new start I needed. One by one I severed connections to those that dragged me down and I am so much better for it. I now have real, true friends that support me along with career success that has been a long time coming in a city I love with the man of my dreams. 

YAY!!!

So yeah, there's that. But also! Another big thing that happened just yesterday, being that I got my *first* big article written about my artwork in a major comic book blog, being ComicsAlliance which is one of my favorite comics news blogs. And I'm not even being all ass-kissy, I really do love CA. Like, if you have a free afternoon, read Chris Sim's Remedial Batmanology. It is perhaps the funniest thing I've read in the past 5 years. Also I'm a fan of anything Bethany Fong writes. She and I have very similar world views. But yeah the article is awesome and it coming out was a complete, amazing surprise to me. Shoot, if anything I was figuring I would have to do at least 5 more X-Men redesigns before I popped up on any radars. A ComicsAlliance article about Ross Campbell's Jem & the Holograms redesigns were actually what inspired the project to begin with. I'm also super-glad to see the comments aren't terrible. They're actually all pretty glowing. I know I shouldn't look but I can't help it. It IS really reassuring.




Haha, but yeah sorry I got all sentimental and TL;DR on you. You probably just wanna see some art, huh?

Cyclops!
“Energy blasts, huh? Here’s one from a pro!”
I think Cyclops gets a bad rep. I think people think just because you're a leader you gotta be square, which doesn't have to be true. There's plenty of cool leaders of teams (Hannibal of the A-Team for instance). And a guy can play it super straight and severe and still be cool. Cyclops is a very necessary member of the X-Men. Plus he's one of the more iconic members of the X-Men. I've always loved the visor. So with my version of Scott I wanted to really play up the old 'Slim' nickname, and what better way to accentuate how skinny a guy is than by putting him in a tailored Mod suit. I also modeled his looks a lot from old pictures of Michael Caine from stuff like Get Carter and The Italian Job. Just super cool, like you never ever see him sweat. Plus I wanted him and Jean to really LOOK like they're supposed to be together. Like they come as a set.   

I'm also working on a private commission featuring an action shot of my Dazzler redesign. It was too fun not to pass up. Right now I'm just finishing up inks, but you can check out some progress shots I took of the piece so far. I'm having her skate against a team of Hellfire club Goons- much like her first appearance!

Commissions and Marketing!

This past week I finished two big commissions and I'm sketching out a third and I did a whole bunch of marketing/promo for Little Asian Sweatshop! So yeah! Keeping busy!!

Portrait commission for tattoo artist Cyn Rudzis,
in trade for my Wonder Woman tattoo

Roller derby portrait commission for
Kansas City Banked Beauties member Ms Kara Whiplash 

I'm pretty proud of these two new commission pieces. I think it really shows what I can do when I don't have the customer meddling so much in my creative process and actually trusting me to deliver them a top-notch illustration. My commissions are still for the most part closed, with a few exceptions if the money's good or it's a project that sounds particularly fun and non-stressful. I'm trying to figure out a new price point for them since I'm now freelance and can actually focus more with a quicker turnaround in between lettering books. I've also got a lot of other drawing projects I'd like to do as well though once my plate is clear, including various fanart, fabric designs for dresses and I'm actually kicking around the idea of a semi-autobiographical webcomic way way further down the road. I know, freaky. Like, try and take all the random little anecdotes and stories from my life and make them into 1-2 page vignettes that are basically all the stories and tangents I go off on while drunk/stoned but in illustrated form. Part of the appeal for me doing this is that there's no continuity to worry about writing wise, and it's the sort of format I can do as a webcomic. And I can voice my opinions and philosophy on life, and share some of my silly stories about things and eventually do enough of them to collect into a book. Plus the CATHARSIS. My God... This is def something I want to put on the backburner for AWHILE. But once it gets going it could be really cool. We'll see.

In other news I've been submitting tips and singing praises of my best friend Fenny's company Little Asian Sweatshop to various nerdy/geeky fashion websites and gotten some nice returns!! So far we've gotten press from So Geek Chic, Boing Boing, and Fashionably Geek! 

We're also going to have this ad in the program
for the upcoming games for Chesapeake Roller Derby.

Interview with Tameeka Time!!

Back in May '10 I was interviewed over Memorial Day weekend by my good friend Tameeka Ballance, who is a videographer and runs a blog called Tameeka Time that features art videos (including graffiti by my former dayjob boss man Cortes) and Jersey Shore recaps (if you're into that sort of thing).

Give my girl some love and go on over to her site to check out more videos!

Check out the full Paigey coverage over at Tameeka Time here!!

Extra! Extra! I'm in the paper!!!

While at MoCCA Fest last month I had the pleasure of meeting Holly Wilensky, aka The Dress Recycler who is a fashion blogger for The Queens Ledger up here in NYC, as well as The Brooklyn Star, Queens Examiner, LIC/Astoria Journal, Forest Hills Times and Greenpoint Gazette! She really dug my crazy 'convention drag' and my pinup art work so we got together on the phone after the dust of MoCCA Fest had settled and I told her what I was all about for the Local Designer Spotlight!

