DAVE'S DOODLIN'S

That guy what draws them fancy cartoons.

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InConJunction Sci-Fi and Fantasy Convention, 2026

If you're an Indianapolis resident, come check out InConJunction at the Wyndham Hotel by the airport, July 10-12! It's Indy's oldest sci-fi convention, and I'm this year's Artist Guest of Honor, so I got to do the poster and badge art. I'll be there for speaking events, panels, art demos, and I'll be selling and signing (and doodling in) copies of Aw, Nuts!.

I'm currently working on volume two, so keep an eye out for promos and the new book to release next year!

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Aw, Nuts! at ALA Expo, Chicago

Aw, Nuts! is returning to ALA Expo!

If you're headed to the American Library Association Expo this year in Chicago (June 25-29), come check me out at the Mad Cave booth and stop by Station 3 on Saturday at 2pm for the illustrator signing!

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Allow me, if you will, to Frieza.

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Murasaki ("Saki") Tsukino, of Mallory Bash

No special reason. Just a profile pic of Saki.

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Aw, Nuts! Volume 2

In accordance with the prophecy of Nosh-tradamus, get ready for the second course!

AW, NUTS!: VOLUME 2 (teaser)

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I Hate Fairyland: Fan Art

Some fan art of Skottie Young's "I Hate Fairyland" characters, Gertrude and Larry.

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May The 4th Be With You (2026), from Mallory Bash!

It's Star Wars Day! Mal returns with her purple lightsaber and grey Jedi ways, this time on Tatooine.

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MerMay: DTIYS - Karoline Pietrowski Prompt

DTIYS, based on Karoline Pietrowski's piece (the second image).

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Throwback: Mallory Bash Star Wars Day Postcards

Star Wars Day is tomorrow, so how about a throwback to Mallory Bash postcards past? Stay tuned for the new one tomorrow!

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Project Hail Mary (Fan Art)

If you haven't gone to see it, do it now. It's so damn good. It's a MOVIE movie. Everything you could want in a theater and storytelling experience. If you're itching for a blockbuster feel-good movie that'll make you cry and laugh in equal measure, this is the one.

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Aw, Nuts! Book Signing: Tomorrow Bookstore

If you live in Indianapolis, come on down to Tomorrow Bookstore in ONE WEEK and I'll be there selling, signing, and doodlin' in copies of Aw, Nuts! right around lunch time!

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Amelia Shadows: Daughter of Darkness

Some fan art of a fellow @papercutzgn illustrator's graphic novel, Amelia Shadows!

References:

Check out the comic and grab a copy at the link:

Amelia Shadows - Papercutz

Amelia Shadows has never had what you might call a “normal” childhood. For one thing, her dad’s the most powerful dark magician in the world

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Happy Easter 2026, from Mallory Bash!

It's EASTER!--and Mal is running afoul of the rabbit community.

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Art: The Danger of Dispensing with Craft Principles

"When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear." - Thomas Sowell

As a university lecturer, one of my tasks is to help students learn how to take criticism of their work as constructively as possible. They actually tend to do this quite well without my intervention. I'm also a member of a writers group, and occasionally they'll heap praise upon a piece of work that would never pass muster for any serious publisher--generally in an obsequious effort to fortify the author's confidence and pride. But when someone does this to you, it isn't you they care about, and it's an insult insinuating that you aren't able to maturely internalize honest critique, and so instead you are patronized.

The problem is that the longer bad work is disingenuously praised, the author will stagnate and fail over a longer period of time. These praisers aren't doing it to help the author, they're doing it to feel like good people themselves. And often they don't want to have to come to terms with the fact that different mediums of art have craft principles, like any other labor. There are things that make it work and things that undermine its success as a language to communicate the human condition. There are tools to poetry that make it fit for types of art which are distinct from the tools of prose. Amateur writers, in my experience, often don't much care for the idea that rules exist for art, but the proof will always be in the pudding. For art to speak to an audience, it must use a language--and the artist must speak that language.

Art is crafted, and craft has principles, tools, and methods. Ways to break these and redefine them do happen, but they only succeed when the new efforts communicate what is intended in some exquisite way; they are not virtues of art by novelty alone.

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Happy Easter 2026, from Aw, Nuts!

It's Good Friday, so how about an early celebration with the folks in Foodtopia? Happy Easter from Aw, Nuts!

Get the first issue of the Papercutz middle grade graphic novel--illustrated by yours truly and written by Nickelodeon's Max Beaudry--at the link below!

(DISCLAIMER: food stuffs depicted are sentient and therefore not to scale).

Aw, Nuts! - Papercutz

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Pie Girl: Graphic Novel, Sketch Test Pages 1-7

I've been working on a new OGN from an animated short script I wrote years ago, and I'm in the process of pitching it to the publisher now! Check out PIE GIRL below. LOGLINE: "In the desert badlands outside the glistening walls of Burgseois City, a vengeful young pie vender enters a battle royale food truck race to avenge the death of her girlfriend at the hands of a vicious pig-man."

OVERVIEW: "The Burgseois City Vendor Dash isn't just an annual event; it's a cultural institution for both the monolithic city's citizens and the great unwashed underclass of the Outlands. Each year, one food vendor of the Outlands is awarded a future inside the urban oasis by racing in a no-holds-barred battle royale. But all Pie Girl wants is revenge. Last year, the goitery hamsack known as Angus Ponch murdered Pie Girl's girlfriend in an effort to win the race, but ultimately lost, and now he's back--and so is Pie Girl. With only killing on her mind, sanctioned by the rules of the race, Pie Girl faces off against a wild menagerie of food truck vendors on her war path to take down the merciless kingpig--but whispers of her late girlfriend haunt her, questioning the virtue of Pie Girl's narrow revenge fantasy."

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Mallory Bash: Easter Postcard Throwback

Easter's comin' up, so how's about a throwback to Mallory Bash Easter postcards past?