You can see the article in these following papers:

The Queens Ledger

The Brooklyn Downtown Star

Queens Examiner

Greenpoint Gazette

Long Island City/Astoria Journal

Forest Hills Times




"Paigey embodies fun, flirtatious and fabulous; a true live character who brings her designs to the public on a personal level, where people can really relate to what she is illustrating. “The lines tend to blur between my art and myself,” she said."

Oh Internet Fame, you are a strange mistress indeed.

I consider myself a pretty with-it chick. I'd even daresay Internet Savvy. But I just don't really get Tumblr. Or maybe I just have too much other shit going on. Either way, one of my friends told me I was on some rather popular Tumblr called "Look at This Frakking Geekster", which is a play off "Look at This Fucking Hipster", which living in the hipster stronghold of Williamsburg, Brooklyn I am ALL TOO familiar with. Anywho, so LaTFG had posted a picture of me in my Wonder Woman costume from Baltimore Comic Con last August. You can read my recap from the weekend here. It's been re-posted and noted and all sorts of stuff on various blogs, many in support of curvy chicks (yay!). I don't understand it, but it's neat to read all these nice things people have been saying about me and my outfit. Especially since in my humble opinion, it's not the best picture of me. But hey, whatevs.

Really my only gripe is that I can't really get in on some of that traffic. Or can I???



Click the pic to be taken to Look at This Frakking Geekster

In other news, my team-up with my friend Ida's company Bitchcraft Apparel has yielded some awesome results, including the first round of lipstick cases which are now available in Baltimore boutiques, including Novelty Haus and 9th Life!


Novelty Haus




9th Life



If you're in Baltimore area, pop on by these awesome stores and check out their wares!!

Today's secret word is: HOLY SHIT!

AAAAAAHHHH!



Soooo... I follow Pee-Wee on Twitter and he said he was going to be at Katz delicatessen at noon, so I BOLTED down there from work (in Midtown) and actually got to meet him and give a fan testimonial! He was going around the city all day today for a promo thing with foursquare and his upcoming Broadway show, which I'm actually going to for my 30th birthday at the end of the month (2nd row center) as a birthday gift from my BFF Fenny.
Let me just say- this was a dream come true. My hands were shaking so bad when I met him. Pee-Wee is totally my childhood hero and one of the first people in life who taught me that it's totally awesome to be yourself, no matter how quirky that might be.

Aftermath: Baltimore Comic Con 2010

The words 'holy shit' do not cover the enormity of awesomeness that was this weekend. Baltimore Comic Con kicked SO MUCH ASS this year that when all was said and done I was exhausted, had almost started crying like 3 times (for good reasons) and my face hurt from smiling so damn much. And I dressed up as Wonder Woman!



On a half-assed whim I had gathered a red top, yellow cinch belt and my electric blue Mode Merr skirt together and had decided it looked like a Wonder Woman costume if I had some way to get the stars on the skirt. 'What a simple, fun, easy costume this will be!', I thought, harkening back to my days as a cosplayer. After ruling out patches and iron-ons I decided that the best way to apply the stars was painting. Friday night before the con. At my parents house. After I got into Maryland from the bus which was an hour late. Simple, fun and easy right?? Ha! So after 5 hours of painting I finally finished at 1am.



It was totally worth the hard work though, it was very well received and my table/artwork got alot of extra attention from people coming by wanting to snap a pic of me. I was basically my own booth babe. Sometimes I do get the semi-patronizing 'you did these all by yourself?' from random passerby, but also I kinda take that as an off-handed compliment at the same time. I'm like one of those deep sea fish with the dangly light- I lure folks over to the table, then chomp on them with my art.




The *BIG* thing that happened this weekend was two of my artistic heroes, Eric Powell (The Goon, those awesome Nashville Rollergirls bout posters) and Dave Johnson (Drink & Draw Social Club founder, too much awesome shit to list) both came to my table to specifically say hello to me! Holy crap!! Like really, I almost cried I was so happy. I also went by the legendary Adam Hughes and his lovely wifey Allison Sohn's table to say hello, as I know Adam a bit from the convention scene for a few years and Allison and I go back to her being my life model at Kubert School.

With Adam Hughes

With Dave Johnson



Wish I had thought to have gotten a pic with Eric Powell and his uberhot roller derby girlfriend Rambo Sambo. :/ I was a bit star struck and wasn't thinking clearly as all of this was going on.

I was also interviewed by a pop culture blog called Jam Packed Productions that was going through artist alley on Sunday and talking to some of the artists. My segment begins at the 5:39 mark. My best friend/manager/sales associate/PR agent Fenny Lin also makes an onscreen appearance and yeah, wow, I knew my shirt was what I call one of my 'Boobie Shirts', but this may very well be the 'Boobiest of Boobie Shirts'. Cuz WOW. Thanks Pinup Girl Clothing!



I'm kind of starting to see myself as almost like the Christina Hendricks of the comic book industry.


Can't think of why exactly. 9_9

And I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came by and chatted, picked up a card to check me out later or even bought something, I super appreciate it! Next up for me will be Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md on September 11th and 12th. I will also have a HUGE NEW TATTOO by then a well- of KITTY PRYDE. *Squee!* So excited!